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.