The crowded control scheme, uninspired campaign, and limited multiplayer options are completely outclassed by most home-console shooters. If, however, you’re truly desperate to fill that gaping genre hole in your Vita’s library, you won’t have a totally miserable time here.

Unity follows in the original Assassin’s Creed’s footsteps in many ways as the first game in the series developed exclusively for the new generation of consoles. And, much like its ancestor, for every good thing Unity does, it adds something else that just leaves you scratching your head—giving the whole experience a hit-or-miss feel that we haven’t seen from the series in a long time.

Escape Plan: The Asylum offers enough variety and fun to justify a purchase, but only if you plan on grabbing it before the launch sale ends.

The Crew 2‘s digital recreation of American remains as inviting as it was in the first game, and the diverse event types and new air and water vehicles mix things up in a good way. Eventually, however, the aggressively grindy loop of replaying races to upgrade your vehicles will leave you feeling like a theme park custodian: You’re surrounded by attractions that should be such fun, yet you’re stuck doing mindless chores instead.

Many are calling this the Japanese RPG of this console generation-if not of all time-but it's simply got too many glaring warts for me to embrace the experience on that level. Instead, I see it as a deeply flawed, tantalizing glimpse of what the Japanese RPG can potentially become in the coming generation.

The last of the “Operation Rainfall Three,” Pandora’s Tower borrows heavily from Shadow of the Colossus—young lad must rescue his beloved from a gruesome fate by felling massive beasts—but you can’t help but think you’ve played a far better version of this game before. Hardcore Japanese RPG fans might forgive some of the glaring flaws here, but Pandora’s Tower certainly won’t have the mass appeal of Team Ico’s 2005 PS2 classic.

The controls took a surprising step back and there were too many puzzles that required Tails' assistance for my liking. If you can get past these though, there is a solid Sonic adventure here at its core that's worth taking a look at for long-time fans.

The plot and adventure are both more than worthy of the Paper Mario name, and the game is set in a massive, beautifully designed world for gamers to explore. Still, these aspects can't hide the fact that the sticker fighting system is flawed and removes a lot of the fun from the RPG combat.

The Evil Within feels like a project shackled by the desire to relive past survival-horror glories instead of pioneering brave new ones. Sometimes, it seems, giving fans what they think they want isn’t really the proper course of action.

Luigi deserves better than this truncated take on the Mario platforming formula. While the level-design enhancements are a nice touch, too much remains unchanged when it comes to boss encounters, and the ridiculously short time limit in every level destroys the real draw of a Mario game: patient exploration.

Nintendo Land is charming in concept and execution, but it's also a game that doesn't have the depth or gameplay offerings to really reach its full potential. As a pack-in game, it's great; as a $60 retail game, it's horribly overpriced.

The Surge’s engaging risk/reward combat system and obsession with gear will compel you to want to fight your way through a cataclysmic sci-fi hell. But the repetitive enemy types, uninspired visual design, and unfortunate lack of polish leaves the game feeling soulless.

Hohokum‘s intriguing collection of free-form worlds begs exploration, but the game’s questionable structure stifles the ability to play it on your own terms. It’s an aural and visual spectacle, but it’s also a lot more frustrating than it ever needed to be.

Some solid combat dynamics can't make up for the fact that the plot and character development, or lack thereof, falls flat in every way.

A strong start and finish to the final King Washington episode help carry what’s probably the weakest action and narrative of the entire DLC miniseries. The new bear powers are also more fun to use than the wolf and eagle powers from previous episodes, though only hardcore Assassin’s Creed fans will be totally satisfied with the experience.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD looks good on the surface, but some particularly frustrating design and gameplay quirks can drastically cut down on the enjoyment.

With a lifeless world, a hazily plotted, repetitive campaign, and an endgame that quickly resorts to a slow grind for marginally better loot, Destiny fails to deliver on the promise of its concept and the enormous potential of its gameplay systems.

Ultimately, Thieves in Time is still an above-average platformer, but it’s not nearly as good as it could’ve been.

Compulsion Games transformed its randomly-generated, survival game into the dystopian narrative everyone asked for, but those randomized elements are still holding We Happy Few back from reaching its full potential. The twisted tale of a society addicted to its own Joy is lost underneath an endless hunt for bobby pins and scraps of cloth.

Too often the action becomes a total slog as you fight the same enemies over and over—while also fighting the camera and lock-on systems.

Adventure Time is, first and foremost, for fans. Love the show and a good platformer? This game's for you. Expecting more, however, will only disappoint.

There’s an ambitious and wonderfully tense multiplayer game hidden somewhere deep inside of Evolve, and on the rare occasions you can coax it out with perfectly balanced teams and a little luck, you’ll understand exactly what Turtle Rock was aiming for. More often than not, however, you’ll find yourself stuck in another dull and lengthy traipse through the jungle with an unsatisfying and lopsided payoff, made all the worse by a lack of substance or long-term appeal.

World of Warplanes‘s is a decent game, but its ultimate undoing is its leveling system and its economy, turning what could have been a competent, if limited, arcade flight experience into an expensive trial that can only be overcome with time or money.

Harmonix bills Rock Band 4 as a platform that will grow and improve with the future, but for now, the new game offers little reason to upgrade from Rock Band 3, with a weaker soundtrack, fewer modes, and more promises of exciting features than actual, demonstrable ones.

Pikmin fans hoping for the next evolution in the franchise will have to wait for another attempt, as Hey! Pikmin is an enjoyable, but vastly simple experience that doesn’t live up to its namesake.

I Am Setsuna is a mixture of beautiful, heartfelt, and depressing moments, one whose depth is unfortunately overshadowed by its over-abundant moments of shallowness. The worth in Setsuna may end up being not in what it did on its own, but the groundwork it provides for future projects.

The lack of originality is evident from the opening animation, but in small doses, The Quest for Stuff can provide fans of Family Guy a welcome chuckle here and there, and that makes it worth the free download.

Batman: Arkham Origins is a massive step back from Rocksteady’s Arkham efforts due to countless technical problems, poor gadget balancing, and a needless addition of versus multiplayer.