There’s a temptation to talk about Pacific Drive with reference to genres: survival, extraction, roguelite, action, adventure, driving… But it’s doing something really cool with it’s tone and atmosphere, making it something altogether unique. Clever progression, tactile UI, great music, terrifying SFX, and a world worth exploring. Cool game.

Balatro absolutely rules. And this is coming from someone with abject disdain of poker… Traditional poker hands are your basic tools, but that’s about as far as the connection goes. The rest of Balatro is a wickedly clever, psychedelic, insta-classic roguelike through which you’ll devise cunning ways to break the game. Cards and modifiers are tightly designed, crisply defined and delightfully synergistic. Again, Balatro just rules. Play it.

[Early Access] Without taking anything away from Pocketpair, it’s kind of wild that it took this long for someone to pull this off. For everything Palworld may lack in (narrow) originality, it makes up for in execution. It throws down the gauntlet for what a creature collector could be, and somehow blends it with modern genres and sensibilities in a way that, surprisingly… just works? Time will tell if they truly stick the landing over the course of EA, but there’s already enough here for an outrageously fun time.

A space-themed Suika-like, with satisfying, bouncy physics, and a novel way to ease congestion. Simple but cosy, and it’s cool to see something like this made in PICO-8.

Buckshot Roulette is a stark and bite-sized horror-themed game that echos an essence of 2021’s Inscryption: a unique, gritty industrial vibe in an extremely tense, 15-20 minute package. It doesn’t outstay its welcome in exploring the concept, and is a refreshing little experience overall.

Shamelessly combining Hades, Vampire Survivors and Diablo, Death Must Die is a bullet-heaven wherein you pick perks from (even hornier) gods, collect items and survive increasing hordes of baddies as you attempt to break the game and become OP. The inspiration verges on derivative, but it’s a compelling combination with enough new ideas to make for fun results. Give it a go.

Really fresh and interesting take on incremental games with a delightful aesthetic and charm all the way down to the tooltips. Compelling upgrades, addictive progression, great art and music. If you’re at all into incremental stuff - just get it.

Extremely addictive deckbuilding bullet-heaven roguelite tower defense. Cool styling and very much a one-more-run type of experience - especially with friend leaderboards! Interesting cards, abilities and characters, but I feel like tower upgrades could afford to be more than just stat bumps. That said, really good game.

Made as a response to so-called immersive sims which provide you with precisely what you need in a lock-and-key fashion to “solve” problems in just the way the game intended. Mosa Lina goes in the complete opposite direction; giving you completely random tools each time, enabling emergent and unique solutions. It’s clever, funny and rewarding. Really good.

Terrific art direction, ghostly music and atmosphere underpinned by a gripping story (by ’60s Polish sci-fi author Stanisław Lem) make for a tantalising but ultimately underwhelming experience. The characters are likeable and acted well, but they can only do so much to make up for what is so bound by its story that it leaves so little room for compelling gameplay… I’m up for walking simulators, but the walking has to be enjoyable. All that said, the story is the hero, which is enough to drive home an admirable adaptation.