Real Heroes: Firefighter HD will not appeal to everyone, but it’s unique and actually quite bold in its vision, managing to make a highly engaging and enjoyable game out of a concept that could have been a complete dud.

No qualms about it: we are glad we played Paratopic. And while we might apologise in advance for recommending this horrifying little distraction, you should play it too.

The very similar Addams’ Family: Mansion Madness is leagues ahead of Hotel Transylvania: Scary-Tale Adventures, and brings the fun and laughs for four players. In the family-friendly horror stakes, there’s only one winner.

If the idea of a meditative, borderline ASMR puzzle about cats tickles you, then pick up Hidden Shapes: Animals + Lovely Cats.

Zero Escape: The Nonary Games is like a mix between a Telltale game and an old school point and clicker, taking the best from both of those genres. It’s something very different and worth trying.

Glam’s Incredible Run: Escape from Dukha is a fundamentally flawed game which offers something for the platforming sadists out there, but not enough to recommend it to everyone else.

If future Judgment games involve Kaito as the primary protagonist, he is off to an excellent start in Lost Judgment: The Kaito Files. His past is explored in customary fashion and he passes with flying colours.

Boreal Tenebrae may not be for everyone however if you are a fan of the unknown or love to be transported to worlds completely original, this is worthy of a place in your library. It is one of the most unique and oddly compelling titles that has been released in recent times.

Sally Face is an excellent piece of creative work, especially in terms of story and visuals. It is truly original and takes you on an amazing journey over its five chapters.

We didn’t realise how much we’d missed the episodic story framework of a Telltale game, and Road 96 – while not being from Telltale – is a long-lost cousin to it.

Radioactive Dwarfs: Evil From the Sewers is nowhere near as much fun as it purports to be. We were hoping for a Toxic Avenger-style romp through B-movie levels, but it doesn’t have the smarts or the gameplay to pull that off.

Despite being fun and varied, the mechanics are clunky and the AI is more of a hindrance than a help.

Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is a great addition to the Borderlands universe. The characters and story are great, the presentation is bang on, and the combat is as good as ever.

Super Cyborg is one of those games that will draw you in, as you test yourself with one more try, again and again. The sense of accomplishment you receive from completing a stage certainly makes it worth it.

Replica is a game that will have you intrigued, especially in terms of its concept and writing.

There is an almighty caveat to purchasing A Sketchbook About Her Sun. It is a thirty minute-long music video to an album. The interactions that it offers - and there are only a few - all detract from the experience. But arrive with that knowledge, perhaps as a fan of the band Red Ribbon or a prospective fan, and you may consider it £4.19 well-spent.

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga oozes the feel good factor. It’s a comprehensively charming and loving tribute to the source material that also happens to be the biggest and best LEGO game to date.

Taqoban is certainly one of Ratalaika Games’ stronger releases. It’s a great little puzzler, with the simple, easy-to-grasp mechanics allowing for levels that offer a challenge to even the most adept box pusher.

Z-Warp is pretty much a cookie cutter type of shoot ‘em up with a couple of features that make it stand out.

The best things about Inukari - Chase of Deception are the visuals and the music. Each world comes with audio tailored to the environment, catchy enough that it never gets redundant. If only the rest of the game would’ve seen the same care.

Crusader Kings III is a must-have, and whilst newcomers may initially be overwhelmed, it’s most certainly one to try. Maybe, just maybe, this will pave the way for a console version of Age of Empires.

Richy’s Nightmares is, appropriately, a nightmare. We challenge you to master or even enjoy its scrappy jumping. The physics, bugs and laggy leaping make this less a limbo, and more a straight-up platforming hell.

If you are a fan of roguelites, deck builders, Arthurian mythology or just love the kind of games and films that leave you feeling a little bit soiled when you’re done, you could do far worse than checking Tainted Grail: Conquest out.

We enjoyed Slipstream, we really did. There’s a pure exhilaration in its speed and the way that we barely kept our tyres on the road as we drifted round a hard corner. But that feeling didn’t last for long.

Phantom Breaker: Omnia is a technically deep, good looking fighting game, but it is ultimately hamstrung by a lack of polish.

