When taken as a whole, Gravitronix is an unpretentious Pong-style action experience. From top to bottom, the game functions as it should, with a mix of single-player and multiplayer modes suitable for short spurts.

You can easily play through it over a weekend. If countless bad reviews cannot dissuade you, then perhaps submerging yourself in AM: SH2's zombie-like framerate will bring you to your senses.

This is an old school shooter and it’s a great example of what an old school shooter is and should be.

Humanity in Chains is a game that was made for Attack on Titan fans. It’s fun, visually stunning, immersive, and it’s essentially an entire anime made into a video game.

There are games that are fun because they’re simple yet offer a deep experience. But, there are also games that are so simple in design that it’s hard to find any kind of enjoyment from them. Shut the Box falls in the latter category, as it’s a game that requires barely any kind of thought or skill to play.

Despite this glaring shortcoming, Amiibo Festival is good, relaxed fun that will be perfect during the holidays and parties with friends.

Control issues, repetitive modes, and the lack of features keep it from being a great game. It's not worth the price of admission either.

The game has nearly all the elements of a sleeper hit: interesting premise, compelling art design, eclectic sound, an interesting weapon creation system, and some unique gameplay mechanics. Unfortunately, all of that is drowned out by a few critical design mistakes, chief among them being a broken platforming system that leads to far too many senseless deaths.

If you’re looking for a gift for a child, look elsewhere, unless you like watching them break systems.

There is little reason to recommend Stop Stress: A Day of Fury, especially given its higher price-point. While the developer no doubt had the best intentions for a creative title that would allow gamers to let loose all their stress from the day, the game only seems to generate more, resulting in little more than an ironic title.

Taken as a whole, Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain certainly has a lot going for it. Unfortunately, unclear mechanics, uneven difficulty, uncomfortable controls, and some serious glitches and hiccups do a lot of damage to the overall experience.

I wouldn’t say it was a mistake to bring Rodea to 3DS, but the game is so rough that it either needed more time in development, or the handheld was incapable of fully handling Naka’s vision. For fans of the creator’s previous works and players who enjoy 3D adventure titles, Rodea is worth a look, but be prepared to fight with it in order to get any enjoyment out of the game.

If players are looking for a few fun Crash-based mini-games and a standard platformer with everything one would expect from a platformer, then the title may be something worth picking up. However, if players are looking for an epic platformer with a plethora of surprises and story twists, players may want to keep looking.

While it’s tons of fun to see how high you can get your dolphin to reach in space, the tricks get boring to perform due to their simplicity and a lack of gameplay variety makes it hard to hold your interest over time. The online leader boards help extend the replayability of the game, but the novelty of Dolphin Up‘s absurd premise ultimately wears thin after multiple sessions.

Every platforming challenge is camera related. It's sad, because there is a lot of untapped potential in Pac-Man World 3.

Godzilla Unleashed does too many things poorly to be recommended to anyone but the most diehard of Godzilla fans, who will be attracted to some of the game's attempted fan service, like the impressive roster of monsters.

The game proffers average stylus-based mini-games and good production values; however, the title can easily be played in one sitting by most players, even children, so kids may grow tired of it in one day.

The ideas laid out in the Lemmings-style stages could be effective if they were designed better and held the players hand through the first chunk of the game, but as it is, Penguins will just leave gamers and arctic-bird lovers alike out in the cold.

In the end, I was left with the feeling that Johnny Kung Fu was sold short of its true potential. The basic premise is good, the gameplay (well, half of the gameplay…) is spot on, but sadly, the game is hindered by an unnecessarily brutal spike in difficulty and a repetitive, unrewarding design that makes a game that was once unique and challenging, turn into to a bore of a reaction-time test.

In the end, Garfield's Funfest is appealing to the same demographic as the direct-to-DVD movie itself: youngsters.

Its technical shortcomings are easy to ignore and once you grasp the unique gameplay, it turns out to be quite a lot of fun. Definitely recommended for fans, they're sure to have a ball.

