I am not opposed to simple concepts, but with Pixel Gear it is too simplified. Visuals, mechanics, content: everything is just basic stuff with no depth.

In theory this could be an entertaining coop brawler. But it lacks in technical quality, variety and esprit. “Kowabunga” alone doesn’t cut it.

Good idea, bad delivery. Unfortunately the very interesting story premise is not enough to fuel this pixel platformer.

It could have been a modern Godzilla Destroy All Monsters Melee. But in this form Pacific Rim is just a conceptually interesting but boring fighting game with big robots and gutsy in-app-purchases.

For patient fireworks aficionados a neat waste of time. It lacks challenge and functionality though.

I really want to enjoy The Quiet Man. But with seriously flawed design decisions, either in terms of screenplay or mechanically as well as dramatically, it becomes tedious too soon. And that is saying something for a game that last only three to four hours.

There is no open world, there are no adventures. Instead this mobile version falls back on a rather bland variation of Mario Party.

This is no trash, no “The Worst of Us” - this is playable. But as an experience in the context of recent games with a similar setting this is a lower tier.

The concept is interesting without a doubt. Unfortunately the integrated mechanics fail to match the concept, the idealistic foundation or the conflict dynamics portrayed.

What on earth happened to MX vs ATV? While at its core it still shows off decent driving physics, the visuals are totally outdated.

A mediocre tale in an “empty” game. There are far better visual novels out there.

A clumsy, sluggish and uninspired horror adventure.

Clunky driving physics, a weird AI as well as some other frustrating elements step on the brakes of this conceptually entertaining future racer.

Even though the immersion is actually decent behind the Rift glasses, the game itself is as boring as the visuals.

The art direction is worth mentioning but not worth the entrance fee since the mechanics of this vertical shoot-em-up are as basic as anything.

There is no creative construction and the resource gathering is rather bland. And on top of that, the social component feels superficial. There is hardly any fun found in this society. Just tedious work.

The origins as a hobby project are too visible from the get-go. Clumsy controls and problematic camera are not up to par - but unfortunately these are the cornerstone of any decent platformer.

It is short, it is uninspired, it is non-credible: The once entertaining franchise doesn’t deserve this boring episode.

It might look like its big brethren, but this is an uninspired light version of everything that made the franchise successful.

The scenario could be interesting. But the bland visuals and bad design decisions drown the fun in this underwater survival horror.

What happened to Digital Extremes? This bland shooter with Kirk and Spock looks and plays unfinished, even though some design ideas look promising. The visuals remind me of the first 360 games, the reptilian opponents’ AI is way below standards and sometimes the not much better partner AI puts me into dire straits.

This is a mechanically one-dimensional, visually unimpressiv horror-adventure without an interesting cyberpunk world or mean spirits.

Ambitious mix of shooter and slasher, but extremely short and technically only mildly interesting. As a demo it would be interesting, as a full-fledged game it is insufficient.

Not only does it feel unfinished, even with what is there you encounter a lot of issues.

In theory Erica shows off a very interesting plot. The picturization, though, is unemotional and rigid.

Quotation forthcoming.

While the puzzles leave a decent impression, the numerous technical problems as well as the weird changes of perspective make this a frustrating and sluggish experience.

While the immersion is interesting at first, you’ll soon discover that there is a lack of variety in almost every aspect: track design, visuals, challenge level, content in general.

It's a pity that Capcom constricts the new Steel Battalion with Kinect. Without the motion controls this could have been an entertaining mech shooter.

It's hard to find reasons to play this standalone add-on. It is outdated, visually not really appealing, offers no challenge and minimal multiplayer options.

For doctors it actually might work as a distraction in the form of playful training exercises. But as a game it is not very entertaining.

There are quite a few positive aspects: the driving physics feel authentic, the real-time deformation of the surroundings is impressive too. But Spintires lacks depth, be it more varied missions or even the smallest economy system. This is more a tech demo than a game.

At its core this a small interesting alternative to Pilotwings. But there is a high tendency for motion sickness. [Tested with Vive]

Even though the presentation is decent, the game is a disappointment – mainly due to the outright weird driving physics as well as technical shortcomings.

This is absolutely no competition for Uncharted. The fights are boring and bugs ruin the remaining fun. Which is a pity, because the vistas and solid puzzles give a glimpse of what this game could have been.

No multiplayer, but a multitude of point- and currency-systems. Even though you can unlock a lot for free, the finance model takes a toll on the game design – too much to make this an entertaining party game.

The clue is in the name… Everything is light about it. The stealth mechanics, the difficulty level, the visuals, everything.

Mechanically and in terms of storytelling this is an enhancement of Master Reboot – but a lot happened in the last two years. The combination of story and puzzles feels more organic in The Talos Principle while The Witness shows off the way better puzzles.