Willy Morgan and the Curse of Bone Town won’t have anyone running about, cheering the return of the point-and-click adventure. Its ambitions are nowhere near that high. Set your expectations to ‘LucasArts homage that feels good to play on console’, though, and there is fun to be found.

The action is dull, and while the monsters are nice, you never really feel like you are in any danger; as such the horror part of Ikai falls flat.

Trivial Pursuit Live! 2 is a solid and enjoyable party game that can be played by friends and family at home, against the AI, or online with strangers.

Dawn of the Monsters is an altogether great offering for fans of the beat ‘em up genre, as the combat, the upgrades and the graphics all come together in one beautiful package.

There’s a lot to like about Kombinera. Yes, it can be a hugely frustrating game, but like the very finest puzzlers, the moments in which things just click and you fully understand what is needed for a level completion are right up there with some of the most joyful moments in gaming.

The sheer act of solving puzzles with a laptop and notebook on the table, sifting through the detritus of the internet, just feels so unusual and enjoyably deductive. My Googling skills came on leaps and bounds, as I mastered the art of Google Image Search, and my understanding of ancient civilisations has received a boost too. These aren’t common things to say about games, and Chinatown Detective Agency is such an unusual, refreshing experience that – some minor frustrations aside – we cannot hesitate to recommend.

Stranger may not have the utter appeal of an Abe title, and he might feel a bit rough in places, but the basic premise and ideas of Stranger’s Wrath HD are so great that the old school elements can be somewhat overlooked.

Much like the paradox a title like Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin conjures on both sides of the colon, the game itself appears to be of two halves competing against each other.

Aery - Calm Mind 2 represents a huge leap forward for the series, and it’s the moment when a calm-but-often-frustrating game loses the ‘but-often-frustrating’ caveat.

You should play Hundred Bullets, but beware of the difficulty spike, it’ll sneak up on you.

If you have love for old Sierra adventures, you will likely have the required patience and affection to enjoy Quest For Infamy. It’s the longest, most lavish love letter to that period that you are likely to find. If you don’t, however, there are just too many usability hurdles to enjoying Quest For Infamy.

It gets a solid B for being charming, quirky and a fine way to wile away six hours or so. We never regretted enrolling into the Kraken Academy!!, we just felt that it had the potential to be an A+ student.

Despite the gameplay not being quite as deep as you may expect, Disciples: Liberation offers up an attractive, if limited, world which is exciting to explore.

With a guide, Catie in MeowmeowLand might hit a sweet spot: some satisfying poking around with a safety net for the overly weird stuff. But if you want to embark on this without that net, then prepare yourself for some moments of aimless point-and-clicking.

If you were born to lead at breakneck speed, you should give Monster Energy Supercross - The Official Videogame 5 a try.

The Pizza Delivery Boy Who Saved the World is a short experience, but it’s very original, a bit bonkers and a lot of fun. It’s likely to be one of those that will have a Marmite effect - you are going to either love or hate the story.

It is as you were for GTA Online. If you haven’t picked up the behemoth that is Grand Theft Auto V by now - or indeed have no interest - then there will not be anything new here to convince you.

Thea 2: The Shattering is the equivalent of a TV series that only gets good in its third season, which is a lot to ask of a player.

Agent Intercept is certainly a fun enough action racer that doesn’t outstay its welcome, but in this instance, it really should have stuck around a bit longer.

If you don’t mind a slow-burner and a lot of reading, Vengeful Heart is a good cyberpunk styled tale with social and political themes at the heart of it.

Whether you will enjoy your time with Wife Quest boils down to two things - whether or not you like retro styled platformers, and if you’re up for a tough challenge. If the answer to both of these questions is yes, then you could do a lot worse than to take Wife Quest out for a spin.

Box Dash feels about as enjoyable and fluid to control as an actual cardboard box.

Paradise Killer is an extraordinary piece of work; one that the developers have made highly unique, while paying homage to games from years gone by.

Legend of Ixtona works pretty well. The usual KEMCO control issues are here and the explanation of what to do is somewhat lacking, but despite this it is a fun game to play.

If you love the mythological setting, sweet new armour sets and ability to turn into a bird, then Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök may be one of the best expansions in the series.

