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If we’re being generous, we’d say that Scrap Riders is a mixed bag but in all honesty, the game is a showcase of wasted potential. We were ready to fall in love with the world and the characters, as the premise is decent enough and the idea of mixing a point-and-click adventure with beat ‘em up arcade gameplay is interesting, to say the least. Unfortunately, the excellent art direction and fun combat sections aren’t enough to salvage the lackluster adventure portion, which is dragged down by uninspired point-and-click sections and poor writing. There isn’t anything inherently bad or wrong about Scrap Riders, but there aren’t any real reasons to recommend it either.

This is a game that has the rare ability to deliver a tragic story in a beautiful way and although you won’t get to see a happy ending, you’ll end up seeing a worthwhile one.

OXIDE Room 104 is a pretty standard but fun horror game with a premise that will bore most horror veterans. It doesn’t bring much new to the table where the plot is concerned, the graphics and sound design are both average too, but that doesn’t mean the gameplay doesn’t make for a good time. And the repeated death mechanic – while frustrating at times – makes for an interesting gimmick.

Valley of the Dead: MalnaZidos is a great concept in a unique setting but the game should have stayed a bit longer in the oven. It feels like although the sound and story are pretty well fleshed out, the graphics and gameplay need a lot of work to make this title become one that you need to own. The combat mechanics are not that great, the mandatory use of a controller could leave a lot of players stranded, and with the graphics not being up to spec, it feels like this game at its current price point is a big no-no.

Super Magbot is a fun game that uses the mechanics of magnetism and also combines both platforming and puzzle elements in a game with over 100 levels. If the base game proves to be too hard, you can always use assists to make things a bit easier. The story is nice and gives the player a proper backstory of what was going on in the world of Super Magbot. With the amazing 16-bit graphics and Midi music you get teleported back thirty years, but with modern-day standards clearly kept in mind. The only downside is that the game can be pretty hard without the assists, which could lead to frustration if you are a completionist.

BodyQuest is a very interesting educational experience, that allows you to learn new facts and tidbits on how our bodies work. While the game has a bigger threshold than MathLand, it is still a very solid educational game. Exploring the levels is quite fun, the quizzes are clear, and the overall content is sufficient. Even though you have more options with calculus than the repeating quizzes in BodyQuest, we feel that his game is more polished as a whole. Adding the incentive of the relatable story and the unlockable cosmetics will entice younger players to press on.

“I wouldn’t say Alt254 is a bad game, but it definitely is a boring one: Traversing through gigantic areas with no indication of what to do, without save points and surrounded by enemies is not particularly fun with its execution. While a game like Dark Souls, which tells a story through its gameplay, may be able to make this system work, a game like Alt254, with its incredibly shallow combat and mechanics in general, doesn’t. Having minimalistic graphics only makes everything much more underwhelming as well; beating hordes of identical red squares or talking to blue tetrahedrons does nothing for the player’s imagination.”

King Lucas is a fun game, especially for a younger audience. It’s a nice way of introducing the Metroidvania genre to the younger ones. For older players, the poor combat and tedious search for a single goal might quickly cause you to give up on playing any further, yet the game offers some amusement for all ages in the end with easy-accessible platforming and adventure.

RUNNER HEROES is a very challenging game with beautiful art in the story parts. There is a bit of an annoying bug present at this moment still, but this might get fixed in the future. We also hope a professional party takes a look at the game’s dialogues to filter out the spelling mistakes. It can be frustrating to get stuck in one part of a level in the game but once you get past it, the satisfaction is amazing. If you’ve enjoyed one of those runner games on mobile or just generally like a challenge then you could check out RUNNER HEROES: Curse of the night and day.

Immortal Redneck is a fresh breeze of air for the Switch’s library and a fairly enjoyable one at that, just not a very memorable one. The game does have a great control scheme, fun visuals, amusing weapons, but its repetitiveness and slow unlocks don’t give it that certain edge the game could have had with a bit more polishing. Nonetheless, for fans of roguelite shooters, this one is certainly worth picking up when it’s being offered at a discount price, as its current suggested price might be a bit too steep to truly get that bang for your buck.

King Lucas is fun, but it never really gets more than that. Especially because of the lack of depth in both the storyline and gameplay it’s not a game that you will make an afternoon free to just play the game. It’s more a game you play when you’re bored. This is a shame since the concept of the changing castle is quite unique and could’ve been so much more.

Maldita Castilla EX is a great homage to one of CAPCOM’s neglected lovechilds and it does no real effort into hiding its origin of inspiration. Nonetheless, the developers took something old and revamped it into their own thing in the process, and perhaps in some ways even improved the mechanics of the original source material.

Blues and Bullets, or at least the two first episodes, are certainly worth the effort if you’re into gloomy Film noirs, which combines a great detective story with a small horror undertone. Interesting narrative and an intriguing case are what drives this title and while the mechanics are somewhat on the very simple side, things stay very satisfying throughout the entire experience. Knowing whether you’re truly untouchable, will have to wait until the next three episodes are released.

Blues and Bullets, or at least the two first episodes, are certainly worth the effort if you’re into gloomy Film noirs, which combines a great detective story with a small horror undertone. Interesting narrative and an intriguing case are what drives this title and while the mechanics are somewhat on the very simple side, things stay very satisfying throughout the entire experience. Knowing whether you’re truly untouchable, will have to wait until the next three episodes are released.

The Purring Quest will take you on a furry trip to get something special back to your boss. To do so, you will need to overcome a lot of obstacles, which might be quite hard due to the controls. Don’t worry though, as you will have some nice graphics and tunes to accompany you. Let’s go on a quest, human!

Niko: Through the Dream is an intriguing title that really charms you from the start with its amazing graphics. Despite problems with unclear key bindings, the intimacy of discovering Niko’s story for yourself through imagery and music really drew us in and made the game all that more personal. The puzzles themselves also proved to be very entertaining, and left us feeling very satisfied indeed when we finally completed them. This title was an absolute delight, and would be perfect for anyone who really enjoys a good challenge whilst also experiencing a minimalist but profound story.

Vortex Attack stays true to the genre’s roots, which may or may not be a great success. Both veteran and new players of arcade shooters will love the game’s explosive frantic action but the lack of randomization in enemies and mechanics may lead to a daunting gameplay experience. A good variation of enemies, vessels and colorful backdrops do make up for it and the new game mechanic of trying to implode vortices certainly kicks the gameplay experience up a notch. All-in-all, Vortex Attack is a great addition to the retro arcade-like space shooter games.