It features a pretty sizeable map and a world that seems like it’s worth exploring, even if you’re never fully clear on what you’re looking for other than a way off the planet. I wouldn’t say it’s a must-play game, but it shows promise, and from a tiny indie studio, that’s something worthwhile.

Ultimately, it’s hard to know who Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 4 is for and why it exists. If there are still Ty the Tasmanian fans pining away for the series’ PS2 glory days, they’re not likely to care much for this 2D take on a 3D series. And for everyone else, it’s hard to see why you’d want to play this instead of the many, many other 2D platformers out there that look nicer and have much more interesting gameplay.

The visuals are still lagging well behind how they look on other systems. It still runs surprising well, without any crazy load times or crashes. Home Run Derbies still feel like the pitcher is actively trying to strike you out. The ball still feels a little deader here. All of which means that you still don’t need to pick up MLB The Show 26 if you have any other recent editions.

I can’t imagine playing Witch Rise long enough to get bored by any of it. It’s a Ratalaika-published game, which means you’ll unlock all its trophies long, long before you’ve explored every nook and cranny of the dungeon and defeated the eponymous witch. If trophies are all you’re after, that may be enough, but otherwise, it’s hard to feel too enthused about any of this.

I guess the question is, does Painkiller have any merits? It kind of does: again, if you don’t mind repetition and just want to shoot demons, it gives you every opportunity to do that, and you’ll get some big honking guns in the process. But if you want anything deeper or more substantial, you’re not going to find it here.

It doesn’t do anything remotely interesting and there are plenty of other Star Wars games from the era that are available to play, so unless you have some very specific nostalgic memories tied to Jedi Power Battles, you’re definitely better off revisiting one of those other games and leaving this one alone.

Poppy Playtime Chapter 5 is just fine, but “just fine” is only going to continue to carry this series for so long. Some substantial changes need to be made in the development of Chapter 6 if Mob Entertainment wants to have any hope of propelling Poppy Playtime into the future.

I’d say G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra can be fun, provided you can get some friends together on the couch to play through the game with you. If not, as a single-player experience, there’s far better options on the market nowadays. It’s a good looking game, again I really did dig the design of these classic characters, but there’s not a lot else supporting the experience that would keep me coming back again and again.

Unknown 9: Awakening feels like it wants to be greater than it is, which is a big shame given how much effort was seemingly put into it. Having an extended out-of-game universe is really neat, but I think it unintentionally hurts enjoyment of the game when you go to play it. I specifically wanted to avoid the external media of the game going in to see what it would be like, and it makes the game feel like it’s following up on something we should already have knowledge of as the player. Combined with subpar combat, glitches resulting in cutscenes being wonky, and hit-or-miss performance on PC, it definitely hurts Unknown 9. If Bandai continues to work on this franchise (can you call it that yet?) I think they can really knock it out of the park, but as a first entry it really fails to hit its mark.

As someone who misses the old Sony and the way they’d try weird things (and not just go for big and cinematic with every one of their games), it feels weird to criticize them for a game where they try something different. But the problem is that God of War: Sons of Sparta isn’t particularly fun. It’s a perfectly adequate metroidvania at a time when there are plenty of very good metroidvanias that are more worth your time, so unless you desperately want a Kratos: The Very Early Years game you can safely skip this one.

I was hopeful for Shadow Labyrinth when it was announced, but as I played the game a lot of that eroded over the hours and hours I spent with it. It’s not a bad game for sure, I’ve played far worse Metroidvania’s over the years, but it’s also not a great game, held back by some archaic design decisions, a mostly bland art design, and some frustrating control moments. There’s enjoyment to be had here, sure, but you really have to struggle through the low points in order to gleam out just a bit of fun from this one.

It’s a perfectly serviceable retro-tinged 3D platformer, but we live at a time when there are lots and lots of those, and enough of them do it better that you’re probably better off playing them instead.

Obviously, the big draw in Kitsune Tails isn’t meant to be the gameplay – you don’t make the focus of your game a lesbian love triangle between two mythical creatures and a sorceress if you aren’t hoping to draw in fans who want a meaty narrative at the core of their games. But while that may be fine for a visual novel, if you’re trying to sell a 2D platformer you need good gameplay too. And even if Kitsune Tails borrows liberally from one of the best of those ever made, it doesn’t come anywhere close to living up to its inspiration.

There’s no reason why it has to be this dull. It’s a step up from The Political Machine 2020, but The Political Machine 2024 is still far from being the in-depth election sim it promises itself to be.

As someone who loves Horizon: Zero Dawn and who loves LEGO games, I was really hoping that a combination of the two would be something special. Instead, we have LEGO Horizon Adventures, and for the life of me I can’t figure out why it exists.

Without that sense of nostalgia, you’ll be left with a trio of games that weren’t all that good first time around, and it’s hard to imagine you’ll find them very worthwhile.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collections was a good attempt at preserving the past, but even with 14 games it’s filled with fluff and very little substance. If you are craving old-school Yu-Gi-Oh! and are a fan of the animated show, this collection is for you. I hope they will bring out a 2nd collection with the PlayStation family of games.

Star Overdrive is another example of a game where a cool reveal didn’t live up to the end result. Whatever inspiration there was to be found in last year’s trailer didn’t make it to the finished product, and there’s little here to make the game worth recommending.

Casual fans who own 06 may want to wait this one out until we get our first next generation offering as the subtle differences may not be enough to merit the purchase.

The AI is very smart. Probably too smart for newbies. Even on easy mode, soldiers will react with gang reflexes in shooting you to a pulp.

If you are a die-hard College Hoops fan, then you will find NCAA March Madness 07 fun enough to forgive its flaws and less than aggressive A.I.

It's a shame that the single player campaign is such a letdown - SoF 2 is an incredibly addictive multiplayer game, and if the polish shown to the online portion had transferred over to the single player game, we'd have a candidate of GOTY 2002 here.

Death End re;Quest is the sort of thing that Hyperdimension Neptunia would have skewered mercilessly — and, for the most part, that skewering would have been deserved.

Hopefully, for those that bought Halo: TMCC a permanent fix comes along sooner than later, or you can get some enjoyment out of the single-player experience for the time being. But it’s certainly not fair to wait for the product your purchased to work, and because of that, I want to be sure that my review score for this retail product reflects that.

As a fan of Until Dawn, Man of Medan certainly scratches a similar itch and has moments that remind me of the PS4 exclusive. The multiplayer modes are a welcome addition, making Man of Medan into a bit of a party game in a way that I would never have expected going in. Unfortunately, the host of technical issues really impact the fun here, in a very negative way. So, provided these things can be fixed, then I would say Man of Medan is worth your time. However, I would absolutely hold off on a purchase until we hear of or see improvements down the road.

The story mode is a move in the right direction, but until Nintendo can deliver a GBA-sized Pokemon RPG with depth and length, console Pokemon games will always lag behind their portable counterparts.

Despite the many faults of Summoner 2, I can’t stop playing. Given the several other RPG options available this fall, however, checking out Summoner 2 might fall on taste alone.

Xenon Valkyrie+ is more or less what it promises to be: a retro-tinged love letter to old school platformers. It’s probably not going to be the greatest thing you’ll ever play, but if the second half of the previous sentence is the kind of thing that’s relevant to your interests, it’s probably worth checking out.