With They Bleed Pixels, Spooky Squid Games tried to cleverly blend hard-as-nails platforming with beat-em-up mechanics. Though the end result is not the perfectly balanced fusion the team was aiming for, it's still an intense adventure for anyone who doesn't mind repeated death and dismemberment.

Simply put, it’s a title that knows what it is and seems to hit all its targets with deadly precision. This results in a game that isn’t exactly transcendental, but is as solid as bedrock. Even if you’re not a fan of the Record of Lodoss War source material, it is worth a look. At the very least, it took me back to my days of binging on Castlevania’s Game Boy and DS titles, which I mean as a compliment. It may not be the freshest meal in the cafeteria, but it’s still a tasty dish at the right price.

With a charming aesthetic, innovative mechanics, and action-packed gameplay, Darwin's Paradox is an ambitious little game with quite a lot of heart, much like its eight-armed hero. Unfortunately, that ambition sometimes outpaces its technical performance. But if you can look past occasional frame drops and stutters, you'll find a clever platformer swimming beneath the surface.

While it misses the mark of nailing the same sense of magic and wonder of the original trilogy, fans who had missed this style and approach in 2008's Prince of Persia offering should welcome this new-yet-familiar adventure with open arms.

Thankfully, both Famicom Detective Club games stand on their own even thirty years after their initial release.

What initially seemed like a fun way to kill a few hours has turned out to be a highly entertaining time sink.

My Lord 2 includes everything worthwhile from its predecessor and builds on top of that grand foundation; there's simply no need to go back to the first.

If Harvestella is to be the first of a new franchise for Square Enix, I think this game gets it off on the right foot. Outside of combat and the disappointment of the much-hullabalooed Quietus season, this is a pretty good take on the farm sim/RPG genre with some excellently designed dungeons and characters worth caring about. It may be a bit too simple for some, but I will gladly accept simplicity if it’s wrapped around something as delightful as Harvestella.

It does not stand out. It is not exactly filler, but it does feel like it exists almost entirely as exposition, putting the pieces into place for all of the really exciting stuff to happen in a future episode.

Call of Duty: Ghosts, however, with its slapdash campaign and unambitious multiplayer, contains enough factory-standard cynicism to earn itself plenty of scorn. Nothing Ghosts does is especially bad, but nothing Ghosts does is worth paying any attention to. It exists to exist, a stopgap bit of filler spat out as the industry transitions from one generation of consoles to another.

While challenging and strategy intensive, Yggdra Union is polished and easy to like. The combination of an involved strategy game play design and steadily increasing difficulty keeps you hooked, and the thrill of winning against massive armies keeps you coming back.

The Deadly Tower of Monsters is a fleeting experience, but one that no B-movie fan should go without.

Super Mario Maker for 3DS isn't a bad game or even a bad creation tool, but without its online heart continuously pumping life into it, it feels more like a useless skeleton, and nobody likes skeletons. NOBODY.

Mafia: The Old Country plays like a memorable mob movie set in early 1900s Sicily, making for one of the better singleplayer experiences in 2025 so far. While the ride may end too quickly for some, this entertaining tale is just as long as it needs to be to deliver a very solid game.

Despite complaints, it's a compelling story with some standout moments and surprising twists. Even more surprising is that the narrative does make sense in the end; a Sherlock Holmes story needs to be tight and logical, which this game manages to pull off overall.

Hammerin' Hero is fun, funny, and refreshing. I can't think of another locally available PSP game that has this much wierdness and Japanese quirk.

It's not likely that Your Shape will or should replace an actual in-the-gym routine, but it's a great supplement and a step in the right direction for the more sedentary gamers among us.

I like Killzone: Shadow Fall for its change of direction from previous series games, as well as its change of pace over other first-person shooters. Guerrilla has tried a few new things this time around, and should be commended as such. I welcome the almost sandbox-ish level approach, and the stealth segments did a nice job of breaking up the standard shooting action.

Life Goes On might not start with the most mindblowing hook, but the idea is solid and Infinite Monkeys develops it well. By constantly adding new tricks into its repertoire and not dragging itself out unnecessarily, it maintains a good quality throughout.

While it doesn't execute fully with its foundation, it does take more risks than I expected, to the point where it's going to be worth a look for some folks.

It’s when I go back into the story mode that I’m reminded these worlds are rather basic, the monetization is questionable, and there just isn’t enough content in it right now.

The story is engaging and the characters are lively and fun. Those that wanted something more in its predecessor will surely be pleased. Fans of the strategy RPG genre will definitely want to check this one out.

Having D.I.Y. Showcase means I can play F*ck Face on the big screen. It's purely a vanity thing, but it's still amazing to hold a controller in your hand, look at your TV, and play something that came out of your own brain. That alone was worth my $8.

The Saboteur is not just one of 2009's biggest surprises -- it's THE big surprise of 2009. Despite its humble promotion, the lament that it was sent out to die, and the death of developer Pandemic, The Saboteur is a terrific experience deserving of more accolades and attention that it will ever receive. It looks terrific, it has a fun story with a wonderful main character, and addictive gameplay that allows you to explode Nazis again and again and again.

It's not perfect, but Chicken Wiggle tickles the creative part of my brain that loves drumming up platformer levels when I should be doing actual work. The campaign can be better, a lot better, but the hours I'll spend with this game will not be going back over those levels. I'll be spending them making my own little masterpieces and that's the part this game mostly gets right.

I finished AWE with a yearning for more Alan Wake and a yearning for more Control. Remedy has more or less confirmed we'll get more of both at some point in the future, although they might be presented through the lens of yet another series. That's the reality of the Remedy Connected Universe. As a trial run, AWE manages to be a great double-dip on some beloved narratives, even though it's not necessarily a great representation of either Control or Alan Wake individually. Sometimes the sum is greater than the parts, sometimes the lake is really an ocean.

It's not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination, and can even manage to be quite fun in the right environment, but it's altogether a fairly meaningless release that seems to exist just to ensure Sony has something out in time for the holiday season that isn't All-Stars.

With a Boards Of Canada-esque ambient soundtrack and a simple but colorful and distinctive palette, MirrorMoon EP is a game you can lose yourself in -- both in a good and bad way.