I recently revisited the original Banjo-Kazooie as part of the Rare Replay compilation and still found it to be the best of its genre, and I’m not one of those people who believes that a mascot platformer has no place in the modern gaming scene. I was ready to celebrate the return of this genre, but Yooka-Laylee is simply a chore to play. The folks at Playtonic have demonstrated that they can recreate the spirit of old-school 3D platformers. Now, critically, they need to recreate the quality.

This is a game that could have badly used more polish. Still, it does many things I like, and if Zootfly brings this hero back for another colorful adventure, I'd be willing to give him a second chance.

There's enough new content in Mindgames to keep it from feeling like a shakedown, but it would have been nice if the devs had addressed The Pit’s flaws without forcing a new purchase.

After The Town of Light, LKA’s team of male writers decided to try their hands at writing another woman with mental health problems, touching upon issues like pregnancy, menstrual cycles and abortion. The overall message seems to be about caring for one’s mental health — something I’m sure we can all get behind — but the mechanics are too peripheral and the script is too confusing, gory and horrific for a tale that is ostensibly about a woman’s interior journey. By the time credits rolled, I was not convinced that the version of Giulia’s story present here was one worth telling or experiencing.

Technical problems can be fixed, but no amount of polish is going to instill the classic “just one more day” drive that fuels the best farming sims. Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town is a competent entry in the genre, and depending on how much one has played of this genre over the past few years, there’s a good chance it can still hook someone into dozens of hours cultivating the perfect farm. With that said, anyone looking for the next step forward for the genre will walk away disappointed from this one, and considering this was released to mark the 25th anniversary of the franchise, Pioneers of Olive Town doesn’t feel like the celebration it should have been.

The developers clearly understand all of the bonus features and metagame elements that a title like this should have, it's just that Croixeur Sigma is a terminally thin product.

While I wanted to like Recompile thanks to the strength of its concept and visuals, it never managed to strike the right chords with me. Regardless of how sharp it looks, the experience is marred by weak metroidvania design and frustrating platforming that override the aesthetics. Players interested in this one would do well to watch Tron or track down the excellent first-person shooter Tron 2.0 instead.

Lego Batman represents the first real misstep from developer Traveller's Tales in their moderately popular Lego franchise.

Unfortunately, despite the ranged combat perking the experience up, Dolmen‘s general design feels like it is too indebted to soulslikes and ultimately suffers for it. The melee is not consistent, enemy AI is weak, the exploration is not deep, and the level design is just passable. What Dolmen does well is sci-fi flavored third-person shooting with a good level of challenge that isn’t a cakewalk. I hope the developers get the chance to take a look at what worked in Dolmen and try again… as it stands, it’s too tempting to make comparisons to games like Dark Souls, and those comparisons aren’t favorable.

While I do think I’d have been slightly less burnt out if I’d played it in smaller doses over a longer period (and finishing its prequel beforehand didn’t help either, I’m sure), God Eater 2: Rage Burst proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that there really can be far, far too much of an entirely okay thing.

Overall, Victoria 3 offers a lot of play for those interested in grand strategy, with a number of detailed and complex systems to learn over time. It’s also a solid entry point for people newer to the famously complicated genre, but experienced vets looking for engaging wars or more historically-focused titles should either keep an eye on future updates or look elsewhere.

Sure, it’s still awesome in scope and there’s a ton of content in the package, but it only offers minimal visual improvements, dated gameplay, and inexplicable legacy bugs. Unless someone defines their RPG experience by sun rays and water effects, this reissue just doesn’t represent a notable improvement over the original. Still, for those who aren’t yet Dragonborn, this is the best way to become so.

There is clear care put into this expansion and it’s easy to see the vision Ironwood Studios had, it just didn’t land with me. However, I do hope they continue trying to experiment because I would love this studio to create a new experience as much as I love the original Pacific Drive.

While developer Cavia has done a fine job of aping what makes "Panzer Dragoon" so much fun, the "Dynasty Warriors" elements of the game are sorely lacking.

Much like Dr. Frankenstein's creation, this game possesses too many flaws that are hard to ignore and that prevent from appreciating the enigma it offers.

