I have no doubt that the developers of Rad Rodgers meant their work to be a loving tribute to 16-bit platformers, and as long as the game restricts itself to fast action, it’s a perfectly fine experience. The puzzles and item hunting just don’t work, though, and those designs shouldn’t have made it through testing. Rad Rogers never rises to the level of the games it’s aping, which renders it inessential, because what’s the point of an homage that’s not even as good as its inspiration?

Paradise Lost’s biggest strength is its ability to communicate two very different sensations — freedom and dread — deep into the player’s mind at the same time. It’s one thing to discover the knowledge hidden behind a puzzle, but it’s something else entirely to witness what else might be revealed by the same knowledge.

The foot chases are a delight, the town of Averno is an interesting location to explore, and there’s a couple of side-cases which actually ask the player to participate in finding evidence and solving a crime. These diversions are wonderful and offer a glimpse of the kind of experience that The Precinct seems to want to be — unfortunately, that potential is let down by too many poor mechanics and a plot that doesn’t do it job.

It seems like the developers of RIDE have a passion for motorcycle culture, as evidenced by the narrator's enthusiastic burblings and plenty of descriptive loading screen text, but they lack either the necessary budget or the level of technical know-how to bring that passion into the final product. The mediocre graphics could easily be forgiven if the rest was up to snuff, but the absurd loading times, glitches and lack of polish and speed kill it at the starting line.

The best thing to happen to the series in years. The AI programming system and shift to hands-off combat give Armored Core an incredible sense of freshness and renewed vigor.

I hate to say it, but Super Meat Boy Forever is a bummer. Its design and execution as an auto-runner is sound, but as a sequel to one of the most noteworthy and important indie games ever, it’s substantially lacking. Maybe that isn’t fair to say as much of the original team isn’t present, but I strongly disagree on the direction Team Meat took here. The original Super Meat Boy was brimming with panache and personality, and seemingly all of its magic has been lost in the decade since.

Atelier Meruru is so wonderful that it became the first JRPG since Final Fantasy VII that I've played through more than once. Simple enough for anyone to play, but deep enough to offer 100+ hours worth of gameplay, Atelier Meruru is a great title full stop.

It gets the job done (and I do admit that finally finding the chainsaw was pretty choice) but in a style of game that lives and dies by the quality of the writing, it's not quite up to snuff.

At the end of the day, it’s true that PCM 2020 delivers the series’ most realistic version of either managing or being a professional cyclist, but issues of technical quality and system design mean that it’s far from the experience it could be.

It’s certainly not the best way to experience the Berserk saga for the first time (I’d recommend the original manga or 1997 anime series instead) and it’s not the best example of a Musou game, but for established fans of Berserk who fancy engaging in some rampant slaughter, it should do the trick.

State of Decay was the high-water mark for open-world zombie survival, and while State of Decay 2 doesn’t top it thanks to the complete lack of storytelling, it’s a suitable upgrade. The hero system and three maps add replayability to the game, and Undead Labs’ history with the franchise suggests that they’ll get around to fixing many of these problems later. That said, it took them two years and a new platform to finally iron out the first State of Decay — let’s hope this one has a quicker turnaround time.

The bland graphics, clunky controls, and atrocious load times (nearing 40 seconds in some instances) are nearly insurmountable shortcomings.

All of its issues are worth enduring for the haunting and beautiful world that Diluvion portrays. The limited draw distance, slow movement speed and near-total lack of signposting will grate on players looking for immediate thrills, but I find it praiseworthy that Arachnid would place so many deliberate handicaps on the player in service of atmosphere and immersion — it’s a spell that worked on me the vast majority of its running time. Many games render alien worlds, but Dilvuion actually transported me to one.

In the end, Battlezone is an incredible VR experience. It’s enough of a full-featured tank simulator that it would be a great time played with standard controls on a normal television, but the perfect immersion takes that already-great play and elevates it to something truly special. Among the eight PSVR launch titles, Battlezone is the best at creating a seamless world for the player to inhabit, and even with a few balance problems in the campaign, it stands as one of the best arguments for getting PSVR.

