There’s no getting away from the fact that Aerial_Knight’s Never Yield is a very short game. Thankfully, it’s a truly enjoyable experience that will likely tempt you back to play more than once. It offers something different from the vast amount of games that are released in today’s market, and deserves full credit for it.

The Wardrobe: Even Better Edition is only really worth your consideration if you’re happy to seek help to progress because the solutions are utterly ridiculous. As long as that’s the case, then there are great locations full of nostalgia just begging to be seen. The characters within are undoubtedly intriguing and, in a silly way, it’s funny on occasion too. Granted, the main story needs work, but the sub-plots are pretty good and keep things ticking over.

Death Crown has style and originality pumping through its disgusting veins, and it’s not often that you get to say that about a real-time strategy game. Often the most clinical and militaristic of genres, Death Crown is ghoulish and characterful. Hell, the world-building is probably worth a recommendation on its own.

Subnautica: Below Zero is an excellently designed survival experience. It’s a place where the most creative can utilise the tools that they find, going out, exploring and creating a whole world under the sea. It’s helped by a cracking story that sits perfectly alongside this adventure of a lifetime. Admittedly, initial moments are confusing, but once you get into the rhythm of things and understand the resource hunting, it all becomes second nature.

Flowing Lights is a game that demands planning in advance; these aren’t simply run and gun levels, they are puzzles that need to be solved. And it is having to adapt this mentality that makes Flowing Lights such a unique and fun experience.

Dragon Quest Builders 2 is going to be the perfect game for some people and the most tedious of ones for others. Presenting a more directed take on the classic Minecraft structure, this succeeds at retaining that creativity while actively giving players something to work for and something tangible to do. But, more impressively, Builders 2 never feels like a pale imitation.

Rising Hell is a fun, challenging roguelite that is perfect for those with a full schedule. It’s not as expansive as some of the other roguelites available, but it’s still a great bit of fun and well worth a buy if you are looking for something new to try.

R-Type Final 2 is a very good shooting game in its own right, and having the history and background of the R-Type legacy makes it even better. There’s a lot to get involved in besides just shooting stuff, and the ability to unlock new ships that may suit your playstyle better is a big draw.

Cosmic Top Secret is a unique and novel way to use video games to create an experience that no book or documentary format could even come close to achieve. There’s a great deal to learn and discover in this adventure, and above all it presents a very raw and honest look into the very human lives of those who worked tirelessly and confidentially during a very unique period in history.

Karma. Incarnation 1 is a point-and-click as a petri-dish: full of bizarre organisms interacting with each other, and wiggling away or bursting as you prod at them. It’s fascinating to watch, and even better to listen to. But it’s when you try to play with it that it falters.

The charm and originality means that Buildings Have Feelings Too! is infectious to begin with, however it doesn’t take long for things to go awry. The control system fast becomes clunky and it’s certainly not a game that is as intuitive as it should be.

Glitchangels might not dazzle with its looks or soundtrack. It might occasionally feel like you’re trying to navigate a fireworks display. But for a penny less than a tenner, you are getting an extremely effective twin-stick shooter and two thumbs up. It’s a joy to control, incredibly more-ish, and it keeps tempting you with more ways to progress. If you’re hungry to play a new Geometry Wars, but are willing to take a hit on the presentation, then Glitchangels is manna from heaven.

Retro Machina is a thoroughly enjoyable experience. It’s hard not to get invested in the eerily beautiful but ultimately bleak world which has an engrossing story to tell.

If you hate multitasking, or get panicked when given a time limit, then Boris the Rocket on the Xbox isn’t for you. It’s a brutal test of time management and steady nerves, as you construct and configure missiles in a desperate bid to stay alive. For our tastes, the pressure was too unrelenting, and Boris the Rocket could have approached ‘enjoyable’ if it offered some calm moments to go with the not-so-calm.

Cymatically Muffed looks rubbish, there’s no two ways about it. But it plays so much better than it looks. It’s fast, smooth and interesting, and is like a twin-stick shooter for the modern age. I would even go so far as to mention it in the same breath as Smash TV from back in the day, it is that much fun to play.

