If you’re itching to return to Pandora, then this will give you another way to play, but you’ll need to play it on a console to get the full experience.

God of War Sons of Sparta shines a light on a young Kratos, and to devastating effect. An emotional story carries the game... when it gets there. While basic, the gameplay and varied locations make for a great starter Metroidvania, it just may not work as well for longstanding veterans of the genre. If you wanted more God of War, this is indubitably a good game and a smart spin-off by Sony Santa Monica and Mad Cat Studios.

So many games have done 3D fighting better that SNK might have been better off making this a 2D game.

Some will get bored with the RPG combat elements because of their simplicity. Some will get frustrated by the balance issues. Others will be disappointed at the length.

If you're not a fan of puzzle games, you won't like this one. If you have only a passing interest in puzzle games, you might find Puzzle Kingdoms more frustrating than fun. If you love puzzle games, are suffering from withdrawal and desperately need your fix, Puzzle Kingdoms should provide a good experience despite its obvious flaws.

White Knight Chronicles has an excellent look and feel, and throws in enough unique twists on the JRPG genre to make this title something unique, but it is marked more by its missed opportunities and clichés than anything else.

There are two types of people I recommend Painkiller: Hell & Damnation to: those who were huge fans of the original and want to experience the game again with updated graphics, and those who are looking for a throwaway experience that doesn't require much of a commitment to enjoy.

Little Town Hero boasts a unique, strategic battle system that draws heavily on card game mechanics. Despite the fact that the story and art design seems to be aimed at a younger audience, combat is far too slow, strategic, and challenging to keep the attention of most kids. It’s an interesting combination of traditional RPG storytelling with Heartstone-like mechanics and difficulty that’s sure to captivate some, but will likely miss the mark for most.

Fated: the Silent Oath didn’t allow me to become the Viking that I dreamed of being, but there is a decent experience mixed in with the game’s poor gameplay elements and innovative controls. While I might have been able to feel a connection with the characters, the constant lack of immersion dampened what could have a been much more satisfying game.

The hardcore simulations experts may not enjoy the usual advantage they have with experience in flying a plane with a realistic model, but they can still enjoy that they are "flying" and doing it with anyone whose company they enjoy.

Sadly, Prince of Persia: The Fallen King has far too many shortcomings to recommend it to anyone.

Its easy to pick up and control and the bosses are varied and challenging.

While Freaky Flyers is not going to compete with "Mario Kart" by any means, it is a fun title with a dash of innuendo, a drop of multiplayer, and about 2 sprinkles too little of speed. All in all, a fun adult title in the land of 'serious sims' and 'shell tossing plumber-racer' games.

It’s hard to recommend The Delusions of Von Sottendorff and his Square Mind. On one hand, it has a pretty nice room switching mechanic, and if it used a pure puzzle gameplay system, it would be a great title. However, the inclusion of action elements makes the game frustratingly difficult, and mixed with poor presentation, becomes a disappointing mess.

Tank Troopers is, at most times, everything you want in a downloadable title. It fires you right into the action, quickly introducing you to its simple tank-based mechanics then forcing you to test your mettle in increasingly difficult challenges that never take more than a few minutes to conquer. But for longer, more social gameplay sessions, the game also sports multiplayer modes that are accessible for both competitive mode newcomers and strategy-minded gamers alike, albeit a challenge to round up the people to play it.

My Big Sister is a pixelated top-down game with interesting premise. The light puzzles and weirdly appealing cast keep the game fairly light-hearted, but be prepared for some serious topics to come up. It doesn't take long to beat, but it's worth the time.

While offering a lot more varied content from previous installments, Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach is unfortunately riddled with a myriad of technical and design issues. As a result, it’s a title I can only recommend to hardcore series fans and survival horror fanatics after most of its issues have been fixed.

Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord is a great idea. Playing as a Ghostbuster recruit in VR is exactly what you’d have hoped for when you heard of this game, from the proton pack to the Ecto-1. Until a fix is discovered for the audio, however, the ghosts will continue to inhabit the streets of San Francisco, completely unrestricted.

Problems aside, Tiny Brains is an undeniably enjoyable experience. While it may not amaze you, it’ll definitely be worth your time if you and a few friends are looking to have a go at a co-op puzzle experience that isn’t extremely demanding.

