In summation, fans of the series will come for the single-player story, but they'll stay for the online multiplayer goodness. Conversely, gamers like myself who aren't familiar with SAO will find Sword Art Online: Lost Song to be just another lackluster MMO based on a popular anime.

Still, despite lacking depth, visual flair, or the characters of a Mario Party game, Wii Party U is a strong enough party game for Nintendo to offer families on the Wii U thanks to one thing: the mini-games provide hours of fun.

So while Fractured Soul has some good ideas and at times is a pleasant return to the tough standards of old-school gaming, it takes it to an excess that eventually breaks the game and undoes the good will of its nostalgic positives.

On a whole, its biggest fault is that it's just adequate. It doesn't matter how well-realized the characters are, if they don't have anything interesting to do.

Between 20 different locations, 70 challenges that’ll certainly expand with time, and the extremely low cost of entry (it’s free-to-play), Monster Legacy might take off and dominate the iOS charts by Summer.

Agent 47 might have shed a few layers of decidedly hardcore mechanics and that leaves Hitman GO feeling a little misplaced.

It's a fun game for short bursts, but there's nothing here that will make anyone long to play it, or even think of it for that matter, when they're not home. Hopefully, the developers will add more content to increase the variety and keep it interesting.

ARMS is without doubt a mixed bag, but its laundry list of upside and paid-off risk-taking do render it worthwhile if you crave creative and purely fun local multiplayer on Switch.

Amidst all the other plateaued features the game has to offer, it’s not enough to maintain sufficient buzz or convince jaded gamers not to wait for a seasonal sale.

No, this isn’t a total essential purchase since some key titles are missing. But for those of you that are Konami fans or just need some old school fun to sink your teeth into, you could do a lot worse. Besides, at least Thunder Cross is surprisingly good. Who saw that coming?

Call of Juarez: Gunslinger has some good ideas, especially the playful storytelling and how it directly affects the gameplay. And it's only $15 as a digital title. However, it gets bogged down with its on-rails confinement, its slow, overly precise aiming, and its tedious dueling system.

If you’re willing to play a decent brawler that’s regularly interrupted by junky D-grade platforming to get to the madness, you’ll get a lot out of it. If you’re looking for a gameplay tour-de-force instead of a weird trip, you should probably look elsewhere.

So I don’t know who Alien Rage is marketed towards. It’s a completely capable and attractive shooter that does almost nothing special. I had fun playing it, but at this point there are other older games on Steam you can play for the same amount of money that I’d recommend many heartbeats sooner.

At the very least I hoped that World of Final Fantasy could have re-invoked the best qualities of its kin: open-world exploration, interesting characters, and epic stories. It lacks all of these elements and suffers for it.

A release like Patapon 2 Remastered wouldn’t make sense anymore, and Sony would have to examine its legacy if it wanted to dive into the past. Just like the Patapon, time is always marching onward, and it’s up to you to stop and smell the flowers.

If you want something more from your video games or if you want to be transported to another dimension to learn the true role of an intergalactic soldier, you should probably hit the books. If Titanfall is representative of man’s aspirations, we’re going no where fast.

Anyone who follows this series will still be entertained with The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing III, but they'll ultimately be disappointed by the overly steamlined nature of this installment.

The elements of the past games are in the latest iteration, from the popular personality quiz to the familiar tactics of movement and team attacks, and if one can survive the almost criminally-awful first third of the game, Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon does improve significantly and reveals a decent little game while waiting for the next core release.

Color Guardians introduces an interesting color-changing feature to the side-scrolling runner genre, but keeps it so basic that the potential is wasted.

It’s still entertaining. A repetitive kind of entertaining, but entertaining nonetheless. You’ll get a kick out of smashing robots up with your bare hands and you’ll fist pump in joy when you make a death-defying leap across a tower block. Its clipped length works in its favor as it never truly outstays its welcome.

These fruits are soured by lazy, contrived storytelling, and a gear system that stands in opposition to what fighting games should be about. All of this ultimately makes Injustice 2 a step back not only from the original but also from the level of quality we’re used to seeing from NetherRealm.

For the first DLC in Call of Duty’s yearly Season Pass, Onslaught feels like an expansive, if mixed, package.

SolSeraph‘s greatest strength is that it’s essentially a new ActRaiser game in 2019 and there is no other game quite like it currently on the market. If that’s enough to grab your interest, then you’ll have a good time with ACE Team’s latest title. However, if you lack the nostalgia for Quintet’s 1990 Super Nintendo game then you will be left with a clunky genre hybrid that feels as dated as the game it is based upon at times. There is no real evolution of the formula going on here, and that is a pretty disappointing aspect considering how far other genres have come in the past 30 years.

