Walkabout Mini Golf might be the most simple and perfectly executed VR game I've ever played. The courses look fantastic, the soundtrack is lovely, and the putting is so responsive, it really doesn't feel far off from actual mini-golf. But to add to this, the developers have taken the time to ensure the necessary quality-of-life improvements are there to simplify proceedings. You can manually move around the courses, which is great for exploring and looking out across the landscape, but a measure like pressing the trigger to immediately position you behind your ball for the next shot is a simple but easily overlooked mechanic, which in this case makes the gameplay loop seamless. The lost balls are a great addition to provide that extra dynamic to your single-player game (though these can also be found in multiplayer) and in turn provide you with lots of great ball customisation options.

The only thing holding this back from 5 stars is the lack of a rank-based matchmaking system. The majority of players playing online have mastered these holes by now, with some extremely impressive strategies. As a new player, the vast majority of them end the game with me when they realise I'm no challenge, which can be a little demoralising.

I can see why people picking this up for the first time in 2021 wouldn't gel with Alex Kidd. It's an oft-frustratingly precise, punishing platformer with luck elements and obscure puzzles.

But as a massive fan of the original, I feel Jankteam did exactly what it needed to do in order to give this title a new lease of life. Barring minor changes to the controls, a merciful save system between levels, and the obvious audiovisual overhaul, DX feels just like the original did. And that's what I wanted. Alex Kidd in Miracle World was a really unique platformer, and this version remains just as unique while providing one of the freshest layers of polish I've ever seen added to an old game. Seriously, it's bloody gorgeous and the soundtrack is beautifully done.

Jankenteam didn't fuck with what made the game special, and it seems, as per the critical reception, that they were punished for that. Hopefully, they're aware that some of us love them for it.

Observation is yet another example of No Code's ability at innovative storytelling. The AI perspective, and the different implementations of that within a mostly singular space, allow for the player to experience a recognisable concept in an interesting way. The camera-to-camera gameplay is especially cool, and working out what needs to be interacted with (with minimal handholding) is extremely satisfying, if occasionally veering a little too close to the point & click genre. However, I would have liked the camera panning system to have been a little quicker; I felt it drag unnecessarily, and I found the free-roaming sections a little discombobulating. Though that may have been the intention, the slow movement and camera fuzz as I bumped off things made tight sections feel a little laborious. It was only at the end of the game that I realised that I could set waypoints to guide me through the ship. I spent most of the game discovering everything independently, which got pretty frustrating. One instruction that waypoints existed would have been a mercy.

The cosmic horror of the game is well-implemented, with the influence of the likes of Event Horizon feeling particularly strong in the fractured reality/crew self-interest perspective. Incidentally, Jon McKellan is clearly inspired by many films and books from history. 2001: A Space Odyssey, Interstellar and, unsurprisingly due to McKellan's history, Alien. These all rang true for me, and I'm certain every player will find their own influences in its unfolding.

Audiovisually, the game is beautiful. The lo-fi sci-fi aesthetic is perfect and the isolative audio leaves the player wallowing in a state of epic loneliness in this claustrophobic space. There were quite a few technical issues in which player models clipped in and out of view, or into the walls of the ship. This was a shame as the animations were otherwise fantastic and lent the game a startling sense of reality.

As an open-ended, otherworldly mystery, it works well, though for me the most interesting aspects were in its build-up rather than its conclusion. I didn't feel there was quite enough there to be able to interpret my own conclusion effectively, and a few more nudges towards giving me something to think about after I finished the game would have been nice.

But hey, I enjoyed it. I can't wait to see what no Code do with Silent Hill: Townfall.

A short and mostly sweet horror experience. The escape room concept is great and there's certainly a decent sense of fear to the proceedings, even if the plot was paper thin. The procedural generation of room layout and puzzle solutions would have been welcome; however the punishment for failing a room is always to start from the beginning of that room again, and as some of the loss-causing mechanisms aren't initially clear, reloading checkpoints becomes quite common, and repeatedly having to work out fresh maths-based solutions until you work out what's getting you killed didn't feel like the most fun way to bulk out a game.

Still, ultimately despite this, it's a short title. The more naturally the puzzles come to you, the more you'll enjoy yourself, though.

There's so much potential in this franchise, but I'm consistently left feeling like they're just missing the mark. The puzzles can be great fun — the environmental nature of how to solve them is rewarding, when they're not too obscure, and the antagonists can be truly unnerving. But this doesn't feel like a finished game. The control mechanics are floaty, it's full of minor glitches (and a few major ones), and the supposed "ever-learning" AI really doesn't demonstrate itself as anything more than repeatedly heading to areas you've been before, as opposed to something that's adjusting to your tactics. Frankly, the AI is a dull mess in this instance.

