For some reason Alpha Protocol grabbed me and kept me engaged. For me, the versatility of the story, the way the flow of the game can be altered and the fact it kept me interested enough to finish it and then play it again far outweighed any issues I had with the controls.

Compared to vanilla Dynasty Warriors and its Samurai counterpart, KOEI’s Gundam offshoot is falling behind. Where the other two have made a number of progressive changes through the years, Reborn does little to distance itself from the stigma attached to the franchise.

Cloudpunk delivers the look and feel of a cyberpunk city, it just doesn't fill the city with anything of interest. The story is okay and there's some side conversations to keep you amused, but once the novelty of driving around Nivalis wears off, you'll recognise that this is a game made entirely of fetch quests. The city looks gorgeous, it's just a shame it doesn't have more attractions.

StarDrone is a great take on the action-puzzler sub genre. It looks fantastic (3D support is being patched in too) and has a pumping, if slightly repetitive, soundtrack. With plenty of replay potential and a lot of well designed, imaginative levels to work through, this could keep you entertained for quite some time.

When theHunter: Call of the Wild works properly, it’s still going to be a game that only those with the patience of a saint would enjoy. It’s very slow, full of barriers, and isn’t very exciting. That’s not to say it’s not completely without merit as it’s a stunner to look at and there are rare occasions where everything comes together to make a compelling experience. Just note that those rare occasions are few and far between.

If Metroid Prime: Federation Force is anything to go by, I am fearful of the future of the 30 year old franchise. The controls do take some getting used to on the New 3DS, but those with the standard 3DS should avoid this like the plague, due to the terribly optimised controls for that hardware. It’s certainly not fun on its own and only marginally more so with others. This is not the Metroid game we’ve been waiting for.

Storytelling annoyances aside, it’s a solid and polished game with just the right amount of nostalgia for us oldies.

Although I genuinely applaud its attempts to try something new, Farmagia doesn't quite stick the landing for me. In fact, beyond the initial novelty of the mechanics, both the farming and the combat components end up feeling intensely repetitive with little to keep interest outside of further monotony. Once you add to these points uninspired visual design choices and predictable story elements, the game becomes very difficult to recommend to anyone but die-hard farming sim fans. Even then, it isn’t bringing any fresh produce to the table.

The Crew 2 is a fun game in a lot of ways, but lacklustre in others. For every enjoyable event there may be another that is frustrating or simply a little boring. The open world can be great to explore, but thanks to being able to fast travel to every event you don’t ever actually need to physically cross the USA. Ubisoft should be commended for really taking a risk with The Crew 2 by adding so much and taking proceedings less seriously, but while The Crew 2 is a good arcade racer it still doesn’t quite rank among the best.

Unfortunately, Omen of Sorrow feels like it’s taken a “quantity over quality” approach that results in a flaccid, broken experience. From the characters and art to the core act of fighting, nothing in Omen of Sorrow quite sticks the landing. There are a lot of incredible fighting games to check out this year, but Omen of Sorrow is not one of them.

Urban Trial Freestyle is a very good stunt game that has the potential to provide hours of entertainment, especially if you like trying to break records, be they your own or others.

Hell as a location feels a bit bland, and without the other Saints to bounce off Kinzie and Gat aren’t that interesting or funny. Combine that with the lack of in-game music and customisation options and this entry is a step backwards for the series.

Robinson: The Journey is beautiful, but ultimately too light on content and reliant on overly traditional game design. It’s a wonderful insight into the future of PSVR that sadly remains trapped in the past.

For fans of the anime, Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet is a great use of the license that brings some welcome changes to the series. There are still the recurring issues of pacing and a number of technical flaws that diminish the rest of the game’s achievements, but this hopefully sets a new benchmark for the franchise going forward.

