Overall, I genuinely enjoyed my time with Nom Nom: Cozy Forest Cafe, and I would recommend it, especially to players who love cosy games with lots of room for creativity. The standout feature here is absolutely the huge range of customisation options, both in the items you make and in decorating your cafe. Being able to design your own pixel art, experiment with styles, and really make the space feel personal gives the game a unique charm and keeps the experience fresh.

Ancient Farm left me feeling disappointed, mainly because I expected much more from its concept. The game presents a solid foundation and an interesting historical setting. Farming in ancient Egypt feels fresh and full of potential. Unfortunately, the gameplay rarely expands beyond basic farming and crafting. The lack of depth makes the experience feel repetitive over time. Players hoping for progression, interaction, or evolving systems may walk away unsatisfied.

Mio: Memories in Orbit surprised me in the best possible way. As someone who doesn’t usually play platformers or Metroidvania games, I went in unsure of what to really expect. What I found was a beautifully crafted experience that pulled me in through its atmosphere, movement, and quiet storytelling.

Tailside is unassuming, and that’s part of why it works. It doesn’t reinvent the café sim, but it doesn’t need to. What it does instead is give players autonomy. You play at your pace, you can adjust systems to suit your comfort, and you learn by doing, without fear of missing something crucial. [Early Access Provisional Score = 80]

Cairn is thoughtful, challenging, and quietly powerful. It understands that sometimes the most meaningful journeys are the ones we take alone.

Nova Antarctica has ideas worth exploring. Its visual identity is striking, its environmental storytelling has real emotional weight, and some moments linger as you play. But the game is let down by overworked mechanics, an exhausting UI, unclear tutorials, and a difficulty curve that feels punishing rather than purposeful.

Starsand Island isn’t perfect, but it doesn’t need to be to be worth your time. It offers a gentle, romanticised take on the farming sim genre that feels welcoming without being stale. The affection system avoids forcing romance, the exploration feels rewarding, and the Moonlit Forest is one of the least stressful combat zones I’ve ever played in a game. [Early Access Provisional Score = 80]

I was hoping for something fun and new with Crimson Capes. I am relatively fresh off SilkSong, which probably doesn’t help, but I didn’t go into it expecting something of that calibre. What I found was a game that could have had a rich world with interesting quest lines, innovative combat, and novel enemies, but really failed to deliver on every count. The world was empty, the enemies were a predictable grind, and the combat was uninspired. It’s just another 2D Souls-like that fails to bring anything new to the table.

Under the Island surprised me, but not necessarily in the way I thought it might. I went into the game expecting a certain experience based on the limited gameplay I had seen (which is on me). But ended up struggling a lot more than anticipated. The game is good, the story is fun, and the overall gameplay is smooth. However, the difficulty of the puzzles and the general lack of direction had me feeling frustrated.

Dare I say it, I think Lost and Found Co. may just be my very favourite hidden object game! And believe me, that’s high praise coming from me, because I’ve played a lot of them! The deciding factor has to be the fantastic animations, it makes the world feel so alive.

I really wanted to like The Abbess Garden, I don’t usually volunteer or request to review games unless I think I’ll enjoy them, so I went into this one fairly optimistic. Unfortunately, it just didn’t click for me. I found the overall experience fairly boring, and both the gameplay and visuals felt overly simplistic at times. While the idea behind the game has potential, I struggled to stay engaged with what it was offering. After a while, I found it harder and harder to keep playing. The slower pacing, dialogue-heavy sections, and basic gameplay loop made it difficult for the game to hold my attention.