What's your excuse? Triple-A game developers, with too much money and too much time on their hands aren't able to make a game with half the atmospheric depth, half the world-building, half the genuine love and affection that goes into Ghost of a Tale. I'm talking about a game where I had to recomplete it three times just to get the platinum as it glitched, a game where you'll often fall through the map or guards will see you from two buildings away, a game with such technical fault that it probably shouldn't have been released like this. Everything else is that good that it simply doesn't matter, and comes off as earnest more than anything. Ghost of a Tale wears its funding on its sleeve: it truly is the little mouse trying to survive in a rat eat rat world. There is no excuse.

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon is an impressive retro-styled take on the classic Castlevania games. The basic mechanics of 2D platforming and combat are simple but very solid, with a good variety of combat abilities spread across four different playable characters which can be freely switched between during gameplay. Each of the game's eight levels is of a decent size, with interesting level design that includes branching paths (some of which are character-specific), and there's a "casual" mode available that offers infinite lives to ensure that the game remains accessible to players of all skill levels. Conversely, higher difficulty levels unlock after completing the game, for a greater challenge and increased longevity for those who want it.

The retro aesthetic means that the graphics appear quite primitive, but within that limitation the pixelart is nicely detailed, while a memorable soundtrack rounds out a well-polished experience.