If Axis Games can use their Franchise mode as a foundation and build on it moving forward, then we might have something on our hands that could be classed as a valid alternative (but not a competitor) to Madden.

Rainbow High: Runway Rush is a series of fetch quests in a joyless maze. We found ourselves lost in identical crossroads, searching for Studio 2 (it was in class #93, obvs). Our mascara was running and our brain frazzling. We’ve talked to our kids, and apparently that is not what the show is about.

There is a fun game trying to get out of The Walking Zombie 2, but it is drowning under the constant push of microtransactions. The end result just feels like a mess.

If you’ve been lured in by the cat, then you should probably know that Neko Rescue Tale has all the worst aspects of one. It gives you a false sense of security by looking cute, curling up in your lap. But once you start playing with it, the claws come out, as poor level design, collision detection, platforming and - most of all - combat all cause blood to flow.

Asterix & Obelix: Slap Them All! feels like a missed opportunity to give the world the Asterix game that we have been waiting for. There is no progression, no making the heroes stronger, and at the end, no real desire to see the game through to a conclusion. It’s the same characters and the same action, for level after level, with a different backdrop. Sadly this makes for a dull game.

Book Quest is a promising game that is ruined by some odd design choices. The action RPG side is pretty good, with things to find by exploring, and while the lack of required fighting makes a playthrough easy, it is pretty good fun. The other sections though are much more shoddy and add little.

While we wouldn’t traditionally pick on a game’s length, thirty minutes is shorter than most demos, and a ‘demo’ is precisely what Kauil’s Treasure on the Xbox feels like to play. Half an hour doesn’t leave much room for the gameplay to shine through, and what’s here is ramshackle, familiar and buggy. There’s certainly some fun to be found by the end of this adventure, but it’s not enough to make the expedition worth it. Dare we say that Kauil’s Treasure is more Crystal Skull than Raiders of the Lost Ark?

Nirvana: Pilot Yume is a game which fails to deliver in both of its main aspects.

Realms of Arkania: Star Trail is a laborious experience that drains any potential fun out of proceedings with the monotonous travelling, the repetitive and often pointless conversations, and some turn-based combat that’s way behind the times.

Deep Space has some interesting ideas and if it had been given the time and budget to flesh out, I imagine it could have been a much better game. Instead what we get is a very repetitive and unfair experience that very quickly becomes tiresome.

It has colour, it has style, but Moto Roader MC also has some of the most erratic, bumper-car racing that you’re likely to experience.

May’s Mysteries: The Secret of Dragonville puts every single egg in that puzzle basket and ultimately fails to deliver. The story is fine, the amount of mini-games is commendable and there’s joy to be had from certain types, but the positives are outweighed by the negatives. The cutscenes let it down, many mini-games lead to frustration, and the margin for error is unforgivable. And that’s before taking into account the fact that you can’t even trust the save system.

If you thought Ed & Edda: Grand Prix - Racing Champions would be the next big racing game, your idyllic bubble will burst upon playing.

Thunder Kid II: Null Mission is plain lazy. Its gimmick is still not enough to build a game around, because that’s already been tried once before and hasn’t worked. As a result this one is null and void.

In tycoon terms, Baking Time is a bit of a dud. By some margin it’s the worst of the genre that we’ve played; a monotonous trudge through bakery after bakery. It’s even got the temerity to make you do it for dozens of hours.

That’s the heart of what UltraGoodness 2 on Xbox gets so wrong. It forgets what’s great about twin-stick shooting: the frenzy, the pyrotechnics, the stacking power-ups, and how godlike it can make you feel. There’s nothing better than swerving to avoid an enemy as you nail a missile into their broadside. If you are a shooter that is encouraging players to stop, slow down and tentatively tiptoe through your game, then something is wrong. UltraTepid it is then.

We can’t help comparing the £4.19 Fruit Adventure with the 79p shovelware we often get on the Xbox Store. There really is nothing in it: in the equivalent of a blindfolded taste test, we would have told you that they’re one and the same.

Unfortunately, Ganbare! Super Strikers on Xbox One is it’s own worst enemy. I admire the development team’s ambition to create something new but unfortunately it doesn’t strike any of the right chords.

There's only really one cohort of gamers Caterpillar is aimed at - those looking to give their Xbox Gamerscore figures a quick boost.

There is a small amount of fun to be had here with Tech Glitch on Xbox One, but the display and visual issue just kills the game. My Atari 2600 on a CRT came with clearer graphics, and on today’s hardware, what is provided by Tech Glitch simply isn't good enough.

If you are the sort of person who enjoys banging their head on a desk for hours, you may get a little bit of enjoyment from El Gancho. For the rest of us, the slightly shoddy look, poor mechanics and dodgy controls consign this to the “Must not play” pile of games from history.

You’ll be glad when Windborn: Journey to the South is over, fully understanding why EpiXR have decided to separate this from the otherwise decent Aery series. With visual pop-in that is off the scale, whether you can complete a stage without hassle and annoyance very much feels like it is in the hands of the avian gods. And no amount of zen-like promise will ever overcome that.

Monochrome Order on Xbox One makes a decent fist of being an interesting RPG, but then shoots itself in the foot by making it harder to play unless you buy extra things.

The world has enough zombie shooters, and - like the zombies themselves - there’s probably nothing we can do to stop the swarm. But we can attempt to ignore them, and that’s exactly what you should do with Earth Marines.

As a puzzle game, Danger!Energy lives up to the name but fails to leave a lasting impression. Then again if the lure of an easy 1000 GS is up your street, this may be the game for you.

Habroxia on Xbox is an average game which is reasonably priced. It winds up being a pedestrian affair which, whilst offering some thrills in its couple of hours of gameplay, never quite manages to live up to those which inspired it.

You end up wondering who Solitaire 3D on the Xbox is made for. If there’s such a thing, there’s a ‘game archivist’ in a university or museum who’s rubbing their hands at the prospect of preserving 100 different Solitaire variants. For the rest of us, you have a monumentally over-priced compendium of games you won’t play, with controls that aren’t optimised, and with features that often don’t work.

Pure Mini Golf is far from a competitor in the world of virtual crazy golf. Mostly it’s a reminder that aesthetics alone cannot compensate for flawed gameplay.