Road Not Taken’s roguelike structure works against the rest of the game’s design and ultimately makes playing into a tedious, repetitive experience. On the surface there’s a lot to love in the game’s charming presentation, but repeated playthroughs reveal a failure to implement the variation and unpredictability that make rougelikes great.

The game has a solid storyline, and some interesting ideas, but fails to really do much with it at all.

As far as licensed products go, you could do a lot worse then How to Train Your Dragon 2. There are good bones here, a nice foundation built on a satisfying flying mechanic, and some excellent work to capture the sights and sounds of the movie and its characters. It, like most other movie games, falls apart where that license meets the tight structure of a modern game under the strictures of a tight turn around. While you apparently can train a dragon, no amount of training can save this game from itself.

Needless to say, I found Power of Illusion to be an incredibly disappointing game. There's nothing fun about the experience and any warm, fuzzy feelings of nostalgia brought upon by the design, soundtrack and concept are ruined by clunky and infuriating gameplay. Instead of spending the money on this game, my advice is to go pick up a Sega Genesis from eBay and a copy of Castle of Illusion. You'll have a lot more fun.

Although some may have fun with Rabbids: Alive and Kicking, the overall package is far from optimal. When your load times last longer then your mini games that poses a major issue. If you were looking at buying this game because you enjoyed the Rabbids games that are on the Wii, Alive and Kicking kicking doesn't live up to the bar set out before it.

Papo & Yo is a title of binary worth; not worth ignoring its issues, but still worth seeing through. While the trip it takes to reach the emotional highs of the story's payoff is indefensibly turbulent, there's no denying that they are indeed dizzying.

You don’t have to dig too deeply to find that Golem, for all its inane faults, has some really interesting mechanical ideas for VR gaming. It’s one of the very few adventures that give you a sword to swing around in real-time and makes a concerted effort to make melee duels look and feel meaningful. And like I said before, it’s cool when it works correctly. The technical problems and physical discomfort were just too hard to ignore because of how actively they work against you, causing me to stop playing. From the needless complexity of the game’s pathfinding and a boring world to its physically bothersome movement mechanics, too often does Golem feel like a beast of burden.

If this was the first game I'd seen with this control scheme I might have more glowing words, but in the shadow of Brothers, it's more difficult to recommend this one. Unlike Brothers, Semispheres does very little to show what interesting things can be done with this control scheme. It's an inoffensive game – it's not bad in the moment, but does nothing to make itself memorable.

Although Biped has a nice style, the controls greatly hampered my enjoyment of the game. Added to that, the game is pretty short and the puzzles are a little too reminiscent of other platformers to find much of value here. If you’d like to experience a challenge in co-op and test the limits of your personal relationships, you might want to give it a try.

The superficial nature of the visual novel format is strange, considering this series would be perfect for the genre given the size of its character roster and the high stakes confrontations between the different good and evil shinobi schools. What we get instead is a half-assed story connected by a monotonous mini-game. A total bust (not that kind).

One of the earlier platformer for the PSP now jumps to the DS, but looses much of its appeal, and reduced to a single-button gameplay and dull storyline.

If you have three friends who don't mind rustling through some awkward mechanics and just want to kill massive quantities of demons with no consequences then pick it up. Otherwise, if you're into deeper multiplayer experiences, there are countless other games that will be more suitable to your cravings.

Let's Sing 2021 works as a party game, if everyone in your party has the same music taste and likes newer pop songs or if you like to set up your friends to fail. However, the lack of diversity in the playlist and the requirement to sing songs that you don't know to play many of the modes make this a less than ideal game for people outside of its target audience. The core idea is solid, but the weakness of the note charts and short song list make this a hard sell for me. I would like to see a themed version of this game with more accessible songs, for instance, something like Let's Sing: The 80s. However, as it is, I can't recommend this game outside of a narrow audience.

It’s not a bad game, it’s just not really anything.

The narrative experiments are definitely awesome, but you can’t just put style over substance, especially when all the same problems return. Hitchy framerates, action sequences that hang too long and make you fail them at least once thanks to technical error, the fact that you want to say something but your character doesn’t give you the option.

