There’s no argument for spending £1.69 on Dou. You can’t even point to some easy achievements, as it has none. It’s a clinical, charmless little platformer that pokes you in the ribs and demands that you make pixel-perfect jumps without any feeling of reward for doing so.

A general ennui at the sliding puzzle genre shouldn’t really impact Squares - Brain Game 2’s score, but it doesn’t remove the air of familiarity while playing it. If you’re not bored to tears by this type of game and you have a pound rattling around in your wallet, it’s competent enough that we’d encourage you to give it a go.

Cyberpunk 2077 on Xbox Series X|S takes a very good but very familiar shooter RPG system and gameplay, and layers this incredibly designed world over it.

Mekabolt+ is a colourful platformer whose gimmick - a gun that converts its enemies into useful tools - is more than throwaway.

Apart from the summoning issue that is found when attempting to play with others, Elden Ring is a triumph. It looks great, it plays like a dream and it provides a world in which you can spend hours, just wandering about, picking fights.

ELEX II might struggle to find a market when it is put alongside other open-world games, but ultimately there is a lot of good adventuring to be found in this neat RPG.

From Heaven to Earth wants to provide a relaxing zen time - maybe it could have, had the controls been tightened and the frustrating movement made smooth.

It’s hard to deny A Musical Story’s craft. The psychedelic soundtrack and dreamy visuals are independently great. But we’re in the business of reviewing games, and it’s here where it falters. This is a rhythm action game that fails to get you in a rhythm, and its innovations only add to the noise.

35MM is an experience that you’ll be glad to take in, but I'm not sure you’ll be in a hurry to head back for more.

Blackberry Honey is a lot of things, and many of them are contradictory. It’s a Victorian-era visual novel that is uninteractive, sleazy, grim, hopeful, dumb and clever.

Pyramid Quest has to take the fall. It’s a beige little 2D platformer that would have just-about done a job thanks to its well designed levels. But someone neglected to tighten up the control bolts and then made the fatal decision to add in fall damage.

Rugby 22 may be the best presented rugby union game available, but it is still a world away from the upper echelons of sports simulation titles.

Know by heart… can be an incisive, sad and elegant game. It’s got its snow-covered mitts on a fantastic idea, and it knows how to wring it for every last emotional drop. It isn’t necessarily subtle at doing so, and the ending could have offered a little more insight or something unexpected, but it’s effective.

Summing up Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires is tricky. While the fighting action is as spectacular as it ever was, and still remains fun, the management side of things just seems to slow everything down. It feels like a slog and you’ll want for nothing but the next battle. Basically the battles are good, but the rest of Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires is poor.

It is tough to know who to pitch Fluffy Cubed to. Puzzle fanatics and sokoban fans will find this a rather lacklustre attempt, whilst those who prefer a more relaxing gaming experience may be put off by the fact it is a puzzle game. Similarly, feline fans may be taken aback by this cubed moggy.

Enticing Richard Garfield to the Slay the Spire deckbuilder was Roguebook’s first act of brilliance, but many others follow. In the hex-based exploration it’s taken the genre’s dullest moments and made them the most engaging. In the deck-optimisation, it has fully handed the keys to the player and said ‘let’s see what you can make’. The possibilities, as the adage goes, are endless, and it gives Roguebook a truly infinite feel.

Aside from the odd problem and a lack of really new tracks, GRID Legends proves that once again Codemasters know exactly how to make a racer.

Martha is Dead is a brilliant era-based thriller. The headlines will focus on the sections that have been censored by Playstation, but that would be a shame because there is so much more to this game than those moments. Experience Martha is Dead and it will stay with you for some time to come.

Ammo Pigs: Cocked and Loaded is a glitchy mess with little to no incentive to play. Frustrating mechanics with boring gameplay means the final recipe equals a low quality game.

The team who have made S.W.A.N.: Chernobyl Unexplored have managed to create a fascinating bit of original sci-fi, even though it takes us to an area and place in time that we've seen many times before. The story is solid throughout with some nice surprises and shocks galore.

FAR: Changing Tides should very much be seen as a companion piece to FAR: Lost Sails, but it’s able to deliver a gaming experience that contains pretty much everything you could want. It will take you on a journey through a strange abandoned land that is beautiful, accompanied by a brilliant soundtrack and new surprises along the way.

