Overall this is the most amazing, most spectacular, most…you know, I can’t do this anymore, even sarcastically. This game is bad, but I feel a little bad saying it.

Fireburst is mediocre at best, playable whenever you have friends over, but not necessarily a first choice in anyone’s library. With the lack of any real story or campaign mode and busted online features, there are games that do a lot better than this offensive, boring and buggy arcade racer.

Boring at best, annoying at worst, do yourself a favor and give this game a pass.

Before beginning to play Akiba’s Trip: Hellbound & Debriefed, plans to write a screed defending the game while poking fun at the pure stupidity of the gameplay were already in motion. The assumption was that I would adore it the same way I did other games in the series. Instead, Akiba’s Trip: Hellbound & Debriefed is a buggy port of a PSP game with uprezzed geometry, character models and CG cutscenes. Everything else screams of a barebones or incomplete effort. For completionists, it’s cool to have the missing piece finally available in English. Actually playing the game, though, is simply not recommended. If the idea of killing vampires by ruining their outfits sounds intriguing, and it should, check out Akiba’s Trip: Undead & Undressed. It’s simply a superior experience.

Zack Zero could have shot for the star of “inoffensive mediocrity” and gotten higher marks for the effort. What’s on display here, however, is the product of a game development fiasco that dragged some seemingly good people through a gauntlet of emotional and financial insanity.

When playing around in free-play, not worrying too much about the needs of your brain-dead guests, Adventure Park can at least prove to be entertaining. Unfortunately, it’s just impossible to play it – with all of its flaws – and not think about the vastly superior amusement park sims of yesteryear.

While Homefront: The Revolution had potential to be great, its mediocre gameplay, lackluster story and myriad of technical issues make it one of the biggest disappointments of the generation. The PC’s iteration’s disastrous framerate and texture streaming follies take what could have been a halfway decent game and make it a pure test of patience on the part of the player.

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum crafts a compelling story around Gollum and Smeagol, but it fails to craft a polished, stable or enjoyable gameplay experience. Unfortunately, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum isn’t the Precious we’ve been searching for.

Temple of Yog is a title that would demo quite well; the first ten or so minutes revealed some fantastic possibilities. Actually trying to play the thing for any real length, however, becomes a chore of the highest order.

Among the Sleep is a surprisingly bad execution of a deceptively weak idea.

They wanted to give the IP as much space as possible from this train wreck, and I’d suggest you give yourself the same.

Hoshizora no Memoria -Wish upon a Shooting Star- provides slice of life fun for those who enjoy it, with a bit extra in the form of its mysterious elements and plenty of routes, but it can often become a slog to read between key moments. While the localization provided is acceptable, the multiple issues with the text typos and formatting are not. Patches will resolve these issues, but there’s so many to resolve that it will likely take a while before they’re all finally smoothed out. Most can probably wait on this release until then to get the best experience.

In the moment, it can be thrilling to spar words with Cersei or choose whether to execute a thief or send him to the Wall. For that to work, however, you have to be willing to put up with a lot: the slow pacing, the exaggerated visuals, the awful animation and the fact that those choices don’t make much of a difference at all. Things could improve over the long haul, but based on this first episode, committing to a season pass is not recommended to anyone but the most diehard Game of Thrones fans with a high tolerance for mediocrity.

From a studio having delivered far better and should in all likelihood have done so once more, Redfall is an uncharacteristically poor and cobbled-together brand of tedium. Though pockets of the developer’s signature traits remain when it comes to exploration, level design and reading up on the world of this fictional small-town settlement, it’s as far as the game goes in injecting a sense of care or thought to what it’s offering and asking of its player. Shamelessly limping from one half-hearted implementation and excuse to pad out its run-time to the next. The killing blow undoubtedly coming by way of its PC performance. A myriad of issues big and small that will take some doing to rectify. But even then, with a lack of enemy variety, creative mission design and simply reason to stay invested or evolve from out of, its gameplay just isn’t all that fun to engage with from the off. A bare minimum effort with such scarce appeal, Redfall stands as a devoid and near-lifeless pivot away from the standard we’ve come to expect from Arkane Studios.

