Dead Mage Studio took on a huge challenge in creating a compelling combat action game. They succeed in picking an interesting and mostly untouched mythology, but it's a shame that it's bogged down with a lack of polish and glitches.

At its best, it doesn't do anything but supply fun in multiplayer, but at its worse, it is a boring and generic with no redeeming qualities and is something I cannot recommend to anyone looking for a good action RPG on their Vita.

All in all, The Mage’s Tale is an ambitious title that incorporates a lot of neat features that would prove charming in a perfect VR environment, but instead demonstrates the infancy of the technology when so much of it fails to register properly. There are still fun moments to be had during the instances where everything works, but an uneven control scheme results in an uneven experience regardless of intentions.

In all, it was a decent attempt at a new concept but didn’t quite ever make it further than that.

On the plus side, Pixel Gear at least scores points for getting the job done. The shooting works well, and properly timing the use of explosives and headshots can also be satisfying in its simplicity. Regrettably, the game is also lacking in content: four stages are all that’s available, the weapon selection is sparse, and there isn’t even an option to wield two Move controllers for double the gunplay. Even the music can’t be turned off, resulting in one annoying track playing the entire way through.

Let us be honest. If this game was released WITHOUT the license, absolutely no one would care about it.

Overall Popup Dungeon is a very average game; first launching on Kickstarter April 3rd 2014, it has taken more than 6 years to release but the game and the humour already feels outdated. However Triple.B.Titles have done a great job at creating a papercraft style game and by adding more depth to the combat I could see this game sticking around for a while with the aid of a creative community to take the game to its limits.

Simply put, of the three Umihara Kawase games now available on Steam, Shun feels like the weakest link in the series. While the game still retains much of the charm and physics-based platforming that is a known quantity at this point, it also feels like an entry that is only worth looking into when you’ve mastered the other two games first.

Elven Legacy is mercifully conservative in its design, though it does not seem to be executed as smoothly as it should have been. With more time in development, future releases for the series should turn out to be more entertaining.

Maybe they should give the reins back to Camelot before they think about releasing another Mario Sports title, because Square Enix have proven they have trouble cutting the mustard.

From the initial trailers, Special Forces: Team X showed some promise, but after spending some time with the game I find it hard to recommend it to people, especially with the problems it is faced with at the moment.

Combat feels like a badly AI’ed multiplayer game, the type of game that is meant for human players, and an AI system has been pasted on later for people with no friends (see Battlefield 1941).

An intentionally janky experience that will make you laugh in amusement at its balls-to-the-wall randomness and moan in frustration at its awkward gameplay features. A fair attempt at bringing back the fun, no-nonsense action games of the PS2/PS3 era, but one that does not quite hit the same heights as those B-tier titles. A specific crowd who enjoys these less fluid action games will find something to like here, but maybe wait for a sale before taking that ride to crazy town.

Overall, Pinball FX2 VR does exactly what is advertised, and it does so adequately. It’s just unfortunate that there aren’t more viewing options, not to mention the costly requirement just to own a handful of tables that don’t even include the more popular licensed games beyond The Walking Dead. Only the most hardcore pinball players will truly appreciate the recreated table perspective with required standing, while more comfortable (and cheaper) alternatives are available with previous console iterations.

A short-lived, occasionally exciting but overall shallow experience.

I don’t often criticize a game for not living up to the standards of another but Tiny Metal tries so hard to mirror Nintendo’s approach I must speak up when I see failings. When you come at the king you better not miss, and Tiny Metal stumbles at every step on its way there. I wanted to love Tiny Metal, I really did, but in the end, as I chipped away at the game, it just made my longing to step back onto the Advance Wars battlefield even stronger. At best Tiny Metal is a rough draft of something that could be great further down the line.

Super Solid have played it safe with this title by recreating what we all know has been successful in the past, but unfortunately not meeting expectations as a full, complete game (even if it is free).

With the rate in which this company pumps out titles, fans of Moe and/or RPGs might be better off waiting for the next Hyperdimension Neptunia, which is also hitting the PS4 this year.

