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In conclusion then, Lords of Exile is a competent action platformer that does what it does with a certain style. The action on offer is fun to play through, and the challenge is quite stiff, which helps keep you pushing on. If you like a platformer with action elements, Lords of Exile will do the business. 

There is a lot to like about Lords of the Fallen. The scope and scale of the two worlds is impressive, whilst the combat is fast and frantic. Even the exploration side of things, while tricky, is rewarding when you manage to pull it off. 

AK-xolotl is a really good little game. There is a decent challenge on offer while the grind is certainly real (buying new weapons seems to cost an arm and a leg, almost literally). That means the urge is there to have just one more run. It isn’t as polished as others, but it feels like the devs are looking to embrace it with new content on a regular basis, so I’m hopeful that over time it will grow and be polished. 

UnderDungeon is probably unlike anything you would have played this century, and so as a somewhat unique proposition, I recommend you give it a try.

I don’t think very much of Superola Champion Edition and certainly not enough to put up with the annoying gameplay and stupid premise of jumping and shooting. The era of endless runners is over now, and Superola makes sure it goes out with a whimper. Don’t waste your money is my most honest advice, and certainly don’t encourage other developers to look at this genre and think “We need more of those!”. 

All in all, Souldiers does have a lot to recommend. The game is big, the bosses that you meet need some serious planning and pattern learning, and there is a good challenge and learning curve. It’s just the little niggles that spoil the party; the annoying jump delay, the almost ridiculously hard combat. If Souldiers was capable of easing you in, allowing the player to level up a bit before throwing them into fights with unbearably powerful enemies, it would be better. Still, for fans of the genre, this will certainly provide a stiff challenge. 

All in all, Metal Tales: Overkill makes a decent fist of being a good game. The various layouts and bosses you face, along with the decent amount of items and weapons to find, makes each run unique. Add in a decent co-op mode and this is a game that can be recommended to metalheads everywhere. If you don’t like the metal, it is a bit of a harder sell, but is still fun to play. 

Honestly, I really wanted Ikai to be good; like a flashback to the Project Zero games and the way they brought Japanese horror to life. But sadly it stumbles well short of those titles. The action is dull, and while the monsters are nice, you never really feel like you are in any danger; as such the horror part of Ikai falls flat too. There are some good ideas here, and a good atmosphere can be created, but overall it is just disappointing.

In conclusion, if you are the sort of person who enjoys banging their head on a desk for hours, you may get a little bit of enjoyment from El Gancho. For the rest of us, the slightly shoddy look, poor mechanics and dodgy controls consign this to the “Must not play” pile of games from history. Even the promise of easy achievements won’t be enough to keep you playing, and that is a damning indictment indeed. 

So what that means is that Aragami 2 is a great game, with issues. The gameplay is immense fun, takes on a whole other level with friends and there is something extremely satisfying about being able to do what you want, when you want it, in order to achieve the mission objective at hand. It isn’t perfect though, and seems to be missing that little bit of polish required to lift it to the top tier of gaming. If you can look past that, there’s a good little game here waiting to be played. If you have Game Pass, its’ a no-brainer, but even if you haven’t, you may find that you wouldn’t have enjoyed a ninja game this much since the original Tenchu. That is high praise indeed. 

All this comes together to ensure that Colossus Down on Xbox is an interesting proposition, with game-changing choices to be made and an upgrade tree that can well reward multiple playthroughs. The violence is over the top, but awesome, the characters and enemies are well-drawn and designed, and the whole game is fun in short blasts. And therein lies the rub; this is not a game that I can sit down with for an extended period, as mashing X and pressing RB every now and again becomes tiresome. There are however combos to learn and unlock, but you don’t need to use them, and the long and the short of it is that the game does suffer from a feeling of “I’ve seen this all before”. There are flashes of brilliance, but the whole is less than the sum of its parts. If you like side-scrolling beat-em-ups, then this is worth a punt, but if not, well, try Streets of Rage 4 instead!

So, that is the sum of the experience on offer in Concept Destruction on Xbox One. It’s fun while it lasts, but apart from some interesting achievements to find and unlock, once you’ve done so the urge to play again evaporates like the morning dew in a blast furnace. It’s a fun diversion, but sadly it doesn’t last long enough. I fear this will suffer the same fate as a lot of Ratalaika Games titles – once all the achievements have been rinsed, it’s a one way trip to Uninstallsville. It’s a shame really, as the “Concept” does have legs. It’s just a shame those legs appear to be made of cardboard.