Moebius: Empire Rising starts with an interesting idea, but the plot never takes off. Some moments may briefly grab your interest, but disappointing puzzles, shallow characters, and tedious methods behind investigations keep the game feeling lethargic all the way to its uninspiring climax. Instantly forgettable, this game is better off lost to time.

Spyro continues his quest for mediocrity in yet another frustrating, unoriginal adventure.

WALL-E's finicky camera and repetitive gameplay make this one lousy robot adventure.

It's a copy of a previously released game that wasn't that great to begin with, but with the less-engaging characters of the Miami cast and a series of mysteries that also aren't as interesting.

I Heart Geeks lets you make some incredible machines, but a lack of creativity dampens the satisfaction.

This is what Anthem is like as a whole: a game where promising moments are bookended by frustration, where good ideas are undone before they can be fully realized.

Knack's downfall is that it focuses entirely on combat, but doesn't offer enough variety or depth within its system to compel you onward.

Realistic animations can only hide the sloppy foundation of this football game for so long.

Fallen Champions is a short and mostly sweet compression of many of the good elements in its King Arthur predecessor.

The resource gathering is tedious, the crafting is superficial, town management is convoluted, microtransactions are practically inescapable, and the world is unwelcoming and empty. In short: The individual components aren't enjoyable, and they don't contribute to anything bigger. There is no payoff. There is no point.

Even if you forgive the flimsy story, cliché characters, and derivative gameplay, it's impossible to look past the myriad frustrating technical problems that plague this game.

Pac-Man World Rally is a paint-by-numbers kart racer with almost zero in the way of unique qualities or challenges.

The disjointed nature of Orphen is unfortunate, because it's easy to envision great gameplay experiences being the product of its game system.

Though the game draws inspiration from some of the more respected second-string puzzle games out there, Super Bubble Pop offers neither their depth nor their long-term appeal.

If you're drawn to this title because of the Lego name, just know that there are better futuristic racing experiences to be had.

There's plenty to do in Port Royale 3, but little of it is fun.

The GBA game's multiplayer features are fairly limited and poorly organized. Its single-player component, on the other hand, is very nicely organized and offers a great deal of variety.

Your guitar will gently weep for this frustrating platformer.

There's no reason to pick this one up, regardless of how bad you need a basketball fix--there are plenty of cheaper, better options available.

The Political Machine 2012 updates the Beltway players and the hot-button issues, but keeps the same gameplay as its 2008 predecessor.

Pocketbike Racer is a bad kart-racing game that's often broken.

Import Tuner Challenge does few things right and faces stiff competition from other racing games, but if you sink enough time into it, it can grow on you.

An unfortunately stuttery frame rate keeps Hot Wheels Velocity X Maximum Justice from reaching its full potential, but the game is still quite enjoyable.

May be an improvement on "Legion," and it may focus on an often-neglected part of history in the early Near East civilizations, but there are better options out there if you enjoy historical strategy games like these.

For Shadowbane's population of player-versus-player aficionados, the expansion doesn't seem to do much, nor does it do enough to compel new players to get into the game.

Just another languid translation of the exact same game you've been playing since the days of the Dreamcast. Sudden Impact is pretty much on autopilot in every aspect of its execution, presenting just the bare minimum to make a playable UFC game.

The casino games in Payout are mostly competent, but the game spreads itself too thin and delivers almost none of the promised real-world casino atmosphere.

Just another shallow party game.

Ancient Shadow doesn't bring anything new to the table, and, what's worse, none of the problems from the previous games have been fixed or improved.

It's Groundhog Day meets Philip K. Dick in this entertaining but muddled mystery adventure.

The soaring bird that has long served as the metaphor for the Ace Combat pilot becomes a vulture fighting over highway carrion, looping away incautiously when the odd car passes a little too close, before returning again for a final few scraps of flesh.

The brain-training experience comes to Microsoft's console, but it's unlikely to pass the test for most players' hard-earned dollars.

Back to Stone is a bland, sloppy dungeon crawl in which you'll spend the majority of time pushing stone blocks around.

I did have moments of fun playing Apex Legends on Switch. Panic Button has managed to take a game that I love and make it work just well enough on Nintendo's hybrid console. I don't want to keep playing it on Switch with its many technical concessions (nor do I want new players to be introduced to Apex Legends this way), but this port is--in its current state--a decent last resort. If your only way to play Apex Legends is on Switch, then you now have that option. Just know that you're signing up for something less than ideal.

