Rogue-lites are hardly a rare sight these days, but rarely does one catch the eye like this. With its grindy upgrade system and a few minor issues aside, the game consistently bombards its players with fast and frantic play that’s utterly engaging and constantly rewarding. It helps that the whole ordeal not only looks stunning, but sounds magnificent. Black Paradox, moment to moment, is an absolute blast that should not be overlooked.

Despite some slow combat and a few confusing plot points, Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark offers a wonderful, intriguing, and wholly immersive turn-based RPG. The game’s depth in regards to its class management and its party building is second to none, but its ability to remain almost grind-free in the face of this vastness is what truly shines through. Here, it’s all about choice and strategy, qualities that many of its peers seem painfully unfamiliar with.

Fade to Silence offers quite an accessible survival adventure that knows exactly when to push your buttons. The game’s seemingly interesting world is full of possibilities and dangers of equal measure, ensuring that there’s always some event to take on throughout. The drawback, however, is that of its lack of polish and mechanical depth, together with its awkward combat. Shame really, with more time in the oven, this could have been a big hit.

Mortal Kombat 11 delivers on what you would expect from the acclaimed long running series of iconic blood-soaked fisticuffs. The end result, despite a painful grind, offers a solid experience that looks great, feels amazing, and succeeds in keeping the franchise alive and revitalized, yet again. If you’re looking for one of the gen’s next best fighters, get over here!

Giga Wrecker Alt. has all the markings of a stellar platform puzzler, but sadly doesn’t quite manage to achieve greatness due to its lackluster boss encounters, its at times frustrating design choices, and its somewhat floaty handling. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a hell of a lot to like about the journey at hand, from its intriguing story through to its several interesting mechanics, but the fun is religiously interrupted by the game’s aforementioned drawbacks.

Unknown Fate could have been the next Q.U.B.E. had the developer spent less time focusing on mysterious set pieces, and spent more time focusing on refining the game’s functionality and its mechanics. The end result makes for a puzzle adventure that tends to be more convoluted than it needs to be, and far less engaging than it should be. There’s certainly fun to be had, but it’s oftentimes chased away by the game’s lack of care.

Zeroptian Invasion wears its inspirations on its sleeve, but never really attempts to stand out as anything other than a clone. Still, for those of you specifically looking for a Space Invaders-like affair, you cant at all go wrong here, just don’t expect much originality.

Purple Chicken Spaceman is a very hit and miss affair. Whilst it’s quite fun, easy to pick up and understand, and sports a vibrant presentation, it’s far too tempting to throw the controller down in the face of its overbearing difficulty and one horrendously annoying track. Bear with it though, because there’s much satisfaction to pull from success here, it’s just a shame that it takes a great deal of perseverance to get there.

Of all the legacy Final Fantasy games that have come to Xbox One, the Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster is the most comprehensive of the lot. The spiritually deep story is every bit as moving today as it was nearly twenty years ago, and surprisingly, each title here has aged remarkably well, both visually and mechanically. Sporting over 200 hours worth of gameplay, complete with refinements and added extras, returning to Spira should be a no-brainer.

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.

World War Z offers a fun experience that, despite a few technical issues and some visual blemishes, utilizes its source material rather well. Whilst it would have been nice to see more focus on its story elements, its tense gameplay, its mechanical depth, and its decent variation across the board, largely offset its blatant downsides. Indeed, it barely holds a candle to Left 4 Dead, but, it certainly achieves much of what it set out to accomplish.

Despite that some aspects of the game are either overwhelming, or, not wholly refined, My Time at Portia is a solid addition to the life simulation genre. There’s heaps of gameplay depth to soak up and enjoy, with no shortage of variation present to keep things fresh and entertaining. Whilst it pales in comparison to the likes of Animal Crossing, it certainly offers plenty of distinction and gets enough right to stand in a spotlight entirely of its own.

The generously priced Iron Snout offers a silly endless high-score fighting experience that, despite its varied modes, is only fun for as long as you can stomach its repetitive loop. Whilst there’s some excitement to be found during the initial stages of play through the introduction of new enemies, new maps, and new cosmetics, you’ll have seen everything the game has to offer after just fifteen minutes. Past that, there’s little else to enjoy.

Brutal, deep, and stylish, God’s Trigger is without a doubt one of the most compelling top-down shooters of the gen. The game’s depth and variation, together with its one-hit-death mechanic, collectively ensure that the experience remains constantly fresh and engaging throughout. The only drawback is that it’s too easy to circumvent much of the difficulty, but even then, the fun rarely gives up. If you enjoy the likes of Hotline Miami, you’re going to love this.

The developer should be absolutely ashamed for releasing the game in this state. There’s several faults in Eternity: The Last Unicorn that couldn’t possibly have gone unnoticed during QA. It’s buggy, it’s ugly, it’s boring, and even with its countless issues to the side, it’s got almost no likability. If you’re an absolute sucker for nostalgic RPGs, pick up any recent legacy Final Fantasy title. They’re decades old, and a hell of a lot better than this waste.