If you like Pokémon Go but you’re more invested in the Harry Potter Wizarding World, then this game may be for you. Pokémon Go has matured incredibly well since launch, so perhaps Wizards Unite will follow the same path to success, but for now, there isn’t much to be excited about. If you were hoping that Wizards Unite would rival the cultural phenomenon that was and is Pokémon Go, you’ll be bitterly disappointed.

Pokémon Café Mix is an easy-going and relaxed puzzle game, with plenty of nostalgic elements of my childhood playing Pokémon games. It's all very cute, with Pokémon themed menu items that look wonderfully appetising, and the swirling puzzling is ideal for introducing this world to younger family members.

Foregone, being a 2D action platformer with a Metroidvania structure, looting mechanics and a smattering of soulslike tendencies, is certainly part of a crowded genre. The fact that it manages to stand out from the pack is a high recommendation indeed. This is a fast, fluid and beautiful action title that will keep you playing until the very end. I may never be able to retrieve that planet orbiting pair of socks, but it was totally worth it.

It's not nearly as strong as it could have been but there's enough here to provide a day or two's entertainment and – given the nature of what EA were trying to do – it at least succeeded on that level.

The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR is a really solid PSVR 2 shooter with some fun uses of the headset's eye tracking and haptics, though it is sadly let down by some annoying technical hitches.

The streamlined gameplay and polished visuals haven't incurred any detriment, but compared to what fans will be expecting, 7XL misses the mark, it's failure only made worse by the steep launch price.

Scribblenauts Showdown is a fun game you can pick and and play at any time, but you may feel the novelty wear off without friends to play with. Despite this, Scribblenauts Showdown offers some great mini-games and game modes. It feels different to party games we’ve seen in recent times, but it’s also pleasantly familiar.

It may be a visually sound package that throws a few unique spins on the Silent Hill template, though the sometimes awkward puzzles and irredeemably abysmal combat are enough to drag Downpour down the gutter and towards mediocrity.

Wrecked: Revenge Revisited simply isn't a battle racer. Yes, there are elements of the battle racing but this is more a time attack mode with few actual battle racing events. The multiplayer does have some fun in it, but it's only really good if played in short bursts.

I cannot, in good faith, recommend a game that I could not finish thanks to game-breaking bugs. Looking past that, on the grounds that said bug can be squashed in time, you have a great concept that is just poorly executed. For all its atmosphere, for all its potential, the game feels totally hollow. Perhaps the point of the game was that you feel closer to the squirrels than your boss, who you hold in such contempt you refuse to speak to her. Perhaps the game is just dull.

Oniken does a few things right, but flounders when it comes to the most important parts of the experience. The visuals and audio of the game are a faithful and accurate tribute to the style of classic NES action games, sure. All of the artistic flair in the world can't help a game that simply isn't fun to play, though. Action in Oniken is consistently stiff and frustrating, and while boss encounters can provide brief moments of gratifying gameplay, only the most dedicated of action platformer fans will have the patience to reach those encounters.

Atlas Fallen is at its best when you're fighting huge enemies with your carefully constructed (by trial and error) build, but when you're repeatedly fighting the same enemies, when the story falls flat, and the environments blend into one, it starts to get dull and frustrating quickly.

With a multitude of Metroidvanias out there, a prospective new entry in the genre must stand out from the pack to get attention. Awaken – Astral Blade certainly stands out, but not in a good way. A poor story, poor collision detection, and overly floaty platforming combine to provide an unforgettable experience, just for all the wrong reasons.

God of War: Sons of Sparta is a bog standard retro-inspired Metroidvania. There’s energetic combat and strong boss fights, though neither can quite make up for the dreary exploration and boring story, resulting in an OK experience. For me, when it comes to a franchise as legendary as God of War, OK isn’t nearly enough.

White Knight Chronicles is a very good game. What you get out of it really depends on what you’re going to put in. It’ll be over in a few days if you just plow through the story, but if you get into the meat of the game and start developing your town and binding new items together to take on those tricky online group quests and grind up your guild rank, this is going to suck up a lot of your time.

