Mage’s Initiation: Reign of the Elements is a well put-together adventure title. The game (like its hero) has issues, but its charms more often than not make up for them.

Enemies in Return from Darkness are dumb. They're not so bad at visually spotting a character, but when it comes to chasing a spotted ninja down, they suck.

While I found some frustration on my ranch, there’s no doubt that these Monster Rancher games offer a unique experience that I’ve never seen replicated anywhere else, and this DX release is clearly the definitive way to experience these forgotten classics.

Let's Tap!, with its bright, accessible aesthetic and peppy, J-pop soundtrack, has a lot of potential. Unfortunately, I can only evaluate the game as it exists, and Let's Tap! has a few shortcomings too many to wholeheartedly recommend.

All told, Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble is a solid, attractive addition to the PSP library for fans of beat-'em-ups.

The physics feels smooth and responsive in a way that works for me, and it’s satisfying to launch off a ramp in ball form, transform to shoot an enemy mid-air, transform back to dash into another enemy and then send them off the level in one smooth motion. Because of moments like this, Go Mecha Ball has rolled its way to being one of my favorite games of the year in just a few short hours.

In the end, Arkedo has shown up to the party to share with us a huge ball of digital cotton candy; as soon as we get a taste of its ultra-sweetness, it's already evaporating. Fans of the game might counter that there's nothing automatically bad about a trifle of a game, but there's also nothing automatically good about one, either.

This chapter isn’t the best (Chapter 2’s Sapienza still reigns supreme) but it’s a worthy addition. Four targets in heavily populated territory is a new twist for Hitman, and the fact that it was done without unfairly kicking the difficulty up or sacrificing player-paced preparation should be commended.

Brink works fine, yes, and can deliver a competent multiplayer game of shoot-shoot, but as a full-priced retail title it leaves a lot to be desired. A simple, story-less downloadable game would have made much more sense.

I'm all for interesting choices and humor when making a game, but the appeal of a one-trick pony like Divekick wore off after just a few minutes. Like, five. Perhaps people steeped in the fighting game scene or those with friends (and beer) nearby might get more out of it than I did, but I can't imagine that many players will find value in this drawn-out gag.

Outside of those minor issues, NASCAR Heat 4 is an enjoyable racer that had no trouble making me want to take another lap around the track.

Gods Will Fall has some striking visuals and the randomly-generated characters with their varied stories and abilities are great, but the frustrating, sloggy combat, repetitive nature of play, and the lack of any sort of exploration or value in the hub area is disappointing. The developers have already released a road map for more content in the future, but let’s hope they polish the combat first.

Drawing from a pool of the classics – things like Rubik’s cubes, complementary rotation, circuit building – Iris.Fall has a puzzle for for everyone. Unfortunately, this has the corollary of ensuring that players with a weakness for a particular kind of puzzle will end up absolutely stuck at least once in the game. I personally found myself banging my head on a task involving building a bridge for the better part of a half hour, and it’s entirely possible that were I not reviewing the game, I might have quit there and then. I’m glad I didn’t, though, since the story deserves to be seen through to the end.

Despite some baked-in gameplay issues, the lack of auto-saves, and sparseness in the collection’s content, this remains a fantastic way for modern players to enjoy Lara Croft’s classic escapades. While this trio may not be everyone’s favorite, the efforts to smooth them out are excellent overall, and modernize these titles in a meaningful way.

Sadly, all its clever systems end up centering on warfare, and it is in warfare where Taishi too often fails to deliver. For every pitched battle ending in an exhilarating upset victory, there were a dozen that left me feeling like they were wasting my time. Despite all the clever tools in Kou Shibusawa’s thirty-year vision for historical simulation, I frequently had no way to create a new history for a unified Japan without marching into the inevitable.

This game won't change your life or the way you think about gaming, but for those nights when you just wanna turn off your brain and shoot things, you could do far worse.

Overall, Regalia is a beautiful adventure where each action the player takes accomplishes something, and it feels like every part of the experience has something to offer. The cast of characters and surprising story (no spoilers here!) show the developers’ dedication to both tactical RPGs and their narrative.

As a tribute to Symphony of the Night, Elderand is fairly charming. There are some familiar callbacks to that inspiration, but it’s not as immediately accessible and balanced as that masterwork, and its attempts to add complexity amount to little more than distractions and annoyances. There’s no shame in wanting to make Symphony of the Night over and over again, but perhaps Elderand’s developers would have been well-served by embracing that formula more closely — every time it tries to go its own way, it just gets itself into trouble.

While I appreciated the stylish, neon-soaked city and the fantastic soundtrack, No Straight Roads switches between brawler, platformer, and rhythm concepts, but fails to deliver a memorable experience overall.

On a mobile platform like this one, a title has to look good, feel good, and be comfortable to play. This one strikes out in all three areas.

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

Spry Fox does a solid job in presenting a polished, attractive-looking package, even if the gameplay doesn't quite meet the same standard.

With a better upgrade/weapons system and slightly nerfed bosses, Let Them Come would be a fine experience — the kind of quick diversion players could drop into for a few minutes of alien slaughter here and there. Unfortunately, at some point in development the decision was made to prioritize challenge and droning repetition over playability, and the result is a title that can only be enjoyed by players who like spending time with games that hate them.

Sadly, The Mooseman is a mixed experience. As a piece of art, it is by turns creepy and sublime. As a game, it is a disappointment. The power of its best moments is remarkable, so I hope that, in the future, this creative team will realize their attempts to implement traditional forms of play limit, rather than elevate, their work.

While I’m intrigued by the promise of the relationship between Clementine and AJ, these first two episodes of The Final Season don’t honestly stand out in any other way. The climax of this season is yet to come, though — I can’t wait to see if Skybound (TWD creator Robert Kirkman’s company, who just promised to finish the series) will deliver on what could be a final rollercoaster of emotions. Maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel for this series, and for Clementine as well.

Toast Time is a good fit for the Switch. It’s nice to play in bursts, the humor is amusing, and the levels available give the game plenty of challenge without being unfair. However, it would be better served by offering more missions for the singleplayer campaign instead of putting resources towards the lackluster multiplayer mode. Even so, I’d call it a worthwhile addition for the Switch library — it’s a simple arcade experience, but does what it does well.

In another year with less competition, I would have given Chasm a higher score because it’s a mechanically strong, if often frustrating addition to the metroidvania genre. The thing is, it’s 2018 and there are better examples out there right now that make it hard for me to ignore the chasm-sized flaws in its design.

It took me only fifteen hours to get into the third act of the game’s main quest, less than the some 20-25 hours to play through all the DLC. While these new quests fail because they’re so battle-heavy, the stories in Beasts and The Forgotten Sanctum are still complex and engrossing.