Around the time The Martian film came out, there was a free-to-play, text-only game that had a much more engaging and well-written story than Mars Alive. There are so many excellent examples of survival crafting games that simply substituting a nearly featureless desert for a forest or undersea world isn’t enough to hold our attention, and the absolutely glacial pace of exploring and crafting doesn’t help. The game’s trailers suggest a much more action-packed, epic and graphically complex product but the reality is entirely different. The biggest survival challenge in Mars Alive is its hours of repetitious and slow gameplay.

It’s clear that the developers have a lot of reverence for old games, but the work on the actual gameplay just doesn’t do well enough to pass on why we should feel the same. Instead you’re just going from one lesser version of a genre to another, a clear example of when less is more.

Unfortunately the game also has some design issues, repetition and a solid lack of good jokes.

It's a crying shame that Uncanny Valley spends so much of its time crippling your play time with contrivances and strict time limits. Once you learn how to make progress, you'll enjoy a second half akin to what the entire game should have been, but then its endings get less memorable. Uncanny Valley wants to be an engaging survival horror romp, and sometimes it gets to be, but it's ultimately an experience that can be best described as mediocre.

I was expecting a tower defense game because that is how it was described, but it was almost certainly more of an RTS that just focuses on the construction small towers. Some people could find fun in this game, but sadly I didn’t enjoy my time with Savage Moon too much or too often.

Ghostrunner is a game of exciting highs and extremely low lows. When its controls click, it offers a thrilling parkour platforming experience. But these moments aren’t worth contending with its frustrating combat and aggravating bugs. If you’re an enthusiast for first-person platformers and can overlook a glaring lack of polish, Ghostrunner may have some limited value. For all else, there are other genre titles more deserving of your time.

While this game has its faults it will definitely appeal to the gamers who loved the Wii version or any hardcore James Bond fans.

Even if you don’t like the gameplay, the story and setting are solid enough to where you can get at least some minimum level of enjoyment out of the game. If you are the type of person who enjoys playing adventure games with puzzles like the ones found in The Inner World, then you may get more than that out of it.

Fortunately, there was a lot of promise here with Skully. A nice and endearing story with platforming mechanics that make for interesting utility makes the game seem exciting, but it just doesn't execute its plan well. In a way I feel like the game has a bit of an identity crisis; while it could focus on being an excellent marble physics platformer, it has all of these other great ideas that ultimately end up hurting the whole product. With a bigger focus on one thing and improvement to level design, I could see a game like this working pretty well, but unfortunately, Skully is not that game.

While it has some issues it is still completely playable but some people may be turned off by the learning curve of the controls and spotty frame rate but if you are able to looks past all of that then you can still find a fun time.

Offering a far less consistent library than Volume 1, I can't in good conscious recommend Namco Museum Archives Volume 2 to most players. For those who need an individual title here, you may want to watch out for a sale as there is some fun to be had, but the titles offered are mostly mediocre ones that weren't crying out to be collected. Without any other material worth your time, you're better off finding another option to get your retro fix.

I have nothing against scantily-clad bodylicious anime babes and in this time and era when the western games are stripped down of all sexual innuendo it's refreshing to see something so lewd and uninhibited. But as it is Senran Kagura: Bon Appétit is nothing more than a glorified peep show. To be fair it is the game's ultimate purpose in itself and everything else is just glazing but I wouldn't have minded more seasonings in its recipe. Onechanbara and Dead or Alive series do it all better as they offer more game in their fan service.

The only problem is it has to be fun, and Lost: Via Domus is just not.

Coverting a trully engaging and action-packed TV show should have been a no-brainer, but sadly so are the AI and controls in the game.

Dressed in the tropes of old, it forgot to continue to show us that it was more then the total of its parts, more then just another ARPG, set in another gothic world, with another broken hero unknowingly seeking redemption. Like it’s titular character, Victor Vran never really finds it.

Given how disappointingly underwhelming this game is, and how much is locked behind pay-walls and ZEN points (Neverwinter‘s arbitrary currency purchased with real-world money), I pretty quickly decided to play something else.

The story, although with its own blend of silliness, is enjoyable and finishes properly. From a gameplay point of view however, I would not replay it simply because of its consistently aggravating tendency to force you into redoing every puzzle after making unintentional mistakes.