Truberbrook is a beautiful sight to behold, and its story is a great example of light comedy sci-fi. It’s only the overly-oblique puzzles that killed the adventure genre in the first place that keep it from being a truly exceptional title. There’s a valuable lesson here to adventure game developers here — it’s possible to have the best production values and plotting imaginable, but if consideration isn’t given to how players interact with the work, the result will wind up frustrating instead of magnificent.

After equipping a few blessings, the playing field becomes a bit more level, but having the option to turn City of Brass into a slightly less frustrating experience isn’t enough to redeem it. A lot of roguelikes could stand to learn something about difficulty from the concept of the blessings and burdens system, but as for me, all I managed to dig out of the game’s mountains of gold and sand was that artificial fairness and difficulty can’t hold a candle to genuine polish and balance.

Big fans of professional soccer or management sims may find more to like in Nutmeg! than I did, but as for me, I’m putting in my resignation from the team.

In total, Warp Frontier was an unexpected surprise. This well-written, well-designed point-and-click adventure please genre fans and — perhaps — might even entice a few newcomers to try this storied genre.

The main game alone is more than worth the budget price, but there's also a series of challenge levels and a New Game Plus option that allows players to go back and find all the secrets they missed the first time around.

While I ended up being surprised at how much I liked Need for Speed when it wasn't trying to strangle the very joy out of life itself, it's a game that's obviously flawed -- the cheating AI, the always-online requirement, the glitches -- but it's still a damn good looking racer that gives a real buzz when it's working as intended. Whether people will be willing to put up with the bad in order to enjoy the good... Well, that's debatable.

Aside from that irritating final segment there's nothing significant to complain about in Planet of the Eyes, but neither is there anything to praise. It has solid action, and it looks and sounds fine. What it lacks is a hook, something for the mind or eye, or even just the reflexes to work over. Without that, Planet of the Eyes is just a competent thing that passes quickly and leaves no impression.

Attack of the Earthlings is by no means a bad game — its personality and anti-capitalist, anti-human stance works, and the ideas underlying the mechanics are well-thought-out. Unfortunately, the execution, lack of optimization and muddy presentation undermine a title that was already going to struggle in a genre well-stocked with plenty of superlative examples.

On one level, I feel a little cheated by Neptunia x Senran Kagura: Ninja Wars — generally we can expect a new Senran Kagura and a new Neptunia every year, so it’s a bit of a disappointment that in 2021 audiences are getting a single game from both franchises. Fortunately it’s an exceptional piece of work. It won’t give players everything they’d expect from either franchise, it has satisfying systems and some of the funniest writing either series has seen in years. This is a good action-adventure, but for fans of either series, it’s absolutely essential.

Unless one is a hardcore fan of classic platform titles or a Wonder Boy completist, there isn’t much to recommend Asha in Monster World. It’s an okay example of its genre’s older titles, but I’d say it’s a bit too rooted in the past to interest players who aren’t coming to it for the nostalgia.

An amazingly accessible and fun experience in a genre overfull with games that pride themselves on their depth and complexity.

As average a game can get, with plenty of things going wrong for it, as enjoyable as it might be at times.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that Jewel Summoner is at least half dialogue, if not three-quarters - a fatal mistake when the quality of such is so unappealing.

The critic in me tells me this series needs to innovate, but as a gamer I'm once again completely satisfied by the experience. Defying conventional wisdom, Dynasty Warriors is unique in that the gameplay achieves a near perfect harmonious balanced and change would only upset that.

Clocking in at around five hours, Mr. Shifty struck a good balance for me between wanting more versus wearing out its welcome. I enjoyed my time with it despite some of the later levels being slightly frustrating and the finale being a little anti-climatic, but overall, this is a solid addition to the Switch’s growing library.

Despite the various flaws and stumbles, it does something few, if any, RPGs even attempt in its ambitious stab at creating a combat-free RPG. Its embrace of the deliciously edgy lore of the Vampire setting also lends an inimitable sense of flavor and style, even if the graphics don’t always do it justice. In the end, while the final experience is two courses short of being a banquet, it’s good eating for fans who are starving for vampire videogames.

