Regrettably, Pinstripe's rich atmosphere is overpowered by these types of issues. Enemies need only a few shots to defeat, puzzles need only a couple of tries to solve, and the final boss can be exploited to oblivion. And because the story lacks emotional weight or resonance, once the credits roll, you'll quickly forget Ted and Bo's struggle, the puzzles you solved, the conclusion to what could have been a memorably haunting trip through Hell.

Even those looking for a tactical stealth action game should be wary, since this one is both frustrating to play and not very engaging.

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.

Brawlout is clearly trying its best to create a unique identity from the game that inspired it. However, the ways in which it's trying to do this--by removing key mechanics and putting an emphasis on grindy unlocks--don't work in its favor. Combine this with an online mode that just doesn't seem to function correctly most of the time and you've got a game that's disappointing in its current form.

It's a chore to name a single feature or idea in Echo Prime that most experienced players haven't already encountered elsewhere, in a better game.

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.

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

Koei's apologists will find Warriors Orochi to be an affable bit of fan service, but everyone else should just stay far away.

Metal Gear Survive feels oppressive, demanding, and obtuse, and needlessly so. It's a shame because there's actually a good survival game in there, but the pressures it places on you make uncovering and enjoying that unappealing.

While the third-person shooter aspect of Harry's latest adventure can be fun, the game's story elements fail to live up to those of its literary namesake.

Ultimately it doesn't matter which way you decide to play; you're having to compromise somehow, which is the story of Payday 2 on the Switch.

Gomo is a short, stylistic adventure that has some interesting features, but ultimately its brevity and lack of challenge keep its charms from being lasting ones.

Difficulty has its place in platformers, but there are games where too much challenge can distract from the core conceit. A King’s Bird locks you in a hopeless cage when all you want to do is fly.

Despite everything I've just said, I didn't have a terrible time with Shadow Labyrinth. There are way too many frustrating moments, the story is mind-numbingly dull, and a lot of what you're doing is monotonous. Yet, for long periods, it's also merely just fine. It's a by-the-numbers metroidvania woven together with an occasional Pac-Man remix. An odd combination, for sure, and one I wish had a better game built around it, but at least we'll always have that one Secret Level episode.

Looks and sounds good, but it just doesn't offer the depth that most gamers are looking for.

A sense of murky monotony sucks most of the life out of this action RPG remake of Sega's classic arcade shooter.

The gameplay isn't so much better that it offsets what has been lost. The only way that EA could further annoy hockey fans with this game would be if the company had Gary Bettman personally deliver every copy.

Mindjack's chilling vision of the future is smothered by awkward controls and poor storytelling.

This misguided expansion pack does the unthinkable: It makes Red Alert 3 boring.

Mindjack's chilling vision of the future is smothered by awkward controls and poor storytelling.

Earlier Anomaly games proved that a little innovation can go a long way, but you just don't see as much of that approach in action here, which results in an underwhelming and familiar return to the norm.

This arcade shooter is too short and generic to justify its high price.

A standard pool game with overly simplified control and fewer game modes than most other pool games on the market. Maximum Pool's only saving grace is its online play.

MLB Bobblehead Pros wastes its cute arcade baseball premise on shoddy pitching and fielding mechanics.

The video game version of Order of the Phoenix captures none of the magic in the Harry Potter books or films.

The gorgeous sci-fi burgs in Cities of Tomorrow prove that beauty only runs skin-deep. Once you get bored with the neon-clad gimmicks of the MegaTowers and OmegaCo, you're left with pretty much the same flawed game that annoyed the city-building community last spring.

The most frightening aspect of Resident Evil 2 for the GameCube isn't the zombies that walk the hallways, the enormous spiders lurking deep within the sewers, or the other horrid denizens of Raccoon City--it's the fact that a mediocre port of a 5-year-old game retails for nearly the same price as an entirely new product.

An awkward interface and visual problems take the shine off of this well-intentioned D&D role-playing game.