Even if you’re a fan of the books or HBO show, there’s not much incentive to play Telltale’s Game of Thrones.

It offers players immense freedom to create their ideal farm, but only if they’re willing to do a ton of work to prepare and maintain it for future years.

If you’re dying for something similar to Flashback, and don’t mind wrestling with some control issues, an inferior story and a generic art-style, then this may be what you’re looking for. Otherwise, you’d best just sit tight and hope that someone decides to make a version of the original game with a slightly higher resolution.

Bugs vs Tanks! is a great B-Movie idea in search of a game to do it justice, but this just isn’t it.

Bound by Flame is a charming RPG that’s fundamentally and mechanically flawed.

There’s certainly worse driving games on the platform, but it’s hard to find a reason why anybody would want to play this revival of a dormant series that was mediocre to begin with and is even weaker over a decade later.

Turbo: Super Stunt Squad is both a Tony Hawk Pro Skater clone and a failed adaption of a snail racing movie. It has little relation with the film and could swap the assets out for say, The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure, and accomplish the same thing.

Unless the controls are tightened up in the future, it’s hard to recommend Tesla Breaks the World! to anyone other than the most devoted platformer fans out there.

While there’s no argument against the principle Shiny has a good concept going for it as far as offering consideration before taking that next pivotal action — no matter how minor it might be — its woefully-optimized performance and presentation (visually as well as from a design perspective) can put many off even the more notable of classic platforming segments.

Maybe there's a great game beyond level 8. Maybe it turns into peaches and honey. Maybe a magical unicorn bursts from the screen. Who knows? After playing a single level beyond any possibility of ever getting any enjoyment from it again, I turned the game off and walked away. Gameplay masochism only stays enjoyable so long before a feeling best described as "screw this!" sets in, and Fractured Soul blew past that point and never looked back.

I really wanted to like Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier. The Apes world is fascinating and a Telltale-esque game set in that universe has all the makings for an amazing experience. While it’s an awesome idea, Last Frontier’s execution just isn’t there. Hopefully Imaginati Studios and 20th Century Fox don’t give up on this idea, though. Video games are iterative and developers learn from their mistakes. While Last Frontier can’t be recommended on its own merits, its concept has potential and shouldn’t be abandoned.

Attack of the Movies 3D is just plain bad from start to finish, and while that can be fun in the right movie, it’s just painful in a game.

There are much better puzzlers on the 3DS eShop than Bit Boy!! Arcade, so you’re better off skipping this flawed endeavor unless you really want to hear a red, cherub-faced cube talk like a serial killer.

Cognition: Episode 2 fails to live up to the standards of Episode 1, which wasn’t exactly a lofty bar to aim for in the first place.

As-is, it's a very, very pretty demo of what the SIXAXIS can do. [May 2007, p.69]

As a fan of Nippon Ichi Software’s output as a whole (these are the people behind the Ys and Xanadu series, after all), it’s hard not to be disappointed with The Witch and the Hundred Knight 2. Despite the knowledge gained from the previous outing, the developer released a title that plays like the place their unused ideas of other places got sent to die. Staying prepared for the action takes up a huge amount of time and the action itself isn’t exactly compelling.

t is not just bad, it is bad in an incredibly Wii-specific, low-effort sort of way you just don’t see on other consoles.

For all the promise Pixel Pi shows amid the early phases, Pulse sadly delves little further into evolving from out its basic foundation — new ideas introduced later on feeling out of place and poorly executed, it’s hard to see them as anything other than square pegs forcibly shunt into round holes.

The framework of what could be a solid title is in place; perhaps even the talent to see it through. But as it stands, DreadOut is plagued with poor design choices and a small budget.

Unfortunately, at $15, it’s hard to recommend even if you’re a PS3-only player since Urban Trial Freestyle does the same thing as this, but better.

To be fair, however, Humans Must Answer is a good example of a specific sub-genre of shooter, but it’s just not one that happens to be much fun.