If you had to pick a console family to buy the game for right now, it would have to be Xbox. The game is only played through backward compatibility on the new generation of consoles, but as we’ve seen on plenty of occasions, that leaves Xbox Series X owners able to play at 4K, while PlayStation 5 players are running at last-gen resolutions and frame rates. In this case, the game is stuck at 1080p on PS5, and even then the frame rate has been a bit variable. That’s improved through pre-release patches, and will hopefully continue to improve. [Review in Progress]

It’s hard to be anything but disappointed by AEW: Fight Forever. The AI is game-breaking, the roster is lacking, and online play is in the doldrums. If you are purchasing AEW: Fight Forever to play local with mates then it might be worth a look, as there is a lot of arcade fun and silliness to be had here, but for everyone else, this one is best avoided.

The barriers that Windbound puts up makes it a tough game to enjoy, at least initially. It will take time to appreciate what it brings to the survival genre with its clever boat-building and authored open world action, though these smart nuances often go hand-in-hand with tedious, sometimes frustrating stretches of playtime.

Symphony of the Machine is a pleasant enough puzzle game, with its laser beam manipulation requiring a little out of the box thinking at times. However, it’s a concept that we’ve seen before in VR, and niggles with moving around and interacting with this 3D space left me feeling a tad frustrated and disappointed.

At only a few hours long, Fated keeps things short and sweet. Although there’s little reason to go back and play again, I didn’t feel as though the £7.99 pricetag was too steep. In that respect, it’s more of a showpiece, a flashy virtual rollercoaster, and one that’s definitely worth riding.

Ultimately EDF4.1 ends up being an addictive game that is full of alien squishing fun on a huge scale, but as a last generation port to PlayStation 4, it ends up being far too expensive. I shall await with bated breath for a true sequel.

Ultimately, there is a difference between being easy and not very good. NASCAR Heat 3 is severely let down by the anodyne on-track action. Lacking any sort of driver enjoyment undoes the hard work put into the officially licenced lineup and career path options. Even for a racing game fan, this game is as dull as dishwater and extraordinarily derivative.

It's hard to say how impressions of Dog Airport Game might have changed if we’d gotten the game outside of a pandemic, but it’s a lovely comedic slice of a forgotten time when air travel was normal. Just with tons of weird dogs and puns.

In its current state the game should have been a £1.99 PlayStation Mobile title, not a £7.99 PlayStation 4 game. The title is coming to PS Vita this week and will be cross-buy but not cross save, and is certainly more suited to short bursts of gaming on a bus.

Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles is a beautiful canvas that needs more detail to make it a masterpiece. Gemea is an enchanting location and the majority of systems in the game function well, but the magic hook is missing. The story isn’t engrossing and the quests just blend into each other for the most part, as do the characters that give them. Gemea is magical, the content not so much.

Fallen Legion has a wealth of great ideas, but ultimately crumbles under its ambitions. A fun combat system helps form a strong core, but one that ultimately doesn’t hold together for very long. The saving grace here is the beautiful artwork and smooth animations, which are complimented by some great music. Unfortunately, it’s hard to recommend the game on those traits alone; Fallen Legion is interesting, and promising, but rarely enjoyable.

Although there’s a niche that will no doubt revel in the game’s eccentricity, those who cringe at otaku culture will find very little value here. Even looking past its more tasteless tendencies, the game’s combat is average and its design is repetitive. Still, it’s a complete write-off by any means, in part thanks to its vibrant depiction of Akihabara and the surprise inclusion of English voiceover.

The poor visuals and complicated story requirements are a shame, but they never truly soured my time with the title and as soon as I finish this review, I plan to play more.

Elex II is a perfect continuation of the Piranha Bytes RPG formula, but it is unlikely to win over new fans. The graphics and gameplay are very similar to the first game and are beginning to feel increasingly dated, a feeling exacerbated by all the fantastic games released in the last few months. If you’re already a fan of Piranha Bytes then this is exactly what you’ve been waiting for, for good and ill.

