Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D offers addictive, score-attack action, but lacks the content to make it more than a fun minigame.

It feels like there's a fantastic game somewhere in the heart of Birthdays the Beginning, ready to claw its way out of the primordial ooze of ideas to evolve into a wonderful god-game experience. But the conditions for it to thrive just aren't right: The interface is ill-conceived and cumbersome, the campaign's frustrations bring progress to screeching halts, and the frequent lack of information turns what should be a fun micromanagement experience into an exhausting guessing game.

Gladiator does have some shortcomings, as its simplistic and frequently flawed gameplay can prove to be problematic. However, some excellent production values and an intriguing plot ultimately make the game most certainly worth checking out.

The well-designed levels in The Forgotten Sands do a good job of sucking you into this 2D world, but minor control issues and lame combat distract from the fun.

M.A.C.H. is a solid flight game that offers plenty of speed and high-flying antics, but it's grounded by a limited selection of stages and activities.

Exit 2 doesn't add much refinement, but it does offer a formidable new serving of challenging, engaging puzzle play.

While the gameplay isn't quite as unusual as the premise, S.W.I.N.E. is a solid real-time strategy game with plenty of humor, all wrapped up in a beautiful shell.

The core gameplay is actually quite good, and it's tempting to just overlook the bugs and missing features and focus on the game's strengths. Unfortunately, there are too many of these bugs and missing features to ignore.

One of the freshest, most satisfying games produced by Impressions in years, and it's a great real-time strategy game in its own right.

Sluggish controls, paper-thin career mode, fictitious players, and mediocre court graphics.

A disappointing package that clocks in much closer to the other Syphon Filter sequels instead of standing up to the fantastic original game.

Four-player online support makes the Xbox Live Arcade version of this fantasy arcade classic a worthwhile, inexpensive indulgence for nostalgic fans of the good old days of gaming.

This vocational minigame collection provides some wacky fun, despite sometimes feeling like a chore.

The GBA version of Curious George's latest adventure is a more challenging affair than its console counterparts--unfortunately, it isn't a longer one.

The game's sharp graphics and elaborate universe--well, elaborate for a fighting game, anyway--are nullified by its subpar gameplay.

Its concepts may be familiar, and its mechanics are not best-in-class, but Marlow Briggs switches gears often, always moving forward at a breakneck tempo.

Unlike most other PSP ports of old games, Juiced is extremely thin on new and/or interesting content, leaving you with a just slightly tightened-up version of the game you might have but probably didn't play last year.

It’s a wacky, bloody affair that never aspires for more.

MS Saga looks and feels dated, but it makes good use of the license and manages to deliver a decent--if unremarkable--role-playing experience.

World Championship Poker 2's offline play is the best you'll find amid this year's competition, and the online play is still pretty engaging.

This version of Proving Ground makes it pretty clear that the priority for the Tony Hawk series is not on this platform.

You may want to shuffle away from this dungeon crawler.

Unfortunately, some of Crash 'N' Burn's central ideas--the persistent wrecks being the most obvious example--introduce complexity that, in the end, will leave you more frustrated than thrilled.

There's enough variety here to keep you busy; it delivers a strong sense of speed; and the control, while not perfect, is good enough to keep you coming back.

This stand-alone Painkiller expansion is pure, stupid fun, despite slow loads and an utter lack of innovation.

Excruciating difficulty makes this latest addition to the Desperados family one frustrating trip back to the Wild West.

The storybook charm of Narnia quickly fades away, leaving a fairly average game that doesn't do much to complement the movie.

But the actual gameplay feels like too much of a nebulous gray area between arcade and simulation, and both the presentation and the features set are lacking.

Sound bugs and loading times mar an otherwise great translation of Warrior Within to a portable platform.

The story in this first episode is captivating enough on its own terms, but in context of being yet another story of human nature in the face of a zombie menace, it’s territory that’s been tread far too many times before.

Were it not for the part where you actually have to play it, fans of the film could have had a conceivably great time with Oogie's Revenge.

Choplifter HD retains the core elements of its forebears, but the experience is dampened by some missteps in tone and difficulty.

Cookie & Cream simultaneously blends 3D exploration with 2D minigames in a refreshing way, but the level layouts are bland and repetitive.

Dreary and dated.

Ultimately, Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter succeeds where its predecessor did, by presenting a generous spate of intriguing cases, and giving you the freedom to come to your own conclusions. It’s a fantastic detective game; it’s just a shame that it's bogged down by myriad technical issues, and a mediocre attempt to inject some action into proceedings.

