If you like being guided from one objective to the next while playing a game, Magical Delicacy is not for you. But if figuring things out for yourself, exploring a wonderfully designed pixelated world and cooking up some unique delicacies in the kitchen all sound good to you, there's so much to love here. It's a unique blend of crafting and metroidvania, and it works incredibly well.
SCHiM looks absolutely fantastic, and its idea is innovative: you're a shadow who has become untethered from its human. But the goal of reuniting the pair is unfortunately more frustrating than it should be: while there are some enjoyable elements here, ultimately we were relieved when it was over.
Stylish and captivating, The Land Beneath Us is yet another success that should be celebrated in the roguelike genre. This turn-based dungeon crawler has some great ideas, and its sharp, focused gameplay is hard to put down.
Casting players as Sushi-bot, your goal in Rolling Hills: Make Sushi Make Friends is to run the best sushi restaurant you possibly can. This is a thoroughly cosy and relaxing sim where stresses are kept to a minimum — and while it may be simple, we've enjoyed every moment we've spent with it.
Imagine Link to the Past without the combat and threat: that's sort-of what Pine Hearts feels like. There's a lot to like about this cosy adventure set in a colourful world, but a few issues hold it back from being quite as good as it could have been.
This duck-flavoured detective mystery may be short, but it's a great deal of fun. Wonderfully animated and excellently written, figuring out the case of Duck Detective: The Secret Salami might only take a couple of hours, but it's a jolly good way to spend an evening.
Brought to life with gorgeous hand-drawn art, Paper Trail is beautiful to look at. Its puzzles, centring around folding and unfolding paper, are an acquired taste, however, and can quickly grow tiresome. As well-designed and clever as they are, we'd wager some players will struggle to digest more than a couple of levels at a time.
Clearly inspired by Theme Hospital and Two Point Hospital, Galacticare takes humorous hospital management into deep space. Building the perfect hospital and helping patients from a range of species is every bit as enjoyable as its inspirations, and with high production values, there's a lot to like. Some of its humour might not quite land, but we think if you're a Theme Hospital fan, Galacticare is a no-brainer.
Perplexing and often pretentious, yet compelling and wonderfully accomplished, it's safe to say you won't have played anything quite like Lorelei and the Laser Eyes before. Filled with puzzles and mystery at every turn, once you step foot inside the intriguing Hotel Letztes Jahr, you won't be able to pull yourself way.
Being a cat is every bit as joyful as you'd hope, and Little Kitty, Big City's protagonist makes this short open-world romp a delight from start to finish. Get up to mischief, help out animal friends, trip over human passers-by or befriend them: there is an overall goal to work towards but you'll likely be too busy causing chaos to rush through it. It's just a shame Little Kitty, Big City has a few bugs that need polishing out — but this is still an adorable, enjoyable adventure. Even if you don't have cats, you're going to be hard-pushed not to have a great time.
There's a lot to like about Another Crab's Treasure. Its underwater setting and cutesy premise makes this a unique Soulslike, and its accessibility options means this is one of only a few games in the genre that can truly be played by all. But there are bugs and issues galore, stopping this crustacean's adventure from being quite as enjoyable as it should be.
Gorgeous, perfectly designed and utterly engrossing, Botany Manor is quite simply one of the best puzzle games of recent years.
Its creepy art style and unsettling atmosphere will immediately draw you into Buckshot Roulette — but it's its quick-and-dirty Russian roulette gameplay that will keep you coming back. It's easy to play, but to succeed you'll need to keep your wits about you, and that makes for a really successful little game.
Part roguelike, part horror, part puzzle adventure, we've not played anything quite like Withering Rooms before. It's a little scrappy, and we wish combat was better, but there's something about it that will keep us coming back.
A strategy puzzle masquerading as a world builder, Planetiles is a wonderfully challenging little game that we can't get enough of.
Heavily inspired by the Kingdom games, Sons of Valhalla is great fun — if not a little too unforgiving at times. It's seriously rewarding though, and the sort of thing we can imagine jumping back into time and time again.
If you revel in a challenge and like the idea of a platforming game that offers something totally different, you’re going to absolutely love Pepper Grinder. When it’s all going right, few games feel as satisfying to play as this: there’s nothing quite like powering up your drill to dive through the ground, popping out to jump through the air before landing into a well-placed drill again. Sometimes it’s perhaps a little too tough, but even when Pepper Grinder’s not at its strongest, we couldn’t pull ourselves away, desperate to eventually succeed.
It’s clear that Open Roads is a passion project, one filled with personal touches, love and its team’s personality. But it’s also a triumph: Tess and Opal’s story is gripping, and you’ll eat up every minute of their road trip mystery, hanging onto every word of their conversation. Add to that a unique and beautiful art style, some incredible voice performances and so many nostalgia-inducing objects to nosy at, and you’re left with a truly memorable experience. It’s just a shame that it’s all over so very, very quickly.
Princess Peach: Showtime! feels like a safe release from Nintendo, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing: it’s fun, it’s inventive, and it looks wonderful. Its quirky level designs and Peach’s range of fancy costumes will no doubt put a smile on your face but ultimately, there’s little more here than that — a pretty, if shallow, Nintendo adventure that’s best played in 30-minute bursts.
South Park: Snow Day is, ultimately, a huge disappointment. This is so far removed from The Stick of Truth and The Fractured But Whole that it really shouldn’t be considered to be related to them in any way. Sure, there’s a glimmer of trademark South Park humour here, but it’s not enough to make the repetitive, dull and painfully scrappy gameplay any more enjoyable. This is a snow day you can safely sit out of: stay home and play Stick of Truth again instead.