To brand the game as a failure would be unjust, however. Although far from being essential, it’s easy to see why The Sun and Moon cleaned up at Ludum Dare 29. It’s just a shame that the end result lacks the substance and feature set needed to embrace a larger, more diverse audience.

Elden: Path of The Forgotten is very unlike any other game I’ve played. Its unique method of conceptual storytelling urges you to continue in the hope that you may understand. It’s beautifully executed, despite the battles being frustratingly difficult in places, and entices you to explore and fight through the landscape. If you are a seasoned gamer looking for a new narrative to explore, I would thoroughly recommend this game.

Transformers Battlegrounds is a great entry point into turn-based strategy game for younger Transformers fans, and even older fans looking for a more relaxed XCOM-style experience.

House of the Dead: Remake is a great blast from the past that will satisfy that nostalgic itch and provide plenty of gory fun. On Xbox, however, you lose out on much of the feel of the title and are left fighting against the controls. If it’s your only option then there is still enjoyment to be had here, but if you have access to a PlayStation, Switch or PC, then I’d recommend picking it up on there instead.

Scars Above is a great addition to the library of single player adventures and it tells an engaging sci-fi story that interrogates ideas of genetic manipulation, free will, and sacrifice. While it loses momentum a little towards the end, it serves as a fantastic advertisement for smaller budget games and is well worth picking up.

SwapQuest has a lot of great things going for it, but the handful of issues are really, really major ones.

Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training for Nintendo Switch is a solid return for the series, mixing classic minigames with a handful of new ones that use the Switch's various capabilities – and which exclude those with a Switch Lite. Just as with the original, it's going to be easy to drop in for a few minutes a day and test yourself, but this isn't really doing much more than the DS games.

It’s not a taxing game by any means, but the asynchronous flow and bold unusual will rub against common multiplayer mindset.

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey promised so much, but it ultimately isn’t any fun to play. The lack of direction, the clumsy controls and unwieldy mechanics make this a huge missed opportunity that just doesn’t hang together as an experience. The DNA of a great idea may be here, but it needs a significant amount of evolution before it can become realised.

Painkiller is a shame not because it's especially bad, but because some of the fun weapons and combat are buried beneath the dull, uninspired and repetitive mechanics, and a surprisingly short 6-hour runtime. It can be fun to shoot demons with cool weapons and a friend or two, but this just feels a bit too disposable, and ultimately uninspired.

There's a ton of potential in Xenon Racer, but while it looks and sounds the part, its difficulty level and overly weighty handling keep it firmly stuck in the slow lane.

Last Labyrinth might tickle your morbid curiosity through its mysterious atmosphere and deadly puzzles, but with Katia's slow speed and hit and miss puzzles, the game quickly loses steam.

Zombie Vikings is a fun beat ’em up that has some excellent moments of humour, with distinct feeling playable characters and a moderate level of difficulty. While the single-player alone is good, the multiplayer is where Zombie Vikings truly stands out. Zoink Games have shown once again why it is a studio worth keeping an eye on.

With easy to pick up and play action that looks great on Switch, Urban Trial Tricky is a nice and stylish bike trick game with just enough variety in level design to keep things interesting.

While I appreciated the insight into the folklore of the Taramuhara people, Mulaka as a game is about as average as an action adventure title gets. It’s got some great ideas lurking within, but the overall structure is incredibly dated and only really saved thanks to the subject matter. As a game, it’s not really doing much that hasn’t been done better before, but as a cultural insight, it has a lot to offer those interested.

Even with a one-year gap between them, there are enough similarities between Liberation and Black Flag to recommend the former. It’s certainly not the best game in the franchise though does open up yet another chapter in the Assassin’s Creed saga. Still, those who have become particularly attached to Black Flag may find it hard to hoist up their sails and touch down in New Orleans.