If you’re looking for a roguelite game, or something that is story driven and easy to pick up and get invested in, I highly recommend Dreamscaper.

If you know nothing about Motocross but would like to start getting into the sport, this might be the perfect time to give MXGP 2021 a go. If you’re a grizzled veteran, go crack open a can of Boomer Juice, whack on some Powerman 5000 and rev that engine!

Nostalgic Train paints a beautiful picture. It would just be nice to see it too.

Reviewing Nape Retroverse Collection has felt like running in a really crap marathon. We’re exhausted. None of the four games are good by anyone’s standards, but there’s so much shoddiness crammed into one package that we almost appreciate the effort in producing it.

The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante is most definitely a piece of intelligent game-making; one that deserves all the accolades it gets.

Despite seeming like an alternate version of Pokemon in many ways, Monster Crown isn’t a total imposter. It is still enjoyable in it’s own right, but apart from a handful of original ideas this is largely because the core gameplay has already been tried and tested.

With a full rework, rather than a vanilla re-release, The Humans would have got our grunted approval. But the advances of twenty years of gaming have meant that the flaws of QUByte Classics - The Humans by PIKO are glaring.

CrossfireX is a strange beast which doesn't quite fit together. Odd development decisions and a real lack of ambition result in a barely average experience which pales into insignificance when compared to its competitors and previous developer efforts.

Ziggurat 2 is a really nice surprise; one that is highly recommended for old school Quake fans who have missed that arena-based shooter feel.

The action on offer in The King of Fighters XV is fast, furious, nicely polished and very addictive indeed. Finding a team that suits your playstyle is good fun, building your own team is rewarding, and with a deep and quite accessible fighting system to get to grips with, it’s well worth playing.

Mushroom Wars 2 is a pretty good single player RTS, however if you want to make the most of the multiplayer side of things, you’ll be wanting to drag some friends along for the ride.

True Fear: Forsaken Souls Part 1 is a solid example of a hidden object game. It’s substantial, has plenty to keep your mental cogs whirring, and introduces some ideas that will prick up Artifex Mundi’s ears. And if you were wondering, it’s about as scary as reading the back of a DVD of The Grudge. It’s up to you whether that’s a good thing.

A small indie developer has gathered together a pulsating playlist of forty-five JPop hits and then mapped them to an innovative take on rhythm action. Beat Souls is part endless runner, part Hatsune Miku, and it’s totally slapping.

If you’re looking for a retro-themed space-based twin-stick shooter that works reasonably well, then Guntech 2 is that game. It looks great and comes with tons of amendments, customisation and weapon types, but many bugs and a sense of repetition bring things down a notch or two.

PowerSlave Exhumed is one of those game remakes done right. It preserves everything that was great about the original, adds some graphical bells and whistles, and lets the kids of today see what games were like for us old folk growing up.

Come prepared for a Lovecraftian short story, with the emphasis very much on the ‘short’, and there’s enjoyment to be had with The Song Out of Space. But while it touts itself as a detective mystery, that’s exactly what it is not: there’s very little deducing to be done here, and the mystery is revealed by the title.

Don’t Be Afraid is a shortish game that comes in around the three-hour mark, but it doesn't feel like it should be any longer. The scares, puzzles, and environments live up to the survival horror label and I’ve loved the mannequins and enjoy the tricks that are played

The gameplay is quite addictive and you’ll really want to check out the recipes on offer, cooking things up. The controls aren't the best though and you will find yourself lost with what to do multiple times, but if you fancy yourself as a feline chef then Chef’s Tail could be for you.

The OlliOlli games had already created a firm foundation for whatever came next in the series but OlliOlli World has helped elevate the series to must-play levels. Under this cartoonish look is one of the best skateboarding games of all time.

Demon Hunter: Ascendance isn’t bad, in hidden object terms. For its first hour, it even threatens to cover new territory, taking you into a knowingly tacky house of horrors. But it soon becomes generic, and the second half of the game is a perfect median of every Artifex Mundi that has come before. For a game named Ascendance, it doesn’t half go downhill.

The Dead Tree of Ranchiuna fails to reach the heights of other titles, it’s still worth a look. It’s a bit rough around the edges, the walking can feel drawn out and the story doesn’t quite work, but I look forward to see what Bodur comes up with next.

