The game is a technical and mechanical mess, with unbalanced combat that’s neither intense nor rewarding.

The characters, the story, the controls, the difficulty, and even the central premise... all of it seems to be on the right track, but none of it hits the mark. I still think there's a lot of potential here, but like any other game, the basics have to be nailed before it can start reaching for greatness.

Being interesting doesn’t change the fact that Mighty No. 9 is still a dismal failure.

In short, Alien Rage just isn't very good. If it had nailed the combat, all its other flaws could perhaps be forgiven—but it didn't, so they can't. It's a terrible thing to say, but in a game stuffed to the gills with Xenomorphs, the most alien thing in the entire package is any sense of enjoyment whatsoever.

Never Breakup is a good idea wrapped in a bright, colorful package that is ultimately let down almost completely by the controls and the device it’s on.

Shelter 3 is hard to recommend, both to fans of the series and newcomers. At best, it plays like an half-finished, repetitive experiment that can be easily completed in an hour. Anyone interested in what the series brings to the table should instead try either of the previous titles for a more accomplished, realized adventure.

Despite the fact that the game is only two or three hours long (depending on how lost a player gets) I found it to be absolutely unbearable. I became so bored with the lack of interesting things to see and do that I literally put a rubber band on my controller's left stick to keep her moving for long stretches of time, which gives an idea of how interactive Beyond Eyes is. I badly wanted to quit after the first thirty minutes, but I was determined to see where the story was going. Naturally, the ending was a total non-event and not worth the time and aggravation.

Although it lacks polish, The First Templar makes the most of what it has, and the result is quite respectable.

NeverDead is garbage, and there is no good reason to ever play it.

Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 does a mediocre job of offering up a shooting gallery, but it's so limited in scope that it's almost impossible to recommend to anyone who doesn't feel a strange sense of arousal whenever they imagine popping a bullet into someone's head at several hundred yards. Well, whenever Diaz finally tells them to, of course.

It's a pinball game at its core, and if the pinball isn't nailed down, then the entire experience suffers. With some redesign of the boards and a bit of physics polish, this would be an easy recommend. As it is, it doesn't feel quite ready for prime time.

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.

As this is my first foray into videogame taxi driving apart from Crazy Taxi, I can only guess how it might stack up against others in the same vein. However, what I can say is that I suspect it will scratch the itch of most simulation gaming enthusiasts, and I found it worth the time and effort needed to build my taxi empire — just be prepared for something clearly on the simulation side of things, with no arcade-style action here.

It's just not fun yet. Sure, playing against people is a mild diversion, and it has a small amount of nostalgic appeal, but if they want to come up with something that's sold entirely on the basis of the fun of destruction, destruction has to be more fun than this.

For a title that’s ostensibly about surviving in the middle of a disaster, Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories is incredibly slow, incredibly boring, incredibly outdated and incredibly frustrating – it fails at both its human side and its action side, and ultimately has nothing to offer fans of either. For anyone interested in the concepts or subject material, I’d recommend either Disaster Report (PS2, 2003) or Raw Danger! (PS2, 2006) over this crumbling mess.

The game offers entertaining car combat with enough car, weapon, and track variations to keep players from getting bored.

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.

GI Joe: Operation Blackout could have been something special, but it doesn’t capitalize on its nostalgia effectively, and has too many shortcomings to stand out in any meaningful way against the countless action games already available on every platform. It might be worthwhile as co-op fodder with a younger player, but everyone else might want to give this a pass.

Rengoku is a tight, focused experience not aimed at the average gamer, but it carves out its own niche and fills it nicely. It's an acquired taste perhaps, but one that I definitely crave.

I’m fine with gut-wrenching violence if it’s taken seriously or if there’s a point to be made, but Rise & Shine’s over-the-top carnage is constantly being interrupted by some of the laziest and most ill-timed humor imaginable, all in service of a message that isn’t particularly original or insightful. These uncomfortable tonal shifts would be enough to tarnish even a good game, but the frustrating and underwhelming Rise & Shine isn’t worth putting up with it.

It is a game that utterly fails to capture any of the elements that make its source material so enduring and beloved.

I like the idea of taking a fish on an unconventional journey, but Koi isn't atmospheric or relaxing enough to be a chill game, and the gameplay isn't substantial or clever enough to make it a puzzler.

To put it bluntly, Ape Escape Academy is a textbook case of monkey-see, monkey-do; it goes through the motions and mimics the best it can, but lacks the intelligence and understanding required to imbue its efforts with any sort of elegance.

Bullet Witch is a strange, quirky game that feels profoundly unfinished even as it’s charming players with its madness. It’s a complete mess, but with all the DLC included, it’s absolutely worth fifteen dollars.

Fairytale Fights would have been starkly disappointing as an XBLA or PSN download-only title, but as a retail game taking up shelf space, it's absolute failure.

When compared to all the love the Turtles have been receiving lately, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants feels like a big step backward. The gameplay is dull and offers little variation, the prevalence of screen-clears highlight the poor combat design, and there’s no real replayability or any rewards to encourage players to come back. Wrath? It’s more like a whimper.

Between NanoBreaker and "Lament of Innocence," I remain absolutely unconvinced that there is any hope for the KCET studio to develop a playable, enjoyable 3-D action game.

Knights Contract reminds me of that friend from high school-I think maybe every guy might've had one like this growing up-who was way too into wrestling. For the most part he was a great guy, except for the times when he'd decide that a casual conversation was a perfect opportunity to throw me into an inescapable armbar, on which occasion I found myself wishing he was a dead person.