Capes makes a great first impression as an original superhero tactics title that feels fresh, tight, and responsive. The turn-based battle system controls well and is easy to pick up, while also being so confident in its smooth player induction that things quickly start getting spicy. The roster of cape-less heroes all look, sound, and play satisfyingly distinct from one another and make choosing your four heroes for a given mission a daunting task. Players who like their turn-based XCOM-like titles to be lean, mean, and brain-meltingly precise will be sucked in for the first six-to-nine hours. After that, the tactical puzzles give way to what are essentially trial-and-error horde-survival missions that betray this title’s ambitions of doing anything interesting with the systems or story.

TMNT Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants is a fun diversion for any fan like me that missed it the first time around. I didn’t mind it, despite its obvious flaws, but this console port should have done more. I’ll happily acknowledge that the original team behind the Wrath of the Mutants arcade cabinet did a solid job at the time to rekindle much of what made the originals so fun. It’s just, given the modern world we live in where Shredder’s Revenge exists, the timing on this port is unfortunate.

Set against beautiful landscapes populated by a cast of wickedly cool deities, Diets and Deities is a short multicultural rhythm game which seeks to make your body move, your tastebuds dance, and your heart engage with its casual gameplay experience combining deep story themes exploring cultural preservation and consumption.

Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX is a fine enough remaster if you have fond memories of the original. It looks and sounds great, but stumbles in its translation and will likely do more to frustrate newcomers than convince them the Master System classic was any good.

The Night is Grey is a serviceable point-and-click experience that sees its gorgeous art style and animations overshadowed by a disappointing ending and frustrating puzzles.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 1 & 2 rock and are arguably better games for their age that are best experienced with a Pro controller or even a beefier platform, just ignore Razor’s Edge.

No More Heroes III is a game of a different time. While its simple combat and its unique style still set it apart, its hidden age does more harm than good.

Avowed moves Obsidian Entertainment even further toward the action side of Action-RPG with a satisfying combat system and vibrant world stapled to an unengaging narrative and surface level roleplaying systems. Despite its initially promising setup, Avowed never rises above a binge and forget experience.

Metal: Hellsinger enlists some all-star musical talent to bring its dream of metal-based FPS mayhem to life, but stumbles in finding its gameplay rhythm.

Which is the overarching tale of Senua’s Saga– for almost everything it does well, there is a better counterpart in its predecessor, the remaining new additions never fully realised. It is painstakingly crafted yet thoroughly unengaging, its ruminations on the human condition are not unwelcome but presented with unearned profundity and housed in gameplay that is apathetic to the player at best. Senua’s Sacrifice was a crunchy experience but, in its limitations, and focus, it blossomed into a striking, contained reflection of emotions through systems. Conversely, Senua’s Saga is undeniably gorgeous and well intentioned, but exhaustively preoccupied with its own reflection.

Bloated, buggy and with its best ideas in the back half, Neocore's grimdark tactical King Arthur spin-off is halfway decent might and magic.

Enjoyed in the same vein as a Saturday morning cartoon, Persona 5 Tactica is welcoming to all and has a pleasantly casual air about it. As a game of two halves, dialogue and turn-based tactical battles, there is little fluff standing in the way of players assembling their team of three Phantom Thieves as they gun their way out of the Metaverse. While Tactica makes no big mistakes, it forgoes bringing new ideas to the table and mostly presents a mundane experience for genre fans.

With Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, Konami has crafted a visually arresting re-release so fawning and reverent that it reads entirely incurious. Fans of the source material will no doubt relish the opportunity to play a more modern-feeling take on a generational piece of art, but such a seemingly important work should inspire more.

Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia feels a little antiquated, nailing the fundamentals of the tactics genre but leaving a lot to be desired.

With like-minded cleaners and a weekend spare, Back 4 Blood is a hoot. Lacklustre modes and a lack of identity dampen its long-term appeal.

Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical has a sharp eye for aesthetics and a kind heart but its ambitious concept buckles under uneven implementation and a lacklustre sound.

Where the Snow Settles tries to tell a story of substance but the game’s short runtime means that players never build a vested interest in Aurelia's journey.

