I love the vast majority of what Wales Interactive do and that is the case with I Saw Black Clouds on Xbox. It's a game that works as a solo adventure, but equally good with someone to throw ideas off, dictating the decisions you make.

Mundaun is exactly the type of indie game that needs to be talked about in years to come with features being written about it and how it became one of the seminal indie titles.

Escape from Life Inc on Xbox is an engaging little game that, although short, has enough about it to keep you wanting to go back to it. I can't put my finger on what exactly the X-Factor is, but there is certainly an appeal about the characters and their struggles. Yes, the controls are wayward every now and again, and it's not the most technologically advanced game ever, but what it has in bucket loads is heart.

If Narita Boy had a better handle on what it did well, and spent less time on the stuff it didn’t, we’d have a hit on our hands. Instead, we have style over substance - a Tron Evolution rather than Blade Runner, say - when it could have been a bonafide classic.

From an Arkham Horror fan’s perspective, Arkham Horror: Mother’s Embrace on Xbox feels like a blancmange model of the source material. It has none of the spiralling difficulty, gloom and impending doom. It’s easy, competent, and it’s clearly been made more palatable for a wider audience. We suspect that non-Arkham fans will see it as an extremely basic tactics game with lots of levers that you won’t need to pull, sewn onto an unsatisfying adventure game.

If you're a fan of old-fashioned point-and-clickers then you must give Sumatra: Fate of Yandi on Xbox a go. It looks, sounds, and plays like one of those adventures from back in the day, and even though it may well play better on PC than with a controller, it works well enough.

Paradise Lost on Xbox has surprised from start to finish. It tells a good and moving story, and deals with an alternative chilling history with some brilliant visuals and well-written narrative. It's not a challenging game at all but rather a narrative exploration that takes you on quite a linear path.

All in all, if you have a group of friends to play with, Can't Drive This on Xbox is worth a shot. It’s a giggle for sure, and deliberately driving your partner round the bend (literally!) is as fun as it gets, especially as you get further, the pace increases and things get pretty tense. But if you’re a solo player, this hits party games' cliche number 1: it’s just not as much fun on your own.

Spacebase Startopia on Xbox is a sim game which is full of character and offers a solid experience, especially for those who are fans of the genre. However, the clunky control scheme and uncomplicated formulaic gameplay may prove too much of a barrier for some.

Angry Video Game Nerd I & II Deluxe on Xbox is more than just a video game based on a popular YouTube channel; it’s an amalgamation of all things that made gaming in the NES era so special and timeless.

Crypto by POWGI on Xbox is perhaps the easiest title from the four now available from the Lightwood Games team, so achievement hunters can rejoice. For those looking for an exciting word puzzle game, this doesn’t really offer anything new or unique like some of the others do. Once you have got the hang of the puzzle tropes, Crypto then just becomes a rinse and repeat exercise with very little difficulty.

With the pleasant and cathartic combat system in mind, Ruvato: Original Complex on Xbox might be all that some people are looking for. The game can be completed within one or two sittings, and the combat certainly is engaging enough to warrant said completion. But if you just don’t see the appeal of repetitive, unoriginal, overly dramatic anime stories, you’re better off forgetting this one.

Due to the lower priced nature of R.B.I. Baseball 21 on Xbox, it can get away with less major updates between installments. This is certainly the case here: there is no sign of any new modes, and instead it is more a case of existing modes receiving a bit of polish.

Explosionade DX on Xbox is loud, dumb fun with the emphasis firmly on shooting and staying alive. With multiplayer built in, and online leaderbords to see how you rank up against your friends, this is a game that manages to scratch the itch that I'm sure we all feel from time to time: the urge to just blow things up.

I’ve found Adios on Xbox to be moving and profound. If you are a fan of games like Everyone's Gone to Rapture or Firewatch then I think this is probably up there as a must-buy game. But on the other side of the coin, if you are not one who is particularly interested in narrative or storytelling, preferring gameplay to run your games, then you may well have a bit of an issue with what it delivers.

