[Early access] The Rogue Prince of Persia revitalises the classic with a fresh roguelike twist, brought to you by Evil Empire of Dead Cells fame. Procedurally generated levels keep runs exciting, and the fluid parkour and combat stay true to the franchise’s roots while making use of modern sensibilities. Gorgeous visuals and challenging gameplay make it a promising early access title, but we’ll see how the roadmap progresses…

DROS is a puzzle-platformer blending exploration with relatively light challenge. You’ll control two characters with unique abilities, each with strengths and weaknesses. The art style is charming, but the gameplay can feel repetitive - it’s engaging up front, but may lack depth for some people. Casually, it’s a light and satisfying experience though.

HoYo’s latest gacha has all the tropes and systems you’d expect, this time in a retrofuture urban setting and excelling in presentation, fast-paced combat and quality-of-life improvements. The combat is fluid, satisfying and addictive (albeit never particularly challenging), the story isn’t the deepest but has its moments (even if the pacing could use some work), and the whole thing has great visual design, sound design and music. Smaller than Genshin, its minor flaws are easy to overlook if you’re willing to ignore or accept the predatory gacha foundation.

The First Descendant is an almost aggressively pedestrian looter shooter - neither exceptional nor terrible. It combines ideas well but is held back by shameless drive toward microtransactions and apparent lack of identity: part Destiny, part Warframe, lots of fanservice. While the visuals and cooperative systems are strong, its gunplay and movement feel pretty average, and overall inconsistent quality and monetisation model won’t appeal to everyone. Worth a quick go if you wanna turn your brain off for a while.

An intriguing clicker game with an immediately captivating, minimalist aesthetic and subtly unsettling story. Number-goes-up satisfaction is at the forefront, but there are definite nods to factory automation, which rewards optimisation. Love the sound design, music, and unique take on the genre - but wish it leant harder into automation.

PvE Super Auto Pets roguelike. Super simple to pick up, immediately addictive, and very easy to break - in the best possible way. Cleverly executed and extremely fairly priced. If you’re into autobattlers, deckbuilding, synergies, etc. - just get it!

Suika Game but with pool input and physics. It’s a cool little idea, certainly executed very well and fairly priced. You likely won’t get tonnes of playtime out of it, but it’s fun. Imagine it would be cool on mobile or handheld.

Every now and then a game comes along with a narrow but succinct concept, so confident and well-executed that it immediately, effortlessly captures your attention til the credits roll. Arctic Eggs could have just been a silly little browser game (especially considering it was born of a gamejam), but pairing its singular mechanic with an unbelievably cool art style, interesting world and genuinely hilarious writing was a masterstroke that makes it something else entirely. It feels ridiculous to write so glowingly about a short egg-flipping game, but it’s a testament to how refreshing games with small scopes and a solid vision can be.

This sequel to the genre-defining Exit 8 is far more straight-forward (literally). It’s the same kind of spot-the-difference loop, but said differences are way more obvious - sometimes in an impressive way, but mostly in a disappointingly unchallenging way. It’s still cool, but the mystique isn’t really here, and overall isn’t quite as compelling.

Ever wondered what Wordle would be like if it was a dark, absurd and funny dungeon-crawler? Look no further! What a strange little game. Evokes a tonne of nostalgia, but capitalises on modern game sensibilities. Great music, excellent voice acting (and a crazy amount thereof!) and chock-full of charm. Won’t be for everyone just by virtue of being so different, but absolute worth checking out.