Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)If you ever thought monasteries were just devoted to worship, feasting abbots, and choral chants of Ave Maria, The Stone of Madness is set on proving you dead wrong.

This is The Game Kitchen’s first foray into the stealth-tactics genre (a distinctly Spanish obsession we discussed with the devs last year) after the team’s stellar work with the Blasphemous Metroidvanias. Two separate campaigns take place in an imposing 1800s Pyrenees monastery, which doubles as an insane asylum. This mountaintop prison offers no redemption, nor escape from earthly woes, for five luckless inmates aiming to escape, or destroy, their captors.

The hospitality of these cruel nuns and friars may feel as cold and stony as the slabs making up the monastery’s walls, but we still marvelled at this sordid Jesuit asylum that drips with the Spanish Inquisition’s cruelty and sorrow. A magnificent stealth sandbox, hand painted in rich gothic atmosphere and Catholic pageantry, creat..

Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)In a market inundated with Metroidvanias, Laika: Aged Through Blood does something remarkable: it actually tries something new. That’s not to say that recent examples haven’t had a good crack at standing out amongst the crowd — Animal Well is certainly testament to that — but many largely stick to the same rulebook. Laika tears it apart and chucks it into the fires of Mount Doom.

So what makes this one so different? Well, it’s all about the traversal: Laika expertly blends motocross gameplay with more traditional Metroidvania mechanics, doing away with segmented rooms and corridors in favour of sprawling, interconnected landscapes. You’re specifically encouraged to travel at high speeds, launch yourself into the air, and pull off badass flips that will have Trials fans giddy.

Unlike other Metroidvanias, where the environment begins to fade into the background as you familiarise yourself with its layout, Laika demands that you continue to..

Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)A few years ago, a little tabletop-RPG-inspired visual novel called Citizen Sleeper arrived on the eShop, expertly crafting an experience that tied together dice-rolling mechanics with a player-driven science fiction narrative. It quickly gained a cult following, leading to a short series of free DLC chapters and the announcement of a sequel. Now that Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is finally here, we’re pleased to report that one-person team Gareth Damian Martin of Jump Over The Age hasn’t lost a step—this new release is everything that the first game was and then some.

Citizen Sleeper 2 cold opens with your conveniently amnesiac character waking up in the clutches of a gangster boss named Laine giving you an angry speech about his claim of ownership over your synthetic body. Before he can literally pull the plug on you and bring about a very swift Game Over, a mysterious ally spirits you away in a small, stolen starship. Your saviour claims to..