This is by far and away the best MXGP game to date, and the result of developer Milestone finally getting to grips with the Unreal Engine — despite the recently disappointing MotoGP 18. MXGP Pro still lacks technical polish and misses the magical ‘wow’ moments that the best racing games feature, but this is now a great platform that they can build upon for the future. The difficulty curve will not be for everyone, but MXGP Pro is all the better for it.

Challenge fiends may still have a good time with DeadCore, although in its current state I would be reluctant to recommend the console port over the PC version – if you have one. Originally a project by a fledgling group of five young French developers, DeadCore shows some promise as a platforming first title: the basic mechanics are generally good and fun to use. It’s a shame the game is entirely let down by poor controls and sometimes cheap challenge design, both of which are at odds with the game’s speedrunning ethos.

Snooker 19 is a solid snooker simulation that will definitely appeal to fans of the sport. The relative lack of modes and some major oversights do hold it back, and so it is difficult to recommend unreservedly. It might be Lab42's first attempt with the official license, but right now Snooker 19 feels too much like style over substance. Not so much a 147 as a battling 50 ending in an unfortunate in-off whilst amongst the reds.

Koral is a good little puzzler though many will find it very easy to get through. As an educational tool Koral definitely has value to raise awareness of climate change and the impact of pollution on our oceans. As a game it Koral is a simple affair that plays well. It may lack much challenge for puzzle fans, but this is an engaging and thought provoking experience.

There's not much actual story in Story of a Gladiator, but it's probably the most fun I've had on my PS4 in the past year. Equal parts fun and painfully hard, Brain Seal Ltd have created a compelling and hopelessly addictive 2D brawler, survival hybrid. Are you not entertained? How could you possibly not be?

Rock of Ages 3 stretches the series' core concept to the limit, but this tower defence and boulder platforming hybrid has still got some legs. Adding a few new game modes and the new level creation tool extends the game's longevity, but ACE Team could do with refining a few of the rougher edges still in the game.

Aphelion is a deeply frustrating mix of both brilliant and baffling design: part gorgeous, best-in-class narrative adventure. One boasting cinematic presentation backed by superb lead performances, further enhanced by the year’s most compelling, science-grounded sci‑fi story. But also, part dreary third-person action-adventure, undercutting the pace of its narrative with clunky platforming, tedious stealth and puzzle sections, and Thomas’ oxygen-management nonsense. In the end, this tight narrative adventure is stretched into an over-long slog. Sure, it’s well worth seeing through for the story, but with a sharper gameplay focus, Aphelion could have been essential.

It takes a little while to reach its best, but Danger Zone takes the classic Crash Mode from the Burnout series, distils it and then finds ways to push it to new, even more ridiculous heights. Crash Mode is back, and despite a few flaws, it ends up being as morbidly compelling as ever.

I really tried with Strafe, spending a good six hours with it and getting only as far as the fourth level before dying. I liked the overall tone, and the gunplay is solid fun, but really this is one of the more punishing Rogue-Lites out there, with a high skill ceiling that sets you right back to the beginning once you die without any meaningful progression unless you somehow find the key to a teleporter. A lot to admire, but for most it’ll seem utterly impenetrable.

As a freebie included with Resident Evil 3, you can't really fault Resistance, but it helps that its asymmetrical multiplayer is also a lot of fun. It’s a unique take on the Resi universe and I hope it finds some longevity.

Townsmen is a good game that will keep strategy fans happy for a good while, but it’s held back by some awkward controls and its basic aesthetic. Despite this, it gets a solid recommendation if you enjoy the genre and especially if you are itching for some town building on the train.

Batman: The Telltale Series starts strongly, recreating and altering the Batman mythos in new and inventive ways, but can’t keep it up and fades towards the end of its run. It perhaps isn’t Telltale at their best, but still a series worth checking out for fans of their work and of Batman.

