Sentry Paragon feels like a cash grab in the worst possible way.

If you can absorb the physics-related issues, and you can get to grips with what each block means and does, then this is an extremely clever game. It’s not as easy as that cute rat protagonist might lead you to believe. Rattyvity Lab is an utter scumbag, but you have to admire its occasional genius.

You’ll be looking at some four or five hours in order to complete Remorse: The List and throughout that time will find a world that is interesting to explore. The combat could be more fun though, and it would have been great to have taken in a few more surprises in its setup. At least the puzzle elements are rewarding though.

Whilst Intruders: Hide and Seek is not a game that's going to blow the industry away, it's one that you will have a good time with, as you go hiding in the shadows and cowering in cabinets.

You'll probably be able to complete Papetura in less than two hours, but I like a short experience that is full of quality, rather than something stretched out with fluff. Papetura delivers on this.

If you’re a fan of something like Cities: Skylines - Remastered, then Transport Fever 2: Console Edition is going to be for you. It offers plenty of hours of entertainment and it’s easy to lose yourself in what it delivers; something that is a good mark for any sim game.

If you’re a fan of previous Tonguç Bodur games - the likes of The Redress of Mira and Finding the Soul Orb - then Cions of Vega should be on your list. It's one of his best, with a nicely compact story, some lovely visuals, and a great atmosphere.

Emoji Kart Racer arrives in a clutch of karting releases with a rather daunting £24.99 stuck to its bonnet. It needed to race ahead of the pack, but mostly it bounces from wall to wall near the rear, doomed by poor controls and blockages on the track. Sad face. Angry face. Poop emoji.

My Little Prince - A Jigsaw Puzzle Tale struggles and sputters as soon as the puzzles get beyond two-hundred-plus pieces. While the tools on offer are great, completing a large puzzle remains a fiddly experience to sort, choose and place jigsaw pieces. One day gaming will get big jigsaws right, but today is not that day.

A bit like BROK himself, BROK the InvestiGator is a bit of a hybrid. It’s a brawler spliced onto a graphic adventure, yet neither half of the gene pool is quite stable enough to support it.

BigChick has big ideas. The idea of a chick-herding game had us bobbing our heads in chicken-like appreciation. But, as it turns out, herding chickens is hard and not particularly fun.

Difficulty spikes and harsh save systems aside, there is a cracking, compact little Metroidvania to explore in Witchcrafty. If you’re partial to the thrills of getting further than you did before, racing to a save point before the last health pip gets removed from you, then Witchcrafty has skills in that department.

Zombie Derby: Pixel Survival focuses on mobile-style gaming and easy Gamerscore collection, but is all but devoid of the most basic requirement: fun.

Jurassic Pinball offers up a depressingly bland pinball table with almost no redeeming features. Aside from the fact that the delays and dodgy physics are such that your turns will be over very quickly.

Cities: Skylines - Remastered is extremely immersive and complex, but easy to pick up and play, minus a few learning curve issues. The package it offers has everything, from the grand scale to the microdetails. Sometimes it’s just fun watching people go about their daily lives, and there are options for that too.

Tricky Thief is fine, if a little unremarkable. We appreciated that it makes the effort to spice up the ice-sliding recipe with some enemies, but we spent so long waiting for those enemies, that we got wistful for simpler, gimmick-free ice-sliding puzzlers - and there’s a fair few of those on Xbox.

Peppa’s still not cooked: not quite. Which is a shame, because there’s a lot to explore in Peppa Pig: World Adventures, and while the game feels paradoxically more constrained as it goes global, it’s also an experience that had our four-year old jumping up and down on the sofa, singing that flipping theme tune all day.

Defend the Rook manages to create a pretty good tactical affair that’s got neat loot, an easy-to-grasp setup and a shed load of cool enemies to defeat.

PROJECT ZERO : Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is a very scary, very compelling game that, even with a couple of control niggles, is still more than worth a play. The atmosphere that is summoned up is great, as are the ghosts and the story, but an overhaul of the controls would have been welcome.

If you are willing to work for some glorious moments, then The Forest Cathedral is a walking sim that delivers. But oof: it demands some extreme patience when the walking starts straying into platforming.

With Cube Farmer you reap what you sow in the sense that you can get a cheap and decent puzzler for a cheap and decent price.

