The finale to Minecraft: Story Mode Season Two lacks the quality and care that Telltale have produced elsewhere. The conclusion to the plot is passable, but despite some solid voice acting and decent visuals, this episode hardly packs anything that breaks new ground. Perhaps the most irritating thing here is that this is merely an average serving from an otherwise very capable developer.

My Memory of Us, despite its stellar narration and its wonderful visual design, is a game that’s far too simplistic for its own good. The game’s puzzles rely on tired concepts that take little more than common sense to overcome, with added stealth elements that remain equal to that. The end result makes for a journey that aims to be both deep and emotional, but ultimately fails to meet its intentions.

Nintendo has Super Mario Odyssey and PlayStation has Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, which is why I was really hoping that Super Lucky’s Tale would be more than what it is. Instead it’s an overly simplistic platformer that comes with annoyances such as limited camera control and forced replay value. Super Lucky’s Tale desperately wants to immerse you with how stunning and diverse it looks, but fails to totally captivate you due to how damn easy everything is.

Whilst this game has interesting gameplay and the ship upgrade system can be fun, it will take a while for someone to get into it. Yes the game is long, but long doesn’t always mean good. Some missions can be tough, seemingly at random, and you will need to find the right upgrade to proceed easily. It is repetitive by design and unfortunately, because there are so many missions, I found myself bored very quickly.

There’s not really much to complain about with Hoggy 2. While it’s hardly likely to set the world on fire, what’s here is a cute, simple, but challenging puzzle game that is a fun way to spend an evening. The overly bubblegummy visuals and music get a bit much after a while, and the kid mode could’ve done with being a tad bit longer, but overall if you’re in the market for something short and sweet, you can much worse than this.

Despite housing a generous amount of content, the game’s core systems lack depth and variety, and whilst DayD: Through Time makes a few functional improvements when compared to Gnomes Garden, it still falls short due to its tedious loop. That said, if you’re a fan of this simplistic concept, DayD is certainly going to be serviceable. If, on the other hand, you prefer something robust and challenging, look elsewhere.

It won’t keep us playing for too long, and it can be a bit hard to keep track of, but Save Your Nuts is a fun little arcade game that is good for keeping the kids (both big and little) entertained for an hour or so while we’re all stuck at home.

Overall I think that even though the game isn’t very fun it is mildly therapeutic and even quite educational to an extent, making it a decent bargain at the cost of $16.99. I would love to see a multiplayer version where you and a friend could work on a car together.

Scribblenauts Showdown is a lot of fun to begin with, but it doesn’t take long for repetition to sink in due to the lack of content. Despite how innovative and deep the summoning dictionary is, the price tag is too steep to justify a wholehearted recommendation. Nevertheless, this is still a solid family game that’s sure to please gamers of all ages.

Airheart isn’t a bad game, but it could have been much more than what it is if the developer had spent more time refining the gameplay’s systems to better feed into one another. The end result makes for an experience that sounds more compelling in description than it actually is in practice. Still, with its difficulty spikes, its squandered potential and its lack of story to the side, there’s some fun to be had here.

Swordship is fun in very short bursts but it soon begins to get too repetitive for my tastes.

Gangsta Paradise is sort of a misnomer, you end up killing all the gangsters so I don’t know how that could be a paradise for them, and the game as a whole is not a paradise either – it’s more like a purgatory, completely middle of the road, nothing great about it, but nothing terrible either. With the exception of the enemies, there isn’t much variety. The game is somewhat bare-bones and a one-trick pony, but the trick it performs it does adequately, getting a new gun just in time and mowing down enemies is satisfying. Overall I had an alright time playing the game, especially in co-op. It could use a few more modes, perhaps an endless mode, or a hard mode, and the game should really have included a few more playable character options, one doesn’t really cut it.

All in all though, I’m not sure really about whether I enjoyed Paratopic enough to recommend it. It’s fairly priced for what it is but at the same time, and much like Baltoro’s Fatum Betula, it seems to layer on the weird for the sake of it, hoping that there can be some more depth or meaning pulled out of it by the player. If you like a bizarre tale that won’t take long to be then check it out, but the average player is probably going to be put off before they even begin.

Lost Ember has so much potential to be a real gem but is let down by it’s overwhelming performance problems. There are glimmers of the experience that could have been, if these problems were to be ironed out, especially as the game progresses and the story gains momentum. Lost Ember is well suited to players looking for a casual experience with simple mechanics and an intriguing narrative but only if they are also able to overlook some of the game’s unfortunate issues.

Excuse the cliché but Pupperazzi is not the dog’s bollocks – it’s the dog’s dinner. This isn’t to say Pupperazzi doesn’t possess some bright points, as its accessibility and the novelty of photographing dogs doing outlandish things is where the game’s charms shine through. However, once you dig deeper and deeper into what Pupperazzi has to offer, all that remains is a drove of simplistic and weightless objectives with no character or spirit to help salvage it. If you want a cheap and cheery photography game to spend a few hours with Pupperazzi will do in a pinch, but like an ageing show dog, the longer it goes on the more it loses its ability to entertain you.

