Pinball FX is a pretty good place to begin your collection, but not good enough to duplicate it.

Trash Quest is a competent Metroidvania that has the chutzpah to try out a few design ideas. It does away with guidance, leaves you free to explore, and chucks in a Dark Souls-like approach to death. Two out of the three work well, but the last falters.

There are not many adventures on Xbox which resemble The Legend of Zelda, and so A Knight’s Quest might be a fun little alternative for Xbox gamers who are after that style of adventure. For most gamers however, this is an average clone at best, which despite some good intentions simply underwhelms in execution.

TramSim: Console Edition is another interesting and unique experience in the transport sim world. Driving a tram is a pretty unique and interesting experience, but it does lose its shine after you’ve taken in the routes a few times. Personally I think TramSim needs a few more cities to take in, especially when you consider the price of the game.

Noodlebound may love its noodles, but its 2D platforming felt less substantial and flavoursome than its favourite meal. It’s more like a broth, perhaps.

For Nova Strike to succeed, it needs to be a little less demanding. It needs to reward just a tad more. It needs to ease off every once in a while, letting the player feel like they are in control. Perhaps it's the random nature of how the levels and chapters have been put together, but there's little room for manoeuvre with this one.

You should enjoy Fresh Start for what it is - a simple game that numbs the mind for an hour or two. But the fundamental lack of excitement means it doesn’t entice enough to warrant much of a return. The potential is there, but there’s nothing under the surface.

Super Engine GT Turbo SPEC is a short game with easy achievements and precisely zero replayability. It is not awful, but it is a long way off pole position of the racing genre.

SpongeBob SquarePants: The Patrick Star Game is perfect for kids, who it is so clearly aimed at. They will have a blast in a world which allows them to explore and cause mischief, especially if they are fans of the show. For the rest, there’s a limited amount of fun on offer, which is entertaining for a short while.

By slapping on a time limit and throwing crows at us every ten seconds, Agriculture started losing the simple joys that make farming games great. Nothing we were growing had any real purpose. We weren’t building up to something better. And worst of all, we were feeling on edge rather than relaxed.

Smells Like a Mushroom achieves its goal of being a silly game, and it does so with aplomb. What is less successful is the whole “be a good game” thing, as the action is repetitive and the jokes begin to wear thin very quickly.

With a time-bending approach to the twin-stick shooter, it looked like The Ambassador: Fractured Timelines on Xbox One would be really spoiling us. Instead, we get a slow-paced example of the genre, whose best ideas never quite develop beyond its first hour.

The story of Liege Dragon is pretty good although not particularly original. However the graphics are nice enough and the whole thing chatters along at a fair old pace due to the lack of a world map. It’s very much just "some JRPG", but the story may hook you enough to see out the ending.

If you must play a top-down combat driving game, then I guess Bloody Rally Show is the one for you, but you should be aware that the fun it brings falls off ever so quickly.

Race with Ryan on the Xbox One has some solid arcade style driving that is worth a look at, for both fans of the YouTube channel and those looking for more kart racing. Sadly, the presentation is a bit lacking with some voice recordings sounding worse than an amateur podcast.

If you’re looking for something that combines puzzles and slasher films, then this is just about a decent holdover until something better comes along.

Whilst improvements have been made to overall presentation and data analytics in Madden NFL 21 NXT LVL Edition on Xbox Series X|S, this remains largely the same disappointing entry. It is severely hampered by shallow game modes such as The Yard, Superstar KO, Class Franchise and Face of the Franchise. In the months since the initial release these could have been fleshed out, but the only major update comes in the form of Next Gen Stats.

If you love shooters, then maybe dive into Earth Atlantis when it’s in the sale, but otherwise, keep yourself dry.

One Word by POWGI on Xbox is another clever take on a classic puzzle idea, and improves on Word Sudoku by giving the words you are looking for a bit more meaning as you try to complete the famous quotes. Once again, if you are looking for a word puzzle with a bit of something extra, plenty of good puns or just easy Gamerscore, One Word by POWGI easily fits all three criteria.

FRONT MISSION 3: Remake is a bit of a mixed bag. There are good bits, like the story and gameplay which are lifted straight from the original. But then there are those elements that don’t work anywhere near as well - like the weird halfway house graphical update, dodgy FMV and weird upscaled portraits of the characters.

It’s dated, it’s overly difficult and it lacks that something special to make it more than your typical rogue-like experience.

Endless Fables: Dark Moor on Xbox One does itself no favours by claiming horror and scares as a feature because, ultimately, it loses steam in that department after a single scary moment. Fortunately the mini-games are of a good standard and the hidden object scenes are enjoyable to scour.

Sword of the Vagrant is a passably interesting ARPG, with a good aesthetic appeal, and some noisy action set pieces. There is a surprising amount of depth in the skills and weapons area, and the combat is pretty good as well.

MindsEye is no longer the broken mess it was when it launched in June of 2025. The developers have clearly worked hard to iron out the bugs and elevate the game to a higher standard. I enjoyed the campaign and much of the core gameplay, even if it felt more like a game from yesteryear rather than a cutting-edge release of today.

On PC, making the most of keyboard and mouse, Revival: Recolonization would make a lot more sense. But on the Xbox? Using a controller? Well, frankly the control scheme is awful and the game mechanics are a closely kept secret.

Crazy Gravity on Xbox has a neat feature in flipping gravity around, but even with this, it doesn’t necessarily rewrite the 2D platformer book. It is fun for the hour or so it will take you to complete the levels, and whilst some are more interesting than others, you won’t be rushing back to play them again.

Evil Dead: The Game feels like a missed opportunity from Saber Interactive, which is disappointing after the excellent World War Z.

More an expansion pack than a full sequel, Horse Club Adventures 2: Hazelwood Stories is a hard one to score. It’s still the best horse-riding sim on the Xbox, and its structure has received some much-needed grooming. But it’s not enough of a revamp to warrant the price, and the campaign is slimline. If ‘more of the same’ sounds like a good thing, then saddle up.