The Atari Flashback Classics Volume 3 is certainly a worthy choice if you’re looking for a true nostalgic hit. There’s a wide selection of retro titles on offer here, with online and leaderboard support added for heightened value and extra longevity. With that in mind, this is a bundle of fifty massively dated games that, by current standards, handle pretty poorly for the most part. This will likely only appeal to a specific crowd.

Just Cause 4 is easily the best game in the series, seamlessly combining its freedom of experimentation with its signature, action-packed concept. The addition of extreme weather effects, together with the game’s redefined functionalities, go hand in glove to produce wildly entertaining gameplay opportunities from the get-go. Unfortunately, the game’s weak story and its grindy structure ultimately pulls it just shy of greatness.

Lazy Galaxy: Rebel Story fails to truly build upon any of its interesting ideas. There’s fun to be had, but these moments of excitement are oftentimes short lived due to the game’s play-it-safe formula. I don’t doubt that this will please die-hard fans of the shmups, but if you’re looking for the genre’s next big thing, this isn’t it. Lazy Galaxy is, at best, just another substandard bullet-hell adventure.

Big Crown: Showdown isn’t without issues. There’s some questionable design choices within, as well as a few bugs that hinder its fluidity. That said, these small problems are easy to overlook in the face of the vast amount of fun that the game consistently relays. I credit the game particularly for its accessibility, making for an action-packed, family friendly party brawler that rarely alienates the younger, or lesser skilled players.

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.

Hide and Seek doesn’t do enough to stand out alongside its predecessor, nor does it attempt to build upon the franchise outside of its plot movements. Despite the game’s various locations, the absence of depth and the lack of evolving functionality only opens the door to repetition. That said, the game’s performance and its core structure remains well set, offering bite-sized fun that will no doubt please fans of the series, far above all else.

While there isn’t anything definitively wrong with the game, there isn’t anything that On a Roll 3D can particularly brag about either. It’s your run of the mill side-scrolling platformer, one that seemingly trades innovation for simplicity. If you’re a speedrunner, a leaderboard buff, or generally enjoy ease-of-use games of this type, On a Roll 3D is for you. If, on the other hand, you appreciate something deeper and more robust, look elsewhere.

Mutant Year Zero’s robust gameplay elements blend together magnificently well, collectively sitting on a story backdrop that’s intriguingly desperate, yet oddly comedic at just the right times. The game’s openness encourages experimentation and daring, with no shortage of lore and rewards dished out to keep its pace at a steady flow. The end result makes for one of the best tactical adventures of the gen.

Override: Mech City Brawl suffers from some minor framerate issues and the occasional character-specific bug that, once present, quite literally puts a stopper on your game. Despite those problems, Override is pleasantly accessible and goes on to provide structural depth, combat diversity, and heaps of action-packed, fun, and exhilarating moments from the get-go. This is one brawler that’s fit for the whole family.

Gods Remastered is a mixed bag of pros and cons. Whilst the game’s structure and its pace has maintained its quality quite well over the last two and a half decades, the game’s combat and its handling remains far removed from acceptable standards. Still, one has to appreciate the work that’s gone into the remastered aspects here. It’s just a shame that much of the game’s charm is weighed down by its dated functionality.

Monster Boy is classic adventure platforming action, but done with such style and panache that it outshines many recent examples of the genre. There’s a brilliantly paced difficulty curve, with new powers, characters and items dispensed at just the right moments. Combat is standard, but intelligent use of the aforementioned aspects means it never gets tiresome or frustrating. It helps that the game looks and sounds sensational. This, is a must have.

Energy Cycle Edge is every bit as alienating as it is ignorant. The game is completely without accessibility, largely due to its overly steep difficulty spike and the fact that it’s devoid of any tutorials or tips. This wouldn’t usually be an issue, but for a puzzle-only game that comes with a such a distinct process, it’s disconcerting and confusing to say the very least. Even once you eventually grasp its concept, there’s little fun to be found here.

There’s moments of beauty to be found in the parallel stories here, but much of that is lost in the midst of its abundance of heavy-handed sorrow. It doesn’t help that The First Tree is far too basic for its own good. Whilst the game’s several worlds seem diverse and interesting at first glance, the lack of any padding makes for a very empty experience, one that, despite its few highs, ultimately succumbs to its many lows.

Rival Megagun’s competitive spin on the shmup formula is a bold move indeed, and although it pays off for the most part, the game is not entirely without fault. I take issue with the game’s lack of depth, its desolate online component, and its inconsistent damage detection. That said, its aggressively fun concept, its thrilling local multiplayer, and its decent character selection, collectively makes this a fairly worthwhile shoot ’em up.

