At the end of the game, I really felt like there could’ve been a lot more Quintus and the Absent Truth. The acting felt flat, the themes weren’t as fleshed out as they should’ve been, and the only truly scary thing here is how short the whole experience was. I really wanted to see this succeed, as the art style brought some unique potential, but sadly the experience needs a lot more refinement to be as interesting in execution as it was in its premise.

Chernobylite is an enjoyable little loot n’ shooter sadly torpedoed by technical issues for the PS4 version. It’s such a shame that the intriguing storyline and the compulsive scavenging fun is completely ruined by bugs. I was looking forward to uncovering the dark mysteries lurking within Pripyat, but until the game-breaking errors are fixed, they will have to remain hidden.

Touken Ranbu Warriors is an extremely difficult sell for fans of Omega Force’s previous work, given how stripped back a product it is. Small scale battles that can be over in minutes, along with a complete absence of any meaningful progression or grind, completely rip the heart and soul from the now infamous 1 vs. 1000 formula. If you’re a fan of the Touken Ranbu franchise who has yet to sample a Warriors game, then you may find some joy in the depiction of the Touken Ranbu universe and the accessible nature of everything. For everyone else, however, it’s safe to say you can avoid this and hold out for the imminent release of Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, which should hopefully have a little more meat on its bones for longtime Musou fans.

I’ve ended a lot of reviews of Switch ports over the years saying some variation of this may not be the best version of the game, but it’s worth your time if the Switch is your preferred platform. That’s not the case for Yakuza Kiwami. This version simply isn’t worth playing and it doesn’t matter whether you have another way to play the game or not. It isn’t just inferior; it feels terrible to play. Hopefully, the team behind this port will keep working on improving performance because there’s still a solid title underneath this version’s issues. Still, there are too many great experiences on the platform to spend your time on a game that feels like this.

Mina & Michi is undeniably cute, but that’s simply not enough. After the charm wears off, its gameplay is just too basic. It might be a good fit for younger gamers who need help, though. Let them control Michi while you do the rest of the work, and they’ll enjoy themselves. If you’re in the market for a breezy action game that you can complete in an afternoon, then check it out. It might be a good fit for speedrunners, too, as it has a built-in clock for that exact purpose.

A nice look and decent pacing aren’t enough for me to recommend a game to pretty much anyone, though. I came in really wanting to like Lifeless Moon, but pretty much everything I enjoyed about it I could see in the screenshots and trailer. There are too many good puzzle games out there nowadays to spend time on one which has so little going for it.

Hell Pages is hardly a groundbreaking game, but it’s also not all bad. Though decidedly old school and occasionally primitive, it still has a solid core loop, outstanding tunes and hideous demonic boss battles. If you can get past the lack of weapon variety and the ho hum upgrades, you might find something to enjoy in this festival of monsters. For everybody else, get your Evil Dead fix from the source material.

I was hoping for something special with Undungeon, but sadly was utterly disappointed. This is an example of a game where less could have been so much more. It overburdens players with overly complex systems that weren’t intuitive or fun. Granted, it has stellar artwork and a cool premise, but that’s not nearly enough to fix what’s already broken. Despite tinyBuild’s recent track record of publishing high quality games, this is one I absolutely cannot recommend.

I truly wanted to love Krut: The Mythic Wings, but ultimately, it’s a title that is extremely difficult to recommend. With its bare-bones combat, imprecise platforming, and an over-reliance on grinding, it completely squanders the potential of its narrative and setting. Whilst there is some fun to be had with the boss fights, the fleeting moments of joy provided by these encounters are completely overshadowed by what a drag the rest of the experience is.

The amateur-hour writing and uneven combat are just too difficult to overlook, especially considering just how stuffed the genre is with competing titles that do just about everything The Last Oricru does, only better. Sure there is fun to be hand in exploring Wanderia and its intricate level design, but every “wow” moment is typically followed by a facepalm, as Silver says something that is tonally deaf or falls to yet another attack that should have had no business hitting him. If you’re after another slice of Soulslike action in 2022, then your $40 can absolutely be spent better elsewhere, with The Last Oricru serving as little more than a pale imitation that struggles to even nail the Soulslike fundamentals.