Rip Them Off on Xbox is one of those games which is perfect to play for a while, before you start to feel frustration, put it down and then get swiftly tempted back in to find a solution.

For existing fans, there is some joy to be had in this Resident Evil love letter. For those that never played the originals though, Heaven Dust isn’t a patch on the games that inspired it.

Black Legend is an unusual game to find on the Xbox, yet it is a game that will scratch a tactical itch for some players, especially as its combination of theme, tricky tactical combat and gothic horror is potentially a heady brew. However, in practise, it fails to really deliver on any of these fronts as everything feels vague and unfocused, like the game world’s mists have shrouded Black Legend itself.

It’s wonderful to see a studio master their craft, and produce the stone-cold classic that represents everything that they’re trying to achieve. Josef Fares and his team at Hazelight have been noisily making the case for cooperative experiences for some time now, and with It Takes Two on the Xbox it feels like they’ve been vindicated. Find someone else to jump onto this roller coaster with - a loved one if you can - as it’s an experience you will want to talk about and share repeatedly. Now, let’s just hope it opens the door to more games like it.

The next-gen release of Hunting Simulator 2 on Xbox brings with it some very notable graphical improvements to the environments, but that is the only real difference. A lack of a next-gen upgrade, save migration or new features in general – aside from having to pay even more money – prevent this from being a worthwhile investment for existing players.

Two Point Hospital: JUMBO Edition on Xbox plays very similarly to the main campaign, with just the right amount of tweaking to keep the offering fresh. It’s an essential purchase for fans of the original, and highly recommended for everyone else.

Sure, it’s attention-grabbing to do something new, and innovation does get reviewers hot around the collar. But, most of the time, we just want a good thing done well, and Kaze and the Wild Masks does its 2D platforming extremely well. While Kaze and the Wild Masks on Xbox wears the masks of various platformers, like Donkey Kong Country and Rayman, they’re all polished to a mighty sheen.

Occasionally there are gameplay experiences which you take in, but then require a nod to not just the asking price, but the size of the development team. Sanity of Morris on Xbox is one of those games; a game that at times feels like a triple-A title in scope and ambition.

Cave Bad is not a bad game by any manner of means, but it’s not great either and so the overall viewpoint to focus on depends on what you want from a game. Easy Gamerscore? This is nailed on. Long-term gameplay? It’s not.

Pinkman+ is very short but hits that sweet nostalgic spot and sucks you in with its addictive nature.

Not the disaster we predicted from the truly terrible trailer, Warrior Boy on the Xbox is nonetheless a barebones action-adventure, where the combat is weak enough that you’ll ignore it, but sidestepping it leaves you with nothing more than a giant treasure hunt.

For insatiable veterans of hidden object games, it’s relatively easy to make a case for playing Portal of Evil: Stolen Runes on Xbox. It attempts some innovations, new puzzles, a harder difficulty, a sprawling map and a grab-bag of environments to create an experience that’s different enough, while keeping enough of the Artifex Mundi template to feel comfy. For newcomers, though, Portal of Evil is so ropey that it looks like a game of Atmosfear on VHS, and it has rough edges that only the most forgiving could ignore.

Sir Lovelot on Xbox feels like a weekend game; nothing incredibly special but a well-made experience nonetheless. This is a fun and simple platformer that can provide some good fun for a few hours.

Boom Blaster on Xbox left a bad taste in the mouth. In fact, the only blasting I wanted to do by the end of it, was blasting this game off my hard-drive. Don’t bother picking this one up, because it’s frankly unplayable. There are far too many issues to overlook and it’s an all-round horrible experience.

