#Blud is a damned funny title with a great art style. While the combat and puzzles could leave me feeling a bit burnt out at times it’s still an easy recommendation for anyone looking for a beautiful, funny dungeon crawler.

Caravan SandWitch is a beautiful adventure that covers stories of struggles and grief, paired with pleasant French vocals and a vibrant art style. And even though I found its main progression to be tedious, I did enjoy exploring the world of Cigalo and learning about its lovely peoples. If you seek a nomad’s adventure, van included, look no further than this little journey right here.

Make no mistake, I had fun playing DRAGON QUEST III. I appreciate what it’s done and brought to the table. But over the course of its runtime, I found myself losing interest thanks to a bombardment of random encounters and not enough between all that. So many games have come since then (and are still coming out today!) that have been greatly influenced by this JRPG classic, bringing their own twists and turns to storytelling and battle systems. There’s a good time to be had here in the HD-2D Remake, but if you’ve never played DRAGON QUEST III before, walk in with tempered expectations and to be down a few more hours than the game really should’ve been.

Despite a fairly negative-sounding review, Protodroid DeLTA is a fun game. It manages to capture most of the magic of action-platformers of the era, Mega Man X in particular but also the Sonic Adventure games to an extent, with fun, dynamic combat and tons of platforming and a bright, colourful look. Unfortunately, while the gameplay has its moments, it’s also not quite as precise and polished as such a game would require, and with how prevalent and difficult the platforming sequences become, this is certainly a big issue. Nostalgic gamers and people dying to play something resemblign a new 3D Mega Man are still bound to have a pretty fun time with Protodroid DeLTA, and here’s hoping that the title can be successful enough to warrant a sequel that fixes some of its shortcomings.

Sherlock Holmes The Awakened does what a good remake should, and remakes the entire game. New graphics, gameplay, story elements, dialogue, and more all work to bring together an experience any fan of detective-focused gameplay will love. It has some issues with signposting and movement bugs, but if you love Sherlock Holmes then this is a trip worth taking.

Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap is a fun game with some serious looks and performance issues on Xbox Series consoles. If it’s cleaned up at all by a day one patch then it’s an easy recommendation. Available Day One on Game Pass it’s a solid solo title and one that’s a ton of fun with friends.

Maquette is a short, impactful experience. Through clever use of its puzzle mechanics, it forces you to think in ways only the best of the genre tend to do. While the story and writing aren’t as good as the other parts of the title it is still an easy recommendation for anyone to check out for a night or two through Game Pass.

Goosebumps: Terror in Little Creek is a kid-friendly adventure with a few weird design choices related to the puzzles and combat, but ultimately, it’s quirky and charming enough to be blasted through, whether you’re a pre-teen or an adult who has fond memories of the iconic book series by R. L. Stine. I certainly had my fun with it, and would recommend it to those seeking a horror game that’s ideal for a younger audience.

It’s good, simple fun and we’re all here to cheer Girl on and, if anything, intently watch as she fails to keep the buggers off of her. TurretGirls scratches that cheap arcade itch that’s been somewhat missing from gaming these last couple of years—you’ll know it’s for you right from the onset.

The third expansion for Back for Blood is more of the best parts of the game. It’s short, packs a huge punch, and is a lot of fun to go through alone or with friends.

Ultimately, I walk away from Painkiller with somewhat mixed, but overall fairly positive feelings. The gameplay is fast, satisfying, with rock solid peformance and excellent graphics making for a blast of a shooter. It is, however, Painkiller in name only, as not only it loses the series’ core aspects, but also is rather uninspired all around. Very few memorable moments in the raids, generic enemy and arena designs, and not quite the depth needed for such a co-op experience to last you long. Still, if you crave for more shooters in the style of modern Doom, do give Painkiller a fair shot, as it can be a ton of fun both solo and with two allies by your side.

Close to the Sun is short, sweet, and a solid yarn. It takes an interesting alt-history setting and is pretty enough to put up with occasionally clunky gameplay. It’s short at only 3 hours for a full playthrough, so it’s worth giving it a try if you have any interest in the premise.

Completing the main story in any of the 3 available difficulties is once again a 3-4 hour affair, but the game doesn’t quite end there. If you loved the minigames from the campaign, these can also be played in local co-op up to a combination of 4 human or AI players, either picking specific activities yourself or letting it assign us a random one with combined scores across all of them at the end to declare a winner. As said, these minigames range from decent to poor, with a handful of convoluted rules, unoptimal controls, unreliable hitboxes and so on hampering the experience. It certainly ain’t no Mario Party and it won’t be a mainstay in evenings with your friends, but it can be a decent way to pass the time for an hour or two, adding a bit more meat to the package.

What kept me going was the excellent presentation and cool beats alongside the game’s short and sweet narrative campaign. The game supports multiple languages and the typeface for each one is simply gorgeous. I personally kept it in Japanese just because it almost looked like I was reading the game off an eReader. The game has plenty of bespoke panels that fly in and out effortlessly. If you are a fan of manga or manhwa and are curious about Asian stories (and in particular, those about countries under Japanese rule during the late 1800s), I can easily recommend this game. This is one of those few times I’ll take style over substance. I look forward to seeing what else this developer will come up with.

