A nostalgic joke taken too far. Though there are postivies in the presentation, the gameplay is laborious, even draining. Shaq Fu outstays its welcome, despite its meagre run-time, which is far more offensive than its juvenile attempts at "edgy" comedy. Shaq should've known better than to put his name to this, and everyone should've known better than to put money into its creation.

I don’t regret having played this, but I do wish it was better. I love playing co-op games and I was excited by the idea of this minimalist platformer giving me an experience to bond over. Sadly, we both were pretty much in agreement on the final outcome. Unravel Two just doesn’t quite have what it takes to be special.

It's still a good time to play Splatoon, especially if you're up for a solo intermission and keep your expectations in check.

Fortnite on the Switch is still Fornite, albeit with a few graphical concessions. And Fortnite is good.

This is about as pure as a game can be. You learn how to play it in a few minutes, but can sit with it for hours. Its stylistic visuals and awesome soundtrack draw you in and keep you hypnotised, while addictive and challenging gameplay teases you with frantic block-dodging mayhem, great multiplayer modes and weird, surprisingly emotive "characters." In a time of incredible looking, but often flabby titles, it's nice to be reminded that, sometimes, Just Shapes & Beats is all you need.

I want to love Wizard of Legend. It's a fun, fastpaced beat-em-up with lots of replay value, gorgeous pixel art, and an incredibly deep combat system. But the frame skipping I encountered made playing it an exercise in frustration. If the issue is ever sorted out, I'll give it a more enthusiastic recommendation. For now, I just wish it played more smoothly.

It almost works better in a straight TV show format than it does as a deep puzzler with RPG elements.

House Flipper manages to scratch a specific itch, but it lacks long-term incentives and just generally feels like a missed opportunity. With more content, polish, interactivity, and customization, this could become a nice sleeper hit. It's serviceable as is, but it won't hold your attention for too long.

I can't fathom a situation where fans of the franchise will be disappointed with Dillon's Dead-Heat Breakers. The music is fantastic, the world well-realized, Dillion has never looked better, and the shift away from predominantly touch controls is a wise decision. This is a solid adventure through and through, and it gives me slight hope we'll see other forgotten eShop gems get another chance to shine in the future.

Riddle Corpses EX doesn't go beyond its initial premise and I'll admit I'm more than tired of zombies and demons as the go-to cookie-cutter enemies. With a bit more personality or perhaps some original ideas, it'd be a no-brainer to recommend. As is, it's simply a fun and challenging twin-stick shooter that's perfect in short bursts. Quite frankly, that's good enough.

Antigraviator feels great to play and has a style that will be familiar to players of F-Zero and Wipeout, but its attempts to differentiate itself like the trap mechanic don't add much to the overall package. It does, however, hit the mark where it counts. The track design is solid, the sense of speed is great, and controls are tight and feel familiar for anyone who's played a racing game.

BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle pretty much speaks to everyone, even if a few of its core mechanics aren't as refined as several of Arc's other works.

Onrush could use some refinement when it comes to its modes but its core is strong, and the foundation is set for a great arcade racer.

FTG may be a bit rough to get into at first, but with a little dedication and the right type of niche desires this may be a little slice of heaven for you. If you aren't interested in the subject matter I'd suggest finding another tactical strategy game to enjoy.

The story may be a tad lackluster, and the combat may be clunky as hell, but Vampyr does offer a compelling adventure for those looking for some blood-sucking fun.

Even the high-fidelity visuals are marred by an inconsistent framerate and terrible animations and transitions.

Milanoir takes an appealing aesthetic with a promising setup and turns it into a dutiful slog without much of a payout. It's basic, it's petty, and it's laughably crude. It is a noir title that really doesn’t have a whole lot to say.

Yoku's Island Express is a delight, plain and simple. It's gorgeous, plays beautifully, and I hope it's the start of a new franchise, because I want to play a lot more of this.

It's an okay-at-best tower defense title that treads familiar ground. Coming off the original, that's a huge downgrade.

Baobabs Mausoleum Volume 1: Ovnifagos Don't Eat Flamingos is a very strange game, both boosted and busted by its own quirkiness. It's got some definite faults in its grab-bag of gameplay styles and settings, but there's still a macabre charm hiding underneath all of the jank that goes along with so seemingly-unclear of a vision.

Moonlighter is incredibly captivating on the surface, but there is a lot of frustration just waiting to be uncovered.

Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection brings together some of the greatest fighting games of all time - many of which are still top-tier titles today - complete with slick online gameplay and a fully-featured training mode, all for 40 bucks. Though SF30 doesn't quite live up to its potential as a comprehensive historical document, ultimately, The Fight is all that matters. In that regard Capcom, some 30 years later, just scored another K.O. We await your return, warrior.