While the changing biomes and surfaces are a nice idea, the core with its simplified farm labor is presented too lackluster and monotonous.

Sorry, Introversion. But this is nothing more and rather less than a simple try to fill Dear Esther’s footsteps, while the art design as the only really interesting element is underutilized.

It has its moments. But there are too few and they are not spectacular enough. The one-dimensional action seems even more inappropriate on the big screen. It just is not interesting.

Eleusis is an atmospheric, but mechanically very superficial adventure.

“Reborn” – sounds like a new beginning, doesn’t it? But it isn’t. This is little more than a superficial sequel that at its core is less satisfying than its predecessor.

All the interesting ideas get lost in a clutter of ugly backdrops, cumbersome controls and meaningless fights against never changing foes.

The idea is good, but the execution suffers from half-heartedness on all fronts.

Nothing particularly outstanding about this “fun”-racer, except its lackluster content.

The beginning is interesting, the storytelling experiment works well. But technical and design flaws make this tale terrifying for the wrong reasons.

While Insomniacs Edge of Nowhere proved that classic action-adventure can be enhanced by VR, Theseus feels like a “normal” game. One, where it seems that Forge Reply didn’t understand the possibilities that virtual reality has to offer. While the meetings with the minotaur are tense due to its sheer size, the rest of the game becomes a tedious below-average experience.

Boring missions, boring controls and weak visuals.

Are you serious, EA? On the cover it states FIFA 13, but on the disc you'll get a version that seems more like a touch- and co-op-enhanced version of FIFA 12. One that has problems with a steady framerate even offline, that is.

For educational purposes or as an installation in a museum this could be interesting. But as a a game it is disappointing. [Tested with Oculus Rift and Vive]

So this is what it looks like if Compile Heart looks at Dynasty Warriors and Monster Hunter and tries to put it into the Gamindustri universe. If it wouldn’t be for the sort of interesting team battles and the nurturing of the characters this would be a total failure.

Concept and artdesign are not too bad, but the game suffers from bad movement recognition.

Apart from reading, walking around, pushing together clues that are already next to each other and sometimes completing a quick-time event that you can't lose (!), nothing happens in Detective Pikachu Returns. Part 2 now provides new partners, for example Fukano now supports you with his sniffing nose. But that doesn't change the untapped potential and doesn't take the game to a new level. Even the story is so boring and predictable that I don't want to repeat it here. The game doesn't expect anything from you, but you have to continue it again by pressing a button. In this respect, the film of the same name gives you a much better experience - and significantly cheaper. All that remains is the Pokémon skin and charm: instead of crooks, you chase Pokémon like Mewtwo. Instead of interviewing witnesses, you take the statements of Pokémon. Yes, super cute, but so is every other Pokémon game. No case is particularly memorable. Or to put it another way: If Sherlock Holmes ever runs out of narcotics, he can also play this for five minutes.

It is short, it is unspectacular and it doesn't show the quality that other Kinect games established over time. There is nothing magical here.

It could have been an interesting combination of old school mechanics and modern hack&slay action. But starting with the substandard engine up to dubious design decisions you have to dig through a lot of coal to get a glimpse of the diamond that this could have been – or might become, if the team keeps patching for a while.

Amateurish, clumsy but challenging at times. Tiny Hands is miles away from the quality of its role models like Crash Bandicoot. This is more like Trash Bandicoot.

This is an old-fashioned and totally uninspired online arena shooter that one can hardly recommend – and not only because you will have problems to find someone on the deserted servers.

It's got smurfs, all right, and they do jump and run. What it lacks is cleverly designed levels – anything from unsightly graphics to mindlessly placed platforms carries the mark of the uninspired.

The presentation is minimal, there are no hires visuals nor multitouch. There is no tutorial and no campaign. There are no scenarios, but instead you get a cheating AI. But if you play online against human opponents the magic you associate with the board game, is almost there.

The biggest problem is the low resolution screen with a 60 Hertz refresh rate, which produces nasty blurs on head movements.

Crazy Golf and Augmented Reality don’t mix well.

While the predecessor had a certain rough charme, even though it lacked decent mechanics as a railshooter, Gal Gun 2 has problems to define itself. As fan-service it is not explicit enough, while mechanically it even takes a few steps back.

Visually underground with a boring story and little variety. VR and shooter fans might get more out of this, but this isn't an advertisement for virtual reality.

After the first 20 minutes I though “Hey this ain’t so bad.” But since the second, third or fourth 20 minutes give you exactly the same content as the first 20, I changed my mind. It is quite bad.

It could have been a solid platforming experience with a flashy art design. But in the end the disappointment over the technical shortcomings weighs like a heavy burden on the goddess’ shoulder.

Stylistically Suda 51 proves with Short Peace once more that he is a visionary. But in terms of gameplay and technically this short runner leaves a lot to be desired.