All in all, Hood: Outlaws and Legends is a fun time. The PvPvE mode is refreshing, the presentation and performance rock solid and the price fair. However, in its current form, it does start to lose its lustre after a while. Its deeply flawed matchmaking system has a far way to go to ensure that the game is fun and balanced for everyone. Hood has a lot of promise, but like its titular hero, it's not quite out of the woods yet.

The new scenario and little extras that the Ghostbusters DLC brings to Planet Coaster: Console Edition on Xbox has had me smiling from ear to ear. There is so much to enjoy here for fans of the film, and the extra touches such as The Ghostbusters Experience ride and the ECTO-1 makes this DLC an absolute essential purchase.

For those wanting to flex their creative muscles once again in Planet Coaster, the Studios Pack is one of the biggest add-ons to be able to do just that. Across the board though, one or two more rides and facilities would have helped sweeten the deal.

NeiR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… is an improved remake of an okay game. The changes that have been actioned are impressive and they in turn make the experience all so much better. Just be aware that many of the basic elements that held back the original are still present.

Kursk could have been excellent, even though the premise itself is a little unsettling. The exploration and detail of the sub itself is great and feels very original, and there are some nice little gameplay elements found throughout. The movement between the different sub-compartments and the animation it brings does however become very annoying, very quickly, and it is this which destroys the impact of the game in regards to pacing.

Chroma Quaternion on the Xbox Series X is enjoyable. There’s something reassuring about playing a game that does exactly what you expect of it, right down to the achievements that are earned. The story is pretty much the same as the majority of KEMCO games, the graphics and action are very similar, and the overall vibe is pretty much what we expect; its like slipping under a nice warm duvet on a winter’s night.

It can’t be an easy gig changing things as fundamental as the type of game you develop without losing your identity, but Immortals Fenyx Rising: The Lost Gods on Xbox manages this so well. It feels like a piece of DLC that attempts a lot of ideas that didn’t quite make the cut in the main game, yet it is easily the best DLC of the three post-release offerings.

For short term hits, and for those with a desire to show their skating skills on a new forum, Skate City flicks and tricks its way to glory. It’s just that the greater grind and increase in trick difficulty may eventually become too much to bear.

Angels with Scaly Wings takes its dragon-dating very, very seriously, and doesn’t care much about whether you find it improbable or distasteful. When you add in a detective story and some science fiction, you’ve got the definition of ‘pulp’. But ignore it’s many weird and fabulous faults, including an insistence that dragons are sexy, and a world that has nothing to do with logic or believability, and you have a little charmer of a visual novel.

Trails and Traces: The Tomb of Thomas Tew is a solid retro point and click adventure. Yes, it looks basic and the voice work can be patchy, but the game works and the adventure narrative that is found within is ambitious, It's also very cheap, so it’s worth considering strapping yourself in for a very little, but enjoyable, adventure.

There is nothing inherently bad about making a game really difficult. In fact, some of the best games are defined by their difficulty. With Dead Dust, it doesn’t really work. This is a game that could have benefited from some balancing, allowing the players to work their way up with a few less punishing levels. Instead, you’re dropped straight into it, armed only with a gun and a moveset that is woefully inadequate for the kind of enemies you’ll be facing.

If you value your free time, or have a backlog of games to get through, then be warned: The Colonists can put you under the same magical spell as the original Settlers and ANNO. While its slowness can be occasionally irksome, particularly in the Campaign, it has a habit of dragging you back in. Book a week off, find a log cabin with wi-fi and no intrusions, and watch the time disappear.

There will be a couple of different reactions to The Skylia Prophecy on the Xbox. Anyone who expects decent action from their action platformers, with responsive controls and a powerful set of moves, is going to be disappointed and should probably back away. But those who persist past the flaws will find something well-paced, surprisingly non-linear and flecked with good ideas.

MLB The Show 21 has done a good job of making not just the game, but baseball as a whole, a bit more approachable, but there is still a punishingly high difficulty curve.

Resident Evil Village is worth every cent. If you loved Resident Evil 7: Biohazard then you’ll be ecstatic about being able to step back into the shoes of Ethan Winters in this new title. This is a game that is worth every penny, offering up a great blend of horror and action alongside some superb character development.

Dark Nights with Poe and Munro is a hugely enjoyable FMV and I would love to see more episodes follow this in the future. The writing, choice-making, and innovative ideas are all of a high standard and this means that it's another big tick for the fascinating and exciting D’Avekki Studios. Fans of the FMV scene should definitely give this a go.

