The Masterplan feels like the most tragic kind of missed opportunity: a set of viable ideas rendered inert in practice.

While it won't dazzle you with ambitious, creative puzzle-solving, its central story is as haunting and consuming as you want a good Lovecraft tale to be. But then, like some nightmare creature, an action sequence comes out of nowhere and ruins the experience.

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

While Rubble Without a Cause echoes many positive aspects of its predecessor, the gloomy story and unimaginative quests turn what should have been another fun fairy tale into something of a death march. Yet even with these significant flaws, the overall charm of the visuals and voice acting kept me playing and left me optimistic that the series will redeem itself in the next chapter.

A pale, perfunctory imitation of both that crutches itself far too heavily on brainless, clunky, spastic action that doesn't so much entertain as it bewilders.

Once again, the classic hop-and-dodge Frogger formula has been used to fashion together a somewhat passable 3D platformer, which is then ultimately soured by problematic controls, tedious level designs, and bargain-basement production values.

The trademark Wario weirdness is still there, but Game & Wario is too uneven and frustrating to wholly recommend.

Dwelling on these few low points may seem overly harsh--they account for no more than a small portion of the whole game, after all. But they are not merely poor moments in an otherwise solid game; they're awful pieces of game design utterly inconsistent with the rest of the game.

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

Genki Bowl VII's four quick activities lack the excitement and humor of your earlier adventures in Steelport.

Much of Call of Cthulhu is a perfectly competent adventure game built on firm, if uninspired, point-and-click traditions.

It's a trite and aggressively boring version of what a million other third-person action games have done. And even for its budget price, it's a pretty lousy value.

This half-hearted revival attempt leaves Golden Axe lifeless and dull.

Nether is noticeably unfinished, and has a lot of work ahead before it resembles a solid game. But it has a discernible spark of life. There is potential for it to become a game worthy of attention. The environment it presents is huge, and the grayed-out portions of the map serve to tease you with even more areas to explore, and stories to create, in its bleak, abysmal, yet interesting world. If only it can learn to stop tripping over its own feet.

If FIFA 19 on PS4 and Xbox One is a 40-piece orchestra with all the bells and whistles you can think of, then FIFA 19 on Nintendo Switch is the tribute band.

My Memory of Us feels misguided; a concept that doesn’t sit well, marred by puzzle gameplay that fails to challenge or excite.

Banana Splitz's disappointing collection of minigames can't live up to the standards of classic Monkey Ball gameplay.

It means well, and divorced from the game's context, the game's aesthetic is charming. But it doesn’t really work as either a puzzle game or as an educational experience.

It's still a fundamentally unimaginative example of the genre it's aping, and completely fades out of memory the second you remember there are other fish in the sea.

With this game, you get what you pay for: passable gameplay and graphics but far too little bang for the buck.

The 2nd Runner is an improvement on the original in many ways, to be certain, but held against modern standards, Zone of the Enders comes off awful rusty.

My Memory of Us feels misguided; a concept that doesn’t sit well, marred by puzzle gameplay that fails to challenge or excite. It means well, and divorced from the game's context, the game's aesthetic is charming. But it doesn’t really work as either a puzzle game or as an educational experience.

Stick with the original. BurgerTime: World Tour has its heart in the right place and evokes fond memories of a nearly 30-year-old classic arcade game, but the 3D perspective, control problems, and too many ill-advised additions to the basic formula make this one hard burger to get down.

When The Crew puts you into races with good AI, and you get to race through interesting and varied environments, you get the feeling that you're playing a good game. When you struggle to find people to join your crew online, balk at the outdated graphics, and shake your head at the AI and the occasionally unpredictable physics, you realize: The Crew isn't that good after all. When you can't play due to server issues, you find a new game to play and leave The Crew in your dust.

The elements of a charming Nancy Drew tale are here, but the game is far too short and too problematic to be recommendable.

Icky space bugs make Genesis Rising interesting. Even ickier tech bugs and design problems make Genesis Rising annoying.

The faults of its gameplay are especially disappointing given that Trek to Yomi is such a gorgeous and spellbinding game to look at. Its visuals are evocative of classic samurai cinema in a way few other games have managed, successfully capturing the look and feel of Kurosawa's masterpieces with aplomb. It's easy to recommend if you have an Xbox Game Pass subscription, if only to marvel at each meticulously constructed frame. If only the game beneath it all wasn't such an unfortunate letdown.

It's a trite and aggressively boring version of what a million other third-person action games have done. And even for its budget price, it's a pretty lousy value.