Bedlam may suit your needs if all you need is a trip down FPS memory lane, but you’re better off seeking any number of similar titles which actually offer compelling gameplay.

If you are a devoted fan of Nekopara Vol. 1 then there’s little reason not to buy Nekopara Vol. 0. Not only is it far cheaper at the price of $2.99, but it also gives you nearly an hour more with a cast of colorful cat girls. Those brand new to the Nekopara world, or folks who only found the previous game to be okay, shouldn’t bother.

There’s a lot to enjoy in Lovely Planet, so long as you don’t actually have to play the game.

It’s just not particularly fun.

Titles like Senran Kagura or the Hyperdimension Neptunia series are incredibly dumb, but are also entertaining. Despite their glaring flaws, they warm this cold heart in my chest. Drive Girls drops the ball on every front that could redeem it. It squanders its concept with poor stage design, ruining the sense of momentum. It takes what should be a simple hack and slash action game and complicates with the most poorly considered control scheme this side of playing Dark Souls with a Guitar Hero peripheral. Even the story, which could have been a redeeming factor by way of just being amiable nonsense, is tedious and dull. If Senran Kagura is the one that gets too drunk at a party and embarrasses itself to the amusement of onlookers, Drive Girls is the one that pukes on the host’s pets and is confrontationally annoying. It’s unpleasant for everyone and people just want it to be gone.

Those who devour slice of life high school tales will not likely have qualms about playing this one. It tries to differentiate itself with the variety of character paths and manga author subplot, but unfortunately, none of this elevates the title above its peers. Instead, it stands as an easy, if predictable, read that can keep players company over a weekend gameplay session. If given the choice to spend their funds on this and something else from Sekai Project’s catalog (like the impressive Grisaia trilogy), WAGAMAMA HIGH SPEC proves a much tougher sell.

In all, Shape Up is a cool concept that doesn’t have nearly enough going for it to keep players hooked long term.

Dragon Fin Soup is a great game trapped in a terrible game’s code.

RENNSPORT has no business being a full-price game on consoles for what's offered. The post-launch DLC will cost extra as well. Excellent driving physics with the ability to race on well-known circuits with nineteen touring or grand touring cars from recent years is the core of this game. Online racing with a community also helps as it pools together three platforms to assure lobbies have players. Unfortunately noone is using the matchmaking and the offline options are barely an option. No tutorials, no content and no substance really take away from the fact that this is a video game and more of the game you go to a racing arcade to play its simulation (which this author has done). The DualSense 5, in particular, works both surprisingly and exceptionally well, but do you get a simulation racer to use with a controller? Also, with another racing sim offering more content on the horizon for the same price, you're better off waiting for a steep sale on this.

Attack of the Movies 3D is just plain bad from start to finish, and while that can be fun in the right movie, it’s just painful in a game.

The word “fiasco” is defined as something that is a complete failure. Fiasco doesn’t live up to its definition, but it’s close.

Not only is PlayStation VR Worlds playing it safe, it is not selling virtual reality in a strong enough way. It’s easy to show off the technology with a space-piloting game and first-person shooter, but what these tidbits of games fail to do is entertain players in the long run. They make it seem as though virtual reality is a novelty with absolutely no depth to it, which isn’t the case at all.

Tough racetracks and quick losses lend themselves very well to short bursts of gameplay, but in a world where Jet Car Stunts 2 exists, alongside other, more polished challenging games, it simply doesn’t hold up.

Good looks and smooth movement mechanics can’t cover for a shallow game. On almost every level, Secrets of Raetikon is a disappointment.

Dreambreak may look pretty on the outside, but peeling back its pixelated style and impressive music reveals the dull story, flat characters, lack of substance and clunky gameplay within.

As far as indie titles on the Xbox One go, there is a ton coming out this year, and LA Cops is one game that can safely be ignored for better things.

