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.

Ultimately, Wheel World is a small and charming open world, presenting a stylish look, an enjoyable biking gameplay loop, and various high adrenaline races, up and down the hills of this magic island. With rather formulaic open-world activities and slightly unpolished physics, the game doesn’t quite reach its full potential, but it’s also a pleasant experience that ends before some of its shortcomings could start to bore or frustrate. And, well, it’s out today and is on Game Pass, so it doesn’t cost much to give it a shot yourself. So, hop on your magical apocalypse-avoiding bikes, and let’s roll.

WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers understands exactly what makes Soulslikes so good.

If you fancy moonlighting as a budding scientist battling for survival against other-worldly forces and scientific experiments gone wrong, you’re going to love Abiotic Factor. It’s a refreshing and charming take on the survival genre, full of great mechanics and systems, an engaging story and world and importantly it’s an absolute blast to play with friends. Go in as blind as you can, because like with all scientific endeavours, the joy is in the discovery.

Despite my issues, I found Ink Reverie to be a relaxing and charming game. It blends a bit of idle mechanics with active city building and match three gameplay quite well and served as a lovely detox to everything else I have going on. No need to stress over the finer details, all you have to do is build and watch as your cities grow.

Indeed, much like the original Descenders, Descenders Next is already an incredibly addictive and enjoyable game, one that transports this really sweet game formula into a whole new extreme sport style. There’s already a high variety included and plenty of unlocks to go for, though many of the game’s sports and features are yet to arrive. But the first Descenders was a game I kept going back to for years, just keeping it installed on my console and sometimes going back for a single run, or for hours at a time. This sequel is already setting up to be one of the next Game Pass addictions for me and many other gamers out there, and I’m excited to see what Descenders Next’s future bring us. The transformation for Descenders worked, and this Game Preview version is already a very strong starting point – go check it out, will ya? [Review in Progress score = 82]

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.

Shadow Labyrinth is a solid 2D Metroidvania and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Its edginess has a lot of spunk and charm, level design is solid, platforming is varied, and progression is paced well. If you dig the idea of PAC-MAN eating people as you explore a world purveyed in turmoil, this one’s worth checking out.

RoboCop: Rogue City – Unfinished Business is an expandalone that outshines its original in almost every way. However, better pacing and bigger moments are marred by poor performance, at least at launch. If you can look past that and you already enjoy the first game, then this one is an easy recommendation at only $30.

Ready or Not ushers in the triumphant return of tactical FPS games to console, and I’m all the happier for it. With a decent single player option, plenty of replayability and a multiplayer co-operative mode that absolutely shines, Ready or Not will offer plenty of tactically driven gameplay for those that look for it. If you prefer to run’n’gun, you’d best look elsewhere.

It’s cute, it’s handy, and a spot of fun. Untitled Hand Game is worth the bit of entertainment it sets out to give.

Eriksholm is a tough game to fully review, as giving away the gameplay mechanics and plot elements that made me enjoy it should be experienced without spoilers. If you have the time, in this never-ending deluge of excellent games, consider adding this one to the backlog. It’s fun and not frustrating stealth and shockingly high production values make this one of my favorite surprises of the year.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 is an excellent reworking of the original games into one massive package. While I miss the original career mode of 4, this Day One Game Pass drop is a game I’ll be coming back to for a very long time.

Yearly sports titles tend to be small upgrades. College Football 26 is different, as CF25 set the groundwork after over a decade away. ’26 takes a more-is-better approach and smashes it. This is one of the best-playing and most realistic-feeling college sports titles I have ever played.

Quite how I feel about Missile Command Delta is messy, because there are neat ideas here, mostly to be found within in the actual missile-commanding part of the game. The rest becomes more than a little tedious and while I admire the approach of doing something a little different, I can’t help but feel the whole package feels burdened by the narrative additions, and sadly those parts are not a lot of fun to play through. Unless you’re a massive lapsed Missile Command/Atari fan, I’d maybe let another cadet take your place.

