Gorgeous, perfectly designed and utterly engrossing, Botany Manor is quite simply one of the best puzzle games of recent years.
Its creepy art style and unsettling atmosphere will immediately draw you into Buckshot Roulette — but it's its quick-and-dirty Russian roulette gameplay that will keep you coming back. It's easy to play, but to succeed you'll need to keep your wits about you, and that makes for a really successful little game.
Part roguelike, part horror, part puzzle adventure, we've not played anything quite like Withering Rooms before. It's a little scrappy, and we wish combat was better, but there's something about it that will keep us coming back.
A strategy puzzle masquerading as a world builder, Planetiles is a wonderfully challenging little game that we can't get enough of.
Heavily inspired by the Kingdom games, Sons of Valhalla is great fun — if not a little too unforgiving at times. It's seriously rewarding though, and the sort of thing we can imagine jumping back into time and time again.
If you revel in a challenge and like the idea of a platforming game that offers something totally different, you’re going to absolutely love Pepper Grinder. When it’s all going right, few games feel as satisfying to play as this: there’s nothing quite like powering up your drill to dive through the ground, popping out to jump through the air before landing into a well-placed drill again. Sometimes it’s perhaps a little too tough, but even when Pepper Grinder’s not at its strongest, we couldn’t pull ourselves away, desperate to eventually succeed.
It’s clear that Open Roads is a passion project, one filled with personal touches, love and its team’s personality. But it’s also a triumph: Tess and Opal’s story is gripping, and you’ll eat up every minute of their road trip mystery, hanging onto every word of their conversation. Add to that a unique and beautiful art style, some incredible voice performances and so many nostalgia-inducing objects to nosy at, and you’re left with a truly memorable experience. It’s just a shame that it’s all over so very, very quickly.
Princess Peach: Showtime! feels like a safe release from Nintendo, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing: it’s fun, it’s inventive, and it looks wonderful. Its quirky level designs and Peach’s range of fancy costumes will no doubt put a smile on your face but ultimately, there’s little more here than that — a pretty, if shallow, Nintendo adventure that’s best played in 30-minute bursts.
South Park: Snow Day is, ultimately, a huge disappointment. This is so far removed from The Stick of Truth and The Fractured But Whole that it really shouldn’t be considered to be related to them in any way. Sure, there’s a glimmer of trademark South Park humour here, but it’s not enough to make the repetitive, dull and painfully scrappy gameplay any more enjoyable. This is a snow day you can safely sit out of: stay home and play Stick of Truth again instead.
If you’re the type of person who gets a kick out of design and renovation, you’re likely going to love Hotel Renovator. It scratches that cosy simulator itch, providing you with repetitive but wholesome tasks to complete. Random events and the odd injection of humour aims to mix things up, but ultimately, Hotel Renovator is at its best when you’re knee-deep in redesigning a hotel room, making everything beautiful and just how you want it. Bliss.
A true hidden gem, Bore Blasters has all the ingredients of an indie classic in the making. The gameplay loop here is one of the most enjoyable and satisfying that we’ve had the pleasure to play, and each new upgrade really does feel like an achievement. Simply put, we can’t get enough of Bore Blasters: we’re going to be returning to it time and time again. And each time, we won’t be able to pull ourselves away.
Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley is the kind of gorgeous, wonderful indie gem that leaves you with a huge smile on your face. Whether you’re familiar with the Moomins or not doesn’t matter one jot here as care has been taken to make sure this game is accessible to everyone. Its beautiful art style and equally mesmerising soundtrack will keep you hooked from start to finish — we just wish there was more to enjoy.
With several different modes and solo and online play at your fingertips, Quilts and Cats of Calico is the type of game you can go back to again and again. Challenging yet wholesome, we love its unique brand of puzzle that manages to test your brain while also providing an ideal tool for relaxation. Whether you’re familiar with the Calico board game or not, this is a PC puzzler worth checking out.
Keep your expectations in check for Welcome to ParadiZe, and there’s some fun to be had here. It’s marred with some technical issues and the odd bug but ultimately, exploring its world with your pet zombies in tow is, against the odds, entertaining enough to keep us playing — especially if you’ve got a co-op buddy along for the ride.
It’s true there’s not much to Minami Lane, but this is a fine example of wholesome gaming: simple, engaging and wonderfully relaxing. The fact it’s been made by such a small team makes it all the better. Don’t come here expecting an in-depth city building experience, but if a few hours of cosiness appeals, we’re pretty sure you’ll have a fine old time.
If you fondly remember Mario vs Donkey Kong from its Game Boy Advance iteration, we’ve no doubt you’ll get a kick out of seeing it with a gorgeous, fresh coat of paint. You still will if you’re a newcomer: it’s a treat for the eyes, but it’s also a fun little puzzle game to pick up for 10, 20 minutes at a time. It’s not going to set your world on fire, but those mini Marios are sure to put a smile on your face for a little while.
No two games of Balatro are ever the same, which is only one of the reasons why we love this poker roguelike so much. Sure, it’s annoying if your run doesn’t get off the ground — it’s easy to fail early on if you can’t get your hands on a good Joker. But when you’re in the swing of things, scoring tens of thousands with just one hand, you’ll feel like the most powerful card baron there ever was. Simple and devious, Balatro is, quite frankly, brilliant — and I’m going to be playing this for months to come.
Those niggles aside though, we can’t deny that Islands of Insight is one of the best puzzle games we’ve ever played. The sheer amount of puzzles on offer here is incredible, without ever being overwhelming. There’s a solid sense of progression, with goals to work towards – but you’re also free to explore however you wish, tackling the puzzles that interest you and, for the most part, ignoring the ones you don’t enjoy as much. It’s already great but with a few updates over time, Islands of Insight could really be something special.
CLeM isn’t a very long game: you’ll finish it in around three hours, much less if you know what you’re doing with all the puzzles. Short but sinisterly sweet, then, it’s just the right length to fit in a good amount of puzzles without overstaying its welcome. If you’re a fan of Mango Protocol’s other games – or indeed anything with a slightly dark undertone – you’ll love this.
Our only real reservation about Boxes: Lost Fragments is how close it is to The Room. But should we really chastise it for taking heavy inspiration from a classic puzzle game? Whatever the answer, we can’t deny that this is a beautiful, clever puzzle game that’s provided us with a few hours of engaging gameplay. The puzzles here are excellent, and it’s a visual treat.