After playing Beyond Enemy Lines - Remastered Edition on the Xbox for more hours than it deserves, we feel shell-shocked. If it worked, which it doesn’t, it would still be magnitudes of awful thanks to a misunderstanding of what a stealth game is. It could at least have the courtesy of being forgiving when it’s bombarding you with bugs and bad decisions, but no - it keeps kicking you while you’re down and then tosses you to the start to experience it all again.

Thunderflash on Xbox is as derivative and basic as they come; a homage to top-down arcade shooters of yesteryear that provides a fun and functional experience at best, without delivering a sense of compelling challenge or encouraging subsequent replays.

Dreaming Sarah on Xbox does skew more towards the good dream rather than the nightmare. The game is mostly a visual treat with fantastic music, and it is dripping with endearing dream logic; something which is even more impressive when you consider it is primarily the effort of three creators. As one of the cheapest Xbox Series X|S optimized titles, I think there is a lot to love here, but some awkward controls and frustrating design decisions do hold this back from being an indie Metroidvania darling.

Mortal Shell: Enhanced Edition is a great example of how to revamp a game for the better via the power of the next gen. Even if you didn't buy the game first time around, I can recommend that you "Shell" out for it now.

The next-gen enhancements are nice for Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time on Xbox Series X|S, but they don’t change any of the larger issues to make this any better than the Xbox One version. 4K and 60fps are pleasant enough and it is a good thing this is a free upgrade for existing owners. Yet while many of the modern improvements make a much smoother game, it can’t quite reach the heights of Cortex Strikes Back or Warped available in the N. Sane Trilogy.

Truth be told, Monster Energy Supercross - The Official Videogame 4 on Xbox feels like a step backwards. After the series high point of the third instalment, the enhancements on offer here are clearly designed to be an improvement over that one. However, the changes to the fundamental racing itself make this a far less accessible entry.

Sign of the Sojourner really is worth picking up for the surrounding exploration and setting stuff - it’s that good - but you might want to zone out for the card-gaming.

Not quite the text adventure that SELF: Where’s my father on Xbox pitches itself as, it’s instead a surreal and stripped-back visual novel that beckons you to reveal its mystery by finding all of its endings. But while it has some wonderful moments on the way, it succumbs to the problems of many poorly structured mysteries: once you’ve peeled away the layers of the onion, you’re often left with nothing but a sense of dissatisfaction... and a tiny onion.

If you can grab a few like-minded friends, and don't ever set your expectations too high, then there is a good deal of fun to be had here with Dungeon Defenders: Awakened on Xbox. Add in multiple difficulties and scenarios, and there’s enough here to keep you playing for a decent amount of time.

Risk System on Xbox is a game that does the opposite of a traditional shooter, as rather than getting distracted with mounting an attack, the game solely places emphasis on careful avoidance and manoeuvring. Although it shies away from bullet hell conventions, it offers a style of challenge which is satisfying in a different way; a rush that comes with barely scraping by an enemy attack.

I wasn’t expecting much from Stubbs the Zombie, but Rebel Without a Pulse has proved to be enjoyable, with an entertaining narrative, writing and zaniness. If you're after some old-school action and can forgive the dated visuals, then Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse on Xbox might well be worth your time.

Killer Queen Black on Xbox really does tick the boxes in every way for its uniqueness and addictive nature. There are serious hours of fun to be had with a competitive or casual title that can easily be played in short bursts.

If you are a masochist and dislike folk made out of pixels, then The Lost Cube on Xbox is the perfect game for you. If however you are just looking to play video games to relax, maybe this isn't the title you should be spending time with. It’s a frustrating experience that just grows, although strangely it does still manage to bring about a slight urge to keep playing. As long as you know when to step away - for the sake of your Xbox controller if not for yourself - you’ll be fine here.

In Rays of the Light won’t take you long to complete - just under 2 hours in fact - but if you’re anything like me you’ll love what it provides. For the cheap price, it's well worth taking a punt on, especially if you want something different, or are just after an amazing story that doesn't give you all the narrative beats on a plate.