Midway seeks to revitalize the classic arcade game, but the transition is plagued by terribly dated visuals, frustrating controls and an overall unpolished product.

Overall, Paul Cuisset's Subject 13 is challenging, but for the wrong reasons. There are perhaps a handful of very well-designed problems to solve, but most of the challenge comes from fighting the game's camera angle and infuriating controls. The easiest solution to those two problems would be a switch to first-person, as it is at the very beginning of the game. (I was actually rather disappointed when it switched from first-person to a fixed camera perspective.) Sure, the graphical fidelity might suffer a little bit from the closer perspective, but it would be so much easier to see and interact with the environment.

It has a unique design and style. The colors are vibrant and the story is very touching and thoughtful. However, when it comes down to the actual gameplay the game is frustration.

While the anime was outstanding, the video game port massively disappoints us with its frustrating controls, repetitive environments and lackluster combat.

It’s rather interesting that XSEED decided to bring Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls to the PC. It’s not that it’s old-fashioned because it’s a ten-year-old game. No, by the time the game was originally released, role-playing games, even first-person dungeon crawlers, had evolved in leaps and bounds from their ancient beginnings - and for a good reason. I remember playing aforementioned Eye of the Beholder games in the early 90s and being totally immersed in them. In its forced nostalgia, Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls is paper-thin in comparison.

Not even the flashy visuals can help THQ's latest from its sluggish action, dull story mode and lagging online play.

I think Jurassic Park is a game that can be skipped. A couple of great moments with the T-Rex cannot help this 6-8 hour long treacherous journey through Isla Nublar.

There are just so many better ways to spend your money, like on a copy of the original Choplifter or any other of the good and unique games available on downloadable services. The only sort of person who should buy this game is someone who thinks that the original Choplifter would be the best game ever if it had sort of funny voice acting.

In the end, Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time is a middle-of-the-road licensed game. For fans, there’s probably enough here in this victory lap of a final season cover that will make the gripes I have fade away into the beautiful backgrounds. For those in the middle, like me, the amount of good it does is just not enough to keep me coming back for more. Sadly, this Jack just doesn’t jump as well as he should.

There’s nothing quite like it out there – even SpaceChem is only thematically similar – so who knows, maybe it will awaken the passion of some budding physicists. It’s more likely, however, to merely serve as a warning against future game ideas based on subatomic particles.

You have to give the game credit it looks great, but that in my book doesn’t come close to making a great game. What started out great ended up being rather disappointing. For those who like Afro Samurai and are interested in the game it may be a safer option to rent this.

It’s a particularly dire case of style over substance, putting you through an easy, unremarkable rollercoaster ride that you’ll play in an afternoon and forget about a couple days later. And with the number of quality family titles and platformers to choose from this year, I just don't see a place for a game like this. There’s a point in the weak story where Classic Sonic has to go home, making Tails feel sad. Sonic cheers him up: “I’m sure we’ll run into him again.” Well, 3D Sonic, with Mania’s quality and success, I'm sure we will too. It’s you I’m worried about.

All things considered, an interesting premise and good storytelling can’t make up for bad game design.

The writing doesn’t really save the fact that you spend most of this game just hitting the same buttons in order until victory. I guess sometimes that’s all you want, but if that’s the case, why not just play something like Cookie Clicker instead?

If you've played the previous two Death Spank titles and enjoyed them beyond all measure, I'm sure you will delighted with The Baconing. For the rest of you, you're better off spending your time and money elsewhere.

Morkredd's main mechanic succinctly reflects my own thoughts on it altogether. The glowing orb represents life: punctuating atmosphere, inspired visual design, and a motivating gimmick. But when you begin to step away, as you wander outside its glow, you encounter death: day-one DLC, technical problems, an atrocious finale, and more. These severe disparities, bright day and atramentous night, imply even genre fans will be ambivalent towards it.

With all of the hype and anticipation surrounding Driv3r, it's a shame the game had to fail so miserably like it did.

The classic Frogger series seeks to shine again, but instead cannot seem to get with the times, due to frustrating controls and stale gameplay ideas.

A game based on the American Civil War could get fans excited, and you'd expect more when it carries the History Channel name. A thoroughly disappointing outing.

