Pitching is easy and fun, while batting is almost too difficult.

This might be a good example of what some teenager could do with the Unreal engine, a Commodore 64 and 2 sticks of chewing gum, but it's a poor example of a good game.

I'm sure the punishing difficulty and numerous unfair dice rolls will turn many gamers against Tharsis, and that's perfectly understandable. However, the reward of actually beating the game truly elevates my spirit. I can only hope that the developers will continue the story with another punishing round that occurs on the red planet itself.

Even though the combat is thrilling and the premise somewhat interesting, this DLC's very short and clumsily constructed story in detriment of gameplay makes skipping it an easy decision.

Sadly, Mister Mosquito is brutally linear in its gameplay. You cannot land on your victim and just start sucking - you must find the one or two hot spots or it's no go.

Although its blend of stealth and action is clever, it's also derivative and boring.

The possibilities for some genuine bounty hunting fun are in there, but too many kinks exist for this particular mercenary to make it to the big time.

A victim of its own ambition. The good core elements are still here, but are lost underneath a gray cloud of control and graphical issues.

Repetitive combat only provides gamers with a taste of the original Onimusha flavor and the absence of any real story or unique features leave this samurai wandering the battlefield without much fight left in him.

Astonishingly, this series is showing progress. If you owned the first Rocky, there is not much new here beyond playing as other characters, though newcomers will undoubtedly appreciate the way the game pays homage to the films.

Should have been pushed back even further if only to deliver the key online element.

I also have to wonder what part of the world Uncle Sam dug up my own squad mates. They could often be seen running in circles and constantly blocking my line of fire. At least they were resilient; one of the guys was turned into Swiss cheese by an enemy bayonet and shrugged it off like nothing happened. Tough guys…tough guys.

If you've got the right family structure, it would make a decent addition to your Wii collection. Otherwise, you'll need a caring and patient older sibling who is willing to dumb themselves down during gameplay for the greater good. How likely is that?

The presentation shines, from the clean visuals to the seamless in-game hints and banter. Even the missions themselves are named after songs appropriate to the era, such as “Bad Moon Rising” and “Break on Through”. You don’t often see a budget DS action title that is “understated” or “cool” in any way, but I have to give it props on both counts.

I wonder what Segata Sanshiro would say if he were alive today. He was a commanding force who stood for playing hard until the score topped out or your fingers snapped under the pressure. More than that, he believed in the power of Sega, and so did I.

For anyone who has already played CS, it’s quite annoying having to suddenly unlock maps, especially since every one included here has been playable in CS forever. Additionally, many of the level requirements are counter-intuitive.

Sure, it's fun, but partway through, I had Disgaea 2 back in my PSP to remind myself that I've played this before.

There are scattered elements throughout the game that come across as shockingly unfinished, or at least dismayingly unpolished.

If you feel like punching a few random people into buildings, then Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai - Another Road may be worth your time. But if you played the last one, there’s really no reason to consider getting this one. If you’ve played one Dragon Ball, you’ve played them all.

Viking is a weekend of relaxing ultraviolence, giving Xbox owners an easy thousand points to chase and PS3 owners a short, sweet adventure to pad their shelf.

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.

Its poor level design makes way for forced difficulty, and aside from its colorful, welcoming art style it is an altogether forgettable experience. Insomniac will no doubt return to the PC in the future, and when they do they’ll hopefully have something more substantial up their sleeves.

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.

The idea of kicking ass as a gothic swordsman and his seven closest unholy friends sounds mighty appealing. However, a crummy targeting system and ultra-repetitive gameplay relegate Chaos Legion to the status of a good idea gone bad.

The level design, added mini-games, and continuous action make the campaign surprisingly entertaining.

The biggest problem, though, which ultimately makes F1 2015 “not recommended” is that the racing gets rather tedious.

This year’s installment of Need For Speed isn’t the end-all-be-all, but it has proven there are still great things to be offered to the genre.

Opoona fails as an introductory RPG for the young'uns, because it's not as easy and straightforward as it should be; and for more versed RPG players, it doesn't provide anything innovative or compelling.

I found it innovative and engrossing, and I think it's a great new direction for both the genre of light gun games and the Resident Evil series. At least until they finally let you play as a zombie...

Despite its flaws, it certainly puts up a good fight...though I'm sure you'll find it to be just another mission among the many you've completed before.

It's as if the balanced half-action, half-RPG formula of the Network Series was just tossed into the classic Mega Man action mold, creating an unbalanced partial-RPG with a merely satisfactory mix of action.

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.

Darkspore isn't bad, but the developers really failed at focusing on the elements that are good and stripping out the other noise. I would actually score the game better if it had no multiplayer and no creature creator. Instead, we've got clown-heroes and griefer matches. Pass.

While I greatly enjoyed Dr. Luigi, most of my joy can be attributed to my profound love for Dr. Mario. Those who have such a nostalgic tie to the game will love Dr. Luigi in the same way the new iterations of Tetris keep fans from the '80s and '90s coming back.

Dinosaurs and babies might not mix in history, but on 3DS they do just fine together.

