It's not as complex as current-day management sims, but this portable remake of the 1994 classic is as addictive and time consuming as ever.

But Blood II lacks some of the innovation of the original; the horror-theme is less pronounced, and the level design doesn't stray far from the average...But it's hard to fault Blood II for not doing anything new; it sets out to be a traditional shooter and does a good, if not great, job.

Best of all, the developers have made it so that you need only a single cartridge to get a party going with as many as four people.

The sleek, superficial action of After Burner Climax is thrilling in short bursts but not deep enough to last.

Ska Studios has created an ambitious sequel that takes various elements from both Monster Hunter and the Metroidvania genre and combines them into one sprawling 2D Souls-like. For the most part, this curious amalgamation succeeds, offering snappy combat, a labyrinthian world to explore, and tense boss battles against a vast array of challenging foes. Unfortunately, it also elicits plenty of moments of frustration, whether it's because the absence of a map and fast-travel system adds additional tedium to its grind, or because the combat system is overly punishing in a way that feels unfair and unbalanced. Salt and Sacrifice still offers an enjoyable distillation of familiar elements, but too many issues hold it back from achieving greatness.

Playing by myself for an extended period of time was boring and monotonous, and the absence of certain single-player modes is a major oversight. But Nintendo Switch Sports is a fantastic multiplayer game that, for the most part, invites anyone and everyone to pick up a controller and flail their limbs about. It has its issues, but they fall away when you have other people to play with and are joyously going toe-to-toe in virtual sports. As with the original Wii Sports, Nintendo Switch Sports finds beauty and fun in simplicity. And bowling is great. Better than real-life bowling.

The MK and DC crowds are a surprisingly good combo, but questionable roster balancing keeps this enjoyable fighter from achieving greatness.

Blazing Angels 2 is a clear improvement over the previous game, though history buffs will probably hate the game's fictional missions.

While the campaign is fun but often too familiar, Resistance shines most of all in some of the game's secondary modes, particularly Invasion and No Cross PvP. Of course, bringing a buddy along to play the story in co-op smooths over some of its roughness, too. I do want to play more of this series, but I'm hopeful the next one takes a bigger leap forward and cleans up some of the long-present jank. Like the difference between the second and third games in the series, it's only going to be the next big step for Sniper Elite if the team finally innovates on what existed before. Otherwise, it's just sparkling familiarity.

An addictive, strategic combat system makes Star Ocean: The Last Hope worth playing despite its cliche storyline and annoying characters.

A great-looking update of a classic platformer, but it can be frustratingly difficult to a fault.

Between the WNBA matches and the position variety of The One, NBA Live 18 succeeds--albeit barely--as a viable alternative to NBA 2K18.

The Club provides some old-school single-player thrills, but it fails to live up to its initial promise.

The game plays well, but there's not enough new in the PSP's fourth Tiger Woods to warrant a purchase.

ProStreet is a solid racing game, but it's missing most of what made the previous games in the series interesting.

At times, then, Snake Pass can be a wonderfully relaxing journey through some beautiful habitats. The late game switches into an engaging and challenging puzzler, requiring some deft flicks of the left stick, but one that can feel immensely gratifying when you elegantly slalom your way over a narrow assault course that's suspended over lava. It's the middle third, when the game expects too much of you far too soon, that causes the momentum to stutter. Nevertheless, Snake Pass is a quirky puzzler that innovates while simultaneously evoking memories of your favourite platformers of yesteryear--just don't expect to grow into your new skin overnight.

Most of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora's work to emphasize its open world is very effective. Pandora is often magnificent, and I stopped repeatedly just to look around and take it in. Diverting from a goal to gather up some armor bark and bow string or blow up an industrial facility were fun detours and felt like an important part of existence there. Best of all, I never felt like an open-world trashman, dumping junk on the way to the next map marker. Instead, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora made me feel like I was adventuring in a place worth exploring, and I'm eager to go back.

