Intense SciFi tactics in the tradition of FTL with a surprisingly good story.

This park builder is too big for Switch. It is not completely unplayable, but fun is scarce.

Quotation forthcoming.

The return to his creative roots mutates to a “best-of-Mikami”-showcase, sacrificing fresh ideas on the way, resulting in decent survival horror that can’t compete with the likes of Silent Hill, Outlast or Alien Isolation.

At first Full Metal Furies is just another coop-action. But the more you play, the more you discover - and sometimes the only solution is grind. But nonetheless this is a surprisingly captivating action romp.

Rive is as tough as it gets. But while the mixture of platforming and twinstick-action is very challenging and can push you over the edge, it has its heart in the right place.

The fighting system is solid, the online mode is lag free, the character design is as good as the story is bad. But overall the fighting ladies (and gents) of Tecmo's once proud beat-em-up franchise are just not as entertaining anymore…

This side of Sanctuary it doesn’t get much better than this. Victor Vran blurs the lines between hack & slash and action adventure, delivering a very unique experience. Unfortunately it suffers from a generic art design and the preset character development.

If you can look beyond the narrative shortcomings you’ll get a solid adventure set in a captivating fairy tale world.

A beautiful fox adventure with an important message, playful but not rich enough.

This is an extraordinary gaming experience. Somewhere between shooter, stealth, sleuth, sci-fi technology and psychological horror The Farm 51 relinquishes conventions. Imagine a party where The Matrix, Inception and Total Recall celebrate with Layers of Fear, Metal Gear Solid and Alan Wake. Sounds weird? Yes. And then some.

This is an interesting arena brawler with lots of action and Sony celebrity cast. It can get quite chaotic though.

The presentation is almost as boring as the battles, which are too easy most of the time – with the exception of bosses, of course. If it wouldn’t be for the interesting story, this could have been a disaster.

Pretty visuals and a heart-warming story make this mix of exploration, graffiti- and ghost-puzzles a decent as well as relaxing experience – although one with weaknesses in terms of battle system as well as some technical issues.

This is an interesting pilot for a season of contract killings. You’ll get a lot of creative freedom when it comes to fulfilling your contracts while the online-missions keep you motivated until the next episode arrives.

Not a Hero is the pixelart counterpart to a lot of Jason Statham movies: The two-dimensional action is brutal, over-the-top and redundant – but tremendous fun.

If you are interested in the dancing adventure of the Persona crews, get the collection. Not only is it cheaper, it is also the only chance for you to play the still superior Persona 4 Dancing on PS4.

Who would have though that Optimus Prime one day would be the protégé of the umbra witch Bayonetta. The fight system is tight, but not complex at all. And visuals with the distinctive 80s cartoon look are spot on. Platinum delivers the best Transformers game in a while.

Ghost of a Tale has its share of problems and can be superficial at times. But mostly Lionel Gallat brings a charming little hero to life with a coherent direction and a setting in which every element serves one purpose only: to infuse this little adventure with a big soul.

If you like your races rough and tough and are not afraid to put scratches and dents onto the paint, this one is definitely for you. But be aware that this showdown is some sort of recycling machine where DiRt 3 players will recognize Gymkhana and the majority of the locations.

That this highly complex simulation appears on consoles, is remarkable. But with its unoptimized and overloaded pad controls the challenge to make progress and eventually get into space is even higher then on PC.

This is a trip down memory lane into the era of classic 3D platform action – even the sometimes clunky scenery is reminiscent of PS2 games. You’ll find charming characters, loads of jumping, fighting, the occasional stealth element and a lot to collect – what you won’t find, though, are fresh ideas.

Old-school 2D action fireworks: short, crisp, iconic. The technical implementation of the retro exotic is exemplary - we'd love to see more of it for modern consoles.

Despite additions like crossplay and a 60fps performance mode this is merely a halfhearted remaster of a once very good arcade racer. Having said that, the still terrific autolog system keeps you motivated, while the pursuits are still highly enjoyable.

Electronic Arts is on the right path. In terms of presentation there is still a lot to do to challenge NBA 2K, but the more arcady playstyle and the not heavily featured “in-your-face” integration of micro-transactions makes this a decent challenger for the NBA crown..

My Time at Portia enhanced the Harvest-Moon-concept with a new found focus on exploration and construction. Nice!

Platform adventure suitable for children, with the creative use of speech as a gaming element. A very simple, yet charming interactive fairy tale.

The backdrops are beautifully drawn, the story evolving around Geron and his dark visions is captivating. The puzzles will get quite difficult in later stages, though. But even the slight technical problems shouldn't keep you from this adventure trip thru Aventuria.

Merciless, brutal and forceful – a nice entry for Telltale into this fantasy world. Don’t expect any gameplay surprises though.

Mechanically and in terms of storytelling you get the same experience on PS5 like on the other platforms. The newly added DualSense functionality feels out of place, though.