With just seven levels-three of which have serious problems working with the current control scheme-it's not like the game has a wealth of content, and its hostility to new players prevents me from recommending it to any but the hardcore.

I definitely like the ideas that Crystal Dynamics are flirting with here, it just seems disingenuous to ask players to pay so much for this small taste.

As the central deficiencies (car physics, handling, lack of challenge) also become more and more prominent with each race, most players will simply tire of its blandness, and decide to save the time Namco wants them to spend tuning their cars for an altogether better racing game.

Fortunately, not even the rough patches could shake the shine off of the gift that Detached had given me. The likelihood that I will ever board a spaceship in real life decreases with each passing day as the responsibilities of adulthood tether me to the ground, but at least now I can load up Detached, put on my helmet, and dream my dreams again.

Although I'm not satisfied with its economics and it still needs polish, I freely admit that Destiny of Spirits remains strangely compelling, and putting together a roster of fantasy creatures holds appeal.

Though Absolute Drift was not the drifting game that I wanted it to be, I was pleasantly surprised by what it actually was. As a relaxing and engrossing experience over the course of a short playtime, it's an interesting foray into the growing genre of alternative driving games.

The ABC Murders is a great piece of work. Made by fans of the source material for fans of the source material, Poirot is fully at home in the point and click adventure game genre. While I can't guarantee how playable it will be for people unfamiliar with the character or story, I suspect that newcomers will find it just as captivating as I did the first time.

It’s in those quiet moments when it ventures furthest away from Silent Hill‘s template that Someday You’ll Return becomes a beautiful, unsettling delight. Unfortunately, the game forgets its strengths towards the end, and as a result, the ending sags and is much less urgent and interesting than the middle.

The building effects are well developed and its fundamental mechanics prove to be entertaining. The graphics are also a positive talking point, creating a realistic feel that can transport the player a few thousand years back. However, Pax Augusta — at the time of review — remains incredibly unpolished and riddled with bugs, some of them which simply can’t be ignored. It’s clear that the developer put time and passion into this project, and if the bugs can be ironed out, it will be a solid title for history and city-builder fans to enjoy.

Though Trufflepigs is not the game I was expecting, it’s still a generally pleasant and engaging experience. I loved getting to know Beth and Adam, but the plot is incredibly uneven and feels unfinished. Had I gone into the game thinking it was centered only around Beth and Adam, I would have enjoyed it far more. Sadly, the missed opportunities of the heavily-advertised ‘murderer’ plotline left a sour taste in my mouth.

Gamers looking for an art-house experience would do well to spend a couple of hours soaking in what Suda 51 has served up. Those more concerned with gameplay they can chew on might want to think twice.

Without replayability, unlockables or any other motivation to continue playing, Point Blank DS shows how advances in game design since the mid-90s could have saved even superficial titles.

Hardcore fans of the original show, if they exist, may find something to like in Punch Line’s exploration of alternate possibilities. Other folks just looking for a decent adventure game with a nice look had best project their spirits to more promising prospects.

Ultimately, I see a lot of unrealized potential here. Blending cozy gameplay with dark subject matter, Mirthwood offers an experience that is pleasantly familiar, yet distinct enough to stand out from other games of its ilk. That said, it’s not an experience that appeals to me in its current state. Once some changes are made to the combat mechanics and NPC dialogue, perhaps I’ll want to return to the Free Lands and finally see my crops bear fruit.

From its simple premise Crash! delivers plenty of fun to reproduce a simple childhood joy.

It's sad when a gaming icon known for eschewing cliches gets mired in so many of them that he becomes part of the me-tooism he originally tried to combat.

Heroes of Mana feels like Dawn of Mana, take two. It's gorgeous and somewhat interesting, but undermined by basic flaws in its ability to let players see what's going on. Here's hoping there's no take three in the works.

At the end of the day Vertigo seems to be a decent core idea for a game wrapped in a lackluster package. There have been other successful games in this genre but for me, Vertigo doesn't live up to that legacy.

