I really wanted to like Bookbound Brigade, but its flaws are too great to overlook. There are moments when it all comes together and you get a real sense of achievement from navigating a tricky section of traps or figuring out a nice environmental puzzles, but these are too often overshadowed by boring combat and the chore that is getting around the world. Unlike the books and stories that Bookbound Brigade is inspired by, good writing is not enough to salvage this story.

Whilst these remakes bring the second Tomb Raider trilogy to modern systems, but they simply can't match up to the original trilogy – Chronicles and Angel of Darkness in particular were let downs when they released originally. I can't see this remaster gaining these games any new fans, especially since they control like some kind of device that exists to torture game developers that specialise in traversal mechanics.

I still love the series and am keen to see it continue, but Legacy of Kain: Defiance just hasn’t aged well and represents the very nadir of PS2-era action adventure games. The repetitive combat and uninspired level design grow tedious and the new additions are not particularly exciting. The use of AI upscaled textures helps explain the underwhelming nature of the graphical updates and is emblematic of a remaster that feels cheap. Considering the original game is still available on Steam and PlayStation, I’d suggest picking that up instead. Like so many modern vampires, this game’s resurrection is more of a curse than a blessing.

I think it’s important to preserve old games for future audiences, or make them available for audiences that never knew they existed. Video games, like any other art form, have a long history behind them, and a longer history ahead of them. Releases like Zwei: The Arges Adventure serve as time-capsules to help keep old pieces of history from disappearing. It’s a game very much from its time. While I appreciate the effort put into making the writing stand proudly in a modern day, gameplay flaws and dated design choices make it a chore to truly get a satisfying experience out of the game.

I was hoping for something unique in the pantheon of Koei Tecmo’s long-lived franchise, but it’s a step backwards. Fans of the Touken Ranbu franchise may get a kick out of seeing their beloved swords in 3D, but for the rest of the world you have to hope that it isn’t indicative of where Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is heading.

Blazing Chrome is so close to achieving what it's sets out to be – a fun retro 2D arcade shooter. There's sadly just too many issues to be overcome by the player to find the fun. If the development team are willing to put additional time into Blazing Chrome with patches and updates, then this could be well worth a punt. As it stands, Blazing Chrome is both too limited and too frustrating to recommend.

It’s somewhat difficult to recommend Mother Russia Bleeds, as the dystopian setting and drug-filled plot are at odds with the conventions of the side-scrolling beat-em-up genre. While the sprite work is overall quite ugly, the level of detail is astounding in depicting this game’s disturbing imagery. With limited replay value, couch only coop, and not much diversity among the playable roster, these issues outweigh the promise of Le Cartel Studio’s debut game.

Given the quality of other zombie games such as Saints and Sinners and Arizona Sunshine it’s really difficult to recommend Onslaught to anyone other than hardcore The Walking Dead fans. The best parts of The Walking Dead almost always revolve around the human interactions, but the game is a grind, the story is utterly disposable and it no longer feels relevant to a TV show that is now a couple seasons ahead.

Overthrown is an ambitious genre melting-pot of a game that offers a monster-mash of potential, but its cluttered systems and lack of guidance ultimately hold it back from fully realising its promise.

Ultimately Color Guardians is a bright, cutesy, challenging runner with some good ideas that falls through when it comes to keeping it interesting. Restarting from checkpoints over and over only getting a little bit closer to the end each time quickly grows repetitive, draining any drive there might have been to continue playing.

MotoGP 15 is still an accomplished racer, but it offers little to draw fans in, compared to last year’s entry.

Unfortunately, obtaining that blessing requires a two-mile crawl on your knees through the jagged glass and thorny ivy that is the busted, broken, and simply not fun gameplay of Chamber of Time. Battles are aggravating and exploration is mind-numbing. For as brilliant as the narrative and artistic achievements of Chamber of Time are, it’s weighed down by unpolished game design choices that simply make it no fun to actually play at all.