In the end, Macrotis: a Mother’s Journey is a hodgepodge of ideas that seem to miss the mark more often than they hit. It might please those looking for a minor commitment thanks to a short duration and pleasant looks, but the lack of interesting gameplay ideas and intriguing narrative mean there’s little here to interest puzzle-platformer connoisseurs.

As a moody sci-fi walking sim, The Station is a minor success. The environments look great and the puzzles offer just enough interaction to keep the player engaged while moving through the world. Sadly, the story just can’t manage to hold up its end. Between the odd timeline issues, the poor job the devs do of keeping their twist under wraps, and an ending that raises far more questions than it answers, the plot squanders some very interesting ideas.

I do love this series and I certainly didn’t have a bad time playing it, but this entry is lacking in the pizzazz that the earlier entries had. The Golf Island overworld adds nothing to the experience, and the amount of grinding to unlock new things is downright ridiculous. That said, the core golfing is still highly enjoyable, it’s nicely priced nicely at $40, and frankly, there’s no competition on the market. As such, Everybody’s Golf is everybody’s golf by default — newcomers will find it solid, but longtime fans like me might wish for days gone by.

All in all, I like GRIP more as a concept than I do in practice. Rough and tumble racing is fine, but the combat is shaky and it’s far too easy to accidentally clip a piece of scenery and get launched into race-losing situations. It’s also downright strange that a game which promotes driving like mad also requires navigating each track like I’m walking on eggshells. GRIP should [be] bursting free of traditional racing constraints, but instead adheres to them more often than the ceilings.

Overall, ProtoCorgi is a good game – it controls well and has style galore, which are both key parts of a good shoot ‘em up. Unfortunately, one level with seriously questionable design decisions keeps this from winning Best of Show.

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

A lot like the middle-class, suburban kid in high school that tries to make everyone think he's cool by wearing nothing but black and listening to Metallica. It's all an act; a dark pretense put up to hide a depressingly normal game that doesn't really know what it wants to be.

The kinetic running and gunning is there and it has the right style, but Coded Arms in its present form seems more like the first few pieces of something larger, rather than a complete product.

There are a ton of great ideas in Dream Cycle. Dreamlike, ever-shifting worlds, the Lovecraft influence, and exploring it all as a sorceress is a solid foundation to build an adventure on — it simply needs more time in the oven to improve the inconsistent mechanics, streamline the experience, and fix the bugs. It’s a great start, but it’s just not there yet.

Having multiple buttons for in-game confirmations is a frustrating design decision that had me silently swearing. It’s unfortunate to have these control issues, because I appreciate what Construction Simulator 2: Console Edition has achieved. The developers have delivered a decent port of a game type not often seen on consoles, but if PC gaming is an option, I recommend playing that version instead.

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.

P.O.L.L.E.N. fails to live up to its lofty narrative aspirations, but deserves credit for its considered, lovingly-crafted aesthetic and intriguing premise.

Half of Adr1ft is a fantastic experience. The spacewalking segments are like nothing I’ve ever encountered in a game before—freeing yet claustrophobic, beautiful and terrifying. If it was judged solely by how well it captures the mystery of and fascination with the great emptiness beyond the earth, it would be a success. This isn’t just a floating sim, though, and once simply being in zero-G gets old, there isn’t a compelling reason to get through the rest.

There is certainly an audience for Sifu — it’s stylish as hell, and the kind of people who are happy to spend the dozens of hours it takes to master a fighting game character might find the same sort of precision-based pleasures here that the developers’ previous game, Absolver, offered. However, Sifu’s developers set out to make the player feel like they were actually doing the fighting, but instead gave them tools suitable for a one-on-one fighting game and expected them to work against six enemies at once. They don’t.

In the end, as much as I tried to get into BHFT!, I soon found that my will to keep playing had evaporated. The text was too small, the controls were too clunky, and the mistakes too punitive. A patch or two could fix these issues and turn Buildings Have Feelings Too! into a quirky winner, but nothing has materialized so far. In light of this, I can only recommend it to puzzle lovers people who would be willing to overlook its issues. I might feel sympathetic to these poor, sad buildings in search of happiness, but not sympathetic enough to suffer through this.