I was very skeptical, but Prison Architect is a prime example that this kind of strategy can work on consoles.

The new content and revamped elements are integrated seamlessly, but bugs, AI issues and well-known, yet still evident problems make this Definitive Edition definitely feel unfinished.

This surreal trip delivers an interesting rhythm of puzzles and platforming.

While better than its predecessor, Dungeons 3 still is miles away from the classic Dungeon Keeper 2. While the core mechanics are pretty decent, there still is a lot of untapped potential left. Instead the team focused on the narrative with its abysmal jokes - the script is a gag-a-thon that manages to miss its target in almost every aspect.

Nicely revamped and expanded collection of atmospheric horror madness that still lacks gameplay substance.

Nice visual novel with exciting characters and interesting story concept, but cannot maintain its high level until the finale.

Entertaining management of a flight crew thru military missions, hampered by clunky controls and harsh difficulty spikes.

The clearer focus on the campaign as well as the cool mythical troops and the setting are on spot, but total standstill in terms of battlefield mechanics and minor flaws make sure that Troy doesn’t reach its potential.

Beatbuddy shows off an ambitious concept and captures your heart with its visuals. The level and puzzle design on the other hand, seems too generic and uninspired.

Thoroughly entertaining top-down-action reminiscent of the early GTAs. While the economy and industry elements are a welcome addition they stay superficial and could be connected to the core mechanics in a more coherent or more meaningful way.

You’ll see that at WayForward there are some Duck Tales fans at work. From animations to remixes of the original soundtrack this jump&run delivers retro feeling. More puzzles, abilities or contemporary ideas would work wonders though.

With all its technical shortcomings that show the age of the originals, these adventures are a prime example for good story-telling and still show more atmosphere, character and soul than a lot of open world playgrounds in recent years.

Yes: It is short. But it still brings to the plate what is needed for an entertaining puzzle adventure: creativity, intuitive controls and a mysterious atmosphere.

Observation is original and entertaining, but sometimes also quite confusing journey into deep space and the mind of an AI.

I expected more from Symphony. Compared with colorful spectacles like Child of Eden or Gridrunner Revolution this music shooter seems blend. It's nice to see the action develop to your personal soundtrack though…

After a long period of waiting finally a good RTS arrives. While the scenario is great and the campaign is exemplary, the tactical complexity, AI and base building leave room for improvement.

Blunt, gory, brutal - after ten years of development hell, Dead Island 2 is a good, dull action snack with no pretense or story highlights.

Challenging and captivating turn based match-3-variation somewhere between PuzzleQuest and FTL: Faster Than Light.

A unique and immersive stealth adventure fully catered to VR.

With the sorcerer king as antagonist you are taunted as well as challenged from the very beginning. And while this is a neat creative impulse, the art design, AI and diplomacy options leave hold the concept back.

Three years after its initial release, the fight against Brainiac still is entertaining and probably the best hack&slay of some sort until the arrival of Diablo 3. Since it is free-to-play the only thing you would waste is hard drive space, so give it a try.

Don’t expect any revolutionary changes to the two year old PC release. But with added content, optimized controls and a solid core throughout you’ll find yourself spending more time on these islands than originally expected.

Despite its old-fashioned statics and occasional illogical moments, VirtuaVerse is an entertaining point&click adventure with great cyberpunk flair and in interesting story.

Despite small restrictions on consoles in terms of control, Ion Fury still is a great old-school-shooter.

Occult adventure full of alpine mysticism and dark magic. Mundaun delivers an intensive experience far off the beaten track.

Too bad. This could have been a really nice take on games like Metroid and Castlevania. But a beautiful art design simply isn’t enough. The fighting system is as superficial as it is unfair sometimes. But then dying seems to be a calculated gameplay element as well.

While the economy model is superficial at times it is a lot of fun to lay tracks, connect the cities and drive as a passenger. A solid logistics sim with model railroad appeal.

Yes, the enthusiasm of the 80s is gone. But this still is solid old school entertainment.

No surprises, no innovations, just the proven gameplay virtues of the predecessor, now for up to four players. But that doesn’t only raise the fun to be had with the mix of action, platforming and puzzles, it also makes it more confusing.

The development team behind Ara: History Untold succeeds in competing with the established titles of the genre with new ideas and creative gameplay, cleverly packing complex economic systems and production processes into a graphically sophisticated and lively framework while retaining the roots of its genre predecessors.

It leaves you wanting more. And not only because it is so short. But also because it looks great and shows off a lot of interesting ideas. I hope that Rocksteady turns this into an episodical game. I would prefer this to Telltale’s caped crusader anytime.

Even with not fully taking advantage of the fresh hardware, this little zombie fighting gem didn’t lose its mojo.

With the Architect’s Edition you get lots of content for this re-imagination of the classic Sim Tower. But even that can’t help the lack of mechanical diversity.

It's loud, it's explosive, enemies swarm you from every corner. But the mission design is rather uninspired. Prototype 2 is solid, but not exceptional fun in an open world.