Be ashamed, Frontier! Where is the depth and the fun of Rollercoaster Tycoon? Even on the DS Zoo Tycoon was more entertaining than here. Yes: The animals all look great and you can interact with them – but this ain’t Kinectimals 2!

This soccer game didn’t conserve any of its retro charm. In 1989 this was kind of a milestone. Nowadays this is not entertaining at all.

For a few half hours here and then it might be okay, but it doesn't offer the social element of FarmVille nor the amount of content or diversity of Harvest Moon.

At first glance, a solid, if not very creative loot shooter, where massive weaknesses in the mission design quickly become apparent. Added to that is a boring story, excessive in-game prices and hardly any motivation to stay on board in the long term.

I like old-school brawler. I like pixelart. But Double Dragon 4 is too old-school for its own sake. Instead of trying to stay true to its roots and modernize the concept here and then this game seems like they just changed the sprites and backgrounds from Double Dragon 2.

While the core in theory is as charming and captivating as it was on Wii the technical shortcomings make this story a very short-lived tale.

With less focus on unspectacular Augmented Reality and more focus on suspense, psychological terror and atmosphere this could have been a great horror game for Nintendos mobile system.

Better late than never? I disagree. The visuals are outdated and although there are some interesting control schemes at work, the appeal that the pc version generated a few years ago just isn’t there.

The interest that gets sparked by the sheer “weirdness” of Touhou Genso Rendo goes as fast as it appears. Lack of content, lack of variation and especially lack of balancing take this generally interesting bullet hell mix out of the skies.

Visually solid, Evil Inside fails to replicate the tense atmosphere of P.T., nor is it a good horror game with creative ideas.

Lifeless backdrops, a clumsy production, dry dialogue, annoying puzzles: In the age of The Walking Dead all aspects of the game lack heart as well as a modern approach to game design.

Thanks to Kinect you can take over all of your favorite characters. But nonetheless this is an uninspired and disappointing first person-brawler.

If you played games like Alien Breed or Dead Nation you know what to expect. But be aware that even though the lighting and sound effects are nice, virtually everything else is below par.

Good ideas poorly implemented: Gollum's well-staged inner conflict in a coherent world with weaknesses that are rampant.

It has its moments, but they are too few so in the end the real horror lies in the monotonous game design.

I don’t care who dies or survives. In the beginning my curiosity was sparked by stealth mechanics as well as team and resource management. But in the end this is an outdated, very generic, very boring and often very ugly zombie action that certainly fails to live up to the big name it carries.

Yes, it is playable. And some dribbling looks decent. But if you're looking for the next generation of basketball, this is not it.

This version of the beloved board game is horrific for all the wrong reasons. There is no atmosphere, no horror, no tension, nothing.

In times of The Witcher or Dark Souls this is hard to bear. The dialogue is below daily soap standards, the fighting system as superficial as any, visuals are outdated. This is gruesome.

A co-op platforming experience with moral decisions sound interesting. But in the end the small team bit off more than they can chew. Visually a stylistic nightmare, technically too fragile and unnerving background music make this more of a chore than a fun game to play or watch.

First of all, Blades of Time wasn’t a particularly good game when it was originally released seven years ago. And with this version showing even more performance issues than back then, I cannot find any reasonable answer why this game was granted a re-release.

The concept is great: A motivating management game with a very creative approach, great characters and an empathic story. But the major bugs that still (weeks after launch) are present, are unacceptable.

While the visuals are nice and seem to push the hardware a lot of times, you can hardly say that about the mechanics or AI, which are just a tad over the common mobile game on your phone.

Controls are simple, character development is just doing enough to keep things interesting. From a technical point of view this hack&slay would leave a solid impression if you wouldn't encounter invisible level borders that restrict you. But what annoys me most is the completely useless experience system, where the points you get seem to be dished out at random.

Unbelievable but true: The dev team from Toybox created another low point in the franchise’s history. While most Harvest Moons give you loads of interesting things to do or to discover all you’ll find here is boredom.

Quotation forthcoming.

In theory Overclocked is a successful remake of one of the DS’ grand role-playing games. Unfortunately preventable technical glitches like regular freezes and occasional crashes take a lot away from its’ theoretically well deserved glory.

In theory this is the best Atelier in a rather bleak PS3-apperance of the series. Even visuals and level design are above the rest of the franchise. But with serious frame rate issues and a game-stopping freeze bug that can damage the console data system I suggest you wait until Gust releases a patch.

Quotation forthcoming.

If you strip away the totally overrated and needless controversy sparked by the first trailers, you’re left with what? A mediocre twin stick shooter with nice art design and totally redundant mechanics that is not worth a second look.

It was a futile idea to release this on the PC. It just shows you the difference between an entertaining, but meaningless mobile spacetrip and a full-fledged space opera à la Elite. In this case almost everything is missing.