It’s not a flawless game, but throughout years of iterations, it basically transcended the limitations of its bullet heaven genre, creating a roguelite with a depth and variety comparable to the absolute best ARPGs ever made. Maybe you won’t remember the enemy designs, the generic lore, or the name of the 200th skill you unlocked. You will, however, remember how satisfying this game has been for the many hours you’ve dedicated to it.

Playing on a Series X, the game ran at 120fps and felt smooth as butter.

I can’t help but thoroughly recommend I Am Your Beast. It’s a neatly designed, satisfying game that combines the addiction of great ‘one-more-go’ titles with some solid, satisfying gunplay, all wrapped up with a surprisingly engaging narrative to help keep you invested. If you’ve ever had the urge to indulge in a secret-agent-revenge-fantasy, consider that itch thoroughly scratched.

I still think Ruffy and the Riverside is worth your time if you’re a hardcore fan of platformers of the 90’s, especially if you’re still waiting for a proper new Banjo-Kazooie – though I’d argue that Yooka-Laylee does a better job at replicating that style. Ruffy’s adventure has enough spins on the formula to stand out, especially the creative swap mechanic and some ideas beyond the opening levels, but I feel like there’s a lot of unforced errors in this title, which made me not enjoy myself as much as I hoped I would. Maybe it’s just me, because the game definitely oozes charm a lot of the time, but I wish the actual game was as exciting as the ideas behind it.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate is a decent game. The Casey Jones & the Junkyard Jam DLC is worth it if you’re interested in the base title, though I’d only give it a full recommendation if you have a friend or three to play with.

While there are worse shooters on the market than Splitgate 2, there are a ton of better ways to spend your time as well. The game is free, so it’s worth a download if you’re curious, but I’m not sure you’ll end up wanting to spend a ton of time on the game as it currently sits.

In the end Sloclap has unintentionally put a lot of roadblocks in the way of both your ability to enjoy and desire to purchase Rematch, but behind all that is one of the best feeling soccer games ever made waiting to blossom and be discovered, as long as you can see past those roadblocks and don’t mind paying up front for the potential this game has for the future.

FANTASY LIFE i: The Girl Who Steals Time is a lot of fun! There’s plenty of things to do and they all play into one-another quite well. It’s not a slow-life game by any stretch of the mean, but it is a grindy one and any grindy game that manages to actually pull me back in post review obligations deserves nothing more than a hearty recommendation from me.

I think Disney Illusion Island is built on a solid foundation, but sadly everything around it (be it level design, art, and objectives) are underwhelming. This is a game for the Disney faithful at best, because even for young children, there are an overwhelming amount of fantastic 2D Metroidvania titles to choose from. Unless you really like Donald Duck (and I solemnly raise my hand for the walking TNT box!), Illusion Island likely isn’t going to be worth your time.

Still Wakes the Deep was an incredible game. Siren’s Rest shows the aftermath and how it affected at least one family. For $13, I think it’s well worth checking out for anyone who’s beaten the main game.

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.

While there’s not really a meaningful structure, plot or anything to work towards, especially for solo players, the mere skill ceiling to climb towards is a satisfying enough loop to guarantee plenty of hours of parkour, with the game’s physics and mechanics properly keeping up with the expectations of such a precise formula. Hardly a revolutionary or particularly memorable game, but it aims to do satisfying parkour first and foremost and it succeeds there. And that’s perfectly fine.

I feel like there’s not a lot to say about TRON: Catalyst. It perfectly captures the essence of the TRON audiovisual experience, without overstaying its welcome, taking me just about 10 hours to finish. It has a satisfying, if rather formulaic, ARPG combat loop – with even the iconic disc-throwing and vehicle usage. The story is sound, and there’s a quality dub underneath it all. It may not reinvent the wheel, nor hit the heights of the legendary TRON 2.0, but it sure reignites my TRON hype, with hopefully the upcoming movie, TRON: Ares, delivering after the many years of delays as well. If not, well, you can always play this really cool game!