Standards for fighting games have risen dramatically since the first game in the series was released. The bizarre implementation of the story mode and the lack of other things to spend your time doing really hurts the game. Also, it lacks quite a few characters that the previous title had and just isn't the evolution for the series I think Square and Team Ninja were going for.

Lackluster cosmetics are the least of Bleeding Edge’s problems. Ninja Theory may have succeeded in creating a cast of distinct, well-crafted characters that are full of personality, but it stumbled in making an engrossing game around that diverse roster. Fluid and easy-to-grasp abilities don’t hit their full potential because Bleeding Edge isn’t refined enough at its launch to guide players into the solid game that’s possibly hidden somewhere within its depths. The irony of its title is unfortunate, given how it is aspires to be new take on online multiplayer but is behind the curve because of its unfocused design.

It’s a funny enough game but its one-note dialogue slightly outweighs its instances of decent humor. The mechanics work well at first, but they are too simplistic and don’t take as much advantage of the VR medium as they could. But despite their flaws, all of these parts are good enough to make Trover Saves the Universe one of the more memorable VR experiences.

Corpse Party: Blood Drive still has almost all of the same issues with its core gameplay, but the PC version is the definitive way to play the final chapter of the horror series.

Knowing what I know about the series thus far tells me that Trap Team will remain a solid product and gift for any child with video games in the living room.

As a racing experience, though, this was generic. Obviously, mileage will most certainly vary depending on how big a fan one is of the world of MotoGP. At best, for fans of Rossi himself, this is at least a rental.

All in all, Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures is a fun throwback to the NES days, but with more violence and toilet humor. Fans of the Nerd will lap it up, and its intense level of difficulty certainly provides a challenging distraction for a couple of hours, but at its current price point you may want to wait until it inevitably goes on sale.

Overall, Nitroplus Blasterz: Heroines Infinite Duel doesn’t do anything wrong; it just meets the bare minimum.

Despite some truly gorgeous visuals on now last-gen hardware and satisfying combat mechanics that feel as Castlevania as 3D gameplay could ever hope to get, Dracula gets hampered and hogtied far too frequently by poorly executed stealth. These mechanics have no place in an experience that, without them, could have totally satisfied your bloodlust.

If CounterSpy doesn’t look like the kind of game you’d want to play, don’t. Even for indie fanatics it’s missable, though I doubt you’d want to give up the visuals or the procedurally generated levels.

In the end, Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash is a solid tennis game that feels thin when it comes to content. But the gameplay is fun and the visuals are great eye candy. Playing with friends in a living room is a fun way to kill a few hours.

As far as frenetic fighting goes, I can see this fitting the bill for a little while. It’s not my bag, but I can see the appeal somewhat for a group that just wants to go all-out with their favorite characters. That group will have to fight online, though, as only two players can play on one screen at a time.

There's plenty to admire here, though, if you take Driveclub at face value and don't take things too seriously.

Ultimately it's a game I appreciate for its ideas more so than its execution.

But with an average length (6-8 hours) single-player campaign, and no real reason to replay ir, Inversion holds on to be only a few notches better than passable.

It’s fun to play the role of the bank robber and assemble a crew of thieves. It's not the greatest game nor the worst, so if you've never experienced any of it, it might be one to try. If you have, then you aren't missing much here, except for maybe a few new cool masks.

At its heart, this is a game for the masochist players who, like me, keep trying to reach just one level further. Sure, we’ll be slaughtered, and there’s little we can do to fully prepare for every enemy that finds our soon-to-be-rotting corpses on the battlefield. But there’s something still cute about how dangerous an overpowered shadowy beast can be.

In this day and age, any game that forces players to learn a new control scheme is immediately alienating a large part of the gaming population. Dragon: A Game About a Dragon isn't innovative, and it certainly won't win any awards, but it's still a fun adventure filled with offbeat humor and childlike charm.

Needing other people is what downgrades Shovel Knight Showdown below its legendary kin. Despite good intentions, this smattering of modes and options never quite come together as something worth seeking out on its own.

Saint Seiya: Brave Warriors is fun enough for the occasional match, but there wasn't anything that held my attention for too long.

