The Samurai Collection (QUByte Classics) probably didn’t need putting together, combining two fairly bad games and not an awful lot of fun.

The Legend of Tianding is a very competent entry into the side-scrolling fighting genre. And the tale is a breath of fresh air as well. It may be one of the first Taiwan based games you’ll play, but hopefully it won’t be the last.

Crossovers by POWGI is another example of what the POWGI games do best; take existing puzzle types and mash them together for something fun and unique. And with 200 of them on offer this time, you get a very good amount.

Firefighting Simulator - The Squad manages to capture something of the dangerous (and dare we say) exciting profession. However, there’s not enough here to prevent it from ending up as a flash in the pan.

Vampire Survivors: Legacy of the Moonspell feels amazing value for money, especially when you include the low asking price of the base game

There’s a killer idea at the core of Swordship, and so much presentational care has been put into supporting it. What would happen if you ‘pulled a Mirror’s Edge’ and made a shooter completely pacifist? The result would be Swordship, a dodge ’em up that’s overloaded with potential. In execution, though, it slowly capsizes.

Them's Fightin' Herds isn’t a Street Fighter killer, but there is enough here to ensure that it is worth a try.

Headbangers in Holiday Hell isn’t metal. It is barely even tinfoil.

There is a pleasantly fun puzzle platformer found in Dobo’s Heroes - if you can see it through to the end, it will put a smile on your face.

It’s easy to imagine a version of Run Sausage Run! with all the trimmings, with a much greater depth of flavour. But this is just a plain chipolata, no bun, and we wish a little bit more care was taken in preparing it.

Chained Echoes is a very accomplished JRPG that is well worth playing, mostly thanks to a great story and some classic retro feels.

River City Girls 2 is both good and not-quite-so-good. There is a lot of charm and personality oozing out of the screen as you play, and the way that the dialogue is written and performed is great. The difficulty is real, the slightly jerky animation makes things tricky, and the block is rubbish, but despite this there is a good deal of fun to be had.

GRIME: Colors of Rot is a pleasure to play. If you want a challenge, this is the game for you, particularly as the world is extremely well realised and will happily draw you in.

Krampus Kills is an atmospheric Christmas horror game that is badly hamstrung by the actual game part of that description. It plays badly, it controls poorly and even the puzzle elements are an exercise in frustration, mostly as controller optimisation is very poor.

EDENGATE: The Edge of Life is an interactive experience providing two hours worth of unfulfilled potential.

Perfectly priced, Rooten may well entice those looking for an atmospheric narrative, enjoying the interesting, dark story that then plays out.

Children of Silentown is yet another immaculately sculpted point-and-click adventure from Daedalic Entertainment. Compared to Deponia, The Dark Eye and their other adventures, Children of Silentown is somewhat small-scale in scope, but its intense focus allows it to explore themes of childhood and imagination with a deftness that they haven’t achieved before. Treat yourself to a creepy little page-turner.

Sift through the scraps of ideas and mechanics in God Damn the Garden and you might find the odd tiny nugget of gold.

Over these laid-back winter days, Dad’s Monster House might be exactly what you need. A well-constructed, taut little graphic adventure that sticks around for a few hours.

With more polished combat, a better world and story threads, a few more original ideas, and fewer sloppy inconsistencies, The Bounty Huntress could at least be a passable little game. As it is, though, it barely feels finished.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was already one of the best games of all-time, but now the Complete Edition has cemented that legacy and will ensure that it is a game which is talked about for many more years to come.

Getting Keel the Barbarian to the end of Roar of Revenge is as dynamic and exciting as pushing a boulder up a hill. Unless you have a deep, craving love for old-school hack-and-slash platformers, you are best leaving this anachronism in its box.

Foolish Mortals Games delivers with Kaiju Wars, creating a simple but improbably deep turn-based RPG that captures the thrill of a Godzilla attack. If you’re allergic to randomness, you might want to temper your enthusiasm, but everyone else will find they are in strong, scaly hands.

Watch Over Christmas is a lovely, engaging, point-and-click adventure that’s full to the brim with all things Christmassy and more.

Panda Punch is fine, we suppose. If you have a fiver in your pocket, and a love of (red) pandas in your heart, then it will tickle you for the hour it takes to gain its Gamerscore, or the three hours it takes to fully complete. But it’s one of Ratalaika’s more mediocre offerings, as it eats, shoots and leaves you feeling unsatisfied.

Jitsu Squad is an absolute riot to play, alone or with friends. There is more action than you can shake a katana at, there are more special attacks and pyrotechnics outside of a Dragon Ball anime, and the only thing wrong with it is the difficulty in making out what is going on when playing multiplayer.

Megalan 11 just isn’t fun. There is no sense of jeopardy, no sense of danger, no sense of impending doom if you don’t escape in the 11 days that the game gives you - there is just the unending grind of trying to get enough scrap to mend a door before a Space Cow melts its way through again.

Alphadia Neo is a pretty good fishing game with some light dungeon exploring tacked on. The story is pretty standard KEMCO fare, the fighting is what we’ve seen before, right down to different coloured enemies being treated as new species, and all in all this is a pleasant way of killing some time.