The single player mode is great fun, and while this makes for an enjoyable experience, once the online multiplayer begins to work as intended, this is a game that will go from strength to strength.

There are some interesting level designs here and enough variation even through its short runtime to give you an excuse to try Circus Pocus. It won't be winning any awards for innovation or execution, but it remains fun throughout and doesn’t last longer than is needed.

Young players who are resistant to a bit of repetition, who thrive on simple platformers with forgiving mechanics AND carry a love for creepy shelf-goblins will find a welcoming game that is perfectly suited to a level a day over advent. For everyone else, we can sneer at The Elf on the Shelf: Christmas Heroes and mutter into our eggnog.

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.

Grim Idle is free and so there’s value in the sense that you can earn a huge chunk of Gamerscore and have a little fun experimenting with the skill tree, without exerting much brain power. Beyond that, it doesn’t offer enough enticement to carry on and venture across the rest of the galaxy.

Mostroscopy brings something different to the table in regards to its presentation, but then the wheels fall off. The fighting action is so simplistic that there is rarely a challenge, and unless you have a regular buddy who can come round to challenge you to some sofa-based battling, it’s not much fun once you’ve clocked it.

There’s a killer idea at the core of Swordship, and so much presentational care has been put into supporting it. What would happen if you ‘pulled a Mirror’s Edge’ and made a shooter completely pacifist? The result would be Swordship, a dodge ’em up that’s overloaded with potential. In execution, though, it slowly capsizes.

To be fair to Chasing Carrots, they’ve not overpriced Pressure Overdrive too much, but if you want to give it a go, I’d say to wait for a sale. There are better twin stick shooters and driving games out there for your hard earned cash.

Our requests have been heard with Kao the Kangaroo: Bend The Roo'les DLC, but not without small print. The levels are just as difficult as the challenge wells, and come with all the frustrations of the main game. We are thankful for what Kao the Kangaroo: Bend The Roo'les offers, then, but we’d liked to have pulled our hair out a little less.

First Time in Rome Collector’s Edition averages out as promising but faulty. It’s got too many rough edges to recommend to newbies, but there’s plenty to satisfy a fan of the genre. Treat it as ‘Further Reading’, rather than an essential to pack for holiday.

Noob - The Factionless is one of those games that does what it says on the tin, providing a decent entry level experience to the RPG genre. However, by doing close to the bare minimum, it feels nothing more than just about adequate.

As it stands, Bit Dungeon Plus is a decent little Rogue-like game that is a good pickup for those that want a little bit of challenge. It would be supremely better if the developers actually told you what certain stats did, or if you could actually keep your extra lives in between sessions of your run. But the equipment system is nice, and the respawning Demons really help extend the playtime of each run – without making it feel too monotonous. It could definitely use with a bit more polish, but the raw game is still, on the whole, pretty decent.

Honestly, it took me a little while to really get my head around Isle of Spirits on Xbox One. The permadeath was initially annoying and the look and design was just too simple for my tastes. But after a while, I began to enjoy the casual island life, beginning to understand the ways of survival on these randomly generated islands.

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.

It is great to have one of the classic farming games on modern consoles again, but STORY OF SEASONS: A Wonderful Life can’t hold a candle to many of the more modern offerings.

I look at the breadth of stuff in Defending Camelot – Tower Defense Action and kind of marvel. There’s an unholy amount of content here. But I also wonder what it would be like if the emphasis was less on ‘more’ and instead shifted toward ‘polish’.

If you’re someone who likes watching behind the scenes videos and interviews about the creation of games, or you just love seeing the myriad ways in which people express their artistic visions through this interactive medium, Scrap Garden’s massive heart more than makes up for its technical shortcomings.

Aery - Calm Mind is a pleasant experience for the couple of hours it takes to complete all the chapters. The idea is that you take it in in chunks, and this is probably the best way of tackling the scenarios, especially if you're just using the game as a chill-out mechanism.

Barry the Bunny can be completed in under two hours, especially if you are rushing through things. If you’re an achievement hunter then it does give you a quick 1000 Gamerscore, but I don’t think you’ll get much more joy out of it then that. There’s nothing wrong with the game per se, it’s just easy and a bit redundant after a while.

