I've played nearly every version of THPS 2 out there and none can hold a candle to 2x...[but it's] not better than the 3rd game in the series, nor would I suggest picking up this game over that.

Those with the patience and interest in developing the skills required to play it and finish it will love Enclave. Those looking for a casual, short session won't be able to return this one fast enough.

I mean that on two levels, as it's a solid action platformer, but it also has a lot of untapped potential that players may be disappointed to discover by the time they're through.

As you play, you progress through the story and level up the Exosuit of choice, which could be a drag if you like to play with various suits and classes. There is a Battle Pass in place also that has its own leveling which is a bit slower than the character leveling. I think once I play a bit more through the season the game will open a bit more and give more level and enemy variety. I just feel locking the story behind a multiplayer mode is a drag but again I see potential here.

The tools and interface make it easy to customize tracks in a lot of different ways. The only drawback is that you’ll probably be the only one enjoying them.

The story is bland and doesn't match the fast pace of the gameplay, but actually playing the game is really fun. The glitches occur a bit more frequently than I would like to see, but overall the experience is fun, and delivers on the sense of being a totally badass wheelman.

Even with touchy controls and a cheesy story and even cheesier puns, I enjoyed playing this game.

Go into it with your eyes open, and it may end up being a pretty fun experience.

If you just want some stylized kills, of course, then you probably won’t mind the repetitiveness or the lack of story. And make no mistake, there are few games that are more stylized than Akane. But if you want anything more than style, then keep looking, because this isn’t a game with a whole lot of substance.

It's not the most polished example of either a light gun shooter or FPS game on the Wii, but it's certainly worth passing a few hours with, and at least worth checking out as a rental or possible purchase.

It certainly offers a neat alternative to what the Modern Warfare games have going for them, but I'd hardly say that Medal of Honor is the better product.

Overall I came away from Eternal Sonata feeling pretty impressed. In the beginning, the lengthy and frequent cut scenes really started to grate on my nerves, but after the 6 hour I started to really take an interest in certain characters, and the game felt like it just took off from there.

That doesn't mean the online play is perfect. In fact, many people have reported matchmaking issues and assorted glitches. Matchmaking shouldn't be a problem when playing with friends via invites (on either PSN or XBL), but when playing random players it's a mixed bag.

Even with the game’s many flaws, however, I’m still happy to get a chance to play a Layton game on the Switch. Layton’s Mystery Journey may feel bloated, and have iffy controls, and feature lousy characters, but at the end of the day, it’s still Professor Layton. You’ve got to be willing to put up with a lot of extraneous stuff that isn’t that great, but I’d much rather have this flawed game than none at all.

Again, Train Station Renovation is very, very niche. To fully enjoy it, you’ll have to want to do the same actions hundreds — if not thousands — of times, and you’ll have to do so keeping in mind these are things that, in real life, would be mind-numbingly boring. But as long as you approach it with that caveat, you may discover that this is a pleasant way to pass the time.

Sidetracked is a hard sell due to it just being so weird. Strange gameplay styles and psychedelia combine to make a game that is at once compelling and borderline offensive in its ways.

When a) you can see everything a game has to offer in 30 minutes, and b) you’re left feeling like you’ve played this exact game somewhere before, it’s hard to be too enthused about Tamiku. There’s an interesting idea here, and kudos to Joysan for nailing the retro feel so perfectly, but it’s hard not to feel like there should be something more here.

Does a very good job accurately portraying a wartime environment even with the poor visual presentation, but much like the previous outings, it isn't for everyone.

At the end of the day you get what’s on the box and that’s 8 games for 20 bucks. They do play well and while not all are enjoyable that falls on the selection of the games themselves. For me there are a few treasures in here and a couple games I’m glad to experience but if you’re not a fan of shmups or lesser known arcade games from early Konami then it’s not a must-have.

There are far worse ways to pass the time than by grinning at the sight of a mob of alligators and fish shoving over a building. But don’t go into Anarcute expecting something revolutionary on the gameplay side, because you’re not going to find that here.

As it is, it’s a competent action-platform game that is enjoyable to play, but won’t ever reach the status of a triple-A must-play experience.

Waking Violet is by no means a bad game, but if you’re not a particularly patient person, it might be easy to mistake it for one.

The combination of pretty new graphics, the same old music and the same old control is something of a spade.

