With TEN - Ten Rooms, Ten Seconds **you know exactly what you’re getting - a fast paced platformer that puts your reflexes to the test. It’s an enjoyable, no frills ride while it lasts.

Pac-Man Museum+ is not the compilation that Pac-Man deserves, but in all honesty, that doesn’t come as too much of a surprise.

By keeping things simple while simultaneously adding depth, Zombo Buster Advance leapfrogs the original with plenty of air between them.

QUByte Classics - Jim Power: The Lost Dimension Collection by PIKO is a collection to miss, then, and we hope QUByte’s noble intention to preserve older classics finds some worthier targets.

Barn Finders is completely different in concept and ambition to any other game, and it's pretty addictive as you go on the hunt for treasure.

With more confidence in the world it has created, letting you explore and reveal it at a more relaxed pace, it might have been a winner. As it stands, Umurangi Generation Special Edition is stylish, but with an aftertaste of pain.

The team over at Tribute Games have created an absolute masterpiece of an arcade title in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge; one that floats somewhere between tribute (pun intended) and modern sequel to the classic TMNT arcade titles.

True Fear: Tormented Souls Part 2 is a horror page turner that you should dip into, just as soon as you’ve finished the first one.

Simple enough to grasp within seconds, complex enough to have you playing for hours on end. Freshly Frosted is a delicious delight.

Many may be frustrated by the average gameplay and - at times - bog-standard combat offerings that are found in Industria. However, I found the narrative, the ambition of the game, and the sense of wonder and place all very intriguing; at times, melancholic.

Moo Lander has a unique theme and a certain charm about it, but the thinly stretched ideas mean it doesn’t take too long for this one to turn a little sour.

Spacewing War is a fun trip down memory lane, especially for those of us old enough to remember these type of games from the first time around.

Dandy & Randy DX is like Grandma’s cooking. You’ve tasted it time and time again over the years, and it doesn’t feel like it’s changed, but it tastes so good.

It’s too sterile and slow for us to wave it over our heads and tell everyone to download it, but those of us with a geeky love for card games and space research will find a diverting hour or two orbiting around To the Moon and Beyond.

Super Perils of Baking nails its theme, but a few small nuggets aren’t enough to prevent it feeling like a run of the mill platformer. Achievement hunters and completionists will benefit the most from this one.

What Underland: The Climb amounts to is a significant leap on from the original, with controls puzzles and usability all given a shot in the arm.

You’ll have a good time with Will Die Alone, at least for a couple of hours. It has a great original premise, a wonderful core idea, and a neat narrative with some different endings to find.

Endzone - A World Apart: Survivor Edition is a fantastic addition to the Xbox lineup. It could use a little more optimization and there are a couple small bugs that need to be squashed, but it is an easy game to sink tons of hours into.

Word Wheel by POWGI is still just a fancy way of working through some wordplay, and that will either appeal or not, but for us this Word Wheel rolls along very nicely indeed.

Silt is a stunner. It’s not quite able to deliver the same type of immersion that was honed by the Playdead team and their adventure telling, but it really isn’t too far off. This is an underwater playground that is full of mystery and aside from a few little technical issues, is one that fans of visual-led stories should lap up.

Flower Shop: Summer in Fairbrook isn’t one of Ratalaika’s finest visual novels. It tries to marry a farming sim to a dating sim, and leaves both sides half-grown.

If you’re in the mood for some twin-sticking and have cash burning a hole in your camo trousers, then HellGunners will do a dumb job.

You may want to switch Injection π23 ‘Ars regia’ off, the lack of direction is a tad annoying and the nostalgic world on offer may feel a bit of a turn-off. But carry on playing through and you’ll realise that the hooks grab you, taking you into a game that is engaging and intriguing throughout.

Sniper Elite 5 is a triumph. The campaign is great, Survival is brilliant fun and Axis Invasion gives an insight into how other players think. PvP sits in the mix like a wasp’s nest at a picnic, generally being unpleasant and spoiling things, but ignore that and this is a quality title that demands to be played.

Outright Games should know better than releasing this Shetland pony-sized game

Swords & Bones has some good ideas, but the execution needs some work and maybe a touch of polish.

Those looking for an original story-based, fully realised, world with loads of vampires should get playing Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong.

Hunt Ducks II is Duck Hunt. It’s Duck Hunt to the point of a cease-and-desist.

Metal Tales: Overkill makes a decent fist of being a good game. The various layouts and bosses you face, along with the decent amount of items and weapons to find, makes each run unique.

Evil Dead: The Game feels like a missed opportunity from Saber Interactive, which is disappointing after the excellent World War Z.

The second season of the Atari Recharged series is off to a flyer with Gravitar: Recharged. Whilst it wouldn’t have been top of the reboot list for many, due to it not being as popular as others, it certainly has the ability to win over new fans.

Anyone who has a hole in their life where a new Spyro, Banjo or Jak should have been will find plenty to love here with Kao the Kangaroo.

