Beyond those useless side quests, there’s almost nothing to actually do in Revenant Saga.

I love that Netflix is investing in game development, because many of its properties could potentially use the medium to enhance the overall experience for fans. It needs to do better going forward though. Stranger Things 3: The Game is trash that does more harm to the property than good. It was almost quaint going on a memory trip back to when video games were used to churn out cheap bonus money grabs every time a major film landed, but the industry has moved on from that nonsense, and there's nothing about this game that is acceptable in this day and age.

While it never manages to rise beyond being a fastidious clone of a beloved series, Daymare 1998 is not as terrible as some might have you believe. Sure, it doesn't have a creative bone in its body, and that is a problem, but it does show that the development team has an understanding of classic video game action/horror, and were they to come back with an original idea and distance themselves from existing, better properties, this developer could end up becoming a solid B-tier players in the space.

While the basic premise is a simple one, it is the added elements such as the day and night transitions, defense building, RPG-like elements and that online leaderboard that makes Over 9000 Zombies quite the enjoyable arcade game.

Modern board game design greatly de-emphasises the importance of dice rolls in favour of systems that are more predictable and strategic, and I've got to say that I much prefer this brave new world of strategy over luck that we have in our board games now.

The game is decent at times but it lacks some features that would have made this a better experience. Things like mutiplayer and a leader board would have really helped to give Dogos legs. There's also some irritations in the art style, frame rate and general presentation, and the lack of a narrative to give context to what's going on hurts as well.

I wanted Replica to say a lot more than it did. We're living in a time where governments are becoming more aggressive in snooping into people's lives and for the first time since McCarthy, being branded as a "communist" is shifting from being someone who the right-wing impotently laugh at to someone who could be in some real danger. Replica does the right things in many ways, name-dropping real-world events and giving it enough context that the game is clearly anti-fascist in tone. Unfortunately, it lacks the intelligence and emotional resonance to be the interactive Orwellian experience that it wants to be.

I’m starting to wonder if I’m too picky about farm sims. I justify that by saying that all I want is a functioning game. I don’t expect some crazy story to bring you to the farm. I don’t expect perfection. But I do expect things like auto-saves to save often enough, the game not to crash, and farming itself to be pretty chill. I experienced none of that in Everdream Valley. I wanted so badly to like it, too. But instead, it feels rushed or incomplete. I don’t doubt the devs had all the best intentions, but it’s too big for its britches. It has potential, it just doesn’t feel like a fully polished game.

Neptunia Riders Vs. Dogoos is frustrating. For fans of the series, it’s fun and hits all the right notes. It’s just over way too quickly and the developers missed a real opportunity to make this a dynamite multiplayer experience. It’s also so totally reliant on appealing to existing fans that it’s going to completely fail to find a new audience for the broader Hyperdimension property. It could have been so much more for all audiences, but as it is will simply be a fun little spinoff while we continue to wait for the next big step forward for this delightful series and its characters.

Ultimately, Hidden Dragon: Legend is a fairly average beat-em-up/platformer, but its sky-high production values and sheer love of spectacle is sure to delight players.

If the developers had been content to just play to the game’s strengths as an adventure game, Uncanny Valley could have been something really good. Sadly, the shoehorning in of dull “survival horror” pulls the rug out from under that potential.

Lacking the multiplayer makes it difficult to really get into Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal World Duel Carnival. What's in the game is perfectly functional and the core game is one of the most popular and lasting CCGs for a very good reason, it's difficult to really get into a game such as this that lacks the social experience.

Anima is not that engaging at all because of that overreach, and it’s stressful because I really did want to enjoy this. But the games it tries to be like; titles like Nier and Dark Souls, are unforgettable, potent, important titles. I should not be forgetting almost everything about a game that aspires to that level of greatness. But in this case I did just that.

I suspect that Forgotten Wars will be a single player only experience very quickly, and I'm just not willing to pay a premium for a solo player CCG.

They hide behind nostalgic pixilated visuals, stick safely to existing game tropes, and are really quite culturally tone-deaf. While I love that digital distribution has allowed indie developers to create some genuine masterpieces that would never have had a chance otherwise, games like Kung Fu Fight! are the other side of that particular coin. If we didn’t have digital distribution there is no way a game like this would have ever been inflicted on us, and that wouldn’t have been a bad thing at all.

There are bugs (because of course there are), and very long loading times, but on the plus side there is a multiplayer mode. On the downside I never managed to actually get someone to play this with me. They took one look at the single player game, with all its misfiring attempts at nostalgic glory, and begged me to play something else instead.

Dementium is not even slightly entertaining and all the developer has achieved with this re-re-release is broadcast that their original game wasn’t ever anything more than a gimmicky novelty. What an incredible own goal when Dementium did actually have something of a legacy from people nostalgic for the DS.

It was certainly compelling enough for me to want to finish the game. There are also plenty of challenges to help hone platforming skills which ultimately do help in finishing the regular levels. As a game that is clearly supposed to appease Mega Man fans who will likely never get a new game in the series ever again, it falls spectacularly short of their expectations, particularly those that assisted in the crowdfunding campaign.

Spectra reminds me a great deal of Audiosurf, which is meant to be high praise as I have spent a lot of hours with both games in that franchise. However, while the soundtrack provided in Spectra is an excellent one, the inability to import more music of your own choosing and the lack of visual variety in the levels makes this title quite inferior.

Caveman Warriors is a competent platformer weighed down by the problems of a game which wants to be Metal Slug, and Trine, and Joe & Mac, but hasn’t synthesised a unique mechanic or gameplay loop to set itself apart.

The gameplay loops that New Frontier Days offers are addictive and it's easy to get dragged into watching the town build over a period of hours, but the $13 or so that the game asks upfront is about $11 more than I've ever been suckered into paying for one of these games when they're free-to-play on mobile (I got a little too hooked and enthusiastic on Sim City BuildIt once, so sue me).

There’s a reasonably robust toolset that allows people to create their own adventures, and this helps extend the long-term value of the game if you can get a group of friends together for some play sessions. But, unfortunately, there’s just not enough to Sword Coast Legends to make it the truly classic game that I wish it could be.

Perhaps Insult Simulator won’t be the game you play longer than Persona 5, but I have no quarrel whatsoever with games that know what they can deliver and avoid overstaying their welcome. Insult Simulator is one such game, and it is no insult to say I had much fun with it.

For all its technical issues, Disaster Report 4 is a truly astounding bit of video game art and a true reflection on something that is important to understand about the Japanese culture and mindset. It is nothing like the disaster stories and games that come from western creatives, and the more melancholic, sympathetic, and people-focused themes of the game might confuse those that expect a disaster experience at first. Embrace it for what it is, however, and the game is so much better than any of that blockbuster trash. There is something very subtle, but very powerful at the core of Disaster Report 4, and, even as I've had the likes of Animal Crossing and Resident Evil 3 to play this past two weeks, I've found myself coming back to this one, and reflecting on it to a far greater degree. It's not necessarily fun, in a traditional sense, but it's culturally insightful and intelligent, and that makes it valuable.

Sacred 3 is borderline offensive, and if this game hasn't killed the franchise's commercial value, Sacred 4 better look more closely at why people actually want to play these games. It's not good enough to be dumb fun.

I'd say Unearthing Mars is well worth a couple of hours away from the real world. It's rough around the edges, but there are some great ideas at play and an enjoyable adventure to be had.

You can get these two great existential crises in one package of fourteen minigames for just 6 AUD on the Nintendo Switch eShop. What a bargain!

It’s a smart, genuine little game, with soul and a story to tell, and wraps it within one of the best examples we’ve seen to date of serenity as a play concept.