If the developers had managed to tie the idle and construction mechanics to the twin-stick gameplay, Vostok, Inc. might have been something special. Unfortunately, this violent clash of systems renders it a near-failure despite the winning sense of humour and engaging action. Although ‘half the game is bad, but luckily you don’t have to play it‘ may be the most damning-with-faint-praise statement I’ve ever made, I’m still going to make it here.

Sadly, anything good about the game gets bogged down in the mindless, repetitive blasting.

Anyone looking for a deep, complex brawler is best be served elsewhere, but fans looking for some Super Saiya-jin action or younger folks that just want to button-mash will find something here to like.

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.

This feels like an alpha build of a game: the point in a game's development cycle where engine is in place, and the world has been built, and a few bad guys running around for testing purposes. Unfortunately, the actual meat of the game, the story and the missions, haven't been added yet.

To its credit, the sound design of Dark Train compliments its engaging presentation to create a fully realized mechanical world, and a dense soundscape that is as effective and oppressive as the dreary and haunting visuals. Along with the strong art design, Dark Train provides an evocative, beautiful, but ultimately alienating experience. It’s slow and confusing in all the wrong ways, and provides no payoff at the end of its painful, frustrating adventure.

Little more than a time capsule giving players a glimpse into a series that stubbornly refused to improve along with its competition.

Here in the PSVR’s launch window, I could almost find myself giving Pixel Gear a recommendation, but unless players are desperate for software, it doesn’t offer anything that Rush of Blood or Brookhaven don’t already do better. That said, it’s appropriate for younger teens, which is a thing the PSVR’s other shooting galleries can’t claim.

The M in Macross – Shooting Insight is not supposed to stand for “missed opportunity,” but sadly, that’s where this title has landed. Fans of the original IP deserve a better representation of the characters, music, and action of the series, and newcomers should be welcomed into the fold by the best the genre and the creative team have to offer. Despite some eye-catching visuals and a fantastic soundtrack, this is not a game I can recommend at its current price without some major overhauls.

Steel Assault does what it does well, although at the end of the day I can’t help but feel that it lacks a unique hook. After rolling credits, there’s little to say about it other than that it’s another one of the many, many retro action games currently available. Players looking for a tough, retro-inspired romp will find it, but there’s not much else to it.

For everyone else, Go! Go! Nippon doesn’t go far enough in any one direction to be recommended as anything more than a pleasant diversion for a few hours.

Without the insane sense of humor and quality retro styling, I probably wouldn’t give it a moment’s thought. But, it does have those qualities, and uses them to excellent effect, even while the gameplay is disappointingly pedestrian. It has some neat quirks, amusing throwbacks and charm aplenty, but overall it’s nothing to brainwash a princess over.

Assassin's Creed Revelations is not an outright bad game, but neither is it a good one. In a series that has seen this many interesting ideas, such mediocrity amounts to a disaster. Thanks to slipshod implementation, none of the new features in Revelations improve the Assassin's Creed experience, and some make it noticeably worse. As such, the only thing that Revelations really adds to the series is the feeling of being cheated.

The modified sports represented here include such standards as baseball, volleyball, and golf. However, outside of the volleyball levels, few of the games closely resemble the sport they are based on. The basics are there, like swinging a club in golf or trying to hit homeruns in baseball, but players shouldn’t expect anything close to simulations.

The game's aesthetic design choices are great, for the most part, but they can't entirely overcome the clunky control system and overly simplistic A.I.

Phoning Home plays well enough for its genre and has several good world-building moments, but it just wasn’t for me. I was hoping for something a little more complex given the excellent premise, but it never developed. Players who are fond of survival/crafting games might get more out of it than I did, but they should be prepared to do a lot of babysitting when ANI makes her appearance.

At the current price, there simply isn’t enough bang for the buck to recommend Custom Mech Wars to anyone but the most ardent giant robot lovers. It’s entertaining for a little while, but getting more out of it demands far more of one’s time than is justified.

