Undoubtedly the best Gears of War has ever looked, the continuous finessing of the title has only set to highlight some of its eccentricities in an unflattering light. Charming jank of yesteryear is instead jarring to behold by modern standards, even if the gameplay experience still nails the brief in the lofty year of 2025.

While the concept of Lake is simple and sweet, the repetitive gameplay can take away from the story and its interesting characters, making the daily delivery tasks more of a chore than something more.

UnMetal puts a parody spin on the older Metal Gear games, while also being a competent mid-80s stealth title. Its reliance on its humour in both gameplay and writing will make it a chore for some, but a joy for others.

For the small audience looking for a romantic World War 2 satire featuring a harem of loli leaders, My Little Dictator will entertain for dozens of hours. Just skip the combat.

Star Ocean's 25th-anniversary title celebrates its beloved PS2 classic with a spiritual remake, but its adherence to archaic series’ design will ward off new players.

Rainbow Billy: The Curse of the Leviathan is a cute and cuddly family RPG that sacrifices depth for accessibility. This lack of substance may turn off older players who may be used to more complex affairs, but younger players and their parents will discover a great way to get acquainted with a popular genre of games.

Mothmen 1966 is a welcome first entry to the ‘Pixel Pulp’ series of interactive retro adventures, telling a quality story about the Leonid Meteor Shower of 1966 and the strange events that surrounded it. Unfortunately the gameplay fails to be anywhere near as interesting, but the package is not without its charm.

A pixel art treasure-hunting adventure title with a pirate theme and boatload of charm, Bilkins’ Folly gets lost and digs holes in the wrong spots, but ultimately finds the booty.

Racing after an armed robber, crashing through road signs and dodging civilians, only to jump out of your patrol car, take cover behind your vehicle and engage in a firefight with the crazed assailant is as fun in The Precinct as it sounds. Unfortunately, once they’re in cuffs, the monotony of processing the soon-to-be prisoner drags the experience down. Combined with a shallow story told in an uneven way, the repetitive gameplay loop tarnishes the badge and gives the boys in blue a bad wrap.

In Sound Mind is a flawed but fun horror-adventure game. Flawed on the horror but fun on the adventure.

Super Mario Party Jamboree Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV offers a few new diversions wrapped in a neat presentation that makes it a compelling enough upgrade for existing owners. But for anyone jumping in at full wack, the slight visual edge and mixed bag of camera-based minigames don’t necessarily make it an essential purchase over the much cheaper and perfectly playable Switch 1 version.

There are more polished, quality roguelites out there that will engage you for a longer period than Death or Treat, but that says less about its own achievements and more about the incredibly high bar set by its predecessors.

From bizarre difficulty balancing to a poorly written story, Lightfall has a lot of misses. However, it also makes a lot of good changes that enhance the general gameplay like with Strand subclass and the accessibility of buildcrafting. It isn't the worst Destiny 2 expansion, not even close, but it is also far from being great.

Overall Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap is a fun tower defence game that features a vast selection of roguelike elements to help you kill as many orcs as possible. You’ll upgrade and unlock everything you can to survive each wave you go through, all to defeat the ending boss of each run. Despite its lacking soundtrack and story, you’re guaranteed to have fun for hours in co-op or solo.

A fun pick up and play experience that is unfortunately held back by its inability to truly innovate on its predecessors and take advantage of the Switch's hardware.

With no timers, no combat and barely any challenge Submerged: Hidden Depths is a super chill if overly shallow adventure that makes a good palate cleanser between bigger titles.

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.

Siren’s Rest is an enjoyable, if a little short, dive beneath Still Wakes the Deep’s waves that doesn’t capitalise on its strong narrative, leaving players a little unsatisfied. The premise and setting do manage to build some solid tension, but it never elevates to a genuine scare factor that would take the experience to the next level.

It is agonising to try and share some final thoughts for The Crush House. The concept and execution at its core is top notch, offering a brilliant twist on some existing gimmicks that just aren’t all that common. The disappointment comes from the end of the honeymoon period, where you find yourself hungry for just a little more depth to really reach your TV production potential. I have rarely found a game that offered such a concise gameplay loop, that was wildly fun to engage with and excited you to master it – only to then hit your head on the ceiling of your ambitions in rapid fashion. While my gripes might paint a picture of this game not being a recommendation, I have to insist that the fun parts of The Crush House are absurdly fun. This isn’t a case of the game being broken or unloved, quite the opposite – it is an exceptional level of potential not quite reaching its zenith. Film some butts, see for yourself.

The Smurfs: Mission Vileaf is a bright and colourful adventure suitable for all ages and skill levels. As a platformer, the areas have fun designs and provide a good variety of interactive elements to keep the game feeling fresh. While the crafting mechanics in the game miss the mark, Mission Vileaf is still enjoyable to play and is sure to warm any Smurfy player’s heart.

Salt and Sacrifice makes a number of changes to its general design and structure that are absolutely not worth the cost, and while the game is still enjoyable, it ultimately feels like a step backwards from the charming 2016 original.

Most notably, Emio establishes a surprising amount of heart and sincerity in its brief runtime. Strangely, though, it achieves very little in the way of thrills or chills. More a small-town crime procedural than a dark murder mystery, players will find their best experiences driven by a genuine care for these characters and how they process the impact of tragedy in their insular community rather than sensationalising their trauma for our entertainment. The serial killer thriller lurks on the furthest edges of this story, only ever coaxing the player along with the threat of its darkly exciting carrot. This long-awaited entry in the Famicom Detective Club series is clean, well animated and voiced, and has some seriously good visual novel writing. Despite this, I wouldn’t be in a hurry to recommend this to fans of either detective games or visual novels unless their backlogs are running low.

Mario Kart World stands in stark contrast to the original Switch’s franchise re-evaluation, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Where Link’s first foray into true open world design made for a generation-defining experience, Mario Kart World’s shift is uneven and chaotic, often producing frustrations alongside innovation and fun. A massive leap in fidelity and a lengthy development cycle have shaped a gorgeously realised world and roster of racers to barrel down impressive tracks with a small bag of new tricks. But the time spent between these breathless bouts is unrefined and clumsy, a world built for a console’s lifetime worth of updates that, for now, offers you little more than a freshly paved highway to nowhere. Mind the toll.

The Invincible absolutely looks the part, jampacked with stunning alien vistas and a brilliant retrofuturistic aesthetic, but its premise can't quite maintain the momentum of suspense and intrigue generated in its opening act.

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.

Where most Mario games will leave a smiling impression between bouts of frustration, this Paper Mario entry wants you to be laughing out loud as well. I’m just worried that the humour might not carry everyone to the finish line in light of repetition, laborious backtracking and uninteresting combat. But there’s no denying that this remake is polished to the smoothest presentable sheen, leaving a first impression I still love, even though it burned me out long before the credits.

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.

Wanderer does a lot of great things, but is held back primarily by the ageing hardware but also some uneven design choices.