The Grinch: Christmas Adventures isn’t up to snuff. When it picks up the original Dr Seuss story and uses it for inspiration, The Grinch: Christmas Adventures is capable of the odd surprise. But those moments are exceedingly rare, and we found ourselves inexplicably stealing presents from gingerbread people and beating up nutcrackers in levels that repeated themselves until we were lulled into a grumpy stupor.

Checkers For Kids isn’t for everyone, and there’s a chance it suits no-one. With a lack of tutorials for new starters, and a lack of difficulty settings to test experienced hands, it’s focused so narrowly that you wonder if there’s anyone who will stay with it for thirty minutes. If you’re willing to do the heavy-lifting, teaching your child how to play and layering on the entertainment yourself, then Checkers For Kids might do a job. For most children, though, it will feel like a chore.

Strategic Mind: Spectre of Communism is better than previous games in the franchise, but that isn’t a particularly high hurdle to clear. As strategy games go, there are better options out there, but this does work and is able to offer up a bit of a challenge.

The levels are great, the characters are quirky but sadly there isn’t enough content to compete against the big guns of the genre.

Flower Shop: Summer in Fairbrook isn’t one of Ratalaika’s finest visual novels. It tries to marry a farming sim to a dating sim, and leaves both sides half-grown.

SWORD ART ONLINE Last Recollection fails to deliver a memorable climax to the series. Despite bringing in a raft of characters and throwing in a load of skills from the off, it just doesn’t do enough to keep you hooked. There’s too much blandness throughout, it doesn’t entice you with things to work towards, and the gameplay is incredibly monotonous.

With more control over the little tin car, Total Arcade Racing might have achieved its purpose: to be a party game of choice for up to eight players. But it’s an unwieldy, slippery beast. You can train yourself to enjoy it, anticipating the turns and conserving your boost, but when you want a game that eight rivals can pick up and enjoy in seconds, it doesn’t fit the bill.

There is so much ambition to be found in Protocol on the Xbox. At times, it’s on a path to becoming a hybrid of Prey and Portal, both in the way it feels to play, and its ability to generate left-field ideas. Unfortunately, the ideas never fail to be executed poorly. Thanks largely to its controls, you will be, by turns, infuriated, bored, confused and offended. For a game that starts by feeling like a commentary on the lack of control in video games, it’s when you’re handed control that Protocol is at its worst.

Treachery in Beatdown City: Ultra Remix is not one of the better fighting games out there, and with a price tag of £24.99, it’s hard to even recommend it as a little cheap fun. All in all, you’ll be best off looking elsewhere.

Cardaclysm: Shards of the Four is a case of Emperor’s New Cards. It’s one of the finest looking card games out there, but it’s hiding a frustrating, buggy experience and a battle system that leans too heavily on a good first turn. It’s not a complete disaster (or cardaclysm) but these are all avoidable problems that hunt Cardaclysm: Shards of the Four down, like one of its Cursed Beings.

Cleopatra Fortune S-Tribute plays very well and is a lot of fun. It is a shame about the Mystery Mode though as it is - as the name suggests - a completely impenetrable mystery which leaves us with pretty much half a game; a bit of translation would have made this a much more palatable proposition.

The puzzles themselves are clever, the music is great, the old school challenge is refreshing and the world-building entertaining. It’s just tied up in a package that doesn’t work particularly well on the Xbox One. If you want to play this, I’d recommend waiting for a price drop. I would also consider playing on the PC, as the keyboard and mouse might be a better fit.

Fishing: Barents Sea Complete Edition on Xbox One is an ambitious game that does provide some fun should you wish to go about harvesting the sea. But ultimately it is crippled by a dreadful travel mechanic.

The controls are superb, and enemies explode pleasantly. If things were a bit more streamlined and a bit of polish was used here or there, then XenoRaptor could be a great little time killer. However, the shallow gameplay, painful visuals, the insane amount of time it takes to accomplish anything and the abominable splitscreen mode make it very difficult to recommend to even the most enthusiastic fans of the genre.

