In its current form, I simply cannot recommend Hello Neighbor to anyone until all of the problems are fixed. Again, I am shocked and disappointed that publisher tinyBuild would charge $30 for a product that clearly needs a lot more work. It really sucks because this game has a few things that work well, like its unique mechanics, a great art style, and good, measured horror. There’s a glimmer of something neat but right now, it's best to treat this as Hello Neighbor Game Preview Edition.

In a nutshell, Punch Club acted like a stamina-fueled boxer and wore me down. Over time I found myself loathing the training process I originally felt happy progressing in. What started as a fun progression from nobody to star became a tedious task of increasing numbers that may or may not affect the outcome of a fight.

I want to be as explicit as possible and say that Epic Mickey 2 is not worth your time. A bad camera system, a poor help system, bad AI and the lack of substantial Wii U features make this game dull, uninteresting and frustrating.

I really hope to see Membrane revisited at some point with a greater focus on making satisfying puzzles and using the mechanics to their fullest extent. As it stands, though, there really isn't much to go on here. Membrane's got great aesthetics and all, but there's nothing to really back it up, and so you wind up going through the game without feeling much like engaging in it. There are fun levels sprinkled throughout, but for the most part, I found myself wondering what the point was, and never wound up finding an answer.

At this point you would be far better off picking up a copy of RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 then dishing any money out for this one.

SFTX is just another in a laundry list of games trying to capitalize on the success of cover-based shooters but promptly fail to do so.

Bitlogic: A Cyberpunk Arcade Adventure captures the feel of games from a bygone time, but it does so in a fashion that is almost entirely detrimental. The restrictions on aiming and movement makes combat unpleasant, and traversal is usually a matter of trial and error. Although the MSX version of the game, included in the package, has a fairly striking look, the updated graphics don't look nearly as inspired, and smaller details, like the lack of death animations for enemies or the protagonist, make the visual overhaul rather unconvincing. The more interesting enemy setups in the last few areas tease at undercurrents of potential that is never fully reached. There are many titles out there that utilize the archetypes of classic gaming to create challenging and rewarding gameplay loops, but Bitlogic is not one of them.

Street Power Soccer lacks the street cred it really could use because as it is, there is little incentive to keep on playing. It doesn’t help that despite nice animations, the game’s overall appearance is so last generation. Local versus and co-op play lift spirits a bit until you realize that there is no real content to anything as the matches are over so quickly. There is also a very rudimentary online option but I couldn’t find any opponents whenever I tried it. It tells that Street Power Soccer is practically dead on arrival.

If you want a true Gundam Breaker experience, it might just be worthwhile to import the older games in the series from Japan. As far as this title goes, it's better left forgotten.

At the end of the day, G. I. Joe Operation Breakout is hurt by a campaign that is neither fun nor a fitting tribute to a classic pop culture license. There’s multiplayer - local only - but I strongly doubt people are going to stick around to try it out. What it all comes down to in the end is that $40 is far too great a price to ask for this limping tribute to G. I. Joe.

While there are elements in Icy that feel interesting and well done, there are too many faults in execution to warrant a play through unless you’re hungering for a wasteland-trekking narrative.

To put it bluntly Dungeon Hunter: Alliance just reeks of mediocrity.

Rime Berta IS childish and it certainly IS an inferior copy of what tactic RPG players know and love, and I MIGHT be sounding overly misogynistic with this review, but know that if you want a simple adventure with slow-paced tactics battles and you don’t care about a good story, you might find a place in your heart for this unpolished gem.

Even the plot, which is initially intriguing, will likely disappoint by its conclusion, when it becomes apparent that the game is only interested in telling about half of it. In this age of the AAA blockbuster, games as personal projects are always welcome, but, as this one demonstrates, there’s a reason games are usually created by more than one person.

By divorcing themselves so much from the experience, Pwnee Studios allows their game to suffer from not being able to judge whether a level is actually fun, making it come off pointless, shallow and uninteresting.

With nothing to keep me involved, grid battles, while functionally sound and by themselves at least slightly engrossing, became just simple back and forths, with nothing at stake and no real reason to care.

Pinstripe is a game that has such promise at its start but fails to capitalize on what makes it special by its completion. The simplistic platforming and combat take away from the game’s excellent atmosphere and world building and instead give the game this odd mix of tension in cutscenes immediately followed by easy-to-beat levels. While the minister was in Hell, facing the fears of humanity, I never felt like I was there with him. While the art and atmosphere are worthy of all the praise in the world, the gameplay and storytelling hurt the game exponentially, leading to a short and forgettable experience.

Cashing in on the Jaws franchise may have been a brilliant idea on paper, but this game struggles to entertain with a poor storyline and frustrating controls.

Mushroom 11 does a great job of realizing a concept and sticking to it, it’s just too bad that concept falters as much as it does, making the game feel like a big miss instead of an indie darling.

Unfortunately, I would have to say if you haven’t already purchased the Dying Light Season Pass, The Bozak Horde isn’t really worth buying. It strips out all of the fun of the open-world exploration and pigeonholes you into a dingy parking garage, and leaves you struggling to compensate for its less-than-fantastic combat system.

Avoid this game at all costs, young Padawan…and may the force be with you, always.

Overall, Super Monkey Ball banana Blitz HD is too difficult to play due to the controls. It made me feel sick, and it lacks a lot of the fun extras that were a draw for the series, or at least what should be expected in one for the current generation of consoles.

The challenge and personality of old-school shooter or adventure classics is totally absent. It’s one of the most creatively bankrupt games I’ve played this year. And you should not play it.

What started out as a promising sojourn into another world, where I could single-handedly take on a horde of Giants, ends up feeling much like the citizenry of Extinction, tired of fighting, tired of Giants, and tired of being there. There’s enough good here that the failures just hurt more. There’s fun movement when it works, fun puzzle-like combat, but despite its best efforts, there’s no portal big enough to save it from the weight of its own systems.

Alaska has a story to tell that could have been an interesting drama about a murder in an extremely isolated small town. It’s too bad that the whole affair is bogged down by slow movement speeds, generally unpleasant visuals, ineffective minigames, and bad writing. If you’re looking for a game that marries good storytelling and an interesting mystery with framed around mundane work made fun, play The Station instead. It’s best to leave Alaska on ice.

There really isn't that much to talk about, and I think that's what really makes this game unappealing. There isn't much to do outside of arcade and versus mode, and even the addition of Senko no Ronde DUO included in the game, it's not all too different from the new version for it to really make a difference. It's not that I think Senko no Ronde 2 is a bad game per se, but I definitely don't think the price tag is worth the few minutes of fun you'll have with a friend. It can be a fun game to play, but it's definitely not worth it at the current price point. Even if it were ten or fifteen dollars, I still don't think it brings enough to the table.

The game shines most through its aesthetics with impressive environments and an atmospheric score. Its lack of agency and action may bore players, especially if the confusing story doesn’t reach them.

There are some things you expect coming into a Square Enix produced JRPG. You expect some grinding, you expect some weird dialogue, you even expect it to take a while to get going (I’m looking at you Final Fantasy XIII and the 30 hours it took to get good). What you don’t expect is for the game to feel like it’s just going through the motions with its story, for the central class system to not feel worthwhile, and for the battle system’s main claim to fame being you get to skip your turn to go later. Turns out Defaulting on this one is the right move.