The excellent color palette, cute yak animations, witty writing, and excellent soundtrack were simply not enough to encourage me to play further. All of the novel concepts and innovations presented to me were swiftly undone by the insufficient interface controls near the halfway point of the campaign. Fighting with this interface felt like I was a monk trying to coax my yak up a ramp, and that yak was unwilling to take another step.

Cross of the Dutchman feels lightweight and disposable. The action is basic, the world is tiny, and the story doesn't cover the most interesting bits of the hero’s history. Unlike its giant titular character, Cross of the Dutchman is a thin slip of a game that passes by too quickly to make much of an impression.

Looney Tunes: Wacky World of Sports won’t replace my daily Madden NFL or NBA2K sessions, but they were a nice distraction and offered enjoyable arcade vibes throwing it back to an era that focused on simpler gameplay and colorful aesthetics. While I appreciate the final product, it’s ultimately hampered by a lack of variety, so if the developers follow this up, I’d love to see an expanded version.

Red Goddess isn't a bad game, but not being ‘bad' isn't enough to make it stand out. The Metroidvania holds up well enough for those looking for an indie-sized experience, but the story is where it falters most—it promises a great set of ideas and fails to deliver the necessary elements to make it resonate.

I wanted to like Mistover. While I initially came to it hoping to find something that delivered on its obvious promise of being similar to Darkest Dungeon, what I got was more like a poorly-balanced work-in-progress. With annoying encounters and dull dungeons, it falls far short of the game it was so clearly inspired by.

Akimbot presents a lot of ideas that don’t significantly learn from or build on the milestones established by the 3D platformers that have come before it — and there are a lot of them to learn from. In the end, it’s a middling, uninspired entry into a genre crowded with bangers, and finds itself in need of both more polished mechanics and a livelier world. My hope is that Evil Raptor will improve on this first effort and expand on Exe’s story in a more realized way.

Since it’s a multiplayer-only title with exactly one mode, Hunting Grounds was clearly banking on the strength of its premise. Failing that, there’s just not much to it, and players will have seen everything there is to see after just a few matches. Maybe we should take this as a signal to stop trying to make Predator games a thing — if this didn’t work, I’m doubtful that anything will.

Under pressure of shapes coming at the block from multiple sides, it's sometimes hard to distinguish between the bluish-green hexagon and the greenish-blue hexagon, and to position them accordingly.

The core idea of a balancing a strategy game with limited player control is intriguing, but I found the execution of that idea, and the representations it used, unsatisfying. Arcen has made an ongoing and admirable effort to keep tweaking the game (although some patches have rolled out insufficiently tested), but I'm just not sure that anything they can do will address the essential dullness of its opening and closing phases.

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.

Such a wide range of inconsistencies results in an experience that never feels right — Snow Bros Wonderland is ultimately a game that’s on par with trying to squeeze a marshmallow through a keyhole. Even if one succeeds in doing so, it’s definitely not worth the trouble in the end.

White Night is meant to be a slow-burn investigative horror story, but I grew impatient with how incompetent its mechanics are and how they combine to make the experience as irritating as possible. I'm a fan of old-school horror, but one-hit kill enemies, mazelike, hard-to-parse level design, obtuse camera angles and a punishing save system override any nostalgia I might have. I admire that it's trying to pull off a bit of an homage here, but with every good element canceled out by a misstep, I'll stick with the original stuff.

Just a decent sci-fi story mixed with some rather unambitious gameplay. Nothing is done gratingly poorly, but neither is anything done with any sense of innovation or panache.

Caustic Reality is a one-man studio, and I applaud the creator for the game he made — I enjoyed Infliction and discovering Gary’s truth. It might not be a groundbreaking title in the horror genre and its antagonist might need a bit of rehab, but this psychological adventure is still one worth taking.

While Static didn't really work for me, it's short, it's free, and certain aspects of it are very much open to interpretation. I've been sitting on this one for a while due to a fear of misrepresenting a piece of art that I don't entirely understand, but I can still recommend that interested parties check it out for themselves and come to their own conclusions.

The core of the Walking Dead experience depends on the writers making a connection with the player, and for me right now, that's just not there. Without that, I'm just going through the motions without much worry over the consequences.

Although it’s got some serious shortcomings, I would strongly encourage the developers to keep going in the direction that they’re going and to deepen and enhance what they’ve already built — this piece of work is absolutely headed in the right direction, it just hasn’t reached its destination yet.

Taken on its own, though, Lego Marvel Super Heroes does not offer much that an adult player will find engaging, let alone competent.

In a certain sense, Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch seems to be exactly as advertised. The quality of the artwork is unimpeachable, just as one might expect from the studio that created it. Unfortunately, the beauty of Ghibli has been painted onto the unimaginative and poorly-executed design of Level-5. As a result, Ni No Kuni turns out as blandly as its name suggests.

I hope that Nintendo sees the error of its ways soon and pulls Fox & Co. out of this interminable nosedive.

It’s great to finally have Everybody’s Golf on PC, and even though this entry fails to meet the series’ usual high standards, it still offers a fine walk out on the links. That said, it’s impossible to shake the feeling that it’s only achieved the absolute minimum here. Until the various bugs and other issues are patched out, I simply can’t recommend Everybody’s Golf in its current state. No matter how good the general golfing experience is, it’s impossible to ignore the wonky physics and overall lack of ambition. What should have been a near-effortless hole in one is perilously close to becoming a triple bogey instead.

Those who want to use speedruns as a demonstration of their twitch skills will likely find Lovely Planet a 50-hour obsession. Nobody else really need apply.

In attempting to juggle so many balls at once, it simply loses control and bats them all over the place in a crazed, lurching frenzy as it tries to stop the whole thing from falling apart.

Breach isn't terrible, but I don't see anything here that hasn't already be done better by another game, resulting in an instant recipe for mediocrity.

It’s a shame there’s not more to Bound than there is. The artists are incredibly talented people and the visuals they’ve crafted can legitimately be described as poetry in motion. Sadly, graphics can only go so far and there’s nothing of significance past them, reducing Bound to being another beautiful art-house trifle that doesn’t capitalize on its potential.

As a whole, Shiftlings is a good concept that falls down in the execution thanks to a lack of a clear identity, potty humor and poor physics. Although I had some good moments with it during the course of play, it feels a bit too mixed to recommend.

Despite how thinly-sketched I found many of these elements, I have to admit that I was surprised when Void Sails ended as abruptly as it did, with an ending that largely focuses on the protagonist’s relationship with the characters met along the way. However, it wasn’t a well-rounded wrapup, things simply… end. It felt like listening to someone tell an interesting story for a few hours, only for them to suddenly stop mid-sentence and walk away. Given the clear talent and passion on display here, I firmly believe that Ticking Clock Games are capable of building Void Sails into something a bit meatier, or perhaps crafting a different, more fully fleshed title in the future. They’re a studio to watch.

My time with Gauntlet was educational since its existence was clearly a step in the process that led to Helldivers. As an experience unto itself? It's neither satisfying nor worthwhile, and I can't recommend Gauntlet: Slayer Edition to anyone when a superior product from the same developer is readily available on the same platform.