Awesome audio-visuals and spot-on gameplay (most of the time) make Sonic Heroes the best next-gen Sonic game available. Get rid of the camera problem, put in some truly innovative puzzles and the next Sonic game will really shine.

It’s not sim enough to match up with Sega’s offering, and Midway has a faster, more fun arcade hockey game in NHL Hitz.

It's a good selection of songs from the previous games, and it's a great way to reacquainted with a few old favorites.

A high quality fighting game. Just be wary that the GC controller isn’t the best for it.

The only glaring issue is that the game does feel far too familiar. Veteran gamers may find the game too mediocre and boring to even last through the entire adventure.

A fun ride that doesn't last long - about an hour.

Even with its hundreds of puzzles and multiplayer modes, Hot Brain quickly becomes your typical Brain enhancer that will grow tiresome once you've seen every style of puzzle enough times.

I really, really wanted to love Starhawk… though in the end, I had a hard time truly connecting with the game on the same level that I did with Warhawk. Starhawk certainly plays nicely, and the Battle & Build system offers a unique twist on the shooting action, but as compared to Warhawk, there's something about it that's just not as appealing or addicting. A new game set in the Warhawk universe with the features of Starhawk would probably be a different story.

Superfrog HD may not be a great game, but it's certainly an above-average one. If you're in the mood for a platformer and you have a few extra dollars to spend (and you've already flown through the likes of Stealth Inc., Kung Fu Rabbit and Cloudberry Kingdom), then by all means, give it a shot.

What is the most disappointing in 20-04 is the lack of real additions. Sure a fun HR derby was added, as well as a custom replay option, but what else? Oh yeah, a create-a-team! If that's what you want to call it.

RFS's gameplay is completely off the wall fun, and despite its quirky premise, kept me coming back for more time and time again.

And to be honest, multiplayer is a lot of fun, and even though I wish it offered up something that Bad Company 2 didn't already cover, I do think it's worth checking out for people that aren't already fans of what DICE has done before.

While it took me a while, I eventually warmed up to this game. The game play is spot on and everything seems to fit appropriately into this military sim. While the FPS crowd may not get what they are expecting, if they stay around they will find what I found, a gratifying experience.

The stop-and-go gameplay is an acquired taste but is worth it if you have patience.

Despite a few issues, it's quite a nice collection.

Game play is not much more than a mere point and click adventure, but it is your brain that will serves as the game’s biggest asset.

It’s not sim enough to match up with Sega’s offering, and Midway has a faster, more fun arcade hockey game in NHL Hitz.

As someone who wants a bit of handholding in my games, I'll freely admit that this made it difficult for me to enjoy the game. At the same time, however, I fully recognize…a few things, actually. First, space travel is difficult, so any time you need to think about the physics of it — even in a video game — it's going to get a little challenging. Secondly, and more important, those lunar landing games still appeal to some people, even if they don't appeal to me. I'm just going to assume that that niche will be satisfied with what's on offer in Blue Collar Astronaut, and figure that I don't like it too much because it's not made with someone like me in mind.

Just about the only drawback that could be applied to I Love Finding Cats! is that there’s nothing linking all the puzzles together. It’s not like the games are improved by having a shoehorned-in narrative (like, I know that Faircroft’s Antiques had a story, but I couldn’t tell you what it was), but if you want one, you won’t find it here. Then again, the point of the game is right in the name: you’re supposed to find cats. If that’s all you want out of I Love Finding Cats!, then you’ll probably be very, very pleased with what you find here.

The only real down side is that none of it is really original, which gives veteran racers a been-there done-that kind of feeling.

I'm just trying to justify why I have no intention of buying Tetris, one of the best and truly ageless videogames ever made, on PSN at it's current price.

It works well as a beginner RPG, and even provides a solid, but simple play thru for RPG vets. Just don't expect anything mind blowing or new, and realize that the motion controls aren't quite perfect, and you should have a pretty good time.

It's a game that will only appeal to hardcore visual novel fans with a love of the absurd — and that, unfortunately, just isn't a grouping that includes me.

To be fair, it’s not as if arcade bullet hell shooters lend themselves to all kinds of different gameplay styles, but it still makes the game feel a little lacking in content. Of course, if you just want some retro-y arcade bullet hell action, then that’s not going to bother you too much. Terror Squid may not have variety, but as I said, it does one thing very well — which is one more thing done well than many games can muster.

Fans of Final Fantasy will undoubtedly find themselves happy with World of Final Fantasy, despite its shortcomings in combat and scope.