The Wreck was such a labour for us to wade through. It’s too structured and symmetrical, making it feel less like a story and more like a syllabus of homework tasks.

Strategic Mind: Spectre of Communism is better than previous games in the franchise, but that isn’t a particularly high hurdle to clear. As strategy games go, there are better options out there, but this does work and is able to offer up a bit of a challenge.

We felt like we were playing the bare bones of a tactics game - from story to strategy to replayability - and those bare bones had sharp edges that kept stabbing us when we least wanted it to. If you’re bubble-wrapped by love for the genre then Vanaris Tactics might (emphasis on the might) be enough to keep you going to the end.

Atomic Heart may not feel wholly original, but you can’t deny the craftsmanship that has gone into building an immersive, vibrant world. It may be a familiar tale of tech gone wrong, but there’s enough creative flair here to justify treading the path once again.

Tales of Symphonia Remastered is a brilliant JRPG. Some areas such as the battles and overall sound feels a little dated, but it is still very much a playable game. Where it is let down is in the remastering details, or rather lack of.

Bravo, Puzzle by Nikoli W, you’ve done it again with Masyu. We don’t know what bargain you’ve struck with a puzzling demon, but you’ve delivered yet another fresh-feeling, devious puzzle onto the Xbox.

While Gunman Tales is overflowing with ideas, there’s no denying that the central one is creaky. The lightgun stuff is neither fun nor particularly varied, and adding in some character movement isn’t enough. Once we’d found the Golden Canyon and claimed our treasure, we didn’t have the impulse to return. We just rode off into the sunset.

We want to spread the word: absorb more people into Zapling Bygone’s body. This is a gruesome Metroidvania that will make you gag, and we loved every flipping minute of it. Join the hive-mind. We dare you.

Figment 2: Creed Valley is more beautiful, there is absolutely no denying that: it’s an absolute feast for the eyeballs and ears. But when we looked back and ticked off the wonderful moments, we didn’t get off our first hand. In Figment: Journey into the Mind, we could barely fit them on our fingers and toes. A stand-out game has become merely a very good one.

Whether you're looking to take some tentative first steps into Atari's Recharged series or are an old veteran of the rebooted scene, we'd urge you to stick Caverns of Mars: Recharged right near the very top of your play list. It can certainly feel brutal, there's no denying that, but the adrenaline hits it can bring far outweigh those of frustration.

Road Stones is not a great tower defense game, but a cheap and slightly cheerful one. The freedom proposed by the gameplay is decent, with lots of upgrades eventually at your disposal to increase the joy of defeating monsters. The difficulty is completely skewed though, causing frustration when your resources are limited.

Lootbox Lyfe+ can be a rather spiffing little platformer. Stacking on ability after ability, at roughly three times the pace that Samus might, for example, is a bit of a lark. It’s at its best in the opening moments, when that cadence is something of a punchline, but it’s still good in the latter game, too.

There's no debating that Akka Arrh is a gaming experience worth taking in, yet perhaps more as an intrigue point. We're not sure many will find it to be much of a long term proposition.

Remoteness is in need of some patching and only then may it well be interesting enough to look at it. The gameplay is all over the place, the asthma mechanic not needed, yet there could well be an intriguing game hiding away underneath it all.

Merge & Blade plays pretty similarly across all the modes on offer and it is that which is both its strength and its weakness. Fun to play for short bursts, there is no doubt that earning new units is great, but it isn’t long before things start to feel like a drag. As a short term proposition then, Merge & Blade works, but I’m not sure the long-term hook is there.

Destiny 2: Lightfall is a let down. The blessing is that the gunplay and action are as good as ever, but stupid difficulty spikes and poor writing make Lightfall a chore to play.

Few visual novels can lift you to the belly-laughing highs, and then plunge you into the tearful lows of Animal Lover. Squirrel away the cynicism and give it a go: you may start looking at pets in a completely (and innocent) new light.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is a superb game. It is blindingly fast, fluid and great fun to play. The bosses will have you chewing your pad until you suss out their patterns, and the rest of the action is just as tough - never underestimate an enemy, even a small one. Apart from the loading times, this is one of the best action RPG games on the market.

Pinball FX is a pretty good place to begin your collection, but not good enough to duplicate it.

The Smile Alchemist is a hard game to rate. It is slow, but charming, dull, but interesting; it kind of defies description. As a change from the plethora of retro-styled JRPGs that KEMCO release, it is a success, but on the flip-side, it is a hard one to recommend; it does get pretty samey.