While some of Conan Exiles has rubbed off a bit for me thanks to friction with its more cumbersome aspects, it remains a genuinely engrossing experience to play... if you can find a spot in the queue.

It might not blaze the trail on anything new like a few other recent Inti Creates projects have, but it does exactly what it needs to do, and helps bolster the new legacy of Bloodstained proper before it's even out.

Being able to easily bust out the Joy-Con controllers for co-op and flip the system on its side for a vertical screen orientation is the real deal. Ikaruga is a timeless classic, and for those of us without a swiveling monitor, the Switch is just about the ideal way to experience it.

Detroit: Become Human, like most Quantic Dream games, is filled with muddled symbolism and a spark of hope amidst its most interesting universe yet.

Dark Souls Remastered speaks for itself just in terms of the raw mysteries it offers beyond its new coat of paint.

Personally, I want to like this game, but I Hate Running Backwards just wore out its welcome far too early.

Every time I could find something to enjoy in Flynn & Freckles it would quickly be overshadowed by a frustrating platforming sequence, mundane level design, or one of the many rage-inducing bugs that would ultimately result in my death. The character design and colorful world all have promise, but it's evident that something when wrong along the way.

Runner3 might be the best realization of their penchant for synesthesia yet.

It may not be the second coming of retro platformers, but it certainly feels like a lost gem.

If you’re a fan of noir thrillers, puzzle games or just creatively presented ideas, you’re bound to find something you’ll enjoy here. It also won’t require a massive time investment, which is always a plus.

State of Decay 2's unique approach to survival and management might not appeal to everyone, but it certainly feels like an instant cult classic.

If you skipped out on the 3DS release entirely or haven't played Hyrule in any form yet, it's going to be a much more enticing prospect.

With the various quality of life improvements, Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux is simply a more playable version of an already great game. I really enjoyed it the first time around nine years ago, and replaying it today reminds of why it was the ideal game to introduce me to the Shin Megami Tensei franchise.

A disappointment. You can see the brilliance of its world, characters and heart shining through like a star. You can even see the skeleton of a genuinely deep RPG title. But the game fights your efforts to enjoy yourself at every opportunity, be it via bad design choices, repetitious gameplay or infuriating technical problems.

There is a lot of potential here for a great idea and certain moments are truly awesome, but the whole experience just doesn’t hold up and ends on a low point. If you have a stronger stomach for finicky controls, though, Inked might just be the game for you.

Jank and sometimes dumb mutant cannibals aside, what Endnight Games accomplished with The Forest with only a team of four people is simply extraordinary. It's one of the best survival games I've played in recent memory.

Aside from the incorporated change that made previously limp exotics actually fun to use, it's clear that Bungie has a lot of work ahead of them.

Middle-earth: Shadow of War - Desolation of Mordor brings a worthy character into the spotlight with a slightly different feel, to aplomb.

Play and enjoy the Monster Hunt mode, but stick to the Arena and Tavern Brawls when playing against others if you don't want to open your wallet. I still enjoy playing this game, but the busted meta means I'm enjoying playing against other people less and less.

Some might consider it repetitive, vulgar and may even be left wondering what all the fuss was about. But, for those of you who ever fell in love with arcade brawlers, fantasy storytelling, and tabletop RPGs, then Dragon's Crown Pro will shine oh-so-brightly as the unique and sublime treasure it is.

Not every aspect of the game is perfect, but that beautifully mirrors how complex love can be.

I love the look of City of Brass and its combat system, but after only about three hours I felt like I'd seen all it had to offer. It's a great way to kill an afternoon, I just wish it would give me a reason to keep coming back.

It's an emotional roller coaster that will likely leave you more defeated after "winning" than when you first started, and that is incredible.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is a platformer that needs to be experienced by as many people as possible.

Agatha Knife isn't a perfect game, and definitely won't appeal to all. But if you can stomach some of the monotony and awkwardness of gameplay, you'll be rewarded with a charming and quirky little title that's got a lot of heart. Just don't let it get cut out of you.

The Swords of Ditto is charming, humorous, and fun to play. It's not the biggest game, but its generation-crossing story makes you feel like you're a part of its world's history.

I'm still tooling around in skirmishes in BattleTech, and it's done its part in getting me interested in the bigger picture. Harebrained Schemes should be proud, as it's mostly done right by the various tabletop licenses it's worked with for the past five years or so.

By the end, you'll feel as if you cleverly solved this murder. In all actuality, you only watched the murder solve itself. That is The Invisible Hours' greatest theatrical feat.

Building these toys back-to-back in a rush just doesn't seem like what it was made for. It's made for creativity, thinking on your own, and a million other things that you would have never have thought a video game console could do. My only worry is where I'm going to store all this cardboard, and if the games will continue to hold the interest of both myself and my son beyond the initial impact of how cool it is to make something like this.