The physics system is convincing, but VR implementation is as lackluster as the amount of content.

A stronger showing than the first episode. The pacing is better and more varied, the story seems to gain momentum as well. Some problems like the random item distribution stay the same, though.

Yes, the swinging system was tuned, the online mechanics were enhanced. But still there is no real progress, neither in terms of content nor visually.

Ambitious dualstick action with randomly generated levels and love-it-or-hate-it retro-design that mostly unsuccessful tries to emulate games like Enter the Gungeon.

You get more of everything: More content, more story, more abilities. But that doesn't necessarily mean more fun – unfortunately.

A superbly executed no-frills-shooter. Almost immaculate in its simplicity.

I welcome the slow paced combat which puts soul balancing and character exchange before abilities. The surprisingly deep story also is a breath of fresh air. But not all is well, especially in the engine department.

Furiously choreographed battles embedded an interesting story questioning the relationship between developer and player. The pacing is off sometimes, though.

Technically not without fault and in terms of game selection questionable. But nonetheless this is a solid collection.

Emio – The Smiler: Famicom Detective Club is presented as an authentic detective experience with which Nintendo has fulfilled each and every one of the expectations. Both its plot, the characters and the development of the same are a real treat for players who are fans of the interactive visual novel genre. If the game already seemed attractive on its first appearance, as soon as players start playing it, they will not be able to stop until they finish it. Will Emio be a simple legend or will he end up being a cruel murderer who will have to be stopped so that the full weight of the law falls on him?

What did I expect? An atmospheric trip thru an exotic world and challenging battles against imaginative titans. And that is exactly what I got. No frills. Just one arrow and one life point.

The Thaumaturge is a story game through and through, a game that has the thrilling power of a Netflix series, but in which you can play as yourself. Only the fighting is hardly worth mentioning.

A great re-imagination of the toys-to-life concept with great ideas, a solid line of toys and great visuals. Unfortunately it seems that together with the rather mediocre story in the last third Ubisoft Toronto ran out of inspiration when it comes to mission design.

So this is what it looks like if Resident Evil goes back to its roots? I am disappointed. Why does Capcom take a military shooter as a blueprint when they have a precious tradition?

Charming, but in the end nothing more than a routine run-of-the-mill farming adventure from the makers of Harvest Moon.

Don’t get fooled by the cheesy description “Sci-Fi Romance”. This is an intelligent adventure novel. Unfortunately the puzzles can’t live up to the storytelling.

The constant circle of death, character improvement and another try in this randomly generated pyramids serves its purposes as fast food fps action.

Harmonix proves once again that they are the masters of Kinect: The movement recognition is almost flawless. The decision to shrink everything down to downloadable snack size is not that convincing though. Nonetheless this is still worth to sink your teeth in.

If Michael Bay is a gamer, this should be the perfect game for him: Loud and explosive, but not with a lot of substance.

An innovative addition to the game series whose new mechanics offer exciting potential for the future, but gets in its own way and therefore unfortunately falls short of its potential.

Comfy, charming, deadly – but also static and boring in the long run. It plays a lot like Renowned Explorers, but is inferior in almost every aspect.

Kingdom is a small, charming and surprisingly difficult base builder with beautiful pixelart.

The mechanical core stood the test of time, unlike the visuals. I am still waiting for Onimusha to get a decent sequel or the Resident Evil 2 treatment.

A consequent sequel with a lot of enhancements on the predecessor as well as interesting new ideas and a mercenary system. Bugs and outdated visuals hinder the progress, though.

I can’t remember when I cursed that much while playing a multiplayer shooter. It is tactically challenging, but suffers from dreary maps and lack of modes.

The story is the usual weak point while the visuals are as outdated as ever. But that shouldn’t keep you from playing this gem.

A good soccer game with more strengths than weaknesses, loads of licenced teams and a great presentation. But while it looks better than ever it still is stagnating overall.

The mini-game puzzles from What the Bat? are not really pretty or sophisticated, but wonderfully crazy in the short term.

The driving physics are unique, the track layout is mostly spectacular and together with the clever battle system this is one of the best arcade racers in recent years - despite some minor technical flaws.

Slick 2d-action in the likes of Metal Slug. Plenty of explosions with cool boss fights and loads of entertaining upgrades.

I love old school role-playing games. But I am Setsuna almost makes me fall asleep. Too static, too easy, too monotonous.

Sometimes you ask yourself, if the repetition of tools etc. has run its course, but then again you’ll find more creative and entertaining assassination options than in the last episode, while the story starts to move forward finally.

Even though Dennaton adds a few interesting elements and delivers a strangely weird and fascinating story, Hotline Miami 2 has problems to step out of the shadow of its predecessor. In the end it is more of the same with a raised difficulty level – which isn’t exactly the worst thing in the world.

Unfortunately this is more recycling than a new beginning. You have more options to influence the character and even the village, but the daily business is as bland as ever.