It's fast-paced, it's gritty, and it's got style to spare, but El Matador is also one of the most infuriatingly unbalanced shooters in years.

Unraveling the interwoven game mechanics of Dream Trigger 3D leads to the realization that this shoot-'em-up offers more style than substance.

Night Watch is a stripped-down turn-based strategy game that starts off interesting, but eventually settles into a shallow and repetitive rut.

The best the series has to offer, but that's not saying much. The gameplay is frustrating, the graphics are average, and there are plenty of bugs that have not been addressed.

Like most games that shoot for comedy, BMX XXX isn't funny. The design for the gameplay and goal system feel unfinished.

Having to deal with Rogue States' frustrating AI is a bit like playing a multiplayer game with some guy who keeps breaking up the game by walking away from his computer to grab a snack from the kitchen.

Though Prince Caspian is not without its charms, the game never lives up to its potential and ends up being too boring and repetitive to live up to the exciting tale it's based on.

Parents whose kids have Scooby-Doo hot on the brain from the movie can safely rent this one, or not, without worry of missing much.

Not only a poorly realized party game, it's also a boring one to boot.

The End Is Nigh serves up light beat-'em-up fare with a Watchmen flavor. Those hungry for anything substantial will be disappointed.

Jason spends too much time talking and not nearly enough time fighting in this Greek mythology-inspired action-RPG.

Dragon Fantasy Book II is a pale shadow of the Super Nintendo role-playing games that it is inspired by.

Sonic finds shallow, frustrating gameplay awaiting him in the legendary realm of King Arthur.

While much of Duke Nukem Forever is embarrassingly bad--the kind of game you point and laugh at--its biggest problem is that it's so tedious.

Taken as a whole, however, Valkyria Revolution just doesn't come together as well as it should. Between the poor story presentation, AI issues, and numerous superfluous systems that add little to the experience, it feels like the game needed a bit more time and planning for all of its ideas to properly congeal. While Valkyria Revolution offers some enjoyment, you're going to have to wade through the trenches to get there.

Like a one million-horsepower sucker punch to the good feelings we've all suddenly developed toward Astro Boy games, however, the second release, Sonic Team's Astro Boy: No Subtitle, turns out to pretty much stink.

Improves in gameplay terms upon its NBA counterpart, but even as a first-year effort, the options and features available in the game are rather paltry.

A number of problems with the controls, the graphics, and the enemy AI keep it from being anything more than a mediocre game.

Knight Rider isn't all bad--the game's missions can be enjoyable, even if they're repetitive.

An ugly, boring game.

Minority Report just isn't fun to play, and all because of a horrible targeting system.

The execution is sloppy, and in the end, the game simply feels unfinished.

The limited selection of events leaves these Olympic Games out in the cold.

A great game that won't disappoint Mega Man fans with its engaging quest and fun combat. The game manages to offer an alternative experience to the traditional Battle Network games.

This movie trivia game offers consistent multiplayer fun despite its limited feature set.

The thoughtful puzzles in this movie adaptation are often overshadowed by the steep challenge and troublesome controls.

Unfortunately, like the cars that shuttle people around the island, this game is on rigid tracks and offers you no control over where it goes or how it gets there. You're just along for the ride.

Marvel Nemesis has been engineered in such a way that you must slog through the game's weakest parts to gain access to its best features--and you'll have to wrestle with some serious balance and gameplay issues along the way.

Terrible level design, unresponsive controls, and a poor camera are just the beginning of the problems in this awful adventure.

The gameplay will have you shaking your head in disbelief and disgust as you encounter one badly designed puzzle, maze, or action sequence after another.

Unless you haven't come out of your basement since 1983, you've undoubtedly seen plenty of strategy games that are much more advanced.

An enjoyable multiplayer basketball game, but hoops purists might find the lack of strategic play a bit disappointing.

The game delivers a fun, but ultimately short, gaming experience.

No budget and no new ideas make Gods a less than enthralling action RPG, even with its Penthouse Pet star.

A few cute moments can't disguise this movie tie-in's biggest problem: its criminally short length.

This excitement always quickly fades, leaving you with a game with unresponsive controls and lackluster action.

Rainbow Six Critical Hour's brief campaign, poor presentation, and broken multiplayer make it almost impossible to recommend, even to longtime fans.

