If Stonefly was an insect, it would be a stinkbug: beautiful to look at, but lets off an unpleasant odour when you start grappling with it.

If you are happy to play alone, then I can recommend NARUTO X BORUTO Ultimate Ninja STORM CONNECTIONS as the Ultimate Naruto game, with a lot of content and fighters to go at. But without a functioning online section, this seems like a missed opportunity.

PAW Patrol Rescue Wheels: Championship is thinner and more charmless than PAW Patrol: Grand Prix but - hey! - it’s got Rescue Wheels in it. It just about, by the skin of its teeth, retains its role as a gateway game for prospective racers.

Wonder Blade on Xbox is inconsistently fun. The wildly contrasting difficulty and bumpy pacing makes the experience feel slightly disjointed, however it’s all wrapped up in a way that will no doubt bring a smile to the most miserable of faces.

Hopefully Off And On Again won’t have you reaching for the power button, because despite costing perhaps more than it should, there’s a decent little adventure on offer here.

If you’re looking for a casual experience and an easy 1000 Gamerscore than MonsterBlast on Xbox One might be the game for you.

Shadow Man Remastered looks bad, plays poorly and all the rest, but it still has that much needed X factor; that hook that keeps you trying again and again.

It all leaves Pad Quad as an opportunity that wasn’t seized. It’s a platformer where you can swing a racket, knocking back projectiles, and that’s inspired design. But Pad Quad does so little with the concept, building levels that could have been in any other budget platformer.

Paladin is a cheap and cheerful twin stick shooter that gives plenty of ship upgrading abilities. But for what boils down to an hour’s worth of game time, that price still seems a little high and probably makes sure the game is something you’ll wish to pick up in a sale rather than at full price.

Charon’s Staircase can feel a bit like putting on a pair of comfy slippers, sipping some cocoa and kicking back with a good old-fashioned ghost story. But other moments frustrate, with some not-so-fun puzzles, brightness issues, and a familiar last act.

In all Frost is an enjoyable if initially very difficult game that comes crumbling down once you have built yourself up. There’s definitely some enjoyment here and fans of deck building will find the initial strategy very interesting, but survival wise it falls short by simply not giving you anything impactful to latch on to.

Mel the Space Cat isn’t a particularly special platformer. It’s easy, short, and the enemies are all recycled from a bazillion other games. But Mel’s blink-dash power, which lets her zip about the level at speed, just about saves the day. A bland 2D platformer gets the smallest sprinkle of interest.

AEW: Fight Forever possesses the foundations for it to be an excellent blast from the past, but fails in building upon them. It’s not a bad game, I just feel as though there are too many areas in which it’s lacking substance and so longevity is an issue.

Dynablaster is fine - a perfectly perfunctory, vanilla version of the party classic. But we couldn’t help thinking about other Bombermen while we were playing it.

Paperman: Adventure Delivered presents a cute story with some fun characters and a colourful world to explore. Yet whilst there are some good puzzles and the inclusion of cooperative play, the mechanics are not as intuitive as other games in the genre.

The Church in the Darkness on Xbox One has me divided. On one hand, I love the concept, writing, and visual style. On the other, I pretty much hate the randomised elements, the permadeath, and a number of small gameplay annoyances.

Too often, we’d be cuddling up to its fresh take on puzzle-platforming, only for it to unsheath its claws and dig into our thigh. 1 Catline is a fun idea that seems reluctant to embrace that fun.

FLASHOUT 3 is alright. It isn’t blindly great, nor is it awful; very much middle of the road, except for the stupid air brake. If you fancy an anti-grav racer that isn’t going to break the bank, you’ll find it in FLASHOUT 3.

A game that works okay, is good fun with a group of friends and capable of providing an interesting take on the Robin Hood myth, Gangs of Sherwood fills a gap. But I think the tone feels misguided and at times it all seems like it has been ripped from a previous generation of consoles.

If you’re looking to kill an hour, get 2000 Gamerscore in your bag, and have five dollars burning a hole in your pocket, then Fit and Fry is an option.

There’s plenty to commend in PAW Patrol Mighty Pups Save Adventure Bay on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. It’s that rare example of a game that can be played by under-7s without help, and a strong co-op feature means that you can share Adventure Bay with them. Kids might not care, but it’s indefensibly slight for the price. Kids WILL care that they don’t get to play as the titular Mighty Pups for more than a few moments, though. It’s a long demo that kids will love for a time: if that’s enough for you, then go fetch.

TAURONOS on Xbox is a game that I have enjoyed playing, particularly due to its old-school visuals and fascinating take on the old great myth. I like the idea of being stalked by one creature and experiencing a hero’s strange journey to escape the maze. However, some of the traps are utterly unforgiving and having to restart the game from the beginning makes things tiresome.

Defunct isn’t a game that must be played, and the damn camera and poor audio don’t ever breed much confidence. But underneath the issues is a fun little title that is just begging to get out.

The Prince of Landis is far more successful as a story than it is a game. It’s a take on the ‘80s-kids-find-something-supernatural’ template, but pushes it in a lonely, unsettling direction that also manages to feel original.

Monster Hunter Stories doesn’t really excel at anything, but it doesn’t do anything particularly poorly either. What it does though is lay foundations for better games to come.

Unturned on Xbox is very much a game of two halves. If you go into it looking for a challenging survival game, and you aren’t too worried about polish, or lack thereof, there is fun to be had here. Staying alive is hard, and keeping healthy is even harder. However, it’s not going to be for everyone, as the lack of explanation about the mechanics of the game soon becomes tiresome.

Above Snakes isn’t going to redefine survival games, but it doesn’t need to. It offers a charming, occasionally relaxing, sometimes frustrating journey into a frontier world that’s part history, part imagination. The Wild West setting is a breath of fresh air, even if the supernatural twist doesn’t quite land.

Cyanide & Happiness - Freakpocalypse (Episode 1) marks a steady start for the trilogy that leaves room for improvement. You’ll almost immediately know if this weird but sometimes wonderful adventure is one which suits your tastes or not.