Century: Age of Ashes is an undeniably fun time. From the gorgeous graphics to the fun gameplay to the decently fair monetization, there is a lot to love here.

Despite being short, linear and fairly simple, Frightence does a good job of throwing you into the centre of a horror experience.

Wordbreaker by POWGI isn’t just a solid Wordle clone, it is also one of the best POWGI games out on Xbox.

If you’re looking for easy Gamerscore, it may be worth looking into this one. But for those looking for a great precision platformer, Explosive Candy World is just okay. There are much better options on the market.

There is clear potential for Gem Wizards Tactics. It could easily be a good game, but at the moment it is just nothing more than decent.

Royal Frontier feels like a demo for a better game. That’s not because Royal Frontier is short or light on content, but because it’s a roguelike that only needs three or four runs until it becomes a walk in the park.

The best way to describe Darkland II is that it’s the platforming equivalent of writing lines in detention.

A few graphical and menu based issues aside, Farm Manager 2022 is a solid game that I’d be happy to recommend to anyone looking for a bit of an escape from the real world, or anyone interested in a simulator offering layers upon layers of customization.

We’d use one word to sum up TUNIC: delightful. Few games will make you feel so skillful and clever, and fewer still will have the ability to slap a grin on your face.

Ultimately, Light Up the Room takes a potentially infuriating premise - platforming in the dark - and finds a way to make it work.

You could viably use Ground War: Tank Battle as a form of torture. Whisper “120 levels of tank-battling action” in our ear and we’ll spasm to the floor, the trauma of multiple hours with it still fresh in our memory.

A Memoir Blue isn’t prime Annapurna Interactive: we liked, but didn’t fall in love. But a mixed-media take on the love between a mother and daughter is wholly endearing, and there isn’t a barb or rough edge in its simplistic gameplay.

Pixelcraft Dungeon is well-made but basic - the MDF board of puzzle-adventuring. The £1.29 cost might even begin to look like a wise investment. But the construction collapses in the last ten levels, as the bugs make everything unstable.

What surprises most is, while it’s an extremely solid fighter, Young Souls might be better as a dungeon crawler. By layering on multiple ways of progressing your two characters, and giving you a map that begs to be explored, it silently attaches a chain to you and reveals that - ta-dah - it has you now.

Crank the difficulty up, try to get invested in the story, be aware that the game is very short, and you will probably have a good time; just don’t go in expecting Carnage in Space: Ignition to rival a game five times its price.

At times Curious Expedition 2 feels like a storytelling generator, an algorithm for creating wacky combinations of moments. That’s absolutely the recommendation that it sounds like.

Snowland Adventure gets points for trying. It’s better than the average sub-£1 game on the Xbox Store, in that it’s colourful and knows its way around a puzzle. But it mostly gets melted away by bugs and a runtime that wouldn’t get you through an episode of Ice Road Truckers.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is Mini Hockey Battle. It takes all the accumulated years of history, rules and charm of ice hockey, and consolidates it into a game of piggy-in-the-middle. Wayne Gretzky, you did it all wrong.

The Witch Queen expansion for Destiny 2 on Xbox Series X is one of the better ones that Bungie has produced.

Shredders does everything in its power to make you feel cool, it pays homage to the glorious sport of snowboarding and does wonders to try and welcome newcomers as well.

Our relationship with Splash Cars is indeed complicated. It’s largely a case of what could have been. This is a fantastic car to drive, a real joy to play around in. But it’s been stuck on some restrictive and repetitive circuits.

Dungeon Color is fine if a bit timid. It’s overly afraid that players will get stuck, so it takes measures that are way too extreme: it strips out anything that might resemble challenge or interest for the first two-thirds of the game.

Dr. Oil misses the mark in regards the core concept of what makes a platformer fun - a feeling of accomplishment for overcoming a challenge through skill.

WWE 2K22 hits different. It hits way better than the last outing and only the game modes really hold it back from being considered a main event masterpiece. If you love wrestling, you should contemplate stepping into the squared circle with WWE 2K22.