We didn’t regret getting tangled up in Spirit Roots, but we didn’t wholly enjoy it either. While it looks like a Rayman Legends expansion pack, and comes with a heap of levels, the charm began wearing off as soon as we started playing.

You may have seen pretty much everything on offer in Them Bombs before, but that doesn’t detract from how enjoyable the core gameplay experience is. The nature of the game may mean it has a short shelf life for some, but thanks to its reasonable price point it’s worth the risk.

For platform fans, Unbound: Worlds Apart will be a delight. It's a challenging game, but completely fair and with some well-worked checkpointing that ensures that dying is not a pain. It's inventive as well, with the use of portals helping your puzzle-solving and way through the adventure

I have no hesitation in recommending Edge of Eternity. It is a huge game, but more importantly, it has an epic story to be told. The combat system has some nice touches which keeps it fresh, and the crafting is deep and immersive. This is a game that many will be playing for days and weeks on end, with Midgar Studios needing praise for creating something special.

We have a burning love for Rise of the Third Power. It’s a long, lingering cuddle of a JRPG, doing everything we want from the genre: rich storytelling, chummy characters and a large side-step of ‘the grind’. If you can forgive the lack of any combat, loot or progression depth, you may love it as much as we did.

At times, Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc Anniversary Edition shows its age. Initially it may be in the choice of art style but then also in the voicework and gameplay itself later on. But it’s not all bad; being the first in the series to arrive on Xbox I am intrigued by the concept of what comes next.

KungFu Kickball is certainly not the casual, immediate party game that it presents itself as, and it needs some repeat play to master it. If that sounds like a fun project for you and your mates, then KungFu Kickball can be hilariously rewarding. Twin it with a screening of Shaolin Soccer, and you are golden.

Calturin is however a hard game that is largely fair, and so the pull to have one more go is pretty strong. Yes, even for a cheap price it’s got that elusive gaming X-factor; a dash of it thrown into the mix. If you want a challenge, this is an interesting proposal.

There’s a reason so many games dabble in alchemy. There’s the foraging for ingredients, the making of bubbling concoctions, and finally seeing what they do. But Alchemist Simulator opts for only the middle stage of this process, and reduces it to the step-by-step following of a cookery manual.

A great idea sadly lessened as an experience by dodgy controls and game breaking issues held within. Perhaps a future patch to optimise things for a controller might increase playability but with Mr. Prepper we sadly didn’t escape Murricaville… we got trapped in our own bunker.

Few games can claim a legacy of nearly 50 years and still be relevant, but Breakout: Recharged is one of those.

ConnecTank’s central mechanic is surprisingly well realised, backed up with plenty to flesh out the world of New Pangea. However, due to the repetitive and somewhat simplistic gameplay this is one the casual gamers will enjoy the most.

Toy Soldiers HD is genuinely worth playing if you have never done so before; there is a huge amount of fun to be had here. This HD title could have been a lot more too, and honestly might work less well than the original ever did. But what’s there is still a good time for strategy fans and it’s still able to provide a very unique experience.

Any new Cities: Skylines content is a good thing, and whilst this Airport DLC may not be the biggest content pack released for the game, it includes a lot of worthwhile additions. Arguments could be made as to why this pack wasn’t included from the beginning of the game, but seven years late is still better than never.

It may not be that much of a surprise but Taiko no Tatsujin: The Drum Master! is massively enjoyable. While the songs range from easy to “surely only an octopus can hit all these notes!”, the challenge can be tweaked to suit everyone, and it turns out that a little drumming is a surprisingly relaxing pastime.

Vagante has a lot of potential that it doesn’t manage to live up to. It looks nice enough, if a little like you are viewing things through the wrong end of a pair of binoculars, and the setup is interesting. But the numb combat, instant death traps and lack of anything resembling tactics - even in the boss fights - marks it down.

Undernauts: Labyrinth of Yomi is definitely a game that you need to stick with, being patient, but if you do then you will be rewarded well, as you make your way through more dungeons and face off against all kinds of dangerous beasts.

Cake Invaders is a fun game for a limited period of time. It’s exciting and can be challenging, depending on how the power-ups fall, but equally after about half an hour, you are likely to have seen all it has to offer. For achievement hunters, it’s an easy sell, but for folk looking for a return on their investment, that’s less so.

