It is an addictive game, but some people may not enjoy doing the same things over and over, and for that reason I can see it becoming too tedious for a lot of players. But as a fun, casual, couch co-op game, I think Monster Couch did a great job.

Okay, so, when I said that Smite should be free, I didn’t mean to say that it is terrible. What I meant is that the game honestly just isn’t all that good. But I can play as the main character from Conker’s Bad Fur Day, though… so that’s something, at least.

Namco's foray into the PSP platform hits a huge snag, as Reckoning's overly simple and repetitive gameplay takes the skill (and fun) away.

There’s occasionally some fun to be had but in the long run, the gameplay is so rigid and repetitive that despite seemingly big amount of content to play, the game’s appeal wears thin pretty quickly. Even the multiplayer lacks further enthusiasm for the very same reason and micro transactions that are practically force-fed are the last straw. Given the game’s rather modest production values, it feels like it should have benefited from being a free-to-play title and then paying for more content would have been completely plausible. As it is now, WWE 2K Battlegrounds simply lacks lasting fun, challenge and creativity to fill the void of not having a main entry in the WWE 2K series this year.

Tons of potentials here, but spoiled by overly simplistic controls and horribly sluggish frame rates.

It could have been a really well-made puzzle-platformer but somehow, the developer decided to settle with less, even though the console version is a second take on the game. There are obvious improvements over the PC original but the core issues of inaccurate controls and shifty physics still remain. Sad, really, as I so wanted to love this game.

What started as an original take on war turns into your standard run of the mill action game, and at that point, well, there is no point. Super Trench Attack ends up as a casualty of its own war.

There's a lot to love here, given the obvious indication of how much love and passion was put into the development of the game, but I can't help but feel it just isn't all that enjoyable beyond the nostalgic novelties. While it's cool to see references to your favorite kung-fu movies from back in the day, and while the plot is just as cheesy as the time period it's attempting to recreate, the core design of the game feels small in scale and ultimately boring after an hour or so of playing.

Deer God makes an interesting attempt at dealing with spiritual questions in a videogame, but it ultimately detracts from the fun of the game. Crescent Moon Games did an admirable job to add the depth that is so often lacking in platforming games, but it was never enough to overcome their own ambitions. The RPG elements aren’t quite deep enough to become truly invested, and the repeating platforming sections make the game feel smaller than it really is. Deer God puts a lot of interesting ideas into play, but they never coalesce into the rewarding experience its potential hinted at. The fun is fast but fleeting like a deer in the woods.

If the combat was more fun and parts of it didn’t feel so cheap, this series could have some legs, but for the third entry in the franchise, it still feels like it has a long way to go.

It's not flat-out bad, but it is frustrating, questionably designed, and more than a little boring.

Unsatisfying, under-developed gameplay mechanics and a ridiculously short length, Light is anything but the name suggests.

Edge of Time is all around an extremely mediocre brawler.

Urban Trial Freestyle 2's great mistake is putting the scoring system where the challenge is at its weakest. You can get through a gauntlet of obstacles unscathed, but you won't be rewarded at all. And while a track creation system does allow you to create amusing challenges for yourself, don't expect to find anyone else's. The effort put into the presentation is commendable, but Urban Trial Freestyle 2 is best described as fleeting, faltering fun.

The celebrated comic series makes a jump to the Xbox, but the sub par gameplay and weak visuals in this budget game doesn't do it any justice.

Unsurprisingly, The Dark Eye: Book of Shadows has some technical issues with crashes and mission-killing bugs, but those pale in comparison with the game’s biggest flaw: its lack of imagination or originality. I don’t think it’s a cynical cash-grab. I think that the source material might be part of the problem, coupled with the developers being satisfied with minimal presentation and coloring obsessively inside the lines. There are so many outstanding action-RPGs — both based on D&D and not — that this game is hard to recommend unless you are already steeped in the lore and culture of The Dark Eye series.

Three years in the making, Mind: Path to Thalamus is a valiant effort on the part of Carlos Coronado. There are moments that impress, but the parts all add up to a mediocre story shoe-horned into a mediocre first person puzzler. I encourage the development team to keep it up, but I can’t really recommend this one as a must see.

Redeemer's great peculiarity is that it starts with strong gameplay and a weak story, and then the two switch entirely. Combat that was once challenging, varied, and rewarding gives way to enemy numbers and attack patterns that bottleneck the player into a constant dodge-fest that feels like breaking the rules of a broken game. Whether you succeed or fail, too little of what you do after the first chapter is based on any amount of skill. As monotony settles in, the captivating story proves not enough to pick up the slack. In its first four hours, Redeemer is great. Afterwards? Far from it.

Ultimately, if you’re bored for a couple of hours on a weekend then Skydive will give you something to do. But once you’ve done a few races and some of the challenges, there is very little to keep all but the most dedicated completionists from coming back for more.

After so many years of anticipation, I was ready to love Stranger's Wrath. The world Oddworld Inhabitants created here is worthy of that love but the actual game set in it is a throwback in all the wrong ways. While I wish there were more to it, there's just not much of interest here. With so many great games from the past getting a second chance on the Switch, there's no real need to meet this stranger.

When it comes down to it, Sunless Sea: Zubmariner Edition is an ambitious game that failed to ultimately capture me. Early on it discouraged me from continuous play, and while I eventually got into a rhythm, the barriers of entry still gated off levels of enjoyment. The lack of a tutorial is a major flaw, as a game with this much original language needs to provide a strong opening to capture attention. The spots that shine bright really stand out, and for those looking for a detailed and captivating story-based game, you could do worse. If you’re ready to read a lot, this is an adventure I can recommend you to embark on. If you aren’t, you’ll find yourself drowning in this zee of words.

It’s just such a shame that the game is such a shame to play, then. I even wound up looking up a video of a puzzle solution because I thought the game was broken, and it was a guy playing the PC version and I was so envious about how it looked. Frame rates! Smooth camera control! Foliage that isn’t popping in and out at random! It was lovely, I mean, seriously, I’ve already harped on it but if you can play another version of Q.U.B.E. 2, then go play that instead. It’s a great puzzle game, it just needs to play better.

Eliosi’s Hunt is only $5. At such a cheap price, it’s worth picking up if you’re a hardcore fan of top-down shooters, you’re into speedrunning, or you just want a difficult game to play. But between mediocre shooting, mediocre platforming, and occasionally frustrating level design, there are certainly better options out there.

Predator: Hunting Grounds is an asymmetric game with an interesting premise, yet it ultimately fails to deliver its full potential. There are thrilling moments but they are too few and far between. With enough time spent on polishing the game, it could become a top-tier title in its genre. As it is now, it is a tough game to recommend even to the most diehard Predator fans.

Party Hard presents some interesting ideas and has a promising start, but it sours quickly due to repetitive game design and a frustrating inconsistency in difficulty.

There’s enough here for folks who have come this far to finish the journey, but it’s certainly no place to start, and a sad note to end on.

Kingdom Hearts fans will want to see the new story content and there’s likely enough content here to make them feel they got their money’s worth. Everyone else will be able to find a rhythm game more worthy of their time.

Battle Princess Madelyn had all the makings of a charmer (there are never enough games featuring a warrior princess!) but it turned out to be a downer. Given ill-defined looks and sloppy level design, sprawling here and there for no other purpose than to pester you, the game is too committed to the gaming of bygone days. The best bet for retro-inclined developers would be fitting their games into modern conventions, and not fall into same old pitfalls that used to plague the genre. Even though your friend Frankie doesn’t realize it, there has been remarkable evolutionary steps in the gaming.