This satirical shooter is fun, but it never takes advantage of the potential of its parodies.

Surprisingly funny.

Though classical music aficionados may get a kick out of getting to conduct some of their favorite pieces, the gameplay will likely be too simplistic or boring for rhythm junkies and average gamers.

Players looking for a detailed flight simulation will enjoy Thunderstrike's tactical gameplay, but fans of visceral action will find its strike-and-hide gameplay requirements a bit too rigid.

Whether or not you'll enjoy Ultima Online depends on whether you find appealing the prospect of establishing your own objectives within a virtual sandbox and then constantly repeating a number of relatively mundane tasks to achieve those goals.

Despite some rough edges, Summer Heat Beach Volleyball gets enough of the fundamentals right to keep things fun.

Gungrave definitely looks cool. It's also a textbook case for why great graphics don't do you much good if the underlying game is shallow.

More sophisticated players will likely find this 3D platformer to be too repetitive and easy.

If you can get around the weaker aspects of the game, Rogue Ops should be a reasonably entertaining experience for stealth fans looking for their next fix.

Despite the removal of the microtransactions, player progression is still largely tied to the randomized loot boxes--mitigating player agency and choice in multiplayer.

Metal Wolf Chaos is an old game with a wild reputation, and though it lives up to it in some ways, it's not good in general. At best, it's a curio that helps inform the story of From Software's trajectory over the years. At worst, it's a frustratingly shallow experience that fails to capitalize on it's best qualities.

Deliver At All Costs is a solid game for an hour. But then the formulaic nature of delivering goods from point A to point B becomes tiresome. Enacting wanton destruction and experiencing the unique setup of each delivery for the first time creates brief thrills, but breaking stuff just to break it doesn't remain enjoyable for long and the meandering and unfulfilling story that connects each delivery drags the whole experience down. Parts of Deliver At All Costs work really well, but it too often ruins its own fun.

Alpha Protocol's astounding intricacies are tarnished by bugs, clumsy gameplay mechanics, and rough production values.

Monopoly Streets admirably brings the famed board game to life, but annoying characters and poor pacing keep this outing from rolling doubles.

Diner Dash is a challenging game that will keep you on your toes from start to finish, but it's too simple to keep you coming back.

The old magic of Crash Mode rises to the surface often enough for Danger Zone to be a fun diversion, but this excitement is ironically muted when the game decides to turn up the intensity in its later levels.

It's not dramatically different from Mario Party 6 or, frankly, any of the other Mario Party games, but as a cheery collection of simple pick-up-and-play minigames that's well suited for younger and more-casual players, it still works.

Spyro's newly expanded roster doesn't manage to save A Hero's Tail from monotony, and even the title's targeted younger demographic will probably soon tire of the game's reliance on boring collectible gathering.

It can be a challenging game, but that challenge mostly comes from having to slug it out through many battles against increasingly strong foes, rather than from having to make complex tactical decisions during those battles.

Spyborgs serves up competent two-player cooperative action on a nice-looking platter, but the dish is bland and unappetizing.

Go Vacation is a shallow, kid-friendly minigame collection with nice open spaces and overly simplistic games.

Even though there are some sore points at the moment, the game presents an in-depth tactical challenge for weekend warriors. Just know before pulling the trigger on a purchase that you're dealing with more of an ongoing project than a fully realized game.

A solid game that could have used some better presentational aspects. When put up against the surprisingly deep competition for this style of game on Xbox Live Arcade, it falls a little flat.

This collection of classics and their updates is a frustrating mix of old-school fun and dumb design choices.

It doesn't bear much resemblance to the movie, and it's short. Nevertheless, the DS rendition of Meet the Robinsons is a fun run-and-gun-style shooter.

Conduit 2 overcomes its problems by offering a long and varied single-player campaign with a good sense of humor.

Defiance is the B movie of massively multiplayer games: rickety and unrefined, yet a good time all the same.

Underneath its modest looks and intimidating, complex battle system is a turn-based strategy game that is surprisingly fun and satisfying.

The core gameplay is enjoyable enough if you actually spend enough time getting used to the complex interface, but the timid opponent AI keeps the game from being really interesting.

Fallout: New Vegas - Honest Hearts is a conventional but enjoyable addition to the series.

Cargo: The Quest for Gravity pulls you in with its surreal visuals and strange premise, but its gameplay rarely gets off the ground.

While Konami has toned down the simulation elements of Winter X-Games Snowboarding 2002 so that it will appeal to a broader audience, the challenging controls and plodding snowboarder mode will turn off all but the most ardent snowboarders.