The game plays great, and while it might be tough, never to the point where it feels cheap or frustrating. Instead, the sports play too similarly to each other and there isn't any challenge to winning the tournaments in each cup.

SwapQuest is a mix of puzzle and RPG gaming that fails to provide a fun experience with either.

While Made in Abyss: Binary Star Falling into Darkness sports an excellent art direction and adapts the early part of the series' story quite well, it unfortunately fails to provide an enjoyable gameplay experience.

So far, I have put about six hours total into the game between both sessions. I am very excited to learn how to wield a weapon to kill predators, and to explore more into the jungle. This has been a really unique and challenging experience, and I am thoroughly enjoying it.

There is an addicting quality to Hot Brain to try to do better, in a similar way to Brain Age. However, Hot Brain also suffered in the same way that Brain Age did, in that I lost interest in it.

While Danger Zone provides some thrills and serves as an interesting revival of one of Burnout’s beloved game modes, it’s often too slow and lifeless to give fans the fix they were hoping for.

Pagan Online is a Diablo-like hack-and-slash RPG with an alright story. The gameplay is enjoyable, but it's lacking in other regards such as shops, an open world, and so on. It's a nice cheaper alternative to Diablo if you don't mind the lack of depth.

ChromaGun VR doesn’t do much to improve on 2015’s puzzle shooter, and the game takes a hit both visually and in performance in its attempt. The mechanics work fine, but bland repetition of puzzle elements only hit a few primary colors rather than the rainbow of features to keep this an engaging experience all the way through. If you haven’t played ChromaGun yet, this may be the way to experience it, but otherwise, you’re fine with sticking to the original version.

Urban Trial Tricky is a biking game where your goal is to perform tricks and earn points. With a fair amount of cool and quirky tricks you can perform, this game will make you grin. It gets repetitive, so it's best enjoyed in short bursts, but even so, you'll only get a handful of hours out of it.

The team at Lienzo has built a beautiful and fascinating glimpse into an overlooked and forgotten culture that is immediately endearing. The game they built to support that, though, is disappointingly shallow and clumsily constructed. It’s nice to see game development coming out of Mexico, and I look forward to what they are able to do next, but Mulaka doesn’t have the chops to make the game worthwhile.

Urban Trial Freestyle’s greatest strength is that it’s available for just around $5. With 20 levels, an entertaining course editor, and a console-comparable experience available on the go, Urban Trial Freestyle is a great value for the competitive gaming souls among us.

Magikarp Jump is a flop. A game asks something of its player — solve the puzzle, shoot the bad guys, be creative, etc. But Magikarp Jump’s brilliant atmosphere doesn’t compensate for its lack of meaningful work. However, if the point was to create a game that mirrored the mindlessness and tedium of Magikarp, Magikarp Jump is an incredible success.

Tetra's Escape is an interesting little puzzle platformer that takes its basis from Tetris. The levels provide a nice little challenge, but they never get tough or frustrating. You can beat most levels in a short time, causing the game to only take a few hours to beat. If you have a few bucks to spare for a couple hours of Tetris-based platforming, then you may want to try out Tetra's Escape.

Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance has sadly not held up for a modern audience. If you already enjoyed the game, then this is a decent port to current hardware. For everyone else, the game is clunky, drab, and boring.

KHOLAT nails the experience of being atop a snowy mountain during volatile conditions, and the idea of it being based on a true story is intriguing. Ultimately, though, the execution falls short and you’re left with a shallow experience that is hard to find the fun in.

It’s a nice distraction and even a good bit of fun depending on how much you enjoy space combat titles, but only if you go in knowing full well that this is a port a mobile game, absent of much the charm and detail we’ve come to expect from Sid Meier titles.

Despite being so seemingly narrative focused, Aphelion really feels like it boils down to "nothing happens, the end".The cast gives some great performances and the score is great to listen to, but even they can't save the dull, meticulous gameplay from feeling any less tedious.

Accel World vs. Sword Art Online is a fairly magnificent little JRPG that surprised me with its depth of characters and customizable options within, and a world where I can fly, explore, and battle dozens of monsters along the way. I’m reminded so much of the golden PlayStation 2 era of JRPG gaming, with all the good and some of the bad that comes with that distinction. Overall, Accel World vs. Sword Art Online is a very solid JRPG title and one that any fan of the genre will enjoy.