No matter how many games I played, I regularly gave up shallow bloop and in-the-gap inside-the-park homers because I couldn't gel with the computer's logic of who should be fielding the ball.

While there are a number of small issues holding it back, they aren’t enough to detract from the overall gameplay and fantastic boss fights. it might not live up to the lofty standards set by its 16-bit influences, but Fox n Forests remains an enjoyable platformer with some neat ideas.

While the length of levels and their lack of checkpoints is discouraging, a pleasant surprise that kept me playing Lightbringer was the ability to access any of the levels in the game. Later stages are unlocked by simply playing the previous level — they don’t need to be cleared, and there’s no need to find all the fragments of light. Simply try a stage and the next one unlocks. What an excellent concept! While this feature alone earns Lightbringer a few brownie points, it still has some issues. That said, players looking for a casual 3D platformer experience can find it here.

While difficult to describe it as a success, Shadows of Doubt is a title I won’t soon forget, and if the itch in the back of my brain is any indication, it won’t be long before I’m back on the streets, chasing down leads and catching killers.

With multiple endings, several unlockables, and a nice difficulty curve it's an enjoyable play. What frustrates me about Neo Contra is that it could have been another "Gunstar Heroes" had it taken the quality of its humor more seriously.

If the harmonization sequences appeared on their own, Laserlife might seem too thin, but I'd be willing to replay it. As it is, Laserlife is a game I'll be fine with forgetting.

There is potential for a great creative tool in Elegy For A Dead World. Anything that can give more people inspiration to write should be supported. However, without a way for players to interact and respond to others, they have no concrete method of learning where their strengths lie and what they need to improve.

Sacrificing tone on the altar of entertainment has made Not Tonight 2 somewhat less of a “bold, politically charged dark comedy” that publisher No More Robots bills it as, but despite that it remains a beautifully-realized, genuinely enjoyable adventure.

Burst Re:Newal plays better than any SK game before it and has the most satisfying story yet. If it weren’t for the lackluster fields of battle, I’d have no trouble calling this the best game of the franchise. Regardless, it’s a perfect starting place for those new to the battles of these soulful, buxom shinobi, a fantastic plot resource for fans who didn’t play the DS game, and one of the most player-friendly brawlers around.

In the end, Aquanox: Deep Descent does everything it has to, but it doesn’t stand out from the crowd. The combat is thrilling, but the story and quests fail to intrigue, the environments don’t have much variety, and there just generally isn’t much to it — it’s a solid 3D shooter set underwater, and not much else.

Everything from the graphics to the storyline feels half-baked.

Overall, The Force Unleashed is a fairly ordinary game that is bolstered by its IP. If not for the Star Wars connection, it would have been forgotten long ago. Going wild with force powers does have its charm, but that’s not enough to elevate it into must-play status, by any means.

It’s a pity – thanks to fast action, tremendous atmosphere, and some genuinely clever weapons, Phantom Fury could be special, but it winds up as frustrating as it is enjoyable. At this point it’s a tough one to recommend, but I’m hoping that it can be salvaged with some patching and rebalancing in the coming months.

It's not a terrible effort, but there are dozens of missed opportunities over the course of the game that could enhance the entire experience, and the fact that practically none of them were taken left me scratching my head.

I hoped The Red Lantern would grow on me with subsequent playthroughs, but, unfortunately the opposite was true due to the technical problems, design issues and repetitive dialogue. Those looking for a trip through Alaska or wanting to revisit bittersweet memories of traveling to Oregon, might want to check it out, but anyone on the hunt for a narrative-driven roguelite should skip it.

While I admire any indie developer with the ambition to take the Souls formula on, Immortal Planet is a surface-level imitation of an iconic series lacking the polish, variety and painstaking detail of its inspiration. This game takes a lot more than it gives.

While I doubt that Quantum of Solace is going to become a beloved classic the way GoldenEye did, it's a skilled first person shooter that easily takes the title of the best James Bond-themed FPS in a decade.