Like the original, Arcade Spirits: The New Challengers is a long, protracted visual-novel cuddle with some extremely endearing characters

Slap the Rocks feels like a case of squandered potential. Thirty levels should have been more than enough to experiment with some interesting mechanics and offer up some truly challenging puzzles. Instead, we have a game that is overly repetitive, overly simplistic and much too short.

Dolmen doesn’t do itself any favours. It lacks soul and stimulating combat, and there’s a whopping great cavity where they should be.

Floppy Knights has the same nagging demand to play that Advance Wars has: to satisfy a sub-objective, to progress the campaign, to unlock a particular unit.

Behind Closed Doors feels like a rushed first draft. A great deal of it needs tightening up, redrafting, and playtesting for it to feel worth the playtime.

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe doesn’t disappoint and you will enjoy all the new content included! It is buckets of fun.

Infinite Links does what you want a JRPG to do - it tells a good story, has relatable characters to enjoy and evil baddies to batter, distracting you from your day to day life.

I have been torn when playing Source of Madness. It is built out with some very solid mechanics for the progression and combat, but the poor enemy variety and AI, coupled with overbearing visuals, ensures it is very hard to enjoy those mechanics.

It’s testament to the game that LIT: Bend the Light feels less like a puzzler and more like a reflection simulator at times; the lighting feels real and reacts as you would expect.

Research and Destroy feels like a refreshing change of pace thanks to its blend of turn based strategy and real time action. However, you’ll need to play with others to get the best from it.

We’d have taken more interaction in Divination - greater control over the fortune telling, perhaps - and we’d have taken way, way more content, but we didn’t regret playing it.

In porting Dog’s Donuts to the Xbox, the joy has ebbed out. It needs precision and multiple buttons, which the controller simply can’t offer.

Floppy Knights has the same nagging demand to play that Advance Wars has: to satisfy a sub-objective, to progress the campaign, to unlock a particular unit. Even as we write now, we have the urge to get floppy with Floppy Knights. If you’ve got a turn-based bone in your body, we’d encourage you to do the same.

Aery - A New Frontier takes a punt at huge, sweeping science-fiction storytelling and misses.

Cyber Pool excels in the table types, but fails with inconsistent gameplay and dodgy hit detection.

You’ll enjoy your time with Best Month Ever! and the three or four hours of running time it is able to provide. It’s a narrative adventure with not very challenging gameplay, but it does tell an interesting and unique story from a different era, helped along by some intriguing characters and sub-stories.

Nothing in Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising’s gameplay mechanics truly stand out when compared to other similar titles in an already oversaturated genre.

If you love Chernobylite and can’t get enough of it, or are interested in giving it a go for the first time, the Xbox Series X|S version is a worthwhile purchase.

It feels like Loot River has difficulty in committing to the type of game it wants to be. For a roguelike, the runs feel too short, with too much blocked off. For a roguelite, the run-to-run progression is too lacking to be engaging.

Ganryu 2 is a very solid game - a throwback to a time when games were hard with no apology; if you aren’t up to the task, you don't progress.

Perhaps it's a little short, and maybe the combat is a little one dimensional, but Trek To Yomi is a game that stands out from the crowd

We want to give Chefy-Chef a hug. It is far tighter, more imaginative and endlessly more fun than we expected.

It’s hard to make a case for the goofy but messy RICO London. It only has one trick - breaching and clearing rooms in glorious slow motion - and while that trick is fun, it’s not enough to hold up this mid-budget FPS roguelike.

If you're after a mindless blast through space and fancy hearing the constant ping of achievements as you go, the low asking price of X-Force Genesis is probably going to be enough to tempt you in. Don't expect anything resembling a decent shoot 'em up experience though.

Blast Brigade Vs the Evil Legion of Dr. Cread has plenty of hidden depths, despite the fact the journey is something of a bumpy one. If you can see past the occasional gripe, there’s an engaging adventure here that is difficult to put down.

Aside from Hatsune Miku Logic Paint S, the Xbox is pretty barren when it comes to picross and nonogram puzzles. This only really leaves PictoQuest. Just as well then that it is a pretty good picross game.

If you want a mental or physical workout, Catana is more like a fidget spinner: it might keep you occupied, but you’re not going to feel any better, or more tested, for playing it.

Reed Remastered is fine but flavourless, an aggressively average platformer that doesn’t care for ideas, memorable moments or reasons to return.

If you are looking for a hard, side-scrolling slash ‘em up then you’ll probably be best off with Ghosts ‘n Goblins Resurrection. If you must mix that with a cyberpunk flavour, then Whisper Trip is okay for a short blast, but extended play will show more than a few weaknesses.

NeonLore can be summarised as an open-world RPG with everything stripped out except the background NPCs. It’s about as interesting as it sounds.

There is a lot to love in The Serpent Rogue - especially when you get into the groove - and you’ll hugely enjoy the chance to explore the world given.

Is MLB The Show 22 for everybody? No. Is MLB The Show 22 going to please fans of baseball? Absolutely.

