Despite some troubled animations and controls, Copycat plays its emotional journey excellently. As a cat owner and someone who has lived somewhat similar events in recent times, its tale of love and loss hit hard, but was a journey worth taking.

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

Super Meat Boy Forever is a sequel not afraid to shake things up, but in doing so it fails to capture much of what made the original so amazing.

Twinkleby is a cozy, light-hearted, dollhouse-like decorating game that will capture you for hours as you house the many characters that come to your islands. Despite its quirks, it features relaxing gameplay in an adorable, customisable environment.

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.

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.

Button City gets a lot right in its attempt to mesh late 90s low-poly style with narrative adventure gameplay and a heartfelt story full of great characters, but it's undone by numerous and often game-breaking bugs and a tad too much backtracking.

There are definitely moments that feel like you’re playing a game that could have come out 10 or more years ago, but the point-and-click genre is one that can accommodate such design choices if the narrative is good enough. In the end, Asylum’s narrative is solid with some great atmosphere that makes it a point-and-click adventure worth checking out if you like games with horror elements.

A relatively quaint expansion that doesn’t really strive to do much beyond adding some Pokémon and telling a small, nice story. Still, it is victim to the horrendous technical woes that plague the Generation 9 games, as well as some strange balance choices that make the early periods of the expansion feel quite weird.

While the premise of a small town beset by dark secrets is far from original, thanks to an intriguing story with some decent twists, interesting and well-written characters, and improved investigative gameplay, DONTNOD manages to deliver another compelling experience with Twin Mirror.

Within The Blade is a love letter to the 'hard ninja game' tradition, drawing inspiration from titles of the pixel age in particular. While it may take some getting used to, the game's difficulty curve becomes more rewarding than not...sans a few minor setbacks.

Though it can be a relatively shallow and imperfect game, Minecraft Legends offers a fun and unique experience that feels befitting of a Minecraft spinoff.

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.

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.

Unreliable performance and some underdeveloped mechanics do hurt the impact and atmosphere of After Us, but its intriguing post-apocalyptic world and satisfying movement still make for a worthy adventure.

Martha Is Dead fails to deliver any meaningful semblance of the story it wants to tell and ends up being nothing more than a colossal and tedious disappointment.

Blanc is a wonderful journey, whether played solo or with a friend, that will have you cooing in delight at its black and white cuteness.

While this sandy action RPG is somewhat lacking in technical and visual polish, Atlas Fallen is still a strong outing from Deck13, with the outfit continuing to prove it's got the chops when it comes to crafting interesting mechanics and fun combat.

Biomutant's weird and wonderful world is a treat to take in, even when its diverse gameplay elements don't always hit the mark. If you're looking for a fresh and furry take on open world RPGs and don't mind a little jank, this might be just the ticket.

Hearkening back to the good old days of arcade wrestling games, Fight Forever is an accessibly fun and awesomely faithful title that’s sure to entertain from bell to bell, despite its numerous shortcomings.

The saying that everything deserves a second chance should not have applied to Elex. Elex II takes so many steps backwards from an already poor game, it’s astounding. Its writing, optimisation, combat, and game systems all stand as a new benchmark on what to not do.

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.

A solid strategy experience isn’t quite enough to elevate Days of Doom past its more varied competition on the indie market, but there’s just enough meat on the zombie bones.

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.

Despite some moments of genuine enjoyment, with a combat system that does its best to entertain, Forspoken never makes the most of its potential. Ultimately, there are bigger, bolder and more inventive action games both already out there and soon to be upon us in an already stacked 2023 release schedule.

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.

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.

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.

With revamped combat and a slick presentation, Super Mech League is a vast improvement over the original in many ways, though a lack of content might limit the amount of time you spend with this robot rumbler.

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.

Through a great soundtrack and entertaining story beats, SkateBIRD proves that you don’t need to always look to the skies for a game to leave a lasting impression.

Lone Ruin nails the brief on what makes an appreciable roguelike – combining a slick and sexy aesthetic with a core gameplay loop that can be rapidly picked up, but is deep enough to beg for mastery.

With slick and satisfying gameplay wrapped in a visually stunning package, AllStars has an almost limitless potential that will only go unrealised if a few irritating roadblocks stay unmoved.

Your experience with The Tomorrow Children will vary, especially if you don’t get any players visiting your space. But when everything clicks like a well-oiled machine, there’s a strange sense of appeal here that makes it intriguing enough.

