Manga die-hards are bound to get a real kick out of J-Stars Victory VS+. The level of fan service here is on point and there’s a solid fighting game to back it up. That said, after just a few hours it begins to lose steam, becoming less and less appealing as something you’d want to play for long sessions.

Tear the anime-patterned wrapper away and what you have is essentially another iteration on the same aging format Omega Force has been peddling for years. In this case it has been slightly altered but not enough to conceal the franchise’s ongoing fatigue as fewer bold ideas are brought to the table.

It’s a good mixture of okay ideas, achieved through some nice presentation and a stellar idea at its heart, which makes it worthwhile if you’re really interested in that, but perhaps a reboot is required to do it justice.

Signs of the Sojourner has an excellent premise, an incredible soundtrack, and solid writing, but this jars with an often punishing and frustrating difficulty. All signs point towards this being a light-hearted narrative Indie, but the balance undermines that core identity, making it a struggle to fully enjoy.

I realise that my complaints could easily be dismissed as an old man complaining about the whole rave experience but, if anything, I wanted Strobophagia to be more of a sensory overload than it turned out to be. Everything just feels like it’s been dialled down a few notches, and consequently it doesn’t engage you as much as it should. With some fine-tuning and, more crucially, some better music, this still has a lot of potential to offer up an original and effective horror experience. It just isn’t quite there yet.

No matter what you do, the stats mean absolutely nothing.

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: Extended Edition is a good action RPG that is a welcome addition to the PS4, but is held back by some uninspiring loot, uneven difficulty and the decision to release the trilogy one game at a time. This version does include all of the enhancements from the Final Cut, but it’s difficult to recommend buying this alone when the full trilogy is so often discounted on PC. Given the likely future releases, I fully expect this to appear on PS+ fairly soon. So unless you have completely rinsed Diablo 3, and are bored of Alienation but desperate for more loot, I’d stake clear of this until the full trilogy is released.

Mixing the old with the new, it’s clear that Codemasters have tried to bring Micro Machines up to date in World Series. While there’s plenty of charm to the classic racing and elimination mode, I feel they could have gone even further with the ideas in Battle mode and the variety of vehicles and weapons that it contains, bringing these back to the classic modes.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered Edition retains plenty of its original charms, enhanced by updated visuals and audio, but with its defining local co-op diluted by clunky online play, it simply doesn’t stake a strong enough case for its return.

OmegaBot is a solid side-scrolling action platformer, but it lacks that certain something to really stand out. The platforming is decent, but could be better especially when using weapons as a jump assist, while boss design leant too far in the direction of bullet sponges.

Little Witch Nobeta makes for a fun old-school action shooter. It’s just a shame that this particular witches’ brew is filled with so much unnecessary and bland garnish that serves only to dilute the taste.

A fun game. Despite the critical tone of much of this review, I very much enjoyed my time with Bathoryn and will be going back to try and unlock the rest of those no-hit boss achievements. It is best to go in with a clear idea of what to expect, however, which is a no-nonsense old-school hack and slash platformer fuelled by heavy metal.

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.

WWE Undefeated is ok. For a free to play mobile game, it has quite a good fighting system which definitely serves as a good base to build on, but it’s very light on content and needs more development to add some other basic functions.

You really should play Dispatch. This funny and surprisingly touching superhero adventure is something to be savoured. Just don’t play it on Nintendo Switch, the clumsy censorship renders a terrific game a rather mediocre one instead.

As someone with a lifelong soft spot for the medium-specific charm of video game glitches, Cyberpunk 2077’s botched launch just ain’t it. Even overlooking the rushed rollout, after an eternity of being bludgeoned in the face with hyperbole, running through 2077 feels like five different games stitched together into an entertaining, passably decent, generic behemoth.

Don't Stop, Girlypop! is a yassified delight and the kind of unabashedly girl-power game I love to see. I just wish that as much energy went into the polish and game design as it went into the art, vibes, and killer soundtrack.

ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove is a hard sell. If you loved the originals, then there might be enough here to spirit you back to the days of the Mega Drive, but without knowing the source material, you are left with a good looking but fairly generic walkabout game.

Yet the single player was a bore in its core gameplay loop, the two multiplayer modes have issues with their map design, and the gating of characters and abilities just feels unnecessary for a MOBA. However, it is still possible to get a kick or two out of Battleborn.

Unfortunately, Slam Bolt Scrappers isn't the immediate arcade classic some will have been hoping for. The repetitive gameplay and lack of online multiplayer leaves the overall package feeling somewhat lacklustre. With that said, Scrappers' split-screen competitive play is almost second to none.

I absolutely recommend playing Resident Evil Village, but probably not on Switch 2. It’s a fantastic game, and it can be found very cheap on PS5 these days during sales. Paying full price for the Switch 2 version — technically worse for around three times the price and the handheld version is simply bad — instead of playing it cheaper on a more powerful console is actually the scariest thing I’ve seen since we got given the code. If you do pick it up on the Switch, do yourself a favour and keep it docked at least.

As a single player game Bubble Bobble 4 Friends is utterly pedestrian, lacking the frantic pace of the original. Most of the repurposed features such as power ups and jumping on bubbles detract rather than enhance the experience, but add in some friends and it's still fun, especially if you want to be devious and sabotage the other players.

Undisputed is a valiant attempt by Steel City Interactive, bringing back boxing to the fore in video games after a long absence. The in-ring action is generally very good and the roster is well stacked. What is missing is good commentary and there are gameplay issues that need to be addressed, including lag and stuttering. Undisputed is not ready to be a title challenger yet, but updates may see it get there eventually.

Unusual Findings is a good point and click adventure that will appeal to fans of the genre and nostalgia addicts alike. It doesn’t do anything to reinvent the wheel, though, and does suffer from the occasional moment of obscurity or needing to talk to every character again to discover a new line of dialogue. If the style and setting appeal, though, then there is a lot to love here, not least the pixel art and liberal use of pop classic ‘You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)’.

Mega Battle is great fun, especially in local multiplayer, and has seen me both laughing and cursing aloud, but with no mini-games or notable campaign to speak of, and without the overblown power-ups I’m used to in Mario games, it’s a game that I’ll have all but forgotten by the time Wimbledon rolls around next year.

Team Sonic Racing is a technically sound karting game, but really only sells its central mechanic well enough in multiplayer to convince you that it needs to be there. It’s not helped by only featuring the mostly bland Sonic family of characters and locations, leaving it feeling like an overall downgrade from the fantastic Sonic & All-Star Racing games.

Warsaw is a game that captures some of the desperation and inevitability of failure that the Warsaw Uprising faced. The random assignment of characters removes some player choice, and there is a lack of narrative to add more weight to the events. However, as a strategy game Warsaw is well put together and offers a challenge in a unique setting.

If you’re a big fan of snow-based sports and don’t mind the dip-in and out feel, then give this a shot.