Revenge of King Piccolo feels less like a nostalgia piece than a long-forgotten bit of fan service mediocrity that’s wormed its way out into the light of day.

Though The Baconing is more or less just another DeathSpank title, with an okay story and final boss, it shows the franchise is consistently at the top of its game. Its silly brand of humor and graphics are iconic and show off the action RPG genre, which is privy to generic hack-and-slashery.

Aside from the obvious novelty of the whole redneck theme, Offroad RR is just an average racer with good sound and decent graphics. Too bad there are issues with the higher resolutions, but that's more of an annoyance than a huge problem.

As much as I pick on Crash, I was secretly hoping that Crash of the Titans would put him back in the spotlight. It had an excitingly original concept but failed to take full advantage of its possibilities.

If you're willing to overlook the absence of the main characters, have a really open mind about kart games and are under the age of ten, you'll probably enjoy this one.

While eviscerating so many ninjas is cathartic, Afro Samurai ends up feeling more like a slick, hyper-visual arcade experience more than a solid home console experience. But still fun nonetheless.

Powerstar Golf doesn't change much to the formula of pleasant casual golf titles. Though it's more difficult than it needs to be, is slightly short on content, and is focused on randomized upgrades, Powerstar Golf fits well within the genre, doesn't cost much at all, and give even the best pros a run for their money.

As it stands, Severed falls a little short of the DLC value proposition and doesn't have the depth of gameplay to boot.

Just Cause 4 fulfills the promise of what a Just Cause game should be better than any of its predecessors.

The game quickly begins to feel like a chore. And it's no mystery - chores are exactly what most casual gamers are trying to avoid.

So do you prefer probing or zapping? Our outer space friends gladly offer both!

While Gunman Chronicles looks a lot like Half-Life, it lacks the personality and creativity that made Half-Life such an epic game.

If you want a console version of Serious Sam, go look into the Xbox version or just find a cheap copy of the PC original. Next Encounter is a serious waste of time.

As bad as this game is, young scooter fans will eat it up. After all, it's got a monopoly on the scooter game market and is really simple to understand.

A game rusted stiff by recycling and repetition. The gameplay is still there and the challenge has taken some steroids, but there's no heart.

Has the core of great puzzle game, from the range of game modes to the interesting characters. Unfortunately, the sluggish if workable controls put a damper on the overall feel.

Despite some bafflingly arbitrary concessions to the casual crowd, MotoGP 08 still caters overwhelmingly to diehard racing sim fans.

There just isn’t anything of note really in Fairy Fencer F. It looks outdated, feels “meh” at best and “Seriously, really?” at worst.

For those of us wanting to relive the Goldeneye 007 experience, Quantum of Solace provides some brief, cheap thrills. Yes, Treyarch does manage to resuscitate the old Nintendo 64 Bond title, but this release proves that sometimes it’s best just to let the dead rest in peace.

If PlayStation can continue discovering gems like Super Motherload, indies might really make the difference in this console war.

If you're not into the whole arcade style of play where zealously gunning for high scores (that can't be shared) is the whole point, $40 is far too steep of an asking price.

The new situations alongside the few additions to the survivor characters provide a lot of new and interesting challenges. In the end, whether you pick this up will be solely based on how many of the problems you are willing to ignore to enjoy it for what it is: an 800 Microsoft Points downloadable puzzle game.

While it’s surprising that the clunky gameplay mechanics haven’t received a facelift, it’s even more surprising that Sony has failed to include a decent single-player experience. It can be fun playing online, but if you do not get help, this virus will kill you over and over again.

Unfortunately, some good ideas are handled badly and some basic, necessary rules are strangely ignored, leading to a thoroughly sub-par combatant.

The physics and collision detection are adequate for minor collisions, but are cartoony and simply laughable in major ones.

Telltale is great with character choices and delivering a striking painterly color palate, but all of that can grind to a halt since the hacking and slashing gameplay feels repetitive, especially compared to last year’s adventure breakout Life Is Strange.

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.

Rather than mixing action, adventure and puzzle, a narrower focus with more snide remarks and witty writing would have led to a better game.

Pressing one button over and over at different pressure levels doesn't ring my bell, and I doubt it will ring most of yours.

If it's beauty you're looking for, look somewhere else. Thunderstrike is a graphical plain Jane of a game, especially since so much of the action takes place at a distance.

A great animated cartoon cleverly disguised as a rather lame Playstation 2 game. Great presentation is wasted on forgettable gameplay.

Fine for its intended audience. Simple gameplay with familiar heroes is enough to keep the little ones occupied for a while. Just don't expect anyone over the age of six to go ga-ga over it.

Fans of Mario Party and Fusion Frenzy alike will find no small amount of entertainment here and will thoroughly appreciate the nonexistent barriers to entry. If ever there was a movie game worth picking up to play with friends, Rio is it.

Ignore the RPG part and you might trade in the game after two hours; ignore the third-person shooter part and you might replay the game three times over. In short, it needs a sequel to get everything right. Look beyond its obvious faults and Alpha Protocol isn't frustratingly bad, but frustratingly good; that is, if you care to look that hard.