Charming and occasionally engaging, Darwin’s Paradox! Is an uneven and sometimes irritating stealth platformer with a few too many quirks and inconsistencies to outright recommend.

A collection of cool shit laid out on a shaky foundation, Romeo is a Dead Man is as admirable and occasionally brilliant to witness as it is borderline boring to play. It’s a punk rock demo tape, an imperfect showcase of violent profundity scattered amongst a bunch of noise.

Blending together soccer and martial arts in a fun party game, KungFu Kickball is a decent game to break out when you're mates are over, though the lack of content and high price might cause you to look elsewhere.

Despite an intriguing alternate universe and a decent story, Paradise Lost fails to reach its potential due to poor voice acting and tedious gameplay.

Cris Tales is an enchanting story wrapped in a gorgeous visual style, but lacks sustained imagination in gameplay. JRPG players will find enjoyment within, but those less patient may be turned off after a few hours.

Wanderstop is a well-intentioned take on the personal weight of societal burnout and the issues typically found in the cozy genre but struggles to find much ground beyond its initial premise as surface-level commentary and frustrating, awkward gameplay spoils the brew.

RKGK / Rakugaki offers a visually stunning world with great music but struggles with slow pacing, flat interactions, and frustrating gameplay mechanics. The game has potential, but it needs more polish and variety to truly shine.

While it might seem like I actively dislike Flintlock, that’s not the case– the truth is far worse. The reality is that I just don’t have particularly strong opinions on the game, purely because it hasn’t left much of an impression on me, negative or otherwise. The setting and mythos that A44 created has potential, and I can see the makings of something worthwhile in a handful of the systems, but this attempt hasn’t landed. There’s nothing here that’s outwardly terrible or broken, it’s just lacking life in many vital facets. Even if I were to excuse the shoehorned Soulslike systems thrown into the mix, there’s still no compelling reason to play The Siege of Dawn.

AWAY is a beautiful and educational adventure like no other, but major gameplay mechanics are poorly executed and take away from it being a standout title in the survival genre.

Much like Bloober Team’s previous horror efforts, The Medium features an interesting story in a compelling and creepy world but is let down by often boring and dragged-out gameplay sequences.

While it’s built around an interesting mechanic and features tense, sometimes terrifying moments, MADiSON is frequently derailed by tedious puzzles and an irritating amount of backtracking.

Rise of the Rōnin's open world is vast and content-rich, but it's a case of quantity over quality that's only partially rescued by the unambitious but technically adequate combat.

If you didn’t catch the Payday bug with the first two releases it’s unlikely you’ll feel the bite with Payday 3, with so much of the game relying on what worked last time around. But if you are a curious first-timer, then Payday 3 is worth at least checking out. Thankfully the game’s launch matchmaking kinks have been ironed out, because Payday’s core cooperative chaos is still a damn fun time with the right squad. But with only eight heists, frustrating progression and some dated gameplay, this heister can’t help but feel a little underwhelmed.

While it’s commendable that OTXO attempts to freshen up the top-down shooter genre by mixing in roguelike qualities and a time-bending mechanic, the result, unfortunately, feels at odds with itself.

The Last Stand: Aftermath is a blast from the past and enjoyable rogue-like that is unfortunately infected with bugs.

So who is this game for? I can imagine cosy gamers being delighted by the intricacies of the puzzles as I was, but others might feel this interrupts the simplicity. I can also see how a game like this could spark delight and long-term nostalgia for someone before finding games that incorporate its elements a bit better. Maybe escapism shouldn’t be the marker for a successful cosy game. Maybe it was necessary for me to play something so casually at the end of the year, so that my mind could be freed up to contemplate the wins and losses of 2024, and the resolutions to be attempted in 2025. Critter Café, with its flaws and subtle successes, is at least a fittingly weird game for the end of a pretty weird year.

Foreclosed features a masterful comic book art style and pumping sci-fi soundtrack, but its average action and failure to capitalise on its cyberpunk themes make it a hard sell.

