Bus Bound is a cosy bus experience that strips away the complex bells and whistles found in more detailed simulators. It offers a fun city to drive around, but the repetitive core loop may well make you realise you are not quite the dedicated bus driver this game wants you to be.

REPLACED is an ambitious action adventure platformer which opts for hand-crafted pixel art, but that takes nothing away from how utterly absorbing it is. However, I can’t let that blind me from its shortcomings that, whilst far from being serious, do limit the potential of an otherwise impressive game, one that can sometimes be accused of style over substance.

I really liked what I saw in Hacked: The Streamer; a short but engaging FMV title. The narrative is genuinely exciting and highly relevant to 2026.

If you loved Arcadia Fallen, then I can say with no caveats whatsoever that you will love Arcadia Fallen II as well. It still plays the same trick – staying in the confines of a single building but ensuring the world is out to get you – but that building is bigger, and the stakes are magnitudes more thrilling. Sure, the choices occasionally feel like railroad tracks, but the quality of the tale is great enough that all is soon forgiven.

For the low price, it’s not quite the jackpot that it could have been, but Cloverpit: Unholy Fusion should have just enough to nudge you to a purchase.

As it stands, as with all of these collections, the results are hit and miss. If you’re curious about the whole single-button endeavour, then it’s worth picking up and giving a go. But if you’re interested in consistent value and quality, then One Button Games 5-in-1 vol. 6 struggles more than it should.

Learning is a wonderful thing, and rarely will you be fooled twice in GRIME II. It means that if you are looking for a combat heavy metroidvania to play, then you may just have found it.

Monster Crown: Sin Eater is not on the same level as the classic Pokemon titles, yet that’s not what it tries to be. Where that series focuses on catching every species, Monster Crown employs complex breeding, a mature narrative, and impactful decisions, excelling at them all. Sadly, Monster Crown: Sin Eater struggles with the space between its milestones, leaving an enjoyable yet flawed addition to the monster-taming genre with a larger-than-life personality.

Aphelion may stumble in its mechanics, but when it places focus on the storytelling, atmosphere and spectacle, it’s exactly the kind of experience DON’T NOD excels at. It’s intriguing, mysterious and clever – we just wish it was tighter in terms of save points and how the gameplay is handled.

Heavy Duty chose a different path. It’s a finicky, precise simulation game, and that wasn’t the path I would have chosen for it. There is a chance that it’s the right path for you. Just be prepared to drive down that path very… slowly… indeed.

Regardless if you are smashing your head against the same level, or blowing your way through enemies, your eyes and ears are in for a treat with ZPF.

The Legend of Zelda’s influence on the action-adventure genre is worn almost as a banner by ChildStory, with gameplay and level design alike clearly influenced by that series, in mostly positive ways.

From the Bunker does provide an hour's worth of entertainment, but once you’ve escaped there is no completion screen, and no desire to ever play it again.

Collie Call: The Future is Calling fits with many of the other games produced by Afil Games - simple graphics and a single core puzzle mechanic that is designed to appeal to younger gamers.

BEFORE I GO is an enjoyable metroidvania, where gameplay is king. The story could use some additional flushing out and the dialogue comes across as awkward at times, but the game stands strong despite its flaws. It’s certainly worth checking out if you want to get sucked into a world for a few hours.

Nullstar: Solus is a strong addition to the ever-expanding repertoire of precision-platformers, although it’s unlikely to be held amongst the genre’s greats.

You’ll have a great time with Tides of Tomorrow and its strange time-travelling mechanics. Its use of integrating other players’ journeys into your own is a genuinely inspired bit of game development. The story firmly hooked me throughout its 10-hour campaign, and there are some incredibly tough choices to make along the way.

ChainStaff is an interesting proposition. The gameplay is hard, brutal even, and trial and error is encouraged to see what you can do to use the ChainStaff to defeat foes. With multiple difficulty levels to go at, and a series of increasingly hard levels, mastering the traversal mechanic and the ChainStaff is vital. But also very good fun.

I enjoyed Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss, particularly the striking visuals and high production values. The detective elements introduce some impressive new mechanics that make for a highly thoughtful gameplay experience. That being said, it does get too confusing at times, and I felt I spent far too much time wandering around trying to figure out my next move.

Little Helper Cafe: Sugar Cubes is much too similar to the first game to say anything significantly different about it as an experience.

The Empty Desk is a pretty short game, but it is just about enjoyable enough. The clean visuals, and central mystery that slowly reveals itself over the course of the game, work well, but some of the writing is a bit clunky.

RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic brings together the first, and best, two games in the series in one bumper package. Although not all that much has been done to update the source material, it remains one of the best theme park sim games out there.

This is more than just Ooo in PowerWash Simulator 2: this is PowerWash Simulator 2 warped and re-painted to feel true to Adventure Time.

Initially, I didn’t see much of a connection between Vampire Crawlers and Vampire Survivors. But the similarity is what they both did to me. Both of them gripped me tightly for 20 hours or so. Both made me feel like I was a gaming god, being showered with rewards as I cut through enemies. And both gave me permission to leave once I mastered them. I ended both games feeling like nothing in its world could touch me.

Whilst you may well be drawn in to MOUSE: P.I. For Hire by the visuals and soundtrack, once in, you’ll discover a game that is so much more than just that - an investigative, story-focused, secret-hunting, first person shooting platformer that is an absolute joy to play.

Dragon Snack: From Ice to Ember isn’t anything substantial. Breaking it down, the core mechanic is exactly the same as you would find in any other game that has you fixing wires or rerouting plumbing. Whether that is your bag or not will depend on your gaming needs.

I think I would change very little about Hades II. It’s a game that’s so easy to love that I can’t imagine someone disliking it. People who are allergic to roguelikes, perhaps? That’s understandable. But I find it so slick, well-constructed, beautiful and rewarding that I cannot fathom another criticism. To me, it’s as perilously close to perfect as video gaming can get.

I loved my time with PRAGMATA. Playing it genuinely feels like a breath of fresh air and fondly reminds of games from the 2000s. It is always great to see a new IP launch successfully, and hopefully, we will get to see this world expanded with more stories.