Neopets – Mega Mini Games Collection – The Neopian Arcade Odyssey is exactly as advertised, but there’s nothing beyond some quick hits of nostalgia. The new minigame falls flat, and there’s nothing here that will compel you to keep chasing high scores. At least the Platinum trophy is easy, so you can eventually delete the game after a few hours that are enjoyable, if not overly fun.

There are a lot of good pieces in place here, with the gameplay mechanics and the co-op, but they’ve been packaged in a very scant box that doesn’t do them justice. Ancient Amuletor needs to be more than a short PSVR experience that is barely longer than the demo that’s already available for free. Perhaps all of the elusive “Coming Soon” content will fix that, but at launch Ancient Amuletor finds its quiver running out of arrows too soon.

And perhaps that's why Tron: Evolution feels so disappointing–it replaces too many ideas with not enough.

For those of us that have played Dead Island before, there’s not much in the Definitive Collection to drag us back. Lack of adding previously missing features like split screen and the inability to import last gen character saves make playing Dead Island again feel more like a chore than an enjoyable experience.

Little King's Story was a unique and interesting Wii game, and New Little King's Story does well overall in delivering that experience on a portable system. While an okay follow-up to that game, there's something about the magic of the first one that has worn off a little bit this time.

If you’re willing to brave the wonky controls, bland looks, repetitive sounds and wholly uninspiring story, there’s a content-rich base-level appeal to Earth Defense Force 2025 that will draw you in.

Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair is amazingly dumb, which is exactly the reason the series became such a cult hit in the first place.

The stealth sequences are so bad I could nearly throw out the entire experience.

The gameplay is far too simplistic for older gamers who will have the game deconstructed to the bare basics in a matter of hours. In other words, easy to learn and easy to master results in a mildly repetitive game.

Golf Club: Wasteland has a great vibe for its somber and solemn story about the end of the Earth, and I loved the concept behind its world. But it’s burdened by a golf game that is simply not all that fun (granted, perhaps it shouldn’t be fun to golf on the headstone of humanity). Occasional moments that seemed to portend exciting new golf puzzle mechanics were quickly followed by more lobbing to almost out of reach platforms, made intolerable by frustratingly simple mechanics that seem to have an air of randomness and luck. But while I won’t be subjecting myself to Iron Mode, I did thoroughly enjoy the story, art, and music throughout as it plainly commented on the state of the world, making at least one round of golf on this post-apocalyptic world very cathartic indeed.

Quell: Memento is nice and a good way to kill a couple afternoons or trips around town.

The graphics and presentation feel like you’re playing a mobile game, yet this is a PC port. Multiplayer has been removed. Some sections don’t make it clear what you’re supposed to do. The story is mediocre. Yet, the basic premise of the game remains fun.

A good yet unspectacular game. There is a lot of content here between the story and coliseum mode, with a good 30+ hours of things to keep you busy. Yet, the content isn’t overly impressive and things like bug catching, fishing, and farming just feel forced and not fully thought out.

Blind banks a lot on, well, the blindness being the big draw, but I don’t think using it as simply an extra hurdle on top of familiar puzzle-solving elements does much to elevate the experience as a whole.

Buildings Have Feelings Too can initially feel frustrating and difficult, as well as completely unforgiving. Mistakes often end up being incredibly costly and the save system can feel unfair. Despite this, it’s a fun puzzle game once players can fully grasp all of its different aspects and it’s satisfying when everything falls into place.

It’s a bit rough around the edges, but Foreclosed’s story and style are worth a look, especially for the PS+ launch price of $15.99 ($19.99 normally). When I think of my time spent in Foreclosed, I think it made for a good, short adventure that had me impressed by its presentation, but ultimately left me wanting more. More story, more combat, more world building, more consequences from my actions. Just about the only thing I didn’t want more of would be the stealth sections. So, with any luck, the open-ended nature of Foreclosed’s endings, combined with enough sales of this game, may result in us seeing a sequel down the line.

While I'm sure that some of my disappointment can be chalked up to its younger target audience, the truth of the matter is a tougher pill to swallow: Lego Horizon Adventures is a half-decent game, but at the end of the day, it's not a good Horizon game, and it's certainly not a good Lego game. Somehow, it manages to be less than the sum of its parts.

Weird West is a fun, but awkward game. The aiming and gun fighting mechanics often lead to frustration and make it almost unplayable at times. The story is interesting and different and the characters are fun to get to know, but the weapons aren’t very diverse and the armor and clothes are a minimal addition. It’s one of those games, that if you can master the mechanics of it and like this type of camera angle, you’ll probably enjoy it, but still find it lacking in overall depth. Personally, I love Diablo-type games and found Weird West to be enjoyable, but often tedious. Luckily, there’s a quick save and quick load feature for those untimely deaths and missteps. Trust me — those will happen often.