While Frontier of Pandora's open world is an audio-visual feast, the formulaic structure of its gameplay and the tools it give you to wade through it feels far too familiar to make it worth visiting for long.

MacGuffin's Curse is a product of a simpler time, but manages to stand out with its charming writing despite a difficulty in escaping the trappings of its ancient genre.

Despite my issues with The Casting of Frank Stone, I had a decent enough time during my six hours. The story may not have had the payoff I was promised at the start, but I was intrigued enough until the end, even if the gameplay did its best to take the sting out of the experience. Maybe my lack of Dead by Daylight knowledge hindered my enjoyment, but fans of Supermassive’s games will likely have a good enough time. Just don’t expect its best work.

It’s just disappointing that a lack of polish and modern sensibilities hinder the product at all turns, leaving what could have been a chunky and ambitious slice of indie action horror down a path forgotten and overshadowed.

Hood: Outlaws & Legends has a strong premise on paper and at times is fun and exciting, but its gameplay shortcomings mean that it never reaches its full potential.

Code Vein II picks a little from the best of the Soulslike genre, but doesn’t go the distance to innovate or execute on these ideas well enough. The Blood Codes-fuelled action is where the gameplay shines, but the confusing writing and performance issues on PS5 suck the fun out of this anime vampire sequel.

The DioField Chronicle's interesting mix of strategy and tactics just barely keeps afloat a bloated package of repetition, achingly dull characters, and eye-rolling writing.

A tight card-driven skirmisher is the beating heart of a deeply troubled Marvel game, burdened by feature creep and endless hours of terrible dialogue.

Verne: The Shape of Fantasy isn’t a bad game by any stretch. There are some neat moments and ideas, and the pixel art style is a delight, but the overall experience does little to stand out among the crowd in a genre teeming with creativity.

I really wanted to love Forever Skies and I’d hoped that it would recapture the magic I felt when playing Subnautica for the first time. The foibles that I’d been prepared to overlook during Early Access became disappointing features in the final release and to be honest, I walked away wishing that the developer had taken more time to polish the experience. It’s been working hard to squash bugs since release and has promised a content roadmap going forward, so by the time you read this some of the issues I’ve outlined may be addressed. All in all, I did actually enjoy my time with Forever Skies and I recommend checking it out if you like these kinds of games, just don’t do what I did – and temper your expectations going in.

Conceptually, Silent Hill f is every bit the fascinating, uncomfortable step forward the series has needed for a long time. Its deployment of iconography, theme, and tone is both in keeping with what makes the Silent Hill titles so endearing and radically subversive for the genre space (at least within games). To balk at its gendered tale is to balk at the idea of Silent Hill itself. But Silent Hill f needs to exist beyond its concept; its ideas and commentary too weighted to celebrate for simply being there, and its systemic failures too omnipresent to not feel all the while. Silent Hill f is the step forward Silent Hill needs; it’s a shame it was onto such unstable ground.

Elderand feels like a game that would have thrived in a previous generation of gaming. It holds onto some mechanics that just don’t feel that great compared to what the Metroidvania genre offers in the modern day. It’s not all bad, but there are better games in the genre that you can play.

When the game makes you feel like you’re in the world of A Quiet Place being pursued by Death Angels, The Road Ahead is an immersive and tense time. It’s just a shame that the game’s mechanics and its 8–10-hour journey ultimately come at a cost to the tension and overall experience. As a result, fans of the franchise and the first-person horror genre will likely find more to like here than most, even with its budget price tag.

I wanted The Sacred Acorn to be more, to really hone in on what a squirrel hero could be. What’s here is mechanically sound, enjoyable animations and a world worth visiting, but at every corner it just manages to miss the mark. Cuteness aside, a few layers of polish or perhaps a rethink of its systems is all that stands between it and a successful breakaway from the norm. Instead, it punches above its weight and puts in an admirable performance, but unfortunately falls short of successfully navigating its way through the minefield.

Playing through the thoughts and emotions that Izzy's feeling during a difficult time in her life is confronting and heartfelt in equal measure, making it all the more disappointing that Lost Words' core mechanic lets it down so much.