Unlike "Missile Command," Fantavision is an out and out puzzle game that offers a less aggressive, oddly soothing game experience.

Despite a few rough edges, Konami has nailed it when it comes to gameplay and fun.

Though it isn't totally remarkable from a technical standpoint, Pirates is an endearing and well-thought-out game.

You'll need the patience and interest to pour hours upon hours into the game, tirelessly tracking all your statistics as you slowly progress through the military and political ranks.

While it accomplishes its goal of providing a fun WWII-themed shooting gallery, it doesn't really shine in any one particular area, resulting in a game that's competent but not very compelling.

This 3D fighting game can be enjoyed by newcomers to the DBZ universe and Super Saiyan wannabes alike.

Despite its ineffectual audio, Bugs & Taz: Time Busters does an excellent job of capturing the humor and personality that the Looney Tunes franchise embodies.

A fun, kid-friendly game that also does a good job of telling the movie's story.

Though it still exhibits many of the camera and control issues that vexed Sonic's previous forays into 3D, it's truer to its 2D roots than any other 3D Sonic game before it.

Kurt's trials partly arise from the traditional platforming challenge, of course, but trimming the more repetitive sequences and draining the bosses' health would have edged this effort toward the greatness enjoyed by some of its contemporary cousins.

I was consistently wowed by the movement and everything that comes with it, so while it's a disappointing action game, it works wonderfully as a platformer, puzzler, and racing game. And for that reason, I can't wait to keep playing.

An engaging story, logical puzzles, and nice visuals combine to make The Awakened a great adventure game.

The Switch version of Imaginators has no physical portal, and instead you'll use the Switch controllers' built-in NFC reader to scan in your toys/characters. The characters will then be added to your roster, and can be accessed at any point during the game without having to rescan them in. The advantage, of course, is that it plays to the mobile nature of the Switch, allowing you to take Imaginators on the road without having to lug all your Skylander toys with you. The downside is the loss of that important, tactile feel of swapping your toys as your mood takes you.

The Golf Club 2019 remains a challenging and ultimately rewarding golf sim with a solid swing system that puts a premium on skill and strategy. The addition of the PGA Tour license is a welcome but limited addition that gives the game a further level of realism and authenticity, while the course-creator again shines as one of the franchise's standout features. Despite its issues, The Golf Club 2019 is the franchise's most attractive package yet.

For those who just want to race fast, wreck hard, and look good doing it, FlatOut fits the bill.

If I found myself describing the game to friends as the game I wanted it to be more than the game it was, it's because the "ideal" version of State of Decay is intoxicating.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the versions of NHL 07 not made for the next generation of consoles offer little in the way of new content.

Action game fans ought to be able to settle in and blast their ways through Total Overdose's relatively brief campaign with reasonable levels of enjoyment. Just be prepared for one extremely cheesy ride.

The sequel to Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords takes everything that was great about its predecessor and ruins it.

Stylish combat that is as challenging as it is exciting provides the backbone for this great role-playing game.

Rain pulls you in from the early moments. The abandoned city that you roam through is beautiful in its gloominess, and the quiet piano score adds subtle background texture without overwhelming the other aspects. The pieces of Rain meld wonderfully together, and as the story comes to a tense conclusion, it becomes absolutely riveting. But there are hours between the evocative opening and cathartic ending that go through the motions.

Call of Juarez takes few risks with its setting or genre, but it does what it does well enough to be enjoyable.

There may not be much more to the game than the constant adventures, but it's tailor-made for short, easily-digestible chunks of gameplay.

The game hasn't aged perfectly, but it still provides a memorable experience that players should enjoy even if this newest edition serves as their introduction to Nights, Claris, and Elliot. Flying through magical worlds is still fun, much like you probably dreamed it would be.

Max: The Curse of Brotherhood benefits immensely from attractive art design, and that is supplemented by a variety of puzzles that are initially quite satisfying before finally wearing out their welcome near the end. Consider taking the plunge if you're itching to dive into another pretty platformer, but otherwise you're probably better off waiting for a different curse to come along.