I love the game that is bubbling under all the excess garbage. This year’s MyPlayer is pretty much what I would have liked to see before in the series, even though I had to play it with Plan B characters as photo uploading in-game didn’t initially work. Despite its crappy presentation, MyCareer is also endearing and inspiring. If you, like me, advocate equality in all things, WWE 2K20 is worth your attention if the entertainment it features is your thing – and only when it’s fixed to the state when all the playtime won’t be spent on bewildering bugs and glitches. A tip to 2K and Visual Concepts; don’t even bother with the next year’s iteration until this one is fully patched.

Ugly Americans: Apocalypsegeddon has some potential and is definitely not the worst game based on a television show but is far from being a quality game in its own right.

Koei jazzes up their flagship franchise just in time for the holidays, but doesn't seem to offer enough to warrant the asking price.

Train Simulator 2012 has its audience that will appreciate everything the game has to offer. Train enthusiasts will be able to look past the graphics and solely focus on the fact that this game offers an unrivaled simulation. However, every other player that either casually likes trains or is unenthused by locomotives will find Train Simulator 2012 to be an interesting concept that is easy to get into, but is often too complicated and dry to offer up more than a few hours of meaningful gameplay.

Flight sims should be great on the DS, but the touch screen feature was sadly underused here, and feels much too clunky and lackluster for today's gamers.

As it is, Zombeer stands as a decent zombie based FPS with a dash of hit or miss humor.

With exceptions, even fans may find these tales of woe and terror far to easy to put down, and never pick up again.

Nom Nom Galaxy is a functional game with good art direction, sound, and story; however, I found that I was forcing myself through each level without really being engaged in the process. I do have a strong urge to go make some soup though.

GRIP: Combat Racing is a solid enough throwback to warrant a play from Rollcage fans but for those racing game players looking for something new, the game doesn’t deliver. It isn’t bad by any measure, but it doesn’t do enough to set pulses racing.

Payday: The Heist could be fun when you grab friends and laugh together at all the random absurdities. I've said many times that adding co-op to your game can only make the experience better since you can enjoy with friends. Very few gamers will find a good time with Payday, but most will be wondering why they are not playing something else.

Like all games that stress art and atmosphere above all else, appraising Vane is difficult. Some will fall in love with it from the first scene, simply because they appreciate its visual style and engaging music. For me, it’s the game equivalent of tuning in to the fireplace channel on Christmas day. It’s oddly pleasant in its own way, but there’s little substance to it. Vane simply has too many faults and not enough strengths to carry a recommendation. Even in the absence of technical mishaps, it’s simply not engaging or interesting.

Arc of Alchemist had potential, but, ultimately, fails to deliver a compelling experience. If you like chibi characters, lots of dialogue, grinding, and mindless battle systems, you might enjoy Arc of Alchemist. Otherwise, this is a game you can easily skip.

Overall, this game feels like a watered-down Story of Seasons experience in the end, one that has traded gameplay and variety away for story and themes. Still, it's undeniable that the game is very unique, as it focuses on the Doraemon story and characters. This fact alone has changed the formula in a number of ways, for better or worse. Personally, I'd rather have a more robust and in-depth farming experience, but I can easily see how Doraemon fans would enjoy this title.

The short experience failed to stand out and, though fun while it lasted, was entirely forgettable.

I can definitely applaud CE2 for not just resting on its laurels and just releasing more CEDX but with more maps and skins or something, but what they actually did with the gameplay managed to take a lot of the thrill out of it. Despite the fact that it seems to run a lot faster, there were too many times while playing this game that I just got bored in the middle of a run. “This still going, huh?” I thought to myself. For all its bells and whistles, bumping music, and sleek framerate, Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 just doesn’t keep the thrill alive.

In the end, Legend of Dungeon is a by-the-numbers roguelike with little to get excited about besides its unique style. Unfortunately, that style makes a promise of originality that the gameplay simply can’t deliver on.

I hate to bash a game, but I felt like I was wasting my gaming time. When I play a console game, I either want an intriguing story, complex gameplay mechanics, or engaging competition all of which High Society has none.

As it stands, Jet Car Stunts is a slightly glitchy port of a mediocre game.