Fun in spite of its musical problems, and in fact provides no small measure of enjoyment– as long as you play it on its terms, not taking yourself too seriously.

Tornado is a game that looks to mimic the appeal of Katamari Damacy but instead becomes increasingly annoying, quite monotonous, and not at all fun. Do not be fooled.

I played for half an hour on my GBA SP and started getting pains in my wrists. It would have been a much sounder decision to have only one attack button and use A to jump.

Devil’s Third is not a complete disaster, but the troubled development process left us with a phantom of what this game truly was supposed to be. With that being said, I’ve had a lot of fun with what we got.

Excave is a functional dungeon crawler, which should be fun, if you’re willing to work your way around weak item management, the lack of a map, constant backtracking, and its overall short length. If you can’t deal with these problems, then even the alluring $5 price tag won’t help you forget them.

Ultimately, the game tries to be more than what it turns out to be: a poor, unexciting take at the Mario Party formula. The game is littered with cool little additions that would usually make the game great, but sadly, they're all bogged down by inconsistencies, glitches, and what appears to be a lack of effort.

Do not buy LEGO Friends. Do not pass go. Do not collect 200 dollars.

Romance Dawn is a misfire all around that only the absolute most completist of One Piece fans should give it a look. It’s a shame, because One Piece is normally something quite wonderful. Such a waste.

There’s an earnestness to Rogue Corps that makes it even sadder to see the game fail as it has. There have been updates since the game launched, but nothing thus far has been able to elevate Rogue Corps to the standard of quality set by past series installments. If Konami wants to modernize its franchises for future generations, the message should be clear: fans want what made those classics so endearing to begin with, not misguided radical redesigns.

Governor of Poker on 3DS is a decent game of single-player poker, and if it were the only portable poker option on the market, it would be a must-buy. But it isn’t, so it’s not.

A good strategy game will stretch the mind here and there. In theory, tactics should be applicable with actual results. In the simplest terms, strategy games should require strategy to play. Perhaps Konami thought they could slide by, being the only new game in town.

It's paced, moderately intelligent, and has a micromanagement appeal. It's also slow, occasionally simple, and has little direct control.

If you picked this title up for your little one, pray that you also picked up an extended warranty for that GBA. It’ll be in pieces the next time you find it on the floor.

While it may not live up to, say, EA Sports, with its NASCAR Thunder 2003– a game released in 2002 for PSX, PS2, GCN and Xbox that included an actual career mode and customization options– Eutechnyx doesn't do so poorly on Wii. It could, however, have done much better.

There is some fun to be had in Deca Sports 3, and it's a sure-fire hit at parties. Not a hard-core sports simulator, but some lesser-known sports that don't get the full retail package are also nice to find here.

The game offers a good amount of content and replayability that young kids and fans will enjoy to a degree, but if you're just itching for a compilation of mini-games on 3DS, Finding Nemo: Escape to the Big Blue lacks the polish and consistency you can easily find elsewhere in 3DS's library.

Turtle Tale is uninspired, boring, and repetitive, but deep down it hides a very simple, yet playable action platformer.

Little fun is to be had from this experience, for any thrills will be derived from the first couple levels, if at all.

Anyone looking for a game that plays in the old Space Invaders style can surely find an arcade compilation somewhere. The "just move right and left and shoot the enemies" idea was great back in the 1980's, but it just doesn't cut it by today's standards.

Dedicated fans of the JRPG genre, especially those of you who grew up playing SNES, might be able to find at least some fun with Chronus Arc based on the fact it delivers a mostly competent version of the sights, sounds, and gameplay mechanics of the era. However, when you delve any deeper than that nostalgic veneer the experience feels rather hollow.

It’s just too bad that this dungeon crawler just doesn’t live up to what it looks like.

Another frustrating factor is the cut scenes you must endure at the end of every mini-game when in adventure mode. They are slow and repetitive.

