In the competitive world of online multiplayer, a game must be special to stand out from the crowd. Disco Dodgeball Remix stands out for all the wrong reasons. It proves itself to be a nice idea stretched to breaking point and beyond. I played it, so you don’t have to.

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.

As you play more of Conan Exiles and access higher tier items, it becomes more and more clear that there was serious potential here. The survival aspects of the game are fun, provided survival is your thing, and it brings some new ideas and features to the table. The thrall system in particular is interesting, but ultimately fails in its execution. Considering its price, I can’t help but feel the package and its quality is a little lacking.

If you’re looking for a compelling and atmospheric take on the zombie genre that’s more Walking Dead than Left 4 Dead, State of Decay 2 is an imperfect but enjoyable sequel to the superior original. The gameplay loop of scavenging, crafting and killing can begin to wear thin, but the human element is capable of pulling you back in. Tackling the world with others in tow may decimate the game’s carefully constructed atmosphere, but those multiplayer shenanigans will probably be wild enough to distract from the host of technical issues that simply refuse to die.

Fox n Forests is a really enjoyable throwback to its 16-bit inspirations. It takes the style, gameplay, and mechanics of early platformers and produces a game that both feels like a lost classic and remains fun and involving to play. Its main negative is perhaps an inevitable result of its close adherence to historical precedence as it is fairly short. It’s a bit short but there is increased longevity in finding all the collectables or playing through at harder skill levels, but the challenge is generally gauged well enough on normal that the latter didn’t appeal to me

Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition takes a great game and makes it greater, though it’s fair to say that for anyone outside of Legend of Zelda or Warriors series fans it will undoubtedly feel less special. Combat and the rhythm of gameplay can become repetitive as you progress, but there’s obviously so much affection for the source material that it almost falls over itself as it strives to keep you involved. As a love letter, and as a merging of two iconic franchises, there are few games as thoroughly enjoyable as this.

Omensight scratches so many itches for me. I love murder mystery games and branching, time-manipulated narratives so much. Action games are some of my favorite games, and fantasy worlds that aren’t just more elves and goblins are so much more vibrant. Omensight takes all of these delicious ingredients and confidently tosses them into a boiling pot together. Some of the pieces don’t come together perfectly in the end, but the final dish is still unlike anything I can think of, and I can only hope Spearhead Games delivers just as great of an experience with their next release.

The Council’s second episode doesn’t manage to hit the highs of the first, which could be down to it being smaller in scale in comparison. Hide & Seek’s murder mystery does bring you in and advances the overall plot in a big way, but at the same time it feels like more could have been made of it. There’s some story threads dangled for you to grab, but those threads could have been expanded upon more within the context of this episode.

Looping back to the beginning of this review, we already have a solid stable of go-to VR shooters. Killing Floor: Incursion definitely makes it onto this list though, trails towards the bottom half. It’s a great adaptation of the series but lacks longevity, mainly thanks to its reliance on using the same swarms of braindead cannon fodder instead of adding more diversity to its firefights.

Consistently challenging but impossible to put down is certainly a cliche, but it’s a perfect description of this game.

With an awesome inspiration and some very cool ideas, it’s an immense shame that City of Brass game ends up being as dull as it is. With lacklustre combat, enemy design, rooms and movement, City of Brass feels like a chore to play. With the smorgasbord of Rogue-lites to play these days, some of which are among the best games you can play, City of Brass is an easy pass.

Azure Saga: Pathfinder is a competent but generic game that will likely only appeal to fans of the genre, to fall back on a reviewer’s cliché. The cutesy graphics and interesting ecological sci-fi narrative are effective and the combat mechanics skilfully bring together inspirations from across the history of the genre, but it does little to innovate the JRPG. I spent most of my playthrough ticking off an imaginary bingo card of genre clichés in my head and was ready to shout ‘House’ way before the final boss.

There’s so much wrong with Raging Justice that it’s easy to forget that it’s not completely unbearable. It’s an average romp through arcade-like levels and while the key gimmick doesn’t hit a home run, it at least is fitting with the theme. That said, this does sadly come off as a cheap imitator that misses the mark more often than not, and as I eluded to earlier, that hurts for me to say.

