Splintered Fate transparently aims to munch your time. All of its combat and replayability ideas give the appearance of a sturdy shell, yet the cracks in its execution undermine what is otherwise a lovingly crafted representation of the TMNT.

While visually appealing, the game ultimately falters due to schizophrenic difficulty and a story that’s hard to follow. The forgiving death mechanic made the uncertain levels bearable, but didn’t quite redeem them back to entertaining. As far as appearances go, it stood out as its own title, Don’t Open the Doors fell short in regards to story and gameplay.

Bloodsports.TV offers some fresh ideas, but offers too little variance or reason to play long-term. A fun one-off co-op game worth a weekend, but don’t expect it to be a go-to.

The core premise and style of Overcooked is a perfect fit for Nintendo’s portable console, but its technical performance ruins the experience. There aren’t many issues that couldn’t be fixed with a patch, but as it stands, Overcooked offers an exciting cooperative experience which is quickly hampered by performance issues.

An acceptable title dotting the grievous past of Compile Heart. A dungeon crawler with maze style gameplay, and a fairly unique and customizable battle system, MeiQ does a good job of providing some fun and interesting moments. Falling short overall in the battles, and leaving very much to desire with story, characters, dialogue, and respect for human dignity, MeiQ is a title only for the most dedicated RPG player.

Shooting Stars can provide some thrills due to its solid bullet-hell focused gameplay systems. The mechanics are tight and the special pick-ups diversify the combat a bit. But at the end of the day, its comedy feels more painful than enjoyable. The fact that it is thrown your way constantly only makes it more unenjoyable. It simply feels forced.

Relicta is a puzzle game that tries to be like The Talos Principle and Portal, but falls flat. The gameplay mechanics, as well as the physics, are a solid and fun experience. However, it falls short due to a weak story, terribly written dialogue, repetitive puzzle design, and various technical issues. If you’re looking for a puzzler that you can easily find exploits in for a speedrun, check this out. But, if you’re looking for a puzzler with replayability, where you have to utilize creative thinking, and the puzzles are all uniquely designed, then look far, far elsewhere.

Ring of Pain shows creativity and promise, but all to little depth to carry those qualities through. The choices presented by the game are interesting in principle, but in practice your success or failure are determined by luck more than anything else. The result is a game defined by repetition, which struggles to justify the time it asks of you. That said, for a minor price and a fun few runs, you could do far worse as a distraction.

Prime World is free to play on Steam, so if you’ve got time to burn and are looking for a game that tries to shake up the MOBA genre, then give Prime World a shot.

There are several ideas at work which are cool in concept, such as the hand-to-hand combat moves, but the overall effect is not very entertaining.

Monopoly for Nintendo Switch works for being a Monopoly game, but is ultimately a gimped port of a several year old game with features such as My Monopoly missing and questionable design choices such as not being able to mix and match house rules. If you’re looking for Monopoly on the go, it may be better to wait for a price drop.

Rich gameplay concepts and lush aesthetics caged by suffocating level design and a weak story. The constant clash between free, flowing movement and repetitive, often claustrophobic levels puts a damper on the entire experience.

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.

Real talk? I’ve tried for weeks to get into Empyre: Lords of the Sea Gates, but the clunky controls, obtuse UI, and incomplete concepts made it impossible for me to engage. The concept and setting for Empyre is top shelf, but the gameplay came out a little water logged.

Rusty Rabbit is an interesting game that uses a fascinating literary twist to establish its lore. The story has some interesting moments but it doesn’t feel like enough to save the game from itself. Unfortunately, the controls aren’t as responsive as a game in this genre should be and the world design feels very paint-by-numbers. With so many other top-tier titles vying for attention in the same space, it’s hard to consider this a frontrunner. You may give it a chance if you want to experience the world or you’re looking for a simpler Metroidvania.

Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 is a lackluster 3D platformer that offers nothing new or outstanding to the genre. The abilities you find offer some variety from stage to stage, but it’s not enough to make up for the dull presentation and uninspiring gameplay.

In the end, Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz HD will satisfy fans with its lovingly new remade visuals and presentation. While the single-player mode is much more improved thanks to analog controls, the new multiplayer elements are drab and will damper your experience should you want something to play with friends. These are some Super Monkey Balls you should probably play with yourself rather than others.

Omega Quintet is a promise that fails to execute, and squanders most its intriguing battle mechanics and interesting characters with over-the-top fan service and rote, trope-filled plots.

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.

Overall, Crime Boss: Rockay City offers so many conceptually interesting gameplay mechanics that could work well together, but either doesn't give the player enough opportunities to use them, or fails to tie them into other aspects of the game. There is some minor depth to the game, but it's overshadowed by what could have been. On top of that, too many elements feel like they’re out of the players hands, and lead to cheap deaths. If you simply need to play Crime Boss: Rockay City, then you’ll be pleased to hear that it’s only $40, and even less if you wait for a sale.

Fantasy Life lets you partake in every step of the adventuring process, from item creation to monster slaying. Unfortunately, the copious backtracking and bland narrative make this adventure rather boring.

Uneven in tone and execution, Mighty No 9 is equal parts fun and frustration. Inafune won’t reignite the fire of his famed franchise with this initial effort. We can only hope that subsequent attempts to reboot the blue bomber turn out better.

Chained Echoes is an incredibly uneven RPG heavily inspired by the likes of Chrono Trigger and Xenogears. With bad writing, poorly thought out mechanics, and an overly complex… everything it can be hard to get through. Even so, there is a little fun to be found here, mostly near the beginning.

After waiting and waiting and waiting, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League's brilliant movement mechanics can't save an unfortunately short campaign that "ends" relying on the game being live-service to add story as they go through the different seasons. While playing as each of the Suicide Squad feels unique to each character, the reveal of Joker coming to the game in Spring with more playable characters on the way, I'd say wait for a deal because it's not worth $70 in its current state.

Fans of old adventure titles, crude humor and excessive pop culture references might find some value here, but most would be better served with better adventure games.

Son of Nor has it’s moments of brilliance where its strengths are realized, but ultimately none of its best elements are developed enough to make them feel meaningful for more than a few hours. Nor isn’t bad, but it’s so uninteresting it can hardly claim to be good.

Cybarian: The Time Travelling Warrior is a difficult, often frustrating retro action platformer that values its old-school aesthetic over all else. Everything from its graphics and sound to its difficulty and controls recall an earlier era of gaming, but it does nothing to expand on that legacy. Players looking for a challenge may take some pride in conquering Cybarian, but its short playtime and mostly empty levels leave very little to sink your teeth into.

The Sun at Night is a wonderful idea that features a lovable main character with a very interesting past. Unfortunately, the gameplay does not feel like it is quite there yet, as its adherence to old-school design elements impairs player accessibility.