While I really love this game, I have to dock points for performance issues. At release, a game shouldn’t have this many glitches, crashes, and other problems. Points also docked for the pacing misses and the difficulty spike at the beginning. Finally, points docked for the shoddy multiplayer, though I don’t weight this very high in my overall scoring of the game.

Overall, Front Mission 3: Remake is a solid update to a classic mecha tactical role-playing game from the PlayStation era. It does feel rushed in places, and here’s hoping the game receives some patches to fix some of those issues, much like the previous remakes in the series have.

MLB The Show 21 is still loads of fun to play. Franchise is slightly improved, Diamond Dynasty continues to be strong, and Stadium Creator is even better than expected. However, there are areas of the game that don’t feel like an actual next-gen experience, and we’re still missing features that other sports games have had for years.

From a pure gameplay standpoint, PGA Tour 2K21 delivers a strong enough experience to satisfy fans, and the course designer is fantastic. However, the game falls more toward the average because of its bland career mode, modest list of licensed golfers, and out-dated graphics.

In any case, this Namco Museum release on the Switch is as good as its precursors and brilliantly accentuated with the local multiplayer focused Pac-Man Vs. but it is currently overpriced and I hope this is not a new trend when it comes to future retro gaming releases on the Switch.

Replaced is a breathtakingly beautiful and narratively riveting game that has engrossing world-building while also delivering solid combat. However, it’s held back by fickle platforming and dull side quests. Still, the memorable music helps elevate the entire experience, making this dystopian adventure worth playing.

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is a gorgeous game full of industry-best visuals and cast performances. It is also not terribly fun to play.

I’m not a hardcore racing or motocross fan, which is something that should be taken into consideration by anyone reading this review. I’m a lifelong sports gamer who loves a balance between simulation and fun. MES6 isn’t a perfect title, but it feels like Milestone has taken significant steps toward delivering a well-rounded experience for hardcore and more casual fans. If the features in place are expounded upon next year, it could climb a spot in my rotation.

R-Type Delta is one of the finest shmups ever made and obviously needs to be widely available across modern hardware. I just wish this new HD Boosted version had more to it, and M2 had been hired to handle the game in the same way they made G-Darius HD.

The implementation of realistic snake physics is commendable, and may even be what snagged Snake Pass a green light in the first place, but it’s also what drags down what could have otherwise been a phenomenal platforming experience.

Overall, Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD Remaster is still a solid game in terms of how it plays, but it needed more time and money to really make this a proper HD remaster. As such, this feels like a lost opportunity and something that should have been treated with more care.

Dragon Quest Builders 2 is a good game but not a great one. Its main mistake is trying to do too much and reducing the effectiveness of the player in combat and building. My only hope is that the eventual third game returns to a more focused approach, as I really feel that with the Dragon Quest Builders series, these games benefit from the mantra that less is more.

A brief but eminently enjoyable Mario game stretched out in all sorts of less than successful ways. A perfect port of Mario gameplay to a new platform but a deeply problematic port of mobile structure onto classic Mario.

NBA Live 18 has a lower price point than most major sports video games, and that's a good thing because it simply doesn't offer all of the features that other sports titles do. There are some promising base features in place from a gameplay, conceptual and presentation standpoint, but it's still not where it needs to be.

The gameplay isn't horrible, but it's also not spectacular. The visuals are solid, but not groundbreaking. The customization is stellar, but that's still not enough to save this game from mediocrity.

Despite some clear bright spots, Suicide Squad does not justify its own existence and feels like a colossal waste of time, money and energy when any other normal, standalone superhero game from Rocksteady probably would have blown away Arkham sales records. Everyone wants live service games to print money, but when the genre makes your game unattractive at baseline, and no one sticks around, yeah, maybe you should have made that other game instead.

There are pieces of a good game and story here, but even in two hours, it feels like it wastes a lot of time and doesn’t create anything all that compelling in the end.

Yes, this is “more Starfield,” a game I liked, but I am very disappointed in the way it has barely evolved a year later, and the best thing about is Bethesda going back to a Bethesda-like zone structure. That’s good, but also feels very inauthentic to what the game was supposed to be. This is not going to convert anyone, nor may it satisfy many veterans. I did get some pretty screenshots, though.