Crime Opera: The Butterfly Effect fails to capitalise on its unique premise and setting by falling short where it matters. The writing is juvenile, cringe-inducing, and at times even offensively embarrassing. It takes some level of care and maturity to explore adult themes, and unfortunately the writing here just doesn’t feel appropriate.

Judgment on Xbox Series X|S is an incredible achievement. Whether this is your first foray into the wider Yakuza franchise, or you played it upon its original release, the graphical upgrades are very impressive. It is also helped by being a brilliant game, mixing more traditional Yakuza elements in with a detective film noir thriller.

Blazing Beaks on Xbox is definitely worth picking up. It’s challenging, well put together, and just a fun way to kill some time. It's helped by the fact that the risk and reward mechanics are extremely well-done, especially since the amount of risk is tailored to what the player decides.

Gravity Heroes on Xbox manages to bring a few good ideas to the table, and does just enough to allow it to be something to recommend - no matter whether you are alone or if you have a few friends around.

Battle Axe on the Xbox is fast-food in an action-brawler wrapper. It tastes and looks good in the short-term, full of E numbers and shots of adrenaline. But it leaves you unsatisfied in the long term, leaving you hungry for something more than thirty minutes of easy hacking and slashing. When you’re £25 lighter after the experience, you’d be forgiven for expecting a heartier meal with more courses.

Angels of Death on Xbox will likely win over horror fans who are after a compelling and twisted narrative, featuring a cast of characters that are just as complex as they are nefarious. It’s easy to see how the storyline has spawned so many related media, but as a video game this feels like a conceptual RPG Maker effort at best; one where some of its best ideas are held back by the inherent limitations of the engine.

Before I Forget on Xbox is an important game, mainly because of its subject matter and how it deals with a condition that can affect us all. It's a story told with compassion and beauty and will certainly be something that sticks with you long after it has concluded.

There will be plenty of people just buying these games for the easy achievements, but if you want more brain teasing goodness, Ladders by POWGI offers a suitable challenge.

Yoko & Yuki: Dr Rat’s Revenge can be criticized for being a bit bland in the theme department and for lacking much of a story. Fortunately, launching for such a low price gives it some leeway and that must be taken into account. To deliver 70 puzzling levels for under a fiver, while ensuring new mechanics are thrown into the mix often, is impressive.

There is so much ambition to be found in Protocol on the Xbox. At times, it’s on a path to becoming a hybrid of Prey and Portal, both in the way it feels to play, and its ability to generate left-field ideas. Unfortunately, the ideas never fail to be executed poorly. Thanks largely to its controls, you will be, by turns, infuriated, bored, confused and offended. For a game that starts by feeling like a commentary on the lack of control in video games, it’s when you’re handed control that Protocol is at its worst.

The friends of Ringo Ishikawa on Xbox is an unconventional beat ‘em up, with an opaque design and almost aimless sense of progression. The game has a strong atmosphere as it provides a setting for players to lose themselves in, yet there is no real gameplay loop or substance here as players need to create this for themselves.

Bad Dream: Coma on Xbox will leave a mark, mostly thanks to its strange, surreal visuals and dream-like concept. It's a good point-and-click adventure, but might be too obscure and surreal for some - you’ll certainly have to work in order to understand the purpose of the main character and what is happening to them.

Super Meat Boy Forever lives up to its reputation, providing another hard-as-nails platforming experience. It expands well on the original, despite occasionally feeling overwhelmingly brutal, which may put some off. It’s certainly not for the faint-hearted, but should please fans of the original test.

It is always strange to replay a game, especially one like The Sinking City; a game that is quite hefty in terms of the hours required. But with this next-gen edition, this is never an issue and it’s been a delight to head back in to the world it delivers - mostly thanks to the new tweaks making it feel like you are playing a new game at times. From the fast loading times to the texture of rain on a coat, The Sinking City now feels wonderful.

A modest success, Savage Halloween on the Xbox slaps a spooky mask on a Mega Man run-and-gunner and chucks in some Battletoads-style racing levels for good measure. What it lacks in surprise, it makes up for in charm, and there’s some challenging moments to overcome. It’s more trick than treat, then, and for £4.19 it’s barely more than a family-sized pack of Haribo.

