DeVuego

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound brings the series back to its roots with incredible style. The core gameplay feels fantastic, with satisfying, fast-paced combat and platforming that'll put your skills to the test. With a wealth of challenges to meet and things to find, there's a real richness to each level that gives it plenty of replay value. The wonderful art style is the icing on the cake, and aside from one or two small nitpicks, fans should be very pleased with this throwback adventure.

We did run into one or two bugs, like the camera being in the wrong place and a hard crash, so it's not the smoothest experience. Despite that, there's a lot to like about this unusual little adventure. If you're looking for a unique point-and-click game with surreal visuals, an eerie atmosphere, and some interesting puzzles, this is worth a shot — but we're intrigued to see how it evolves in a sequel.

Temtem may look like a copycat on its surface, but its deviations from the Pokémon formula pay off considerably. With unique battling elements and an engaging MMO structure, Temtem evolves as its own experience and offers a vast, challenging adventure that even those without a Nintendo console can enjoy.

From a presentation standpoint, the game has a lot of charm with its low-poly models and bright colours, and it runs perfectly at all times. The music and effects are also fairly old-school, but can be irritatingly repetitive. Overall, the game just feels quite flat; its central idea is good but levels don't really build on it, and some cutesy visuals can only take it so far.

It does take a little while for the game to really warm up; the opening hours aim to establish quite a lot quite quickly, but once you're past all that, there's a pretty solid adventure to enjoy. Some aspects may leave a funny aftertaste; loading interrupts the game between areas, which makes getting around feel a bit clunky. The presentation is a little rough too, with several fiddly menus and blocky characters that don't quite hit the mark. However, the witty writing and crazy story, paired with simple but effective gameplay, makes for an enjoyable adventure for your inner foodie.

It's a shame, then, there are some issues. The presentation is unimpressive, with character models particularly poor and terribly animated. The abundance of loading screens interrupts things far too frequently, and some of the writing and voice acting leaves a lot to be desired. Minigames pepper the experience but miss more than they hit, and the occasional issue with movement tracking can be a pain. At the end of the day, this is a neat experiment that fans of the film will enjoy, but overall it fails to measure up to the source material.

Moonlighter is a delightful mix of action RPG, rogue-lite dungeon crawling, and shopkeeping sim with an ingenious gameplay loop that'll have you hooked. The way the game's contrasting parts blend into one another means you're always making progress, and it feels great. Exploring the dungeons is challenging and fun, and managing the shop is addictive, thanks to an intelligent economy system. There are some rough edges, such as complex menu screens and one or two minor bugs, but when this game gets its hooks in, you won't care. Shopping around for your new favourite indie? Look no further.

Kromaia Ω is a frantic and fun 3D shoot-'em-up, with a focus on arcade action and presented in a vibrant, though sometimes hard to read, aesthetic. With only four levels in which to unleash bullet hell, the game can get repetitive fairly quickly, but each area is massive, with secrets and puzzles sprinkled in to help keep things interesting. A unique, enjoyable game that could have done with just a dash more substance to go with all that style.

I'm not quite finished with 007 First Light just yet, but overall I'd say it's exactly what I was hoping for. The characterisation of this young Bond and his associates is really strong, and the globetrotting story lets you explore some great locations. It really shines in its sandbox missions, but shootouts have their moments too, and the whole thing weaves together really quite nicely. I'm really interested to see how the final few missions shake out, but beyond some technical quibbles and uncertainty on the driving, I'm pretty happy with IOI's new vision for James Bond.