Sword of the Necromancer is a brief adventure filled with engaging combat and an unexpected amount of heart. Like many roguelikes, repeated runs can grow a bit tedious and a little more visual variety would have been appreciated, but Necromancer is a viable option for someone looking for a bite-size dungeon crawl… And maybe a good cry, too.

I have a great fondness for roguelikes, but this one puts me in a weird place. Mechanically, Into The Pit is a welcome throwback to classic FPS games with the added twist of randomized elements to keep things interesting. However, the pool of random elements is too shallow and there are not enough interesting combinations to keep all but the most dedicated players interested.

Luckily, Mail Time’s ambiance and memorable characters outweigh the backtracking issues. I loved getting to know the residents of Grumblewood Grove and helping resolve their conflicts — it really felt like I was making the forest a better place. Mail Time is a lovely cottagecore adventure best enjoyed with a younger gamer, or those looking for a relaxing escapade to be enjoyed on a rainy afternoon.

People only be satisfied with "AAA" levels of production will likely gripe, but to be perfectly frank, none of the rough edges diminished my overall experience-the focus and design of Reality Pump's efforts just can't be denied.

The Little Acre is a small game, but an extremely well-made and well-loved one. I enjoyed getting to know Aidan and Lily, and look forward to getting to know Pewter Games better as well.

Blair Witch is a successful videogame translation of what made the original film so haunting. It doesn’t move far outside the dev team’s comfort zone, but the warmth of the relationship between a man and his dog almost made it worth fighting through the motion sickness it gave me. Almost.

Although the controls were solidly implemented, the graphics were some of the best I've seen on the Wii, and I do believe the developers' hearts were in the right place, Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon is a tedious, trying experience that didn't offer enough reason for me to carry on in spite of its downsides.

The potential is clearly here for another out-of-left-field cult hit, but the charm of sautéing, stewing, and sometimes scorching wears off too soon, and there's nothing to fall back on to bolster the experience.

Sure, at its core, Battle Through Time is a retelling of the TV series with some deviations, but it absolutely nails what makes Samurai Jack a modern animated masterpiece, and it was a delightful surprise to play through.

Zombie Army VR isn’t a failure by any means – the zombie shooting is certainly thrilling in its brutality, even if it still feels like a bit of a missed opportunity. The relative paucity of zombies, the fact that the sniper rifle feels like a secondary weapon, and the lack of any of the franchise’s crazier elements, like magical combat abilities or zombified vehicles, conspire to make it feel like half of the experience it should be. Maybe we’ll get extremely lucky and when Rebellion gets around to making Zombie Army 5 they’ll consider developing a VR version alongside it so that we’ll finally get a chance to truly inhabit this world.

In the end, Last Stop is an entertaining collection of three narratives, but given the superficial nature of the player’s interactions, I can’t help but think that the whole project might have worked better as a straightforward visual novel.

Onimusha: Warlords still boasts solid story and innovative creature design, but more than anything else, this title is lesson on game design in the days when consoles could have beautiful art or 3D worlds, but not both.

The King’s Bird has a strong conceptual foundation, but the experience falls victim to the “git gud” mentality. It shines when players are allowed to explore the freedom of flight, but that light dwindles over time and is finally snuffed out in the final hours by tragic oversights that have been compounded on for hours.

The London Case occupies a strange sort of middle ground — it wants to facilitate player freedom, while at the same time telling a focused point-and-click story with little room for deviation. Perhaps it would have functioned better as a more pure narrative experience – a visual novel, for instance. It certainly would have been easier to avoid the technical hiccups in that case!

Now, it's possible that this game only looks as great as it does because the game it's following set those expectations so abysmally low, but even without taking that into consideration, it's still an incredibly fun game.

Monochroma can proudly hold its metaphorical head high among other classy 2D puzzle-platformers. This is a game whose developers extensively studied the greats of the genre, and obviously understand what they did right. While it may not bring anything particularly new to the table, Monochroma is a beautifully executed adventure that kept me enthralled all the way from the promising opening to the slightly annoying finale.

Save Me Mr Tako is a cheery delight with surprisingly thought-provoking dialogue, but I could only perform the same gameplay for so long. Ultimately, the experience wasn’t engaging enough to push me through to the conclusion, but I wish Mr. Tako the best in his efforts to end the tragic conflict between octopi and humans.

The potential of a ghostly character capable of leaping from soldier to soldier, causing chaos in the middle of a firefight has barely been scratched, not to mention the poltergeist scenarios that could be crafted around possessing exploding lightbulbs, flying bedsheets, rattling pots and pans, or any number of other things that could be employed for the purpose of haunting.

If someone were looking for a platforming action game, there are better ones out there. If someone were looking for a Scooby-Doo game, there aren't.

I zipped through The Inner Friend in under two hours, but I’d imagine it could be completed even more quickly — I wasn’t good at the chase scenes, and kept getting kicked back to checkpoints. However, even with a short running time, this beautiful story about loss, trauma, and finding the strength to rebuild oneself after falling to pieces is a beautiful experience. It’s stunning, in a broken, decayed way, and I’d recommend it to nearly anyone who’s willing to take a chance on a game built around storytelling without words.

With its solid gameplay, touching story and attractive art design, Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon is a fantastic Action-RPG. Clear objectives ensures that players never have trouble moving the story forward, while likable characters pull them into the story. Just as importantly, the game respects the player’s time — coming in at around 25 hours, it tells a complete, affecting story without dragging on. It’s rare that I’ll go back and explore New Game+ modes, but the high quality of the narrative and the fact that I got the sad ending has convinced me that it’s worth a second look.

I honestly do think that Sir Daniel Fortesque is a good character with potential, but I would have much rather seen an all-new game with a nod towards current methodology than a rehash of something that honestly wasn't all that great in the first place.

LEGO Worlds is a disappointing and frustrating mess. The idea of an open-world Minecraft-like title is brilliant, and maybe with a few patches and improvements it might live up to that promise. But right now? LEGO Worlds feels like it was rushed to consoles and performs at an unacceptable level. Kids might enjoy it in short bursts, but I’d recommend waiting to see if improvements are implemented in the coming months. Until then, go buy some real LEGO bricks instead.

Ultimately, Stonefly ends up being a mixed bag. On one hand, exploring the forest by piloting tiny mechs is a wonderful idea, but the repetitious nature of resource gathering is compounded by the clunky combat, and I’d imagine that most players will be driven away before the experience is over.

It may be designed for last-generation hardware, but it makes an excellent case for small-scale design and proves that great experiences can be had without any need for cutting-edge technology or million-dollar budgets.

Although I can't say it's a must-play for Lord of Shadow 2 fans, Alucard is cool, he's classy, and I want more of him in a leading role. Until then, Revelations is two or three more hours of quality content for an underrated title, and the cleverness of its core idea was definitely worth the price of admission.

For fans of strategic collectible card games, Ironclad Tactics will provide hours of entertainment and offers the ability to go deep into its deck-building mechanics. For more casual players, the game's difficulty spikes and deck micro-management can quickly feel overwhelming. Despite its promising qualities, Ironclad's list of problems clink and clank too loudly not to notice.

Submerged: Hidden Depths is the definition of wasted potential. The setting is a rare treat that deserve to be experienced, but the world is too empty of significant content and the gameplay is too straightforward without any challenging aspects. This ocean might be quite beautiful, but it’s far too shallow.