Stone fails to hold up against the trendy descriptions and catchy phrases. Having a linear, short, and boring story, matched with a lack of polish and zero gameplay creates a package that is hard to suggest to anyone. If you’re looking for some recommendations for talented indie musicians, Stone has your back, but otherwise it was a disappointment.

There is potential for Broken Roads to be a great game with features like the morality compass being innovative for RPGs, but too many issues soured my experience and ultimately left a bad taste.

Less time spent on the needlessly long cutscenes and in-between mission sections, and more on the feel of the combat and we could have had a little gem on our hands. As it is, this only gets a recommendation for those willing to suffer for their entertainment.

The title – Ultimate Racing 2D – sadly belies the actual experience on offer here. While there’s an impressive number of vehicles and tracks, the actual racing part feels flat, uninspiring and, quite frankly, boring. Multiplayer could be good for a laugh, but even that will wear thin before long. Racing fans may be able to eke out some more enjoyment, but for others just looking for a fun little run around you’re best off steering clear of this title.

I was quite looking forward to a new local multiplayer party game to add to the rotation; sadly, Lunch A Palooza won’t be filling that void. There’s a neat idea here, but the hard to decipher combat, wonky physics and general lack of, well, fun mean that we’re best off warming up some of our leftovers for now.

Police Chase is a straight up driving simulation with not much catering towards the title. With a bit more depth and realism this could have been a fun title but unfortunately seems to lack on story, development, gameplay and leaves the player lost in a world that seems unrealistic and unfinished.

I have done a few Kemco games now and they have all basically blended into one. If you enjoy these simpler RPG titles then may get on with Wizards of Brandel better, but the fact you can buy cheats for the game just puts a sour taste in my mouth. Seeing as the game is not very long in the first place, this just adds insult to injury.

Encodya is an unabashedly retro point-and-click adventure. That brings with it all of the warts of early-mid 90s gaming along with any nostalgia.

Reminiscence in the Night felt like a cross between point and click and visual novels, with a passable story. This was a nice change of pace for the usual Ratalaika visual novels, The point and click aspect offered some good interactivity, and I found myself enjoying this more than some of the other titles. Of course, cheevo hunters will still be able to blast through this for some quick gamerscore as well.

Hardcore highscore enthusiasts will possibly enjoy the multiple challenges on offer for each stage, and if you’ve a very strong capacity for patience and forgiveness, there’s enough content included to keep you going for a while. That said, there’s just far too much frustration involved here for it to be considered fun on a casual level, and a vast amount of irritating issues, both technical and by design, further holding the whole thing back.

With some grit and determination you may find something to enjoy in Blow & Fly, but for most I feel it’ll be a title that is removed from the playlist shortly after starting it. A neat-on-paper but awkward-in-practice mechanic just doesn’t have what it takes to keep us invested for long.

Nippon Marathon is a waste of digital space. The game’s seemingly fun Takeshi’s Castle-like concept is completely undermined by its several technical issues and questionable design choices. Even with that cluster-mess to the side, the game at its core attempts to be both wacky and innovative through the character of its outlandish foundation, but only comes off as poorly developed, boring, and ultimately frustrating.

On paper, Heavy Fire: Red Shadow seems appealing, but the reality is a somewhat dull, underwhelming experience that very quickly makes its own gameplay boring by making you too powerful and by not providing any new challenge. There’s a strong feel of early access, which would be fine if the game was released in that pool, as a full release however, there’s just not enough here to recommend.

It’s hard to write about this game as it’s just not very much fun. It’s a cheap and average run-and-gun side scroller. The music has a nostalgic feel and the achievements are nice and simple. It’s a one hour run and you only need to beat the first 15 stages. It’s a shame the 3 characters don’t have unique abilities and that boss fights aren’t more challenging.

Do not be fooled into believing that Outbreak: The New Nightmare brings back old-school survival horror. It may well house many of the elements, but the truth of the matter is that this game is merely a poor imitation of a 20 year old game that’s much better. It lacks optimization, personality, and comes with a heap of technical problems and poor design choices.