There’s no denying that for its cheap cost, you’re getting more than enough content in return, but it’s content that ultimately becomes repetitive before too long. Much like each of its three predecessors, New Home fails to truly evolve its gameplay loop throughout its entirety. That said, I’ll credit the game for its simplicity and accessibility, but this means very little when innovation has been sacrificed as a result.

The only issues with The Gardens Between is its short length and its utter lack of replay value. If you enjoy heart warming bite-sized puzzle games, the journey found here is as stunning, as unique, and as clever as they come. The game’s core time manipulation concept works sensationally well with its few mechanics, serving up puzzles that, although quite simple, remain thoughtful and captivating throughout.

Floor Kids isn’t a bad game per se, it’s actually quite fun during the initial stages of play. The drawback, however, is that the game fails to shake-up its formula throughout. Whilst there may well be some energetic variety as far as its dance mechanic and its character selection is concerned, there’s little else to get excited about. The end result ironically makes for a very monotonous experience, one that gets old, fast.

Combat is hard, often unfairly so, but get into the groove and it’s also very satisfying. Exploring the environments can yield extra challenges, with powerful rewards for success, but a few more tantalizing glimpses of areas beyond your abilities wouldn’t have gone amiss. If you enjoyed the previous entries and have been waiting to see what Fury can do, you’ll find the wait has mostly been worth it. Just be prepared for a challenge.

Horizon Chase Turbo doesn’t come without faults, but even so, it’s easily one of the most entertaining retro arcade racers in recent memory. I take issue with the game’s unbalanced AI and its unsteady difficulty curve, collectively presenting infrequent moments of frustration. This, however, is easy to overlook in the face of its deep serving of content, its diverse track and vehicle selection, and its addictive, energetic gameplay.

Following Crash’s epic comeback, Spyro’s Reignited Trilogy faithfully brings back the purple dragon’s first three games with an outstanding level of care and attention to detail. With some minor issues to the side, this trilogy is a treasure trove for any fan of classic platformers. There’s a vast amount of exciting content on offer here, content that will keep you entertained for hours on end, and then some.

Bendy and the Ink Machine is a pretty good action-horror, and although it can sometimes seem a little bland, you cannot knock it for its originality. There’s a couple of technical and design issues to iron out, but overall, the fresh and distinct look, together with some good scares, will undoubtedly keep your heart racing throughout.

Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics achieves much of what it sets out to accomplish. Whilst the game excels as far as accessibility is concerned, those that relish an in-depth turn-based strategy game may be disheartened by the simplicity on show here. That said, and despite its recycled level design and its grind-like reward system, there’s a fairly compelling experience within that does more things right than it does wrong.

Maxima is an accessible, welcome spin-off from the main series. The story is finely paced, the combat system is engaging, and the dungeon diving remains diverse and fun, but it’s its compelling Pokémon-esque structure that truly maintains its allure. There’s a few issues with its writing, specifically with a character that you cant avoid throughout the entirety of play, but that alone isn’t nearly enough to hold the game back from greatness.

Youtubers Life is quite an endearing management experience that, surprisingly, doesn’t come across too taxing nor too demanding. There’s a decent amount of depth to be found here, but its lack of gameplay variation is what holds it back the most. Nevertheless, if you can overlook that and forgive the game for its repetition, Youtubers Life will keep you gleefully busy for hours on end.

Calling Storm Boy interactive, while technically true, is a massive stretch here, almost as if it needed that definition to be allowed on the store. If you are in the market for a new tale to share with your little ones, you’d be better served picking up a copy of the book. The soundtrack is pleasant, the visuals have a charm to them, and the truncated story is sweet, but it’s all over in the blink of an eye.

Sitting between the concepts of both Tetris and Space Invaders, NeuroBloxs is a surprisingly decent game, if indeed one that proves to be overly frustrating and somewhat repetitive in the long run. There’s some baffling design choices as far as its difficulty variation is concerned, but if you can overlook that, a well rounded puzzle-action shooter awaits.

Eternal offers a pretty decent strategy card game at its core. However, the game’s monetary structure greatly holds it back, being that the game is chock-full of paywalls and microtransactions. This is normally acceptable for a free-to-play experience, but there needs to be a fair middle ground between grinding and expenditure. That sadly isn’t present here. You’re either all in or all out, for the most part.

Hitman 2 is surgical – it’s a focused experience that knows what it wants to achieve and exactly how to do it, much like its protagonist. All six maps are wonderfully replayable, and in reshuffling older content, IO seems to be on the cusp of the “games as a service” wave in a way not attempted by other developers. More locations would have been welcome, and Hitman 2 feels like somewhat of a supplementary package to its episodic brother at times, but there is nothing else out there like it.