We Are The Dwarves has so much potential that I can’t help but feel disappointed at the way the game has turned out. Good story, great background and awesome character design are sadly not enough to overcome frustrating, slow gameplay with minimal exposition of the abilities and what they can do, insta death mechanics and any real lack of desire to carry on after the 50th death in a row from enemies off screen.

Within the Blade has a lot of promise. Sneaking through levels, dispatching enemies silently and then fighting big bosses sounds like ninja game heaven. At least on paper. It’s when that idea is translated into an actual game that the issues seem to have crept in and spoiled the party.

It’s not often that we finish a visual novel and immediately start jotting down some better endings. But that’s the effect Weeping Willow had on us. It’s a mystery box with a soggy twig inside.

I’m absolutely a fan of Little Legs’ ambition. It tries to reinvent the Snake.io wheel, and that’s a sizable aim for a budget title. But it turns out that some things are core to this kind of experience: other players, a reason to keep playing, and a sense of threat. Without them, Little Legs begins to eat its own tail.

Pocket Witch falters, as it comes to the table and empties its pockets; only a single, dull coin with ‘Difficulty’ stamped on tumbles out. If you like your platforming fiendish then pull on a witch’s hat and go for it. But if you’re looking for anything else - newness, fun, a sense of reward - then Pocket Witch can’t offer it.

If you want a clear example of ambition outstripping the execution, then Clue: Murder By Death is your case.

Star Balls won’t be on any game of the year lists come the end of the year. Its achievements are glitchy and/or broken, its save system is unknown, sound effects’ archaic, and it is cheaper and more suitable on mobile platforms. But it has solid physics, a unique charm and never tries to sell itself as more than a simple casual game.

Zombo Buster Rising isn’t bad-bad. It’s not broken, it doesn’t stick around too long, and it’s not going to empty your wallet at a reasonable £4.19. But it hunts around within it’s tower-defence-meets-shooter gameplay for something resembling fun and can’t find it.

Skater’s Solstice presents a promising puzzle concept that hits a slippery slope too swiftly. While it contains a respectable number of stages, the ideas run out fast and there’s a lack of fresh elements to keep your interest.

Big Crown: Showdown has an overall idea that could provide a really enjoyable, exciting game to entertain the masses. With plenty of courses at hand, tons of hazards to evade, and a level of accessibility that allows gamers of all abilities to get involved, there’s certainly potential here. Sadly, the courses grow tiresome after only a couple of plays, given their short length, and so you’ll struggle to convince people to come back to it. Throw in the lack of other modes present, the dead online component and the other issues outlined, and it’s difficult to recommend even at just under a tenner in price.

Legend of the Skyfish does have a lot going for it: an intriguing story, a cool gimmick, a beautiful Zelda-like aesthetic, and easy achievements. Unfortunately, the execution is rather fishy.

There are two ways of looking at Little Mouse’s Encyclopedia. It is a children’s reference book that happens to be on the Xbox, and as such it’s lovely to leaf through for a few minutes. The watercolour art could happily grace the walls of a nursery, and that’s intended as a compliment. But while it does a great job of putting names to animals and plants, it does a less successful job of making you care about them, or telling a child anything that might stick. It could feasibly form an hour-long home-schooling lesson, but you’d struggle to make a curriculum out of it.

Tank Brawl 2: Armor Fury on Xbox doesn’t look the best, the pop-in is ridiculous, and the way that foot soldiers are bigger than your tank ruins any immersion. On the flip side, there is something endearing about the game; something that will keep drawing you back to have another go - if only so you can find out if it’s possible to destroy tanks using the Force.

Games are glorious things, because there’s an audience for pretty much everything. But we honestly don’t know if there is one for ReactorX 2. It’s so stupendously and wilfully challenge-less, that we can’t see the wood for the ease.