Abo Khashem is a broken pile of nonsense. The game is riddled with bugs, so much so that the developer has implemented a tool to free you from them at any given time. When you’re not wrestling with bugs, you’ll be enduring horrendous screen tearing and framerate drops. It’s an ambitious game that’s utterly let down by poor design choices and shoddy development.

On the basis that 100 percent of proceeds are being donated to charity to help sick and suffering children, I, Hope outshines any other game on the market. The same sadly cannot be said about the game in general. I, Hope is a shoddy platformer that’s bland, frustrating and utterly underdeveloped. If you’re looking for your next platforming fix, this two hour adventure will only serve to disappoint you.

Overall, if you’re after a game that is engaging, worth your time, money, and effort, then Takorita Meets Fries is not really a game I can recommend for you. If you want some easy Gamerscore, then £4.99 is the price you’ll pay along with five minutes of your time for eternal glory to be imprinted in that coveted digital score.

Fear Effect: Sedna is a bad game. Sushee’s confusing design choices are splattered everywhere in sight; ridiculous voice acting, poor level structure, frustrating puzzles, and shoddy combat, to name but a few. The overall product remains tedious, boring, and underwhelming, throughout.

Paladin is a poor take on the popular genre it adopts. There’s nowhere near enough innovation to allow this to stand out from the crowd of other twin-stick shooters on the market. The level design is poor, the gameplay is basic, and there’s not much of a challenge to soak up. It may well be a colourful blast with a good selection of upgrades to lean back on, but when you take into account that you can complete this entire game in just 90 minutes, it leaves a lot to be desired.

The art style is quite good. Characters are well designed and everything is colorful and has a chucky look to it. Sadly, the game around it is just a poor attempt at following a trend in gaming. A good rogue-lite puts the fate of the player in their own hands; success or failure depends on your grasp of the mechanics. Here, unless you are really a fan of the X button, frustration soon gives way to boredom.

Metropolis Lux Obscura’s noir-esque story is passable and there’s no denying that its art design is decent. However, this is far from what one would describe as a compelling experience overall. It’s buggy and unrefined, ultimately dishing up a game that’s consumed by its poor development and lack of imagination.

Revenant Dogma looks and plays as though it’s been spat out of RPG Maker 2000. There’s very little depth within, and any depth that it does offer is usually puddle deep. The game may well be accessible and house a decent soundtrack, but in the midst of its near complete lack of innovation and originality, that’s hardly a selling point. Furthermore, Revenant Dogma is free on iOS and Android. Go there to avoid suffering a loss.

Overall, we have a simple, repetitive JRPG that doesn’t really add anything to the genre of note, further hampered by the fact that you can buy add-ons to make the whole thing even less engaging. As it is, it’s all too forgettable and really, not worth investing much time in at all.

Neon Junctions is a bad game for a range of different reasons. Not only are the solutions to its puzzles insultingly straightforward throughout the entirety of play, but its sheer lack of depth, together with its habit of constantly recycling the same ideas, ultimately makes for a very boring, tedious affair. If you’re in the market for new puzzle platformer, look elsewhere, because Neon Junctions falls flat on both fronts, and more besides.

City of Brass remains visually pleasing throughout and houses some interesting ideas, such as the perk system and the shops. However, tools to make the experience even easier just showcases how fairly dull the actual gameplay is. The lack of a polished structure only leads to unnecessary cheap deaths, which when grouped with the enemy’s substandard AI, emphasizes how frustrating and boring this adventure can be.

Smoking is bad for you. The game clearly relays that message to its players at each and every turn. Whilst its intentions are good and it is indeed free to play, the whole experience is an ugly mess. One Leaves lacks originality, consists of little more than lazy ideas and poor execution, and is chock-full of irritating performance issues. Sadly, because of this, the majority of its narrative gets lost in the midst of its frustrating methodology.

Ascendance’s short and seemingly peaceful journey is often hamstrung by its poor handling, and for a game that focuses its play on platforming alone, this doesn’t at all fare well. Furthermore, there’s a lot of framerate fluctuation to contend with alongside bad lighting, making it very difficult to appreciate the splendor that each world desperately attempts to relay. The whole affair just comes across like a cheap, shallow imitation of Refunct.