Marina Hova, the developer behind Fragile Fighter, built the game using her personal experiences in helping people deal with certain physical and mental illnesses and abuses and while I get that the game is meant to highlight problems surrounding alcoholism and anorexia, those messages are so easily lost because of the unnecessary difficulty. In this case, how can I develop any sort of attachment to the characters and their struggles when I’m forced into restarting a level for the umpteenth time because of something I could do nothing about? I feel bad tearing apart a game that so clearly wants to impart a message, but when it actively pushes against you at any turn, how is one supposed to care?

The shoehorned inclusion of microtransactions is kind of ugly because it’s limited to weapon and character skins and timed character boosts that serve no purpose other than to get you to spend money. I suppose it’s a small mercy that you don’t need premium currency for anything but at this point, why even bother? I try not to judge but anyone who buys gold bars to get skins and boosts is wasting their money. Skip this game and play The New Order and The New Colossus instead. You’ll have way more fun. Honest.

While RPGs and dungeon crawler games are my favorite style of hand held games, there are better options than Book of Memories. The Silent Hill aesthetic is pretty well represented, but the game itself struggles to maintain mediocrity. The game is great in short bursts, but fails to hold your attention for long periods of time.

Scarygirl really isn't worth the $10. I expect that if you're a loyal follower of the Scarygirl franchise and of Jurevicius, then you'll probably get something out of it.

Full of bugs, glitches and a laundry list of elements that feel unfinished or outdated, it’s pretty hard to recommend Rune II: Decapitation Edition to anyone whose enjoyment depends on a quality experience. Players with a love of all things Viking and high tolerance for mediocrity might be able to find a few hours of fun in Rune II’s messy world, but most gamers would do better to spend their time and money elsewhere.

The always fun monkey balls rolls onto the PSP, but this time disappoints us with uneven gameplay, dull environments and lack of challenge.

If you have to play a game from the Hyperneptunia franchise, I suppose that Super Neptunia RPG is as good a place as any to start. Thanks to the “hero with amnesia” plot device it introduces, newcomers will be acquainted with a cast of characters that players of the series will probably be familiar with and maybe even look forward to seeing again. But brace yourself for almost immediate disappointment. The platforming, combat and quests have all been done much better by many other games and while the game references are cute and marginally unexpected, they aren’t enough to balance the scales in Super Neptunia RPG’s favor.

Puzzlers are supposed to thrive on a handheld such as the PSP. Alas no luck here, as this one doesn't provide enough to last you past 20 minutes.

The celebrated anime series gets transleted into yet another mediocre video game, plagued by a convulated story, repetitive combat and messy controls.

The biggest issue with this game is how it is a user creation-centric experience, and nearly two weeks after release the online playerbase is almost entirely nonexistent.

This success, and most of the game's terrific efforts, are unfortunately squandered by the game's failure to advance its story or give you any guidance on how best to navigate its challenges. Theoretically, you could replay through the game in an attempt to discover the best path for yourself, but chances are, you won't want to. The major events of every day are scripted, and there isn't enough that is enjoyable about the gameplay to make you want to repeat days any more than you have to. One playthrough is likely all that you'll want to get out of Beat Cop, and there is a good chance that it will leave you feeling unsatisfied and cheated. This game could have been great, and for the first week or so of the game I thought that I had stumbled onto a great little indie gem. As I progressed, however, the game's intriguing story disappeared, giving way to a pointless grind that ended abruptly and unsatisfyingly. Beat Cop takes the hopelessness simulator one step too far, and it is for this reason that it I cannot wholeheartedly recommend it.

Porting a game made for PC to consoles can be an iffy situation. It’s absolutely something that should happen when possible, as I am all for everyone being to play everything if they are able, but some just flat out work better then others. It’s a shame that the largest and unavoidable knock against Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire is something as silly as load times, but it is what it is. If you have a chance to play this game on PC, you should without question. If this is your only way to play this, just make sure you have something to do while you’re waiting.

For all the clever and ‘clever’ references, for all of the time spent on building just that perfect retro feel, they didn’t bother making anything original, or really, memorable.