Fans of Gundam will surely love the inclusion of six different series, and the number of mobile suits and upgrades gives some incentive to keep playing. It doesn't escape the repetition that plagues Dynasty Warriors titles, but fans of Dynasty Warriors and/or Gundam will find something to enjoy.

On the one hand, there are more than sixty games available in portable form. Some of them have even been genuinely enhanced, if you're interested. Unfortunately, many players probably won't have the patience to unlock the full library of classics and will be stuck with the eleven that are available from the start.

Conduit 2 has awesome multiplayer... for a Wii game; the connection is a little slow, and there was some lag every now and again.

The developers and testers got so used to this game's ponderous interface and extreme complexity that they lost sight of the average gamer, whose primary goal is to have fun.

While JA2:UB's combat is unique and rewarding, nearly every other aspect of the game lacks vitality and originality. The graphics are weak, there's no story, no character development, and the villagers never say anything but "They're watching you."

This is one port that went from arcade star to console dog. Heinous, dude.

This game is a nightmare to grade. I've tried to be fair, but I can't help but knock off a couple notches because of the brutal lack of effort and obvious shortcuts.

For the few things it does right, like some variation in the mission structure and a control scheme that makes sense (even in a hurty way), it's just not that good. For a series that has worked so hard to make a great solo experience, even—especially—in its first-person outings, it’s incredibly unbalanced with a difficulty spike I don’t think I’ve ever experienced before.

Shadow of the Beast is as dull as it is brown, which is to say extremely. The platforming is clunky, the AI is bad, the story requires multiple playthroughs, the game defies its own logic, and it reeks of other laughably awful design decisions. Don't bother with this beast.

At its finest, Ravaged is a competitive delight.

It offers a challenge and requires careful planning, but it's missing mechanical depth.

As it stands now, you'd probably have more fun being on To Catch a Predator than playing Aliens Vs. Predator.

Adventure game fans may be delighted by this return to the old-school style game from Frogwares. However, more casual fans of the genre may find Telltale's approach more accessible and graphically strong. Fans of the genre, or of prior entries in the series, will probably want to pick it up, for everyone else it may be an anachronistic curiosity.

The return of super powers and introduction of flight makes it a mostly enjoyable three hours, but as a standalone experience it falls just short of typical Saints Row success.

I was surprised at how simple and fun the fairy collection was, but the combat mechanics are a dull affair. Traipsing around in the walls isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and the game’s reliance on the field guide is a lazy design trick.

A clever offshoot of the "Tetris" formula, but winds up rather overcooked.

It’s got a lot of the fourth-wall breaking humor that made that game so famous, while still going its own way when it comes to narrative and world design. I ended up loving the whole ridiculous thing, and it’s a great play, and something different, for anyone who likes RPGs.

Strikeforce is a great step toward finally integrating the online universe with Dynasty Warriors and an unexpected excuse to lower your head as other gamers pass you by. You’re not hiding or hanging your head in shame, you’re just looking for items.

It’s not difficult to see why people would seek a more relaxing game after having their senses barraged with endless gun-toting violence, but this game doesn’t offer the video game equivalent of a week spent dozing in a hammock on an Aruban beach; it’s an exhaustingly dull weekend in the Scandinavian countryside with only chickens and low-poly civilians for company.

Silent Hill: Downpour upsets me not because it's a bad game (it is), but becaue there's the kernel of a good game in it, with some excellent set pieces that are undone by its muddy, bloated open world, technical glitches, and last-gen presentation. It's a game that I desperately want to like for what it does well, but I can't responsibly overlook its failings, which makes it all the more frustrating.

A fundamentally flawed game. It's a skateboarding game that's trying to be a snowboarding game, instead of trying even harder to be a good snowboarding game.

This one's okay, if you just get into the excellent mood, the environmental detail and the strategic puzzle-solving of it all. If you try to get too rogue or off the beaten path, however, you'll end up phasering yourself in the foot.

Rather than letting this franchise rest, developers and publishers want to tread on the grave of a game we'd mostly like to rest in peace.

They focused so much on this dual-pronged gameplay that they forgot to add A.I., stability and good delivery, falling far, far short of their goal in this half-baked game.

As a standard third-person action-platformer, there's nothing substantially wrong with THQ's take on The Incredibles, but neither is there anything original.

While Borderlands 2 for Vita is a neutered version of the original console title, with the toughest costs coming to the multiplayer and technical execution, it's still one of the best games for the handheld system.

The game tries to get by riding the coattails of its 10 year legacy, but it doesn’t offer enough to compete with the likes of "Soul Calibur 2" or "Virtua Fighter" and has lost any edge it might have had over 2D games like "Guilty Gear."

Operation Flashpoint: Elite is simply an old, crippled vet that should have been left to its episodes of Judge Judy and servings of lime Jell-O in the gaming retirement home.

On the whole, it's a great-looking game with an impressive amount of territory to explore, and it's largely free of the suffocating pomposity that seems part and parcel of so many Japanese-influenced RPGs.