Hit detection is squishy, player movement is twitchy, and the field is littered with random weird thingies that cause damage for no obvious reason. Oh, and because of the side-scrolling perspective, trying to chop through brush directly below invites getting hit, because players can’t slash down.

Fails to be entertaining in every category.

Purchase it knowing it's an average-at-best side-scroller that might seem ridiculously easy even to a child.

A great game to play with your friends and it can be fun to play alone but I don’t recommend it unless you’re a hardcore Yu-Gi-Oh! fan.

If you want a good scare and the experience sounds interesting, rent the game for the first level only. After that ten minutes, take it back for a refund.

SIKB makes up for these shortcomings a little with above-average gameplay and audio.

Too few mini-games, too little fun, and frustrating navigation ruin what is essentially an interesting concept. The whole debacle lasts approximately three hours, the first of which is spent locating all of the attractions and being told you can’t enter.

Even at $20, you would be better served browsing Amazon for any of a thousand better trivia books.

This certainly had the potential to be a sleeper title on the last legs of GBA. Instead, it shows just enough flaws in key areas to come up short.

Let’s be honest, presenting a point-and-click adventure in the form of a point-and-click operating system is kind of genius, even if the idea doesn’t fully translate to a console like the Switch. Of course, there is a certain benefit to the fact that this isn’t a game driven by twitch reflexes; the cumbersome nature of the touch and controller inputs serve only to slow the gameplay, rather than outright ruin it. Still, the frustration presented by these control issues alongside the failure to realize the potential of the concept and story are still very real and are likely to impact the overall enjoyment of any gamer longing to live their fantasies of being a white hat hacker. By no means is the overall experience beyond redemption, but one can’t help but feel the PC is the better fit.

There aren’t a ton of endless runners on Wii U, so anyone who’s been hankering for one can do worse than Run, but not by much.

The controls are buggy, the graphics are choppy, the sound is average and the voices will make you crawl up a wall in fear of your life.

It shall garner the first ever Eric Mattei Smelly Bowling Shoe award for achieving a new standard in caca quality.

Wreck-It Ralph does some things right. The voice work is a lot of fun and the sound effects and 3D are impressive, especially for fans of the film. At the end of the day though, it just doesn't offer enough. It's a pretty basic side-scroller with little in terms of depth or length.

The lack of characterization, challenge, or even basic fun make this a hard game to recommend to anyone.

Given that Wii Sports boxing (or Punch-Out!!, for that matter) is better in almost every conceivable way, Showtime Championship Boxing has absolutely no business in your gaming library, not even for $20. Stay far away.

While Six Flags Fun Park does have a good sense of humor, with various pop-culture gags and characters spouting absurdly funny lines, that's literally the only positive thing the game has going for it.

The selling point of this game seems to be some sort of edutainment. Yet, besides a few scant factoids in between levels, the game boasts nothing worth teaching.

A supreme disappointment. The developer's seemingly lazy decision to replace robot transformation with an armed car mode takes away the principle draw of Transformers, while the game's mediocre graphics, counterintuitive controls, and uninspired mission structure rip the heart out of a franchise that already feels far removed from its glorious past.

If you really want a good Astro Boy handheld experience, pick up Astro Boy: Omega Factor if you can. Otherwise, you would be better off looking elsewhere for a platforming experience on Nintendo DS.

Alas, there must exist crap amongst the cream of the crop. I really wanted to get behind Van Helsing -- really -- but cannot ignore the terribly sloppy interface that fails to entertain one in the slightest.

I simply cannot recommend this game to anyone, not even to those who are my most evil of enemies.

Not only is it short enough to beat in a single setting, the journey along the way is a blurry, unoriginal retread of everything mediocre about 3D platformers and rhythm games.

Here's the bottom line: Toy Shop is an atrocious game well beyond any hope of redemption.

