SLEEP AWAKE is a game I saw in my email, having never heard of it. I redeemed the key on a whim, and dear lord, am I happy that I did. The four hours I spent in The Crawl as Katja were full of intrigue, some genuine scares, and a hell of a lot of enjoyment.

Alone in the Dark has come a long way from its initial showings. Clever writing, great performances by its two leads, and solid gameplay come together to give the franchise a new life.

I love a good challenge every now and then, but I don’t mind being able to coast as I please and feeling powerful to destroy foes to boot. For that, Yohane’s little adventure offers a fun journey through a weird labyrinth with funky, eldritch-looking monsters. An easy recommendation for the 2D action beginner.

Though my thoughts on Silver Star Story aren’t necessarily the best, LUNAR 2: Eternal Blue does a lot of heavy lifting as the remaster work does for me. Both games’ Remastered modes have had a lot of care put into them to make them look good on modern display, as best as you can get when working with native code really. LUNAR Remastered Collection is a set of games I think can be enjoyed by anybody, particularly those who have a love for old-school, adventure-focused anime and JRPGs alike.

It’s a short and sweet DLC that gets a short and sweet recommendation. If you love PowerWash Simulator then this is $8 you should go and spend right now.

I’m not too big a fan of how much was stripped away in Ninja Storm’s Connections History mode, but it still does a good job of picking the right moments to sum up for Naruto-noobies while still offering fun fights alongside Boruto’s extra story. Ninja Storm fans will know what they’re coming back to, this time with a larger roster than Storm 4. Connections is ultimately a great little collection of all things Naruto.

Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles is not made for everyone. It’s an odd duck in the way it controls, the way it tells its story and the way it simulates the world, but it truly is a great way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon. Want a conventional strategy game or city-builder? Look elsewhere. Are you in for something executed by a single developer, taking risks and doing something new? Well then – The Ursee awaits.

Besides being a darn good collection, it all comes down to whether or not you’re interested in the games. For fans of Darkstalkers and Capcom’s fighters in general, the improvements and first-time ports are worth it, plus the museum has some nice goodies like concept art and design documents. These games are still visual treats with lovely spritework and animations, too. And while I don’t think this will net a tonne of newcomers into fighting games and Darlkstalkers, ports for today’s hardware (with good improvements!) are always welcome.

Threefold Recital is a great 2D narrative adventure title, no thanks to its unique setting and enjoyable characters. The team has done an excellent job between balancing story delivery and breaking up the eventual monotony with distinctive minigames that are both repeated and one-off. Behind all this lies themes of living and identity that resonate not only for the three leads but for the player as well.

Tunnels of Terror is a great first expansion with a lot of high-quality content and it’s well worth your time and money if the base game ever held your interest.

Though bittersweet, Dordogne offers a thoughtful, well-paced narrative that is accompanied by beautiful visuals and sounds. It’s a pleasant adventure title through-and-through. One that I recommend to just about anyone.

All in all, the official videogame for Kingdomino is just that: Kingdomino, digitally. It features two artstyles, a strong online module and various settings, but it also doesn’t do anything special or different compared to the board game. No particularly fancy animations, no extra game modes, no campaign to play through. If you want Kingdomino on your device, this is perfect – it’s even a light-weight game that runs on weaker machines, so it’s got very little in terms of downsides.

Swarm 2 is a ton of fun. You’ll swing around shooting robots in decent-sized arenas until you can barely stand because it feels so damned good. A solid progression system and good looks don’t hurt either.

Halls of Torment efficiently combines the highs of some of the best bullet heaven shooters out there, with immaculate Diablo-coded looks and sounds. Despite not being revolutionary, nor packing the outrageous depth of some of its rivals, Chasing Carrots‘ title is easily one of the most interesting and addictive titles in the genre. And, as a Game Pass release, you have very little reasons not to give this one a fair shot.

Railway Empire 2 is a great game for fans of simulators and builders. It tries to find the middle ground between being accessible and challenging, with the chance of losing the more advanced players in the process. The developers can cherish what they’ve created. But could expand upon the ideas some more for the next iteration. As I’m sure plenty of players would love to go deeper into the world of building a railway empire.