The Occultist has a strong premise, interesting narrative, and engrossing atmosphere, but unfortunately it fails to capitalise on this with some pretty tedious gameplay, a lack of scares, a boring protagonist and out-of-place voice acting.

The Wild Case is a stock-standard point and click adventure that never excels or fails in any particular area but does enough to warrant a playthrough for fans of the genre.

JETT: The Far Shore has moments of brilliance, but they're buried under an overload of mechanics that aren't enjoyable and a general lack of polish. Similarly any philosophical value in its narrative ideas is ruined by needlessly obfuscated dialogue. There's something to be discovered here, but it's just not worth the trip.

In returning to its narrative adventure roots, Lost Records: Bloom & Rage feels like a retreat for Don’t Nod. Draped in nostalgia for both the 90s and Life is Strange, Bloom & Rage struggles to find itself among uneven pacing, tonal inconsistencies, and an uninteresting cast of characters. Despite some neat visual tricks with its VHS overlays, there’s little on this first tape worth a rental.

Perhaps Ubisoft's most mediocre new IP launch to date, eliciting neither excitement nor offence.

Despite a decent story and atmosphere, Winter Ember is a flawed experience that suffers from poor combat and even poorer voice acting and writing. Super fans of stealth games may find some joy here, but for most there are better stealth games out there.

Conway: Disappearance at Dahlia View feels like a paperback mystery novel you might find at the back of the bookstore. It’s not exactly a hidden gem but it does contain the occasional glint of something special. Perfunctory writing drags down the tension and a limited range of puzzles and interactivity struggles to pull it all back together. Worse though, Conway’s brutish ways filled me with unease from the first snap of the camera, rather than filling me with the joy of a good detective story, I just felt like an intruder.

An ambitious blend of genres that winds up a jack of many trades but a master of none, Sunday Gold deserves credit for its aesthetics and goals but it’s difficult to recommend this trip to the races.

While Harold Halibut doesn’t quite hit the heights it sets out to reach, you have to admire Slow Bros.’ unwavering commitment to its vision it spent 14 years bringing to life. Unfortunately, Harold Halibut’s stop-motion visuals do the majority of the heavy lifting, with the game’s repetitive and shallow gameplay reducing the overall experience to a tedious trudge through underwater space.

Putting wrestling and turn-based RPGs in a can they co-exist tag team style was an excitingly bold move that unfortunately ends in a heel turn and a crowd leaving early to beat the traffic.

A Juggler’s Tale is almost the game it thinks it is, peaking at the potential highs of a narratively-complex side-scroller with a unique twist on how you engage with the world around you. In falling short the way it does it won’t leave you entirely wanting, there is fun to be had and wonders to marvel at in its beautiful world. But a limited runtime and unrealised script make Abby’s quest for freedom a little too caught up in its own strings.

Proving that looks aren’t everything, Crimson Desert’s stunning visuals and strong performances aren’t enough to save it from being a disappointing experience. Jam-packed with content and systems that make it feel like a Jack of all features, master of none with an unenjoyable gameplay loop, Crimson Desert is really just a single-player MMORPG in all but name.

Alone in the Dark marks a fine attempt at contemporary survival horror mechanics but is completely adrift with an incoherent narrative, dull design, and baffling tonal choices.

A disappointing revisit to something fondly remembered, Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition struggles to remind you of what made these games so memorable in the first place.

Atomic Heart has an impressive command of aesthetics and occasionally gives you the tools to enjoy its world, but an unstable console build, unsatisfying systems and complete misfire of a script prevent these atoms from achieving the necessary fusion.

Wheel World is an enjoyable enough game that gets right to the point of riding a bike and saving the world. The cycling challenges and narrative require nothing but a desire to work away at customising your bike to best go up and down hills, slide around corners, and jump ramps. While its creativity and riding mechanics are minimal, its vibe-based world is perfect for a casual player who likes the premise of a bike-based society.