The PSP controls just don’t seem to handle shooters that well. This is amplified by the sluggishness and slow response time by the action buttons. RtV could have been a good game if it had more compelling characters and a better control scheme.

Taken as a whole, Wheelman is a fun weekend title that fans of arcade style racers will enjoy, however briefly.

After sitting down with the game for a while though, I can say that the game has much more in common with "Devil May Cry's" lackluster sequel.

The lack of a single-player really hurts, and the AI for your computer-controlled partner is atrocious. I just came away wishing for so much more.

The Town of Light is a thoughtfully written, painstakingly designed walking simulator set in an early 20th century asylum. Though load times and sections that are less than intuitive cause frustration, they do not dissuade my recommendation. You’ll quickly become caught up in the story of Renee, a young girl whose circumstances were depressingly real for many women during that time.

If it was a full price PSP game, it really wouldn't be worth the money, but at $20 and the sheer number of endings, it's probably worth it for fans of Disgaea or adventure games in general.

While it may not have the most captivating of storylines, the game itself is fun and addictive. It’s a great way to kill some time – no pun intended – and may leave you muttering things under your breath that make others question your sanity. Plus, you can count on new content being added in the future, which will increase the game’s replayability and won’t cost you a cent.

I’m extremely glad I played through to the end, as the narrative of RiME is fantastic, with a gut punch of an end reveal that belies the whimsical look and feel that reeled me in to begin with. This makes the poor technical execution all the more frustrating – had it been better, or had I played it on the PS4, I might have considered this one of the high points in an already stellar year of gaming. Instead, I am left grieving what could have –should have– been.

By making the incomprehensible decision to change almost every aspect of the series’ classic gameplay, then serving it up in a lackluster campaign, the developers managed to alienate old fans and new fans alike.

Remedy games are about the experience, and the team nailed that with FBC: Firebreak. While I wouldn’t say it’s in the upper echelon of their titles, Firebreak succeeds in being an entertaining cooperative adventure into the depths of the Oldest House. It’s fresh in a way only Remedy can make; a worthwhile experiment. Thanks to them, I’ll never look at sticky notes the same again.

There’s probably a fantastic game in there somewhere, and given a bit more development time, it might have shown it’s true colors. As is, however, NFS:UC is awfully tough to recommend.

Personally, I was turned off rather quickly by the ancient game play and dated development decisions.

As unmemorable as it was disappointing, Vikings—Wolves of Midgard misses the mark. With a flat story, uninteresting combat made worse by the game’s annoying exposure system, and a boring environment to boot, this title doesn’t compare to its many well-liked peers within the ARPG genre.

Sleep Tight is a decently fun twin-stick shooter with roguelite elements. While the scenery and enemy variety are something to be desired, those who want a challenging time waster should try this.

Tour De France 2020 is a functional game and did manage to engage me on some occasions but I was left wanting for a more fleshed out experience of actually riding in a TDF event and could have really done without so much faffing with multiple team members. If you like the management side, this might be for you, but if you want a more in depth cycling experience… No yellow jersey for this one.

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing III is a fun ARPG with plenty of nifty distractions. Nothing more, nothing less.

Forspoken is an incredible title. Although the story suffers from being a bit too generic, the gameplay is inventive, magical, and an absolute blast. This is a game I’ll come back to again and again just to move around and exist in the fascinating fantasy world. Forspoken is an exciting leap forward for action games, and I can’t get enough of it.

I give props to Naruto vs. Sasuke for faithfully recreating the entire second season of Naruto Shippuden. Some stuff was cut out, but the main story points are here.

Hellpoint is an interesting entry to the popular Souls-like genre and I think it is one worth playing. I wish it was more clear on the rules of the world and I’m not a fan of fast travel being restricted. Still, the black hole and rewarding exploration make Hellpoint a fun and rewarding game.

Spirit of the North may look beautiful, sound beautiful, but is a confusing and boring mess. It tries too hard to be artsy while disregarding the importance of fun gameplay and an interesting story. During their short playtime, players are required to interpret the weak narrative and their overall purpose in the game. The only replayability comes from completing the collect-a-thon. However, that provides zero satisfaction to the player and has a hard time trying to stay relevant to the gameplay and story at large.