Despite this, I still managed to have fun. Visually it's great and the dark and tragic undertones of the lore behind the series and its characters are robust enough that our role here feels part of a greater whole in its story as opposed to a gimmick that's being reused

That being said, repeatedly having to run in and out of the house, or hide in a closet to lose your pursuer does get old fast. I really hope they learn to diversify the methods at your disposal to outwit Peterson and Co.

I'm left, yet again, with enough of a positive experience that I want to see what's next, but I really do hope we see some big improvements in this series' next single-player instalment.

Tunic is a game of many layers. The further you dare yourself to dive, the more you uncover. There's an incredible depth to its mysterious hidden secrets and the complexities of those secrets are truly astounding. Knowing when to switch gear — to turn your brain off from wandering adventurer and instead play obscure detective — is so important in being able to appreciate the game as intended. The core experience is very good and an average player is going to be able to enjoy it and find an ending. But the lengths the developer has gone to in order to reward the most ambitious players makes it clear that the true heart of this game has been crafted with the few in mind, not the many.

The puzzles can be so difficult that it's so often tempting to look up the solutions. But if you can hold off, and find your own way, there's a rare satisfaction to be found that can't be emulated. But rest assured, you will absolutely have to earn it.

I'm a huge fan of the House of the Dead arcade series. This console-designed version doesn't live up to the high-octane and frantic nature of the coin-operated classics, but it does carry its own sense of brilliant grotesque Grindhouse style, with a campaign full of funny dialogue (although Detective Washington's constant use of the F word did grow tiresome - I don't dislike swearing, but seriously... every sentence).

Importantly though, the maps were great fun, the shooting mechanics were surprisingly responsive on the Wiimote — of course nothing compared to a lightgun but not bad — and the soundtrack is absolutely banging. Plenty of blood made popping zombies a delight, and I really enjoyed the unlockable weapons and upgrades, although the amount of cash needed to obtain the best weapons and upgrades was well beyond that of an initial playthrough, which was a bit disappointing. I would have liked to have had a chance to try everything.

Really good fun, though!

Backbone is an interesting game.

Visually, it's gorgeous. The pixel art and animations are fantastic, and the devs have done a wonderful in job creating a sense of scale with layered backdrops. The entire noir mystery is peppered with some beautifully fitting jazz music, occasionally pronounced with some original vocal tracks that elevate the scenes dramatically.

However, it's important to note that Backbone is very much a narrative adventure, driven through the most simplistic of interactions to move the story forward. And though the characterisation is great and the dialogue is very well-written, there isn't a large amount of gameplay here. Unlike typical adventure games, there are no real puzzle elements to break up the narrative, and the two-dimensional nature of the game means that any sense of exploration is lost as you simply move left or right until you come across another interactable object.

All of this is fine, in my opinion. Developer EggNut had a noir story, and they chose the video game medium as the way to tell it - I have no issues here. However, though this mystery starts off strong in the world of crime bosses, corrupt officials, and sleazy clubs, by the end of the game I felt it move too far into the unidentifiable and obscure — the conspiracies uncovered a little too grand for the short length of the game, and ultimately I was left feeling unsatisfied by its rushed conclusion.

There were many other locales highlighted at the start of the game that were never explorable, and I do wonder if this adventure was originally intended to be longer — it felt that way at the end.

However, the tone — at least in the early game — was perfect, and I enjoyed playing PI in this fascinating dystopian animal world where race and class still play such a key role in its proceedings.

As ever, the move to grandness in storytelling can often overpower the delicate intimacies that preceded it. If we see a Backbone 2, I hope they find a way to come back to where they started — on the streets with the smoke, rain, and blood running into the storm drains.

Few games carry identity as affirmed as Scorn. It's visually stunning; its H. R. Giger and Zdzisław Beksiński-inspired biopunk aesthetic and grotesque creations dangle you somewhere between disgust and fascination at all times. Every set piece is carefully animated to feel unique and the whole affair drips in palpable dread.

As a walking simulator, it excels. As a puzzle game, it's not bad. The puzzles are intrinsically linked to the main character (I dare not say protagonist) and its arbitrary mission towards... something. Though the lack of guidance may prove too much for some and confusion can lead to frustration as you wander areas looking for interactable objects.

Where the game really falls down is with this combat. The monsters are cool in their design, but they're painfully monotonous in their combat strategy and the gunplay mechanics are so stiff that there never feels any joy in killing them.

Despite this, there's so much incredible detail to this world, and the mysterious nature of your continuing mission and the incidental horrors that are witnessed by your actions elevate this title beyond some of its lesser components to result in something truly great.

Even more notably, something truly original. And we need more of that.