A serious lack of fun and no desire to break free of its own monotony are reasons enough to avoid the game altogether. Spend your money on something else.

Charnel House is too eager to scare its audience and in its rush to do so, it leaves some of its plot behind.

Deliver Us the Moon is a good-looking game with a solid story premise that doesn’t quite stick the final landing. It never strays far from many of the tried-and-true puzzle-adventure game mechanics (uncharitable people might call them cliches) that remind us we’re in a world with artificially created barriers for us to remove in order to progress. I appreciate that Deliver Us the Moon pulls from some of the dire headlines and concerns that are part of our lives today and suggests how they will resolve — or not.

If you are a gluten for punishment, like a challenge or have a lot of patience, then Bloodrayne Betrayal is worth picking. For the rest of us? Let Rayne and her game rest in peace…

One of the most celebrated super heroes team gets a pretty decent outing, with intelligent level design and plenty of variety in the gameplay.

Clearly, it is the fans who will get the most out of Tesla Effect. Designed specifically for them, they will appreciate seeing the gang back together for one more noir-fueled adventure.

Overall, Game Dev Tycoon has taken over my weeknights and weekends with no hesitation on my part. If you liked Game Dev Story, The Sims or any others in the sim genre, this will keep your addiction going on for a while.

Punch Club is a cleverly devised fighter management sim, and could have been better if not for the arduous stat decay system. The monotonous grind screeches gameplay to a halt, possibly demoralizing you to the point of quitting. The decay itself doesn’t need to be removed to improve this title. But if it was less harsh and appropriately factored in the pressure of the daily grind, it could have been more manageable. Punch Club is only for the most hardcore micromanagers who don’t mind the long, grueling road to fighter stardom. It’s challenging, but it manages to replicate the hardships of real fighters, who constantly toil against vicious diminished growths, but then achieve amazing feats in the ring.

Deadlight shows a lot of promise but ultimately falls short.

For all of its faults, Battlezone: Combat Commander is fun, unique, and innovative. It could even stand the test of time if the developers had spent their energy updating the game mechanics rather than just the in-game graphics. Ultimately, it's a fun game that should have gotten a lot more love from the remaster than it did. For my part, I will continue to enjoy this old classic like I did when I was a kid, but I will always be disappointed that it isn't all it could be, nay, all that is should be.

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.

Darkestville Castle is an admirable take on the point-and-click genre. It provides a unique perspective on the idea of morality in games in the form of a compelling protagonist. Cid immediately impresses thanks to some strong writing and voice acting. However, the game is bogged down by inconsistent storytelling, unintuitive puzzles and pacing issues throughout its runtime, making the merits much more difficult to appreciate. The genre veterans undeterred by Darkestville Castle’s rougher edges will find a charming story about demons and trickery worth experiencing. For everyone else, there are easier and more consistent adventure games deserving your time.

Pleasing aesthetics aside, Zwei hasn’t aged all that well in parts that matter the most. The game lacks the wit and charm of its sequel, the gameplay is unwieldy and the progress amounts often to guesswork. Everything The Arges Adventure does, the superior sequel The Ilvard Insurrection refines further - and beyond, as any good sequel should. There’s no guesswork in which one of the Zwei games I recommend to fill the need for a funny and smooth Japanese action RPG. In the end, The Arges Adventure is not a bad show, it’s just has passed its shelf life.

A slightly updated platformer, with just a few touches here and there completes a decent sequel.

Doesn't do anything new or exciting, and this really translates into a rather lackluster performance.

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.

Fans of the movie will enjoy the very detailed storyline invested into the game, and others will find the game to be quite challenging. It would make for a great rental for anyone looking for a nice difficult third person action game.

In spite of its childish appearance and lack of difficulty options, Super Beat Sports is an entertaining rhythm game and satisfying return to form for Harmonix. Its varied game modes offer a wide mix of challenging levels to conquer and master, while its multiplayer capabilities ensures that it earns a place on the couch for your next late-night party. It might not offer the maturity and depth of Harmonix’s previous efforts, but Super Beat Sports is a welcome addition to the Switch lineup that proves that perhaps the music game genre isn’t entirely dead, after all.

It’s a lesson Dillon’s Rolling Western: The Last Crusade could have used: it’s not always good to be genre-straddling, especially when you do it in a way that leaves both your genres hamstrung and uninteresting.

Majesco promises a unique gaming experience that looks great on paper, but is constantly plagued by poor enemy AI and major frame-rate issues.

Violent, gory, and drenched in tension and madness, Outlast 2's biggest flaw is that it sticks to a couple of notes and repeats them incessantly. Being an impotent victim with little chance of fighting back is scary for a while but wearying through the length of a game. Outlast 2's heavy-handed commentary on the dangers of fundamentalism lacks subtlety or perspective and feels like low-hanging thematic fruit. Without a shred of humor or lightness, Outlast 2 doesn't seem to realize that horror is more effective when paired with normalcy and the pleasantly mundane.

Mafia III has me torn. On one hand, it presents a crucial and engaging narrative full of astute social and political commentary and emotionally anchored characters, but on the other hand, it falls short in nearly every other aspect that is synonymous with successful open-world games. Overall, my experience with Mafia III was not a bad one, and the story was strong enough to keep me engaged until the credits rolled. It’s just unfortunate that the artistry and vision that went into the narrative did not carry over to the rest of the experience.

Strikers Edge is a pretty pixel art game with a very focused design and a well-developed experience. Unfortunately for the game, the fun is only there for the first couple of hours and the luster sadly quickly wears off. I appreciate the simplistic design but the unforgiving AI and limited roster/arena scope makes the game feel less then it could have been. I enjoyed Striker’s Edge and could even see this game becoming a breakout hit if the developers were able to expand the game's roster and loosen up the difficulty a bit.

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.

A similar mould as the quirky Feel the Magic, get ready for a fairly confusing plot involving a slew of mini-games, most of which aren't that exciting at all.

Azkend 2: The World Beneath has an interesting concept but executes it in a way that causes more stress than fun. Still, its a unique take on the match-3 genre, with a clever story mode and rich presentation helping it stand out among the pack. It’s worth a try for puzzle fans, but not every adventurer will appreciate this journey.

If you are a fan of squad based strategy games or old heist movies, then you should definitely check out The Masterplan.

If you’re looking for something to turn on occasionally and give you a good brain tease, then you might be satisfied with Munin. If you’re looking for something you can sink your teeth into and walk away from with fond memories, I’m afraid that Munin is as ephemeral as feather on the wind.