Killer Is Dead is a competent, and oftentimes superb, action title that is held back by an overly obtuse plot and a dating minigame that did more to turn me off from the game entirely.

While the game doesn't break any new ground in the JRPG genre, it does help to the fill the JRPG void that the Wii suffers from.

Unfortunately there was nothing that really stood out about this game. Fans of the show will dive right in and love the heck out of it.

If you really love crafting, Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Paintings might be your jam. But if you like literally any other aspect of a typical JRPG, you’re going to be disappointed. It might be worth $20 for the curiosity, but at $60, I really can’t recommend it to anyone who doesn’t already like the series.

Rainbow Skies is an indie old school SRPG hiding a wealth of content behind its charming exterior. Improving upon the Rainbow Moon formula, the game doesn’t skimp out on quality or quantity, featuring extensive party management, in-depth combat, a vast world to explore, and a myriad of foes to conquer. Unfortunately, the hundreds of hours of gameplay are not free from tedium and suffer from a lack of variety.

If you were a fan of the original but sacrificed it for a more current platform, or just want a chance to own a title that snuck past you the last console generation, this a great chance to bolster your collection and indulge in a truly unique experience.

198X does a fantastic job of breathing some life into genres of old, paying homage in a respectable, loving way while achieving an identity all of its own. For me there was no weak link in the gameplay and the storytelling moments kept me engaged and looking forward to the next bit of exposition. Hi-Bit Studios’ 198X is a short experience but one I’m glad I’ve had. Here’s hoping for future instalments to build upon this solid foundation.

If only someone would take the time to craft a truly epic scale video game set in this universe.

The Edge of Fate is the most whelming Destiny 2 expansion of all time. There are additions, sure, but there aren’t any real innovations that deepen the D2 experience the way The Final Shape, or even Lightfall, did. Unless you like turning into a little ball and rolling around, of course.

Moons of Madness plays more like a cinematic experience than an actual game. Its immersion visually is sublime, and though objects are intuitively interactive, the story lacks the emotional pull needed to match the tone and mood set forth. You will undoubtedly feel as if you are on an alien planet, but that’s it. The imbalance of story, gameplay, and interactivity with the enemy becomes apparent the more you play. And with much of the story being told through accessing terminals and listening to banter dialogue, I often felt as if I was no longer interested in what was occurring around me.

PositronX starts off as an amazing FPS game that’s marketed as a rogue-lite, but players will quickly realize that it’s more attuned to being a roguelike. Progressing through the four levels and it’s quickly evident that a high level of artificial difficulty is added, with enemies getting more health and damage, while you’re stuck with abilities and bonuses that don’t scale accurately against the rest of the gameplay. The game ends up becoming a grindy mess with its only salvation being the music design and the occasional new weapon or ability for the player to experience.

DarkStar One is a fairly big (and dangerous) world; while it isn't always the prettiest game nor does it host a wide variety of missions like other contemporary sandbox titles, the important thing to know is this: for a 4 year old port it still manages to bring something new to the table that is fun and the combat works, and in the end isn't that exactly what we want out of our games?

The World Next Door is an ambitious action-puzzle game with some interesting narrative and RPG elements, but unfortunately wears itself thin trying too much with too little.

SLAM LAND combines a great art style with a decently fun couch co-op basketball hybrid game, in which dunking your friends and objects in the only objective in the game. Although there is a decent amount of content here, the lack of unlockables and no online play gives little incentive to come back to or continue playing SLAM LAND.

Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water is a uniquely thrilling horror experience. Armed with only a camera and your wits, the tension is palpable and oozes out of every nook and cranny of Mt. Hikami and the surrounding areas. The camera serves to be as trusty of a weapon as a gun and adds a distinct tension to the action that few games could replicate. The atmosphere, level design, and story all work in tandem to create a surprisingly tense and beautiful experience, despite relying a bit too much on backtracking and having a rather thin story.

What could have easily been a stroll down memory lane instead turns into a frustrating disaster. The addition of a mid-mission save would have probably edged this game towards sanity, but the lack of it hampers the gameplay to the point where it simply isn't fun.

A solid effort, and fans of the series will definitely enjoy it. The lack of multiplayer is a big hit against it, especially in a game aimed at children and pre-teens.

