Robots at Midnight brings little to the genre that is new. It is decent enough but lacks the spark to elevate it.

If I’ve discovered one thing playing Balancealot it’s that physic’s based titles like this are not for me. The controls can be highly frustrating, with the triggers used for movement and the analogue stick used to keep our balance. Having enemies to avoid adds some variety though, and the helpful checkpoints do alleviate some of the frustration, but certainly not all. One for those with patience then.

Masters of Anima has a decent concept and a worthwhile story, but sadly falls short almost everywhere else. The combat is tedious, often unfair and utterly frustrating. Take into account that outside of light puzzle solving and exploration, this is pretty much all that you’ll be doing. It doesn’t help matters that Masters of Anima rarely evolves as you proceed, making for a game that’s not only annoying, but repetitive too.

Must Dash seems to have a framework of a decent game, and it’s clear that multiplayer is the way to go here; though there is just not enough content for this to remain appealing. With no interesting single-player options, no online multiplayer and very little content, you will be hard pushed inviting friends over to play this for more than a couple of goes before your amigos say “I would love to stay and play more, but I really must dash”.

Doodle God: Crime City just isn’t challenging enough nor interesting enough to recommend. There’s no doubt whatsoever that Doodleheads will find enjoyment here, but if you’re on the lookout for a compelling puzzle experience that innovates and excites, you’re not going to find those qualities in this game.

Outbreak: Epidemic has a concept I can get behind, being a fan of survival horror titles. Unfortunately, attempting to stand next to the giants of the genre only shows just how flawed the end result is. Poor visuals and repetitive gameplay mean it’s unlikely to have you sticking around for long, though if you’ve enjoyed the previous entries in the series you may find some fun here too.

Random Heroes: Gold Edition is a simple platform shooter with an easy to medium difficulty. It is very easy to pick up and play with simple controls and a basic storyline. There is a nice variety of characters to play as and guns to use, but this game can be completed quite quickly and some of the levels don’t differ too much from each other. The achievements, however, can be collected quite easy for any hunters out there.

All in all, Bouncy Bullets 2 is a fun enough title, acting as a good palette cleanser in between other, meatier experiences. It might not be quite worth checking out before a sale if you’ve still got plenty to play, but cheevo hunters will be happy grabbing that sweet, sweet 1000G no doubt.

I’ll commend the game for its level detail and variation, but Spencer could have been a lot more than what it is had the developer spent more time refining the game’s mechanics. The game’s repetitive enemies, its rinse and repeat functionality, its disregard as to what makes the jump ‘n run concept fun, together with its technical issues, makes for an adventure that’s more often frustrating than it is exciting.

Desert Child suffers greatly from its poor interconnected structure, which is a shame, because the game oozes potential throughout. I’ll credit the game for its gorgeous retro aesthetic and its brief moments of excitement, but ultimately, much of the game’s fun is bogged down by its constrained flow. Furthermore, the game constantly builds to a fabled event, one that turns out to be puddle deep and underwhelming.

Horror Tales: The Beggar has its moments (mainly thanks to some half-decent world building) but the introduction of combat, and its slow moving puzzles, underwhelmed me completely. Go and play The Wine instead, and hope we get more of that for the next outing.

Destiny 2: Warmind is better than Curse of Osiris, but only marginally better. We’re still fighting the same reskinned enemies within recycled locations, day in and day out. The same can be said about the design choices here, being that new activities are akin to the activities found in The Taken King and vanilla Destiny. Despite its interesting and compelling premise, Warmind is lazy, rushed and underwhelming.

Tiles would have been a standard puzzle game, at best, had it not have been for the lack of innovation and depth. It will no doubt please a few fans of the genre, but if you like your puzzle games to challenge you and captivate you, stick with Tetris.

NBA 2K21 is in the end another basketball simulation game. Nothing here will catch you by surprise and leave you in awe. The biggest thing this game suffers from is the painstaking grind for VC so you can be on par with everyone else, which is not very welcoming to newcomers. It’s an enjoyable game but without any new updates or features it will end up lost in your backlog.

Elea’s opening episode serves as an interactive trip into a fractured, nonsensical story, in which consistency seems to be almost completely absent. While this alone wouldn’t be a bad thing if the storytelling was better produced, the main drawback is that barely any of the game’s aspects come together well at all. Despite its impressive visuals, the end result makes for a very awkward and bland experience.