Serious Sam 4 almost had me with its fast gunplay and over the top action, but a reliance on sheer, overwhelming numbers and repetition meant that I began to get bored and frustrated far too quickly.

The Tunes are back in videogame form, which is great to see however this compilation of sports mini-games falls a bit short for the wacky world in my opinion. I love getting to see and play as some of the Looney Tunes but the sports themselves feel too basic and sometimes even clunky to really want to go back or even introduce it to friends or my kids. Golf was good and tennis was not bad but at a 50% okay rate in terms of fun, it’s a hard recommend to seasoned gamers.

Deep Space Rush is a short game with some enjoyable, if not deep gameplay and is fine for its budget title release. The developers didn’t attempt to make a masterpiece and so they don’t ask for a lot of your money. Also, the publishers have a reputation for easy gamerscore and completions, and if that’s a motivator then the game doesn’t disappoint. Expect to enjoy the game for an hour or so before the lack of progression stifles the desire to keep playing.

The Skylia Prophecy is a mixed bag for me. A couple more tweaks and this game would have been much more enjoyable. The graphics, controls and the boss fights here capture the nostalgic feels of past classics very well. But some other decisions that were made keep pulling the loose threads and unravelling the game into a bit of a confusing mess. Action-platformer fans will still get some joy from this but they may end up being frustrated at more than they can bear at the small quality of life choices made.

Ultra Goodness 2 is an OK top-down shooter. The time-slowing feature is nice but doesn’t really do enough to make it stand out. The awkward Armageddon button needed more work and I’d prefer the screen be a little more zoomed out, or at least give us the option to change it. It will take you about an hour or two to play through the whole game, though it is challenging enough to make it enjoyable so fans of this genre won’t be too disappointed picking this up.

What the Box? lacks originality and depth. The ability to utilize the game’s bot support is a necessary touch, because in honesty, I highly doubt that this game will maintain a strong enough online community to uphold it in the long run. For its price it’s an absolute steal. There’s some neat functions present and I did have fun during the initial stages of play, however, there’s no denying that it becomes repetitive before long.

The Prince of Landis has some redeeming qualities, most notably the art style and the story/setting, and adventure game fans might find something they like here, but ultimately it falls short, mostly due to the shallow gameplay. The short length of the game is beneficial to the overall experience (as well as for all the achievement hunters playing the game), but I would recommend waiting for a sale to pick it up.

Fearful Symmetry & the Cursed Prince is intimidating and frustrating, but that’s precisely its intention. Fans of puzzle games will likely enjoy what’s on offer throughout the campaign, and it packs just enough content to justify the price point. Sadly however the only aspect of play that truly evolves throughout the course of the game is the difficulty. The visuals, despite being diverse, are far from interesting and the same can be said about the story.

A few of Yaga’s game mechanics cripple what would otherwise be an enjoyable pre-modern Slavic tale of witches, kings, magic and a one-armed blacksmith hero. Some core aspects of play aren’t explained fully or not at all, and ironically it’s these fundamentals which help drag the experience down. That element, coupled with seemingly arbitrary and crippling punishments tied to character death, robs the overall experience of much of why gamers game – for enjoyment. Yaga will frustrate you, and not in a good way.

What can I say about this title from Ratalaika Games… it’s surprisingly addictive and we all know Ratalaika knows their audience. So for a group of hardcore people this is a must game for them. Control mechanics are nicely implemented and the puzzles are well thought out – there are doorways which switch you to the other side of the room. The downside to some of the puzzles is if you misplace a barrel next to another one with no gap you can’t move them. So you will need to press that handy Y button to kill yourself.

Ubisoft know they can do much better, they’ve shown that various times in the past, but Frontiers of Pandora is helplessly mediocre, wallowing in better Ubisoft franchises in a vain attempt to conceal the disappointingly stale reality that it’s just not good enough to be anything more.

Baron: Fur Is Gonna Fly is a reasonably fun party game for friends and family to play. The planes steering dynamics take a little bit of time to get used to, but the controls are simple enough for most to pick up and play. I feel there is only a limited amount of variation here though, meaning you’re unlikely to get much longevity out of things. Online play would’ve helped, but really the point is to get some friends crowded round on the sofa.

Gnomes Garden 3’s asking price is a generous one, and I wont deny that there’s more than enough content to justify its cost several times over. However, that doesn’t cover up the fact that the game’s core loop just doesn’t maintain its initial excitement throughout. This is fun in short bursts, but everything you’ll see here has already been done a thousand times before, to a better degree, I might add. Pay a cheap price, get a cheap game.