Seaven Studios has some good ideas up its sleeves and Ethan Meteor Hunter shows moments of brilliance. However, it is let down by clunky movements and puzzles that don’t always offer a challenging but fair game.

Overall, The UnderGarden is not a terrible game. It just failed to bring anything to the table that kept me amused for more than a few minutes at a time.

This beautiful wrapper isn’t enough to cover up Poncho’s fundamental flaws. It’s a lovely experiment and although it works well in some parts, an overall sense of cohesion is missing. Being able to move along the z-axis is a clever feature yet Poncho uses this as a crutch, failing to flesh out other essential areas of the game. In short, there’s certainly something special here yet, sadly, only a minority will succeed in finding it.

An intriguing take on the long-running JRPG series, but it just doesn't do a good job of crafting a management experience that feels rewarding or engaging. Even once you're used to the overwhelming menus and systems, it never feels like you're a part of the town you're building from behind the walls menus, charts and numbers. It was a treat to see previous Atelier characters interact and talk to each other, but that bit of fanservice doesn't make up for the lacking gameplay.

For content starved fans of the classic point and click adventure, it's hard not to get excited about a new entry in the genre, particularly one whose visuals inspire a feel good nostalgic hit for all things LucasArts. Dig a little deeper though and you'll find this is an underwhelming imitator of the legends of yesteryear. Too many obscure puzzles and too many unfunny jokes prevent Darkestville Castle from being the Secret of Monkey Island successor it so obsessively wants to be.

My experience of Mordheim: City of the Damned is one where knowledge of the source material is both a blessing and a curse. This isn’t a bad game, and despite its flaws there is still fun to be found in the Empire’s official worst city to live in.

Short and succinct, there’s nothing about Theseus I strongly disliked. That said, beyond the occasional picturesque moment, there isn’t a lot here worth shouting about either. It succeeds in bringing a brutal slice of mythology to life, but lacks the depth or impact of similar action adventure games, putting too much emphasis on style and presentation.

Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World is an exceedingly bland experience. This remake trades heavily on the 90s nostalgia factor, but fails to consider that, with the original only released outside of Japan in 2012, few will have played Monster World 4 in order to have any feelings of nostalgia about it. Sadly, all those playing the game for the first time will find little to get excited about.

There isn't a website on the planet that knows the particular politics behind some of the changes to what appeared to be an exceptionally promising shooter, but it's turned out to be a real stinker: Haze is as average as beans on toast, and the biggest disappointment is that it didn't have to be.

Not necessarily a bad game. It just doesn't do anything to make itself memorable or stand out from a crowd.

Fans of the anime will likely get enjoyment out of the new stories and beautiful character models. Anyone else is better off starting with the original television series or simply avoiding Punch Line altogether.

Drag x Drive makes good use of the Joy-Con 2 mouse controls for a simple game of wheelchair basketball, but it lacks the charm and personality you'd expect from a Nintendo game.

Port Royale 4 starts off strong, but its solid trading and management gameplay just become repetitive over time, eventually turning into a waiting game as numbers slowly get bigger. Managing cities and trade routes also never really overcome the somewhat awkward controls on console, and combat never becomes interesting. Still, if you absolutely love trading and seeing your empire grow is all the reward you need, Port Royale 4 might be for you.

For this type of game, I feel like the combat and puzzle solving should be the strongest aspect on offer, but they ended up being the worst part of the experience. Outside of the lousy checkpoint system, there really isn’t anything too terrible about Rack N Ruin, it just doesn’t have enough going for it for me to unequivocally recommend it.

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.

The Midnight Sanctuary is certainly not what I expected. I will always applaud any game – or graphic novel – which teaches the audience something new. Educating the player about the history of Japanese Christianity, even if just in passing, is commendable. However, as an experience, The Midnight Sanctuary is a little too slow and disjointed to be truly gripping.