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007 First Light understands that Bond isn’t just gadgets and gunfights. There’s a lot of charm and chaos, and an abundance of improvisation under pressure.
Full of surprises and not afraid to throw you into the deep end, Yerba Buena is a delectably tricky linear puzzle narrative adventure masquerading as a colourful physics sandbox.
Stonemachia is a fun action-leaning souls-like to play, but it probably won’t become the next breakout indie sensation.
Schrodinger’s Cat Burglar is an impressively fun puzzle debut from Abandoned Sheep. Every puzzle was enjoyable and well thought out, with a natural and well-paced evolution of mechanics.
Coffee Talk Tokyo is a game that shouldn’t be rushed. The story is good, and the characters have their own personalities, and your role as a barista determines whether they get a happy ending.
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is a fantastic experience that anyone can pick up and play, regardless of their playstyle.
Zero Parades: For Dead Spies is a spectacular sophomore effort that takes the subgenre and grafts new and interesting mechanics onto it. Minor bugs do little to impact the consistent delight of narrative twists, beautiful prose, fully realised characters, and top-tier voice acting. Thematically deep and tonally diverse, CASCADE’s return to Portofiro and the fate of the Whole Sick Crew will be a story we’ll be dissecting for a long time.
Outbound struggles to justify its own loop. It presents a beautiful, yet empty, isolating space that exists without tension or inscribed drive.
Legacy of the Dark Knight tries to honour many legacies at once, and struggles to serve them all effectively. A familiar but fun LEGO game, a functional and simplified continuation of the Batman: Arkham series’ mechanics and an unambitious and only intermittently funny Batman story all sit alongside one another in a final build of a game that will still be enjoyed by many, but is never quite the sum of its bricks and will unlikely have much of a legacy of its own.
Forza Horizon 6 hits the road with the most densely packed open world racing game ever created, in the truly iconic setting of Japan.
Call of the Elder Gods is a really well-designed puzzle game with great characters and a story that grips you the whole way through. It’s a shame that some of the plot developments don’t continue the whole way through the narrative, but it’s still a story well worth following. I can’t wait to see what eldritch ventures this team will send us on next.
Mixtape is an adventure specifically for those of us who grew up in the angsty 90s. For those players, the top-tier soundtrack selection and unpacking themes you may have been avoiding for a few decades is going to hit very hard. For others, the rose-tinted glasses and hammy dialogue may feel distant or indulgent. Just like an actual mixtape someone makes for you, not every track lands. But it’s so clearly made with love, and the tracks that do will stay with you long after it’s over.
WILL: Follow the Light offers a few glimmers of promise amidst its fog of missed potential, but they are too few and far between to recommend. Stiff delivery, rough writing and uneven puzzles all would have been better served by being thrown overboard so WILL could focus on its atmospheric sailing strengths. Instead, WILL is better left adrift at sea with only its lost promise to keep it company.
Wax Heads makes you feel like you are part of this safe, wholesome, creative world of Repeater Records, surrounded by alternative and queer folk who just want to keep rockin’ as long as they can. Finding records for people is fun, but also challenging, so you’ll have to not only scour Repeater’s records, but watch cutscenes, search through your apps, and pay attention to the customer’s vibe. For someone who grew up in 90s indie record stores, longing to hear something that would change my teen life, Wax Heads really cultivates an atmosphere of curiosity, love and respect for musical communities, and how much better music is when it involves human connection.
Gambonanza isn’t as feature-rich or varied as it could be, but it remains hypnotically compelling all the same. Whether you’re a champion chess player or don’t know your Rooks from your Pawns, Gambonanza’s short, sharp matches and varied Gambit mechanics are engagingly addictive, and are worth checking out for any roguelike fan.
inKONBINI: One Store. Many Stories is a delightful, bite-sized exploration of finding beauty in the mundane and the importance of being kind. The setting feels intimate, like an episode from a slice-of-life anime. While the cast of characters is small, they are each equally as enjoyable to get to know, and their stories feel real and relatable. The simple gameplay style is satisfying, and the small touches, such as sticky notes from the day shift commending the work done on the night shift, brought a whole world of unseen characters to life.
Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth is a heartfelt adventure that understands the magic of its storybook world. Jansson’s childhood series is rendered with such love and care that I quickly fell in love with the Moominverse. Hyper Games has very clearly treated the source material with great care and respect, creating an experience that feels made for longtime fans while also remaining warm and welcoming to newcomers. While the gameplay can feel repetitive at times and the firewood grind did sour my experience, it was still good to explore the snow-covered Moominvalley as the adorable Moomintroll to experience a winter that would send any Australian into shock.
After an initially positive impression, Aphelion fails to achieve liftoff. Shallow and outdated climbing mechanics, coupled with an abundance of boring stealth sections, make the narrative the only hope for this mission. However, with a lack of compelling characters or performances, the gravity of two unlikeable leads proves too strong for Aphelion. Despite strong visuals, instead of reaching for the stars, this sci-fi journey ends up falling back to Earth.
SAROS delivers Housemarque’s best-in-class gameplay, backed by a genuinely intriguing narrative and a unique world. But it’s lacking polish, with performance and optimisation issues that are impossible to ignore for a game so reliant on precision.
Titanium Court possesses the spirit of the fool and the wit and insight to match. It is a joy of a game to clown around in – a hilarious, richly designed and ingeniously made roguelike that also gleefully points the finger back at us through the screen, daring us to prove that we don’t enjoy running around in circles for its own (and our) amusement. If it pleases the queen, this is a play of a game that deserves front row tickets.