I wouldn’t say that Mind Maze is some brilliant puzzle game, or even a crazy new take on a durable genre. It’s as basic as they come. But it works, and it’s addictive, and that’s really all it needs to be.

Visually the game makes use of 3D to emulate 2D style sprites, and it's certainly a unique look.

Despite its RPG trappings, Defender’s Quest isn’t all that far from your typical tower defense game. Kudos to its developers for wanting to give it a little something extra, but in the end, the game is more or less what you’d expect.

Pine Hearts is one of those rare wholesome, cozy games that doesn’t try to use an emotional overlay to hide gameplay that’s not very fun when you get down to it – it’s got an emotional core underneath a game that’s fun to play. But it picked up some bad habits from the genre’s lesser lights, and that prevents Pine Hearts from being one of the genre’s true highlights.

While Dead Island isn't a flawless experience, I still had a lot of fun with it. It's pretty much the zombie game I had been hoping for, and I'm glad that somebody tackled this open world setting for this particular horror sub-genre.

Again, it’s hard to say that The Outer Worlds 2 is a bad game, or one that doesn’t offer players plenty to do. It’s undeniably a well-made game. But that doesn’t make it particularly compelling. It offers players plenty to do, and I fully understand how anyone could sink a couple of dozen hours into it – but the whole time you’re playing it, don’t be surprised if you feel like you’re going through the motions rather than feeling super inspired by any of it.

At its best, CastleStorm is slightly above-average, and unfortunately it's not at its best nearly enough.

You can easily get by in this game with just sailing around, enjoying the wide open spaces and getting lulled into a meditative state, and every so often picking off an easy ship when you stumble across one. That may not be the point of the game, but it certainly made my experience a pretty good one. Does that mean I played King of Seas wrong? Probably. But I’ve always thought that one of the signs of a good game is that it allows you to play it your way — and there’s no denying King of Seas gives you freedom to do just that.

Uses different weapons, better graphics, and a few other tricks to set itself apart from Descent, but in the end it's a serious case of déjà vu. The game does a great job of conveying speed and the feeling of weightlessness ... just don't be looking for anything original, because you won't find it here.

I definitely feel like Generations is worth checking out, not only for the hardcore Naruto fans but for fighting game fans in general. It's a really beautiful looking game, with a fun but easy to understand fighting system, and offers up a lot of variety with its roster. It's surely not the deepest fighting system out there, and certainly isn't the most balanced, but I'm having a lot of fun with the game regardless. If you're on the fence then at least give it a rental, but I have no problem suggesting you buy the game, as I definitely think it's worth the asking price.

Under Pressure takes a more serious tone than Tangled Up In Blue and it has far less jokey dialogue options. The Rocket backstory alone makes this episode stand out over the first and the mystery of the Eternity Forge now has me hooked. Couple the improved storytelling with some refreshing cameos and Under Pressure really does a great job of setting the table for the rest of this Telltale adventure. I could use a bit more Groot (who doesn’t love Groot?) but besides that I’m satisfied with Under Pressure and eager to see where they go with Episode 3.

Being a big proponent of console RPGs and console games in general, I highly recommend this to curious PC owners.

One of the deeper sports titles on the PSP. Just because it was stripped down to a handheld, does not mean that features and depth have been sacrificed.

I think Record of Agarest War is definitely a pretty niche SRPG, that's not going to appeal to players that aren't already familiar with this particular game type. However, I don't think it's meant to bring in new players, and as far as fan service games go, this is pretty tame and playable by teens on up.

Ladders by POWGI isn’t a perfect word game, but it’s still highly enjoyable, so if you’re fond of word ladders, it’s definitely worth spending some time with the game.

Fun for all ages, but it's a bit shallow in the feature department.

The Interlude isn't anything to get excited about, and while the main game is certainly the same as what we've been playing for years, combining it with The After Years in a package with some nicely upgraded visuals is enough to get me on board.

I can't lie, I actually enjoyed Medal of Honor: Airborne and if EA can keep producing more quality games like it, I may be able to endure another venture into WWII land. But if you want my advice, keep the idea; change the time line, okay?