Ravensword: Shadowlands on Xbox probably wishes it was 2013 again, but a lot of things have changed since those times, and this isn’t able to stack up to more modern interpretations.

The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark on Xbox does however, once again, deliver a decent chunk of gaming goodness. If you liked what came first time around, you’ll most definitely want to embrace the weird world of The Darkside Detective with A Fumble in the Dark.

As a snapshot of a frostpunk future, Dull Grey on the Xbox is evocative, if ineffective. At fifteen minutes long, it’s too short to be anything but a sketch, it offers only one meaningful choice over its runtime, and it struggles to say anything that sheds light on its world or ours. Far from dull, then, but grey in the sense that no clear picture emerges.

Skyland: Heart of the Mountain on Xbox isn’t going to be highly recommended; that’s not because it does too much wrong, but more a case that it just about does enough to get by, possessing nothing to allow it stand out from the many others of this ilk.

There are two ways of looking at Little Mouse’s Encyclopedia. It is a children’s reference book that happens to be on the Xbox, and as such it’s lovely to leaf through for a few minutes. The watercolour art could happily grace the walls of a nursery, and that’s intended as a compliment. But while it does a great job of putting names to animals and plants, it does a less successful job of making you care about them, or telling a child anything that might stick. It could feasibly form an hour-long home-schooling lesson, but you’d struggle to make a curriculum out of it.

Given that AntVentor is merely the first act of an AntTrilogy, it does a decent-ish job at setting the scene, leaving you with slight interest as to what the future holds for Florantine.

We worried that we’d never get to play another Actraiser: a game that was foolish enough to twist platforming around RTS bits. But what we have is so much more. Smelter is leagues ahead of its ageing relative and deserves all the success that it (hopefully) gets. Smelter is a belter.

Make no mistake, Kingdom of Arcadia on the Xbox offers absolutely nothing new. Hundreds of action-platformers have been here before, and looked better as they’ve done it. Surprisingly few, however, have done it with its levels of charm, and with its tight handle on controls.

Make no mistake, this is a hard game - overwhelmingly so at times. It’s fair to say that Squad Killer on Xbox isn’t a game for everyone and a lot of people will be discouraged by its difficulty. But for those who decide to stick with it, they’ll find a game that is both dangerously addictive and intensely rewarding.

Tank Brawl 2: Armor Fury on Xbox doesn’t look the best, the pop-in is ridiculous, and the way that foot soldiers are bigger than your tank ruins any immersion. On the flip side, there is something endearing about the game; something that will keep drawing you back to have another go - if only so you can find out if it’s possible to destroy tanks using the Force.

Animal Doctor on the Xbox is less about being a vet than it is helping one, and you’ll be fetching antibiotics from pharmacies more than you’ll be nursing sick puppies. It’s realistic rather than cute, educational rather than fun, and that’s not necessarily what your little doctors ordered. But if there’s still interest, even after those caveats, then Animal Doctor might actually work out.

The Darkside Detective on Xbox will provide you with a decently enjoyable time. It's an old-fashioned game that isn't afraid to use old-time gaming and visuals to tell a fun, unique story; at no point does it take itself at all seriously. Throw in the price asked and there’s a host of content included here, with some great cases to explore.

Tribal Pass on Xbox is an endless runner that feels like a prehistoric boot camp, pushing you to get up, get better and keep going. It’s far from easy, and it is particularly unfriendly in its opening moments. But push beyond them and there are morsels of enjoyment.

Knight Squad 2 on Xbox looks the part and offers plenty of customisation options. However, thanks to the shallow gameplay the price tag feels too expensive to be fully justified and as a result the fun is short-lived.

Octopath Traveler on Xbox is a game that expertly marries a traditional JRPG with more modern ideas. It should be immediately obvious that this is the intention with the “HD-2D” visuals, but even after only a short time playing it feels so well-executed.

You can strip a 2D platformer back to the basics, but those basics have to be in the topmost of drawers. Unfortunately, Acalesia on the Xbox has made a home for itself in the bottom drawer. Shortcomings are papered over with more shortcomings, as the designers try to make up for slippy gameplay with benign levels that barely offer a challenge.

Tinker Racers on Xbox is a fun little game despite its limitations. However, when all is said and done, it doesn’t do enough to escape from the shadow cast by the game which inspired it.