When it comes right down to it, First to Fight will have a tough time competing for your time and money when compared to other, flashier games. But it's got a strong identity and satisfying gameplay.

Narnia makes for a decent adventure title on both systems, but it fails to do anything new or astounding. The game is also on the short and easy side, even with some of the unlockable extras.

A pretty solid, if somewhat plain vanilla Snowboarding title. It looks good, plays well, and offers plenty to see and do.

Best of all, though, is the one trait it didn't bring over from mobile games: there's no paying to win here. It would've been the easiest thing in the world for SPL to implement paid add-ons in all kinds of ways, but they didn't, and for that, they should be commended.

If you go into Iron Snout hoping for anything more than a quick time-waster, you’ll be sorely disappointed. If you’re okay with that, then you might get your money’s worth here.

Simple, but effective.

With all these complaints, you might think I hate Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, but I don’t. I mean, I don’t love it, but given such a huge, richly imagined world, it’s hard to be too annoyed with it. There are definitely plenty of improvements that would make it more enjoyable to play, but as it stands, it’s a perfectly serviceable open world adventure.

Cavern of Dreams is very much a game for a specific kind of person. As noted above, someone who loves ‘90s 3D platformers, doesn’t mind a few quirks here and there, and has a high tolerance for gaudy colours. If that’s you, you’ll want to check this out.

For a niche audience, Skull & Bones may be a GOTY contender. But for everyone else, it’s hard to imagine the appeal. Skull & Bones is a grind-heavy game with not a lot of payoff, unless your idea of payoff is being asked to grind some more. You’d think that a game that spent 11 years in development would have more than just one idea repeated ad nauseam, but the evidence here suggests that’s really all there is.

Bygone Dreams is a generic action game in desperate need of a personality, and without that, there’s not much point in getting it.

While no one would confuse it for a GOTY contender or anything, it’s still a solid riding simulator with a decent amount of content. Given how bad it could’ve been, that seems like a win.

Crush House tries its hardest to make it all seem fascinating, but, ultimately, there’s just not enough here to make it so.

All-in-all, I don’t think Code Vein II is bad. It’s mostly an improvement over some of the stiffness and art direction of the first game, bringing new features, weapons, and jails for players to build their characters around. The music is still great, albeit more orchestral than the grunge of the first game’s collaboration with VAMPS. The biggest problem that this franchise (is it a franchise yet?) struggles with seems to be chasing the Souls-Ring feel but not nailing it as much as I’d have hoped for the second entry. If you liked the first game, you’ll absolutely enjoy Code Vein II, but costing $70 in a market with other similar titles is a tough ask for people looking to get into Code Vein. Code Vein II isn’t a bad game, it’s rather far from it, but it falls short where it needs to really hit hard.

If you just focus on the fun and the joy of movement, there’s definitely something in Neon Tail worth experiencing. It may not be a GOTY contender, but as I said, if you like JSR and its ilk, you’ll want to check this out – just make sure you don’t get bogged down in its tutorial first.

The combat will feel familiar to anyone who’s ever played any of those games, but that’s kind of a selling point for me: it’s nice to go back to a pre-Soulslike world, where you don’t need to figure out parrying or timing, and you can just run roughshod through enemies. Does that make Blood of Mehran a good game? Again, definitely not. And you need to have a fondness for a very specific era of PS3 gaming to fully enjoy it. But I’ve definitely played significantly worse games than this – and considering Blood of Mehran’s reputation, that’s better than I was expecting going in.

If you’re a diehard racing game fan who prefers racing against yourself rather than others, that may put the game squarely on your radar, but if the allure of racing games is facing off against other people – be they bots or a Player Two – then this game may leave a lot to be desired.

Fairly or unfairly, Chernobylite lives in the shadow of Metro and S.T.A.L.K.E.R., and there’s not much in this Complete Edition port that helps it get out from under the legacies of those series.

It works as it should, which is always a plus (even if it’s a little baffling at times), and I have no doubt that if you sank a half-dozen hours or so into the game back in 2002, you should find that the game is probably the same now as it was then. I think that if you don’t have that sense of nostalgia you’ll probably find the game a little lacking, but as PS2 remasters go, you could probably do a lot worse.

