Time Flies is short, strange, and potentially unforgettable. You buzz through clever puzzles and silly bucket list goals, laughing one moment and reflecting the next. It’s over appropriately quickly, but every second is packed with charm and thoughtfulness.

Word Play blends Scrabble with roguelike tropes, offering clever modifiers and polished design. Runs can lack the wild synergies of its Balatro inspiration, but it’s still a sharp, satisfying word puzzler, especially if you’re a word nerd.

Pip My Dice takes Yahtzee-style rolls and turns them into a pretty slick roguelike. Customisable dice, clever relics, and endless synergies make it dangerously addictive. Rough edges and overt Balatro inspiration aside, it’s got that number-go-brrr joy.

Aviassembly nails the fun of building and flying your own, sometimes absurd, aviation creations. It’s simple, addictive, and surprisingly deep, though missions can feel a bit samey. Short but satisfying, with loads of promise if the dev keeps expanding. Fun for a lazy afternoon.

Horse-girl racing idol sim sounds like a joke, but Umamusume’s training loop is surprisingly sharp, races are tense, and the production value combined with attention to detail in recreating aspects of real world Japanese racehorses is weirdly elite. Gacha is generous upfront, but obviously brutal long-term. You’ll probably resent how much fun it is. A global phenomenon for a reason: addictive, unskippable, potentially shameful.

Unashamedly Dark Souls 1-pilled, Wuchang brings back slow, stamina-tight combat, interconnected level design and more, while introducing its own novel ideas. Difficulty starts mild, then spikes pretty hard. Builds feel meaningful, from clash-happy dual blades to busted spellcasting. Really solid!

What can one even say about a game like this? In short: I loved it. I was at 201 hours (and 1.7M Likes) when the credits rolled, and every minute was soaked in serene Australia-inspired ambience, poignant atmosphere, engaging storytelling, the usual Kojima absurdity, and most importantly, an intensely satisfying gameplay loop. It might not hit quite as hard as its predecessor, perhaps just by virtue of no longer being completely novel, but it makes up for that in what it does differently. Death Stranding continues to be a rare experience that invites even the most cynical players into a quietly moving form of connection - where travelling alone becomes a shared and strangely emotional act of collaboration.

The Alters starts as a base sim adventure but quickly becomes something heavier. You don’t just optimise workflows, you mediate between fractured selves while a deadline creeps closer. It’s definitely more narratively driven than deep simulation sandbox - it’s sparse but sharp. Presented wonderfully, well-paced and worth your time.

First of all: it’s good. I’m always for happy FromSoft to try stuff, and this was a really interesting idea. If you’re relying on two multiplayer randoms, you may be in for a bad time - it can be a bit of a dice roll, but solo is absolutely doable. It’s hard to play this and not have thoughts of a FromSoft live-service game, and so long as it wouldn’t distract from their usual approach… I’d be kinda down for it! This is multiplayer Elden Ring with drips and drabs of content and mechanics from all over the From archive - it might not be what you want from them, but it’s really fun.

Probably justifiably copped flak because 2016 and Eternal were so strong… Combat feels looser, less refined, and the focus on the shield seemed to me to just slow things down and funnel one type of gameplay. Mech/dragon bits drag, story’s forgettable. Music’s also a step down, given the unfortunate (lack of) Mick Gordon situation. Still fun though.