Disc Sports as a concept has great potential. Sadly, this attempt fails to tap that potential and comes off feeling half-baked. Golf is playable, but that's about it. What's sad is that with a critical eye and bit more polish, it could have been truly stellar.

The developers could have used some coaching and beatings by Jillian to get this game into shape. Visually it doesn't look like a Wii game, and it barely makes use of Wii's motion controls.

It's Flappy Bird with 3D graphics and a stereotypically French art direction some, myself included, might find charming. Some might find the ultra simple gameplay addicting.

Even if you are the most hardcore Transformers fan, this is a game to pass up. If you're a Stealthforcer fan, then by all means, get this game– I'm sure you'll love it.

Power Rangers is all over the place in terms of gameplay and presentation, and thus suffers accordingly.

The variety in creating your Ping Pal is immense and chatting with your friends hasn’t been this fun since AIM.

The fact that it looks and sounds pretty good doesn't change the basic fact that the game is, overall, a poor conception of a storied franchise. The design is basic and outmoded, and while in some games that can lend itself to a cool retro feel, it doesn't feel that way here.

When there are so many other basketball titles out their that up the bling-bling factor and offer better gameplay, perhaps the Globetrotters should have invested in a game more suited to their forte, one focused on courtside comedy instead of competition.

The problem is that Chicken Shoot isn’t $5.

What started out as simply an under whelming experience soon unfolded into a flat out joke of a game.

While Charlie's Angels is a horrifically terrible experience, at least it's extremely short. What seems like a decade of isolation and cruelty is more like two and a half hours.

It's unfinished, lacks any depth and is as forgettable of an experience as any webpage banner ad game.

Besides nostalgia, the only thing going for RSR is the strange taunts your opponents give before each Title match.

The title's design is too flawed to recommend it for purchase, so make a deal with yourself and avoid buying this game.

Overall, Balls of Fury for Wii delivers solid motion control ping-pong action at home.

It's a poor port of a poor Flash game at an unreasonable price. Quite possibly the worst handheld video game ever.

Sure, the game has its flaws and quickly becomes tedious, but it's strangely addicting in its own way.

We never expect much from licensed video games. They serve a purpose -- generally to reap the financial benefits of an eager-to-buy fan base -- and that's okay. But somewhere in these games there needs to be an actual video game. In Princess Natasha, there isn't one.

Something like a trick match or dunk contest in "NBA Street" would have been far more in keeping with the team's character than a run-of-the-mill two-on-two basketball game.

Enchanted the movie did a respectable job appealing to more than its target demographic. Altron made a worthwhile effort to repeat the spirit of this endeavor with the video game adaptation but unfortunately fell short.

Some issues should have been worked out, but there's no question that this DS title will provide some serious fan service for Aly & AJ devotees.

There are a thousand better ways for gamers to use their money instead of buying M&M's Kart Racing.

Pointless rhythm sections aside, there isn't anything in Double Shift that Diner Dash or Cake Mania hasn't already done better at the same price.

Unfortunately, the experience as a whole, deep as it may be, is as tethered as the remote and nunchuk.

If you have any DS-playing daughters, do them a favor and don’t buy this game, even if they beg for it.

It displays the efforts, but the game only passes by as average.

For one, the title sports a tough challenge for any astute gamer. Not only that, but the variety of problems keeps players on their toes and alert to upcoming problems with fluid pacing.

UFO should be applauded for offering a full retail release of The Monkey King, but we can’t recommend a purchase in good conscience, even if it were a five dollar download. The Monkey King is monkey crap.

As it is, this is an incredibly tough game to recommend, especially when the market is stuffed full of similar titles. Only serious zookeepers should apply.

Whether gamers will attach to this one is a matter of taste; younger players who have played the life out of Nintendogs and other pet simulators may find World of Zoo a worthwhile, new distraction.

Overall, if the game is intended for someone in elementary school, there are few racing genre, and far fewer movie-based titles, that would be better.