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.