Madmind Studios has successfully created the definitive version of videogame Hell: humdrum, uninspiring gameplay, frustrating level design, stuttering frame-rates, soft locks and crashes galore, unpolished textures, ugly character modelling, sudden inexplicable deaths, and irritating glitches. It is a painful experience from beginning to end, with the only real highlight being the uninstall. An absolute stinker; Agony is most definitely Hell!

There is little to recommend about this game. The gameplay is not engaging, with mindless clicking in boring gameplay loops, and the story feels like an endless scolding for something no one alive today even did, accompanied by an undercurrent of shame for supposed parallels to modern politics. Some interesting art is overshadowed by how outright simple and stupid most of the characters look. The not-so-hidden political agenda and modern criticisms to the game are so ham-fisted, it is very tough to recommend this unless one is in the mood for a moralizing diatribe.

Langrisser Re:Incarnation -Tensei- seems decent based on pictures or perhaps a short "on paper" explanation, but it quickly becomes apparent how rushed development must have been.

The epitome of a soulless cash grab, Penguins of Madagascar is a text book example of a lazy movie tie-in game.

Unpolished, glitchy, and short, are some of the adjectives that describe Ben 10. It is an obvious and transparent, holiday season cash-grab, that just wants to make a quick penny out of a popular IP. Sure, there are good licence games out there, but this isn't one of them. It is recommended to find something else to put under the Christmas tree, unless the receiver really is into the licence, and happens to own a Nintendo Switch without anything else to play on it…

Dragon Sinker is almost laughable in some aspects. The lottery system makes an absolute mockery of traditional RPGs, and completely imbalances the game. Once you have taken the gameplay out of the equation, Dragon Sinker is just a retro RPG filled to the brim with cliché fantasy tropes and boring storytelling. It does have a somewhat interesting job party system, but that doesn't make it any more worth playing.

Like many others of its ilk, New Frontier Days - Founding Pioneers is full of the types of mechanics that make for very addictive gameplay - the type that have that "just one more minute" gameplay. Despite how it makes the hours fly by, though, this is ultimately a boring grind with no real depth, no heart, and nothing special here. With the superb Stardew Valley on the horizon for Nintendo Switch, fans of these types of games should try holding out until then and give this one a pass. Heck, you would even be better off with Farmville to tide you over…

Whilst the idea is good and the execution is fine there is literally nothing resembling a game to be had here.

Not only is Phantom Trigger agonising to play, but it is also really mind-numbingly boring. The game's cycle is just going through linear areas, being forced to fight, and then having to do a 'Simon Says' style memory game. There are some unremarkable boss battles, with no fun factor at all, all following a very similar formula. At about five hours, this kind of game doesn't seem long, but five hours for Phantom Trigger feels like real hard work. The only saving graces are some attempt at having some visual style and some interesting looking designs.

This compilation has seemingly endless replayability, thanks to it having the potential for user-created content for those who are dedicated enough to figure it out. Even without all of that, the mixed bag of campaigns on offer take over one hundred hours to experience. It is an ugly and frustrating RPG to play; one that is woefully poorly designed, and very rough, with some glimmers of gold speckled throughout the DLC campaigns. Only those who grew up playing Neverwinter Nights, or are die-hard RPG fans will have the resolve to enjoy this package of 2000-era BioWare. This truly requires historical understanding of the limitations of the time it was made, and that many RPG developers were just barely coming to grips with 3D engines. Everyone else would be better off replaying Skyrim.

The intended audience won't care about this app and would probably be using Miiverse instead.

If you want to get away with sticking a book on a console, it is pretty important to make the actual tale an intriguing one, and - better yet - add in some useful interactions. This all feels so empty, even when attempting to drive the conversation in certain directions. Mundane is the perfect word to describe Three Fourths Home, and its Extended Edition post-game story content is simply more of the same weak melodrama. There are so many alternatives out there vying for your attention; check them out instead.

Ginger: Beyond the Crystal is a prime example of underestimating a genre and throwing in a half-baked port to gain some extra money. It is a near broken title with zero flow between balanced gameplay and out of the factory polishing.

Puzzle Labyrinth's only redeeming aspect is its idea of combining genres. The presentation is dull, and the direction is too disjointed and arbitrary, which makes the experience fade quickly into a frustrating and unattractive one.