Oddmar, even as an abbreviated experience, is one hell of a game and easily one of the best platformers on the App Store.

It’s a really f.cking stupid game, and that’s what I loved about it. It seems like it’s almost doomed to be overlooked, but this is a classic case of the pros outweighing the cons. Super Daryl Deluxe has cult classic written all over it.

Metropolis: Lux Obscura is another entry in the crowded Match 3 market, albeit one with a decadent coating of sleaze and brutality. Fans of the genre will have a fun time while it lasts, but anyone disinterested in such games will find nothing new here. Though it certainly isn't without its merits, namely in its great art, branching pathways and low price, Metropolis suffers due to its unoriginality and short lifespan, which may be enough for some to give this otherwise interesting release the hard goodbye.

Sony Santa Monica has made it clear that there’s more story to tell, and I hope the exact same team is able to tell it.

Despite its promise, we really need to see where post-game support and server population is going to be in a few months.

If Gal*Gun: Double Peace was Times Square before Giuliani with all the porn stores, go-go bars, and occasional double homicide, Gal*Gun 2 is Times Square after Giuliani where the most immoral thing you’ll see is the lingerie section at Forever 21.

WWII's DLC is slipping into a comfortable skin, which is great if you've already nabbed your season pass, and meh news for everyone else.

Extinction is a good blueprint for a more interesting game.

Despite these nitpicks that are unique to the console editions, TERA is still absolutely worth trying out if you've never delved into it before. It's something I plan on sticking with on the side rather than as a main course, but those of you who are already chowing down on TERA should probably stay with the PC version.

Everything about Minit should feel overwhelming. It doesn't. Instead, everything feels attainable in due time. There's this weird and perfect harmony about knowing you're rushed and also not caring. It's liberating. I could keep gushing about Minit but, given the source material, this review is already too long.

NIS delivers the weird yet again with Penny-Punching Princess, a fun little arcade romp that just escapes the danger of staleness. Stretched a little too thin but a lot of people are going to be enjoying this one with a price drop.

It's campy fun and that's perfectly fine. Just don't expect too much more.

Episode Five: Same Stitch is a worthy finale. It also has genuine replay value, given its two distinct acts and multiple climaxes. With the focus fixed squarely on its brilliant leads, the final episode makes for a taut, satisfying conclusion, even if I did arch an eyebrow at how my alleged "choices" for the past ten hours ultimately played out.

The story and characters of The Alliance Alive will stay with me far longer than anything else in the game. Yoshitaka Murayama has proven '90s-style storytelling is still as enrapturing today as it was two decades ago. His work just needs to be paired up with a better game. I respect all of the new gameplay ideas present here, but without fine-tuning, they bring down what should be one of the last great 3DS games.

That clash of bucolic, frontiersman-like Americana and end-of-days gloom brought on by the cult informs every aspect of Far Cry 5, but also highlights some of its biggest shortcomings.

Ghost of a Tale is a gorgeous, fun adventure that can occasionally be bogged down by frustrating and repetitive mechanics and it's come a long way since entering Early Access in 2016.

The foundation is great. The fundamentals are there. It doesn't take much imagination to see how this game could blossom into something magnificent. But so long as it's missing long-term depth and incentives to stick around past the first few weeks, Sea of Thieves will feel like a missed opportunity.

I want to see a lot more of Detective Pikachu despite my misgivings with his 3DS debut.

There is a great blend of RPG and narrative mechanics here, it just isn't worth muddling through everything else to experience.

Pato Box is one of the most unique titles I've played in some time. It has its share of problems, with an unorthodox style that might not be to everyone's taste, but feels destined to acquire a cult following. Though quite flawed, it still has the ability to get the heart pounding, and sounds damn good while doing so.

Level-5 is more than capable of dumping out healthy portions of its secret sauce on top of its games, but the combat of Ni no Kuni II and its attempt to do so many different things can hold it back.

The Curse of the Pharaohs is among the most ambitious of Assassin's Creed add-ons while also among the least jarring. It's quite possibly the best DLC to date. If this is Bayek's swan song, he went out on a high note.

Super Seducer: How to Talk to Women is too stupid to be sexist. It’s a relic from the Entourage era we’re all better off having moved on from and absolutely nothing to get worked up over.

Vermintide 2 is an improvement over its predecessor with more beautifully designed sprawling levels, more varied enemy types, an addictive loot system, and a whole lot of character skills to try out. The sequel is at its best when it's creating tense moments, even if it can quickly get a little bit overwhelming. I also apologize to all of those I left to die in matchmaking.

Burnout Paradise Remastered isn't really worth grabbing if you already have the original. Hell, said original is even backward compatible on the Xbox One right now. Without any prior experience though I would absolutely give Paradise City a spin -- even with its faults, it's still one of the most memorable and mild open worlds in existence.