Whiskey & Zombies is a good multiplayer party game ruined by the addition of a weird design decision.

The New Neighbears DLC for Cozy Grove underlines just why this superb sibling to Animal Crossing is such a 4.5 out 5 game. Grab the Spirit Scout uniform, and start collecting some new badges.

Deck of Ashes: Complete Edition feels like a sub-par card game. It’s a deckbuilder with the fun sucked out of it.

Liberated: Enhanced Edition is an amazingly stylish and beautiful production, well created with Sin City vibes.

Legal Dungeon is an unusual and unique game, one that you may not think you’ll enjoy. But it does manage to hook you in, as you get involved in each case.

The House of the Dead: Remake stays faithful to its roots and is an incredible upgrade visually compared to the original version.

Rogue Legacy 2 is a fun game that incentivises variety. The different character traits can come together and make truly unique runs that don’t feel repetitive.

Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion is a cutesy adventure game that has a great sense of humor and some simple gameplay mechanics.

Devastator is going to be for those who want to grab that old arcade feeling; gamers who want a quick and easy game to just pick up and play.

RiffTrax: The Game is one to bring out in the holiday season with the family, or after a night out drinking with friends - something which will make the whole experience even more hilarious.

Imp of the Sun's puzzles will satisfy you, and by the end of the game it sticks in memory not because of its weak points, but because of the strong puzzling and platforming.

The Wingspan: European Expansion DLC isn’t a particularly disruptive flock of birds. It doesn’t add new ways to play, or send you spiralling off, trying out wildly different tactics. But in the area that matters - the birds - it delivers. They look great, sound authentic, and offer plenty of ways to tinker with your approach.

If you have a love for old arcade games, or like the occasional test of your reflexes, then Mokoko X over-delivers.

Battle Kid looks, sounds and plays like something straight out of the 1980s, and I’d encourage anyone to check it out. The Fortress of Peril is waiting...

The work that has gone into the Weird West world and the characters that frequent it is impressive. Yes the grind is real, but it is a rewarding experience when it all comes together.

Outbreak: Contagious Memories is a love letter to a game that will be stamped “return to sender”. It takes the memory of great games from the past and drops on them from a great height.

Conan Chop Chop comes alive in multiplayer whilst the single player feels like a bit of a slog; almost too hard for its own good.

For the most part Tropico 6 - Next Gen Edition is worth it if you’ve enjoyed any of the previous Tropico games and would like to try the new one for the first time, or if you just couldn’t quite fit enough golden statues of yourself on your island without causing the game to lag.

orbit.industries is a game that will appeal to the control freaks out there. You can take charge and amend every little bit of life aboard your station; keeping people happy and efficient is quite involving on its own.

Godfall is worth playing. It’s an action-RPG looter that focuses almost all of its efforts on the fruits of its combat flow, which leaves the story, loot and level-variety shrivelled on the branch.

Citizen Sleeper is a rather niche game. The gameplay itself is minimal, but there is a massive amount of storytelling to be taken in.

Anuchard is a solid adventure which should keep most invested until the end. Despite some balance issues, there’s no getting away from the fact that all the components are here for an engaging and enjoyable experience.

We have no doubt that there is a whip-smart puzzle game in BouncyBoi in Puzzle Land, but the muddled presentation never made us feel good about playing it.

Ayo the Clown is more substantial than you might have expected. This is one for players still holding onto a love for Donkey Kong Country and Yoshi’s Island games.

Even though you’ll only spend a short amount of time with The Sorrowvirus - A Faceless Short Story, it’s one that you’ll enjoy.

Thunder Kid: Hunt for the Robot Emperor has little more than a gimmick to offer, and even this has a very limited appeal.

There is a bonsai farming game in Bit Orchard: Animal Valley. It’s just as cute, bite-size and satisfying as you’d hope it would be. But, by golly, do you have to work for it.

Happi Basudei is phenomenally atrocious, a water-cooler joke between developers that somehow wound up on the Xbox Store, miraculously dodging anything that might resemble quality control.

Ryan’s Rescue Squad is a remarkably solid, well-made and confident little platformer, and you can feel reassurance that there are no bugs, no infuriations, that will upend the experience for a younger player.

There’s a battle at the centre of Bugsnax. In the red corner is a sweet, satisfying puzzle game, where figuring out how to catch a given bugsnax is the challenge. But in the blue corner is the physics-based sandbox where you have to actually capture them, and that game can’t find the fun.

9 Clues: The Secret of Serpent Creek is only for hidden object completionists, then, or for dabblers who want something a bit darker and seedier from their storylines.

Masked Ninja Action is not a bad game, particularly for the price. But it’s a meagre one, and as each platforming level passed us by, we wondered whether we would have to switch our brain on and actually pay attention.

Flat Kingdom: Paper’s Cut Edition overburdens itself with different mechanics, and the simple, effective platforming ends up being sunk by its ambition.

MotoGP 22 is a brilliant entry in the series that does everything you would expect it to and a bit more.