Where Forspoken should’ve been a striking and appealing fresh start for Luminous Productions, the end result sadly is a game not only bland and unpolished, but deprived of a reason to care for its unfolding mystery. A bevvy of technical inconsistencies, lackluster open world design and most disappointing of all, a handful of systems with genuine enjoyment at times that don’t see their potential fully realized.

Even looking fantastic wouldn’t save how inane, silly and not fun Twisted Pixel’s latest effort is. A generic voice and personality for IRIS, a weird twist in the form of Pablo, and tired vehicular combat do not make for a fantastic Xbox One debut.

Here Anomaly 2 is trying to reinvent its own wheel with little tiny incremental upgrades instead of taking the same drastic approach that gained it such praise in the first place. The result isn’t something groundbreaking; the result is a confused and missed opportunity that has more in common with RTS games in every wrong way possible.

When approaching Mighty Monster Mayhem, it’s fair not to expect top of the line, wiz bang graphics. Rank17 is a low budget indie studio and needs to make some understandable compromises. Instead, it’s reasonable to hope for a title to competently take the narrow focus of emulating a game from the 80’s using simplified graphics, allowing the novelty of the input to carry it the rest of the way and have it come out playable. The developer got some of it right, but the vast majority of this game is riddled with too many cracks in the facade, indicating it was launched way too soon.

Unless you love BlazBlue and short-burst, super basic brawlers enough to drop $5.99, this will be far too superficial an endeavor to warrant a purchase, even with its charming art design. It’s not an offensively bad game; it’s just for lacking in content and value.

Unless you’re some sort of masochistic that enjoys frustration, there is very little reason to recommend Dark Raid, and even then there are plenty of better anger-inducing games available.

By tempering expectations somewhat, Yury provides what you expect from a difficult platformer. It will make you die a lot and curse at the screen.

It’s astonishing to see just how far off the mark Disintegration is in terms of how it looks and plays. An astonishment made painfully evident across both of its equally-unflattering, technically-flawed game modes devoid of any quirk, personality or lasting impression. Impressions that are of anything but the feeling of eliciting a smoke-screen so as to mask the game’s evident lack of ingenuity or creative endeavor. It’s more astonishing that, in a vacuum, the design philosophy underpinning its gameplay mechanics feel oddly “complete.” That the conceptual attempt to mix a decade-old mentality on “cinematic” shooter campaigns with some occasional strategy are on show. Showing us that yes, this concept appeals to neither camp — the shooter fan and detractor alike. But it’s the utter lack of care with its narrative, world, progression and above all set-pieces that stings most. Whittled down to the lowest common denominator in such a way you can’t help but feel this is a game ten years too late. One can only hope V1 Interactive can move on and lay claim to greater things in the near future, because Disintegration is a shockingly empty attempt at standing out.

The poor dialogue gives way to poor pacing, which leads to confusion in story and puzzles, taking I fell from Grace from bad to awful.

A big budget project gone horribly wrong. The graphics and voice acting are top notch, but everything else is a complete wreck. Environments are boring and repetitive, combat is uninspired, platforming is a joke and the stealth elements are some of the worst ever conceived from a major publisher. It’s a dismal affair through and through and an absolute slog to finish.

Slain! gleefully comes off as the fever dream of a drunken teenage Iron Maiden fan, but unfortunately comes off as having been designed and programmed by a drunken teenage Iron Maiden fan as well.

If you’re looking for good party games on the Switch, you can do and have done better. If you’re looking for good games on Switch for casual players or kids, you can do and have done better. If you’re looking for good games on the Switch for multiple players…you get the idea. Everybody 1-2-Switch! is a game with no real reason to exist, and its lineup of mostly boring, overly simple, poorly-presented games fails to justify its existence. Moreso than its predecessor, you can easily skip this game, and your parties will be the better for it.

50 Pinch Barrage!! is a textbook example of archaic design and control; even at a budget price, this isn’t worth your hard-earned cash.

As innovative as its main concept is, Spoiler Alert abandons the inherent interactive element of video games, with only a terribly linear and bleak experiment still in tow.

