While most players will likely see where its influences lay, the dystopian world of Black The Fall succeeds on many occasions in creating a distinctly disquieting atmosphere, while a trial-and-error-based puzzle design offers just enough interactivity to keep its spooky narrative kicking.
While ultimately 'for the fans', Activision and Vicarious Visions successfully bring nostalgic PS One classic romping back into relevance, while including some extra bells and whistles that (save for some control slips) allow the originals a greater depth.
If visual quality is what Tequila Works had in mind, three years have been well spent on fabricating a stylish, truly wondrous environment, despite drawing obviously from previous adventure accolades. It'll likely underwhelm if approached explicitly as a puzzler, but Rime's brief tale manages moments of genuine poignancy. The PC port is in dire need of patching, however, if such charm is to survive.
Plasma Puncher doesn't look to revolutionize the modern beat 'em up, but its punchy character controls and tough, wave-based combat offer an addictive few hours of amoeba-murder that ultimately makes that okay.
Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap doesn't always put enough distance between itself and its Master System roots to fully appeal as a modern platformer, but it's so brimming with charming, challenging discoveries that dated design choices don't infuriate anywhere near as often as they reward.
Stage Presence combines mic-improvisation with the immersive givens of the headset to deal a gut-punch of stage fright. Outside that momentary thrill, however, it's a noticeably mundane gig: if conquering one's fears means facing them head on, then Stage Presence unfortunately sets itself up to grate after its first few objectives.
All the Delicate Duplicates shows remarkable integrity to its ambivalent tone and psychological themes, but it’s often the same integrity that renders its puzzle-solving mundane. Fans of resolution will likely find the ending underwhelming, but in terms of original world-building and character development, it’s an appreciable two-hour wander.
Oneshot won’t likely have you screaming for its approval as a ‘revolutionary game’, but it’ll almost certainly surprise you. And though it achieves a similarly disquieting tone, the meta approach to puzzle-solving and self-aware narrative validate Oneshot as a distinctive, sympathetic adventure that consistently matches its tone with (though not wholly original) still quite novel mechanics.
Killing Room's onscreen murderhouse makes for a challenging roguelike shooter, and its reality-TV slant injects the sadistic premise with a welcome touch of humour; even if it routinely finds itself punctured by irksome design details and patchy technical performance.
If 90's thriller is your bag, Virginia does it magnificently. Loaded with surreal coincidence and unsettling theatrics, its deliciously David Lynch. In another medium, this thing could’ve been great, but its allegiance to film form ultimately restricts its potential as a game.
The Final Station pays its respects with an appreciative concision. Tough stages and scarce resources lend heavily to its survival-horror status and though the narrative can feel flawed, it offers numerable nods to the zompocalypse genre with a subtle, reflective tone.
Hyper Light Drifter fuses old-school combat and attentive world design with unique sensitivity. Its world owes almost entirely to the SNES era, but this game is a tale of individual intelligence - even though it's never really told.
Inside is dark, deep and deliciously bleak. Its ominous world speaks continually - even if it's never entirely clear what is being said. Its puzzles aren't mindbending, but they're duly affecting - extending the mechanical and thematic nuance nudged at by Limbo.
Mighty No. 9 is cut straight from the heart of one of Capcom's best-loved franchises, but suffers several wounds in the process. Whilst it makes some attempt to shine on its own merits, I can't help but feel it's this retro love that holds it back. Frustrating, uneven and painfully restricted; something made all the more apparent by its current-gen status.
TMNT: Mutants in Manhattan is a repetitive hack n' slash that forces the player time and again into encounters with samey enemies against a paltry selection of passionless backdrops. It's really only saved by the bosses, but the amount of filler you'll need to sift through to fight them just keeps a'coming.
Shadow of the Beast is pretty to look at, but poor level design and lack of reward leaves the player frustrated and disappointed. It's evidently bursting to share nostalgia with the world, but that fondness ultimately thwarts the game's potential as a current-gen brawler.
In an effort to homage the kart-racing classics of the 32-bit era, Coffin Dodgers merely layers unattractive visuals atop an antiquated control scheme and generic world design. If you're yearning to relive your childhood through the goofs of a solid kart-racer, you're better off consulting Mario Kart.
The Count Lucanor's patchwork of previous gothic titles might strike as unoriginal, but its own merits shine through as a contemporary play on the classical fable. The hidden choices and nuanced characters offer a thematic narrative uncertainty, and an ever-present sense of threat overrides the conventional 'jump scare'. A folk tale in the guise of an adventure-RPG.
Pony Island is clever, creative and veritably ludicrous. It's not heavy on mechanics, and puzzles can slow down the experience, but its satanic tendencies and cultural observations endures far beyond its prompt closure. Neither for, nor about ponies.
Despite its technical hitches and messy conclusion, Firewatch's study of a flowering friendship makes for a riveting experience, against a gorgeous backdrop that breathes with fragile solitude.