It’s tough to wholeheartedly recommend Light given its imperfect brevity, but if you couldn't care less about the $12.99 price tag, then by all means give it a try.

As far as adding anything new and of value, Madden NFL 18 is mostly devoid, and for that reason it’s also difficult to recommend when you have just a one-year-old predecessor that will offer the same core experience for half the money.

Though episode 7 isn't exactly skippable, the drive to complete it even in an hour or so can feel unfulfilling. As I said, for completionists only.

Unfortunately, aside from its more robust PvE offering and unique new characters, most of the other changes that have been made in Plants vs Zombies: Battle for Neighborville haven’t been for the better.

Wonderlands is the safest, most paint-by-numbers, product-of-the-time game I’ve played in a while, and a serving of the same thing Gearbox has been dishing up for 10 years minus the humor. It’s the absolute opposite of avant-garde and simply reuses the Borderlands formula without improving on it in any tangible manner. While it’s more tolerable as a multiplayer game given that you’ll more readily be able to overlook its story and writing, it’s still a disappointing spin-off that takes away more from the source material than it gives back.

By the time I finished DuckTales Remastered, I felt like I had both a pleasant and hollow experience.

EA Sports UFC 5 is the only game in town when it comes to the MMA genre, so it can be tough for fans of the series to ignore it, especially for those who are into the online ranked mode. But stagnation can be the death of a franchise. The overhauled graphics and new cut system are enough of an upgrade to satisfy some fans, but if you’re someone who enjoys the single-player modes, you’ll have pretty much the same experience by playing UFC 4 or even UFC 3 instead.

Slapping a fresh coat of paint on a bent bumper doesn’t change the fact that it still needs to be fixed. While I appreciate the upgraded graphics, it’s nothing players can’t get from the PC version of the game, which is probably a better platform to play it on, especially due to the availability of modded content.

Toukiden 2 is without question a fun game, but so is Dynasty Warriors. My ultimate takeaway is that Omega Force has touched on some pleasant RPG charm and exploration of world and character here, but perhaps hasn’t gone far enough; instead, the game flirts with such elements before falling back on familiarity.

As a singular episode, it’s fine. But in the grander scheme of wrapping up a six-year storyline and four-episode arc, it’s also just fine and that middle of the road result is a bit of a disappointment.

An interesting experiment that almost works as a video game. If you’re a grizzled Nicktoons fan willing to look past a pile of gameplay flaws, you might find that there’s a good time to be had with this good doctor. If you’re looking for your next roguelike addiction, you may want to wait for the next contender.

In another timeline, this would have been a wholly linear experience, tightly paced with a fun narrative that focused entirely on Ms. Marvel’s growth as she sought out the different Avengers in exciting locations, both on Earth and off-world. This could have been complemented with an entirely separate co-op experience.

Tomodachi Life does its best to cut through a lot of society's hateful garbage to produce an incredible island paradise of distraction and more often than not succeeds, but not without stumbling all over itself, revealing too many embarrassing inner thoughts.

The controls on the Kinect are solid, and the multitude of game modes turn this downloadable title into exactly what it was on your smart device: a fun, somewhat addictive time-waster. And frankly, there's not a darn thing wrong with just some good, old-fashioned pointless fun from time to time.

Bottom line: If you play only one new Nintendo platformer starring an adorable character, you should definitely pick up Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. If, however, you have time for two, then get ready to stare directly at your GamePad for Kirby and the Rainbow Curse.

The first couple of hours of ReCore were almost downright magical. The story had me on its hook, the gameplay was fun, Mack was adorable and so much fun to use in combat, and I admit that the environment initially took my breath away. A few hours later, everything fell stale. The gameplay gave way to typical dungeon-platforming formulas. Even the beauty of the characters and environment appeared to diminish, as though the game was slowly rolling back to the PlayStation 2 era.

I had a good time with Star Fox Zero, but it feels like a game whose design is built on contradictions; the desire to have the new targeting control, but with the classic Arwing gameplay keeps both from being entirely functional. It prizes arcade-style progression, but lacks modern concessions for console titles, like adequate checkpoints or multiple difficulty levels.

As a mid-range title it would have been fine with the amount of content, but released at near full retail, it's bitten off more than it can chew; something that tastes especially poor when the meal hasn't been fully cooked.

Bugsnax is an enjoyably dark mystery that deftly handles mental health issues with a superbly voice acted cast of entertaining characters, despite its shortcomings as an adventure game. The Bugsnax themselves may not be as interesting as the Grumpuses, but the mystery surrounding them remains compelling, leaving room for a sequel that I’d want to play. Much like its creepy-crawly comestibles, Bugsnax is short, sweet, strange, and worth experiencing for anyone tickled by the idea of a flying jam sandwich.