I quite like FBC: Firebreak, but I wish I could like it more. There's the amusing ideas of plaguing players with haunted sticky notes and rubber ducks, there's discovering unique level quirks for how to deal with picking up radioactive orbs safely, and the inherent joy of getting through tense backs-to-the-wall moments with allies by your side, but those moments of delight dissipate through a clunky user interface, abbreviated mission structure and too few levels to take on. This can still grow into something special, but Remedy might have to explore new directions to manage that.

Parcel Corps is easily one of the best attempts at revitalising a highly addictive subgenre of arcade game. Pulling off gnarly trick combos and thrashing those bike pedals feels great - even if things get repetitive after a while, saddling up for short bursts of play is incredibly fun. The world-building will also keep players engaged between delivery jobs with enough referential humour and satire to warrant the occasional hearty chuckle.

It’s a shame because Kholat has one of the best horror game set-ups we’ve seen for quite some time. Not only that, the team at IMGN.PRO has clearly put effort into sculpting an spooky collection of vistas each dripping in atmosphere. Sadly, wedged between these tense moments is way too much filler. The mind-numbing map reading and navigation would have been easy to overlook if that only made up a small portion of the game. Instead, it forms this drab and unappealing bedrock that threatens to drag Kholat down whenever there isn’t something scripted happening on-screen.

Sleep Tight has some very interesting ideas, but unfortunately fails to captilise on them and falls into the depths of mediocrity.

Peaky Blinders: Mastermind offers one of the most essential puzzling experiences of 2020. The masterminding may come to an end far too soon, but when it does the the sublime gameplay mash-up you've just had will make you realise that Futurlab have forged an entirely new genre: rewind time strategy. Peaky Blinders: Mastermind is so good that it compelled me to go and watch the original TV show. Now, how many games based on a franchise can say that?

Crown Wars: The Black Prince is not just a medieval XCOM, it is very much its own thing. A turn-based game offering fast and frenetic strategising, it's hamstrung by weak AI, an inconsistent camera, and too many bugs.

Super Lucky’s Tale is a charming and sweet indie platformer that provides hours of retro platforming joy. It’s probably had far too much weight put upon its shoulders as the Xbox One X’s sole launch title, and is by no means perfect; a fact that's been amplified by the recent antics of a dungaree-wearing plumber. However, while the genre has undoubtedly moved on, taken on its own merit Super Lucky’s Tale is simple, inescapable fun.

Forspoken was once one of the big reveals for the PS5 in 2020, but aside from using the SSD for open world magical parkour and the ultra quick fast travel, it is difficult to really see how it takes advantage of the latest console generation. The world of Athia looks good, and the combat is full of flashy magic, but there's no major side quests to divert from repetitive activities and a predictable main story.

Killer Is Dead is a real missed opportunity. The fighting mechanics are there, the ideas are there, but the end result is just so totally average. It’s a game that’s hard to dislike, but also one that fails to impress on pretty much every level.

It’s clear how much of a labour of love Rainbow Skies was. The game is packed to the brim with mechanics and ideas that call back to a dozen different classic RPGs and strategy games. For all the love that went into the game though, there’s a frustratingly low amount of polish and quality design, especially when it comes to the visuals and writing. Rainbow Skies is a love letter to classic RPGs hastily written in crayon on notebook paper.

Youngblood feels like Wolfenstein got drunk and ended up at the wrong party. It’s still able to pull off some of the same old tricks, but it feels wildly out of place alongside RPG-style levelling from Destiny or The Division. The next entry needs to go back to the previous formula, let me shoot my way through hordes of Nazi’s and spin a good yarn. Go home Wolfenstein, you’re drunk.

Summer in Mara is a lovely experience with an abundance of charm and a welcome engagement with environmental and emotional subjects. It makes for a perfect introduction to the genre for younger gamers, and a great relaxing escape from the real world for more mature sorts. It doesn’t have the depth of last year’s My Time at Portia but is both more accessible and has more developed characters. While there may be little prospect of a summer trip to sunny islands in reality, you could do a lot worse than take a holiday with Koa and explore the wonders of Mara.