There are plenty of better examples in the field of boss-rush titles — games that go out of their way to make even the spectacle and world around you, as inviting as their nuanced, tension-building encounters so wonderfully carve out. This, however, is not one of them. For all its screen-popping color and promise of literal time as a vital mechanic for success, Godstrike is a shockingly flat and tedious attempt at standing out.

Sakura Angels is short, seemingly robbed of an exciting ending, and tries to stifle its positive strides with copious CGs.

Since the heyday of Rollercoaster Tycoon and Theme Hospital, it’s not often that lite-management sims get a chance to strut their stuff. This was not originally meant to be that game, but it could have been with a change of the business model. Instead this is a title that is balanced for tedium.

The sad thing is that Silent Hill: The Short Message has a lot of good story ideas, characters and world-building, but then proceeds to waste them on completely unoriginal, shallow gameplay. It paradoxically wanted to move ahead and tackle more mature themes and stories, yet has gameplay that feels blatantly regressive, settling for the most generic aspects of modern horror games. If this is the direction that the franchise wants to take, then it's headed straight for a cliff. Hopefully the likes of No Code will be able to salvage things with their side games later, but for now, you can easily skip over The Short Message.

School Girl/Zombie Hunter had the potential to be a B-movie style good time that unfortunately is so bad that it’s bad. There are tiny bits of fun to be found among the numerous flaws, but the bad vastly outnumbers the good. Die hard fans of this type of thing could maybe give this a look if there’s a heavily discounted sale, but even then the bad gameplay will overshadow any camp value to be found. Onechanbara Z2 is actually a better alternative to this title, if that tells you anything, since it provides the same level of fan service but with better visuals, music and combat. School Girl/Zombie Hunter is basically Lollipop Chainsaw without the fun or any of latter’s redeeming qualities.

There are moments when Tsugunohi succeeds as a horror game. The visuals and concepts for some of the chapters are incredibly disturbing. The understated, quiet moments of the game are the most effective. However, there was a push to make them more outwardly scary with continuous ghost sightings, monster jump scare tactics and these things ruin the mood. Atmosphere is everything in horror and it’s incredibly easy to lose its effectiveness. Tsugunohi is worth it for the curious horror fans out there, but others aren’t missing anything by passing on the experience.

This game is a total waste of time and money, and the best I can really say for it is that it doesn’t waste much of either. In fact, in a day or two, you’ll probably have forgotten it entirely.

Perhaps Godzilla will get a decent game by his hundredth anniversary, but this isn’t it.

With all of the wasted potential and the abuse of a cult-classic property found here, Overlord: Fellowship of Evil is not good.

If you love the idea of speed runs and like the thrill of making every move count to beat the clock, then 10 Second Ninja might be for you. For everyone else, though, 10 Second Ninja is a repetitive and dull game, one whose philosophy on improvement is player-hostile for the entire ride.

It's a nice try, but it still needs a bit of polish. [June 2007, p.61]

It has an interesting premise, but it’s let down by padded, disjointed plotting and awful character writing.

Albino Lullaby: Episode 1 is a most unnerving horror game, but not the all-around freakiest or best from a gameplay perspective. Despite some A+ design work, there is a real lack of compelling gameplay at the core.

Super Hexagon and still need your twitch fix, you might get some real enjoyment out of Velocibox‘s stiff challenge; anyone else can safely give this a pass.

Stick with the mobile version and feel sorry for all the poor kids on Christmas morning who’s parents were fooled into thinking this was the must-have PS4 launch title.

BeatBlasters III encourages excitement and the party vibe with its aesthetic, but its design does nothing but slog around obnoxious escorts and defense missions that instantly overstay their welcome.

Despite its ambitious stride to tell a gripping tale of a father/husband striving desperately to look for his missing family, Husk‘s end delivery is anything but. With a host of mechanical and structural oddities breaking numerous points of immersion where it’s seldom gained — both before and after post-release updates — across environments that, though blended rather well into one another, could very well be found in ample other titles using horror as an attribute, Husk is a frustrating game to recommend. Marred by technical difficulties that come to question just how “finished” this game truly is/was, Husk is another example of a studio that have mistaken basic nostalgia for the wealth of enjoyment.