In conclusion, Realms of War is a title that is on the lower side of average in the genre it exists in.

Great character models, professional voice acting and initially enjoyable combat can’t make up for the other graphical and design mistakes.

Overall, “average” is the perfect descriptor for Akiba’s Beat. While there is nothing particularly bad about it, it does little to stand out among the most recent releases that truly revitalize the JRPG genre. It is both baffling and disheartening that the developers chose to rob the very things that made Akiba’s Trip stand out among the sea of Japanese games only to have it conform to a pale imitation of more polished JRPGs. If you haven’t done so already, consider passing over this game in favor of seeking out its more unique (and entertaining) predecessor for cheap.

Let us be honest. If this game was released WITHOUT the license, absolutely no one would care about it.

Senran Kagura: Bon Appétit! is a game purely designed for its fans. If anyone was foolish enough to think that this spin-off may introduce any gameplay elements to draw in newcomers, think again.

Meanwhile, everyone who’s already played Resi 4 can see that Cursed Mountain is, without a shadow of a doubt, a bit pants.

The Glaive works well and is rather satisfying to use but this is offset by the old school use of ammo crates and parts of levels being sealing off, making it as linear as they come.

Breach simply doesn't match up to what is on offer in the videogame market today.

If you are the kind of gamer who likes to learn song layouts, practices all the way to Carnegie Hall, and then uploads a video of a brilliant high score to YouTube, then this one is probably not for you as it will only madden you in the long run.

A better journalist might make a little comment here, just to wrap things up, about how you were fighting for freedom in Red Faction: Guerrilla, yet as a gamer you had it all along. Despite liberating Mars at the end of that game, find yourself more restricted than ever in the follow-up. I'm not that guy.

What is here is essentially a mini-game collection coated in a Kirby presentation. It’s a fun game, especially when you get four players together and can experience the game at its full potential, but Nintendo has been delivering amazing quality this year, even on the 3DS, but this is a chip in their fantastic release schedule. Kirby Battle Royale is lacking any will to innovate. It’s happy to be playing it safe and be a standard multiplayer game that will loose its replay value fast, and with the weak single player challenge that becomes repetitive before it ends, the game does not offer much to the huge 3DS library available other than being a average bag of multiplayer mayhem.

In all, the expansion does exactly what you’d expect from a cheap or perhaps even free update but unfortunately this one currently comes at half the price of the original FORCED SHOWDOWN and I’m afraid I simply can’t recommend it at that price.

Ninja Gaiden 3 has all of the telltale signs of a good game. Triple-A branding, fantastic dev team, worldwide support. Unfortunately, what could have been a fairly solid entry is plagued by backwards-innovation [No inventory? Japanese voice option?], absolutely mediocre and over-streamlined combat gameplay, and a predictable plot.

Overall the game is fun to play and as my first foray into simulation games it held my attention for a while, but I quickly noticed when things fell apart or just didn’t stand up to my ideal of what a simulation should be. I would recommend the game to anyone who loves a nice sim game but to newcomers you will quickly become annoyed with the graphics, physics and the driving.

As it stands, Sports Bar VR is more like a virtual hangout reminiscent of Playstation Home, a social gathering where few patrons indulged in any of the mini-games within and remained content to treat it as a console-based Second Life. It is perhaps for that reason that Sports Bar VR will turn into a cult favorite among early adopters, but for anyone hoping for even a semi-accurate recreation of competitive sports bar activities, they may consider sticking to the real smoke-filled hangouts until a more precise alternative is released.

There's no denying it. Star Raiders is bad. It's repetitive, embarrassing, rushed and tedious.

It’s such a shame that the game’s battle system wasn’t better thought out because it really lets down what could have been a great little game.

The core gunplay mechanic may be genre leading, but the wrapper that surrounds it continues to be irreparably broken.

Even though there are a few moments where the game is quite satisfactory, you’re always wishing for more than it ever truly delivers.