Aabs Animals is less a game and more a transaction. It’s a shifty guy in a dark alley selling 1000G for £7.99. “Just look at a cat mate”, he says, as he pockets the cash and runs giggling over the horizon.

Webgeon Speedrun Edition isn’t going to set the puzzle-platforming world alight. It is an ice-sliding puzzle in spider’s clothing, and the additions it offers - including some fantastic chandelier vandalism - are minor, gentle additions to the formula. But together with the intricate, well-crafted levels, they’re just enough to nudge Webgeon Speedrun Edition into the realm of a recommendation.

You can give us all the choices in the world, and they won’t mean anything if none of them are satisfying. And that’s the problem in Twice Reborn: A Vampire Visual Novel. Every path we took was padded out with insufferable world-building and detail. We felt like we were in a conversation with an energy-vampire; all the interest, all the goodwill that we had for the game, was being sucked out of us.

Scars Above is a challenging game that has a lot to offer, with a price that fits its ambition. The story is original and there’s some good space drama going on.

Cleopatra Fortune S-Tribute plays very well and is a lot of fun. It is a shame about the Mystery Mode though as it is - as the name suggests - a completely impenetrable mystery which leaves us with pretty much half a game; a bit of translation would have made this a much more palatable proposition.

What Iris and the Giant lacks with its minimalistic style, it more than makes up with addictive card-play. The emotional narrative is subtle yet works greatly due to the little nuances from Iris’ life incorporated into the gameplay. And the gameplay is where it thrives.

You will probably be fairly impressed with Dead Station. It is short, don’t get me wrong, but for only £4.19, it is a reasonable price for a reasonable game. The atmosphere is good, as is the gameplay; it’ll certainly keep you playing until the bitter end. That said, you’ll need to put up with some annoying platforming and jumping - especially the pixel perfection that is required with the latter.

If you like a shooter but need it to come with wit and action, you’ll find it in Shadow Warrior 3: Definitive Edition.

sCATch: The Painter Cat certainly isn’t a bad puzzle game, by any means, but it’s not one that you ever feel like you can truly master, either.

If you’re a puzzle fan then you’ll enjoy Seven Doors, particularly as it delivers a lovely surprise in the latter parts of the game. The puzzle and mental elements are great, with some brain-teasing tests which are fun to solve and participate in. The more physical side of things doesn’t work as well though; more annoying and - at times - just not fun.

Whilst many of the components of Like a Dragon: Ishin! will immediately feel familiar, that is no bad thing. An adage that franchise fans will repeat is that there is no bad Like a Dragon game, and Ishin continues that trend.

You’d be best off avoiding CyberHeroes Arena DX and spending your time with Vampire Survivors instead. This game isn’t fit to even hold that one’s coat.

If you are looking for a JRPG with a twist, with a brilliant story mixed in, then Meg’s Monster is the one for you.

Bumblebee – Little Bee Adventure fails in delivering a worthwhile and chilled out exploration experience. It’s very similar to EpiXR Games’ other titles, albeit with a plethora of issues which negate any possibility of relaxing.

Arcadia Fallen is a visual novel that captures the camaraderie and derring-do of a D&D campaign with friends. You feel like you are part of a fellowship, and you have just as much choice and input in what happens. And like the best D&D campaigns, you hope the band stays together for one or two adventures more.

Frog Hop is the equivalent of that TV series that only gets good in the second season. You have to show patience, persisting through some rocky levels and understanding what the overall vision is.

While we’ll happily cheerlead for Geometric Sniper, we’re also acutely aware that Blood in Paris represents a step down. It only contains half the levels of the original game, and those levels hide behind snipers that are trying to kill you this time. It works for a while, but then you realise the snipers are a distraction.

CATAN - Console Edition is mighty lovely to look at, a CATAN board carved out of finest materials and then comes to life, and the game itself has lost none of its charm. You can play in any permutation you can think of, with local players, online players and CPU bots all waiting to stiff you on lumber.

If you don’t have many other kart games on the Xbox, and your kids love the charms of Gigantosaurus, then don’t hesitate: this is a no-brainer. If that doesn’t describe you, however, then you might want to be more wary. Gigantosaurus: Dino Kart is a fine racer, but not a great one.