My gripes aside, Surviving Mars might be the most fun I've had with a city-building game since SimCity 2000, and Haemimont has accomplished this feat by drilling down into the details, and zooming in on the kinds of small-scale community-building that I'd always felt the that city-builders with a grander scope lacked.

Given more development time, this could have been the definitive entry in the series, but what we’re left with is good enough.

I don't think HAL is very interested in drastically altering the Kirby formula at this point, and that's perfectly fine.

It's held back by some dated design philosophies and a short playtime, but Detention still packs one hell of a punch.

A package which includes a gorgeous aesthetic and lonely atmosphere with a haunting soundtrack and overall sound design to match. Throw all this in with enough alien weirdness, science fiction elements, some unique puzzle concepts, and it still kept my attention to the very end.

The best I could say for Bravo Team is that it existed, seemed to work, did not make me physically ill to play (more than I can say for some categorically better-designed titles, honestly), and was done with before could I grew genuinely resentful. Beyond that, it's a completely perfunctory title that is otherwise unworthy of the studio producing it.

Battlezone: Combat Commander is a relic of its time. It’s clear this is a love letter to fans of the original, a nicer way to play a game plagued with some unfortunate problems back when it was released.

Into the Breach is a mechanically perfect game that is surrounded by mediocre design decisions. I absolutely adore the tactics-style gameplay and how simplistically the game can convey so much information. But with the only run variance being the three pilotable mechs and the potential upgrades, things just start to feel "same-y" after not too long. For those, like myself, who can easily fall in love with intelligently designed mechanics, there is a lot to love about Into the Breach, but it's not as well-rounded as it could be.

Trying to find fault in CHUCHEL, though, is a pretty pointless endeavor. The game sets out with a simple goal, achieves it beautifully, and doesn’t waste your time getting its point across. I don’t really know how much better this could get. I suppose $10 might be a bit much for some to swallow, but CHUCHEL is a great experience that is definitely worth a whirl.

Past Cure wants to be something great, and that ambition is the only thing it has on its side. This is a game that is flawed to its core. The mangled story and shoddy design prevent any single aspect from ever sticking out as something special. Don't even risk taking a bargain bin flier on this one. You'll only end up frustrating yourself.

Fear Effect Sedna shows that the developer truly knows its source material inside out, but unfortunately the gameplay aspect remains lost. With poor voice-acting, a broken, almost unnecessary tactical system, unreliable A.I., and flat action, Sedna just isn't fun or compelling.

Although I came in rusty, DJMax Respect beckoned me to keep my fingers dancing and to further one-up myself. The more I did that the more fun it became, and I'm looking forward to enjoying all of the DLC to come, and potentially, the full-on resurrection of DJMax in the west.

The game looks great -- it's awesome to get down on the ground level and watch the little dudes duke it out. Even the maps themselves look incredible. But once the novelty of "it's in virtual reality!" wears off, you are left with a mechanically-solid RTS game with a poor story, that lacks specific commands veterans will expect, and has what is likely a very small community.

Part Time UFO is a HAL Laboratory classic through and through. It’s cute, charming, and challenging. It may not set the mobile world on fire, but honestly, it’s the exact type of game I’d love to see more of from the old-school titans of the industry.

Sprint Vector definitely does more right than it does wrong and its unique form of movement in VR is something I think we'll see used by other developers going forward. It had me wanting a Mirror's Edge VR, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

It's a wild, creative, occasionally erratic game. Pit People is imperfect, but it's so worth your time.

There is so much to celebrate here in terms of quality aesthetic design, intelligent gameplay, online stability, and genuine heartfelt passion from the underdog developer. Betting against something special being delivered over time would be foolhardy. There's more work that needs to be done, but Them's Fightin' Herds has come out of the gate with a lot of promise, and I, for one, hope it builds upon its foundation, finds its audience, and takes its place in the Winner's Circle soon.

The organic integration of puzzle elements makes for one of the best detective games around.

Where the Water Tastes Like Wine is an excellent exploration of stories and the meanings we place upon them. It's a road trip game through the American landscape that's punctuated by astounding writing and entertaining encounters. There's nothing quite like it, and it's doubtful that there ever will be.

Florence is an imaginative, breathtaking, heartbreaking tale of two artists trying a love they’re not quite ready for. It’s as honest a look at the subject matter as you’ll find in a game -- or so I've been told by others who've been writing about it incessantly since its release. But as much as Florence focuses on love, I’m not quite sure it’s a fan of it.

This could easily be a flagship series for PlayStation VR.

Flaming Fowl Studios has the opportunity to transform Fable Fortune into something more in the future. For now, it's derivative, flawed, and unfinished.