A Western Drama aims to bring visually-impaired or plain curious players into the Wild West, immersing them in its grit and machismo. It nails that goal, delivering saddlebags full of Spaghetti Western music, gunfights and duels, without attempting to explain why the visuals aren’t there.

Dyna Bomb is a likeable action-platformer built on two of gaming’s great staples: the jetpack and the bomb. But while it’s a reasonably pure arcade experience, it gets undermined consistently with terrible presentation, a refusal to let you loose with your tools, and levels that refuse to change things up in a meaningful way.

If you’ve got a hankering for some old-school, 8-bit platforming thrills, without any concerns about bugs or quibbles, then Super Onion Boy 2 is cheap and plenty cheerful.

It’s not without issues, but the brilliance of the parkour and deepness of the combat easily outweigh the various bugs and glitches which pop up. Perhaps it’s not able to revolutionise the genre like the first game did, but Dying Light 2 Stay Human is still more than worthy of your time, patience and hope of staying human.

There are problems with text size and some big glitches when playing in the first person, however the inventiveness and story win over these misgivings. In all, The Enigma Machine provides an experience that stays with you way after the game has finished.

If you have a lot of prior Yu-Gi-Oh! knowledge, and the time to invest, Master Duel is most certainly a good game, deep down. For the rest of us lesser mortals, the bar to entry is set ridiculously high, and feels like the world it holds is basically impenetrable.

Whether you are a seasoned veteran of Siege or looking for your first foray into a tactical shooter such as these, Rainbow Six Extraction will not disappoint.

Do you score a game identically to the game it copies? Mushroom Run 2D is last year’s Fantasy Dash, but with a mushroom. Scoring it lower would be petty, but having been spat out by the same sharp-edged and awkward levels, we’re feeling extremely petty. Please, for the love of endless runners everywhere, please let this be the last Fantasy Dash clone that we have to experience. We’ll give you 79p not to.

If you are a hidden object addict who has - somehow - reached the end of their backlog, then Dracula’s Legacy Remastered feels familiar and satisfying enough to generate enjoyment. For anyone else, may we point you to the hundreds of Artifex Mundi games that do a far superior job.

Fatum Betula is a game - and an experience - that feels old school yet completely new and unique in the same breath. The lack of guidance is something that will split the gaming community, but it must be agreed that the surreal visual design is fascinating, disturbing, and brilliantly designed.

Kansei: The Second Case HD is a hugely enjoyable way to spend some time. It’s nice to take your foot off the gas every now and then to play something that makes no demands on you. The story is intriguing, and trying to figure out not only whodunnit, but whydunnit as well, will keep you revisiting the narratives and trying out the various conversational gambits that are on offer.

Despite lacking some depth, Rubber Bandits offers a thoroughly enjoyable multiplayer experience both on and offline. It’s the perfect party game to dip in and out of if you’re after something a little different.

There’s something very genuine about Starlight Shores. It’s a nostalgic get-together with friends around a campfire, and there’s a warmth between the characters that’s lovely to share for an hour or two.

We’d encourage you to pick up Kinduo, particularly if you have a co-op partner who’s eager to collaborate with you on some puzzles. But go in with the knowledge that, just as things get good, as the difficulty is beginning to creep in, it unceremoniously ends.

The Longest Road on Earth is thoroughly enjoyable; an experience that is capable of sincerely touching the player. The music is wonderful and the whole journey a delight.

Gav-Gav Odyssey is a puzzle game that attempts three different minigames over the course of its two hours, and two of them manage to crack a smile. The third, though, is a crime against platforming that makes us do an involuntary shudder whenever we think about them.

Control-wise, Jack ‘n’ Hat isn’t up to scratch. It’s slow, ineffective and clumsy, with the hat-throwing feeling like a bad job rather than Oddjob. But persist, and you have a challenging and generous platformer that may spark a love for the genre, just like the ‘80s and ‘90s classics did.

Demoniaca: Everlasting Night comes with a great setup and a lot of ambition, but poor execution. I can see what the developers wanted to do, and somewhere deep down there is a good game struggling to get out, however, it is buried under a heap of poor combat options and sub standard platforming.

If you have any love for the 2D Castlevanias, and wish that someone would pick up the whip again, then Aeterna Noctis has heeded your call.

MouseCraft is one superb game worthy of your attention. A fun and tricky game to be enjoyed by both young and old gamers alike.