Don't Forget Me is a highly polished short story hindered by its forgettable pixel art style, but its short length plays to its strengths. Highly recommended for fans of the cyberpunk genre, and for anybody keen to have their morality tickled.

Firewall Ultra sticks to what works and is very satisfying, but missed opportunities hold it back from truly being the ultra tactical VR shooter.

Bokeh Game Studio's debut horror title is a game entirely out of time with its genre contemporaries and all the more wild, compelling, and beautiful for it. Satisfying combat and a generational eye for tone and design collide in the year's strangest beast.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Morsels is an ambitious indie roguelite that just doesn’t deliver. The game shines with a distinctive aesthetic identity, but between shockingly unclear mechanics, poor game balance, and unsatisfying moment-by-moment gameplay, it otherwise has little to offer.

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.

A repetitive and dull gameplay loop that’s thematically allergic to the game’s cast of misfits only begins to describe how heartbreakingly disappointing Kill the Justice League truly is. Rocksteady should’ve died a hero, instead, it’s lived long enough to see itself become the villain.

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.

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

Hotel Barcelona is an underwhelming roguelike with lopsided design that simply doesn’t nail the fundamentals that make the genre popular. Head-scratching design choices regarding stingy mechanics that are almost tailor-made to extract joy from your life, mixed with a lack of fluidity and unity of vision make this a hard sell. Even in you love Suda51 and Swery 65, this is not what you hope it will be.

Rustler brings classic Grand Theft Auto to a twisted version of the European Middle Ages, but its reliance on other media for laughs and a finicky release build makes it a title worth trying only for those nostalgic for the vintage entries of a now-juggernaut series.

Monster Crown is chock-a-block full of monsters and retro charm but you might want to wait for some of the bugs to be squashed first.

Arkham board game fans will find little in this adaption that harkens back to the fantastic tabletop challenges. This could almost be a ‘my first turn-based tactics’ game, hampered by embarrassingly arbitrary puzzles, bad technical and vocal performances, and progress that provides meaningless penalties rather than rewards.

This third-person action game is a little rough around the edges and tries a little too hard to be serious, but its premise and combat is compelling enough to get the job done.

Open Roads is a journey I’m glad I went on, though the disappointing circumstances of its development do feel as if they loom over its final form. As a complete package there’s something to love, something to respect and admire, with two lead actors elevating the material well beyond what many others might have achieved. It’s just a shame it couldn’t have been bigger, bolder in its impact and exploration of its themes and its mysteries. Maybe it needed something darker, something stranger to lean into, but the results stand as a simple yet effective road trip that’s worth taking for an hour or two.

Gungrave G.O.R.E is a thorough examination of what games offered us before they transformed into 40-hour cinematic masterpieces. While its appeal may not be broad enough to interest everyone, it establishes itself as a love letter to a time when your gaming experience was absolutely about bombastic style, personal fantasy and massive high scores.

Cyberpunk 2077 is a game brimming with potential, and it damn near reaches it on so many occasions, but the pitfalls of its development ultimately drag it down. There's still a lot to like here for RPG fans and lovers of the genre, but it's far from the generation-defining masterwork that the world was waiting for.

Necromunda: Hired Gun features a stunning art direction, but with a garbled story and more technical and design blemishes than you can poke a space stick at, this one's bound to be buried in the under-hive.

Riko and Reg's descent to the netherworld is a classic in existential dread and worldbuilding. Playing in this broken world imparts an even worse sense of dread.

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.

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.

The Library of Babel takes its short story inspirations and runs, crafting a compelling, strange sci-fi world that isn’t always as fun to explore as it is to read about, or just simply vibe in.

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.

Funko Fusion’s biggest success is how well it matches the vibe of Funko’s uber-popular line of vinyl figures as a whole – joyless, soulless representations of beloved franchises that capture almost none of the charm of the source material. The most culturally-relevant thing here might be the collectible KFC buckets.

Harvest Moon: One World feels like an unfinished release that could have been so much more but is as uninspiring as its flat, empty landscape.

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.

Sports Story doesn’t hit the heights of its predecessor, overstuffed with new ideas and sports that probably should have been left on the cutting-room floor. There’s still plenty here to enjoy, both golf and tennis fans will find something to like and fans of the original likewise, but the trophy could have used a polish.

A quaint art direction and an occasional well-conceived puzzle are not enough to redeem this painful slog through a child's living nightmare. Trial-and-error instakill sections and some of the worst hide and seek stealth since Sanity of Morris ensure the greatest nightmare will be your own.