Mario & Luigi: Brothership takes far too long to get to the point, and the journey to get there isn’t nearly as interesting as it needs to be to make it feel worthwhile. Again, there are some great ideas here, and the game looks amazing, but unless you want your hand held for dozens upon dozens of hours, you’ll probably find yourself a little let down by it all.

While I’m definitely looking forward to updates to the Switch 2 port of Reload, but it’s rather rough on the technical side right now. I would summarize it as a great game that looks great, sounds great, and plays great, but is unfortunately a victim of poor performance.

If you want a game that evokes the spirit of Jet Set Radio but on a different method of transportation, Parcel Corps delivers that. It’s hardly a unique spin on the genre, but if all you want is arcade-y gameplay and driving around a vividly coloured environment, you’ll get that here.

As noted up top, I could see someone loving Nicktoons & The Dice of Destiny if they’re a very specific kind of person – but if you’re not, there’s no real reason to seek it out.

It’s so close to being good, but its flaws make it almost impossible to recommend. It’s far better than it has any right to be or than its pedigree suggests, but it’s still going to be a letdown to almost everyone.

There are an abundance of much worse games to play on the Switch, to be sure, but there are also plenty of games that are better, so unless you just want to kill time shooting things in an open world – which, to be fair, is sometimes a wholly understandable impulse – you’re better off avoiding this one entirely.

My Little Universe is undoubtedly fine as a mindless mobile time-waster, but if you want anything beyond that, you should think about looking elsewhere.

It definitely shows promise, and if it were to add in more objectives for solo players or game modes for multiplayer I could see it achieving that promise. At the moment, it’s definitely not there, but it may be worth keeping an eye on the game to watch how it evolves.

I don’t think Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a bad game, but I don’t think it’s a great one either. With patches I think it could seriously become a great game, but as it stands with what I was playing, I’m not impressed with the systems/gameplay. I really, really want to like Shadows more because of how much the total package feels, but those few issues are enough to really hamper that. If you’re someone that enjoys going everywhere to do things and unlock everything, you’ll definitely have a great time, so it’s not inherently a super negative. The combat experience is definitely a damper though. Fingers crossed Ubisoft and the team behind Shadows really polishes and shines it up!

Hitman: Absolution represents the series’ awkward, stumbling growth period. Play it you want to see where some of the ideas in the World of Assassination trilogy got their start, but don’t expect the game to reach anywhere near the same heights.

Petit Island borrows a lot of well-established ideas without doing enough to make any of them feel like its own, and as a result, you’ll come away from the game wishing you could play some of those other games instead.

The annoying thing is that Letterlike feels so close to getting it right. There’s a great idea here, and I suspect that with a bit more balancing the game will get there – but at this point, it’s not quite there yet.

House That Love Built also features some voice acting and attempts at animation. Both are about as good as you’d expect…which is to say, they’re not great. But that’s kind of the point of these games. They’re comfort food for a specific type of gamer, and they’re basically the same thing over and over again. Mystery Case Files: House That Love Built won’t appeal to anyone outside that niche, but for what it is, it’ll do just fine.

I don’t have a ton to say about Daemon X Machina just because it’s pretty simple in practice and our review is limited to speaking on content up to chapter 9 (about 90 minutes of gameplay). In my opinion, if you liked the first Daemon X Machina, you will like Titanic Scion. It doesn’t change enough to make it feel terribly different from that release, but does add enough to likely satisfy you if you were already a fan. If you didn’t like the first Daemon X Machina, I don’t think this changes enough to change your mind. If Titanic Scion has caught your eye and you’ve never played the series before, I would recommend starting with the first game. Not because of any story continuity reasons, but just because of the level of similarity. The first game will be a much cheaper way to learn if it can hook you.

Even an occasionally stutter-y MLB The Show 24 is still a fairly solid baseball game, allowing you to dig as deeply into your franchise or Diamond Dynasty as you want. It’s undeniably a step backwards from last year’s version, but if you missed that edition or if you want updated rosters, then now is as good a time as any to check it out – as long as you’re okay with some less-than-stellar performance.

Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered is probably a must-play if you were obsessed with it 25 years ago, but probably missable if you didn’t play it the first time around. It’s got some interesting ideas and it delivers on some of them, but overall, you’ll probably need nostalgia goggles to get the most out of it.

No matter how fun the gameplay is, that doesn’t matter if the game doesn’t consistently work, and I don’t think anyone could realistically say that Rise of the Ronin works as it should on PC. Given a bit of time and patches, I could absolutely see Rise of the Ronin becoming a must-play for anyone who wants to roam around an open-world, exploring 19th-century Japan and slicing down all kinds of enemies. But as of now, you need to wait and see if the game gets there, because it certainly isn’t at the moment.