Darkest of Days ends up being a mediocre FPS. The production values are severely lacking, but under the hood you can see that the developers really tried. This is only the second game produced by 8monkeylabs, hopefully their future games will have a more polish.

The Minotaur says with his sad cow eyes glistening “Don’t worry guys, everything will be alright”, but the Minotaur knows it’s not going to be alright… it’s not going to be alright at all.

A short-lived, occasionally exciting but overall shallow experience.

The best open world games nowadays are an expansion of the form, but Mad Max is highly regressive in far too many areas to be meaningful.

I may be able to suggest this game as a decent mobile title to play for someone who wants another rhythm game but the way that the game handles a character diagnosed with cancer makes me feel worse about its entirety.

A basic platformer with the same old clichéd mobility tools and a pretty underwhelming world to be a part of just isn’t enough to make its mark these days, making Shu feel a little played out. It’s by no means a bad game, but hardly a good one either; it falls quite neatly into the comfortable, average middle-ground.

Overall, Shantae: Risky’s Revenge is a nice throwback, even if it’s not really that old, with a single glaring problem – being ‘Metroidvania’ style comes with some responsibilities that this title just couldn’t hold up its end of the bargain for.

Unfortunately, that isn’t the case and what you’re left with is a game that is overall enjoyable, but one that you are too embarrassed to recommend to friends. It shows that trying to attract players by using outdated internet jokes is nowhere near as efficient as simply creating a fun experience.

Overall, I think PositronX, despite currently being very average, has the framework necessary to become something greater with some added touches and fixes. During early access the game received plenty of updates but perhaps it’s time to go back to basics and look to improve those key elements that make a successful FPS game to keep you coming back for more.

I applaud UTV for bringing a very niche genre to the PlayStation 3, complete with generous Move support, but I find the title fizzles out too quickly, and hope that their next offering comes out of the PS3 kitchen less underdone.

It’s a game that has a core mechanic done decently, but has “generic” written all over it for everything else. Add in the throwaway, barebones multiplayer and there isn’t anything here worthwhile for anyone but hardcore sniper fans.

Episode 1 of Missing is a nice looking FMV with decent acting, detailed set-pieces, and little else. While this is only the beginning, my interest in finding out who captured David and why is tempered by relative disinterest in the characters themselves and the events surrounding them.

Darkest of Days ends up being a mediocre FPS. The production values are severely lacking, but under the hood you can see that the developers really tried. This is only the second game produced by 8monkeylabs, hopefully their future games will have a more polish.

The Minotaur says with his sad cow eyes glistening “Don’t worry guys, everything will be alright”, but the Minotaur knows it’s not going to be alright… it’s not going to be alright at all.

An average experience is still better than a bad one, but anyone hoping for a better high school horror experience should consider checking out Corpse Party or shell out however much a Playstation VR will cost for the remake of White Day.

Overall, Glowfish is a mediocre game that I'm sure a handful of people will really enjoy.

As a brief VR experience filled with short bursts of play, you could do a whole lot worse, but anyone besides hardcore fans of sorcery and snooty accents expecting a longer-lasting and/or immersive experience should perhaps look elsewhere.

Crackdown was fun back in 2007, and Crackdown 2 offers a slight update to the core ideas brought to air in the original. Whilst those ideas still may be good however, they no longer feel all that special.

In the end, it’s worth a curious glance while keeping its technical failings in mind, or a decent distraction for younger children to play with.

It can provide some brief frantic fun, and perhaps a glimpse into how repetitive and tiresome the career of a health care worker can be.

It’s a real shame, but while it might keep younger players or the bored occupied, most of the time there’s probably a better choice – even if that’s putting your mittens on and heading out to play in the garden.

Serious Sam 4 had the opportunity to go a little wild, to try some new things, and yes, potentially fail. Instead it chose the cowards way out and did almost nothing, making it a better benchmark test than a video game.

The game isn’t bad, it’s just not great, and I was expecting a little bit more than a generic western fantasy RPG with competent combat from the studio that brought us the tantalising Of Orcs and Men.