One Piece's 3DS debut in One Piece: Romance Dawn sets sail but is quickly sunk under monotonous fights, endless corridor roaming that would put Final Fantasy XIII to shame, and a recurring reminder that it is merely a slapdash port adapted to none of the 3DS' strengths.

There is as much substance to Skelattack as there is meat on Skully. This is the barest of effort to put into a platformer's design. The over reliance on frustrating-to-control wall-jumping, and terrible combat that takes forever is what kills the experience. What is tragic is that Skelattack runs very smoothly, and is devoid of bugs or glitches. The developer was clearly competent on the construction of its product, but the concept that holds everything together is such a weak foundation. Most of this can be cheesed thanks to the generous i-frames, and how every level's start has a checkpoint. This makes so much of Skelattack redundant and pointless.

The team behind Anima is very clearly dedicated and it seemed to have really tried to make the best action RPG possible, but the reality is that it is just not experienced enough or the team just does not understand how to do it. The Nameless Chronicles was only a marginal improvement over Gate of Memories and both campaigns are not recommended at all.

Faceez is a lovely idea, but sadly one that is far too underdeveloped to warrant making this an essential purchase.

Another example of that latest trend of videogames with "high artistic quality," Where the Water Tastes Like Wine is not something brand new, unique, and meaningful, but something boring, boring, boring that uses big words to say things that aren't that interesting. Oh, and it has Sting in it…

As shallow as it is boring, Guilt Battle Arena is a conceptually fine attempt at a fast-paced party shooter that does very little with its mechanics and premise. With some mechanical re-tweaking, varied stages, and an improved main mode that doesn't boil down to endless waves of shooting and dashing, Guilt Battle Arena could turn into something worth playing. As is, however, there's nothing particularly impressive about it.

Midnight feels like a quick and dirty port of Angry Birds, reminiscent of the Atari 2600 port of Pac-Man. In fact, that is the best way to describe Midnight.

It's not clear whether Arc System Works was aiming for a 2D Batman: Arkham Asylum with swords and fell way short; if they were aiming for a straightforward beat 'em up and were distracted by the swords (since, evidently, any game with swords must contain a levelling system); or whether they pulled idea balls out of the manatee tank.

Evaluated solely by its presentation quality, Dance of Death: Du Lac & Fey is a solid enough point and click adventure, but it is sadly marred by technical issues and by a general lack of engaging puzzle solving. The mere concept of Arthurian characters hunting down Jack the Ripper is interesting in its own right, something the script reflects rather well, but the game design itself simply leaves too much to be desired.

It's always a good thing when old titles are once again available for purchase, but Capcom should perhaps start pricing their rereleases accordingly. Devil May Cry 2 wasn't worth the money in 2003, and it certainly isn't worth much today. A miserable hack 'n' slash, it's a miracle the franchise managed to survive such a blunder in the first place. It's perhaps worth playing from a historical context - if only to gain a deeper understanding of how it failed the original's legacy… but Devil May Cry 2 is otherwise better left in the past.

At a very basic level, the concept of My Zoo Vet Practice 3D is fine, but not enough thought has been put into how to extend the concept into an enjoyable game.

Fans of Eurojank (critic guilty as charged) can generally stomach low production values and lack of polish, but Everreach: Project Eden is just plain (and incomplete) junk. It fails as a Mass Effect-esque RPG, and fails far more as a shooter. One has to wonder why the developer still charges so high for something as badly-made as this, especially since it has obviously abandoned it.

The saving grace for Thunder Paw is that generally sprites are cute, and music hits the mark for driving progress forward without being too repetitive. Whether or not that's enough to entice is up to the individual to decide. There's conceivably a compulsion to play on and best the unfair challenge, particularly with an early monkey boss level, which required keeping up with an increasing pattern speed in spite of a gimped weapon range. One hopes it might be a worthy first attempt, and it is if that's the case, but otherwise it is just a bit "rough." An oddity indeed.

Sadly it has to be said that Jewel Link Mysteries: Mountains of Madness is a truly lazy effort, failing to improve upon frailties with the developer's previous Hidden Object and Match-3 products. Instead, both subpar game engines have been shoved together with some H.P. Lovecraft slapped on for show.