There is no guarantee that you will enjoy Spooky Chase on Xbox. It’s an acquired taste that demands that you’re patient, focused, have the reactions of a grasshopper, and are willing to persist with the same level over and over again. Its randomness means you can’t rely on muscle memory, so tie your pad round your wrists, as it might go for a skydive out of the window. But come to terms with what Spooky Chase wants from you, and it’ll create great moments.

Monster Truck Championship on Xbox Series X|S remains a solid sim racer, with plenty of events to tackle. However, the lack of variety, despite a good level of customisation options, will be a real issue for some. The optimised release has a visual edge over the original, but all things considered there isn’t much of a difference here at all.

KEMCO’s Asdivine Cross on Xbox is just some RPG. There’s nothing new or startling, there’s nothing that will amaze you, but equally there is nothing that is overly disappointing, apart from the slightly dodgy controls. If you have previously played, and liked, the rest of the Asdivine games, it’s good to have another bit of story from that universe.

3 out of 10: Season One on the Xbox is good enough to dodge a too-on-the-nose 3 out of 10, and even a 3 out of 5. As a ‘playable sitcom’ it excels at the sitcom bit, delivering laughs that wouldn’t be out of place in a top-tier comedy. Where it falls down is the ‘playable’ bit, offering a 50% hit-rate on its minigames that will often have you reaching for the welcome skip button. But even when it misses, 3 out of 10 has always got something to say and will tickle a rib or two.

It has to be said that the Blizzard Arcade Collection on Xbox is a great trip down memory lane for us older gamers, and almost a time capsule waiting to be unearthed by younger players. Seeing where Blizzard has come from is fascinating, and with three games from the days when playability was more important than whizz bang graphics, maybe it’s good that we get the chance to slow down and enjoy life once in a while.

The Vintage Pack for Planet Coaster: Console Edition on Xbox definitely feels like a better offering than the previous Spooky and Adventure packs. There is a much wider selection of rides and the amenities are much more than simple reskins of existing shops with new ones added.

The World’s Fair Pack on Xbox may be lacking rides, particularly in comparison to some of the other DLCs on offer for Planet Coaster: Console Edition, but it packs in plenty more facilities and scenery.

There’s a strong visual identity to Katana Kata on Xbox and a clear idea here of using weaponry to create varied combat situations. Unfortunately, inconsistent fighting mechanics and a lack of player control really hurt the overall grind, as its moment-to-moment gameplay is more aggravating than awesome.

It’s easy to recommend what R8 Games have created here. Pacer is quite possibly the finest anti-grav racer available on Xbox - a slick, smooth, super fast roller coaster of a game that lets you go as deep as you want, in more ways than one. If you’ve been hanging on for a Wipeout beater, you’ll still be waiting, but this is about as close as it gets to a modern day anti-grav masterpiece.

Baobabs Mausoleum Grindhouse Edition on Xbox is one of those underground sleeper hits likely to become a future cult classic - if it hasn’t already done so. This release comes packed with all the chapters and other extras, and it is the best way for the uninitiated to jump right in and experience a game world and adventure like no other.

We were sidewinded by Steven Universe: Unleash the Light on Xbox. We came into it without any experience of Save the Light, and had unfounded assumptions that this was a My First RPG that would be as dull as dishwater. What we got was something in the way of Costume Quest 1 and 2: a witty, elegant little turn-based RPG that surprised every time that we thought it would dive into monotony.

Doodle Devil: 3volution on the Xbox falls foul of the same problems that have plagued Doodle games since the beginning of creation. Progress begins well, with elements mixing logically and a fun flourish when you get a pairing right. But then the pattern sets in, and you’re painstakingly combining every element with every other element, with the emphasis on ‘pain’.

With the gameplay being pretty weak, the only worthwhile part of Anodyne 2 on Xbox is its presentation. Truly, it should be applauded for this alone. Even the music succeeds in pulling the player back to that early, three-dimensional time period. However, a nice bit of music and some neat aesthetics do not make for a complete or fun experience.

