‘Doing the job’ could be Colorful Colore’s mantra. Sliding puzzle games are stale as they come, but Colorful Colore does just enough to liven it up with a central colour-changing mechanic and some unusual blocks and pressure pads. You’d be hard-pushed to fill an hour with Colorful Colore, and even harder-pushed to find a reason to replay, but if you’re in the market for some nostalgia with a few modern ideas, then yep, it does the job.

Cris Tales succeeds in what it sets out to do. It isn’t as good as Chrono Trigger but is still a very good RPG in its own right. I hesitate to call it a JRPG as it doesn’t have that feel, but is still as competent and enjoyable a game as I’ve played in a long time, all helped along by a great art style, enjoyable time-bending mechanics and a story that will keep you hooked.

While it’s lean, it’s certainly mean, and you’ll have plenty of fun sending your friends spiralling down to the ground. Skydrift Infinity is an airborne Blur that’s had most of its content excised to focus on fun, and - as Blur fans - there’s no greater recommendation than that.

Aery - Calm Mind is a pleasant experience for the couple of hours it takes to complete all the chapters. The idea is that you take it in in chunks, and this is probably the best way of tackling the scenarios, especially if you're just using the game as a chill-out mechanism.

Order of Battle: World War II is a rich, detailed and authentic experience suitable for historic strategy fans, with enough DLC to keep them busy for weeks. There’s nothing here to tempt newcomers to the genre however - this is a game solely aimed at its target audience.

There’s an original, fantastic deckbuilder here, surrounded by an even more original, and just as engaging text adventure. But Black Book doesn’t stop there, and adds more and more layers until you’re left with a huge, unwieldy onion. If you can stomach its design quirks and scattershot understanding of what is fun or isn’t, Black Book has some of the best moments in modern card games. Only you will know if you’ve got the patience to get there.

Like any hardcore simulation game, Microsoft Flight Simulator is simply not made for everyone. The lengths to which the game goes to accurately recreate cockpits, dials, and the general controls of aircraft is astonishing and this commitment to realism will hook aircraft buffs. But outside of some occasional digital tourism, more casual pilots might not have much to latch onto here.

Imagine Earth is immensely enjoyable. The game modes on offer are good and the campaign is excellent. But above all else a good sim game should be easy to use, addictive to play, and it should always make you feel like you want to play it more and more. Imagine Earth ticks all those boxes.

You have to admire the dedication and attention to detail of those behind Metro Simulator; a team who obviously love the Moscow Metro. It’s a game which will appeal to train sim fans, alongside those looking to take in all the stations, trains, and route planning that comes with that. For newcomers to the genre though, this might be too tough to take at times, particularly as Metro Simulator feels extremely hardcore and a bit rough around the edges.

Play The Innsmouth Case the right way, and you’ve got a couple of hours of delightfully twisted play here. It feels like it’s written by HP Lovecraft’s saucier, less subtle sibling, and playing hunt-the-ending takes you to some memorable and downright disgusting places. It’s got no substance to it of course - the ‘Case’ in the title mostly gets forgotten about - and what you’re left with is a number of punchlines to bawdy jokes, but sometimes that’s just what a night’s gaming needs.

If you’re someone who likes watching behind the scenes videos and interviews about the creation of games, or you just love seeing the myriad ways in which people express their artistic visions through this interactive medium, Scrap Garden’s massive heart more than makes up for its technical shortcomings.

Batbarian: Testament of the Primordials goes a long way towards scratching a bit of a Metroidvania itch. It’s big, it’s sprawling and there’s a lot to see. With a little more attention to the combat and the jumping, this could well have been a bit of a genre-leading contender. As it is though, Barbarian is a good game, but not a great one.

Set your expectations so they are more aligned with a trip to a gallery than a video game and Cuccchi will often dazzle. This is an exhibition as a magical mystery tour, with Enzo Cucchi’s work whirling and dancing round you. It won’t satisfy anyone who’s looking for a challenge, it doesn’t offer particularly stimulating gameplay, and it’s shorter than a National Geographic special on the artist, but it’s many times more enthralling. Quality soundtrack, too.