Riddled Corpses EX isn’t going to astound you, but it’s also not going to disappoint you too much if you just want to shoot some monsters. It may not be sophisticated, but it works.

While I’m not usually a huge fan of tactical RPGs, I can totally see how fans of the genre would get a lot out of this game. Between the roguelike nature of the levels and the fact you’re basically creating your army from scratch, no two playthroughs of Othercide will ever be quite the same. Provided you’re cool with dying a lot, that makes for a pretty unique experience.

Overall, I did enjoy the game, I'm just a little miffed that it seems to be lacking in overall content.

While MLB The Show 22 is definitely a step up from last year’s game, it’s pretty clear that the years of the franchise setting the bar for other sports games are behind us. That said, the fixes they’ve made after last year’s soulless debacle are enough that I expect I’ll be spending quite a bit of time with this game over the next 12 months or so – which is a pretty big step up from what I was expecting when I started playing it.

For the most part, I enjoyed my time with AC: India and look forward to the final entry in the Chronicles Trilogy, AC: Russia.

Shadows of the Damned will not be appreciated by everyone, but if you love Grindhouse, horror, action, Resident Evil, or all of the above, click yes and grab a copy of Shadows of the Damned. It's a weird, crazy, bloody good ride into hell that you have seen, and have not seen both at the same time that all result in one word...Groovy!

The biggest draw for most will be the controls, but while you might enjoy the added effect that mimicking the executions with the remote can bring, I found it a bit tiresome later on, and distracting from the visuals.

The whole package feels like it should have contained a bit more, but since the foundation it's based [on] is so solid, you can't really complain about the core gameplay.

While it sure isn't a AAA game, it's hard to fault Dark Sector for anything past the seriously broken melee attack.

A fun, exciting game. It's just a little bit behind the pack.

It won't be the most essential purchase you ever make, but it will still be worthwhile.

The graphics are some of the most impressive available on the console, it's certainly darn addictive and while there are a few nuisances here and there, TXR2 is a worthy purchase for racer fans.

If you don’t mind a horror game that doles out its frights at a snail’s pace, then you’ll find plenty here to enjoy.

Enjoy it I did. I'm not sizing it up for a spot on my GOTY list or anything, but I'll still look back on A.W.: Phoenix Festa with no small amount of fondness when it's all said and done.

In the end, if you love to sing, if you love country music, and there is a tear in your beer, then by all means, mosey on down to your local gaming shop and pick up your copy of Karaoke Country. It is the best thing to happen to country music since Hee-Haw!

I’m fully aware that Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered is not a great game — or, possibly, even a very good game. But when it works correctly (which is to say, when you’re focusing purely on how much destruction and havoc you can wreak), I don’t think there are many games that can hold a candle to it in terms of how much fun you can have.

I still think it's a game that's worth checking out, simply because the combat is pretty great, making fantastic use of the level design, cover system, and slow down ability. Combine that with some legitimately challenging AI, and a lot of the big firefights will give you a great sense of accomplishment.

It has enough graphical flair, intriguing storylines, and just down right creepiness, to make you forget this is being played on a 6 year old system.

Sure I still prefer the sweat simplicity of the old school style of ball, but it’s been a while since I’ve had this much fun playing a baseball game.

If you’re the kind of person who wants to get a taste for what it’s like to be a emergency dispatcher, that kind of setup will appeal to you.

Control issues aside, I still wouldn’t say that Stories Untold is a bad game. Indeed, if you like emotionally heavy games with interesting, underutilized mechanics, you’ll get that here — you’ll just have to go in understanding that, without a mouse and keyboard, some of those mechanics don’t work the best.

While the features of SingStar Country are the same, that doesn't mean you can't add your own cowboy boots, spurs, and mechanical bull to the mix to have yourself a good old time.

Overall though, these complaints are relatively minor. I certainly enjoyed the core experience of playing I Am Setsuna, and think that the developers at Tokyo RPG Factory did a pretty solid job of emulating the classic Square RPG archetype.