Beyond its core, though, The Final Challengers’ value prop is pretty bad, and with no real modes outside of Arcade to makes this edition particularly appealing, there’s little reason to need it. It’s true there’s online play, which does feature a clever point-based ranking system, but the former is not new and the latter is not so compelling as to drive player investment. Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers will make a fine gift for a youngster or acquaintance Street Fighter celibate, but it’s probably not worth your time until the price goes down otherwise.

It’s not bad, but it’s not great either. Could’ve used more “zip," I think.

The issues with the track layout and the so-so presentation mean that this game won’t Grip you for long. It’s great for a Sunday drive, but it’s not going to hold your attention forever.

Michael Jackson: The Experience HD is a good game for what it is: a single-player rhythm game built for a touchscreen. There are two-player battle modes available, but most players will never use the feature, as it requires a second Vita and another copy of the game. It's different in nature, but an entertaining game in its own way.

It’s a good step in the right direction, and with some tweaking the balance may yet come. Until then, this misses the bull's-eye, but at least it hits the target.

The Destiny diehards out there might love it, but House of Wolves won't convert many skeptics.

Carrion is a great concept that becomes repetitive in practice. Taking control of a terrifying monster and mowing down a bunch of humans is fun at first, but it shows its hand far too quickly and gets stuck in a rut of giving the player the same tasks to perform over and over again. With simplistic movement and easy combat, Carrion is a straightforward Metroidvania game with few frills aside from its unique protagonist. With that being said, its climax does set it up for a sequel that could elaborate on what Phobia Game Studio has set up in its debut, so I’m still interested to see where this awful blob will go next.

The lack of meaningful content holds the game back, which is a shame because the idea itself creates a foundation for something more.

If you’re a major Call of Duty fan, I don’t have to tell you to buy a season pass for Ghosts and the remaining DLC packs. However, if you’re a casual player like me, reconsider your purchase of the Hardened or Veteran or Super-Soldier pack with the included remote control helo-tank when the next yearly entry rolls around. Chances are you won’t keep up with the competition to justify the included DLC codes anyway.

Overall, Episode 4 is a solid effort that just couldn't seem to find the traction it needed until it was too late.

It’s a shame the pacing does such a number on Blair Witch. It deals with some heady topics like PTSD, mental illness, and police shootings.

Doesn’t mean I think it’s worth a full price tag purchase, but fans of the Joestars should find enjoyment in it. Everybody else, consult and test with your Bizarre Adventure-loving friend before dropping any coin on Eyes of Heaven.

The new Face of the Franchise mode is totally underwhelming and fails to tell a meaningful story and the X-Factor abilities are helpful for newcomers but don’t really change how a solid player would play the game any. These changes are all a positive for long-term but it lacks any selling point and has launched in a frustrating state that undermines the solid football mechanics that EA has refined over the past several decades.

The numerous gameplay features like vulcosuits, spritnite, and artifacts come together to create an enjoyable and complex turn-based system that promotes strategy. Here's hoping that Tokyo RPG Factory's next project takes that gameplay design and applies it to a heartfelt story that doesn't feel like it was assembled on a conveyor belt.

It is not an unforgivable sin that Immortals Fenyx Rising does not live up to Breath of the Wild, a tall task that its upcoming sequel might not even be capable of doing. But it is quite disappointing that it only plays dress up with the hero’s tunic and misses what that green garment stands for. Puzzles sometimes have inventive solutions yet the good ones are drowned out by how often they repeat and how few tools Fenyx has. And the game’s colorful world isn’t a sandbox that needs exploring, but is more akin to a typical open-world map littered with repeatable, obviously marked activities. These shortcomings make it less of Ubisoft’s take on Breath of the Wild and more of a Ubisoft-branded “Breath of the Mild” that could have been so much more.

Despite the overwhelming difficulty found at the start, it is certainly worth pushing through it to enjoy the unique experience that Warriors All-Stars is. Koei Tecmo has found its own Smash Bros. mash-up game that brings together a brilliant ensemble cast of characters like Ryu, William from Nioh, and Dynasty Warriors' Zhao Yun for classic Musou hack-and-slash gameplay.

It fully engages you throughout your journey, but it’s all over before you know it.