Wizodd is a cardboard-fort version of The Binding of Isaac and Legend of Zelda. It looks like them at a distance, but when you actually start playing, you can feel the cheapness and compromises. It gives you cardboard cuts in the form of weirdo design decisions and a slow ramp to being powerful. And as time goes on, the adhesive wears off and the walls fall over, as the game-breaking bugs tear it all down.

Even long after completing the game, you’ll continue to enjoy playing through every level again and again because it is just that much fun. Bloodroots is a triumph and hopefully a sign of more things to come from a wickedly talented studio.

Experiences like The Ascent don’t come along often. Game Pass may well turn out to be The Ascent’s redemption. This is an experience that’s best had in co-op, and a day one launch on Xbox’s service means that almost all obstacles are removed. So, find three friends and take your time with The Ascent, refuse to play in long sessions, and you and your partners will find worlds and gunplay that blow your augments clear off.

Castle of Pixel Skulls is a game that is lacking in almost every department – originality, controls and gameplay. It fails to deliver on its promise of challenging platforming. In fact, the only real battle is dealing with the inconsistent jumping mechanics.

Gaps by POWGI is one of the simplest word puzzlers from Lightwood Games in terms of concept, but this helps it by not overcomplicating things that could potentially draw away interested parties. The puns are back too which is only ever a good thing, as is the very easy Gamerscore.

Despite the name, Freddy Spaghetti 2.0 is a step backwards. It has less ideas, less levels and less ambition than the first game. As a fan of the original, I was hoping for something more from the oddly lovable strip of slinky sentient spaghetti.

Just like actual Japanese food, inbento goes down an absolute treat. With its beautiful aesthetic, touching story and deviously challenging puzzles, there’s something for everyone to appreciate. The game is perfect in both bite-sized chunks and extended sessions, and the gameplay is designed to be challenging but not overwhelming.

It might be easy to dismiss Sable’s Grimoire as a visual novel take on Harry Potter. It’s even easier to dismiss as a dating sim. But it’s laced with teenage anxiety and social commentary, which builds on the Hogwarts foundations and ends up as a dating sim, almost by accident. It’s not without its cliches and melodrama, but Sable’s Grimoire is a rich, effective visual novel that fans of the genre will fall in love with.

Trigger Witch is a love letter to the games of the ‘90s. It’s cute, colourful and surprisingly violent, and with drop in/drop out co-op that works brilliantly, you’ll be able to bring a friend or family member along for the ride. The only slight complaint is that the story feels artificially extended, but luckily the narrative is strong enough to keep dragging you on, twisting as it progresses.

There’s a good chance that you will love Omno just by looking at the screenshots, but get hands on and you’ll very quickly learn why that love is real. Yes there are a couple of niggles, particularly in the accuracy of the gliding, but apart from that this is a gaming experience that is near damn perfect.

With Ice Cream Surfer, we have a case of great concept, poor execution. Taking on Hitler-Broccoli whilst riding a flying ice cream is a plot that is both barmy and strangely intriguing. And it deserves to be backed up by much better gameplay than what is currently on offer. Its issues with the controls and the characters, as well as a general lack of content, quickly sour things and throw almost any element of replayability out of the window.

Blitz Breaker is the archetypical pocket-money platformer. It costs less than a fiver, comes with plenty of content, and its gimmick - a character that can’t walk, but can jetpack its way to the far reaches of the level - is different enough to make it interesting. Just be warned that this is deeply difficult, and failures won’t always be down to you.

Should you want to involve yourself in mass fights, laughing uncontrollably throughout, or wish to get engrossed in the RPG elements of Beneath, you’ll want to put your best fighting shoes on, because it’s time to Paint the Town Red.

Audio repetition aside, Orcs Must Die! 3 is a little gem. The campaign modes are deep and varied, the weekly challenges are full of variety and both the Endless and Scramble options mix up the gameplay just enough to warrant some time with each. Throw in the simple to set up online multiplayer and you've got an extremely accomplished action tower defense brawler that the vast majority of gamers will thoroughly enjoy.

This could have been Life is Strange: London and we wouldn’t have bat an eyelid. And that’s where the greatest disappointment derives from: Virginia was so proudly and ebulliently unconventional, yet Last Stop hues so closely to convention. It’s an episode of The Twilight Zone; a more committee-created Quantic Dream game. There’s no doubt that it’s enjoyable and has wonderful, memorable moments, but its biggest crime is that it doesn’t emerge with a voice of its own.