After more than 30 hours with Wildlands I was left wondering why it was set in such a massive open world. The huge space offers a ton of missions, but what’s the point if they feel so repetitive and dull? I did enjoy the combat and stealth, and when the game is working properly it can be exciting to take out a group of drug-runners silently. But, so much of it feels like little more than vast areas of land stuffed with filler. If Wildlands was smaller and more focused, it could have been fantastic. Instead, it feels bloated, boring and messy, and that’s something a few patches won’t be able to fix.

Shattered Memories is an uneven mess, most favorably described as a kernel of greatness wrapped in a husk of wrong-headed design and iffy implementation.

Fightback is as straightforward as its name, and equally dull.

Ion Fury pays homage to something that is no longer welcome in modern gaming. Taken in with knowledge of the slurs and the -phobic, sexist comments, it recontextualizes what I saw and heard, and gives the content a misogynistic feel. Whilst I found Ion Fury to be enjoyable as an isolated piece of content, it’s impossible to ignore the context it’s in — as such, I find it hard to recommend.

Huge fans of Japan or Japanese games might find more to appreciate in this Akihabara-centered experience than I did, but as someone who looking for a quirky story or interesting combat, I came away feeling quite unsatisfied.

With the whole formula on display in the first hour and no real surprises or variation to look forward to, the golden premise and clever situations can't save My World, My Way from being a shallow, incredibly repetitive experience that could have been much, much more.

While Bloom and Rage was an enjoyable romp through someone’s nostalgia, the frustrating pace of both the drama and the central mystery did not endear me to it. As is, I don’t feel as if I can recommend it the game until I see how things resolve in Part 2.

This series simply hit its peak eight years ago, and has been struggling to stay relevant since. Just Cause still has the potential to stand alongside power fantasy franchises like Earth Defense Force and Dynasty Warriors, but this latest entry just feels old, sloppy, and phoned in. The formula can still work and I was kinda-sorta entertained by Just Cause 4, but nothing about it was impressive in the least.

For players new to Saints Row, I would imagine the experience to be more positive than mine if for no reason other than sheer novelty. However, as someone who's now been through all three games, the formula and content in The Third is dreadfully stale, and well past its expiration date.

Astroneer‘s a neat little game full of little quirks and things to discover, but near the end of my time with it I was definitely starting to burn out on the loop of creating equipment on one planet before blasting off into space, landing in new, harsher environment, and starting from scratch once more. Grab an Astropeer and a couple of Astrobeers and this title could easily provide a few evenings’ worth of entertainment. Beyond that, the numerous bugs and repetition of the core experience make it a less appealing prospect.

I love the Etrian Odyssey series and Shiren The Wanderer is quite possibly my favorite roguelike of all time, but not everything can come together as deliciously as chocolate and peanut butter. The two franchises here don't complement each other in any beneficial way, and the end result comes off as ill-fitting and awkward.

We don't live in a sports game world where "definitely playable" is a testimonial. Gamers expect authentic sports experiences from head to toe, and a flawed-but-functional title just can't compete for their hard-earned cash when 2K's bulletproof NBA title will set them back the same sixty bucks.

There’s an apparent tension in what Parcel Corps wants to be and what it actually is. The moments where it shines – the early, flexible stages and the later, hyper focused boss battles – are tactile, engaging and nearly worth the price of entry alone. Unfortunately, the current version hosting repetitive and frustrating design, never lives up to that potential. While it’s clear that Billy Goat Entertainment weren’t able to fully execute their vision of Parcel Corps, based on the parts that do work, I sincerely hope that someday they get to.

While it’s got some nice aspects, especially the visuals, Steel Seed feels like it never reaches its full potential because it can’t decide between being a stealth or combat experience, and ends up being great at neither.

Replica was likely fine as a 2016 mobile title, but it’s hard to recommend something that’s little more than a one-hour collection of simple puzzles and a basic story. Its heart is surely in the right place, but that’s about all I can say for it.

Being average isn't a bullet-point for the back of a box, and if someone's going to play a potentially punishing, definitely repetitive roguelike, I can't imagine that they'd want to put that kind of serious effort out for something that's just average, at best.

It's not that Lego Pirates of the Caribbean is a worse game than the first Lego game I played. It is, however, the same game, which means that the wonder is gone for me. Pirates of the Caribbean is still magical in a way, but I've seen all these tricks before.