It can be endlessly frustrating, but it also has most of the elements that make the Jagged Alliance series so outstanding.

It's basically a simple, mildly entertaining, and somewhat uneven pseudofuturistic dungeon crawl for one or two players.

While the gameplay and graphics are just about identical to those of the arcade version, the lack of that big gimmicky sniper rifle makes the game downright silly.

Has a few surprises and some significant flaws. While die-hard strategy fans and extreme fans of the Heroes series on the PC might get a kick out of this one, it's really a rental at best.

Adds a good deal of new content to play through: six massive single-player campaign games and a whopping 30 additional scenarios. But not much else.

Takes no big chances with the genre's rules--it's strictly stealth-by-numbers that's highly reminiscent of last year's "Splinter Cell"--but it's a well-made and entertaining game all the same.

Although it doesn't break any new ground, the Avatar's foray on the GBA is a lively action adventure that offers a solid mix of combat and puzzles.

Stardrone's vibrant, physics-driven arcade action suffers from difficulty spikes and frustrating design elements.

Expectations for Metroid aside, Federation Force fails to make a case for itself in the end.

The worms have set their sights on the Wii, and although it's limited in terms of weaponry, A Space Oddity is still a lot of fun.

For a remake, it's not a good sign that the best part about the modern Shadow of the Beast is revisiting the game that inspired it.

Fun yet flawed, the postapocalyptic Ravaged is a ghost town.

Despite its shortcomings, The Crew 2 still displays admirable strengths, which lie in its player-friendly features, freedom of movement, and its willingness to bend the rules in order to make things exciting and varied for an accessible, American-themed thrillride.

Stonefly takes flight in a fantastical world where you glide amongst giant trees, branches twisting improbable pirouettes in the sky. But the initial wonder soon sputters under frustrating combat design and runs aground against the mundane grind of its progression structure.

Unlike its more interesting predecessors, Arcania: Gothic 4 is a commonplace action-RPG with boring quests, rudimentary controls, and dreary character development.

The attention to detail, the well-considered level design, and the sense of momentum that characterize the finest shooters are missing here. Aliens vs. Predator is sometimes enjoyable but never escapes an overwhelming sense of carelessness, so while it may remind you of the good old days, it fails to recapture them.

State of War makes a couple of marked improvements to Koei's first PSP Warriors game, but the action remains just as tedious as ever.

Sonic Rivals keeps it simple and offers plenty of high-speed thrills, though it also has its share of frustrating moments.

The world ends with a whimper in this shallow puzzle game.

It's an expansion that leaves a lot to be desired, only because there’s enough fertile ground to support a full blown game.

Robinson: the Journey is one of the most immersive, engaging games to hit PSVR, but it suffers from its short length and reliance on vague objectives. Still, the sheer visual splendor and moments of legitimately awesome sights make it an engaging experience. Crytek has taken their usual flair for gorgeous visuals and made a world worth stepping into.

Fly the much friendlier skies with Microsoft Flight, which is more structured than its simulation-heavy predecessors.

Though derivative, Egg Mania provides a perspective on the "Tetris" formula that's fresh enough and an adequate amount of gameplay variety to keep puzzle fans engaged.

The controls are just a little too sluggish, making it feel as though you're driving a run-down school bus instead of a quick and nimble jet fighter or helicopter.

EX3 may feel a bit rushed in some spots, but overall it's a fun and great-looking fighting game that won't disappoint longtime EX fans.

There are still too many unpolished areas and simply not enough challenge to make the game appealing to anyone outside of the most devout Alias audience.

The game is simply designed and has a few annoying quirks, but it's got a genuine charm that helps to balance it out.

Ultimately, Conan Exiles is one of the most unsatisfying games I’ve ever played. Its crafting and resource systems may be dense enough that the ultra-patient could find something to enjoy here, but anyone else would likely walk away with their hands thrown up in defeat. The mind-numbing tedium of harvesting resources, woefully boring combat, and a slew of bugs left me feeling completely underwhelmed and unimpressed when it was all said and done.

Although the game borrows liberally from its contemporaries, Devil Kings manages to have fun with the formula by removing any sense of pretension or seriousness, leaving a game that's a lot of fun to play.

Even those who only own a GameCube should probably avoid this version of Double Agent, which has fewer features and worse graphics than its counterparts on other platforms.

Despite F1 2014's good points, it's hard to get away from the fact that it's little more than an inconsistent update of a great game.