If Carmen Sandiego had more educational value I may have raised the overall a point, but with the lack of educational value, we are given a platformer that doesn't have a lot to offer. There are better educational games out there and there are better platformers out there.

KickBeat was a really interesting idea that with a little better direction could have made for a great rhythm game on the Vita which, I feel, is a platform that can handle rhythm games very well.

Do yourself a favor and just buy an old Snoop album for $10 on Amazon.

Unless you remember these three fondly from your youth, there’s little reason to pursue them now. Being able to reach back to the origins of one of gaming’s biggest companies continues to be an act of at least some historical interest, but little amusement.

Mechanical Scrollery is an experimental title that is rough around the edges. There’s clearly some ambition with the direction the game was going, but a lack of polish and vision ultimately hinder the experience. Though I found some joy in the mindless, bland gameplay, it’s not something I’d be eager to return to. Past the core combat, the RPG system provides a progression system that delivered passable incentives for getting through the game. Overall, Mechanical Scrollery is not a title I’d recommend as there are plenty of more polished and creative Touhou fangames out there.

I know games like this take a lot of work from creators with a very small budget, but sometimes, an idea just isn’t that great.

Lazaretto lacks focus on what exactly it wants to do. Does it want to scare players with a sense of horrific immersion, or does it want to send us on a mind tripping journey? The game doesn't seem to know, and neither do I. Ultimately, Lazaretto has a strong start and truly great sound design, but I think the developers should have spent more time at the drawing board for this one. As this is Chapter 1, let's hope Chapter 2 can pull it together.

Overall, Dune Sea feels like a work in progress. Though it generally succeeds with its pleasant scenery and occasionally inspiring music, the gameplay holds the game back from being the kind of experience it was meant to be. Had the flying been more polished and the glitches less abundant, Dune Sea would easily be a solid, relaxing experience. As it is now, it’s a good example of why playtesting and polishing are so important.

Offering a plot from different perspective seems like a grand idea, but the lazy execution, boring characters and slow pacing makes this one an absolute mess.

There isn’t much positive to say about OverRide 2: Super Mech League. Although the game provides a diverse cast of characters, it also provides a mostly online centric experience while lacking a playerbase to make it work. The graphics look relatively nice running on the Xbox Series X, however, the gameplay is extremely clunky and unrefined, especially when it comes to the awkward trigger-centric control scheme. The campaign is relatively non-existent and mostly serves as a tutorial to teach players important game mechanics. All-in-all, OverRide 2: Super Mech League is a disappointing brawler experience.

It didn’t give me anything positive to hold on to. Maybe it is just the style of the game that gave me a bad taste, maybe it’s just not my cup of tea, maybe it is your cup, or maybe, the tea just isn’t very good to begin with.

A grim journey indeed. Letter Quest: Grimm’s Journey Remastered fails to make a puzzle game work the way that they should with messy RPG elements and difficulty based on an upgrade system rather than your own personal skill level.

Disney Tsum Tsum Festival is a conflicting title. It definitely appears to be a low-effort game that borders on shovelware, but there are glimpses of quality spread throughout. With more experiences like Bubble Hockey and Lost Treasure, the game would’ve been great, but as it is now, I’d much rather play Mario Party. Though it’s worth playing for dedicated fans, it’s not worth playing for others. Overall, Disney Tsum Tsum Festival can be fun for young kids who enjoy Tsum characters, but holding the game to a higher standard, there’s little to keep playing.

Warfighter is uninspired, underdeveloped, and completely profligate with the solemn potential of its core concept.

It’s an experience that will undoubtedly draw a cult following, but without some kind of universally applicable lesson the rest of us can skip it.

Unlike the dedicated officers of the R.I.P.D., do yourself a favor and just let this one go. I don’t think this needs anymore words to get that point across.

Midway tries to resurrect their fun Rampage franchise on the Wii and fails miserably. Get ready for some simplistic controls and extremely dated visuals.

The forced dialogue, lacking visuals and boring gameplay do little to make The Legend of Kay: Anniversary worth the price of admission.

Unearthing Mars begins as a serious expedition to Mars only to transform into a laughably bad science fiction space opera about angry aliens and partying pig dog beasts. It won’t leave you with anything to remember it by, except for how laughably bad it is. The experience of Unearthing Mars is a lot like being EPCOT Center’s Spaceship Earth while riding high on bad weed.

Multiplayer puzzle games aren’t exactly plentiful on the PS4 right now, but that fact doesn’t make Tiny Brains more appealing. Its short, easy and unimaginative. The Worms and soccer-inspired mini game diversions don’t help its cause as a game to break out with friends, either. Even if this sort of couch co-op experience is your jam, I can’t recommend it.

This is a functional but mostly joyless and aimless game whose design maximizes the most tedious parts of its dungeon crawl, and not even local co-op for four can make things more palatable. Adventure Time deserves more respect than this.

Due to unfortunate design choices, I just wanted to rush through everything and couldn’t exactly enjoy my time with the game. In short, Ancestors Legacy felt too much like a chore to play. Saying this doesn’t bring me any joy because the Middle Ages setting and the presented factions were actually cool. The idea to make a history-based, story-driven RTS title with dynamic features could have been great, but all these sides didn’t mesh well here. I really wanted to get into the gameplay, but the best I could muster was excitement for engaging cutscenes and disturbingly alluring images.

Overall, Iron Rain echoes Insect Armageddon as a spin-off that tries to take the well-loved series in a new direction. Unfortunately, it drained out a lot of the charm that made the older titles so fun to begin with. Admittedly, any Earth Defense Force game will have a passable fun factor just from how straightforwardly enjoyable it is to blow up giant enemies and buildings. However, the campaign dragged on far too long and relied too heavily on endless waves of bland enemies. Sadly, Iron Rain is a massive misstep that should probably be avoided by both fans and newcomers alike.

One of the most celebrated children's tale turns out as a dreadful platformer, sporting way too many flaws to be a remotely fun game.

No character differentiation, the lack of arenas, the frustrating gameplay, inconsistency of AI and the unheard of lack of online for a car game makes this game feel incomplete. After about three hours you may never pick this game up again, unless you have a game night with friends.

If you’re looking for a game with not even a sliver of hand-holding, Viviette will scratch your itch. If you need no motivation to explore a spooky mansion, you’ll find that in the game. However, If you need either of those things even in the slightest, this is one game I would suggest you hide from.

A next-gen Sonic platformer would have been a godsend, but Sega somehow manages to screw this up with an insanely frustrating camera and serious framerate issues.

It winds up having a look and bothering to introduce an idea, but doesn’t pay it off or give a reason to come back for the next episode.