LittleBigPlanet 3 is a great creative experience packaged with an unfortunate single-player experience as its forward-facing section and buggy co-op play, both which significantly hamper what is otherwise an excellent creative experience and game-design as play.

Zoo Tycoon has all the cuddly critters up its sleeve (and I'm down with any game that features red pandas), and it wields the stick of cuteness without shame. But this simulation buries the cuteness beneath menus and squanders the power of the next-gen console by limiting the size of the zoo. Though creating a zoo is pleasant and breezy, after building several zoos with all of the animals, you've pretty much experienced the lion's share of what Zoo Tycoon has to offer.

Board game enthusiasts will find themselves bored quickly, the average player will only break it out when there are friends around—which is the point, and I guess with friends the skill-based games aren’t too bad—and Party aficionados will be able to scratch that virtual itch.

While elements are bland and the story feels heavily padded, to say that Demon Gaze feels half-assed would assume that it's trying to be more than it is, a grindfest that rewards players with 2D titillation and innuendo. It does what it does fairly well, but it's also profoundly average. Nothing is ventured and nothing gained in any part of its design.

Unfortunately, the changes in Dynasty Warriors 9 are a bit too superficial and kept too much of what made the series suffer in previous titles. The controls and animations need tightening, and the storytelling needs to evolve to a point where it's more coherent. If you're a fan of the Musou franchise, there's a lot of new stuff to experience and enjoy here. Dynasty Warriors 9 isn't likely to attract a ton of new fans, but it sets the groundwork for the future of the series, and we'll likely see the real fruits of this new direction in the next few entries in the franchise.

In short, as a game Zumba Fitness World Party is poorly made and poorly structured. But as a supplemental fitness video app, it's great, provided you can get through the menus without any problems. So it's probably a great buy for people already doing Zumba Workouts and other fitness programs, but not much use for anyone else.

Regardless, Mirror of Fate has some beautiful visuals, nice voice work, and combat that frequently pleases, even if it does wander into button-mashing territory at times. Anyone looking to bridge the gap between the original Lords of Shadow and its sequel out later this year should consider picking up Mirror of Fate to quench their thirst for blood, while newcomers should steer clear. This is one family squabble not worth your time.

It is easy to be frustrated by the overall state of the PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds PlayStation 4 port. The texture pop-in is ridiculous and the gameplay still has so many rough edges. But there is a certain charm to PUBG‘s gameplay that keeps players coming back for more.

Anyone with only a passing interest in epic hundred-hour tales of good and evil should stay away. With the game costing only $7.99 as a digital download, those steeped in the Japanese role-playing games will love mixing a massive adventure and Weapon Shop during long gaming sessions.

On paper, the whole thing sounds delicious, but in the end the effort to combine them gives you a stomachache. It’s not a bad game; it just doesn’t do anything striking with the mechanics it borrows.

The only meaningful thing separating the two versions is the inclusion of new characters and quests, and those additions aren't quite strong enough to make Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition an easy recommendation.

Hogwarts Legacy is full of Harry Potter fanservice, but as a game, it’s only serviceable. A fun but forgettable journey that isn’t worth the amount of controversy surrounding it.

Wattam’s fascination with connection could have been better served if had a stronger story to back it up. Perhaps it could have been a kid-friendly, significantly less convoluted version of Death Stranding if it fleshed out its narrative just a bit more in the right ways.

Somewhere buried in The Crew, beneath the bloated content and the MMO shenanigans, is a competent racer featuring the perfect road trip. But for a game whose primary strength is freedom, there should have been more objectives and more incentives to explore its world with friends, instead of copy-and-pasted skill challenges and missions tangled in a confounding plot that's hard to forget for all the wrong reasons.

For $60 I needed to see more quality, and instead became overloaded with quantity.

Much like the laid back quips of our banana buddy, it's too easy to leave My Friend Pedro without many strong feelings.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX tells a good Pokemon story from a unique angle and with visuals that help enhance the storybook feel. However, gameplay that might have held up in 2005 has not aged well. There’s something here for diehard Pokemon fans to enjoy and potentially love, but anyone else should just stick to the mainline series of games.

Red Faction Guerilla ReMARStered is far from perfect, but it’s fun, and it’s proof that not every game needs to have a serious, super in-depth narrative to please.

With a more engaging story that didn’t solely rely on zaniness and/or idiocy to sell itself, Dead Rising 3 could have been more worthy of recommendation. Instead, accept my lukewarm approval of it as a purchase decision.