Cruel Bands Career is a harsh game is all kinds of ways, and you should only check it out if you’re in the mood for a bit of masochism.

It's has a couple decent ideas but it's entirely ruined by how it actually plays and controls, and it's not fun in the least bit.

At first glance, with it's twisting, gravity-defying tracks and fluorescent visuals, XGRA might remind you of the recent "F-Zero GX." Upon further inspection it's actually slower, sometimes much slower, less colorful and a lot less interesting.

State of Mind is smart enough to borrow heavily from all kinds of other, better media, but nowhere near good enough to come close to putting a fresh spin on those ideas. You’d be better served taking the dozen hours this game expects of you, and putting them into some combination of Blade Runner, Heart of Darkness, The Matrix, and Deus Ex.

The control can be a pain but the strength of the Gundam story is good enough to struggle through it.

If you're looking for something different to pass the time, I could suggest you try and rent this one. There's no way in hell I'd pay full price for it though.

With all of that, I cannot recommend Anthem to anyone at launch. There is simply way too much bad to allow for the good to truly shine through. The endgame content is really good, but the boring grind and unbelievably shallow story on the way there do not justify a $60 purchase.

It’s not a bad game at first glance, and you probably won’t look at it as a waste of time if you decided to purchase or rent it. But once it’s finished you’ll never feel compelled to pull it off the shelf again, and in a scant couple years you’ll have a hard time remembering that someone even made a Lost Planet 3.

So overall, I'm not too enthused with Tekken Hybrid. TTT is fun enough, but feels awfully outdated compared to modern fighters. And as a port, it lacks the necessary bells and whistles we've come to expect from similar releases.

The only really decent thing about the game is that the soundtrack is pretty good. It doesn't warrant being called the best in the series, but it's about the only highlight I feel is worth mentioning.

It’s a game that genuinely seems to want to help players understand what it’s like to be a gymnast. But just because the game has its heart in the right place, it doesn’t make it any more interesting. Great intentions are fine, but as Pro Gymnast Simulator shows, they don’t make for compelling gameplay.

What sets it apart from the rest, though, is the much more lighthearted and more adventurous feel it holds.

Overall there is not enough here to recommend to most players. Souls veterans will be left wanting more, and most likely frustrated by the limited options available to approaching combat encounters. Newcomers to the Souls-like games will most likely be put off by the initial difficulty, as well as the massive skill check that the first boss poses. A forgettable story, relatively bland world, and overly simplistic combat leave quite a lot to be desired after the initial hour or two with Thymesia.

Radio Squid is an unfortunately dull game that’s nowhere near as interesting as its predecessors, and apart from the music, there’s really no reason to check it out.

Unfortunately the game offers up too little for too much and could have been up so much more.

Most of the visual beauty takes a back seat to a bad camera and fairly repetitive gameplay. To be blunt, the camera system in Ninja Gaiden sucks.

The Keeper of the 4 Elements doesn't add in anything new, nor does it throw in some crazy twist. It just gives you a map, a variety of enemies moving along set pathways, and towers of varying abilities. This isn't a game looking to reinvent the wheel.

Conceivably, more and better guns would make Thunderflash more interesting…but at the same time, this is a game where you just move forward constantly if you want to win. There’s only so much more interesting it can get. That may have been enough 35 years ago, and it may still be enough for people who miss those days of gaming, but in present day, it just feels kind of lacklustre.

A lot of the puzzles require precise placement, and the controls, using the d-pad or analog nub, are a bit inconsistent.

The interface and options are somewhat lacking, but the Music Mixer could be fun to mess around with at parties and other gatherings.

Manages to scare with its gruesome plot and eerie settings. But the lacking gameplay fails to make the experience any more than a “search and run” title.

It’s really all kind of shame that Those Who Remain is so flawed, because it’s got such a good idea at its core. In better hands, this probably could’ve been a much better game, but as it stands you’re safe avoiding it entirely.

Starting with the graphics, they are mediocre at best. Poor polygon models, and inferior animation first strike the eyes as less than awe-inspiring.

The area where the gameplay lacks is the variety on moves, combos, and just providing ways to keep gamers interested after the smoke and mirrors of the visuals wear off.

There is nothing about the game's style that particularly stands out; it has a decidedly generic feel.

Mediocre at best and controller smashing at worst.

In the game’s defense, it does what it sets out to do relatively well. The controls are as tight as they need to be — which, in this case, is quite a bit, since you have to make all kinds of tight turns. But just because it’s fine for what it is doesn’t make #RaceDieRun any more interesting. Unless you have a masochistic desire to crash a whole bunch, your interest in being challenged will probably wane long, long before this game is over.

With a surprising lack of play modes and little gratification given for completing battles, it's hard to recommend this game to anyone except hardcore Pokemon fanatics. I didn't find much to like in the game and quickly became bored.