In the end, I somewhat enjoyed Disney Afternoon Collection in spite of its shortcomings. Retro gaming isn’t just a fad, but rather a growing movement for gamers who miss the simple challenge of using just a pair of thumbs. For that population – and fans of the equally nostalgic cartoon series – this collection is a bargain. But, for a true throwback thrill, there are plenty of ways to get it without resorting to unresponsive controls and questionable game design. Like most collections, this is a well-intentioned labor of love for fans of the IPs and 8-bit completists, yet I’m guessing most newcomers won’t see much value in this journey down memory lane.

All of these things (and I haven’t even mentioned the performance issues!) all add up to the fact that Mars 2120 just doesn’t have anything to make it stand out, let alone stand above the rest of the competition in this already-saturated genre.

This third chapter shows more promise than both of its predecessors combined, but serious flaws still make it hard to endorse.

I can understand the logic in trying to craft a sequel that does more than its source material, but the end result is that Mercury Meltdown lacks the simplicity and clean design needed to establish itself as a solid puzzler.

Onimusha: Warlords still boasts solid story and innovative creature design, but more than anything else, this title is lesson on game design in the days when consoles could have beautiful art or 3D worlds, but not both.

Steep is a gorgeous game that was never able to keep my attention. On paper it seems to have everything it needs to succeed — multiplayer, a big world to explore, lots of things to do, different ways to play — but wandering the mountain and taking part in generic events lacks excitement and personality. I doubt I’ll remember it exists in a year, which is a shame because that moonlit landscape is just breathtaking.

It looks sharp and it may be perfectly serviceable, but with all of the other interesting things happening in video games right now, something as surprisingly soulless and rote as Crysis 3 has absolutely nothing to recommend it.

Much of the experience is visually striking, and without spoilers, I can say that I enjoyed the suitably macabre story too. However, as a survival horror game it fails since any fear I experienced was quickly replaced with frustration — the broken central mechanic terrified me in all the wrong ways.

Overall, I can respect the publisher for releasing a straightforward and no-nonsense port of Glover, as fans and purists will probably enjoy having the original experience preserved on modern consoles. Personally, I would have preferred some slight concessions be made to the gameplay in order to be more accessible. Regardless, I’m sure fans of the original and of obscure retro titles will enjoy seeing this four-fingered hero back in the limelight.

Override: Mech City Brawl is a series of contradictions – it’s a brawler with more depth than it requires, it’s a game showcasing hulking mechs that lack weight, and its one unique twist has been pushed to the wayside for the sake of more conventional design. It’s enjoyable in bursts and easily the best of its genre, but given that Godzilla-style games have been almost universally horrendous, it ends up being small praise.

Rather than representing a revitalization of the Sonic brand, Sonic 4 is a failed, desperate grasp at recapturing its former glory.

In terms of puzzles alone Flood of Light is acceptable, but everything else drags it down. The audiovisual experience is one-note, and the story is unsatisfying even when it can be clearly understood. As an experience overall, Flood of Light ends up being merely mediocre.

It’s unfortunate that The Mage’s Tale feels so unfinished. The developers have all the requisite ingredients — experimental combat, entertaining writing, impressive visuals, and interesting environments. They just weren’t able to do the most important part of spellcrafting and mix it all together.

Blackguards is tolerable, if plodding, but I don't have anything nicer to say about it.

The team at Thunder Lotus is on the right track, but I hope their next effort focuses on adding more depth and intricacy to their work.

Despite my complaints, Redeemer has me excited to see future work from this studio. The systems here are a great platform to expand upon in a sequel, and at its core, the experience does offer great gameplay — it’s just not enough to carry the entire experience.

Although I badly want to like The Denpa Men 2: Beyond the Waves more than I do, the honest truth is that it's a hell of a lot of work for a game that's basically nothing but grinding through dungeons. If the difficulty and frequency of encounters were just a bit lower, the insanely high cute factor would be able to carry the experience and I probably would have powered through. Instead, it's way, way too much effort for too little return—my patience and stamina wore out long before the credits rolled.