While still a worthwhile shooter, Lockdown's overall feel may leave longtime fans wondering if the developers have finally strayed too far from their roots.

Together, Make and Break showcase the strengths and weaknesses of Rock of Ages 3 overall. At its best, it's a thrilling and often hilarious ride through an imaginative and surreal landscape. At its worst, its formula is too rigid, its challenges too rote, and it can feel like your frustration with its idiosyncrasies could boil over at any moment. Thankfully, in such times, the bite-size structure comes to the rescue, and you can roll into something new.

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 is among the best games to emerge from this beloved franchise. It looks stunning, has a solid gameplay base, and gives people who love the series a way to feel like they’re a part of this big, beautiful universe. Though it has its share of problems, I was really surprised at how much fun I had with it.

Lack of community aside, Van Helsing's only real problem is that it doesn't go the extra mile. Nothing is particularly spectacular, but Neocore's latest game is a tight adventure with a few blemishes here and there, and it will keep fans of the genre enthralled for quite a while, especially if they can rustle up some friends to come along for the ride.

Career mode is still a mixed bag, then, but it's reassuring that EA has made some additional moves to try and freshen it up. If you do grow tired of simming through training sessions and managing sharpness, FIFA 21 is still chock full of other stuff to do, whether you want to head to the streets of Paris to show off your skills, hop into Ultimate Team with a friend, or play through a season on Pro Clubs. This is a substantial package that's propped up by exciting gameplay that puts the onus squarely on attacking football. There are moments of frustration on defense when the balance doesn't feel quite right, but then you'll go down the other end and score a Puskás Award contender that makes you forget why you were mad in the first place.

Gotham City Impostors is frantic fun for shooter fans who want something a little different.

Jotun is a short game, and good players can probably plow through it in about 3 or 4 hours, but even with the ending behind me, I find myself dying to witness some images again and wanting to try different strategies. I want to hear Thora tell her tale again. Any good bedtime story that makes you want to hear it again right after it’s over is one for the ages.

Blazing Angels 2 is a clear improvement over the previous game, though history buffs will probably hate its fictional missions.

A game that warrants repeated playthroughs to see both endings and experience other relationship choices. Alone With You bears some heavy thematic overlap with recent games like SOMA, Everyone’s Gone to Rapture, and other story-centric releases that focus on the nature of what makes you human, the importance of relationships and contact, and mortality. It’s different enough to feel new despite its retro roots, delivering impactful scenes that shine thanks to a stellar script that brings its few, but emotionally charged, characters to life.

UEFA Champions League is a good game, but it doesn't have the 360 version's card-collecting hook, and it's not much different from "FIFA 07."

It's a new twist to the series, but if you like stealth or strategy games, you'll probably like Tactical Strike.

Aside from some small rough spots, Syberia is a superb adventure with an engrossing story, a truly imaginative gameworld, and stunning visuals.

Lego The Hobbit proves that having plenty of variety in terms of objectives and gameplay mechanics doesn't make much difference if none of those objectives and mechanics are much fun, and that capturing the look of an epic quest isn't the same as capturing the feel of one.

Medal of Honor offers a cohesive campaign and fierce multiplayer competition for those who don't mind a little bit of tarnish on their first-person shooters.

Big bosses, crazy weapons, and exciting scripted firefights are the focal point of this nutty tale. It's also an ample one if you take on all the side missions and scour environments for intelligence, hidden tomes, and secret money stashes. Yet while it's pleasingly old-fashioned, the unimpressive AI, aging technology, and general lack of refinement make this sequel feel like a missed opportunity.

The thrill of pulling off a flawless assassination as you smoothly sneak off with valuable artifacts is what makes these types of games worth playing. But its detractors--cliche writing, unsophisticated AI, and arbitrary quests--culminate to an experience that feels like it's stuck in the past.

With a few more weapon types and vehicles that actually worked, Section 8 could have been a lot more exciting. As it is, this is a satisfying take on the genre that makes up in fun what it lacks in innovation.