Neptunia Virtual Stars is best served to either VTuber fans, Neptunia fans, or both. There’s little appeal here for other types of gamers. There are many, many better third-person shooters out there, and plenty of JRPGs worthy of a huge timesink. At least you’ll get a full-length, fully-voiced adventure for your trouble with Neptunia Virtual Stars, but unless you’ve really got a thing for the VTube lifestyle mixed with hyper-cuteness, your time is probably better spent elsewhere.

Space Junkies is a fun arena-style shooter, with an unfortunate control scheme.

Extinction is just too simple of a game to justify its price tag and didn’t hold my interest for the entirety of the campaign or its side activities—which include time trials, your everyday horde mode, and basic multiplayer functionality.

The stealth gameplay is satisfying, but a game can’t be this difficult while also being unfair to the player. The technical issues that bring down publisher tinyBuild’s latest game are disappointing and really tarnish a solid base.

With Here They Lie, I stared long and hard into the abyss, only this time it didn’t stir; instead, I was left gazing at an under-cooked horror experience that while surreal, fails to deliver a fulfilling end product. Horror games should present an exercise in nerve-shredding tension whether they’re built for virtual reality or not. Sadly, Here They Lie leans too heavily on VR as a novelty to justify a by-the-numbers entry into the genre.

The entire time I was playing it, all I wanted to do was switch back to The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince.

Alone With You provides an interesting ride for players, but doesn’t manage to fulfill its potential. The romantic side of the game feels underdeveloped, and I ran into bugs often enough to hamper my enjoyment. That said, it has an interesting enough story that is worth checking out and its shortcomings can’t undo a solid story that is told well.

It's in no way a bad game, especially once the Galleries are factored in, it's just not, at all, a good one. There was potential, and the campaign's story and mood are easily the best in any hunting game, but, in the end, it simply doesn't hit its mark.

Provided you haven’t driven yourself mad with the many touch slashing games already available on a multitude of touchscreen devices, Draw Slasher is a serviceable game to help you spend a few hours killing enemies with your fingers. Like I said though, you should wait for a sale because it isn’t anything you have to play right away.

It still doesn't come together cohesively, and ends being a disjointed mess. There's almost too much content, diluting the shining moments that make Resident Evil 6 special.

Even though I didn’t think Nun Attack was good, it is only $3 and you receive roughly four hours of playtime. If you want a game like this where you’ll boot it up for just a few minutes each day, I’d say it is worth the money and you should buy it.

Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth is an interesting hybrid of visual novel and strategy RPG that tilts, unfortunately for me, toward the former. As someone who didn’t much understand the story thanks to its awkward retelling of the events of the previous two games (and who didn’t enjoy the parts I did understand), I found the 1 to 2 hours of reading in between battles to be nearly unbearable.

The new characters are difficult to use and are probably best left for die-hard players, leaving newcomers to feel left out. No additions have been made from a design standpoint to make the game more accessible, and it’s too difficult for its own good.

If you are a fan of mystery games, and a fan of Sherlock Holmes, you'll enjoy this title. If you are looking for a fast paced, action style game, look elsewhere.

The sad thing with this series and game, is that there is a great concept here that is hidden under layers of lame puns, bad jokes, and annoying characters.

Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker is a good start and will provide you with a good time, just don’t be surprised if you find yourself growing tired of the rinse and repeat of VR missions and PVP.

Rocketbirds 2 is a game strictly for fans of the series. With imprecise controls yet precise aiming requirements, you can expect to curse your way through most of the game’s boss fights (especially those that take place in the air, or under the water, or in space, or, well, anywhere the camera changes perspective).

Like gamey meat, it’s not for everyone. Some players may want more to do than run around looking for seagulls and messages in bottles in between story moments and the occasional “fight” sequence. The story (which we have not spoiled here) is likely to resonate with many people, but for some it won’t be enough to overcome a lack of fun gameplay to take players in between exposition. It is a worthy attempt, but just falls a bit short.

A solid, above-average RPG. It does little new and doesn't advance the RPG genre any, yet is still good enough and would be a steal with a lower price.

What you end up with is an experience that shows a ton of promise, but ends up being entirely average. It’s hard to call Watch Dogs Legion a bad game outright. It’s a serviceable, if traditional, open-world game with a boring story and novelty mechanics that play out better on paper than in execution. The PS5 version makes expected improvements to visuals and load times, but isn’t a standout example of a “next-gen” title.

Death’s Gambit had such promise. At its core, it is the blueprint to properly take risks and make attempts to improve a game design that we all take for granted. But it’s just surrounded with poor quality of life choices, while missing some things it should have absolutely nailed. Weird animations, strange pacing, counter-intuitive combat, and way too many bugs holds this game back from being something truly great.

With 20 levels of increasing difficulty it does have a good bit of replay, but it is a shame that all the levels are identical.

If you’ve never played Syberia and you’re without a PC or iOS/Android device, this PlayStation 3 port is a viable option. This game is for a very specific slice of gamer, though. You’ll need to have a love for adventure games, a tolerance for old mechanics and the mental fortitude for classic design.