If you're dying to play something on you 3DS you could do worse than Code of Princess, but you could do a lot better too. It's a decent diversion with a fair amount of content, but at $40 and with so many cool and promising games coming out for the system in the near future, I have to recommend that you hold on to your money until then.

Who says you can't play poker all by yourself. The game allows you do do just that, but one misses out on one key ingredient to the poker game - the bluff.

The delightfully cute children's tale gets a movie, and naturally a video game too. Pity it's not that good and will bore the younger gamers away in no time.

Pro Series is one of those games that I really wanted to enjoy beyond its actual quality. With its multitude of lakes, fish species, and upgrades, the developers clearly put in a good amount of effort. But its core gameplay mechanics just don’t match its content. Ironically, this is a fishing experience that will bore you not because you can’t catch anything, but rather because you all-too-easily can. It’s still somewhat satisfying to catch a big pile of floppers and watch your cash pile up, but it’s all done in this omnipresent cloud of disappointment. That’s Rapala Fishing: Pro Series for you; not bad, but disappointing.

Lost Planet 3 pulls off some genuinely interesting and entertaining things with its story and exploratory nature, but that potential is all but covered up by its middling action. It lies somewhere between the wants of series fans and the needs of those who have been playing these kinds of games for years, and I wouldn’t recommend you play it.

Tyranny: Bastard’s Wound is a hard DLC to recommend. The original game had its shortcomings, and its ending was somewhat abrupt. The DLC does nothing to rectify those shortcomings, flesh out the story from the original game, or provide any refreshing new content that is as strong as what was in the original Tyranny. It doesn’t feel like a chunk of content that could have fit into the original game but had to be cut for time or budgetary constraints. Instead, it feels like DLC that has little or no reason to exist. It has little value to you unless you tackle it the way that it was obviously intended – in the middle of the original game instead of near the end. Even if you experience the DLC this way, you will find that it is arguably the weakest content in the game world. The DLC may be worth getting when it is heavily discounted, or perhaps as a package with the original game, but it is not a must have for those looking to enjoy the universe of Tyranny. Everything that is good about that universe, from its fascinating lore to its intricate politics, can be enjoyed in the original game.

Too much in the game depends on random checks on everything with not enough variables or interactions on the player’s side, giving you always a bad hand. It feels like you’re preparing for an arm-wrestling contest but someone breaks your wrist before that. With luck - and only with luck, mind you - you can make progress but all the trouble (read: multiple retries) you go through will no doubt make your head hurt. It’s as if there has been no play testing at all to see whether playing Vambrace is any way meaningful. If the developers themselves would realize what’s wrong with the game, it still wouldn’t help.

While the different control types for the characters is super cool and all, the game only has fleeting moments of enjoyment before crushing you in defeat, leaving you with nothing to show for it.

The game just never really gets moving and therefore most of us will end up turning it off after a good twenty minutes.

While not broken, it’s simply not that much fun past the initial “OMG I’M PLAYING AS A SUPERHERO!!!!!!” moment. It saddens me to say, but even for free, I can find better things to do with my time.

In the end, the experience Firefall offers is one that’s almost there. It’s almost a fully engaging, entertaining shooter. It almost tells a fairly good story. Its systems almost feel worth the time, or money, you would put into seeing them through to their end. It’s almost there, but in the end, Firefall falls short.

When a game carries the Tony Hawk label, that usually infers that it's going to be a good game - the series has just been that good. Downhill Jam is the first in the franchise to have failed miserably.

Beautiful as Evolve is, looks alone can’t make a game. The skeleton of a better game is visible just beneath the surface, but numerous glaring imbalances and questionable design choices ensure that there’s sadly little meat left on these bones. The thrill of the hunt is mitigated in the best of matches, and rendered altogether pointless in the worst.

Demetrios: The Big Cynical Adventure mainly appeals to a specific subset of point-and-click game fans that like crude comedy. However, the jokes don’t always land, and the story with its unlikable characters fails to compel. The puzzles are the strongest aspects, although several of them sport frustratingly obtuse logic or feel rushed. If anything, Demetrios will scratch that itch for fans of the genre and humor, but it won’t sit well with everyone else.

As of now it feels super rushed despite only being the second episode in the season. Hopefully it’s not a harbinger of things to come.