Heal: Console Edition on the Xbox works best when it commits to being a series of escape rooms. You’ll be manhandling some tactile little puzzle boxes that are surprisingly original, and feeling the glow of solving them. It’s the bits between the boxes that are flimsy: stodgy controls, limp scares and a lack of an emotional thread can’t quite coalesce into a strong structure.

Outriders on Xbox is a great game, almost despite itself. The decision to include cooperative opportunities instead of working with a nailed on PvP mode is a great choice. The story is engaging, gameplay works very well and the Expeditions are just about challenging enough. In fact, People Can Fly have ensured that shooting, looting and running away from powerful monsters has never been so much fun.

Hitchhiker may not be a game that is able to give you all the answers you want, but it will take you on an incredible journal that focuses on relationships, love, life, and death. It's a story about everything and nothing... and it's brilliant.

There’s a fantastic premise at the core of Die With Glory on the Xbox. Rather than striving for victory, you’re looking to die spectacularly. But that premise never quite gets realised: the deaths are never outlandish, and the quests to get to them are too simplistic.

Cozy Grove on the Xbox lies in the shadow of Animal Crossing, and the moments where it steps out of that shadow are its weakest. While Animal Crossing never stops feeling welcoming, Cozy Grove keeps pushing you towards the door, and a lot of the charm goes with it. Regardless, there’s plenty of room on the Xbox for an experience as undemanding and beautiful as this one, and you’ll find yourself rummaging for walnuts in a spare thirty minutes. You certainly can’t live in Cozy Grove, but it’s great to visit.

On one hand, I had an absolute blast with Immortals Fenyx Rising, so the promise of more of the same should be a good thing. But when so much is copied and pasted into Myths of the Eastern Realm on Xbox, it quickly becomes a shallow expansion.

Rain on Your Parade is up there with some of the most fun, the most unique, the most humorous and the most well-designed, crafted, created and developed games I’ve played in recent years.

Without a fun world to explore, Moon Raider can’t fall back on its charm or style, as it only has a limited pool of it, and it doesn’t feel good enough to play. Moon Raider has been stripped back too far, and what’s left is a pencil outline of a Metroid game, and that’s not enough.

For as slow-moving El Hijo - A Wild West Tale on Xbox is, once it gets up to speed and starts throwing clever ideas at you, it can become an enjoyable puzzling playthrough. It’s a shame then that the poor AI, basic visuals and a lack of proper puzzling ideas then creep in.

After the release of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 on Xbox, we can definitely say that the franchise is back. After the disaster of Pro Skater 5, and the so-so remake on the Xbox 360, this is easily the compilation that brings the Tony Hawk’s franchise back into the gaming spotlight.

There’s a niche group that will love C14 Dating on the Xbox. It’s the thinking person’s dating sim, when the genre is crowded with sleazeballs that most right-minded people would want to avoid. It’s an archaeology-themed game that skirts close to being a sim, and plenty of budding Time-Teamers will revel in that nerdiness.

Breathedge on Xbox is a hard game; one that requires patience before rewarding with a deep, funny, and intriguing space survival adventure.

SturmFront - The Mutant War: Übel Edition on Xbox is a blow for blow recreation of the arcade games of yesteryear. It’s loud, gory, brash and unapologetically retro, with action that is nothing but non-stop.

What The Dub?! on Xbox is a one-trick pony, then, but it’s a trick that will keep you and up to five friends cracking up for a good hour or two. Whether you come back to it is another question, but seeing straight-faced actors spouting your drivel is probably worth that low price of admission.

Radon Blast on Xbox presents a novel take on the classic brick breaker game, almost adding an element of survival. But even this doesn’t stop the game from becoming tiresome after only a short time. There is a lack of features, music and almost everything else; so much so that even the £4.19 price tag is asking a bit too much unless you are a true achievement hunter.

There are twenty-or-so decent levels of platform-puzzling in One Escape on Xbox, but it’s surrounded by another forty levels of filler. With more ways to get caught, and more options to avoid getting caught, this prison escape might have warranted a purchase. Without them, it can feel more like a sentence than an escape

Random dungeons, random perks and continuous progress: it’s a winning mix, and it elevates Space Robinson beyond mediocrity and into the realms of ‘just one more go’.