There are parts of Neversong that hit the right notes, if you will, but they are too few and far between for the unique visuals and music to carry one’s enjoyment, and patience, through to the end.

Crucially, if you stand back and think of what the series could be evolving into with current hardware then you can’t help but look at DW6 as a disappointment.

At first I felt like Wonhon was a revenge fantasy built on the outrage of the atrocities committed during the Korean War (a time when Japan annexed Korea and worked to entirely wipe out their culture and history), but it’s not. Not entirely. It gives players a peek through the looking glass at just a few of those horrible truths and grants them some catharsis as they’re able to put some of the victims at ease, even if what they believe they need in that moment is the bloodshed of those that wronged them. But when that starts to come apart all we see is the suffering caused at the hands of War Pigs. It’s just a shame that the game ends before it really gets to explore those avenues any further, leaving it to fall a little short in both the gameplay aspect and in its observations of an abhorrent smear on World History that is all too recent.

If you really like puzzles and parkour mechanics, check this one out, otherwise you might not find what you’re looking for.

With a little more care put into the game’s story and more unique special objectives, Jane Wilde could have been something great.

Sorry kid – maybe next year.

Lips disappoints by lacking in features in almost every area, and although the microphones set a new standard for future singing games to strive towards, the functionality is often worse than games nearly half-a-decade old.

The actual game has smooth and responsive controls, an appropriate soundtrack and a particular lean-back quality that I do enjoy, allowing me to quickly jump into a game that is pretty relaxed and simple to play. But that is just enough.

Blue Dragon Plus is not a bad game. Despite its failings, it manages to be a perfectly competent RPG, but it does nothing to excite the imagination or stimulate the player. If it were a colour, it would be beige.

Guards‘ makes a good case to bring accessible mechanics for anyone who does not enjoy turn-based strategy games due to their complexity, delivering those people a game that can be easily picked up and played for for a few turns before becoming tired of its unique, but limited gameplay. For veterans, however, Guards is unlikely to keep your attention for long, if at all, its a title that can get boring all too quickly with its lack of level, enemy and visual variety.

There’s nothing outright bad about Conglomerate 451. If you want a dungeon crawler with this specific motif and you’re okay with a less than stellar underlying game that for all intents and purposes gets the job done, this should fit that bill. It gets the atmosphere right and there’s plenty to do, and especially for the asking price, what’s on offer here is not unreasonable.

The new mechanics that the developer tried to add to the mix end up making everything much less fun than they might have seemed conceptually. Adding this with the historical parts of the game makes it feel like a lot of the player’s agency has been taken away.

Personally I found it a bit on the dull side but perhaps it might make an ideal Christmas present for a more elderly relative, as long as they have a DS that is.

Unfortunately there is so much wrong with it that it doesn’t even manage to reach average status.

How the developer of Star Wars: Battlefront and the publishers of the Battlefield series let this one out the door in this state I will never understand.

Despite the tedious missions, wonky controls and piss-poor visuals, it can cast a strange spell over you.

Unfortunately there’s not enough here to justify itself at all – nothing that mixes up the already wonderful gameplay, nor any story purpose, nor extra benefits/modes/items to care about. I only hope that this doesn’t dissuade the team to move on to other things because I would love more Textorcist – there isn’t anything else out there to scratch the same itch. The problem is that, with how fun those first set of big baddies were, we now expect each fight to be pumped full of creative ways to push the player, to always one up the previous encounter, and that’s just a seriously hard target to meet.

There is really nothing astonishing about this game. The anime (and the manga) does it all so much better – go spend a couple of hours watching that instead.

Check vs. Mate could have been very good if the developers hadn't been lazy with character animations, or if someone had taken the time to write a legitimate story.

In the end, Mini-Mech Mayhem‘s charming aesthetic might win kids over, but whether or not they’ll have the patience for the tedious controls and length of matches is another thing entirely. The concept of a strategy game playing out on a virtual board is an intriguing one, but like many PSVR experiments, this one fails to execute its ambitious concepts effectively, much less create an alternative experience to traditional console-based strategy games played with a controller.