Choplifter HD certainly does its predecessor justice, faithfully recreating the original's highs and lows, and offering beautiful graphics to make up for the lack of original thinking. While there may not be much depth or replayability to Choplifter HD, it's certainly an entertaining diversion which serves as a testament to the solid gameplay mechanics of a title from thirty years ago. Maybe Choplifter was never a top-tier game, but it's certainly one that warranted a second look, and inXile gave it the update it deserved.

For a piece of DLC that offers so little, $7.00 seems steep. Save some hard-earned money and watch the videos of it on YouTube instead… the most relevant bits can be seen in a minute or two, and those Microsoft points can instead be spent on something more substantial.

Although Wayward Sky wasn’t much longer, it felt like a complete experience with a beginning, middle, and end. As charming as Dino Frontier is, it feels like a proof of concept – the developers clearly show that this genre mashup not only works in VR, but is massively improved by it. I can only hope their next project is a little meatier.

Transient had an opportunity to create a unique and exciting experience with its unusual mixture of cyberpunk and H.P. Lovecraft. Sadly, the lack of a coherent story and boring gameplay cause it to fall short of what ultimately might have been. I give it credit for coming to a sort of conclusion after the credits have rolled, but by that point, it was too little, too late.

The Godfather II's failure is that, outside of the most utilitarian sense in which it is a smoothly-playable game, it doesn't accomplish anything at all.

For fans of the show it's a wonderful new piece of new Animaniacs content. For everyone who isn't lucky enough to have seen the show, it's a solid piece of gameplay along with an opportunity to connect with some really wonderful comic characters.

Rememoried is a deeply flawed and inaccessible title and I can't in good conscience recommend it to anyone. Its central conceit isn't a striking idea, and it mostly results in frustration. The lack of a plot means the game doesn't have any draw to pull the player forward. Yet even when it's at its worst, Rememoried has an interesting atmosphere that can be rewarding. There's something valuable here, but Rememoried gets in its own way no matter where you look.

Hyperdevotion Noire: Goddess Black Heart is both too similar to and too different from its parent series to hold my interest. Trying to “fix” the lackluster battle system with more minutiae has only made it less tolerable, and worse, I just don’t care about these characters anymore. I’ve played worse games—far worse—but Hyperdevotion Noire has lost the soul of a franchise I once loved.

It’s heartening to see Behold’s latest effort result in an improvement on their unique strengths. Galaxy of Pen & Paper feels like a worthy indicator of their rise, even if its less savory quirks keep it – and by extension, Behold – from shaking the weight of their other weaknesses.

For a title on Switch, it’s great — do a run or two while waiting in line for the bus or commuting on a subway and then set it down. On console or PC, I’m not sure it would be worth the pricetag.

There’s not much within the game that is poorly done, or even downright bad, but the problem is Nefarious tries to do too much, and in that attempt, ends up doing none of it exceptionally well.

Some dialogue options lead to sluggish sequences in which ten text boxes deal with the question of whether or not to pick up a phone or open a door, only to ignore the player’s choice in the end. The lack of a ‘skip’ button during replays is also annoying. Rough edges like this and others hint to its status as a small-budget indie, but SELF remains a solid text experience and I found that its narrative stuck with me long after finishing all possible routes. However, as I alluded to at the start, this game isn’t really about finding all the endings — each branch on its own provides a unique look on contemporary society and an individual’s weakness… or strength.

The flexibility in deckbuilding is a fresh angle for the genre, and Cardaclysm does scratch the itch for the collectible card games. That said, while the developers have been good about putting out patches and updates that smooth out some of the rough spots, I’m going to give it a bit of time to marinate before I return.

Much of Golden Force is very, very good. Any diehard fan of 16-bit games will find a lot to like, but in an age where games like this are common, Golden Force is too technically flawed and too hard to recommended to all but the most dedicated players.

There’s definitely something to be said for performing fitness routines to visuals of rambunctious post-apocalyptic punks being smacked in their stupid faces to keep players engaged. And hell, if Kenshiro himself can’t get players to burn off some excess calories, who can?