Firefighting Simulator - The Squad manages to capture something of the dangerous (and dare we say) exciting profession. However, there’s not enough here to prevent it from ending up as a flash in the pan.

All in all then and Path of Exile is an enjoyable game, held back by some peculiar design choices, both in game and in the UI.

Where Sudocats shines is its accessibility. For not much money at all, Sudocats is a perfect Sudoku starting point for mewbies and young players. If you’re in that group, or you love cats so much you could cry, then Sudocats lands on its feet.

The concept alone sells Don’t Mess With Bober, with it being strong enough to ensure the idea is worthy of praise. However, the other elements of the game, the core survival horror mechanics, don’t quite live up to that brilliant main premise.

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.

When you get right into the core action you quickly realise that Skelly Selest is ultimately all flash without any compelling gameplay substance.

Crossovers by POWGI is another example of what the POWGI games do best; take existing puzzle types and mash them together for something fun and unique. And with 200 of them on offer this time, you get a very good amount.

Treasure Stack is fun, and despite similarities to other puzzlers feels new and fresh enough to be worthy of your time. This said, it doesn’t quite have that magic formula and feels very light in terms of content, which won’t keep you entertained for long.

Super Chicken Jumper is a distinctly average option for fans of the genre; a game that doesn’t do much wrong, but also isn’t about to impress. There’s a binary choice here as to whether this is a game you need in your library.

Xatrom Command is a decent twin stick shooter that will provide a hit of short term fun, as well as some 1000 Gamerscore without being overly taxing.

As a game there isn’t really much on offer here, and it’s not as engaging in choice as other more recent FMV games, but I am looking forward to seeing #WarGames continue and for the price alone it’s worth a gander.

Lootbox Lyfe+ can be a rather spiffing little platformer. Stacking on ability after ability, at roughly three times the pace that Samus might, for example, is a bit of a lark. It’s at its best in the opening moments, when that cadence is something of a punchline, but it’s still good in the latter game, too.

There is a good game in here, one with plenty of ambition, spirit, polish and immersion. But it could have been so much more.

‘Doing the job’ could be Colorful Colore’s mantra. Sliding puzzle games are stale as they come, but Colorful Colore does just enough to liven it up with a central colour-changing mechanic and some unusual blocks and pressure pads. You’d be hard-pushed to fill an hour with Colorful Colore, and even harder-pushed to find a reason to replay, but if you’re in the market for some nostalgia with a few modern ideas, then yep, it does the job.

Road Stones is not a great tower defense game, but a cheap and slightly cheerful one. The freedom proposed by the gameplay is decent, with lots of upgrades eventually at your disposal to increase the joy of defeating monsters. The difficulty is completely skewed though, causing frustration when your resources are limited.

If you’re a sucker for the many other ‘mechanic’ and ‘simulator’ games on the market, there’s a chance you’ll get along with Rover Mechanic Simulator. It's relaxing at times, but you’ll need to love taking things apart - and putting them back together again - in order to get the most from it.

MLB The Show is still the undisputed king of baseball games. Super Mega Baseball 4 is there for the casual or younger players, but it’ll be hard to keep eyes on this for very long. It feels quite soulless and devoid of personality.

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.

If you have the patience of a saint and some mean platforming skills, then Raccoo Venture may be for you. But if you question your ability in either of those areas, then we warn you: Raccoo Venture can feel like rooting around in the trash, and there’s an awful lot of sharp glass in there.

Starlit Adventures is free to pick up so there’s no harm in giving it a go to see how you get on with it. But it’ll take hours of honest grinding before you can unlock suits, and perhaps multiple playthroughs before you have them all, which I can’t really imagine doing. It’s a fun adventure but not one that will leave you wanting more. And with its financial model, the latter is exactly what Rockhead are hoping for.

If you fancy a retro styled action platform game, you’re not short of choice, and Demons of Asteborg should be another to add to the list.

Beast Quest does just enough to make you want to keep playing. The story will keep pulling you forward, and the desire to free the beasts and have them on your side is quite strong. However, it isn’t perfect, even bearing in mind its target demographic.