A title with so much potential, Blood Bowl 3 fumbles the ball in the final minute.

A game that does what it needs to do pretty well, Rise of Fox Hero is a good old-fashioned platformer; bright and cheerful, with a good amount of levels and challenge.

Dogurai is an interesting game, purely from it being a throwback to the games of yesteryear. But it’s not a great fit on Xbox, with the short and sweet levels possibly more suited to something like a Nintendo Switch. Still, if you want to take a trip back in time, Dogurai may be for you.

Looking for Aliens has a real quirkiness to it, one that the hidden object gameplay lends itself to rather well. You can get fully absorbed in the landscapes and explore them completely, as you search for the items required.

WILD HEARTS is one for both fresh faces and hardened veterans, and should be seen as the first legitimate threat to Monster Hunter’s unopposed reign at the top.

In all, you’ll find much enjoyment from Grim Guardians: Demon Purge. It is capable of delivering fast and furious combat, teamed with careful exploration. The strong Castlevania vibes running through it help matters. In fact, Grim Guardians: Demon Purge looks great and plays well, ensuring it can be recommended to anyone with even the slightest bit of interest.

An easy game to recommend for fans of Ghostbusters that are looking for a chill ghostbusting experience, Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed is less likely to appeal to single players; the fun dries up pretty quickly as repetition kicks in.

ExitMan Deluxe is a perfectly adequate game for its low asking price. When it works, it’s a fun, reaction based game that’ll stir your competitive spirit and keep you entertained for a fair few hours. When it doesn’t, it’s a frustrating experience that’ll make you grit your teeth - and not in the “I’m concentrating” way that most competitive game players can attest to.

The Pathless is a pretty great experience that will have you engrossed across its six hours or so running time. It provides a lovely world to explore, some great fresh mechanics to master and some nice puzzle elements to complement the gameplay. It does feel a bit overwhelming at times and the boss battles can feel a bit of a trudge, but in all this is a lovely little indie game.

Silly long name aside, Puzzle Bobble 2X/BUST-A-MOVE 2 Arcade Edition & Puzzle Bobble 3/BUST-A-MOVE 3 S-Tribute is a very good port of a franchise from decades gone by.

What we have in Risen is a game from 2009, in all its faded glory, released unchanged onto modern machines. It looks rubbish and it plays very poorly in the combat stakes, but yet, there is something about the world that will keep you trying. There is a solid hook, an urge to see what is on the other side of the swamp, or the town, that keeps you going even when you swear you are done.

Broken Lines is a pretty interesting proposition. It isn’t the best looking game ever, but the way it plays is challenging and rewarding; getting out of a level with no one dead will feel like an achievement. If you like a tactical game, I recommend you give it a try. Just watch out for that permadeath!

Dead Space is a remake done right. It builds on what the original game did well, delivering in terms of tension and environment, adding new layers as it goes. Should you be a fan of what the franchise did in the past, or are just looking to have your spine tingled, I would suggest you give Dead Space a go. And use headphones, yeah?

If you’re in a mood for a cheapo indie that absolutely runs away with its single mechanic, then Dark Burial: Enhanced Edition may be enough. But be prepared for the crossbow aiming to make you, well, cross.

If Legendary Heroes was a fun, dynamic MOBA, all of the grindy free-to-play balancing and legacy systems might have been forgivable. But it really isn’t. It feels like a hangover from twenty-year old PC RPGs, and it’s an anachronism that hasn’t even been ported properly.

Repentant is not a family-friendly romp, and is a large step away from your traditional LucasArts-style adventure. Play it after Return to Monkey Island and feel the whiplash.

If you fancy a journey into the recesses of the mind, where nothing happens the way you expect it to, then treat yourself to Figment: Journey Into the Mind. It’ll seep into your dreams.

Debtor: Enhanced Edition may not have been on your radar, but perhaps it should be. It’s an unfussy, well-made little puzzle-platformer that is in debt to other games (ha!), but is made with care by people who know they’re way around creating a level.

Games are glorious things, because there’s an audience for pretty much everything. But we honestly don’t know if there is one for ReactorX 2. It’s so stupendously and wilfully challenge-less, that we can’t see the wood for the ease.

Metal Black S-Tribute is a horizontal shooter made with an anything-goes mentality. Playing it is like eating those Harry Potter jelly beans: sometimes you get strawberry-cream, other times it’s earwax. But the experience is so enjoyable that the odd bit of earwax becomes manageable.