Put simply, Cyber Citizen Shockman is a peculiarity of a retro game. Though I appreciate it being brought to new audiences some 30 years later, I can’t say it holds up very well. My hope is that the series grew over time and got much improved, since I know Ratalaika is bringing other games from the franchise to the West. But if you’re looking for an amazing retro experience, you’ll probably be disappointed with it.

Unfortunately Aniquilation squanders an interesting concept with poor level design that does its best to ensure that the various mechanics at play are nothing short of frustrating the majority of the time. There is some fun to be had if you can endure the frustrations and fight your way through to the later stages of Aniqulation’s levels, where the environments open up and it becomes more apparent what the developers were going for. Sprinkle in the technical issues, and Aniquilation is difficult to recommend to anyone other than the most dedicated of twin-stick shooter fans.

I hate to say it, but as it currently stands, this is not a worthwhile purchase — I can’t even recommend this to fans of the original movie because it’s still just as unplayable as it was all those years ago. I can only recommend Bill & Ted’s Excellent Retro Collection to those who, like me, were haunted by Bill & Ted’s Excellent Video Game Adventure and want to utilize the newly implemented save states to finally have a shot at finishing the game. But if Limited Run Games releases an update later with the maps? It might be a little less bogus then.

I really tried to enjoy Depths of Sanity. It’s a unique take on the Metroidvania genre, and it introduces some neat ideas. Sadly the execution of those ideas were held back by the awkward and consistently problematic controls themselves. As a result, even though the game has really great atmosphere and interesting concepts, most fans of the genre will likely lose patience incredibly quickly.

I don’t know what happened with Crossroads Inn. I don’t know why, in the 3 years that have passed since the original release on PC, Crossroads Inn is still a confusing, buggy mess. I don’t know who thought Crossroads Inn was ready for the extremely small Switch screen in its current state. I typically pride myself in being a reviewer that can see the positive in any game and find the audience a title was made for, but when it comes to Crossroads Inn, I find I’m at a loss. If you must get this game, try it out on PC first to get a better feel for the controls and UI; if you only have a Switch, I can’t in good conscience recommend this game to you.

And so it’s unfortunate, then, that every positive I just mentioned comes undone at the hands of that dreaded localization. There were stretches of gameplay where I was just grinding, or exploring, and for a moment I’d forget what a mess the translation was, immersed in Xuan-Yuan Sword’s perfectly serviceable gameplay loops. But, this is an RPG, and to this player, world-building, deep characterization, and dense lore that I can immerse myself in is just as important to my enjoyment of an RPG as gameplay is. There will likely be a portion of players who will be able to look past this issue, simply content at being able to play a game that had been out of the reach of Western audiences for so long, and that’s perfectly fine. As I’ve indicated, there’s a solid RPG here somewhere and I have no doubt that this would be a fantastic experience had the port been shown the love and care it deserves. As it stands, though, Xuan-Yuan Sword: Mists Beyond the Mountains is such a compromised experience that it’s impossible to recommend in its current state.

Overall, My Time At Sandrock is a great game. There’s tons to do, and it’s got plenty of depth. If I had played it on, say, PC or PS5, I’m sure it would have run fine (or at least serviceable). But I didn’t. I played it on the Switch. And the Nintendo Switch Version of My Time At Sandrock is a crunchy, crusty, stuttering mess that I very much recommend that you stay away from.

There’s the brutalized skeleton of a good survival horror game buried within Remothered: Broken Porcelain. The story is excellent and will stick with me for years to come. It’s just a shame that for everything the game does right when it comes to its gameplay and storytelling, a severe lack of polish and poor optimization never fail to emerge from the shadows to murder any hopes you had of having a good time.