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.

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.

Taxi Chaos wears its inspiration on its full-print shirt's sleeve, but lacks the understanding of what made said inspiration so compelling. There's almost nothing of worth here: A poor imitation of a game that's literally free these days.

Demon Skin cherry-picks mechanics from your favourite games and presents them in a deliciously gory fruit salad.

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.

Enchanted Portals copies almost everything about Cuphead, except for the precision of its mechanics, the tightness of its design and the enjoyment gleaned by mastering it. All the good bits really…

I can in no way recommend Babylon’s Fall. It’s the most disappointing experience I’ve played in years, a combination of poorly defined ideas and a lacklustre sense of visual identity that does nothing to feel like a PlatinumGames experience. That’s the most frustrating thing of all, that a studio with such a strong back catalogue could release such a basic, uninspiring title in this modern era, as if they just handed the project to the interns and forgot about it until it was too late. Whatever positives there might be are few and far between in a title that likely won’t get a chance to fix itself before Square Enix eventually pulls the plug.

With a little more polish and player-driven feedback, The Cleaner could well emulate a proper first-person John Wick experience. However currently, it feels a little more like a frustration emulator designed to inspire rage quits.

Quantum Error is a flawed, frustrating and unfun slog that collapses under the weight of its lofty ambitions to blend multiple genres and mechanics on a limited budget and developing skillset.

A faintly interesting premise is irrevocably squandered by muddy visuals, tedious moment-to-moment gameplay and a hateable weak-willed protaganist.

With dated design, LotR: Gollum is a slow and tedious slog through Middle Earth that even the staunchest LotR fans will struggle to enjoy.

Henry Mosse and the Wormhole Conspiracy is a prime example of just what a point-and-click adventure game is in the 21st century – captivating visuals and a charming story with simple, if mediocre, gameplay. While sure to cause lethargy in more radical aficionados of the genre, there’s certainly not nothing to love for the traditionalists. Newcomers to the genre will have a pleasant time as well, thanks to the game’s dedication to flow.

A decent tactical challenge flanked by a wealth of content, Door Kickers is let down somewhat by a poor tutorial and a messy control scheme.

I do have a soft spot for small development teams and I find it hard to be critical while acknowledging the time and effort it takes to put together a game like this. Playing Animal Rescuer felt more like I was playtesting an end of year project for a game development student, albeit one that would get an A+. There is definitely potential here and it could be a decent game if there was just a little more focus on the narrative and the core gameplay loop. There is also a free demo on Steam that you can check it, if it sounds like something you’d be interested in.

For just over $10, Movers in Paradise is fairly easy to recommend to those who enjoy Moving Out’s quirky personality and clever gameplay, as it’s more of what you likely loved the first time around. The new features are mostly fun, save for the few moments where they become frustrating, and the fresh location is a nice change of scenery. We’re all dying for a holiday, yet none of us can go, so perhaps think about booking a ticket to Packmore Island instead.

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.

Rain On Your Parade encourages you to take something cutesy and adorable, and find your inner evil. Drink deep of the chaos a simple rain cloud can impart on the world as you ruin weddings, start fires and bring about the extinction of the dinosaurs. At the core of it all, ruining someone’s day has never been more fun.

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.

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.

Webbed is a simple and cute platformer that provides players with a few hours of enjoyment web-swinging through bushland and befriending other bugs all in the name of love.

If you want to get your heart pumping and your clickin’ fingers firing, Rayze will get you on track and blasting off.

Grapple Dog does play a little on the nostalgia bone, but everything it sets out to do it accomplishes enjoyably, with a well animated lick of paint, an upbeat if slightly repetitive soundtrack and a little dash of humour. It’s an adventure that has plenty of content, with some later levels offering a healthy challenge and holding plenty of secrets that should appeal to older players, but some of it follows a road that’s too often been walked down, meaning it doesn’t quite innovate as much as it could have.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Kardboard Kings is a relaxing and beginner-friendly management sim game with a quirky cast of characters and a story that, while interesting, struggles to reach its full potential.

With a gorgeous world and story to match, Assasins’s Creed: Dawn Of Ragnarok expands the scope of the original game in a direction that is quite fantastical and is bound to pull you in one last time.

Worth milking every drop – the steaks have never been higher.

Lord Winklebottom Investigates is a fun, gorgeous and often funny point-and-click adventure that is a solid addition to the genre’s library.