We’re only a month in and while we may already have some notable highlights, even to those heavily invested in this branch of explorative puzzle games, Vane feels like the first dull low of 2019.

With senseless puzzles that destroy any potential feeling of accomplishment, incredibly frequent glitches, a total lack of coherent storytelling, boring gameplay and sluggish pacing, there’s not much Montague’s Mount offers that can’t be found elsewhere in a more attractive package.

I desperately wanted to love Aviary Attorney. After all, it was doing so many things that seemed totally fantastic. One, it was gathering inspiration from the Ace Attorney series and two it was creating a marvelous-looking anthropomorphic animal-filled version of France. Somehow, though, it didn’t come together as expected.

Corpse of Discovery had promise, but a not-so-great execution.

The one or two tense moments that The Flock provides might be mildly thrilling, but the overall package is about as weak as it gets.

The most insidious thing about Moebius is that you don’t know how wretched it truly is until the very end.

If you’re still intrigued by Lili, go with the far less expensive iOS version and enjoy its repetitive play in short bursts.

With such a bizarre premise, the one thing Mart Racer desperately needed was fun and enticing gameplay – something that it severely lacks.

If given the choice between Gomo and another adventure game, choose the other one.

It would be great to see more titles in the genre take on criminal narratives rather than those of pure romance or action, but this visual novel stumbles rather than strides confidently down that path.

Whatever cheap thrills this visual novel does include aren’t worth sitting through incredibly flat writing and a lack of substance for. If you’re looking for shiny anime mammaries, hit the rest of the internet instead.

It falls completely on its ass in every category. Generic shooting, incredibly poor artificial intelligence and glitchy bug-ridden gameplay amounts to nothing more than a meager attempt to cash in on next month’s film.

Ultimately, the game is so bad that even extremely fond memories of the original cannot redeem the wretched controls and dull character design. Do yourself a favor and don’t go anywhere near this catastrophe.

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

Boo Bunny Plague is not worth your time or money.

While I want desperately to share yuri goodness with gamers, Sacrament of the Sheep: The Confused Sheep and the Tamed Wolf is not going to receive my recommendation.

As it stands, Violett is a mess, and a disappointment on every level.

From the technical production to its desired visual direction alike, you needn’t take one step into any of its lackluster dungeons to find something both unpleasant and unappealing to invest in. And once you do, you’ll find a core loop unashamedly insistent on dragging its heels all in the name of a loot grind that itself isn’t all that exciting. To say the dismal failings on its loot aspect — and perhaps, even its live-service ecosystem on top — isn’t even the lowest moment should give you a clearer picture on how badly PlatinumGames and Square Enix together have missed the mark here. It might then end up strangely poetic come year’s end. That after seeing what might arguably be the year’s best offering release in recent weeks, Babylon’s Fall by contrast, could very well stand as its worst.

Avoid at all cost; Gleamlight may have pretensions of depth, or at least a steady amount of enjoyment, but that’s all they are sadly.

The gameplay is bad. The story is bad. The visuals are bad. Everything is bad. There is no fun to be had here, no entertainment to be gleaned no matter how hard you try and scrape some out.

It’s rare to see a title with so much promise wasted. This is a game that needed some sort of oversight. Somebody needed to step up and explain that things were getting way out of hand with the currencies, that the mysterious appearing enemies style of challenge doesn’t fit with the mechanics as designed, that surprise instant death isn’t fun within the confines of a cover shooter. That didn’t happen. Instead of being pulled back from the precipice, MercurySteam merrily stepped over, embracing oblivion. The splatty mess that resulted was scraped up and released for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. The actual talent that went into this game dripped through the crack in this Broken Planet.

Arguments could be made that the inception of this title was well intentioned with some great plans, but the execution is where everything falls apart like a Formula One racer held together with Silly Putty.

Contrast is a mess. It’s ugly, tiresome, insipid and occasionally insulting. It aspires to be like other, better games, and wears that on its sleeve, but has nothing worthwhile to call its own.

Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment isn’t just a bad game. With its awful story, tedious combat, and inexcusable translation, it’s an out and out insult to anyone who might buy it – fans of the series especially.

Fighter Within could have been a demo disc for the power of the Kinect 2.0, but instead is an absolute mess that recalls all of the original sensor’s faults.

This title plays like a sarcastic version of a real game. I don’t mind being mocked if I can laugh along, but this is just mean.

Undertow is an obnoxious, aggravating mess that, while trying something clever by combining a 2D twin-stick arena shooter with team-based gameplay, fails to be any fun whatsoever. [Spring 2008, p.61]

The Revenant Prince is as far from joyous as one can get, resulting in one of the most frustrating, tedious and downright awfully cobbled-together RPGs to release in recent years.