Truberbrook effortlessly stands out on the merits of its uniquely gorgeous presentation, its stellar voice work, and its overall decent writing. Unfortunately, the whole ordeal religiously falters as far as its core functionality and its puzzle design is concerned. The end result makes for an adventure that seemingly looks like nothing else, but largely plays like a poor imitation of any given point-and-click game worth its salt.

Flutter Bombs is a decent top-down twin-stick shooter that manages to get more right than it gets wrong. Whilst the core loop can become repetitive and frustrating due to some fairly lazy ideas, the game succeeds at maintaining player engagement through its commendable overall variation and its rich and diverse environments. That said, its simplicity makes this more suitable for the casuals rather than the hardcore.

Velocity G is a mixed bag of pros and cons. On the one hand, it’s accessible, it handles pretty well, and it’s got a shed-load of races to take to. On the other hand, it’s got little mechanical depth, its track design is overly repetitive, and its visual and audio presentation is substandard at best. Overall, it’s a valiant effort on the developer’s part, but at a time in which futuristic racers are on the rise, despite its cheap cost, it’s wide of the mark.

Hot on the heels of Operencia: The Stolen Sun, Vaporum feels quite out of place, and frankly, behind the times. Whilst the game sports an intriguing framework and houses some commendable RPG elements, the whole ordeal is greatly let down by its poor handling, its ridiculous difficulty curve, and its weakly paced story. It’s not a terrible game by any means, but alongside its vastly superior contemporaries, it’s a hard one to comfortably recommend.

The game’s enhancements and quality of life improvements are wonderful, not only making it look much better and more refined, but giving it a management fluidity that the original version lacked. You’ll need to forgive some delayed rendering and the odd drop in framerate, but for the most part, the entire package holds up remarkably. Putting it simply, Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition is the best way to play Borderlands on console.

Three Fields are doing the gaming community a service by keeping the arcade racing genre alive when the big boys seem to have lost interest. Much like their previous entries, there’s a lot to like here – from the fast, responsive action to the sheer thrill of smashing rivals and reveling in that takedown camera. Sadly, its bare-bones approach to modes, its erratic physics, and its barely improved technical aspects, keep it from reaching the heights of its inspiration.

If you’ve never tried your hand at Phoenix Wright, the Ace Attorney trilogy is an absolute must. Everything from its memorable cast of characters and its wonderfully charismatic dialogue, right the way through to its vibrant presentation and its utterly stylish gameplay, is quite simply outstanding. Despite some moments within that are fairly linear by design alone, overlooking this compilation would be a sheer injustice.

Despite a few issues with its long loading times and its poor voice work, Operencia offers a robust and diverse dungeon crawler that should not be overlooked. The game makes great use of its intelligently mashed-up framework, with a fine balance in place to ensure that the gameplay remains constantly fresh and rewarding throughout. Whether you seek engaging combat, deep progression, or, thrilling puzzles, Operencia has it all, and much more besides.

Bow to Blood certainly offers a unique experience, but its transfer from VR to traditional console hasn’t transitioned well enough at all. The game is sluggish across most aspects of play; from its basic movement and maneuverability, right the way up to its combat functionality. Furthermore, and despite some commendable features, there isn’t much depth present, ultimately making for a fairly repetitive journey that fails to maintain its allure.

Outward’s harsh difficulty, its hands off structure, and its constant stat management wont be for everyone. This is one hell of a demanding RPG, and as such, it can feel less like an adventure and more like a full-time job. Still, the game deserves a lot of praise for its ambition, its depth, and for its choice-driven structure, but in the face of its poor design choices, its awkward combat, and its lack of visual polish, it’s hard to wholly recommend.

Smoots World Cup Tennis is a horrendously developed game that will only serve disappointment. The entire experience is full of poor design choices and technical issues. Furthermore, there’s no shot variety present, nor is there any consistency as far as ball movement is concerned. It may look colorful and sport lots of customization options, but in the face of its sheer lack of mechanical depth and overall polish, that’s hardly a saving grace.

If you’ve played any title from Artifex before, you’ll know exactly what to expect here, warts and all. Due to its poor voice work, its shoddy writing, and its laughable animation, it can be hard to get truly invested in the story that Modern Tales: Age of Invention offers. It’s a shame, because underneath these rather frustrating drawbacks sits an interesting setting that’s really only upheld by the game’s intelligent puzzle design and its gorgeous artwork.

Royal Roads is a Gnomes Garden game in a different skin, and as such, the same issues found in those titles are present here. I’ll credit the game for its improved handling, for being visually superior in comparison to its related peers, and for its depth of content, but it still falls rather flat overall. If you’re in the market for a deep resource management game, look elsewhere. If you’re just here for more of the same, Royal Roads will serve you well.