Achron's time-traveling brilliance is marred by some critical flaws.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II is a solid though unremarkable continuation of the long-running formula.

Even if you're a Warriors fan who knows not to expect a Dark Souls level of gratifying melee combat, Band of the Hawk still deprives you of the juicy sights and sounds that one associates with Guts' savagery; the splashes of red that result from every kill hardly counts as "gore".

When you finish finding all the stamps in Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, your reward is a greeting from the curator, and that's very much the approach Nintendo has taken here. Welcome Tour is an interactive virtual museum exhibit, all centered around showcasing Nintendo's latest piece of hardware. It carries the calm sensibility of a museum, which makes it feel very approachable and good-natured. And like any good museum, it's a decent way to spend an afternoon to marvel at the exhibits and learn a few things along the way. But I sense Nintendo's self-consciousness coming through in the decision to charge for it--the mindset that imagines if it's free, people will conclude that it's worthless. Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour certainly isn't worthless. It's a well-made, often informative, sometimes-frustrating introduction to the new hardware. It's just too bad Nintendo didn't model it after many great museums: with no fee, so the work inside could speak for itself.

There's nothing here to make a mark: no creativity on display, no clever competitive modes, no sense of accomplishment. There's only a seven-hour campaign, optional missions in which you try to keep the overkill meter consistently replenished, and the knowledge that in a month, you won't remember having played Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel.

The Lord of the Rings: Conquest is an exciting and action-packed way to experience Middle-earth, provided that you have the patience and fortitude to shoulder a few frustrating burdens.

Run-of-the-mill fighting and stripped-down strategy sequences make Shaman King a fairly drab ride that's only recommendable to extreme fans of the series.

Breached has a spark, but it ultimately fades before catching fire.

This bot-filled sequel delivers all of the mind-numbing monotony we've come to expect from the Dynasty Warriors franchise.

So if you like playing video games to release tension, and you don't care about good stories or online multiplayer modes or any of that stuff, definitely rent this one or something.

You shouldn't dismiss the game as wholly unworthy: online multiplayer is good fun, and the campaign shows signs of life, occasionally letting you see past the me-too warfare and appreciate a brief flash of imagination. But on the whole, Warfighter leaves you thinking, "Yep, that's a military shooter, all right." Its heroes strive for greatness; the game they star in is merely serviceable.

Unfortunately, the game ends up feeling pretty shallow, with an odd control mechanism and camera angle, as well as a light RPG system that doesn't seem all that balanced.

Incredibly similar to the original -- so much so that even fans of the first game will be let down by the sequel's identical graphics, gameplay, and overall lack of innovation.

Every so often, a hint of something special glints through in Sports Story's bloated design. A joke or two manages to hit the mark and make me smile, for instance, or a surge of triumph flows through me after a dash of inspiration forms the basis of a strategy that turns a seemingly impossible shot into something possible. But these moments are too rare to adequately alleviate the game's numerous shortcomings, all of which are exasperated by regular technical issues. Golf Story deserved a better sequel than this.

Boogie Bunnies is a fun, albeit shallow little puzzle game.

RocketBowl reinvents bowling through the introduction of rockets and minigolf-style courses, but isn't nearly as much fun as it sounds.

Misses the mark thanks to completely linear level design, choppy graphics, and the puzzling absence of multiplayer modes.

Contrary to its title, this disappointing puzzle game possesses little in the way of creativity.

Sneak King isn't a good game, but it's so crazy and so cheap that it still manages to be weirdly compelling.

The game itself is lousy.

This short adventure game nails the feel of both the show and the island on which it's set, but struggles with some of the characters.

Terrible motion controls and poor visuals sap all the fun out of this poor excuse for a tennis game.

Stacked presents itself as a typical game of poker, but thanks to a pretty intriguing artificial intelligence system, it plays things much smarter than your average poker title.

The only difference between Carnivores: Ice Age and the previous games is that there aren't any dinosaurs to shoot this time.

With its outdated roster, overly complicated wrestling system, sluggish controls, decided lack of different match types, and various visual oddities, WWE Raw unfortunately does little to fill the wrestling void in PC gaming.

Boasting nothing resembling extraordinary gameplay, it serves, rather, as a vehicle for the license.

Unlike the entries from Microsoft and Rockstar, though, The Italian Job is almost completely devoid of both flavor and interesting gameplay, and the whole thing feels like it was slapped together in a supreme hurry to cash in on the release of the film.