Despite spending years on the shelf, The Red Star ably delivers a unique and challenging blend of beat-'em-up and top-down shooter action.

While it might be confusing and memey, disjointed and weird, Stranger of Paradise is also a lot of fun. It's full of cool combat with a wide variety of options, and a job system that lets you customize your playstyle or just try out what feels like 30 different ones. Its challenge makes every fight a battle of skill, while also giving you the tools to feel like a ludicrously powerful Final Fantasy badass. And despite being bizarrely delivered and wildly strange, there is a delight in uncovering what the hell is actually going on in the game's story and the weird ideas it brings to bear on the Final Fantasy series. Stranger of Paradise is mostly a more focused version of Final Fantasy that shows some different directions for the series from its traditional games, even if those directions take it down paths that are sometimes a bit...stranger.

Before you take the plunge, ask yourself whether you're looking for a new virtual world to call your second home or whether you just need to cleanse your palate with a bit of streamlined superhero action. If you're in the former group, Champions Online isn't broad or deep enough yet to make it your game of choice. If you're in the latter, you'll get more than your money's worth for the initial retail price, and the month or so that it takes to fully explore its vibrant nooks and crannies.

For novice or intermediate golfers who don't mind giving up a few of the features found in previous Links or Microsoft Golf games, it's actually quite a good choice for just $19.95.

The game was obviously made by people who love the subject matter, and that affection comes across in every element.

Convincing is a good word for The Clone Wars, which ultimately succeeds at making you feel like you're on the front lines of a big Star Wars ground battle.

Despite some new modes and rules, deep down it's undoubtedly more of the same and definitely targeted at hardcore Dynasty Warriors fans who already own DW4. Given that, it's definitely a quality product.

Superb 3D graphics help make up for the otherwise unremarkable racing action.

The new content in this World in Conflict expansion is short and not so sweet.

The Lego rendition of The Boy Who lived is a seriously charming take on the life of a wizard, with loads of gameplay variety and an emphasis on discovery.

A serviceable, lightweight entry in the genre. It stays true enough to the source material, which should please fans, but the game's rather dry presentation may make it inaccessible to outsiders.

Fans of last year's game won't find much more than a roster update and a few minor gameplay tweaks in NFL Fever 2003, while new players will find in it a fairly entertaining, though unrealistic, game of football.

Regardless of which online game type you decide to compete in, any game that you play will be stricken by a pretty severe amount of lag.

Very middle-of-the-road in most aspects of its execution, and none of it is as fun or as inspired as the Hot Shots Golf games that Swingerz was obviously modeled after.

The underlying game... remains quite good and features a strong cast of characters, unusual environments, and some pretty entertaining hack-and-slash combat.

Fans will appreciate the good-looking characters and hard-hitting attacks, but Clash of Ninja is an experience cut short by a pervasive lack of depth.

On the lively and intriguing battlefields of Brink, technical deficiencies and design issues can be as deadly as enemy soldiers.

The gameplay of Papo & Yo won't grab you, but its imaginative portrayal of a young boy's struggles makes it a worthwhile and special experience.

Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack was and still is an enjoyable platformer, regardless of the device on which you play it, but it's difficult to recommend this new release to anyone who already has access to the superior Vita rendition.

While this Special Edition provides slight combat tweaks and additional characters to toy with, there's just not enough mechanical or architectural variation to justify the fluff. As a result, the endless combat rooms and recycled scenarios can be exhausting.

Even though I wanted to love Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour, if even just to dig into the nostalgia evoked by replaying a game that absorbed a lot of my spare time in 1996, the only emotion aroused was a sense of amazement at just how far shooters have come in terms of graphics, immersion, and level design in 20 years. The Duke may forever be the king, but he's the king of 1996, and his game is so set in a particular time and place that it should probably be left there.