If you want to kill some time or you feel like boosting your Gamerscore, then Birthday of Midnight on Xbox One is a cheap buy that will take up a couple hours of your time. It also comes with a very Halloweeny theme, and a soundtrack that fits the vibe, so it could be a good way to get into that spooky spirit.

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.

Like the first two games in the series, Fit and Fry: Mise en Place feels like a purchase for achievement hunters, more than anyone else.

Dead Effect 2 is a game that offers a fantastic visual experience, but lets itself down with very basic issues. That said it is in no way a terrible game, and those looking for a viable first-person shooter should certainly give it a bash if you’re fed up with the usual titles on the market. If precision and polish is something you can’t look past though, then you may feel slightly disappointed.

Unfortunately at this moment TT Isle of Man: Ride on the Edge is a game that is failing its players in the areas that it should really look to excel, and there are some desperate changes needed to bring this game up to the standard it deserves to reach.

My Fantastic Ranch is a sturdy, basic management sim that acts as a gateway to the genre. It also manages to satisfy a fantasy that a lot of younger players might have: to own and ride twenty-odd dragons and unicorns.

Recommending Ben 10: Power Trip on the Xbox One is difficult, because everything comes with an asterisk. It’s a refreshing difference from your traditional licensed kids’ game, as it attempts an open world BUT that open world is lacking in content and interest. It can be explored cooperatively BUT only if you stay joined at the hip. The platforming and combat are fun BUT you’ll have to fight the camera while you do it. If you’re desperate for a Ben 10 experience on Xbox One then it might be enough to scrub out those asterisks and give it a go.

There’s no debating that Horatio goes Snowboarding is a great little homage to the Horace classic from yesteryear, but there’s just not enough variation to the gameplay to warrant more than a few hours of play at best.

Georifters is fun for a time, and packs in plenty of levels. However, the gameplay shows its hand early on, and struggles to develop from there. It throws in some new bits and bobs as you play, but soon it becomes quite repetitive, and the levels start to feel like a bit of a grind.

For a few short hours The Pillar: Puzzle Escape on Xbox will completely transport you away. It is easy to get sucked in thanks to the serene environment combined with the first-person perspective. A lack of story does not matter: this is a place begging to be explored.

Hunter’s Legacy is a good game; it has interesting, engaging gameplay with cool light RPG elements and good level design. Unfortunately, with a lack of any real story or enemies that can go through walls to attack you constantly, coupled with the lack of knowledge about almost necessary upgrades and a difficulty spike that is ridiculously sharp, I can’t whole-heartedly recommend Hunter’s Legacy as a purchase for people unknown to what they might be getting in to.

We’re in a curious state of being with Alder’s Blood: Definitive Edition. The craft on display in this stealthy turn-based strategy game is superb, and we can’t help but admire the nihilistic Banner Saga-style art and world. But it’s a beautifully designed chair that we find painful sitting in, thanks to its randomness, its punishing failure, and its unwieldy management layers.

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.

Whilst there are better Metroidvanias out there, MARS 2120 certainly makes a decent fist of things.

Ruinverse on Xbox is very much in that category of “just some JRPG”. It does nothing particularly bad, but it does nothing particularly good either. It has a decent story, but the subtexts are so obvious, and the twist in the narrative can be seen coming from miles away. But still, it gets more enjoyable the more you play through and whilst it’s not going to set the world on fire, give it a chance and you could do worse.

As an experience it’s completely original; a taxing and emotional rollercoaster that questions the whole process of demonstrations from both sides of the line. As a game, and well, it all comes across as a bit of a mess while playing, and it’s really hard to control or work out what is going on at any one time.

The good points of Astral Takers are balanced out by the bad, and the result is a game that is middle of the road at best. If you like KEMCO games, this is one of those that will test you, but there’s not much here to drag the new players in.

Much like the Halloween horrors Goosebumps: Terror in Little Creek is based on, it’s a mixed goody bag of treats, yet more often than not, tricks. This potential classic is plagued with repetitive gameplay based on a thirty year old ancient foundation, and “puzzles” that rarely take much thought.

Torchlight III on Xbox One is by no means a bad game. It functions fine and gives the same satisfaction that your traditional ARPG will. That being said, it feels just a bit lazy. The gameplay, story, visuals and mechanics are fine but that’s about it. It is rather fun with friends and doesn’t have any major issues, but it fails to live up to the light set before it.