Shadow Man Remastered looks bad, plays poorly and all the rest, but it still has that much needed X factor; that hook that keeps you trying again and again.

Reverie Knights Tactics is a distillation - and slight simplification - of everything that makes turn-based strategy games great. It doesn’t push the boundaries of the genre like your average X-COM, but sometimes a comfy bit of armchair warfare is exactly the cup of tea you need. As a bonus, you get a likeable fantasy romp as a side-biscuit.

The Race Factory is fugly, there’s no doubting that. It doesn’t even try to make up for its bad looks by being friendly; the racing here is punishing and precise, with a single mistake costing you the race. But, behind the grumpy demeanor is a deep racing game with plenty of options, a track constructor, and some multiplayer thrills. For a lone developer, that’s an impressive achievement.

Despite borrowing heavily from Overcooked!, Cannibal Cuisine strikes more of a party game tone, with mixed results. The gameplay lacks finesse, and despite providing a few laughs with friends, you’ll find it difficult not to revert back to the inspirational rival.

If you're in the market for a consistently difficult Mega Man-esque game, you wouldn't be at much of a loss with Trophy. Despite some of the design choices being not so memorable, the soundtrack and satisfying NES style gameplay is sure to please any fan of the genre.

Spelunky 2 is not a game for everyone. If you don’t like precision platformers or incredibly challenging games, then this isn’t going to be for you. But if you enjoy roguelikes or are after a game that challenges you, feeling incredibly rewarding when you pull off some crazy maneuvers, then I can’t recommend Spelunky 2 enough.

Windjammers 2 is more proof that simple ideas can take off when done effectively. What is essentially Pong sprinkled with a bit of table hockey and a dash of Street Fighter works because it is so simple to play.

For a few hours, Lacuna - A Sci-Fi Noir Adventure let us walk in the shoes of a Deckard or Bogart, looking mournful as we smoked a cigarette in the rain, and we’d gladly take the opportunity again.

Hatsune Miku Logic Paint S is exactly the Picross game that Xbox needs. It’s straightforward but absolutely stacked with puzzles, and it brings the trademark jukebox of J-pop hits with it.

As a puzzle game, Danger!Energy lives up to the name but fails to leave a lasting impression. Then again if the lure of an easy 1000 GS is up your street, this may be the game for you.

If Pupperazzi was a dog, it would be a pug. It’s cute in theory, but it huffs, puffs and has trouble functioning, stumbling over itself when it tries to run. It’s tough to control, and so small that you wonder where the rest of it went. Pupperazzi, unfortunately, is more like the runt of the litter.

Play Pukan, Bye-Bye! on your own, and it loses its lustre. It’s a game that makes jokes at your expense, playing to the crowd, but only if there’s an audience to benefit. If you’re hankering for a game to do a ‘Let’s Play’ video of, then Pukan, Bye-Bye! is a surefire winner. For virtually anyone else, you’d be better off giving it a swift Bye-Bye.

Aery is a series that just keeps on coming. For fans, they will enjoy more of the same gameplay in Aery - Dreamscape, but in brand new environments and with some newly added features built-in. If you’ve struggled with these games before then there’s nothing extra here to drag you in, but on the flipside, fans will be in their element.

It’s a massive shame that Blackwind is let down by the systems which should let it flow. If this came to market as a top-down twin-sticker with a few platforming elements and some decent metroidvania-styled puzzling, it would work really, really well. But the decision to add in a confused viewpoint is a killer; one that will have you concerned every time you fire things up.

Games like Hades have made the dungeon crawler thrive by treating it like a high-end watch. The inner workings are intricate and polished, making it a joy to play over and over. But Nobody Saves the World takes the opposite approach: it doesn’t look inwardly, polishing something to the nth degree. It blows open the doors and makes exploration and progression the focus. It gives you the world.

Despite not being the most welcoming in terms of accessibility, Operation Zeta is an enjoyable roguelite which attempts to keep it fresh with mixed results.

Klang 2 is a very solid entry in what has become a niche genre in the past couple of console generations. Tinimations has done a wonderful job of building a more tightly tuned follow-up complete with a hard-hitting soundtrack.

Forgotten Hill Disillusion might not get you searching out the other games in the series, but it will while away a dozen or so hours. Some of them might even be memorable.