Paul Renshaw

Coming from Underbite Games is a new entry into a market that isn't swamped with games; that of the turn based strategy genre. Now, I've been a sucker for these games since I had a Game Boy Advance, playing Advance Wars and Fire Emblem late into the night, determined to just beat that one last level. Can Super Dungeon Tactics live up to the lofty ideals I've placed upon it, or will it be just an also-ran? With expectations running high, I dived straight in.

Coming from the aptly named Anima Project is the follow up to the original Anima: Gate of Memories game released back in 2016. Called The Nameless Chronicles, it follows the exploits of an immortal without a name, who was condemned to walk the world forever. The original experience is best remembered for being "not bad", so can the follow up expand on that?

Way back in the mists of time - those Xbox 360 days - a game launched with a unique hook. That game was Defiance, and the hook was that the game would be affected and altered by events that occurred in a tie-in TV series. What it boiled down to was that there would be special events in the game based on the exploits of the main TV characters, with them popping up to send you away to do various little tasks. I was sucked in by this premise, and have good memories of playing the original game back in the day, teaming up with like minded friends and strangers to take down massive public events. Fast forward five years and Defiance has been re-released in an updated form for the current gen consoles and PCs… but given that the TV series ended after only three seasons, will the hook still be there or has the boat sailed?

Coming from Chinese studio Deeli Network, Gene Rain is a cover based shooting game with more than a nod to the Gears of War mechanics. Can it live up to its lofty source material, or is it not fit to hold a candle to the mighty Gears?

When I first heard about Gnomes Garden 3, my first thought was "Oh no, I've not played Gnomes Garden 1 & 2, will I be able to pick up the storyline?". Luckily, it turns out that things are relatively straightforward.

Mothergunship is a bullet hell, roguelike, first person shooter coming from the creator of Tower of Guns, Grip Digital. I must admit, I'd never played a bullet hell shooter from a first person perspective before, so my hopes were high, as new experiences are somewhat rare in the world of video games these days. As the levels are all randomly generated, promising high replay value, and with an intriguing gun crafting system to look forward to, I dived into the crazy world of Mothergunship to find out more.

Next Up Hero is a strange beast. Coming from developers Digital Continue, the game is described as a Gauntlet style dungeon crawler, but there is more to it than just that. See, in addition to roaming around the arena style levels murdering lots of baddies, the game will also allow you to create your own fiendish dungeon, and then the community can be challenged to beat what you have made. Having prepared myself for action, I dived into the melee.

Coming from Batterystaple Games, 20XX was first released on Steam back in November 2014, after a successful crowdfunding campaign. Originally known as Echoes of Eridu, the much snappier 20XX title refers to the year that the robots gained sentience, and decided that what they should really do is rise up against their squishy human overlords. Described as "an indie roguelike action platform video game", has time been kind to 20XX now that it is hitting the console market?

I have been a fisherman for over 30 years now, and as such I approached this game with high expectations, especially given that the Euro Fishing promises to allow me to fish real lakes from Britain and Europe. I pulled on my waders and set off.

The original Shantae: Half-Genie Hero was released way back in the mists of time, in December 2016. Funded successfully via Kickstarter, raising over $900,00 in the process, the developers, WayForward Technologies, have now decided to release the Ultimate Edition, which rolls the base game and all the previously released DLC into one attractive package. So, given that barely 18 months have passed since the games first release, is this a worthy addition to the genre, or a cynical cash grab? I stepped into Shantae’s colourful world to find out.

Coming from Goblinz Studio, Dungeon Rushers: Crawler RPG sees players charged with exploring dungeons to loot them of their treasure, all while building up a team of trusty seasoned adventurers to assist you on your way. The big debate though surrounds whether this game is worthy of a release on console, or whether it should have stayed put on the mobile platforms.

Every so often a game comes along with the absolutely perfect name. Riddled Corpses EX is one of those - a twin stick zombie shoot-em-up, and riddled corpses are what you leave in your wake! Described as an anime twin stick shooter, Cowcat Games have remastered the original game that was released on Steam by Diabolical Mind and now the Zombie Apocalypse is coming to Xbox One. I strapped on my best anime style anti-zombie armour and sallied forth.

Everyone knows that the two things guaranteed in this life are death and taxes. I'd like to add a third thing to this list: the difficulty of Dark Souls games.

Atomic heist, a new game coming from Live Aliens, is attempting to carve out a unique niche in the crowded Xbox marketplace. Described as a top down, 2D, twin stick, sci-fi roguelike shooter (phew), the premise of the game is an interesting one.

Coming from tinyBuild and Bread Team, Phantom Trigger is described as a "Hardcore Neon Slasher", a genre of games that I wasn't familiar with until I started playing this one. As well as being hardcore, neon and slashy, the game also contains roguelike and RPG elements, basically meaning that as you play through and slaughter the bad guys, you will occasionally level up and find new weapons. With an appealing pixel art graphic style, I set out to discover if the game is as much fun as it looks.