Your Toy is a game that I’ve enjoyed a lot. It’s a puzzle/escape room title that is fairy short and delivers nothing original in the story department, but it all works well enough for a couple of hours enjoyment.

If you like Turok and want to finish the trilogy, then Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion Remastered is the only game in town. But for anyone else, there are better games to play.

At the price point, XIII A Final Game of Tarot may be justifiable for players, especially achievement hunters who are looking to maximize their Gamerscore. But beyond that, it's hard to recommend, especially when all the content can be experienced in less than 30 minutes.

Neighbours back from Hell on Xbox One has a style and a tone that is going to split the community - you're either going to fall in love with it straight away, or it will just make you cringe. The humour and style is cartoony while the game mixes stealth and point and click adventuring to a reasonable degree. However, after a while the game doesn’t do enough to keep interest levels high, and it needs to switch up the gameplay dynamic.

This will be a fantastic edition for Final Fantasy XV when it is patched and updated, but it just needs a bit more time and TLC.

Dead Dragons – it is just too hard and rewards with so little that it feels like banging your head against a brick wall. I’ve played pretty much all of KEMCO’s Xbox releases, but can only really recommend this one to hardcore masochists.

We admire Alpha Particle. It’s a product of love, created by people who truly believed in their vision. You can see the passion for the world, story, rulesets and progression structure in every minute detail. But in our case, all that effort created a wall, not a game. We bounced off it more than we tinkered with it.

Whilst PONG Quest on the Xbox One sounds like a brilliant idea on paper, fusing PONG gameplay with RPG mechanics, the shallowness of PONG itself unfortunately quickly makes this a dull grind.

Squish Machine is fine, for a time. It's able to provide reasonably easy gathering of Gamerscore, as well as a fun flap through trap-filled stages, ushering up memories of times gone by and the thrill of Flappy Bird ideas. Whether you'll find enough to continue on through to the bitter end though, will be up for debate.

The excellent on-field action in Madden NFL 24 is badly let down by the performance elsewhere. The menus are in desperate need of an update, and the shallow modes like Madden Ultimate Team and Superstar mode offer little in the way of variation.

Pnevmo-Capsula is an inventive, yet short, puzzle game. It comes with a nice cheap price that ensures the experience is probably worth a punt, but the lack of hand-holding and need of direction will put a lot of people off

There are some nice ideas in Parking World, especially in the design ideas and variety of scenarios on offer, allowing for a reasonably relaxing game – at least when things run smoothly. The problem is, there are stutters, it is not as smooth as it should be, and the UI is too small.

When everything comes together Super Cloudbuilt feels effortless; it’s smooth and gorgeous fun. It’s just a shame that those special moments aren’t more common.

There’s no doubt that it feels a bit rough around the edges, but if you are after a new survival horror, you’ll be intrigued by THE ORIGIN: Blind Maid.

The intro promises some future dramatic, potentially even salacious turns, but not one of the four different stories delivers. It’s all too tentative. In the end, Embraced by Autumn could have done with just a little more confidence and sass.

We'd like a bit more clarity on what is going on within 3°C: Sand Puzzle, but that doesn't stop it from being a fun little colour matcher, capable of keeping players busy for an hour or two.

Blood of Mehran has all the right bones for what a game of this type should be, and it plays fine, but it's one that unfortunately never truly impresses.

There’s a whole demographic of gamers out there who absolutely love the old-school gameplay loops, retro visual style, and, of course... tank controls. The developer delivers all of this with confidence in Greek Tragedy; it knows its audience, and they will probably love it. For me, it frustrates more than it impresses.

Wick is a game that isn’t bad to play, but it isn’t overly brilliant to play either. It delivers a horror experience with some nice jump scares and brilliant sound effects, but the gameplay lets the experience down; becoming frustrating and boring rather too quickly.

Pure Chase 80’s is a fling with an ex. For a fleeting moment, it reminds you of a past love - in this case, Outrun - and leaves you pining for an older time. But it is exceptionally fleeting: all feelings of joy evaporate after an hour or so, and you realise why you moved on in the first place.