What was once the standard-bearer for open-worlds has been overshadowed in the near decade since its first release. Grand Theft Auto V still holds up really well, but playing it now does feel like stepping into a time machine, such is the way that real-world and video game development has changed in the years since.

Who Pressed Mute on Uncle Marcus? is another Wales Interactive FMV game that is hugely enjoyable, especially in the way they have worked with the constraints of filming, inspired by it to give the situation the characters are in some form of context.

The Wanderer: Frankenstein’s Creature has done pretty well on the awards front elsewhere, receiving critical acclaim when it released on other formats. It’s easy to see why too - I’ve loved what has been created here and the integration of the Mary Shelly Frankenstein story has been an inspired choice.

Megaquarium: Freshwater Frenzy is able to deliver more of the same. This is a great and underrated sim management game, now with a new injection of fresh content for players to enjoy.

If you are looking for a well thought out, challenging action platformer, Gunborg: Dark Matters has got all the ingredients needed to make it a success.

If you are the sort of person who enjoys banging their head on a desk for hours, you may get a little bit of enjoyment from El Gancho. For the rest of us, the slightly shoddy look, poor mechanics and dodgy controls consign this to the “Must not play” pile of games from history.

There’s more than meets the eye in The Last Cube. It may be unassuming, but it’s smart, deep and totally engrossing.

Pinball FX3 usually does a stellar job of recreating physical tables in their world and the Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventures table is no exception; faithfully done with the majority of additions subtly improving it. But the price point is a major sticking point, as is the number of tables included.

In the past few months, we’ve experienced a traffic jam of top-down racers. And right at the back, way behind the rest of them, is Retro Pixel Racers. It offers no excuses: it flicks the bird as it passes, with no multiplayer, no game modes, no track variation and a top-speed just north of a shopping trolley.

As a narrative, Sense: A Cyberpunk Ghost Story is enough to keep you cuddling a night-light before you go to sleep. As a game, it’s an exercise in going through the motions.

A strong indication of whether I’ve liked a visual novel is whether I am eager to actually see what happened on those different branches. But I had none of that urge with Synergia: A Cyberpunk Thriller Visual Novel.

It has colour, it has style, but Moto Roader MC also has some of the most erratic, bumper-car racing that you’re likely to experience.

Time Loader is a good story-driven platforming adventure that does interesting things involving time travel and creates a very likeable robot.

Submerged: Hidden Depths nails its core aim. It’s an experience that plays more along the lines of an interactive art exhibit instead of a traditional game. That may not appeal to everyone, but it’s a slice of tranquillity we could all benefit from.

If you fancy a budget Legend of Zelda that gently warms up your muscles, then Mages and Treasures has all the charm and unlockables that you could possibly want.

Aztech Forgotten Gods is not a perfect game. There’s a lack of entertaining side-content. There’s no voice talent. It’s relatively short. But does that mean you should avoid it? No. Because it largely delivers with its story and its core gameplay - the two most important elements of any good video game.

Clouzy is the Animal Crossing pet-raising spin off that never happened. A hidden gem that I can wholeheartedly recommend for any parents out there.

Tux and Fanny is an experience like no other; it’s utterly bizarre, completely bonkers, and genuinely funny. Best of all, behind the madness is a functional and well thought-out point and click adventure to hold things together for at least a few hours.

The Mooseman is too quick to sideline its own gameplay, and we would have welcomed it all having equal focus.

The neon-clad battle for survival between an adorable snail and a killer AI gives Will You Snail something of a distinctive feel. However, ultimately, you will need to be a talented, patient platformer fan to get the most from it.

Choice of Life: Middle Ages takes the popular medium of those Choose Your Own Adventure books and applies this to a videogame. And a bare bones videogame at that, stripping away most of the good stuff and just leaving a procession of decisions to make in quick succession.

Music Racer: Ultimate is a decent effort at a rhythm game, but it simply lacks too much in the meaningful gameplay category to warrant a recommendation.

The core driving experience found in Super Toy Cars Offroad is fun. It’s fast and hectic, the majority of races will keep you engaged and you will really have to prove yourself to be first across that finish line.

If you’ve had an increasing feeling that gaming is in a bit of a rut, that the same old ideas are percolating downwards, then play What Lies in the Multiverse.