I know a lot of my problems with Sonic Origins sound like nitpicks, but I adore these games and I want to see them restored and presented with joy and reverence as the masterpieces they are--not tainted with frivolous DLC that should be unlockables and lackluster presentation. Sonic Origins comes close to being the definitive classic Sonic experience, but stumbles just before the finish line.

This is a game all about making your business pop off and maybe befriending a colorful critter or two along the way. I would have liked to discover that the spookier narrative elements amount to something more, but the enjoyable management sim that I found instead kept me pleasantly entertained for hours, offering plenty of creative challenges for me to puzzle my way through, all in the name of making the cutest set of bed and breakfasts there's ever been.

Blippo+ feels like an art school project that broke containment and went international. What the team has done with a seemingly shoestring budget makes for a laudable DIY effort. Calling this a game could mislead some users, given it's really more like a '90s-colored cable TV package without any on-demand features. It's interactive, yes, but only in the way one's TV was in the mid-'90s. This sort of experience is sure to be unlike anything else you've ever played--and for younger players, anything they've even experienced in the first place--though a significant number of people will surely come out of it more confused than amused. Still, if you can match Blippo's vibe, you may find yourself homesick for another world.

Those with few qualms about duration will find a game made with evident love and affection for both the source material and the moment in time it was released. Its music is excellent--with perhaps the best rendition of the Terminator 2 theme to date--aiding the game's visuals in its mission to transport you back to a time when blowing into cartridges and inserting coins were the norm. Whether it's the T-1000's haunting fluidity of movement, Sarah Connor's one-armed reloading of a pump action shotgun, or the way the T-800 clambers onto the hood of a semi-truck to unload an entire magazine into its windshield, Terminator 2D: No Fate recreates the movie's most memorable moments with pitch-perfect authenticity. It's a shame it ends far too soon, but this is still the definitive Terminator 2 video game.

This is a captivating adventure, but it's also a very dark and disturbing one that touches on depressing real-world themes and doles out psychological horror along with monsters and gore. Still, this gives the game added depth and a literary weight that elevates it well above much of the horror genre in general, especially in a game that arrives without much pretension and with a plot device about murderous pig-men.

A great sense of humor and challenging gameplay make Let's Go Tower Defense Play! easily the best South Park game to date.

It's very good, maybe even great in places, but the story's smaller focus has come at the expense of its exquisitely rendered backdrop. The grandness and spectacle that so often graces the finest Assassin's Creeds is sadly sorely lacking here.

Mercenaries 2 is filled with bugs and glitches that are unacceptable in a retail release. Even if it were possible to overlook the broken elements, you're still left with abysmal AI, repetitive mission structure, unsatisfying weapons, and a huge world without much to do.

Valley feels like a good first act. Despite obstacles that tend to abruptly kill your momentum, running and bounding through wilderness remained exciting. The world's history is so intriguing that I left wanting to know more. I didn't want the adventure to end, and like a jogger who's forced to slow down in the middle of a run, I was frustrated that Valley had to end so soon after it began.

Dark Messiah wraps a dull story around repetitive combat. It's not a bad game, but its technical glitches really bring it down.

Flawed motorcycle physics and lackluster graphics hold back the potential of this official MotoGP racer.

The Flash's abilities are implemented in interesting and fun ways, plus the game looks and sounds exactly the way you'd want a comic book game to be presented.

Prosaic puzzles take the edge off this point-and-click adventure's absorbing melodrama.

After the kind of bonding experience only fighting a genocidal maniac can achieve, not being able to make everyone happy is a little heart-wrenching.

The sequel's enhanced graphics and sound make it a good "sandbox" kind of game, and if you're a parent with small children who need to be entertained, that might be all you need.

However, if you're already a fan of Dance Dance Revolution and you're looking for some more steps and tracks for your PlayStation 2, In the Groove is a good addition to your hot-stepping library.

Rocket Knight is a retro platformer with outstanding gameplay, even if it is overpriced and a little short.

Dungeon Siege III is a fun but unambitious dungeon crawler that fails to live up to the games that came before it.