Yakuza 5 is very much the magnum opus of the series; bigger, better and bolder than anything that came before it. It is immediately obvious from the get-go why it is often cited as one of the best in the entire series.

If you have previously enjoyed games like Thomas was Alone, then Journey of the Broken Circle on Xbox is going to be for you. The developers have created a beautiful and magical world with strange, unreal characters, but have managed to place real-world issues into it; the mix works brilliantly.

Kill It With Fire on Xbox is brilliant. It’s original, preposterous, but more importantly an absolute hoot. It does what few games have the power to, which is put a smile on your face and fill your heart with joy. The only snag is that you’ll never look at a house spider in the same way again.

Taxi Chaos is not Crazy Taxi, not even close, but it is competent and functional enough to scratch an itch until SEGA’s arcade classic receives a modern 4K remaster treatment.

Mail Mole on Xbox does the job of offering a ‘00s-era platformer - nothing more, nothing less. There’s no innovation here, not even capitalising on the fact that you’re a mole, and you may well groan at the landslide of cliches. But as we came to the end of Mail Mole, we kind of dug it. Aside from the odd control molehill, Mail Mole is a smooth ride and it may well scratch an itch that you forgot you had.

I have been delightfully surprised at how accessible and addictive Heavy Metal Machines on Xbox is; it has been a thrill to have something like this at a quiet period in gaming. The game has real potential and enough legs to see it grow and blossom into a success.

Rodent Warriors on Xbox is a fun game; one that is perfect for a quick blast. Picking up the controller, blasting through a level and then resetting the character is a perfect short term option. If you don't have much time, then getting the game to play itself will allow you to get up to the much-needed higher levels and gear, but how that mechanic will sit is a very personal one.

If you were brought to Under the Jolly Roger on Xbox with the promise of swashbuckling, action, and a hope that it would be ‘Black Flag: The Ship Bits’, then turn sail: this isn’t the game you’re looking for. This is a pirate sim with the emphasis on ‘sim’, and all the resource management, tedious downtime and charmlessness that can come with the genre.

Much like those which have come before it, Aery - A Journey Beyond Time on Xbox is enjoyable. It's a simple piece of gameplay with an intriguing premise that delivers a relaxing experience even when chronicling the fall of humankind.

GraviFire on Xbox is very much your standard block pusher puzzle game, but the unique gravity aspect does literally subvert things for the better. It does a brilliant job gradually bringing you up to speed with how the mechanics work, before throwing curveballs at you in the very tricky later levels. It’s a shame then that there isn’t a bit more to it, but for the price it is tough to expect much more.

theHunter: Call of the Wild 2021 Edition on Xbox is a game that I have really enjoyed. The slow pace and deliberate way you have to approach the hunts are a welcome change of pace from the frenetic games that frequent the marketplace, the vistas are beautiful, and the approach to your prey needs to be bang on if you are to stand a chance of seeing anything other than a retreating derriere.

Retrace: Memories of Death on Xbox takes the basic structure of Happy Death Day and makes it into a video game, giving you the chance to save everyone from horrific deaths. But what could have been a web of strategic choices instead turns out to be a few single threads, and the promise fades a little.

Horned Knight is a strange one. It’s a game that suffers from an extreme lack of variety, story and replayability. It’s a game that becomes repetitive rather quickly. It’s a game that does nothing to set itself apart from the hundreds of games of a similar nature that already exist on the market. And yet at the same time, it’s fundamentally solid from a pure gameplay perspective, with smooth, responsive controls and naturally difficult platforming sections that really test a player’s skill.

It does virtually nothing new, and revels in all the eye-rolling cliches that you may be used to. But in the exploration, hidden object puzzling and minigames, it has all the hits: there’s not a duffer on here, and - for a lot of hidden object fans who are crying out for precisely that - Demon Hunter is something of a revelation.