While the team’s modest size is betrayed by the game’s myriad technical issues, what they’ve attempted here is, quite honestly, laudable. Maybe they’d do well to view this as a functional blueprint for a future project that builds on the good work that’s been accomplished—I know I’ll be waiting for what’s next. Here’s hoping the bugs get patched out and that we eventually get a Troll and I sequel, one that focuses on cleaner controls and a more emotionally engaging story.

While CPL16 does some things right, there’s just not enough here to satisfy any sports gamer who isn’t simply thirsty for a lacrosse game. Because of the solid gameplay, the foundation has been established for a complete product in the future. Unfortunately, we just aren’t there yet.

If you’re looking to capture that feeling of playing in a beautifully-realized Star Wars sandbox, albeit one lacking variety and depth, EA DICE nails it. If you’re looking for a shooter stacked with substance, engrossing character progression, and endlessly addictive gameplay to sink your teeth into for the months ahead, Star Wars Battlefront misses the mark.

One one hand, NFSP feels a lot like a film from a major movie studio with b-level actors, a bad script and talented cinematographers who were perhaps uninspired. On the other side, there is some fun, but simplistic quality to the gameplay. However, it is predominantly a game that is trying to do too many things at once. Unfortunately, it fails to stand out in any one area. Had it ditched the open-world concept for a more challenge and stage-based experience, the story would have been easier to follow and perhaps more engaging. Also, the game might have been able to focus more on its best attribute, which is pure, dumb racing.

It’s a somewhat amusing game, but DG feels and plays like a high-level mobile game, only it isn’t.

While the gameplay is in as good of a spot as it’s been for a while, Madden 21 is dragged down but neglected features, stagnant and/or underdeveloped concepts. Hopefully, this inconsistent effort is a product of the development team packing tons into the next-gen version. If not, all things considered, from a reception standpoint, this could be one of the worst years in franchise history.

DOA 6 is a capable fighting game that will probably entertain hardcore fans of the series. However, it's hard to imagine it adding to its fanbase as it offers nothing that broadens horizons, and fails to provide the sort of depth expected. DOA 6 can be fun in spurts but doesn't have the staying power of some of the elite fighting titles.

NH4 is still fun to play, but there just isn't enough newness here to make upgrading to this version a necessity. If you own, love and still play NH3, I'm not sure you'll find NH4 a must-have for your collection.

Overally, Megaton Musashi W: Wired is a belated release of a game that didn’t really work that well back in 2021. The role-playing game framework is done well, but breaks the mecha combat by rendering it redundant through levelling. The mecha combat is also very repetitive and the camera and controls still need finetuning. The game also failed to land its sole remit; to prop up what could have been a cogent super robot series and that is the saddest part of all.

It’s not a terrible game, it’s simply not a very engaging one. In the end, it’s just boring—a monotonous and dreary affair with pretty visuals and the promise of something more just over the horizon.

There is something to be said for simplicity in video games. Many are overly complicated, and there is also room for forgiveness for a feature set of a game that isn’t full price. However, a sports game with no online capabilities and a very limited single-player experience is a tough one to enjoy for any length of time. BRBCC is unfortunately more limited than it is simplistic, and that causes a problem with overall enjoyment.

The entertaining racing delivers a good foundation for the series, but there’s just not enough depth in this package to consider this a complete experience.

While there are some real qualities in OTH, the deficiencies in gameplay and relatively low replay value make it a hard sell even for the virtual hockey fan who is looking for a knock-down, drag-out, arcade hockey title.

In totality, this game feels like a shell that has a decent foundation with its gameplay. Unfortunately, it lacks variety, flair and depth.

It feels as if this was a rebuilding year for the WWE 2K franchise. While a few of the legacy strengths such as the creation suite are still strong, the most important part, the gameplay is in a bad place. The previous years’ version of a game shouldn’t play significantly better than the new title, but that’s the case with WWE 2K20.