Capturing the essence of classic animated films, Forgotton Anne is a gorgeous game to look at and tells a whimsical tale of forgotten things come to life. As lovely as the style is, it also affects the substance of the game, with the low frame rate animations leading to awkward feeling platforming and some puzzles that are rough around the edges. If you can look past the flaws, there’s still a rather lovely and charming tale here to explore.

Laser League is phenomenal. It’s easy to pick up, thoroughly appealing in its style, and dangerously captivating.

A variable frame rate is an out and out killer for any racing game, and despite Trailblazers’ clear potential it’s impossible to see past that. The overall concept, of merging F-Zero and Splatoon, is a fantastic idea, but perhaps it needed a bit longer in development in order for it to be fully realised.

Membrane is an immensely enjoyable puzzle game filled an increasingly interesting use of it’s simple base mechanics.

Limited tools aside, the construction process is the best thing the game has going for it, while the multiplayer just seems to play second fiddle; there’s too much focus on the creation and not enough on making the game fun. I’m sure they’ll add things to it, but the progression is just a tad on the frustrating side.

Project Nimbus: Code Mirai is a frantic mech shooter that ticks all the right boxes, but is ultimately let down by a lack of variety. The combat never fails to set your pulse racing, and I’d love to see more from the team and the series, since, for a short while at least, this is the best mech combat we’ve seen in years.

A genuine joy of a game and one which is simultaneously approachable and impossibly deep, Deadfire is a fantastic sequel and one which you will be thinking even when you are away from its world.

A port that’s far more breathtaking in its presentation, even if it’s the same game from nearly five years ago. It’s a shame not to see anything new here for the gameplay, but the 4K visuals and orchestral soundtrack do a lot to drive home the point that VanillaWare make good looking and sounding games. It’s a decent sign that their next original project will be stunning in its design.

The tactics and tactility of a good tennis game remain amongst the purest of gaming experiences, but AO International Tennis is not a good tennis game. Overly complicated and bereft of any emotional resonance, the positive elements, including the detailed character creator, will likely be as swiftly forgotten as the game itself will.

As a building project, Labo displays a sense of ingenuity that few things do, and as an introduction to design and engineering it’s clear, fun, and solid. It’s a shame then that the game itself is a little too simplistic, though allowing kids to stomp around a city smashing things may not wear out too quickly in practice.

A really mixed bag. The overall story of the Girl facing her psychological demons and overcoming the traumatic experiences that stranded her in this fantasy dreamworld is interesting and well handled, and I really liked the idea of using the violin as a kind of magical totem to transform and manipulate the world. The switches between perspectives and moments of introspection point to a sensitive appreciation of the deeper emotional resonances of Distortion’s narrative, but it just isn’t that fun to play. Dated and unresponsive controls, needlessly obscure exploration, and frustratingly unpredictable enemy encounters mean that it almost works better as a Let’s Play watch than it does as a game.

If you’re after a 2.5D side-scrolling stunt game, the Urban Trial Playground is going to scratch that itch for you on Switch. Sure, it’s riffing off the Trials series, but it’s a fun and lengthy alternative that’s a good fit for Nintendo’s platform.

The game they ended up with is nothing like their original plans and you can tell this single player shooter has been created by hacking bits from their MOBA. Despite it’s many small flaws, it’s not a bad game, it’s not even dull, it’s just very rudimentary. A noble failure, I really wish I could score the game higher but sadly I can’t.

Penny-Punching Princess is a fascinating take on the usual capitalist impulses within loot based games and combines this with a fun and humorous cartoon aesthetic, but it just never really feels fun to play.

While Total War has often focussed on the big picture, Thrones of Britannia shows there’s plenty of scope for a series of Total War Saga offshoots to explore the smaller conflicts and civil wars through history. It’s also a great place for Creative Assembly to experiment with gameplay, and the changes to recruitment, tech trees and story elements give us a glimpse of what the series might hold in future.