Even though Monster Jam Steel Titans 2 on Xbox looks to seriously build on what its predecessor delivered, there are a few elements which hold it back from really providing the goods. The camera is god awful, the picky track limits system is a pain, and there are only so many times you can go flying through the air pulling off stunts before the whole thing gets boring. The open world has some serious promise, especially with the multitude of secrets that are hidden within, but a bit more shiny wax needs to be applied for this monster truck to start to gleam.

The single solution puzzles make it all too easy to get frustrated when spending a large amount of time trying to clear a level. Combined with the damsel that one would rather leave in distress and the horribly annoying bug that continued to remove all challenge from the game, Dungeons & Bombs on Xbox is an unoriginal idea that goes off with a “meh” rather than a “bang”.

If you’re looking for a challenge of any form, then Under Leaves is not for you. It’s also not particularly long or deep, so don’t expect anything that will last you for more than an evening. But if you want the gaming equivalent of a foot spa, or a hidden object game that a family could play together (or independently) without much issue, then Under Leaves will charm the socks off you. It’s a children’s book come alive, and we don’t get many of those on Xbox shelves.

Endurance: Space Action on Xbox is a decent sci-fi adventure, wrapped in mystery and told over a substantial single player campaign. However, partly due to its length, few will feel compelled to see it through to its conclusion.

Akuto: Showdown on Xbox is simple and fun to play, but feels as if it has fallen short of its full potential, mostly due to an absence of online play.

PUSS! on Xbox is absolutely worth picking up and trying. If you have the patience to get through its often brutal levels, you will find a surreal, rewarding experience that is simply unlike anything else. This is a game that will make you scream in both anger and delight, but it's also a game that comes with some of the most satisfying gameplay I’ve experienced in a long while.

If you are looking for a challenge, there are certainly worse games out there, but Firework fails to shine bright and should only really be considered by the masochists.

Void Gore on Xbox will slap you in the face with its intense difficulty, but persistence, consistency and utilising the powers and upgrades available makes this retro title a dream to spend ten minutes or ten hours with. What it lacks in beauty, it makes up for with its retro vibes, charm and the ability to suck you in, making you frustrated but providing you with sheer enjoyment at the same time.

Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Heart of the Forest revels in storytelling and character-building, presenting you with choices to make, adding consequences to those choices, and then growing your character based on those consequences. It could have done with a bit more bite and certainly more Garou-bloodletting, but the tale it tells will leave you over the (full) moon.

In all, Curse of the Dead Gods on Xbox is a game that is easy to recommend to anyone looking for a challenge. It is is always hard, always difficult, and has not a shred of mercy built into it. In fact, you need to be on top of your game in order to make it to the bosses, never mind to take them down. But should you fail, you can always put your finger on why you did so. The gameplay is complemented well by the overall design; the enemies are great, the Temple looks amazing and the mechanics of the corruption and the light is very well-realised. While it won’t be to everyone’s taste, if a challenge is something you seek, Curse of the Dead Gods will provide it.

There’s no doubting that there is a short and ramshackle Breath of the Wild at the centre of Effie on the Xbox. Its rough, indie edges can be incredibly charming, and surfing the open world on the back of a magical shield is a gift that keeps on giving. But the rough edges are too sharp, too frequently.

If you have loved the previous two games in the Active Neurons series then you can’t put a foot wrong With Active Neurons 3 - Wonders Of The World on Xbox. It may feel a bit like a piece of DLC rather than a new imagining of the series, but that's fine for the cheap price and offer of a host of extra levels.

Whilst there could be some work done with the combat and control system, The Wild Eight performs well enough in all other aspects and presents you with more than enough gameplay to keep you entertained for hours.

Whether you want to play #SinucaAttack on Xbox for achievements or for something a bit different, there is a bit of fun to be had. Levels do start to get a bit repetitive but then it will throw a new feature at you that will act as a difficulty spike and a way to keep things fresh. The controls cannot be excused though - there is just no legislating for them.