You’ve got an interesting setting, a ton of material, all kinds of ideas, and a studio that clearly knows what it’s doing. That all of that got combined into something as forgettable as this is pretty disappointing, and it makes it awfully easy to skip past this game without a second thought.

I mean, I’m sure that if you loved Star Wars: Bounty Hunter back when it first came out 20+ years ago, you’ll probably still have a soft spot for it. And it’s certainly far from a bad game – as shooters go, it’s definitely competent. But that doesn’t make it some long-lost hidden gem. It was a so-so game back then, and it’s still a so-so game today.

The game’s star, Cutter Slade, is a wise-cracking jerk who’s trying to get back to his daughter while also apparently being the prophecied Chosen One. That doesn’t make any of it good, but if you’re a connoisseur of that very specific genre, there’s a reasonably good chance you’re going to love Outcast – A New Beginning. But again, appeals to a certain kind of nostalgia aside, it’s worth emphasizing that Outcast – A New Beginning is not a good game. Its predecessor may have been groundbreaking for 3D open-world games, but we’re definitely not getting that this time around.

There are good ideas, and occasionally very good execution, but on the whole none of it feels like it ever clicks into a coherent, must-play whole.

However frustrating Tomb Raider I-III Remastered may be to modern eyes, there’s no denying that these games perfectly capture the spirit of the originals. Whether any of that is enough to appeal to modern audiences remains to be seen, but if you want a game that caters to your PS1 nostalgia, this is definitely it.

It’s every bit as shallow as the dating shows that inspired it, so if that’s the kind of game you’re after – and the continued popularity of the genre shows some people are – then this may be right up your alley.

In other words, Lifeless Moon spends way too much time telling, and not nearly enough time showing. And on one level, I get it: a small indie studio isn’t going to have the budget to show how a civilization on the moon fell apart. But at the same time, when you’re this good at creating an atmosphere, it can’t help but feel a little disappointing when the rest of the game doesn’t quite measure up.

If you don’t care about the various characters that make up The Lost Legends of Redwall: The Scout Anthology, you’re just left with a 3D platformer where you move at a crawl and you’re constantly getting stuck in frustrating stealth sections. That may be fine for fans, but for everyone else, I have to imagine it’ll be a non-starter.

Tales of the Shire is nothing if not low stakes and low stress. But it also makes for an extremely dull experience if you want even the slightest bit more than that, which makes it very hard to recommend.

The upside of lightUP making essentially the same game over and over again is that they generally know what they’re doing, and their games generally work as they’re supposed to. If you just want another metroidvania, you’ll find that here. But you could also find it in most of their other games, which makes it hard to see why you’d pick this one specifically.

It’s got a great idea but it doesn’t come close to living up to its promise, and you’re better off playing any number of other superhero games or XCOM-alikes.

Nothing in Elsie makes it seem very original. It’s borrowing heavily from games that are decades-old without putting any real spin on any of it. If you just miss Mega Man and want a slightly more modern take on that game, you’ll get that here, but you won’t see anything new.

I think Macross – Shooting Insight is a tough one to recommend to most people. The Macross side of it isn’t exactly compelling, the story is an excuse to toss all these characters together into one scenario, and it’s not particularly compelling or interesting, quickly becoming something you’ll skip through as you near the end. Unfortunately, the core shoot ‘em up gameplay isn’t all that great either, it’s a serviceable entry in the genre that shows some promise, but the repetitive stage design and attempts to shoe horn in multiple flavors of shmup gameplay doesn’t do Macross – Shooting Insight any favors. If you’re just dying to get your hands on anything Macross related in the West, then you might gleam some satisfaction out of this one, but I can’t see this really appealing to anyone else.

Anyone wanting a semi-RPG, semi-hack and slash, semi-historical epic, semi-action adventure game will probably find something to enjoy here. I was just never able to find that spark within Rise of the Ronin, and am glad that I am finished with it now.

To be sure, Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom isn’t the first game that tries so hard to be wacky, nor would I begrudge developers who want a game that’s popular among streamers. But I can’t say that the end result is all that fun – not when there are all kinds of genuinely good modern 3D platformers out there that don’t rely nearly as much on silly gimmicks.