Overall, Rainbow Cotton is a very faithful HD remaster of the original Dreamcast game. That means it suffers from the same functional shortcomings that game did. So unless you are a diehard fan of the Cotton series, you can give this one a miss.

Mighty No. 9 then is definitely a missed opportunity, not only in terms of crowdfunded gaming but also as a homage to what made the Mega Man games so great in the first place.

This experience isn’t ruined by other players trolling or harassing me or breaking immersion, it’s ruined by the mere concept of being on a live server itself, and the fact that this was rushed out before any engaging story elements were able to be crafted to populate this map. This is a huge, rare, total miss by Bethesda, and even if it’s improved in time, I can only judge it by the hours I’ve lost to it so far.

TWT2 feels unfinished, underdeveloped and somewhat soulless in some aspects. The swing mechanic might be a good idea conceptually, but it falls short of supplying that satisfaction that is transferred from simply hitting the ball in a tennis video game. Couple that with the malnourished feature set and you have one of the most disappointing tennis video games in a long while.

It is larger but less grand, more detailed but more opaque, deeper on one level but far more ponderous on another. It is successful neither as a Battlefield-style online shooter nor as an approachable arcade experience. That your time with this game is defined by a byzantine and oppressive progression system does not help, nor does the ever-present specter of microtransactions sure to return soon. But this would not be a successful game even if these problems were solved.

I cannot recommend this game at full price. Again, as part of a free subscription it might be worth checking out and getting a few hours of slashy combat in. But I wouldn’t touch it unless the $70 asking price comes down by at least half, and even then, there are a half dozen other better games out this fall alone. I wanted to like Godfall. I never want to see games in this genre fail. But fail it does, and in a worse way than anything I have seen in a long while.

It’s also not any competition for MLB The Show 16. Then again, it doesn’t set out to be either of those things. The aim was to create a baseball game that had a pick-up-and-play quality with a splash of real-life MLB style. While it accomplishes those goals in some areas, the game just isn’t all that fun to play—at least not as a console title.

Overall, Custom Mech Wars is a mediocre mecha game that gets the customization somewhat right but fails on dealing with how the combat should work. While the Earth Defense Force games have their low budget infused charm, they are at least fun to play. Custom Mech Wars sadly lacks this redeeming feature and is just an arduous chore.

Overall, Macross Shooting Insight is a step back in quality compared to prior Macross games, of which a fair few weren’t great to begin with. While there are some moments of decent shmup action tucked away here, there are far better Macross shmups out there. Not to mention that the first Macross game to come Westward is this lackluster and that’s just sad.

It was nice while it lasted, but I doubt I’ll keep it installed. I hate waiting for most things in life, but if I’m going to wait then it had better be worth it. Angry Birds 2 is not.

A chaotic driving game that has all the makings of a snappy romp in the vein of arcade classics like Crazy Taxi but its plot stops it from getting out of first gear.

Overall, this is the same game from 2011 that felt very dated and awkward but is now available on the Switch. The narrative premise is also delivered in a way that makes very little sense and is visually pretentious, to the point of being overly jarring. If you really want to play a stylish action game with a fixed camera and Biblical narrative influences, then just pick up the original Devil May Cry, it plays a lot better.

All things considered, it's difficult to recommend RBI 17 to any demographic. No matter what box you have the game in, there's a superior version to be found elsewhere in each concept.

This is simply not a very good baseball game and the higher price point makes it even easier to accept this year. The improved graphics don't do enough to save this from another sub-standard effort. With so many high quality, free and low-priced titles like Fortnite and Rocket League, we can't grade this on a curve.

I would love for DFMF 2020 to be a good game. I would love for it to be a football game “that isn’t Madden,” and that gives consumers a real alternative. Unfortunately, this isn’t Madden. It’s much, much worse. While it delivers robust options in franchise and customization, the game is just too hard on the eyes, and not fun enough to encourage most people to delve into its underneath layers. Even at a $30 price point, this game probably isn’t worth your time. You’d be better off playing Madden 08 if you’re willing to sacrifice graphics, but still want good gameplay.