Of course no game is meant to last forever, but replay and variety are hallmarks of the roguelike genre and in this way, Splintered Fate comes up a bit short. It’s a good time while it lasts — especially for Turtles fans — but more content, more variety and perhaps a little more narrative would have boosted the experience to the next level.

It’s a delightful experience, but I think newcomers would actually be better served doing what I did and jumping in at the deep end with one of Kaizen’s classic predecessors. Kaizen is best, I think, for the already-converted. It’s not on the same level as the older titles, but it’s a delightful dose of most of what made them special. A summer treat for the sickos.

Complaints aside, the uniqueness of the concept makes the game more than worth checking out.

The combat also shows surprising depth, although the secondary systems don't quite measure up. It's not groundbreaking or deep, even in the context of its own series, but Tales of Xillia was engaging and satisfying.

Despite this, much of the game is a joy to play, providing more than its share of simple, disposable fun. Moreover, Cabela's Survival: Shadows of Katmai nails the spirit of its protagonist and the atmosphere of the adventure. Although its scenario is silly and many of its incidents are ridiculous, the game succeeds because it never takes itself very seriously.

Fans of Michonne from the comics or TV series may rejoice in the insights the episode provides on her, yet in comparison to the previous season of Walking Dead, it falls short. I hope that the next two installments will reframe the story's events more positively and ultimately reveal a much larger, richer, and more interesting arc.

Wayforward Technologies has done an excellent job of taking an old classic and giving it a fresh update for a new generation.

While I would not recommend the title to older gamers (unless they were fanatical Disney fans) I strongly suspect that playing as a parent/child team would be of value, and having multiple children playing together would certainly be the optimal situation.

While the experience was a little short at about five hours, the time spent with Urban Trial Tricky was well worth it — even with a few small bumps in the road, I enjoyed the ride from start to finish.

It's hard to fault the developers for not including a split-screen multiplayer mode, but that might have sent Disco Dodgeball over the edge of recommendation for me. While the fast-paced action of all-out dodgeball combat is consistently enjoyable, it would be even better with friends in the room.

The difficulty of Double Kick Heroes can be offputting and the story, while amusing, was no great shakes. That said, there was just something about it that made me want to rock on. Whether it’s worth a purchase is a matter of taste, but anyone with Game Pass should give it a try.

The amount of content in Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX is simply staggering, and will surely offer hours of fun for Vocaloid fans.

While Dead Rising 2: Off The Record outdoes its predecessor in terms of raw playability and the amount of content it offers, it’s just not as satisfying. Both Dead Rising 2 and 3 understand that these are games are fundamentally about helping people in a terrible situation, and they’re richer because of it. Frank West’s jokey manner fits the sandbox mode well, but his detached, ironic worldview doesn’t land the way the rest of the series does. In the end, this effort feels like a minor sidenote before the series put the best pieces together for Dead Rising 3.

Tomba! Special Edition is a charming reminder of the experimental days of the PS1 era, and the cute characters and wonderful soundtrack still appeal. However, the flaws in this port and some of the game’s original issues might make it a bit tough for newcomers to fully embrace this beloved cult classic.

In a game absolutely packed with embarrassing relics of the first Halo-silly Covenant vehicle design, the Spartans' ridiculous looking low-G jump existing alongside a modern physics engine, the return to one gun at a time-Bungie chose to fix only a multiplayer game mode.

Though uneven at times, it’s clear that Snowcastle Games have gotten it mostly right in their attempt to evoke the JRPGs from the turn of the century… It’s just a bit disappointing that this focus on bringing back old conventions hasn’t resulted in an experience that feels like it does anything new.

Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 is tough to recommend when the first game is still around. This new entry sure is a sequel, but that’s about it.

There’s not enough to Blade Strangers to recommend it unreservedly, especially with a sparse playable roster and a lack of game modes, but the fighting is undoubtedly solid and enjoyable in bursts. It doesn’t have legs, but it does what it sets out to do, and does it surprisingly well.

In this day of deformable environments, realistic injuries and true physics, it's just a light, fun experience, and a perfectly acceptable beginning to the new KOF franchise. I can only hope that next time around they try to accomplish something truly new, rather than just new to them.

It may feel a bit out of place on current hardware, but viewing it as something of a "lost classic" from the last generation affords it a more appropriate context to be judged in, and a more comfortable one to be enjoyed with.

The hours spent uncovering a science experiment gone wrong kept me invested, not to mention the sidestories that were also available — if I needed a break from dangerous drug labs I could track down documents from a reporter, assist a search party, break up an argument in a bar and more. Players who enjoyed The Outer Worlds and are itching for a reason to jump back in will find Peril on Gorgon a perfectly good reason to do so — just try to refresh your memory as best you can first.

Prey's marriage of scientific and spiritual might not be the best fit, but convincing environments, dynamic gravity, and mastery of genre basics assure its status as a pleasantly solid entry into a very crowded field.

Despite the overpowered nature of the stealth, Heretek does include enough new content to whet the appetite of Mechanicus fans and gives them good reason to come back. The new battlegrounds are a nice reprieve from the planet scenarios of the core campaign, and the new items and units give players more choices. All in all, it brings glory to the Omnisaiah once again.

Prospective ninjas who choose to stick it out will easily spend a dozen hours chipping away at ‘perfect’ runs or indulging completionist tendencies, but for most others, Aragami won’t be seen as more than a reasonably competent also-ran.

Ultimately, I found that Karate Survivor scratched the right itch for me, even if it took a while to get there. I wish some of the mechanics were unlocked sooner so the first runs didn’t feel so bland, but it definitely remains a recommendation for those who don’t mind putting in a couple of hours to get to the good stuff.

While Loot Rascals isn’t the deepest roguelike I’ve ever played, I still adore its elegance and accessibility, and let’s face it, that artwork is charming as all hell. And besides, for a genre that’s generally known for being ultra-hardcore, I can’t help but appreciate an entry that takes a sunny, easy-to-grasp approach. My astronaut hasn’t recovered the terraforming machine yet, but I’m still trying to get her there and having a great time in the process.

Momodora provides fast platforming and combat, a beautifully realized and interconnected world, and plenty of challenge, although often this challenge becomes frustration. However, it doesn’t do anything that hasn’t been done before by better games, and ultimately, it leaves no lasting impression.

With these splintering narratives I wanted to come back to Church several times to to see what the varying outcomes would be. However, I started to see behind the curtain, and apart from the central four characters, the other NPCs have little impact.