We have found ourselves in a situation of victory after abduction by a strange alien species.

Slipstream is truly a work of love. Its gameplay honors its source material and if you look closely at the rivals that challenge you on each track you’ll know Ansdor is definitely a fan of racing in the media as a whole (I see you Tofu Boy…but why isn’t your car white? Also how does Din Mikal feel about family?). The game might feel a little too punishing at times, but Ansdor leaves plenty of accessibility options to flatten the learning curve. Outrun might be stuck in the garage, but Slipstream is out there cruising the streets and it’s a perfectly viable ride!

A simple test to see whether you’ll be able to play — and, consequently, enjoy — Super Weekend Mode: can you do the “rub your tummy/pat your head at the same time” thing? If you can, then you might find this fun. If you can’t, look away now, because you’ll stand no chance of succeeding here.

Overall, I think WWE All Stars is definitely worth checking out, but I'd highly suggest avoiding the PS3 version until they get this whole data cache thing worked out.

The big problem with Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly is that it contains a lot of fluff. If you want to advance the story, the game forces you to watch bonus episodes that consist of little more than Beniyuri and co. sitting around the mansion. It adds nothing to the story, and, to make matters worse, you have to replay chapters over and over in order to earn points to unlock the bonus chapters. The story would’ve been worked just fine without it, and it all just feels like a bunch of unnecessary padding.

The gameplay and style will feel familiar to anyone who's picked up a Dragonball Z Budokai game, but to everyone else it most likely won't cut muster.

I think Record of Agarest War is definitely a pretty niche SRPG, that's not going to appeal to players that aren't already familiar with this particular game type. However, I don't think it's meant to bring in new players, and as far as fan service games go, this is pretty tame and playable by teens on up.

Like all Karaoke titles, this is a must buy for anyone from the tone deaf to the singing experts.

It is nice to see EA Sports use their license for something a bit different.

This is what fans have been waiting for. This is the definitive Mortal Kombat title for handhelds. You have more fatalities, self-fatalities (hara-kiri), stage fatalities, more characters, four deep modes of play, unlockable Krypt items, and online play.

Don’t get me wrong, Marvel Midnight Suns fits squarely into that lineage, but there’s also much more to it than simply getting your squadmates into the right position. It’s an interesting mix, but it’s also one that the game more or less pulls off pretty well.

It’s far from perfect, and its flaws are reading apparent, but if you come away from this game feeling truly dissatisfied instead of deeply impressed by the work of SeithCG and eager to see what he does next, you’re kind of missing its point.

Such gamers should absolutely adore Velocibox, since it wants nothing more than to kill you off again and again and again. If, however, you're the kind of person who wants to start off a game feeling like you have a ghost of a chance, then you're definitely not going to get that here.

If you’re looking for a new Soulslike experience and willing to tolerate some notable negatives all the while experiencing a very unique setting, it’s a decent time. It’s a bit difficult to recommend to a more casual audience, but if you’re seeking a challenge, albeit not necessarily intentionally, Enotria is a decent time. Enotria: The Last Song has its share of issues, but I’d wager it’s a great first step for Jyamma Games in this style, and I can only imagine they’ll make something even better with the next release.

As cute as the pug — and the game — may look, don’t be sucked into Double Pug Switch if you’re looking for a family-friendly platformer to play with kids. This game is as challenging as they come, so only pick it up if you’re in the mood to die a whole bunch.

Even in the wake of ESPN’s fierce competition and 20-dollar price tag, like Madden, March Madness is just a hint better than Sega’s College Hoops title.

Obviously, it’s unfair to dock points from Devious Dungeon for not being Rogue Legacy. It’s its own game, and deserves to be judged on its own merits. Plus, like I said, it’s certainly enjoyable enough. But, at the same time, it’s impossible to look at what it does and not see how much better all of it was done elsewhere. It may not be fair, but it’s still entirely accurate.

If you’re fine with installing Anti-Cheat software and have no issues with either paying through the nose or grinding away to improve your player, then it’s hard to imagine a better basketball experience. But that’s a very big “if”, and if you just want a game you can pick up and play like you were able to a decade ago (or maybe more, at this point), those days are long gone.

SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide is kind of like comfort food for 3D platforming fans. Even if you aren’t a fan of the TV series, it still delivers the kind of action you want with a minimum of fuss, and it’s not like you need to know the show very well to keep up with what’s going on. It wraps all that up in a solidly competent package, which means that if you’re a fan of the genre, you could do a lot worse than picking this up.

It’s fine for what it is, but if you want something that’ll really blow you away, this probably isn’t it.

The latest Resident Evil is exactly what one would expect: great zombie killing and great atmosphere. It's just a different type of game. It's a light gun game instead of an action adventure. Umbrella Chronicles remains true to the identity of the series while offering a new Resident Evil experience – something we've come to expect and enjoy.

Like AEW itself, it offers a welcome change from the slickness of its main rival, and while there are definitely areas for the game to improve, it fully captures the spirit of the games it’s trying to emulate. If you’re looking to play a wrestling game on the Switch, your search pretty much begins and ends with AEW: Fight Forever.

Control is tight and players should have no problem getting into the swing of things.

No matter what good things it has to say or how nice it usually looks, it never does so well enough that you can overlook how obviously it borrows from other sources. It’ll be fine if you’ve never played any of those influences before, but otherwise, you’ll just be thinking of games like Limbo, Braid, and Contrast.

Ultimately, though, it's the glitchiness that drops Never Alone from being a must-have game down to simply being a pretty cool achievement. The ideas are definitely there, and consequently I can't wait to see what Upper One does next, but right now, I can't honestly recommend Never Alone unreservedly.

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy my time with qomp2. I found it to be boring, frustrating and not very fun overall. Granted there is NOTHING wrong with the game itself, as everything is presented as intended by the developers. It’s just one of those games that will not appeal to everyone. Some people out there may like it while others, like me, will find it repetitive and boring. If you are looking for a puzzle game, based off of a classic game that is challenging to the mind while offering a feeling of slight accomplishment, then you should give this one a try. Everyone else, I suggest you skip this one. qomp2 is not broken or bad, but definitely not for everyone.

It’s not going to be making very many year-end lists in a couple of months. But The Smurfs – Dreams is good enough for what it is – which is to say, a 3D platformer that’s aimed at a younger audience – that if you give it a chance and don’t expect too much, you’ll probably have a good time with it.

The multiplayer could have been a bit more robust and single card play would have been easy to implement given the simplicity of the graphics... If you love puzzle games then I highly recommend giving Polarium a try.

It's much deeper than I would have expected from a current age Musou style game, and I highly urge people who aren't usually enamored with the Dynasty Warriors series to check this out, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Devious Dungeon 2 isn’t a bad game. It suffers from a lack of originality, like its predecessor, but if you want a competently-made roguelike platformer, it does the trick.

While some of the early puzzles are pretty easy to solve, the further in you get, the more you need to be able to think in terms of 3D space, since you can shift gravity to get a different perspective on everything. As someone who’s terrible at spatial reasoning puzzles, I’m not going to lie: there were times when I felt like my brain was pushed to the breaking point. Even so, it still felt like there was a pretty sizable discrepancy between what Manifold Garden achieves artistically, and what it achieves as a game. The latter is pretty forgettable, whereas the former occasionally borders on breathtaking. I leave it up to you how much weight you place on those two halves, but for me, it added up to a somewhat uneven whole.

Project 8 hit at a time when I was really craving some Tony Hawk gameplay, and it felt a little more fresh to me. Still a good game, no matter how you slice it.

Even if you're not a huge racing fan by any means (I'm not either), you'll still get a kick out of the core game mechanic of this title. It's all about having fun, and Fury Pro offers a whole lot of that.

While I expect The Sky Crawlers to be largely ignored by gamers, it's not going to disappoint those curious enough to check it out, by any means.

Even if Blossom Tales isn’t all that original, that doesn’t make it any less fun. The world is fun to explore, the puzzles are fun to solve, and the story is engaging and enjoyable. It may not make you forget its obvious influences, but at the very least, it does right by them, and tries its best to live up to their sterling reputations.