Game Over is a game bursting with music, colour, and movement which can make for an overwhelming gameplay experience. As players scratch their heads at the impossible rhythm challenges and get to know their instrument-people communities and their humour, they will also battle frogs, use special platforming powers, and all the while try to figure out why their world is glitching. Some will love the zaniness of their situation while others may feel exhausted by the central mechanical and story elements.

Fobia – St. Dinfna Hotel lifts liberally from the best of the horror genre but its unsatisfying core gameplay loops leave you out in the cold. A nifty camera mechanic allows for some entertaining time-bending exploration and the game has a solid grasp on 2000s grunge aesthetics, even if the story at its heart is a little old hat.

The atmospheric visual overhaul marks the best part of this exhausting and dated remake, while the villainous AI SHODAN remains a timeless antagonist.

Despite some stunning visuals and an excellent soundtrack, Aphelion sadly doesn’t have the narrative prowess that DON’T NOD is known for. Bland characters and a story that doesn’t deliver on its promising premise, plus a tedious gameplay loop makes this sci-fi adventure a disappointment.

Art of Play definitely deserves some thanks for bringing The Phantom back to video games, and it’s clear the team has a deep reverence for Lee Falk’s character. As a fan of The Phantom myself, it’s great to play him once again, and I hope this isn’t the last time we see him. But as a beat-‘em-up experience, The Phantom is unlikely to draw a big crowd outside of dedicated fans.

Chocobo GP copies the work of better kart racers while fundamentally missing the mark on what makes them great. It delivers entertaining Final Fantasy fanservice that's at least two decades too late for the one audience that might still find the fun it and tacks on microtransactions to boot. It's functional and sometimes fun but otherwise not worth your time.

Static Dread: The Lighthouse employs a brilliantly unsettling art style and threatens to go to interesting places before disappointingly settling into monotony.

Beautiful yet flawed, Possessor(s) misses the mark with its blend of Metroidvania exploration and brawler combat, resulting in an unfortunately frustrating fusion.

The highest praise I can muster is that it’s functional, while slow to load it is at least a steady performer. Roping mates into matches with you will undoubtedly inject some life into the thing too, and the aesthetics of Crash and co. do a lot of heavy lifting to give this very basic experience the appearance of fun at least. On its own merits, it’s aggressively fine, but considered as a shelved product, Crash Team Rumble feels a little like it’s taking the fruit right out of your pocket.

Unfortunately, the game's interesting character designs and a decent art style aren't enough to carry it through its mediocre combat, rough audio and low stakes.

King's Bounty II is a well-meaning sequel that unfortunately lacks the character required to live up to its predecessors. Mediocre storytelling and shrug-inducing graphics and sound are partially redeemed by a decent combat system, albeit one without the courage to experiment.

When the game is fun – it’s a hoot, when it isn’t fun – it’s tedious… and when it isn’t tedious, it’s downright boring. Somewhat worth a play, but measure your price accordingly to ensure you get the right return on investment.

Broken Roads is a gorgeous Aussie world undone by incurious writing, ambitious but poorly implemented ideas, and unstable performance issues.

Curse of the Sea Rats’ charmingly nostalgic art direction can only partially hide a Metroidvania whose mechanical shortcomings are numerous, and whose substandard technical stability is irredeemable in its launch state.

Sable should be applauded for its strong aesthetic choices and ambitious restructure of open-world priorities, but it fails to fully deliver on its premise and is ultimately undone by a lack of polish or engaging mechanics.

Despite some grave issues, I want to affirm that Killing Floor 3 is not a bad game. It’s certainly a bad time if you’re on PlayStation 5. Rather, the low ceiling for gratification that the Killing Floor formula offers has seen some exciting improvements and controversial tweaks this time around. The itch is scratched, slow-mo hyperviolence intact. I’m just unsure where its confidence has gone, as it has unnecessarily overcomplicated every aspect of the otherwise casual horde shooter into a bafflingly opaque mishmash of its competitors’ form.

The ramshackle world that Zoe is trying to save feels a great deal like a metaphor for the game itself. What we have here is a game that, despite glimpses of interesting ideas, ultimately feels visually over-polished and underdeveloped. I see the concept of what Steel Seed aspired to be, and I desperately wish it had hit that mark –the experience on offer is uniquely impressive from a conceptual standpoint, but the execution of it all just asks too much of my patience to vibe with it properly.

