Inescapable: No Rules, No Rescue isn’t a bad game, it’s just that others of a similar ilk, like Danganronpa, do the social thriller visual novel concept much better.
Experiences like The Ascent don’t come along often. Game Pass may well turn out to be The Ascent’s redemption. This is an experience that’s best had in co-op, and a day one launch on Xbox’s service means that almost all obstacles are removed. So, find three friends and take your time with The Ascent, refuse to play in long sessions, and you and your partners will find worlds and gunplay that blow your augments clear off.
Castle of Pixel Skulls is a game that is lacking in almost every department - originality, controls and gameplay. It fails to deliver on its promise of challenging platforming. In fact, the only real battle is dealing with the inconsistent jumping mechanics.
MyMaitê is a 2D platformer that would have been dismissed by CVG or Mean Machines in the 1980s for being too thin. The few ideas it has are held back for too long, and the only thing stopping a one-hour completion is the spiky difficulty, which will slap you around the face for not jumping on precisely the right pixel.Â
Gaps by POWGI is one of the simplest word puzzlers from Lightwood Games in terms of concept, but this helps it by not overcomplicating things that could potentially draw away interested parties. The puns are back too which is only ever a good thing, as is the very easy Gamerscore.
Despite the name, Freddy Spaghetti 2.0 is a step backwards. It has less ideas, less levels and less ambition than the first game. As a fan of the original, I was hoping for something more from the oddly lovable strip of slinky sentient spaghetti.
Just like actual Japanese food, inbento goes down an absolute treat. With its beautiful aesthetic, touching story and deviously challenging puzzles, there’s something for everyone to appreciate. The game is perfect in both bite-sized chunks and extended sessions, and the gameplay is designed to be challenging but not overwhelming.
It might be easy to dismiss Sable’s Grimoire as a visual novel take on Harry Potter. It’s even easier to dismiss as a dating sim. But it’s laced with teenage anxiety and social commentary, which builds on the Hogwarts foundations and ends up as a dating sim, almost by accident. It’s not without its cliches and melodrama, but Sable’s Grimoire is a rich, effective visual novel that fans of the genre will fall in love with.
Trigger Witch is a love letter to the games of the ‘90s. It’s cute, colourful and surprisingly violent, and with drop in/drop out co-op that works brilliantly, you’ll be able to bring a friend or family member along for the ride. The only slight complaint is that the story feels artificially extended, but luckily the narrative is strong enough to keep dragging you on, twisting as it progresses.
There’s a good chance that you will love Omno just by looking at the screenshots, but get hands on and you’ll very quickly learn why that love is real. Yes there are a couple of niggles, particularly in the accuracy of the gliding, but apart from that this is a gaming experience that is near damn perfect.
With Ice Cream Surfer, we have a case of great concept, poor execution. Taking on Hitler-Broccoli whilst riding a flying ice cream is a plot that is both barmy and strangely intriguing. And it deserves to be backed up by much better gameplay than what is currently on offer. Its issues with the controls and the characters, as well as a general lack of content, quickly sour things and throw almost any element of replayability out of the window.
Blitz Breaker is the archetypical pocket-money platformer. It costs less than a fiver, comes with plenty of content, and its gimmick - a character that can’t walk, but can jetpack its way to the far reaches of the level - is different enough to make it interesting. Just be warned that this is deeply difficult, and failures won’t always be down to you.
Should you want to involve yourself in mass fights, laughing uncontrollably throughout, or wish to get engrossed in the RPG elements of Beneath, you’ll want to put your best fighting shoes on, because it’s time to Paint the Town Red.
Audio repetition aside, Orcs Must Die! 3 is a little gem. The campaign modes are deep and varied, the weekly challenges are full of variety and both the Endless and Scramble options mix up the gameplay just enough to warrant some time with each. Throw in the simple to set up online multiplayer and you've got an extremely accomplished action tower defense brawler that the vast majority of gamers will thoroughly enjoy.
Gameplay-wise it needs more, and a bit of innovation wouldn’t go amiss, but you should be able to get completely invested in the story of the Night Book.Â
This could have been Life is Strange: London and we wouldn’t have bat an eyelid. And that’s where the greatest disappointment derives from: Virginia was so proudly and ebulliently unconventional, yet Last Stop hues so closely to convention. It’s an episode of The Twilight Zone; a more committee-created Quantic Dream game. There’s no doubt that it’s enjoyable and has wonderful, memorable moments, but its biggest crime is that it doesn’t emerge with a voice of its own.