BAD END THEATER is an enjoyable stint of being able to choose the dilemmas your cast of characters face and then watching them die a bloody death. It’s an amusing choose-your-adventure sort of game with a bit more than that once you explore what this theatre has to offer, even if it isn’t quite subtle about certain aspects of its venue. Perfect for the sadist in you and even the hopeful.

I’ve quite happily played through and enjoyed Simon the Sorcerer: Origins, and for fans of the series, this is genuinely a pretty great return for this 90’s adventure game anti-hero. In many ways, it feels made by a group of fans that loved these classic games, and as such, is made with a fair amount of care and passion. I hope they get to make another one.

Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands does not try to reinvent the Borderlands wheel. Instead, it molds it into something fresh enough to satisfy fans of the series that are looking for more.

In a vacuum, Pinball FX is for the most part a sensational pinball game, and to be fair the closest competition is Zen Studios own fantastic pinball games themselves – who, for yet another installment, remain the kings of pinball in videogame form.

Cursed to Golf is charming, smart, sounds and plays great, and is full of heart. It mashes up a side-scrolling arcade golf game with roguelike mechanics in a fresh and exciting way. At only $20 US at launch, I think it’s well worth a purchase if anything you’ve seen here has you intrigued. This is one curse that’s well worth the cost.

Overall the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection is a great kit of two very fun adventure titles. Alongside new quality-of-life features and development documents on characters and environments, this collection finally completes the series’ transition to modern platforms and brings an untranslated game westward for the first time. Highly recommended for Ace Attorney fans who’ve never played these games before.

World of Solitaire is one of the best videogame versions on modern consoles of 5 famous solitaire games, and at an inviting price around 10 bucks, it’s definitely worth playing for fans of the genre. A lot of cool features extend its longevity, but perhaps allowing more customization of the rules, more actual gameplay variety and some extra quality-of-life changes would have made it a truly unmissable experience for card fans.

PowerWash Simulator is already a great time, and this DLC is perfect for matching the tone of the game. It’s silly, fun, and a solid value.

A licensed Transformers racing game with actual robot combat elements being one of the most unique and fun racers of 2024 was certainly not on my bingo card, but I ain’t complainin’. A very solid racing module, a lot of smashing and bashing in car form, and then a fast-paced, if quite simplistic third-person robot-shooting intermissions make for a legit fun time, with even a surprising depth in the loadouts and available characters. Sure, a bit more polish and variety wouldn’t have hurt, and the progression is rather bizarre – and the lack of proper multiplayer is a bummer. Still, Transformers: Galactic Trials is both a great Transformers game for fans young and old, and an exhilarating racer with a lot of fresh ideas and a quite solid execution all around. Keep an eye out for this one.

Outside the aforementioned oversights, there’s a near perfect collection on offer here that’s an absolute must for fighting game fans.

There’s a pleasant puzzler in Projected Dreams, thanks to its visuals, music, and simple game design. Who knew making shadow puppets could make for an enjoyable afternoon? An easy recommendation for everyone.

EA Sports FC 24 continues the legacy of a great football game series. It’s easy to pick up for anyone thanks to a good tutorial system and features addicting modes that you can take online and offline. The game’s gorgeous and runs really well on the Xbox Series X. EA has made sure to entrench its football series even without the FIFA license, so I think you can continue to expect only the best from this series going forward.

Inertial Drift: Twilight Rivals Edition is a new version of this interesting drift-based arcade racer from 2020, adding brand new graphical enhancements on current-gen consoles to bring features such as 4K and 120fps and a fun DLC that adds new tracks, cars, and a fantastic set of Eurobeat tracks. It’s more of a quantitative update than a transformative one, and the extra cars and tracks don’t help solve the game’s relatively repetitive gameplay, yet this is undoubtedly a superior way to enjoy this quirky and adrenaline-filled arcade racer that I can certainly recommend to fans of the genre.