It's a mix of Battlebots and Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots, with guns. The only thing dragging it down is the monotony in the later levels where the fighting starts to feel a bit old and the personality starts to wear off.

Nowhere near the classic status of the original. It tries hard, though.

In a year like this, where we can compare and contrast CrossWorlds with Mario Kart World so easily, its faults seem a lot more glaring. As it stands, it’s a very solid kart racer that has the misfortune of being compared to one that’s just more enjoyable.

The only drawbacks from this otherwise stellar title are the twitchy handling and the potential redundancy.

If you have the itch to jump into the persona of Luffy and Co. then by all means pick this up for the Wii as it is a solid game, just too much of a game that is "for fans only".

If you’ve played any first-person puzzlers in the past decade-plus, you’ll know exactly what to expect in Hourglass. But if you liked any of them, the good news is that you’ll at least find things to enjoy here, too. Hourglass may not be original, but it’s still a decent enough way to spend a few hours.

I can only recommend this if you are already a fan or like fast paced puzzle games in general. Nothing bad or horrible with this release, but also nothing groundbreaking, Just an above average classic puzzle game with a great challenge. Pick it up if you want to experience the world of Arkanoid.

Skate 3 is the best skateboarding game at this time. It is still fun, intuitive, and there is plenty to do and see. Toss in multiplayer fun for a group and you have yourself enough satisfaction to last you 'til the next incarnation of the series shows its face...probably a year from now.

As it stands, I’m not going to say this one is a must-play, but it’s solid enough that if Ratalaika and Petite want to continue on with another sequel in this series, I certainly wouldn’t complain.

For the most part, though, Just Cause pulls players along with a promise of bigger and badder weaponry.

I'm sure that if you're willing to make the commitment, there's some kind of payoff, but considering the size of my backlog and the multitude of other JRPGs out there that aren't as dense, I can't say it's a commitment I'm willing to make.

The character has style, the game presents some unique gameplay concepts, and most importantly, it is fun to play.

The addition of the new play styles, attitude, and story mode only enhance this great title. This is easily the best of the Blitz titles, and Midway has given fans a truly fun and entertaining football game that is not hindered by rules and penalties.

Did you live through the late '80s and early '90s and you miss games like Double Dragon and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (or, at least, do you wish you had)? Then this game is for you. If not, you can skip this one without worrying you're missing out on anything.

Overall, while the game is still a great Mega Man title, it doesn't nearly live up to the fun of its predecessor.

So, while the game can often feel like a buggy mess, I'm more than willing to forgive its shortcomings based on the actual fun it delivers.

Still, despite my issues with the hunter role outside of battle, I can’t deny I’ve had some fun with Evolve. It’s certainly a memorable experience, more so with a group of friends working together, but still enjoyable with random online players in tow.

Despite the framerate issues, Mr. Shifty is a good time and well worth the price of admission. One of the better games on the Nintendo Switch. Maybe a patch can rectify my main concern with the game.

It's worth noting that this game is quite short; you could easily beat it in one sitting, assuming you're sitting for 2-3 hours. As someone who likes games that don't require a massive time investment, this didn't bother me too much, but if you're going in expecting something that'll tide you over until the release of Super Mario Odyssey — or even until next week, for that matter — this most definitely won't do the trick. Still, even with those flaws, I'd hesitate to say that Skylar & Plux: Adventure on Clover Island is bad, or not worth checking out. As I said, it's a solid 3D platformer, and it generally does what it wants to do fairly well. It's probably not going to be remembered with the same kind of reverence as its forebears, but for an afternoon, it'll be a pleasant way to pass the time.

All together I found the first entry to be really enjoyable, and I look forward to checking out more of the episodes as they release on XBLA.

Mercenaries 2, much like their in-game avatars, succeeds by getting the job done with no frills and nothing more. To many gamers that just may be enough.

Kombinera doesn’t try to hide the fact that it’s tough, so if you’re after that kind of near-impossible difficulty, you’ll want to check it out.