That’s the heart of what UltraGoodness 2 on Xbox gets so wrong. It forgets what’s great about twin-stick shooting: the frenzy, the pyrotechnics, the stacking power-ups, and how godlike it can make you feel. There’s nothing better than swerving to avoid an enemy as you nail a missile into their broadside. If you are a shooter that is encouraging players to stop, slow down and tentatively tiptoe through your game, then something is wrong. UltraTepid it is then.

It’s the constant back-and-forth between great ideas and not-so-great ideas, technical shortcomings and imaginative solutions to those shortcomings, that define The StoryTale on Xbox. For every step back, it takes one forward. But The StoryTale doesn’t let that stop its attempts to innovate: even with a 50% hit-rate on its ideas, it keeps trying them out, and that should be celebrated.

Speed Limit on Xbox is a hell of a lot of fun. I’ll admit that I never thought I’d get to grips with what it offers, and thought failure would be nailed on. But there is something about it that keeps pulling you back for one more attempt, and then a few more thrown on top of that.

Yakuza 4 Remastered on Xbox isn’t the best game in The Yakuza Remastered Collection but it is a marked improvement on the pacing of Yakuza 3 Remastered.

The main problem that On The Road on Xbox has is not in the tedium of the driving, it's not in the poor visuals, it’s not in the game crashes and it's not in the clunky, amateurish menus. Nope, it's found in a combination of all those things along with an asking price that is verging on disgusting. And that means this is one trucking simulator that is going to struggle to make any form of headway on any console street.

Persian Nights 2: The Moonlight Veil on Xbox is best described as an anticlimax. It starts well with a wonderful setting - magical lunar eclipses and techno-Persian backdrops - but then fumbles them completely, reverting back to all the usual Artifex Mundi cliches.

Glittering Sword on Xbox is disappointing. It shouldn’t be expected to offer anything revolutionary to the genre, given its status as a homage to The Legend of Zelda. It should be expected to nail the fundamentals though. It doesn’t. The game never advances beyond the same simplistic puzzles and stale combat, and the only answer to scaling difficulty is throwing more projectiles and enemies at you in an attempt to slow you down.

Get 10 Quest is a brilliant little game which will only cost you a few pennies. For this reason it can be forgiven for being feature light, but at its core it’s amongst the best puzzlers around.

If you're looking for a game to tickle the little grey cells, you may just have found it with Knight's Retreat. The only real complaint is that once you’ve nailed the 80 levels, that’s about it; there isn't a score for each level, and so the urge to carry on playing once it is defeated just isn't there.

How to Take Off Your Mask Remastered on Xbox is a satisfyingly romantic visual novel that doesn’t over-complicate proceedings or become too awkwardly raunchy. You’ll want to see how the rather cute story unfolds, but then you’re done with it, which is a little bit of a shame.

Despite nearly showing its entire hand from the start, Roombo: First Blood on Xbox remains original and hilarious in light of all the bloodshed.

Kick It, Bunny! on Xbox clearly demonstrates that DillyFrame Games still have a fair few improvements to make before they can deliver a fully functioning, and worthwhile puzzler. A lick of paint for the bunny, reusing the same old background music, possessing iffy mechanics, and throwing some more animals into the mix just won’t cut it.

Control Ultimate Edition on the Xbox Series X|S is just about every reason to play Control, conveniently stored in a plastic green box. If you’ve played before, the stellar AWE DLC, the stripping away of old infuriations, and the showpiece graphical improvements are convincing arguments for hopping back in (even if it demands that you pay extra for the privilege). If you haven’t played Control before, then you have the reassurance that this is a deserving Game of the Year, in its definitive format.

If you’re looking for an in-depth survival experience, where deception is the biggest obstacle, then Project Winter is a great game to pick up. Just keep in mind that you’ll want a mic and it may take a couple of games to get into the swing of things.