There are glimpses of a great crime sim in Crime Boss: Rockay City, but to find them you'll need to be able to last long enough in the campaign. The roguelite elements at play do little to keep you plugging away for long though.

Everything in Miasma Chronicles comes together to ensure that it is a blast to play through. The mix of real time exploration and turn-based combat is intriguing, but combine in a good story and it will keep you hooked.

Raiden III x MIKADO MANIAX is a remaster done right. The action is as good - and as hard - as ever and the new features included are all pretty good as well. The jury is out in regards the new music, but I am sure it will go down well with the younger generation.

Aside from the manic nature - and the rubbish music - the rest of Raiden IV x MIKADO remix is a joy to play. If you like old school shoot ‘em ups, then give Raiden IV x MIKADO a try, and be prepared to recalibrate what you think is a hard game.

Raging Bytes can be enjoyably tense, but the most fun comes from the chance to spot all the references than as an actual game. The gameplay is adequate, without ever breaking into the realms of “must play”, but it is a good way of killing a few hours.

Onigo Hunter is a KEMCO game and if you’ve played any of those previously, you’ll know what to expect here. There is the good stuff, like the capture and crafting system, and the tedious stuff, like the seemingly endless toing and froing to complete the main quest.

Stay Out of the House may have the air of the familiar, but offers an unsettling struggle for survival with The Butcher in one of the most authentic stealth survival sims I’ve played in a long while.

Burnhouse Lane will capture you from start to finish, immersing you through its ten-hour running time. It reminds of the best British horror films from the 1970s, mixing different planes of existence in clever and rewarding ways.

If you’re curious about this series - whether it’s the Gnomes Garden games, Lost Artifacts or any of the others - then Crown of the Empire is the one you need. As a set of games, they have never been particularly demanding, but this is the lowest maintenance of the bunch.

Kuroi Tsubasa is a visual novel that has a great demon-hunting concept and no intention of delivering on it. The overall effect of Kuroi Tsubasa was like being trapped in a room with someone aggressively reading their fan fiction. It’s meandering, boring, and desperately needs an editor.

If we focus on the visual novel genre of gaming, then Harmony: The Fall of Reverie is up there as one of the most accomplished. The story is immense and engaging, the animation is outstanding and some TV broadcast quality is found in the cutscenes.

Park Beyond oozes character and is dripping with imagination, but the execution is sadly lacking in parts. That said, this fantastical world gives the creative types the tools to run wild.

We can’t recall a game that would anger us as much as it addicted us, so congratulations Dark Quest 3. It’s a questionable award, but it’s yours.

Despite a short running time, Under the Warehouse is one that can be enjoyed. It delivers a strange surreal world and story, along with an ending that some might hate. But this is cheap in price, and so worth taking a punt on.

TORINTO isn’t terrible, but it tickles the top of it. It’s too starved of enemy types, and doesn’t let you have fun with the few that are there. It’s a run and gunner that does the best with the scraps that it’s got, but ideally it wouldn’t have been working with scraps in the first place.

It is great to have one of the classic farming games on modern consoles again, but STORY OF SEASONS: A Wonderful Life can’t hold a candle to many of the more modern offerings.

Overall, and while Puzzle Quest 3 might not deliver the top drawer gameplay of its predecessors, it compensates for this with a ton of content that should have you matching gems for hours.

Nocturnal is a short, yet enjoyable experience. The platforming and visuals are the best aspects of the game. While I wish there was an expansion to some of the mechanics, the fact that it doesn’t stretch out the playtime unnecessarily somewhat offsets that desire.

Toodee and Topdee is a cleverly thought out game, running nice visuals, a relaxing soundtrack and unique gameplay mechanics. I would have loved to have had more levels to play through and the option of online co-op would also have been good. But these are not deal-breakers and in the mountain of indie games that are available, Toodee and Topdee proves to be a special little title.

Whilst the story can engage during moments, the ending is lacking in anything substantial. SENSEs: Midnight is one for the survival horror diehards, and even then, only the OG diehards.

While Baby Storm is undoubtedly flawed, it gets by through sheer exuberance. You can’t stay annoyed at its controls for long when you’re being swept along by yet another new gameplay mechanic, yet another fiendish level layout, and some of the most high tempo gameplay of any multi-tasking sim. Like the kids in Baby Storm, it refuses to sit still.

Aery - The Lost Hero looks better than any Aery before, but it’s also a regurgitation of the same levels, often in a row. We’re not inclined to open the beak and accept it this time.

Through all the live services and toxic multiplayer experiences, we can lose sight of some simple joys of gaming. It can be an escape, and a means of expression. It can be a comfort and a feeling of progression. Chicory: A Colorful Tale reminds us that games can do them all with one flourish of its paintbrush.

We couldn’t shake the feeling that we’d been here many, many times before with Ghost Files: The Face of Guilt, but that was thrown for a loop by visits to the spirit realm. Suddenly, we felt like we were experiencing - whisper it - new ideas, and the experience got elevated.

Avoiding jumps, plowing through obstacles, ignoring weapons and respawning like your life depended on it: these are not the actions of a sane karter. But master Rubberduck Wave Racer's arcane arts and you have a surprisingly well-stocked racing game. It’s still nowhere near worth that £24.99, though.

Age of Solitaire: Build Civilization is one of the best-looking solitaire games we’ve played, but it’s a fancy wrapper on some unmitigated tosh.

As a quick tower-defence shot in the arm, Listeria Wars just about works. There’s a cracking immune system theme, which makes a change from all the towers and turrets that we are used to. But it’s so overrun with minor issues that we eventually had to put it down.

Sugar Tanks is a shot of syrup for tank game fans (or newbies to the genre), but you should be aware of the sugar-comedown at the halfway mark.