Prizma Puzzle Prime does a lot of things right. The levels are nicely judged, getting incrementally harder, and the way the mechanics work is good fun as well. As it is though, with a nine minute 100% completion time if you're only worried about achievements, I’m afraid a lot of people will use this as a cheap way to pad their Gamerscore totals and not play it to conclusion. That is a shame.

A fun entry into the party games market, with the main selling point being the metal soundtrack and head banging action. Give EleMetals a try if you have a few friends around the place. Just be aware that this is a harder sell to solo players.

Speedway Racing is a grim and joyless drive. It plops itself in the middle of arcade and simulation, but takes the worst from both worlds: it takes the punishing, exacting controls from a sim, and the shallowness of an arcade game.

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition brings a true classic back for a new generation. Whether you are a die hard strategy fan or first time invader, there is no better place to start.

OddBallers has a fun and quirky side to it, and much like dodgeball, it doesn’t take itself too seriously. But this is a game that cannot survive on AI opponents and custom lobbies alone. There is one small change needed to help propel OddBallers into the next great online party game, and that’s to go free-to-play.

You can’t argue with the price of Touchdown Pinball, but it very much feels like a case of getting what you pay for. There is no multiplayer, there are no bells nor whistles, and even the basics of a pinball game don’t feel right. There is very little to recommend here, aside from some easy Xbox Gamerscore.

Pocket Witch falters, as it comes to the table and empties its pockets; only a single, dull coin with ‘Difficulty’ stamped on tumbles out. If you like your platforming fiendish then pull on a witch’s hat and go for it. But if you’re looking for anything else - newness, fun, a sense of reward - then Pocket Witch can’t offer it.

Project SNAQE might be priced low enough to allow you to overlook the drawbacks, but those wishing to rekindle the old Snake flame should be aware that things soon begin to burn out.

Wanted: Dead doesn’t give a damn what you think. It throws ideas at you left, right and centre, with reckless abandon. Luckily, most of them stick to form this weird and wonderful video game.

You have to salute the ambition of The Dark Side of the Moon: An Interactive FMV Thriller. It’s a conspiracy thriller that goes to the moon and back, delivering world-ending stakes with a budget that probably only stretched to a box of Yorkshire Tea. But for all its adorable ricketyness and hammy acting, the sticky-backed plastic does eventually come apart.

View it as a high concept rom-com, or buy into the earnest and endearing attempts to bring modern dating to your living room, and Ten Dates might become more than your new best friend. We fell in and out of love with its scrappy cast, and would happily live in a world where we get these once every couple of years.

The Experiment: Escape Room does its damnedest to strip out all of those joys. You’re not going to enjoy an escape room if you can barely see it, and you’re not going to feel the satisfaction of completing a puzzle if you are forced to use a guide. The Experiment: Escape Room is that murky, and that obscure.

Escape 2088 feels like it was created by that Jigsaw guy from the Saw series. And it’s not even the most arduous escape room in the OnSkull series. Painful to control, unhelpful in the extreme, and stacked with puzzles that make only the loosest sense, this feels like the most punishing boot camp for escape room fans.

Peachy Boy is one of those games that should come with a warning for achievement hunters. Yes, you will get 1000 Gamerscore for three minutes of your time. But consider, for a moment, sticking around for a little longer. Because Peachy Boy is a puzzle-platforming treat; just as sweet and disposable as the name implies.

Manipulating jigsaw pieces with a game controller in hand has always been a problem for game designers, and Alice in Wonderland - A Jigsaw Puzzle Tale not only fumbles that issue, but adds in a few of its own.

Sword and Fairy: Together Forever conjures up a magical, mythical RPG that puts onus on storytelling before anything else, played out with awesome cutscenes. If only the translations were better, then the narrative wouldn’t be as difficult to follow and you wouldn’t miss out on anything.

Don’t go sleeping on the Puzzle by Nikoli W series. Very quietly, and in increments, they have been producing better and better puzzle compendiums for your big black box. In Puzzle by Nikoli W Hashiwokakero, they have produced one of their best.

Move on through the opening hours of confusion and occasionally inaccurate controls and you'll find loads to love about Atrio: The Dark Wild. It can be funny, it can be tense, it can be easy and it can be complex.