Chess Knights: Viking Lands on Xbox is pretty unique and the mash-up between Vikings and chess is one that I could never have imagined would work. But as a puzzler, it does – even if the control scheme doesn’t particularly help matters.

DARQ: Complete Edition on Xbox is a surreal, curious adventure that has the look and feel of a big budget title. Despite its short length Lloyd’s world impresses and terrifies in equal measure, and now it looks better than ever thanks to Xbox Series X|S.

Tennis World Tour 2 - Complete Edition on Xbox Series X is fun for a time, but falls short of the line. Even if you’re a fan of the sport, there’s not enough here to justify the price tag.

Balan Wonderworld, even with all of its surface-level faults, is a genuinely charming 3D platformer that is blissfully imaginative both in its artistic presentation and game design.

Luckslinger on Xbox is a fun and interesting take on the Wild West action platformer, using luck as a substantial gameplay mechanic within the level design. The luck elements don’t always alter the course of level progression in a meaningful way, and the platforming and adventure elements can feel a bit disconnected from each other, but still the whole hip-hop presentation of Luckslinger manages to shine, thanks to the soundtrack.

Beach Buggy Racing 2: Island Adventure on Xbox is a bit of a surprise. After the original game fell flat, I was expecting pretty much the same to occur here, but whilst it’s not quite a good enough racer to compete with Crash, Mario and Sonic in the very finest kart racing league, it can easily hold its own in the formula below it.

Papa’s Quiz on Xbox is probably the textbook definition of a fine game. It does exactly what it sets out to accomplish, and while the UI, presentation and minor design issues do hold it back from being something more, this is still a solid trivia game.

As a conclusion to Kiryu’s seven-game saga, Yakuza 6: The Song of Life on Xbox provides a very fitting end that will not leave a dry eye in the house. It is an added bonus that it is one of the best Yakuza games; a standout title in a standout series.

Less a strategy game and more a three-hour long tutorial, Mittelborg: City of Mages on Xbox manages to remove pretty much anything that would lead to interest or a satisfying choice. If it was brave enough to hand the reins to the player, it might have gone somewhere interesting, but - as it stands - this is a lightweight board game with most of the pieces removed.

Hellbreachers on Xbox could have been a good game, at least should a little more care have been lavished on the controls and the general difficulty balancing. But even though there are numerous bosses to defeat, after you have reached the third the game is out of ideas, and that means the desire to keep playing evaporates like the morning dew.

The shooting is accurate and feels good, and it’s possible to reach a state where you’re chaining headshots and being crushed beneath a pile of Achievements. But, lest we forget, Gangsta Paradise has virtually zero ideas and variety, and it somehow manages to make its two hours feel thin.

The combat is a particular highlight, so if you like brawling or Chinese history, Bladed Fury is an easy sell. Even if you don't, it’s worth a punt, if only so you can dash about with twin blades.

We wondered whether a space-sim could be hammered into the shape of a racer, and Orbital Racer on the Xbox gave us an emphatic answer: no, it can’t. Without physical tracks you’ve got no sense of direction, speed, or points of interest. You get desperate for a chicane, a pit stop, anything to enliven the chugging space tour.

Moving Out – Movers In Paradise on Xbox is a meaty, fun-packed adventure and one of the best pieces of downloadable content I’ve seen within a game.

Without spoiling the story, if you liked the base game of The Outer Worlds, you will love Murder on Eridanos on Xbox. The narrative is tight and keeps you guessing, the new gear is fun to find and use, and the increase in the level cap has been reflected across the game.

DOOM Eternal: The Ancient Gods - Part Two on Xbox has made tweaks in all the right places to improve things for the concluding part of the DOOM Slayer saga. It’s by no means perfect, but the gameplay and tactics required makes it worth sticking around to finish the fight against evil.

From its charismatic characters and stupendous story to its meaningful gameplay and incredible soundtrack, Undertale on Xbox is a titanic accomplishment that not only ignores the ideas of what makes a video game, but redefines them.

Samurai Shodown on Xbox is an excellent fighting game; one that is incredibly well-made and able to provide a return to form for the franchise. It’s runs at a different tempo to many other popular fighting games available today, but it’s wild fun. Unfortunately the story mode is disappointingly light and the online multiplayer is sparse.