For those who relish bizarre interactive experiences, The Good Life is an essential oddity that can't be missed. For everyone else, this is a barely functional chore that is all but guaranteed to frustrate and bewilder. Still, you've got to hand it to SWERY: no one else makes games quite like this.

Maglam Lord's got heart, but it's encased behind some disappointingly shoddy design.

There are also some thrilling chase sequences that help to change the tempo of the game, as well as sections where you’ll explore a large part of the school while being stalked by an enemy: a police officer, a ghost, or something even scarier. Unfortunately, it’s often in these sections where the game falters. Movement is slow to make you feel vulnerable, but clues are spread so far and wide that you can often feel directionless and grow frustrated as you wander the dark hallways of the school while you search. Add to this some clunky transitions between gameplay and interactions, texture pop-in, and frame rate drops, and the spooky atmosphere crafted through brilliant sound design is stripped away.

Downward Spiral: Horus Station neither succeeds nor fails in any spectacular fashion, and as such, it just sort of exists. This is a boring experience that doesn’t do anything truly unforgivable, but is also unsuccessful in offering anything worthy of talking about. Downward Spiral: Horus Station is a thing, but you really don’t need to experience it.

If everything Godfall had to offer was as good as its satisfying combat system, we would be looking at a darn good PS5 launch game. However, in reality, that's the only thing it has to boast about. An inconsequential loot system, recycled environments, and a frustrating mission structure thwart any sort of enjoyment the game might offer. It's not god-awful, but Godfall is going to be very quickly forgotten about.

There are several issues though and its biggest one regards movement, which offers three options: teleportation, swinging the PlayStation Move controller, or a smooth option reliant on button pressing. None of them click perfectly and adding to this, character models look a bit rough. If you can get past these flaws, Onslaught is ultimately enjoyable, bringing good combat and rebuilding Alexandria is quite fun. If you’re a fan of the TV series, this is worth a look.

Island Time VR’s best attributes – the visuals and the voice acting – are unfortunately overshadowed by some very major flaws in repetitive gameplay, a very short running-time, and game-breaking bugs. If you are looking for a new friend, Carl the Crab will certainly suffice, but if you’re looking for a top-notch VR survival title, we’d suggest you swimming the other way.

Tales of the Shire has a great premise, but will unfortunately leave most players wanting more. Its charms will potentially appeal to Hobbit fanatics, but with there being much better cosy games on the market, it's relying heavily on its Tolkienian license to distinguish itself.

Fun for a few bouts now and then, this is a brawler that doesn't quite do the original work justice - even if its nicely crafted story mode will keep fans entertained for at least a few hours.

Jeremy McGrath's Offroad has raced into a genre saturated with more competent competitors, and it pulls up in last place as a result. While the game doesn't necessarily do anything offensive, it's still a subpar experience with a major identity crisis. If you're looking for an enjoyable offroad racer, there are much better options on the PS3. Don't waste your time with this cheaper sub-standard alternative.

PaRappa the Rapper Remastered is a time capsule from the late 90s – warts and all. The high-definition gloss might make the game look better than ever, but it can't mask how the genre has moved on in PaRappa's absence. The mechanics don't hold up against the competition of today, but the fantastic soundtrack, charming characters, and budget price should prove more than enough to get the nostalgia juices flowing in anyone who remembers the old dog's first outing 20 years ago.

Has-Been Heroes is as tough as nails and built for people that like to lose over and over again. The combat offers an interesting twist on a familiar mechanic, but never really evolves beyond that initial learning process. Some of the whimsy present in the Trine series has been carried over here, but not enough to balance out the punishing difficulty.

Black Desert is rougher than a badger's behind, and the simple combat won't blow anyone's skirt up, but the game does have upsides. The world is fleshed out and fun to explore, the side activities are more amusing than the campaign, and the character creation is superb. This is the sort of game that will undoubtedly appeal to a small subset of people who are more than happy to accept the uglier technical issues as the admission price to a well realised world full of things to do.

By keeping simplicity at its core, Monkey King: Hero Is Back offers an entertaining if somewhat mindless distraction to the blockbuster titles releasing around it. Sure, it’s a little bit too short, the narrative isn’t particularly gripping, and it looks like an early PS3 game, but that all falls by the wayside in the heat of battle. Thanks to fun brawling mechanics, Monkey King: Hero Is Back does just enough to deserve your attention.

Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires is a definite improvement on its predecessor — but that's not saying much. The return of set maps and straightforward objectives is welcome, and in typical Empires fashion, there's so much potential for interesting player-driven storylines. There is an addictive hack-and-slash loop at work here, and it's tempered by some decent tactical tweaks. But to fully enjoy it, you've got to wade through a mire of shockingly ugly visuals and boring map design.

A solid character roster coupled with some eye-catching combat is what this beat-'em-up is all about – even if it could afford to take some more risks, given the wealth of source material on offer.

Fans of the character Deadpool are certain to find a lot to like here. Sadly, the repetitive combat casts a shadow over the game's humorous treats, which are the real highlight of the package. There's a definite joy to be found in this adaptation – just be prepared to cut through many of layers of mediocrity in order to find it.

Fast Striker is a difficult, but scrappy homage to the shoot ‘em ups of old. Its Neo Geo graphics, while nostalgic, don’t particularly stand out, and use an ugly palette of colours. The lack of additional gameplay features, especially powerups is its most egregious sin, but the experience is still an enjoyable one, if only for ten minutes at a time. On a PS Vita and for short bursts, this could provide entertainment for a bus journey or two. On PS4, however, it doesn’t cut the mustard, and fails to stand out from the many, many indie shoot ‘em ups available on the Store.

F1 Race Stars tries its best to adapt the F1 license into a fun and quirky racer, but it ultimately fails to deliver a charming take on the typically serious sport. As with other titles in the genre, the game really shines as a way to pass the time with your friends, but the frustrating, luck-based gameplay effectively cancels out all of the things that the release does right. Younger fans of Formula 1 will love seeing their favourite drivers rendered as cartoon caricatures, but when it comes to race day, gamers of all ages will be left frustrated by the title's complete disregard for skill.

Payday 3 has its enjoyable moments, bringing its well-known cooperative heists into a new game engine. However its lack of content, outdated gunplay, underwhelming AI, and unfinished cutscenes leave a lot to be desired. If you're a series fan looking for a substantial step-up in this sequel then this isn’t it. However, if you're after a multiplayer title to clown around in for a few hours, this will suffice.

The Witch and The Hundred Knight 2 is a colourful, funny, and interesting game, but it's greatly hindered by a drawn-out, convoluted battle system. Hardcore JRPG fans will get more out of this game than the casual player, but as a whole it just feels far too inaccessible for its own good.

A curiously compelling gameplay loop makes Bus Simulator much more entertaining than it has any right to be. The presentation is poor, but the act of actually picking up passengers and taking them to A-to-B in an expanding open world is moreish, and the title has a self-aware sense of humour that’s easy to appreciate.

Superfrog HD tries really hard to be a warm and entertaining re-imagining of the Amiga classic, but there are a few bumps along the road. From a gameplay perspective, jumping is quite floaty and requires a lot of patience to wrap your head around.

We can't imagine who Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai is for, as it mostly boils down to being a worse version of an existing IP, with some fairly bland gameplay tacked on for good measure. Newcomers will be lost, and enthusiasts won't appreciate the corners cut, so while technically — and mechanically — sound, it leaves very little to recommend.

Yes, the package is a little bit bare bones, and the gameplay never really mixes things up too much – but at this price, it isn’t something that you can really bleat about.

Need for Speed Payback is a real-world example of microtransactions gone wrong. As an open world racer, the game’s inoffensively average – but when paired with its bafflingly bad progression system, it’s frankly an embarrassment. It’s scary to think that publishers are quite literally sabotaging their own games in pursuit of a bonus buck or two these days.

Move Fitness may come across as rather limited in some ways, and doesn't quite match its Move competition, but there's a good selection of exercises that are highly enjoyable for the most part, particularly the boxing and ball-throwing elements.

Both Museum Archive volumes utilise the same basic user interface and generic retro music that is serviceable, if a bit dull. They also employ the same settings, including a screen size modifier and a rewind system that makes any game laughably easy when abused. Having exactly the same functionality in both games also raises the uncomfortable question of why these collections had to be separated into two volumes at all. Still, they both offer a good selection of nostalgic gems, the odd so-so title like the frustratingly sloppy Mappy-Land, as well as a disappointing lack of unlockable extras. If it were one complete collection it’d be easily recommended but, as two separate purchases, these are for hardcore Namco fans only.