It would be easy to not recommend Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2 since it's so repetitive and not very pretty, and players spend a lot of time reading scripted events. That said, I love the women-one of the villains included-and these weaknesses are part of the game's charm for me.

It’s not even like Jedi Power Battles is the most beloved game from its era. Why release it in this state, and an even better question is, why release it at all? If there were at least new graphics, or if they bundled the GameBoy version as a bonus extra, I could at least rate it a little higher, but no. This is not the droid that anyone is looking for.

#killallzombies has no excuse for getting this so wrong.

It's inherited all the original game's problems—a major feat, since it's developed by a whole new company—and lost some of its charm in the process.

It doesn’t really matter whether Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted is good or not — all that matters is whether the shocks it offers can startle the player. By that metric, it’s a passable success in docked mode. I won’t say the game isn’t scary, but I will say that it doesn’t have much to offer past that.

When friends are available, Octafight offers quick matches with fast and fluid action, and a variety of modes, stages, and weapons that add an unexpected amount of variety and freshness. However, potential buyers should beware — this added lifespan is only relevant to those who have someone to play with.

As an arcade racing fan, Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown is an exciting jumping-off point and I can’t wait to see what it looks like down the road. Its driving physics and attention to detail are top-notch, and the unlock system gives me the incentive to work towards something. Unfortunately, I think I’m better off playing other racers at the moment while I wait for post-launch improvements that will likely come. I’m hopeful it’ll turn into something special, but right now it needs a little more work under the hood.

It's been about a week since I finished Inversion, and I've already forgotten most of what happened in it. There were two plot twists that were mildly interesting and a couple of cool uses of the gravity powers, but as a whole the game is strangely lifeless. Most of the time, Inversion was boring me, and when it wasn't doing that, it was frustrating me.

A bad game. In fact, it may well be the worst game of the year 2002. About the only redeeming quality it possesses is that it can be finished in well under five hours, making it so that the torture of playing the game itself is relatively short-lived.

After putting my time in with Bound By Flame, I'm left with the sense that the Spiders team has badly overreached. There are some superb ideas on display here, but none feel like they even begin to tap their full potential, and the experience overall feels rushed and incomplete.

As a graphic adventure and 3D puzzle game, The Assembly is a success. As a VR interpretation of the same, it’s fantastic. The world is easy to explore, and interesting enough to make that exploration a pleasure. While it might be a little pricey for such a limited experience, it’s a solid adventure title that had me enthralled and left me wanting more. The Assembly may be an outwardly sterile place, but it’s filled with enough human intrigue to warrant the trip.

I write this review with a fair bit of sadness. This can and should be a good title, and despite all the difficulty I had, the interesting premise of Loading Human kept drawing me back in. The story, true 360 degree movement and ability to manipulate almost every object in the space provide a cool experience — the mechanics are just too nauseating — literally. Only the most devoted players with iron stomachs might be able to suffer through in hopes of seeing light at the end of this virtual reality tunnel.

Ragnarok DS's problem is that decisions that are forgivable in a free MMO are really grating in a single-player game that costs money.

It’s tough to say exactly who Colossal Cave is for. ‘Experienced’ fans who remember it might be overjoyed to explore its passages once again, now visualized, but the novelty will wear off once they’ve blazed through an adventure they likely know the answers to — it’s possible to speedrun the game in under an hour. Younger fans of adventure games may be curious to see a revamped version of how the genre started, but may become frustrated by the bizarre ‘logic’ behind the challenges. Ultimately, it’s a fascinating look back in time, but it doesn’t always translate to enjoyable play.

The most positive thing I can say about Fallout 76 is that a train wreck of this magnitude might finally yank Bethesda – a company that gets away with too much – back to reality. Maybe it’s finally time to update that engine. Maybe it’s not a good idea to slap the Fallout name onto a game that isn’t fit for release and expect it to go over well.

In the end, gamers are all just a bunch of people sitting in front of a television holding a controller, so simulation games must be judged on their ability to make gamers feel like they're performing an action within the limitations of the technology. Cabela's African Safari's poor controls, design choices, and graphics keep this immersion from ever happening.

Clearly, the guys at Access Games understand that games in the Monster Hunter vein are supposed to be punishingly difficult. What they didn't get was that the soul-crushing challenge should come from the gameplay and not poor design decisions. Throwing down your PSP in anger because a boss has outsmarted you is acceptable. Tossing it aside because a fight revolves more around beating the bad game design than the actual enemy is not.

Bodycount is a bad game. A very bad game. It's overly simple, the setting is dry, and the controls don't even work all that well. There is quite literally nothing good about it.

I was hoping that Daymare: 1998‘s intentionally schlocky feel and cheesy voice acting it would result in an enjoyably old-school experience that Capcom’s re-releases don’t quite nail, but the technical issues, dull action and lack of fresh ideas mean it’s never more than a pale imitation of the real thing.

If only the rest of the game had offered some fraction of this scene's inspiration, Eat Lead might have even been worth buying, rather than just taking up space in the budget bin.

Unfortunately, Over 9000 Zombies! doesn't nail the tower defense or the twin-stick shooting well enough to endorse it as a worthwhile purchase, even for those who can scrounge up some friends to play with. There are just too many games that do this gameplay so much better. Over 9000 Zombies! isn't a bad game, but it isn't very good one, either.

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.

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.

Hammer & Sickle is something of a strange case—it's by no means a perfect game, but it features a perfect game engine.

So Transformers: The Game is just a complete mess, a game that succeeds in almost nothing that it sets out to do.

Hidden Dragon Legend has some good visual design but not much else, and it’s a shame. I appreciated the style, but the actual game is so shoddily produced that it’s impossible to enjoy. I don’t care that enemies look good if fighting them is sluggish and repetitive. With tighter controls and fluid combat, Hidden Dragon Legend could have been a minor gem, but it’s just an attractive failure.

Obscure puzzles and technical hiccups aside, Uncanny Valley is a fascinating and disturbing horror mystery that encourages replay. But, I’d only give it two or three plays, max. Any more, and the lingering unsolved mysteries might become as frustrating as the gameplay bugs.

It is massively disappointing that a title with literary aspirations falls so flat when it comes to delivering an engaging experience in all regards. I appreciate that the developers must be huge fans of Kafka, but they’ve seemed to miss that the art in literature is found not only in the quality of each individual page, but also in how they create the accompanying theme.