Unfortunately, after the initial seconds, Tennis in the Face completely fails at being enjoyable. It’s physics can be erratic, levels seem untested and the quirky humor gets old fast. The sound effects go a long way towards making this game remotely tolerable, and occasionally a wry grin can be had at a pile of donuts showering the screen.

A love letter to both the show and beat-em-ups that falls short of reaching its goals. The franchise’s earliest games were largely better than this, and while this does scratch a nostalgia itch to some degree, it isn’t a satisfying gaming experience. Movesets are far too lean and there are too few enemies to keep the action interesting for very long. Dedicated fans of the show may want to check it out, but everyone else can safely skip it.

The only way I could possibly recommend this game to anyone is if you have a blossoming interest in both breasts and fighting games, and are trapped on some sort of desert island with a PS3 that only has Girl Fight on it. Everyone else is going to want to look elsewhere.

Rudimentary puzzle design overshadows every emotional undertone so greatly that boredom is more likely to ensue than introspection. Whether or not Pillar teaches us something about ourselves is irrelevant; the fact that we’re left wondering what could have been is the true tragedy.

This is a port of a mobile game that came to fruition via crowdfunding; one with a Google Play page that is loaded with accolades. It is at this point where the final piece of evidence must be introduced: the overuse of tired memes.

Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator has ample promise and a lot of heart, but wasn’t given enough time to grow. Most of the dads are lovely to get to know and worth dating. Players want to spend more time with these guys, but only get three relatively brief dates to whet their appetite. Then there’s the fact that it doesn’t yet feel finished due to a fair share of typographical issues, mishmash of art styles and the amount of gameplay bugs still impacting the experience. Once patches go out these latter issues should be resolved, but nothing short of DLC or a sequel will bring players more time with the cast of dads who simply weren’t given enough time in the spotlight to really shine.

To put it bluntly, Bombshell is a dud. What once began as something that had potential to become a so-stupid-it’s-awesome classic ended up being merely…well, it isn’t even really that stupid as a whole, just dull.

Z-run’s combination of zombies and endless runners was undoubtedly a brilliant idea. Unfortunately, the game design, fun factor and replay value were all poorly executed.

A fleeting handful of positives to share, for Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood is a predominantly dull and tonally-misguided addition to the World of Darkness property.

Alekhine’s Gun is a title where the ambition of design outmatches the execution with gusto.

NEKO-NIN exHeart is not a game for every visual novel lover out there. It’s squarely targeted at the audience who knows they like catgirls and seek out stories about them regardless of quality. This isn’t an experience for someone looking for deep storyline, epic romance or even a lot of dialogue choices. The dull writing and technical issues don’t make a great impression either. The best aspects of artwork and voice acting help smooth out the rough edges, but only to a degree. Still, if you’re waiting on more Nekopara goodness to arrive then NEKO-NIN exHeart will probably tide you over for a couple hours.

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead takes an interesting concept and fails to reach the mark, fizzling out into mediocrity before even getting started. The goal of remaining quiet is portrayed well with several successful mechanics (opening doors slowly, watching where you step), but becomes boring as the game fails to create engaging challenges while plummeting in quality. Fans of the franchise will get a kick out of this adaptation for the first few hours, but it's hard to imagine many players sticking around until the ending.

Team Indie is a competent platformer with a unique, cute concept. Unfortunately, when put into action, playing as many famous indie characters reveals how good those original games were rather than make you excited to play this one.

If you’ve got the tolerance for terrible and the four hours or less that it takes to beat the game, maybe you’ll have fun groaning at how bad Zombeer is too.

It’s hard to recommend FIVE: Guardians of David to anyone. Fans of action RPGs have literally dozens of better games to choose from. Even gamers who would like to play an RPG without being assaulted by bloodshed have some excellent choices, such as the Torchlight games.

Shelter 2 fails to deliver what its concept promises, but it remains an enjoyable adventure that doesn’t overstay its welcome.