While it does offer some strategy thrills, all of this really holds it back from being another genre kingpin. With DLC and future updates, it may have a chance to iron out its weaker aspects. But, outside a few unique twists, it feels like it is missing something to make it truly worth the price of admission.

Pokken Tournament is the first Pokemon-focused fighting game ever released, but the final product feels more like a barebones offering rather than a fleshed out product.

Black Myth: Wukong is a game that shies away from the Soulslike label, yet it is clearly gunning for the Soulslike audience. It is far from the best in the genre, but it's also not the worst game that has followed in Dark Souls' footsteps. If you go into it expecting a mostly standard Soulslike experience with some blood-boiling boss encounters mixed in with basic level design, you will have a better time than if you were going into it expecting it to be like a traditional character action game. Black Myth: Wukong offers about 30 hours of gameplay for its first playthrough with a ton of side content to check out as well, but many will tire of the limited combat options long before they reach its dazzling yet equally aggravating final boss fight.

The game isn’t without hiccups—it’s downright frustrating at times due to procedural generation and an inability to escape from some obstacles—but there’s a lot to like, too. The Deer God‘s art and music are beautiful and soothing, painting a striking picture of the natural world.

Deathbound won’t be the next Soulslike sensation, but at a time when they’re around every corner, its courage helps it stand out. When there's a story to hear and monsters to fight, Deathbound’s rag-tag gang of alter-egos can hold their own, even as unfulfilled potential continues piling up. Its demo and low asking price should help prospective buyers decide if Deathbound is for them, and promised post-launch DLC could reward those who do stick with it. This is a solid title for Souls enthusiasts between major releases, and the emphasis on weaving disparate play styles together will make Deathbound an experience to remember, despite how hard its flaws are to forget.

The core gameplay of Shovel Knight Dig is solid, and the level design is a lot of fun, but the lack of build options, unfair-feeling deaths, and bothersome bugs hold it back. Perhaps with a few improvements to Shovel Knight Dig it can stand shoulder to shoulder with its predecessors. Ultimately, however, it's not quite there yet.

It’s hard to call Bladestorm: Nightmare a good game, but it is an oddly satisfying one. The main campaign is riddled with pacing issues, and the combat isn’t nearly as deep or tactical as Omega Force would like players to think it is. Still, leading a flock of powerful, sometimes supernatural soldiers is undeniably exhilarating.

There’s a potential for greatness within Etherium, but this isn’t fully realized throughout the game.

It contains the charm and strong mix of minigames that fans have come to expect, but much of the game seems stripped down in order to facilitate ease of play. As a result, it feels like Mario Party 10 loses part of the strategy that helped to tie the board game aesthetic together.

Battleborn has a strong cast of characters and exciting action, but suffers from a lack of content, frustrating server issues, and some questionable design choices.

Those who have been waiting for Final Fantasy to get back to what it does best, this is the best thing going right now.

Need for Speed Heat has issues that could easily be overlooked if the game had confidence in itself, but there seems to be some type of hesitation everywhere. Whether it's hesitation to move the story along, hesitation to introduce something new, or hesitation to strike out from the ghosts of its past, there just seems to be some lack of definition for Need for Speed Heat's release.

Hyrule Warriors Legends is a worthy port of the original The Legend of Zelda spin-off, allowing fans to take the game with them on the go – with a few noteworthy additions.

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege has the polish of a big budget release, but the amount of content that one expects to see from a low budget free-to-play game.

It's a great throwback, but has a very specific audience in mind. The visuals are fairly standard and the complicated customization and tons of game modes will be great for fans, but might be overwhelming to more casual players. For $40, Pacer is focused on those who miss this type of game and know exactly what they want out of it. Still, there's a reason that the games it emulates are considered classics, and it nails that core gameplay.

There's nothing about INAYAH that is objectively bad, but the few very frustrating design decisions the game features are systemically baked into the title's gameplay to where even the good parts are undercut by them. At 15–20 hours to complete the game, INAYAH asks a lot of the player in terms of a time commitment, and while there are glimpses of brilliance in its execution, it's ultimately undone by the parts of the experience that work against it. Considering the sheer number of options players have for quality Metroidvanias, INAYAH's few annoyances hold it back from being worthy of players' time when there are so many similar titles to choose from that execute the formula better.