Perhaps a better, more Mean Girls like way, to summarize the game in one simple phrase is like this. It’s just not Fetch.

The original Force Unleashed shot for the stars, and fell short, but at least you could commend it for trying. Force Unleashed 2 feels sterile and barren in comparison, refusing to try for anything spectacular, and managing to reuse and recycle its few good ideas countless times over its short run.

Call me disappointed in the end for Dungeon Fighter Live. I was hoping to have a nice smoothie of fun, beat-em-up gameplay, RPG elements and loot blended into one, but I came away saddened and frustrated.

Garfield’s Wild Ride can’t overcome the licensed app blues. Whether you play this on an iOS or Android device, it’s probable that the experience will be underwhelming, if not frustrating.

Regardless of quantity concerns (which is a valid complaint), where The Order more crucially falls apart is in regards to quality. It does not matter if a game is one or one hundred hours long, you need to enjoy playing it, and The Order fails at that most crucial of tasks. This is unforgivable, and instantly makes it impossible to recommend.

TowerMancer leaves a lot to be desired, which is just so annoying because it feels like they almost had something great, something you wouldn’t be able to pull yourself away from. It has an underlying addictive quality but it constantly works to push the player away with repetitive levels, fixed-path victories, and non-stop griefing. I really do hope to see another iteration from the team with a wider variety of everything – level setups, hazards, rooms, options. It could be a fab little time waster, but in its current state I think most people are just going to come away aggravated, disappointed, or both.

The Postal games have always been unoriginal by gameplay standards, but have always made up for it with hilarious situations. Unfortunately, this Postal game seems to have taken too much from inspirations like Gears of War. It literally feels like they spent half the time the game was in development watching Jackass, and the other half reading 14 year old boys' Blogspots. They then combined the two and decided to make a clunky game out of it.

The original Force Unleashed shot for the stars, and fell short, but at least you could commend it for trying. Force Unleashed 2 feels sterile and barren in comparison, refusing to try for anything spectacular, and managing to reuse and recycle its few good ideas countless times over its short run.

Sadly, while the game does have its fun moments here and there, the game breaks apart with monotonous and predicable combat, boring side quests and poor pacing. It’s one for the hardcore fans, but even then, I’m not sure how well they can admire this.

There is fun to be had here for children who are particularly fond of colouring and puzzles, but if they’re that keen, you can get the real thing for a tiny fraction of the cost of this (as well as being able to look at your work later), and so there’s little reason to buy Crayola Treasure Adventures.

It should be noted that the idea of terrain deformation is a good one, and one that deserves to be expanded on, but this time around its implementation is significantly below par in execution. So much so, that I’d be hard-pressed to recommend the game to anyone - even as a rental.

For a person who missed the era when the game was in its prime, Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded will feel like a relic creeping into the modern age and demonstrating to everyone how archaic the old times used to be.

Battleship is just another below-par movie license videogame. It features an extremely short campaign that you can blast through in an evening and no multiplayer or incentives to replay once you've finished the game. It isn't worth the full retail asking price for the sheer fact that none of the gameplay is exciting or good. In short, the game is basic, boring, uninspiring and not entertaining. Battleship should be left to sink in the cluttered first-person shooter market.

Ultimately, I believe that the Hatred team simply tried to make something controversial in the hopes that nobody would notice how forgettable their title is. Even calling itself ‘ultra-violent’ is a stretch.

Sadly, for me this game was a big disappointment, a bit of a wreck so to speak.

Tiberium Twilight is a poor game that removes the things that made the original concept so good. What’s left is a hollow shell that feels irrelevant, given the superior games in the series that came long before it.

WWE2K16 is a game with so many various bugs that sometime soon sentient societies will rise up to worship them. If this does not bother you, and you can laugh away regular trips to the monster factory of technical horror, then maybe you will be able to find moments of joy in the substandard gameplay on show.

It isn't an awful game, by any measure – just a terminally dull one.