For fans of Jackbox games, myself included, this is a rock solid addition for game nights with friends and family (maybe not your parents though). The addition of genuinely adult subject matter is a lot of fun, even though at times, it literally devolves into drawing multiple cartoon dicks or boobs.

It’s a flawed game, but its tactical approach of energy-management, peloton tactics and multi-rider teams make it a unique experience. It’s quite a visual upgrade from 2024’s game, too, though mechanically it didn’t change a whole lot, and the new refuelling system is quite basic as well. Tour De France 2025 is certainly an improvement over the previous chapter, but it’s still a product with notable flaws, one with limited appeal to a casual audience.

Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch is a solid roguelite strategy RPG. I think players will enjoy the roguelite mechanics and world mythos very much, but combat and level design leave a lot to be desired. Still, it’s not a bad experience—I am quick to drop a boring SRPG, but this one kept me engaged throughout the entirety of my playthrough.

Despite my issues with the game, Ire: A Prologue is one of the better survival horror titles I’ve played. It’s got a good lore backing it, a great performance from the cast, and the objectives chance often enough to keep gameplay fresh. Emily might chip in to occasionally help the player, but you’ll be doing most of the puzzle solving on your own. Against the precipice of a terrifying-looking monster hunting you down in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle, this is easily a game that’ll terrify you to bits. If this is a start to a franchise, this is definitely a good one.

From cute visuals to the occasional brow-furrowing object hunt, Hidden Through Time 2 is a mostly relaxing object hunting game. Lots of levels to take on that’ll keep you busy for some hours. Though the time mechanism isn’t all that and the single-looping songs might get a bit unpleasant, it shouldn’t stop you from getting a warm feeling of finding a well-hidden book.

Star Overdrive has a lot of great ideas and a beautiful presentation while also being encumbered by frustrating platforming and combat systems. It’s hard to ignore the latter when the game’s best part is frequently put on hold to engage with tedious platforming puzzles and enemies that send out protagonist flying into the sand with no reserve. But this game has some of the smoothest hoverboard play I’ve seen from a game in years and, if you too enjoy the feeling of bursting through sandy dunes while pumping it up with a lovely sci-fi aesthetic, I think you’ll very much enjoy playing Star Overdrive.

Sniper Elite: Resistance is available on Day One on Game Pass, and that’s how I’d recommend anyone but the most ardent fan of the series plays it. At $60 MSRP it’s a big ask for something that can be completed in a night or two. While there is some replay value on offer there isn’t enough new here for those familiar with the series to warrant a full purchase. If you love Sniper Elite and want more though, then you’ll find nothing here to displease you.

In short, this is a solid port. It’s well worth the dime if you’re looking to kill some time. Kingdom Rush is a solid franchise, and those who play it are forever wise.

Hell Is Us is a game of two tales. One of a gripping world with devastating stories of humanity and lack thereof, challenging the player to truly think about their actions, understand the morbidly beautiful world around them, be able to solve intriguing puzzles and challenges without holding their hand, including the soulslike-inspired combat itself. The other tale, however, is of aimless wandering, tons of trial and error, getting stuck on some convoluted multi-level puzzle in some needlessly large and maze-like area, or dying to to some clunky combat features in some oddly designed areas. Such incredible highs with such frustrating lows are a rare sight, and your overall enjoyment of the game will largely depend on how much you tolerate the latter. I still feel like recommending Hell Is Us, to some people at least, because it is a unique experience worth digging into. Just, remember to arm yourself with a lot of patience – and maybe a guide or two.

Overall I’d argue this is probably the best Double Dragon game yet. It does just enough to modernise the franchise without straying from the path well traveled and alienating fans of the franchise. Which is a particularly tough task given the age of the series and the seemingly directionless path it has taken over the journey. The omission of online co-op is a bummer, but given the state of online co-op in scrolling beat ’em ups, I feel like this complaint loses more and more steam with every game that doesn’t include it. I feel like Rise of Dragons lays a pretty good foundation should they choose to continue making more games going forward. If the next game can tighten and speed up the combat and go back to a more conventional control scheme it could be something truly great.

Now mind, if you do enjoy the oppressive approach to randomness and lack of resources, Daemonhunters is a great XCOM-like with your favourite band of Marines. Even a newcomer could pick up this game pretty quickly thanks to a solid tutorial and a decent user experience. It’s a blast up until the chaos begins and that just might be a make it or break it moment for the player.

The Spy Who Shot Me expertly manages to both be a homage and a parody to the legendary GoldenEye 007 on Nintendo 64, offering a little humorous gem that plays like old school shooters (though not all that much like its source material), but not without a handful of shortcomings and compromises that doesn’t quite allow it to enter the hall of fame of boomer shooters. Still, the game’s cool style, cheap price (about 8 bucks) and surprisingly decent gameplay variety makes this an enjoyable romp to blast through on a rainy evening or two, starting this 2024 on Xbox with a fun and funny experience.

Voyage is a well-designed cooperative exploration game with an incredibly intuitive and simple design scheme.

The game has a lot of good things going for it. The narrative, puzzles, combat and new game mechanics make for an interesting and worthwhile experience but the extended game length is unnecessary and makes it feel like the story is being padded out to breaking point.