I can see the appeal in making One Button Games 5-in-1 vol 2. There’s a challenge in creating these games. You can see how the designers have done back-flips to make them function, incorporating hold-presses of the A button just as much as taps. But as fun as they must have been to make, we are the ones who have to play them. And I rarely found that process to be fun.

GIGASWORD is an ambitious blending of genres. RPG elements aligning with puzzles and platforming is always going to be a curious concoction, and in this case, sometimes for worse, sometimes for better. The poor platforming and bugs may put a downer on your experience, yet the overall brilliance of narrative, combat, and level design will most likely override this, leaving GIGASWORD an indie title worth playing.

This IS Simon the Sorcerer, claw-machined from the ‘90s and dropped into a polished, modern graphic adventure.

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.

If you like survival and base-building games, there should be enough on show in Kentum to whet your appetite.

I’m happy that Toad Slide exists. While the mix of sokoban and sliding games doesn’t gel (too easy, no strategy), the experiment was enjoyable to take part in. Plus we were rewarded 2000G for our curiosity. Not a bad deal all round.

Anima: Gate of Memories I&II Remaster seems to very much be two games of their time. It has fun built in, but the world of third person action adventures has moved on since the original releases of the two games included in this remaster.

We stand - just about - on the right side of sokoban fatigue with The Cute Whale. That’s largely down to some cracking, well thought-out puzzle layouts that kept the cynicism at bay.

I don’t think there is quite enough content here to really warrant a purchase, even for the cheap price. But then, if you have always wanted to shoot a giant emoji, Emoji Battlefield – Origins could (just about) be for you.

Quick Whiskers doesn’t do a lot wrong. It has a fine eye for tense platforming sequences where there isn’t much room for mistakes. But it’s also nothing special, as it fails to generate any charm or ideas beyond a cool cat character and a dash mechanic.

There’s no way this is going to challenge the hardcore gamers out there, but for everyone else, Samurai Academy: Paws of Fury is a good way to spend a couple of hours.

Gridz Keeper is 25-minutes of random lever pulling and the odd jolt of satisfaction when a puzzle is solved. If we’re honest, we’d rather spend that time head-shotting undead hordes in a more conventional zombie game.

Some might find the non-linear approach to storytelling a bit confusing and the slow gameplay a bit hard to take. However, there is something engaging and creative about Injection π23 'Tabula Rasa', with enough about it to keep anyone intrigued until the end.

It feels like there is potential for a good game in there somewhere, but there is not enough content in El Coco to fulfill it. The game plays like a prototype or a tech demo rather than a fully fledged product in its own right.

We’re confident that Earthion takes the crown for best SHMUP of 2025, which isn’t bad for a 16-bit title.

It would be fair to say that a sokoban puzzle game is only as good as the quality of its puzzles, and on that count Poko achieves his Arctic Quest.

If you’re hoping to grapple with more of a puzzle tiger than a puzzle kitten, then you will be disappointed with Catnigma. There’s more difficulty to be found in opening your mail. We found that degree of challenge to be calming and even endearing, but we don’t expect it to work for everyone else.

If we had to glide Aery: Titans of the Future into a hierarchy of Aery games, it would land somewhere in the middle. It has no new levels of note, and the story is a lecture. But robots are quite cool, I suppose, and there are no bugs to disrupt things. As possibly the most prolific series on the Xbox, we should be expecting some improvements, but I guess we’ll have to make do with ‘more of the same’.

If you’re a Talisman enthusiast, then Talisman: Digital 5th Edition is the superior port of the board game. It looks gorgeous, the fiddlier elements of the game are automated, and online matches mean that you don’t need friends huddled around a board. It’s got some legibility issues and could have tightened up some elements, but generally it’s everything you’d want from a board game conversion.

Hidden Legends, perhaps appropriately for a hidden object game, is a mixed bag. There’s a ridiculous amount of stuff for your money, but enjoying that stuff requires a shift in expectations. This is less a hidden object game, and more a glaringly-obvious object game.

Despite a few misses, Wildkeepers Rising tries enough new things to satisfy veterans, while remaining accessible enough for newcomers to enjoy for the long haul.

I can forgive Master Lemon: The Quest for Iceland for the odd issue, and that is because this is a game that is full of heart. It is a touching tribute to a friend, and while it isn’t perfect as a game, as a work of art it has a great deal of value.

I do love a good point-and-click adventure, and Scott Whiskers: The Search for the Golden Cat is a great yarn. It feels like a lovely family friendly game, mostly because of its themes and the wholesome main hero. However, younger gamers may well struggle with some of the puzzles as they can be a bit tricky at times.

I was pleasantly surprised by Chickenhare and the Treasure of Spiking-beard. It’s far from throwaway, as it offers a meaty number of levels that all attempt to delight the player in different ways. They’re so good, in fact, that they overcome a salvo of issues. A lack of co-op, poor character-switching, a wandering camera and some nightmare bosses all would have sunk a weaker vessel, but Chickenhare and the Treasure of Spiking-beard floats on.

REDEX asks a lot of a player, outside of the cheap entry point. It tutorialises itself poorly and asks you to die, over and over, before you become even barely functional. Later on, it asks you to grind through levels that don’t repay the favour of being enjoyable to replay. There’s an enjoyable hour or two in the middle, but they’re bookended by pain.

DRAGON QUEST I & II HD-2D REMAKE on Xbox may be a remake of games nearly 40 years old, but the work gone into their re-creation makes them instantly playable.

KILL IT WITH FIRE! 2 deserves credit for building on what made the first game so much fun to play. Despite some rough edges, there’s clearly been an effort made to flesh out the spider exterminating fun, and for the most part it pays off.

Lucha Align makes that critical mistake. It’s a shape-sorting game that adds the shapes, throws in some sorting, but then neglects to include stakes, rules or anything else of value.