There’s a reason so many games dabble in alchemy. There’s the foraging for ingredients, the making of bubbling concoctions, and finally seeing what they do. But Alchemist Simulator opts for only the middle stage of this process, and reduces it to the step-by-step following of a cookery manual.

A great idea sadly lessened as an experience by dodgy controls and game breaking issues held within. Perhaps a future patch to optimise things for a controller might increase playability but with Mr. Prepper we sadly didn’t escape Murricaville… we got trapped in our own bunker.

Few games can claim a legacy of nearly 50 years and still be relevant, but Breakout: Recharged is one of those.

ConnecTank’s central mechanic is surprisingly well realised, backed up with plenty to flesh out the world of New Pangea. However, due to the repetitive and somewhat simplistic gameplay this is one the casual gamers will enjoy the most.

Toy Soldiers HD is genuinely worth playing if you have never done so before; there is a huge amount of fun to be had here. This HD title could have been a lot more too, and honestly might work less well than the original ever did. But what’s there is still a good time for strategy fans and it’s still able to provide a very unique experience.

Any new Cities: Skylines content is a good thing, and whilst this Airport DLC may not be the biggest content pack released for the game, it includes a lot of worthwhile additions. Arguments could be made as to why this pack wasn’t included from the beginning of the game, but seven years late is still better than never.

It may not be that much of a surprise but Taiko no Tatsujin: The Drum Master! is massively enjoyable. While the songs range from easy to “surely only an octopus can hit all these notes!”, the challenge can be tweaked to suit everyone, and it turns out that a little drumming is a surprisingly relaxing pastime.

Vagante has a lot of potential that it doesn’t manage to live up to. It looks nice enough, if a little like you are viewing things through the wrong end of a pair of binoculars, and the setup is interesting. But the numb combat, instant death traps and lack of anything resembling tactics - even in the boss fights - marks it down.

Undernauts: Labyrinth of Yomi is definitely a game that you need to stick with, being patient, but if you do then you will be rewarded well, as you make your way through more dungeons and face off against all kinds of dangerous beasts.

Cake Invaders is a fun game for a limited period of time. It’s exciting and can be challenging, depending on how the power-ups fall, but equally after about half an hour, you are likely to have seen all it has to offer. For achievement hunters, it’s an easy sell, but for folk looking for a return on their investment, that’s less so.

A Western Drama aims to bring visually-impaired or plain curious players into the Wild West, immersing them in its grit and machismo. It nails that goal, delivering saddlebags full of Spaghetti Western music, gunfights and duels, without attempting to explain why the visuals aren’t there.

Dyna Bomb is a likeable action-platformer built on two of gaming’s great staples: the jetpack and the bomb. But while it’s a reasonably pure arcade experience, it gets undermined consistently with terrible presentation, a refusal to let you loose with your tools, and levels that refuse to change things up in a meaningful way.

If you’ve got a hankering for some old-school, 8-bit platforming thrills, without any concerns about bugs or quibbles, then Super Onion Boy 2 is cheap and plenty cheerful.

It’s not without issues, but the brilliance of the parkour and deepness of the combat easily outweigh the various bugs and glitches which pop up. Perhaps it’s not able to revolutionise the genre like the first game did, but Dying Light 2 Stay Human is still more than worthy of your time, patience and hope of staying human.

There are problems with text size and some big glitches when playing in the first person, however the inventiveness and story win over these misgivings. In all, The Enigma Machine provides an experience that stays with you way after the game has finished.

If you have a lot of prior Yu-Gi-Oh! knowledge, and the time to invest, Master Duel is most certainly a good game, deep down. For the rest of us lesser mortals, the bar to entry is set ridiculously high, and feels like the world it holds is basically impenetrable.

Whether you are a seasoned veteran of Siege or looking for your first foray into a tactical shooter such as these, Rainbow Six Extraction will not disappoint.

Do you score a game identically to the game it copies? Mushroom Run 2D is last year’s Fantasy Dash, but with a mushroom. Scoring it lower would be petty, but having been spat out by the same sharp-edged and awkward levels, we’re feeling extremely petty. Please, for the love of endless runners everywhere, please let this be the last Fantasy Dash clone that we have to experience. We’ll give you 79p not to.

If you are a hidden object addict who has - somehow - reached the end of their backlog, then Dracula’s Legacy Remastered feels familiar and satisfying enough to generate enjoyment. For anyone else, may we point you to the hundreds of Artifex Mundi games that do a far superior job.

Fatum Betula is a game - and an experience - that feels old school yet completely new and unique in the same breath. The lack of guidance is something that will split the gaming community, but it must be agreed that the surreal visual design is fascinating, disturbing, and brilliantly designed.

Kansei: The Second Case HD is a hugely enjoyable way to spend some time. It’s nice to take your foot off the gas every now and then to play something that makes no demands on you. The story is intriguing, and trying to figure out not only whodunnit, but whydunnit as well, will keep you revisiting the narratives and trying out the various conversational gambits that are on offer.

Despite lacking some depth, Rubber Bandits offers a thoroughly enjoyable multiplayer experience both on and offline. It’s the perfect party game to dip in and out of if you’re after something a little different.

There’s something very genuine about Starlight Shores. It’s a nostalgic get-together with friends around a campfire, and there’s a warmth between the characters that’s lovely to share for an hour or two.

We’d encourage you to pick up Kinduo, particularly if you have a co-op partner who’s eager to collaborate with you on some puzzles. But go in with the knowledge that, just as things get good, as the difficulty is beginning to creep in, it unceremoniously ends.

The Longest Road on Earth is thoroughly enjoyable; an experience that is capable of sincerely touching the player. The music is wonderful and the whole journey a delight.

Gav-Gav Odyssey is a puzzle game that attempts three different minigames over the course of its two hours, and two of them manage to crack a smile. The third, though, is a crime against platforming that makes us do an involuntary shudder whenever we think about them.

Control-wise, Jack ‘n’ Hat isn’t up to scratch. It’s slow, ineffective and clumsy, with the hat-throwing feeling like a bad job rather than Oddjob. But persist, and you have a challenging and generous platformer that may spark a love for the genre, just like the ‘80s and ‘90s classics did.

Demoniaca: Everlasting Night comes with a great setup and a lot of ambition, but poor execution. I can see what the developers wanted to do, and somewhere deep down there is a good game struggling to get out, however, it is buried under a heap of poor combat options and sub standard platforming.