If you’re looking for a game that will entertain the whole family, innovating and informing as you go, then you can’t go wrong with Lost Words: Beyond the Page on Xbox. It’s a great experience with a fantastic concept, some beautifully heartfelt writing, and wonderful gameplay.

A Fantasia of jazz and line-art, Genesis Noir on Xbox is a voyeuristic tour through the beginning, middles and end of the universe. The laid-back, blissful pace won’t be for everyone, and a reliance on toys rather than actual objectives will irritate some. But side-step the bugs and a couple of gameplay hiccups, and you have a ride that has a groove that, once tuned into, will take you somewhere deliriously unique.

I love the vast majority of what Wales Interactive do and that is the case with I Saw Black Clouds on Xbox. It's a game that works as a solo adventure, but equally good with someone to throw ideas off, dictating the decisions you make.

Mundaun is exactly the type of indie game that needs to be talked about in years to come with features being written about it and how it became one of the seminal indie titles.

Escape from Life Inc on Xbox is an engaging little game that, although short, has enough about it to keep you wanting to go back to it. I can't put my finger on what exactly the X-Factor is, but there is certainly an appeal about the characters and their struggles. Yes, the controls are wayward every now and again, and it's not the most technologically advanced game ever, but what it has in bucket loads is heart.

If Narita Boy had a better handle on what it did well, and spent less time on the stuff it didn’t, we’d have a hit on our hands. Instead, we have style over substance - a Tron Evolution rather than Blade Runner, say - when it could have been a bonafide classic.

From an Arkham Horror fan’s perspective, Arkham Horror: Mother’s Embrace on Xbox feels like a blancmange model of the source material. It has none of the spiralling difficulty, gloom and impending doom. It’s easy, competent, and it’s clearly been made more palatable for a wider audience. We suspect that non-Arkham fans will see it as an extremely basic tactics game with lots of levers that you won’t need to pull, sewn onto an unsatisfying adventure game.

If you're a fan of old-fashioned point-and-clickers then you must give Sumatra: Fate of Yandi on Xbox a go. It looks, sounds, and plays like one of those adventures from back in the day, and even though it may well play better on PC than with a controller, it works well enough.

Paradise Lost on Xbox has surprised from start to finish. It tells a good and moving story, and deals with an alternative chilling history with some brilliant visuals and well-written narrative. It's not a challenging game at all but rather a narrative exploration that takes you on quite a linear path.

All in all, if you have a group of friends to play with, Can't Drive This on Xbox is worth a shot. It’s a giggle for sure, and deliberately driving your partner round the bend (literally!) is as fun as it gets, especially as you get further, the pace increases and things get pretty tense. But if you’re a solo player, this hits party games' cliche number 1: it’s just not as much fun on your own.

Spacebase Startopia on Xbox is a sim game which is full of character and offers a solid experience, especially for those who are fans of the genre. However, the clunky control scheme and uncomplicated formulaic gameplay may prove too much of a barrier for some.

Angry Video Game Nerd I & II Deluxe on Xbox is more than just a video game based on a popular YouTube channel; it’s an amalgamation of all things that made gaming in the NES era so special and timeless.

Crypto by POWGI on Xbox is perhaps the easiest title from the four now available from the Lightwood Games team, so achievement hunters can rejoice. For those looking for an exciting word puzzle game, this doesn’t really offer anything new or unique like some of the others do. Once you have got the hang of the puzzle tropes, Crypto then just becomes a rinse and repeat exercise with very little difficulty.

With the pleasant and cathartic combat system in mind, Ruvato: Original Complex on Xbox might be all that some people are looking for. The game can be completed within one or two sittings, and the combat certainly is engaging enough to warrant said completion. But if you just don’t see the appeal of repetitive, unoriginal, overly dramatic anime stories, you’re better off forgetting this one.

Due to the lower priced nature of R.B.I. Baseball 21 on Xbox, it can get away with less major updates between installments. This is certainly the case here: there is no sign of any new modes, and instead it is more a case of existing modes receiving a bit of polish.

Explosionade DX on Xbox is loud, dumb fun with the emphasis firmly on shooting and staying alive. With multiplayer built in, and online leaderbords to see how you rank up against your friends, this is a game that manages to scratch the itch that I'm sure we all feel from time to time: the urge to just blow things up.

I’ve found Adios on Xbox to be moving and profound. If you are a fan of games like Everyone's Gone to Rapture or Firewatch then I think this is probably up there as a must-buy game. But on the other side of the coin, if you are not one who is particularly interested in narrative or storytelling, preferring gameplay to run your games, then you may well have a bit of an issue with what it delivers.

Rip Them Off on Xbox is one of those games which is perfect to play for a while, before you start to feel frustration, put it down and then get swiftly tempted back in to find a solution.

For existing fans, there is some joy to be had in this Resident Evil love letter. For those that never played the originals though, Heaven Dust isn’t a patch on the games that inspired it.

Black Legend is an unusual game to find on the Xbox, yet it is a game that will scratch a tactical itch for some players, especially as its combination of theme, tricky tactical combat and gothic horror is potentially a heady brew. However, in practise, it fails to really deliver on any of these fronts as everything feels vague and unfocused, like the game world’s mists have shrouded Black Legend itself.

It’s wonderful to see a studio master their craft, and produce the stone-cold classic that represents everything that they’re trying to achieve. Josef Fares and his team at Hazelight have been noisily making the case for cooperative experiences for some time now, and with It Takes Two on the Xbox it feels like they’ve been vindicated. Find someone else to jump onto this roller coaster with - a loved one if you can - as it’s an experience you will want to talk about and share repeatedly. Now, let’s just hope it opens the door to more games like it.

The next-gen release of Hunting Simulator 2 on Xbox brings with it some very notable graphical improvements to the environments, but that is the only real difference. A lack of a next-gen upgrade, save migration or new features in general – aside from having to pay even more money – prevent this from being a worthwhile investment for existing players.

Two Point Hospital: JUMBO Edition on Xbox plays very similarly to the main campaign, with just the right amount of tweaking to keep the offering fresh. It’s an essential purchase for fans of the original, and highly recommended for everyone else.

Sure, it’s attention-grabbing to do something new, and innovation does get reviewers hot around the collar. But, most of the time, we just want a good thing done well, and Kaze and the Wild Masks does its 2D platforming extremely well. While Kaze and the Wild Masks on Xbox wears the masks of various platformers, like Donkey Kong Country and Rayman, they’re all polished to a mighty sheen.

Occasionally there are gameplay experiences which you take in, but then require a nod to not just the asking price, but the size of the development team. Sanity of Morris on Xbox is one of those games; a game that at times feels like a triple-A title in scope and ambition.

Cave Bad is not a bad game by any manner of means, but it’s not great either and so the overall viewpoint to focus on depends on what you want from a game. Easy Gamerscore? This is nailed on. Long-term gameplay? It’s not.

Pinkman+ is very short but hits that sweet nostalgic spot and sucks you in with its addictive nature.

Not the disaster we predicted from the truly terrible trailer, Warrior Boy on the Xbox is nonetheless a barebones action-adventure, where the combat is weak enough that you’ll ignore it, but sidestepping it leaves you with nothing more than a giant treasure hunt.