Breathedge takes an interesting premise and shoves it out the airlock with an overreliance on tired jokes and half-baked survival sim mechanics. An admirable attempt to move the genre forward collapses under the weight of too much self-awareness and not enough polish.

Gods Will Fall is very much a game that's almost there with a lot to like, but unfortunately it fades too quickly.

Godfall doesn’t do anything egregious or worse than any of the other disappointing looters of this generation, but it does almost everything equally as badly in a weird perfect balance. This is what makes it so frustrating. There is definite potential for a gem inside this game, but it’s so busy with being a downright average-at-best looter that it loses all semblance of actual personality, a key component to maintaining a looter game. Impressively non-existent story, incredibly derivative art, classes which mean absolutely nothing, a deceptively small loot pool, technical issues up the wazoo, terrible endgame design and a horrific netcode all add up to a visually pleasing but soulless affair that can’t even begin to escape being categorised as anything more than a flashy tech demo.

Airoheart attempts to recreate the magic of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past in its own image, only to see itself let down by its painfully average storytelling and lack of direction in its dungeons.

Evotinction draws inspiration from a host of classic sci-fi influences, but flip flops between tropes and struggles to find an identity of its own. Its flat tone and atmosphere betray the beauty of its presentation, and what is really a basic story fails in many ways to hold itself together under the weight of its loftier ambitions. The action stealth certainly flirts with some interesting ideas, but a lack of balance and wonky execution unfortunately make it another imperfect cog in a machine that already has several. ChatGPT may rise up one day and decide that humans are a nuisance to be eradicated, but Evotinction fails to capture the potential horror of that.

When AFL 23 delivers on its on-field vision it’s the best Aussie Rules video game out there, but the lack of execution and content means that it's not quite the contender it could have been.

Unambitious, dated, and dreadfully lacking in polish, only series fans eager for more classic Saints gameplay need apply.

If you’re someone who enjoys third-person survival horror action titles such as Resident Evil and are looking for something to play over a weekend, then Daymare: 1994 Sandcastle’s 10ish-hour campaign may scratch that itch. There are some good ideas here, such as the Frost Grip, but the lack of execution and polish, and some poor core mechanics, means that this is best saved for a bargain price and a rainy day.

Misc. A Tiny Tale is not a game I enjoyed. The narrative tone is awkwardly patronising to play through as an adult, and while the level design has its occasional moments, the relatively bland gameplay does not make up for this. While the game mostly handles sensitive topics around mental health in a way that is appropriate for young children, some of the supplementary material is at odds with this otherwise child-friendly tone, and it’s hard to recommend to any age group.

Ratcheteer DX taps into nostalgia for simpler times, but it largely fails to translate to a modern console experience. Beyond the low-res pixel graphics that come with a free helping of eye strain, the experience is weighed down by a shallow narrative, humdrum combat, and excessive backtracking.

Gotham Knights sets itself apart from the Arkham series in all the wrong ways, leaving players with a disappointing action-RPG that’s in desperate need of refinement.

The main issue with short games is that they need to be a tight experience; try and cram too much in and they often feel rushed. Unfortunately, this is The Fabled Woods undoing, with the game trying to tell a poignant story with multiple links inside a movie-length runtime. There’s a good story here, it just needs a little longer to have more of an impact.

A disappointing take on open-world first-person shooters, Redfall has none of the flavour or mechanical finesse that we’ve come to expect from Arkane Studios.

Soulless yet almost serviceable as a light hack ‘n slash Valkyrie Profile spinoff, Elysium is a 15-hour chore of ugly visuals, repetitive combat, and a mundane plot.

An excess of disparate systems and RNG do little to hold one’s attention, Home Behind 2 is more interested in playing itself than rewarding your time.

An impressively intuitive control scheme and accurate ball physics hint at an enjoyable tennis experience, but a lack of meaningful content and a busted online mode end up costing Tennis On-Court the game, set and match.