Bleak Faith: Forsaken takes place in a beautiful science fantasy world that is begging to be explored. However, the constant bugs and frame rate drops make exploring this beautiful world on the PlayStation 5 a chore. If Bleak Faith: Forsaken receives more polish it could be one hell of a souls-like.

In the end The Dark Below has some great ideas and adds to an already solid game, but what it adds does not seem to be worth 20 dollars.

This game screams rushed port and the sad part is it screams rushed port of the non-existent Playstation 1 version.

Arcadian Atlas has some amazing character designs and character development. The gameplay can be a little unstable at times, but the story keeps you going with its creativity. With some great side characters like Eda and Poncho on your team and more down the road, nothing is impossible. It’s a love letter to older tactical games, and does the genre justice.

The Nintendo Switch version of NBA Playgrounds is probably the most inferior. While an entertaining romp with fun mechanics, a lack of content and fundamental patches keep this from being a slam dunk.

There’s a lot of new content for the Dragon Age enthusiast to enjoy here. The Descent is a worthwhile return to Thedas even if there’s strange design choices that you’ll have to suffer through to get to the best parts.

Touhou: New World offers a light-hearted RPG adventure set in a colorful location. Fluid combat backed by a stellar soundtrack makes this a great weekend binge.

The folks who worked on it were certainly heading in the right direction – Sacred Citadel just doesn’t have enough polish or pull to really keep you coming back for more – an experience I’d rather had not given my bag of quarters up for.

It lacks the depth needed to become a really good adventure game, and ends up being a platform game with some good puzzles built in.

ReCore is the framework of an incredible game with some truly unforgivable technical issues, which greatly deter from the overall experience. You’ll enjoy the challenging platforming, and awesome robotic action…in between aggravatingly long loading screens, and deaths via falling through solid surfaces.

While occasionally frustrating and repetitive, Serial Cleaner is a violently fun puzzle game that provides hours of blood-filled entertainment and new challenges.

Unless you really want to get behind the hard-knock life of an NBA star, your money would best be spent elsewhere.

The game feels largely the same through all the levels, even with new weapons gained through the game. Move through the level, fight monsters, get through more parts of the level, fight more monsters, collect glyphs, and fight the boss. However, this game does make good use of the license.

It’s a simmered down alternative to StarCraft and a good entry point into the RTS genre. It’s unfortunate that a few technical faults and the repetitive single player bogged down the title from being as great as it could have been.

The game is not only bigger, but also better in almost every way. The graphics, the animation, the lighting, and the overall storyline cohesion – the whole package is vastly improved. There are some issues such as repeating voice work, framerate stuttering, and a hyperactive camera while indoors, but the rest of the game more than makes up for these shortcomings.

While it can be complete chaos most of the time, Chocobo GP is still a fun and charming kart racer at its heart. There’s enough charm here to combat the frustration and bland tracks, and the multiple modes will keep you interested.

If you can look past the technical issues, long time fans of the SOCOM series should be happy with Confrontation.

Lost in Harmony is a very ambitious title that mixes a surprisingly infectious soundtrack with frantic and fun rhythm-platformer gameplay. It’s one musical romp that’s great for rhythm game players of all sorts, and I can’t wait to see what DigixArt does next!

Skully is a simple platformer that boasts fun characters, a great soundtrack, and creative gameplay; all of which provide a rewarding experience by the end of it. However, good things only last for a while, since the quality of the story drops off significantly by the end, and the poor music looping quickly becomes boring. And yet, it’s an underrated gem that you’ll likely want to platinum as soon as it’s done.

I felt myself compelled to play, but the control issues really got to me. Had there been no control issues, I would have been able to recommend this without any problem.

It’s just a derivative brawler game with a Batman-sugar coating.

Brakes are for Losers is an adequately fun time with friends if you’ve got four to eight people ready to play, but it unfortunately crashes into a wall with single-player content.

Override 2: Super Mech League is a vast improvement from its predecessor, with a great, varied roster (and more Ultraman characters in the future!), revamped combat system, and some gorgeous combat. The base game is currently half the price of a full-priced last generation title, so you should pick it up if you and your friends want some building-sized destructive fun.

That being said, the game is boring, lifeless, tedious, and a chore to slog through for veteran gamers.