Hood: Outlaws and Legends has some good ideas, but the execution is a little lacking. The one mode here is enjoyable but it gets very repetitive, with the clunky combat, slow matchmaking and poor, though admittedly amusing AI, taking the fun out of it. With more variety, whether in the form of different modes or with each map having its own objectives, this could have been a winner, but as it stands it's got a lot of squandered potential.

InnerSpace manages to craft a bright, bizarre and beautiful world that is probably the best example of the phrase “eye candy” I can think of. Unfortunately, the act of exploring and navigating that serene, majestic world often times felt like a headache. The poor frame rate on Switch and no clear horizons made flying and swimming in InnerSpace far less enjoyable than the idea of those actions ever was.

Either way, ACC: India manages to keep the stealth gameplay fun, while the open combat still leaves room for improvement.

Airheart presents an interesting idea with hints of brilliance, but fails to deliver a game with staying power. Whilst the upgrade system is satisfying, it’s let down by repetitive gameplay and UI issues that get in the way even when playing with the endearing crafting system.

The Gex Trilogy is a good window into the history of gaming and the 3D games are still fun collectathon platformers, albeit with all the camera and control issues of the originals, and the awful 2D original I never want to play again. I would have liked to see a more Gexpansive remaster, and the result may not be entirely Gexceptional, but offers enough Gexperience to give you the kind of Gexual healing that only true nostalgia can provide.

There isn’t a lot of content but there is replayability value should you wish to beat run times. The story isn’t too important, outdone by the game’s visual design and music. Windlands captures the essence of soaring through the air, but sadly it simply won’t be for everyone.

It fails to do anything that really pushes the series forward, borrowing heavily from previous games while adding a few extra bells and whistles.

The Panzer Dragoon Remake marks a welcome return for one of Sega’s most enigmatic series. Although this first game is slightly hamstrung by its own position in history, it implies that the return of Panzer Dragoon is in very good hands.

While having both 1 and 2 may be necessary if you are completionist or if you adore the series, the second one is so much weaker that it is very hard to justify.

Despite its issues, All-Star racing is an original take on the kid-friendly kart racer which offers a wonderful selection of fruit themed content to keep both children and adults entertained. It might not get everything right, but it’s a beautifully juicy start.

Metal Wolf Chaos XD is definitely a child of its time. It's an over the top action fest that has a few issues with it, but can provide a decent amount of entertainment. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the game is seeing FromSoftware's early work and recognising the systems the company would settle on to make the big leap to the more famous follow-ups in the Soulsborne style of games.

NBA Playgrounds gets so much of the setup right, often reawakening the spirit of the NBA Jam series, but it fumbles some of the finer details with needless complications and lacklustre AI. As a solo experience there are much better ways to spend your money, but when it comes to multiplayer NBA Playgrounds is so very nearly shooting nothing but net.

Kao the Kangaroo is an often-delightful throwback to a simpler time, paying homage to the 3D platformers of yesteryear while retaining just enough of its own identity. Most importantly, its platforming and combat are both on point, and thanks to its likeable characters you’ll want to see it through to the end.

Ultimately, Vertical Drop Heroes HD is fun for a few hours, but gets repetitive quickly. The asking price is low so it might be worth a look if it really tickles your fancy, but Rogue Legacy is only £4 more expensive and accomplishes similar ideas more effectively and with more depth.

Battle Princess Madelyn has some lovely animated cut scenes to enjoy, the plot begins in a charming manner that brings to mind the Princess Bride, and its retro inspired pixelated graphics are on point. If only they were attached to fun and compelling gameplay, then Battle Princess Madelyn really could have been a contender to capture the crown of Ghost ‘n Goblins. As it stands, it’s probably best to avoid this one and break out your SNES from storage instead.