It's not a great game by any means, but there are much worse ways to spend an afternoon than making jets explode.

The Dungeons & Dragons titles were some of the most evolved side-scrolling fighters of their day, with design and gameplay concepts that made them stand out from their contemporaries. However, a $15 price-tag makes it tough to recommend the package to anyone who wasn't already a big fan back in the day.

Looking solely at the gameplay, Great Big War Game delivers. On the other hand, there is more to a game than just the gameplay itself-appearances do matter. From that perspective, it's in need of a little help.

Little Nightmares 3 might be the least of the trilogy so far, but anyone who wants to have a new experience in its horribly bleak and oppressive world will still find this a great opportunity to do so — it just doesn’t come together as darkly perfect as it should.

Despite its crazy name, Nitroplus Blasterz: Heroines Infinite Duel is actually a solid little brawler, though it definitely lacks the depth, fine tuning and good looks that would give it a shot at being competitive with more established series in the genre.

While the game suffers from minor technical flaws and repetitive gameplay, it does something legitimately new with its TV show concept.

The Godfather II's failure is that, outside of the most utilitarian sense in which it is a smoothly-playable game, it doesn't accomplish anything at all.

Wet Dreams Dry Twice is an okay sequel to the reboot of a genre-classic series and its faithfulness to old-school sensibilities is both a strength and a weakness. While the humor is a bit too juvenile for my taste, it does manage to elicit some laughs every now and then. On the other hand, players wanting a fresher take on design and writing might want to look elsewhere.

Despite its immediate beauty, After Us doesn’t generate the emotional response I would hope for from a title in this genre. Perhaps if it were a bit shorter and more focused, I would have been more motivated to explore and rescue every spirit. Instead, the unpolished platforming and surplus of unnecessary collectibles diluted its intensity. Though there are certainly some memorable moments here, there are simply other titles in the genre that are much more successful at doing what After Us is attempting to accomplish.

In closing, L.A. Noire's ambitions far outstrip its abilities, and it's a frustrating failure most of the running time. That being said, the shooting is exceptional, the occasional fistfighting is functional, and the foot chases are endearingly dynamic.

The greatest strength of Wii Sports—its unparalleled accessibility—ends up being its greatest weakness. Although the game initially feels like a breath of fresh air, the failure of its novel control scheme to provide the sensitivity needed for continued growth and mastery ultimately sucks much of that air right back out.

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero is pleasant but shallow. The initial “wow” factor of the wonderful aesthetics wears off once the backtracking starts, and the game never recovers. It looks wonderful, but no amount of prettiness can cover up gameplay that can’t come close to the quality of the visuals.

A fun game. But it is not as good a simulation of soccer as it could be. Too much of the gameplay feels scripted, and although you can pull off some beautiful moves, the unexpected occurs far too seldom.

While Time Carnage has little in the way of innovation or originality, it nails the fundamentals so well that it’s a pleasure to jump in. There are plenty of other games that let players grab a couple of guns and blast away at zombies, robots, and dinosaurs, but the ones that manage all three and do it in this kind of style are few and far between.

I spent a lot of time complaining in this review because it chafed against my particular tastes for these kinds of experiences, but there’s little here that’s bad on an objective level. As such, Kotama and Academy Citadel wouldn’t be at the top of my metroidvania recommendation list, but that’s due more to the amount of stellar competition in the genre than any particular flaw of its own.

This kind of thing seems like a perfect fit for squeezing in a few minutes on a portable system, not to mention that it's a brand-new game and not a spin off or sequel to something found on the PS2.

The second half's ridiculous difficulty hampers its full potential and causes it to lose significant points... [but] if the idea of a bloodthirsty, darkly violent version of "Marble Madness" sounds like your idea of a good time, check it out.

The high stakes created by The Wise Monkey's first scenes propel the player through the rest of the episode. Although the game stumbles mechanically in a few spots, it manages for the most part to maintain the tension that The Hangman lacked.

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, it’s hard to recommend Lost Ember thanks to performance issues and some questions about its narrative. There are certainly sights worth seeing here, but it ultimately feels more like an interesting start to something that isn’t as engaging as its contemporaries.

For players who just want more Witcher, there’s no doubt that Blood And Wine delivers. It has a whole new land to explore, there are tons of things to do, and there’s enough content to keep someone busy for dozens of hours. On the other hand, it felt to me like the entire Witcher experience had already peaked, so following it up with something that’s just not as good leaves things in an awkward place. The last ten minutes are absolutely worth seeing, but the hours that come before it? Maybe not so much.

The campaign offers a good mix of classic characters, the location in which the adventure happens is unusual, the tactics are rich and the gameplay is enjoyable — if the script and voiceovers didn’t dump a bucket of hog slop all over everything, we’d be in business. Unfortunately, the narrative aspect of Naheulbeuk is truly abysmal and it ruins everything else the game gets right. In this case, a boring by-the-numbers ‘save the world’ questline would have been far, far preferable to what we actually got.

Don't get me wrong; Yakuza 3 is still a good game that offers a uniquely Japanese experience and dramatic content an order of magnitude more mature than most of what's coming down the pike, but it just doesn't match up to the first two entries. I hate to say it, but the Dragon of Dojima's gotten soft in the middle-it's time for Kazuma to cut back on the yakiniku and get his ass back to the gym.

Recommending An Airport for Aliens Currently Run By Dogs depends a lot on one’s tolerance for backtracking and exploring huge areas with no map available. While the great wit and sheer absurdity of the situations managed tograb ahold of my interest, it wasn’t enough to keep me playing until the end.

I enjoyed Yonder more than I otherwise might have because I played it at just the right moment — it served as a palate cleanser after one of the year’s bloodier games. That said, I still found Yonder to be a peaceful delight despite its shortcomings.

Volta-X can’t be played without an active online connection. Forget about taking it on the bus or anywhere that the Switch can’t stay connected. Even putting it in rest mode for a minute or two will drop the connection, and along with this comes increased battery usage — my playtime between charges was notably reduced. This laundry list of issues breaks my heart, because Volta-X has a great concept and could have easily been a killer eight-to-ten-hour adventure filled with lasers, rocket-powered fists and awesome explosions. Instead, the experience is brought down by stretching it into the sort of neverending online game-as-service that it isn’t suited for. Time to take this ‘bot offline and reboot.

El Hijo is a tough sell for me. I appreciate the aesthetics and was charmed by the hero, but the campaign was simply too long due to excessive backtracking, unclear level design and some rough edges that often made sneaking and hiding frustrating. A tighter, more streamlined campaign would have made for a more enjoyable experience overall.

Love Eternal is very demanding game — it demands perfection for its platforming, focus for the narrative beats, and patience for both. I can say that it’s one of the most unique games I’ve played in a very long while, and maybe with time I’ll come to enjoy it more than I did. I never stopped being intrigued enough to keep pressing on, but the frustration it put me through only took away from the experience overall.