Super Street has a lot of potential. Though, as it stands, the developers need to address the game’s many problems before this racer can be taken seriously. The most notable of issues being the game’s horrendous physics, its terrible handling and its overly aggressive, T-800 AI. Praise goes to the game’s DIY concept and its impressive list of parts, but this means very little in the face of its several downsides.

Nowhere near the classic the true Alfred Hitchcock – Vertigo was, this pretender does an unsatisfactory and un-compelling job of providing a worthwhile experience. The story takes its time to truly materialize convincingly, and the payoff isn’t worth the effort. From an appearance standpoint, the game looks atrocious and will not have the looks your mother could love either. The act of controlling and playing Vertigo is passable, but unfortunately it hasn’t been properly optimized for console – which goes for both how the game looks, and the absence of a proper cursor when pointing and clicking the environment. Despite flashes of intrigue in the story and some enjoyment with the past memories Ed relives, Vertigo is a shoddy game that fails to live up to lofty standards – and as it shows you quite vividly, this one has fallen off a bridge and splattered on the ground below.

Even though I love indie horror, this was a bit too broken to appreciate properly.

Artistic expression is what will strike the biggest chord in Strayed Lights. There are lovely moments of beauty to unearth, and you will no doubt find a game ignited with a love for tranquillity and colour. However, empty spaces make Strayed Lights world feel uncomfortably abandoned at times, and the combat is based too heavily on precision and colour matching to engross. Thankfully, Strayed Lights is short, but it runs out of momentum too soon despite some impressive boss encounters and some gorgeous skies. Give it a whirl then, but you won’t feel like Strayed Lights is anything but a shallowly gentle gust that will blow by without the force it needed to stick in the mind.

Drunken Fist hides wonky physics, hard to use controls and a toilet humour behind the set-up of being drunk, and while it’s passably funny for a short while, it’s also not something that will be on the playlist for more than the hour or so it’ll take to beat the seven levels.

DYE may well offer up a great deal of content, but this means very little when the journey from start to finish is far more irritating than it is entertaining. This is a game that solely relies on accuracy, but when the protagonist offers very little precision to lean on, it inadvertently destroys the appeal that DYE tries to relay.

The basic function of the game works, but it’s all wrapped up in a package that is lacking in most areas. That said, grab some friends and beer and you’ve probably got a few hours of fun here.

Vasilis isn’t going to revolutionize gaming, but as an art form you can’t knock the creative style Marginal Act were aiming towards. Unfortunately slow and confusing, this is a title for the players that don’t mind a bit of experimentation in their play experiences.

Guts & Glory is a game that’s far too bare for its own good, consisting of little other than a range of challenges across a variety of uninspiring maps. The game’s most defining aspect is that it’s brutally gory, and although it is indeed fun to begin with, repetition swiftly rears its head soon after. Furthermore, performance issues, dated visuals and a lack of content diversity mars this already bland experience.

I came away from my time with The Otterman Empire feeling very little at all. Despite some good looking character designs and multiplayer ideas, there’s a distinct lack of atmosphere or excitement to the whole affair. Vague, tricky to decipher mode mechanics lead to confusing opening rounds, the shooting feels inaccurate and unresponsive and despite the dev’s best intentions, I just don’t feel it’ll be sticking around many people’s gaming night playlists for very long.

Drift Zone offers up deep customization and a diverse selection of tracks and missions. It’s unfortunate, however, that this rests upon an experience that just isn’t as innovative and exciting as it should be. It doesn’t help matters that the game looks both dated and bland throughout the entirety of play. Drifting should be fun and rewarding, but Drift Zone fails to truly nail those targets.

Apparently, Josh Journey: Totems of Darkness started out as a short cartoon, and the creators were encouraged to turn it into a video game. Whoever handed out this advice did their friends a disservice; I think they should have focused on creating a full-scale movie or show because art is obviously their strong point. The gameplay in Josh Journey is severely lacking, and with no difficulty options, it will only appeal to more advanced players. Perhaps this game is a blast when playing with four players, but without any online options, most players won’t have enough people or controllers to try that out.

Despite having some neat ideas across the board, the final execution of Colossus Down just feels a little too awkward and uninspiring. Clunky, repetitive combat and a teenage angst-filled story do little to inspire continued play. There are far better examples of the genre out there, on which your time is better spent.