Unfortunately, Burrow of the Fallen Bear is just not a good game, bogged down by a poor translation, an uninspired story, flat characters, and clunky sex scenes. If you’re needing a furry and/or explicit visual novel to scratch any particular itch, you’re better off looking elsewhere.

Gleamlight doesn’t feel finished. Had there been even the smallest amount of text or UI, I honestly feel like this would have been a more enjoyable experience despite the other issues; if anything, those issues were heightened simply due to the lack of critical components. I love what the developer had in terms of concept, but as far as execution goes, Gleamlight unfortunately fell flat. You can find far better 2D sidescrollers for less money; unless the developer makes some sorely-needed improvements, it’s probably best to let Gleamlight fall into darkness.

In games of Guns N’ Runs’ ilk, it’s ok to fight against the odds. But the major difference that separates this game from similar titles is that time and time again, Guns N’ Runs proves itself able to entertain for a few minutes, before devolving into a gnawingly rote annoyance that constantly battles against players with its terrible tutorials, minimal health bar, lack of power-ups, dearth of weaponry, paint-by-numbers design and a chugging framerate. There is clearly a love for the retro classics, which the presentation and soundtrack evoke lovingly, but the frustrations inherent in the gameplay are a bit too much to ignore. Give Guns N’ Runs a try and you may like it for a spell; just be warned that you will likely grow bored of it sooner rather than later.

If you really need a new retro-inspired FPS that’ll get your blood pumping, I’d recommend picking up Post Void instead. While it might not offer the same kind of horror that Connection Haunted tries to capture, at least it scratches that classic PC shooter itch while giving you a reason to keeping coming back for more.

Given how ambitious and unique the premise of Inifite Guitars is, it pains me to say that what should be a refreshing marriage of RPG and rhythm-based gameplay has turned out to be a bit of an exercise in tedium that is held back massively by issues with input recognition and repetition. It looks beautiful, and, with a few patches aimed at tightening up the gameplay, this may turn into something that is worth experiencing for that fantastic soundtrack alone, but, as it stands today, Infinite Guitars doesn’t feel like it was quite ready to take to the stage.

I hate to sound so down in the mouth about Rift Racoon. I was just hoping it would be a lot more enjoyable than I ultimately found it. If you don’t mind an excessive challenge partially contributed to by awkward controls, you may still find something to love here. For everyone else, though, you’ll want to shoo this raccoon away.

Unless you have the patience of a saint, I would steer clear of In Nightmare. It really is a shame, as there’s an interesting story being told from Bill’s eyes and a really vibrant and vivid world with a unique style to explore, but any semblance of gameplay is horribly hampered by a nightmare of poor gameplay designs. I’ll keep dreaming of how much I’d enjoy this game once it sees some quality of life improvements show up to fix the plethora of lackluster stealth gameplay and frustrating “puzzles”.

After two triumphant video game outings, South Park: Snow Day is a crushingly disappointing effort, with new development team Question leaving behind everything that made the New Kid’s previous two adventures such a success. Bland combat, a distinct lack of humor, and one-dimensional level design come together to create something that I suspect most will bounce off immediately. Not even the mildly interesting rogue-lite card system and persistent upgrades can save this one from disaster. At worst, I expected Snow Day to be something that at least could be recommended to hardcore fans, but with such a disregard for what makes South Park special, this is one even the most die-hard of fans can avoid.

Apparition is yet another example of a game being good in concept but bad in execution. I truly wanted to like this game. There are some really neat concepts, the ouiji board is fun to play around with, and the idea of only being able to bring along certain pieces of equipment could make for a grand, albeit nerve-wracking, time. Unfortunately, instead of the game that Apparition could have been, we got what essentially amounts to a slightly more developed Slenderman clone. The moral of the story: don’t’ ever assume that a game will be good just because it sounds like it should be.

As it stands, The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle Earth is a frustrating experience of a mobile game, marred by a clunky overemphasis on resource collection, and has a long way to go if it ever wants to live up to Tolkien’s Legacy. I’m not saying that there’s absolutely no hope, because there were a few genuinely good points, but I’m not going to hold my breath.