Ultimately, Daylight does manage to produce a few frightening scenarios thanks to the impressive audio, but it's a shame the story, gameplay, and environments aren't as well developed as the sound. The bones of something more chilling (and satisfying) are here, but there just isn't enough meat on them.

Confusing movement patterns could be overlooked during most battles, but the same can’t be said about the pace of ACORN Tactics. Taking time to plan out the attacks of six different machines can understandably be a little time consuming. However, waiting for the enemy to complete its turn should not take the same amount of time. By the end of the campaign, missions were taking around thirty minutes to complete. Unfortunately, ten to fifteen of those minutes was just me staring at the screen as the AI took its sweet, sweet time to attack. An option to allow the AI to move faster would have greatly improved the flow of the game. As is, the battles are just too slow. ACORN Tactics is an interesting case – it may be the first time I’ve ever enjoyed the later stages of the game and at the same time wished it would hurry up and be over.

Maybe the typical, indirect solutions to problems were designed deliberately to poke fun at the genre’s flaws, but they were so frequent that they were just as much of an irritant as this kind of puzzle was back then. Topped off with a wildly lackluster twist to explain Yelltown fever, and Unforeseen Incidents leaves a lot to be desired on nearly every front.

As a side-story to the series, The Conspiracy falls utterly flat—so it's lucky that it fares much better as a game than as a spin-off.

While the central quest in Boot Hill Bounties may have been cliche and the gameplay slightly disappointing, the time spent with my crew made it worthwhile. This Western yarn might not be a consistently excellent experience, but it still reminded me of how much I love the Wild West.

It’s not that I can’t respect it — it seems to offer decent value in that it’s essentially three different types of shooter in one package, but aside from the new Blackout mode, I’ve had significantly better experiences from many of its competitors. And honestly, Blackout’s main competition is a free-to-play game. It may be better than Fortnite in my opinion, but sixty dollars better? I’m not entirely convinced about that, and without a decent singleplayer campaign attached, it’s a pretty hard sell for anyone who isn’t already a fan.

Although Borderlands seemed ready to be one of the next big things, the overwhelming focus on grinding and gun-collecting can't carry the entire game, in either co-op or single-player.

While I enjoyed my time with Horizon Chase Turbo, I wished it was an arcade cabinet instead of something to play at home. Part of the arcade appeal was always seeing how long I could get on a quarter — having unlimited access to such a thing puts it in a new, unfavorable light that reveals the content was never meant for it.

While there’s not much gameplay (and what’s here is below standard), League of Enthusiastic Losers brings a unique artstyle rarely seen in gaming and a solid narrative focused on subjects often overlooked within the gaming industry. I am confident that time will be kind to this one, but it’s a bit too understated to make much of an impact at the moment.

Sadly, I couldn't get past the use of the stylus on what is supposed to be the main event.

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.

Remember Me gets off on the right foot with an impressive opening and a rare female protagonist, but the overall experience of both gameplay and storytelling is too heavily guided and lacking in depth.

All in all, Luminous Arc 2 is a game that feels like it should've been a manga or anime instead.

Venetica has a few good ideas and a couple of characters that deserve further examination, but it just doesn't seem to be at all interested in them. That, I suppose, is why I wasn't all that interested by Venetica, either. Ratin

The Last Story feels like a JRPG that took incomplete notes as it tried to learn from Western design. The simplistic implementation of massively multiplayer online (MMO) combat motifs makes battles boring or frustrating. The character customizability, though wonderful, is purely cosmetic, never really extending into the play or storytelling. Worst of all, the gameplay and story might as well be two ships passing in the night. While Zael confronts the game's real antagonists in cutscenes, the player simply sits on the sidelines. In games, that's the last way you should try to tell a story. Ra

While it manages to offer decent characters and an interesting battle system, MeiQ: Labyrinth Of Death is a disappointment overall. With so many strong entries in the dungeon-crawl genre already, one that only goes half the distance is impossible to recommend.

Accel World and Sword Art Online fulfills its function as an action-RPG, but suffers from repetitive combat, confusing controls, and lackluster story. After my time with it, I have no intention of ever going back to it, and I question whether fans of either series would glean much enjoyment out of this mishmash.