If the game does not play like road cycling, look like road cycling, or sound like road cycling, the question can be posed whether it simulates road cycling at all. In the last four years, road cycling has changed immensely. Pro Cycling Manager has not.

Overall, Hypercharge: Unboxed is a delightfully enjoyable old-school shooter that harkens back to games of the past and action figure-obsessed childhoods. Being able to fine-tune many aspects of the experience with various options on top of the solid action and exploration makes this one of the most enjoyable shooters I’ve played. If the devs can use the groundwork laid here to deliver an expanded experience in a potential follow-up, I have no doubt it’ll be even better. For now, though, anyone with an appreciation for action and action figures will want to keep an eye on this.

Stark mastery of skills has its place, but it's a true shame that the developers couldn't shape Chaos Legion into a more compelling experience.

It's well presented and Brave's misshapen but personable face and tape-like hair make him an oddly likeable hero (that one wouldn't necessarily mind seeing again), but for the most part his showcase adventure ranks as an inescapably hollow and forgettable experience.

F1 2015 is enjoyable enough and gives gamers a refreshing break from the usual car porn and Vin Diesel simulators, but in its effort to make the title as realistic as possible, Codemasters forgot about the casual gamer—the one who only has a few hours a week to play, and who doesn't want to be bogged down in endless laps when a quicker option would suffice.

The Testament of Sherlock Holmes's execution is ordinary, and its flaws elementary.

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is the most disappointing kind of game as it’s one that offers so much promise and then fails to deliver on it, even when it comes to the most obvious, low-hanging fruit.

Getting a few things right just isn’t enough when the core of play — the platforming — is this troubled. Jet Kave Adventure was so awkward and problematic that I had to stop playing. When I see games with problems, I usually want to offer suggestions on how things could have been fixed, but the issues here run too deep — all I can say to the developers is that I wish them better luck next time.

Given the subject matter, Kane & Lynch never had a chance of being a fun game, but it had every chance of being a good one. It's not.

With middling gameplay and a questionable story, The Crow’s Eye has only its solid puzzles and a fascinating mixture of genres to recommend it. This is nowhere near the top of the first-person puzzle-platform genre, but it’s certainly one of the strangest and most intriguing I’ve played.

As damning as it sounds, owning a VR headset elevates Downward Spiral from skippable to must-play. It genuinely feels that good to experience, even if the design in its most basic form – removed from presentation and mechanics – is somewhat uninspired. VR opens a world of possibilities to this medium, and it’s thrilling to see new territory mapped out in real-time. I long for the day when a concept like this is matched with the production values it deserves, but for now, Downward Spiral is simply unlike anything I’ve ever played, and that’s enough.

While the story about the fate of humanity and the mystery surrounding the unseen alien race was ultimately a disappointment, I still find myself thinking about the most memorable moments from The Solus Project, such as encountering my first raging storm or wading waist-deep through that subterranean pool. At its best (and in VR) it evokes the strange and wonderful sensation of exploring a truly unknown environment. At its worst, it’s a slog that undercuts its unique qualities with finicky survival elements and an inconsistent, sometimes-buggy experience.

I commend the developers for keeping true to Orwell’s work, depressing endings and all, but unfortunately what we have here is a worst-of-both-worlds situation — as a visual novel, it’s a slog to get through the repetitive mundane, choices, and the gameplay isn’t refined or engaging enough to be a solid management sim. Simply reading the book might be a better option.

Instead of being a series savior, Dead Aim is more like Pete Rose finally admitting he bet on baseball. Too little. Too late.

It never builds on the gameplay or aesthetic qualities of Doom in any meaningful way—it’s merely content to cover the same old ground and hope no one notices.

I think most disappointing for me was how Transmission lost a great opportunity to expand on the concepts "Battle Network" was built on.

However, in the end, I felt that much of what made Risen 2 such a charming adventure was missing from Risen 3—it has fewer flaws overall, but the ambition has diminished as well. As a result, it's simply less interesting, and the return trip isn't as enjoyable as the previous journey.

Any fans of hand-drawn animation should download it immediately.