A brand new take on the series that manages to make moving furniture fun, but fails to innovate in a meaningful way.

The more serious technical issues will likely be addressed in future Scarlet Nexus updates, but in the meantime, the game is still a safe bet for big anime and Japanese action-RPG fans. There's serious bang for the buck, as Scarlet Nexus has New Game Plus and is stuffed with content, being one of the few games with two playable characters where going back through with the other one is actually a worthwhile endeavor. If the combat didn't lose its luster in the last five hours or so and if it wasn't bogged down with so many boring static cut-scenes, it would be much easier to recommend it to everyone else, too.

When stacked up to the Wii U version, there’s little doubt that Super Mario Maker For Nintendo 3DS is the lesser of the two – and it doesn’t even support 3D on the notoriously 3D-enabled handheld. The lack of online sharing is only made more baffling by the fact that apparent user-made levels from the Wii U iteration can be accessed through the ‘100 Mario Challenge’ mode, while the exclusion of Mystery Mushrooms also makes little to no sense given how prominent amiibo support on the portable is nowadays.

Oddworld: Soulstorm's bugs are a huge downside and keep the game from reaching the same heights as its predecessors. The original version of the game, Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus, is a much more polished experience and it may be best for players to check out that one instead while they wait for Oddworld Inhabitants to fix the many issues that Soulstorm is currently dealing with.

As it stands, though, Expeditions: Viking is simply a solid and at-times frustrating entry into tactical role-playing games, and should only be seriously considered by diehard strategy fans and history buffs – at least until it has been thoroughly rebuilt.

While Keeper's last 45 minutes finally offered the energy and creativity you expect from a modern Double Fine project, the 3 hours preceding it are sorely lacking those distinctive, integral elements. Keeper is a truly beautiful game where almost any and every frame can be a painting, but it's one that's best enjoyed when the controller is in someone else's hands.

The groundwork of a solid game is there– even if those roots mainly have to do with the character customization and world design. Mechanically, the game isn't anything special, far from it, in fact. But that may not be why players are here in the first place. For those that simply want to experience One Punch Man as a part of the narrative, there's no better alternative than A Hero Nobody Knows, even if it would fall apart were it not for One Punch Man's recognizable heroes reminding players what universe they're in.

The Last of Us is truly one of gaming's best, but the PC port is not the ideal way to experience it. Eventually, The Last of Us Part 1 on PC will be in a state where it lives up to or even exceeds its PlayStation 5 counterpart, but right now it's difficult to recommend. Buried beneath the poor performance is still one of the best games ever made, though, so PC gamers who don't mind playing with Medium graphics may still be able to enjoy the incredible story and gameplay if they absolutely can't wait for everything to be fixed.

When Steel Seed is at its best, it's a blast. Unfortunately, its best moments mostly end up emphasizing what could've been, making the weaker points that much more disappointing. It's not a bad game by any stretch; it's easy to get sucked into and, for the most part, is enjoyable to play. However, it doesn't do enough to stand out from the similar titles that came before it. As much fun as it can be at times, it falls short of being something truly memorable.

Realistic to a fault, with a player’s determination tested throughout the game.

At launch, Marvel's Avengers is a passable experience, with some big upsides to be found in its combat, stellar voice cast, and fun single-player campaign. However, its loot system, repetitive endgame missions, and technical hiccups seriously hold it back from reaching its full potential. But it's worth keeping in mind that Marvel's Avengers is a live-service game, and so a year from now, it may be a far better package. Those on the fence should wait for Crystal Dynamics to address some of these issues, especially since the superior next-gen versions are right around the corner anyway.

Anyone wanting a basic hack-and-slash game with great graphics for their iOS devices can't go wrong with World of Demons on Apple Arcade, though fans should keep in mind that it falls quite short of PlatinumGames' best efforts.