fault milestone two side:above teases fans with a taste of what’s to come but in the end doesn’t provide enough for long-term satisfaction.

Sakura Swim Club is a visual novel for people who don’t really care about visual novels.

Eschatos merges the classic vertical shooter with a modern style of action while avoiding bullet hell, making for a fast, accessible and incredibly fun dose of pure arcade goodness.

This game really is only for the most patient, be that because death is frequent and sometimes unfair or because grinding is the path to victory, Evil Hazard is only for players with a tolerance (or love) of titles that are complete jerks.

Death Ray Manta is pure ’80s arcade, but the way we’d like to remember it rather than how it actually was.

The biggest determinant of whether you will enjoy A Kiss For The Petals – Remembering How We Met or not is if you are a fan of cute, vignette-style storytelling.

Orion packs a strong, unique narrative into a small span of time. It also brings with it a fair bit of polish, though not enough to immediately stand out against some of its more known contemporaries. Even so, for the first release from Cylight Studios, it’s a striking effort.

At the moment of this writing, There Was A Caveman can be recommended for fans of nostalgia laden platformers, but there are some major caveats.

DeltaZeal deserved better than to be lost in shooter history, and is an easy recommendation for anyone who’s ever enjoyed flying up the screen maxed out on firepower but only a single bullet away from death.

While this could have resulted in a confusing gaggle of goofiness, Eternal Step is a worthy experience.

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.

This is one of the top visual novel releases on Steam this year, and an excellent horror experience in general.

It’s a long and dangerous road out of the realms between worlds, but with enough shooting and a nice selection of helpful new internal organs, you might just get strong enough to escape.

Hypserspace Invaders II: Pixel Edition fuses an intense arcade shooter with eye-searing effects laid over chunky-pixel art, perfectly fused with its fantastic electronic soundtrack, as much a music album as a shooter and with both parts making each other all the better by contrast.

The Men of Yoshiwara: Kikuya may be worth a purchase on Steam for those who haven’t played it, but there are definite issues with the release. The biggest of these is the iffy translation and editing work done to the text, harming its ability to entertain.

Those looking for an engaging story to keep them reading for hours on end will want to pick up The Devil on G-String.

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

Pitting the player’s wit against a changing set of circumstances is a fun and exhilarating experience on paper, but ROOT makes too many wrong decisions in executing this mechanic that it’s hard not to see the majority of its level-by-level progression as anything but malnourished of some much-needed player-support.

Thanks to these problems, a visually charming and potentially enjoyable — if thoroughly unoriginal — tower defense game becomes much harder to recommend. Of course, grinding to earn upgrade points is always an option, but the levels aren’t that charming.

Prominence hearkens back to the glory days of first-person point and click adventure games. Its intriguing story will keep you digging through terminals to find out more. Not only does it look like a classic game, but it plays like one too. It’s a nice modern addition to our libraries full of old favorites.

As far as thrillers are concerned, few video games make it anywhere near the skillful story weaving present within the Higurashi series. Higurashi When They Cry Hou – Ch.2 Watanagashi is yet another look into the Watanagashi mystery and makes us want to know even more.

Not an especially charming or friendly take on the genre, FortressCraft Evolved has a lot of depth and potential for the dedicated player.

The quest to find and create a new homeworld has plenty of room for disaster to strike, but it’s also a lovely journey through a vibrant night sky.

If you played and enjoyed Knee Deep, Act 1: Wonderland then there’s little doubt you will also dig this latest release. Just don’t expect to learn much more about the whole situation before this episode wraps up.

It isn’t the most beautiful or artistically consistent game in the world, with an art style that could be charitably described as generic high-fantasy. On the other hand, it is a free-to-play game that rarely reminds the player that they could or should be paying real money.

A little more variety in victory conditions or evolving complexity through the campaign or in skirmishes would give the game a better chance at a longer life on the hard drive.

In its current state, it’s impossible to enjoy.

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.