There isn’t a bad game in this compilation, but there isn’t exactly a great one either; there’s nothing stand out that would cause you to buy the VISCO Collection.

I don’t think Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid is designed to be a throwback to simpler times, but that is how this feels. It’s just a shame really that there isn’t more of everything.

Spellcats: Auto Card Tactics is an auto battling roguelike card game that’s missing a few tricks and won’t put you under its spell. The card designs, their synergies and the strategic preparation stage deserve praise, for sure. However, it’s let down by poor explanations as well as issues surrounding cat abilities, trinkets, and saving your progress.

On one hand, this couple of hours journey through the memories of a bored, broken, female office worker intrigues and delights me in equal measure. I love the way the narrative is told in an experimental and different way from the usual method. I also appreciate the puzzle sections and wide collection of playing styles. But some of the other gameplay choices are terribly broken and dull.

Ultra Pixel Survive is fun in short blasts, and getting a good defence set-up going is pretty satisfying. However, even with the low asking price in mind, you may still feel a little short changed. In fact, if you want to play a survival game featuring building, I’d suggest Minecraft.

After spending a fair bit of time with the many fighting games that have released this year, it’s fair to say Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite is both slacking and lacking in comparison.

Blacksmith of the Sand Kingdom on Xbox is an interesting take on a KEMCO game. It’s more of a management sim than a straight-up RPG, with you having to balance your jaunts to dungeons against the needs of the town for blacksmithed goods. There is a depth that is quite pleasing, but the whole premise seems to be to grind - while there’s fun to be had, it is very repetitive.

There’s a long list of things that Days of Doom needed to be a successful roguelite tactics game. It needed to be quicker, more varied, less grindy and give you more options in a given battle.

On one hand, I appreciate the effort in creating a plethora of creatures to defeat, upgrades, heroes and the idea of ascension to try making it further through the worlds. Whilst on the other hand, I deplore the idea of a game bearing such lazy gameplay input of just pressing a button constantly, which in itself becomes obsolete due to DPS.

Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition on Xbox One could have stood out from the many retro style indie RPG efforts, with a beautiful setting, charming characters, and excellent pixel art to complement a genuinely interesting narrative. Unfortunately, the utterly messy map design and cumbersome gameplay hold it back from realising its true potential.

Puzzle games that try something new are pretty rare, so Indigo 7 gets some brownie points. But those points are mostly squandered by too much randomness, duff game modes, a vacuous story and a combo system that files away the fun. There’s a decent multiplayer puzzler tucked away in the corners of Indigo 7: Quest For Love, but this is mostly a failed experiment with only a few interesting findings.

Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin is certainly a better-looking game than the first one, but it feels like it plays it a bit safe in improving anything else really.

iO proves that you don’t need a great story, you don’t need stunning visuals, you don’t need complex controls and you don’t need a banging soundtrack. You will however need to be a certain type of gamer to enjoy all the stages that iO delivers, but should you be a puzzle fiend and in the market for a clever, albeit slightly frustrating, abstract brain taxer, then you could do worse than check it out.

If you fancy some fast-food Metroidvania action, then Runnyk is surprisingly digestible. If you want depth, innovation, challenge or something that makes you actually think, then you might want to get your kicks elsewhere.

Our problem with Motesolo: No Girlfriend Since Birth is that we have already played the more satisfying - but still similar - Five Dates and Ten Dates. We felt like we had a say on those encounters, and they were with people we actually wanted to spend time with. We’d much rather go on Fifteen Dates than another one with Kimo. Sorry, buddy, it’s pretty glaring why you’ve had no girlfriends since birth.

Warface: Breakout is very much just some shooter, and there are much better games out there that will be more rewarding to play. If you liked Warface, then by all means give it a whirl, but it doesn’t compare to the other current darlings of the FPS genre.

Sudden Strike 5 is about as rough around the edges as you are likely to get. And the controls don’t make things any easier. Yes, the maps are decent, and there is plenty of content to get involved in, but if you want to play a WWII real time strategy game, I’d stick with Sudden Strike 4…

For a brainless hour or so, M.A.D. Cows might be worth your cash. But you deserve better. There are better cuts of beef out there.