The challenge Cosmophony poses is unlike anything I’ve experienced lately, and that alone makes me want to forgive it for its imperfections.

The haunted house theme is fun, but it could have done better without tacked-on gamification.

Fight for Fortune isn't broken, despite the odd decision to let another game's completion percentage determine your power. As a portable game, it lends itself well to the Vita's on-and-off capability. Still, if you don't like card-battling games, you won't enjoy a second of this, because that's all it is.

Iron Rain feels like it should have come out over a decade ago. There are a few fine ideas and some fun moments, but this kind of game just doesn’t hold up when there are so many other fantastic titles releasing so frequently.

Kingdom Hearts III Re:MIND is a director’s cut replay of the main game’s finale followed by a series of absurdly difficult and often seemingly unfair boss fights, and fails to justify its hefty $30 price point.

Team Ninja still can’t tell stories, though, as Conqueror of Jiangdong’s cutscenes are nonsensical and haphazardly stitched together to justify going to each level. And while the plot doesn’t matter here, it is yet another example of how the studio is treading water with Conqueror of Jiangdong. This sophomore expansion includes some amazing boss fights, but ones that are still sullied by unhelpful allies and relegated to side missions. These hiccups sit on top of the game’s small pile of problems that is slowly growing as the DLC rolls out. Wo Long is still a quality action game and Conqueror of Jiangdong is a reminder of that, but it also points out — and magnifies — its weaknesses.

A perfectly serviceable action RPG. That might not sound like a ringing endorsement, but for folks who are looking for a bit of mindless, distracting entertainment (and who couldn’t use that with all the things going on in the world today?), Tamsoft’s latest foray into this goofy game industry parody should fit the bill nicely.

The music is pleasing, and the art style is impressive. But with a weak story, bland fetch quests comprising the majority of your campaign, and absolutely no voiceover work whatsoever, this game is hard to recommend to anyone but fans of this genre of games.

Super Neptunia RPG feels like a good idea gone awry. On paper, having everyone’s favorite Hyperdimension Neptunia characters come together for a more traditional JRPG style makes plenty of sense. That’s especially true since the classic JRPG style is a wealthy mine for comedy. But instead, Artisan Studios made a game that looks and feels cheap, due to a bizarre focus on platforming that detracts from the experience more than it adds.

Is it a great game? No, not really. I’d struggle to even call it good at times. However, it’s a bizarre and sort of charming throwback title that seems to have been made in a completely different era.

Overall Earthworm Jim HD suffers from many poor design choice which really puts forth that this it is a remake of an older game. From the lack of weapon choices to the frustrating level design it has a hard time competing with today's games. All that being said it still has its fun parts and the multiplayer is excellent with friends.

Earthfall somewhat succeeds at it’s core mission, if it’s mission is to try to kickstart the multiplayer subgenre that Turtle Rock started a decade ago. It’s biggest failure is convincing people that it is a better alternative to Left 4 Dead 2.

Dimension Shellshock has most of the same strengths as the base game, but a few more shortcomings, as well. The new mode’s roguelite elements lack variety, and its loops aren’t deep or rewarding enough to warrant multiple runs. The gorgeous pixel art and expressive animation don’t get old, but its survival mode is almost as two-dimensional as its sprites.

Promising a world where you can get lost and yet find peace is a hard sell, though when everything falls into place, Shape of the World provides some noteworthy moments. Expressed remarkably well through the environments in terms of music, where the task at hand may not enthrall players for longevity, the use of color takes advantage and gives charm. As captivating as the greenery and creatures are, it’s the bugs internally that regrettably let this high-aspirational adventure falter.

Override: Mech City Brawl has high aims, but feels a bit clumsy in its execution.

ArmaGallant: Decks of Destiny is an interesting concept that falls a bit short in execution and presentation. While it does do a few things well, such as its control scheme and card mechanics, it is incredibly lacking in content and misses several key things that would’ve made it great and worth getting through the relatively steep barrier to entry. The game definitely has the potential to become one of the better RTS experiences on the PS4 but it will definitely need a few large content and feature updates if it wants to get there.

Deception IV: Blood Ties is one of those games that wants you to spend a fair amount of time setting up traps, but then gives you ever chance to skip all that and easily defeat each level with minimal investment.

A title that will only appeal to hack and slash fanatics, and will push away many people looking for something more.

Sinner is focused and simple, but over-complicates things with the sacrifice experiment. It’s a step in a new and right direction, but it’s only a half step at best.

If you can see through the repetitive, sometimes frustrating gameplay, then you may get your fix here.

Hell Warders has a decent game hidden under its rough exterior.

Time Crisis: Razing Storm might not be the blockbuster shooter title that the PlayStation Move is waiting for, but if you're looking for a fun arcade shooter to play with a friend, this might be your cup of tea.

Deep down, Torchlight III could be a great game. If the developers revamp the map and UI issues I pointed out I’d be over the moon. But in its current state I can’t in good conscious tell you to pay full asking price. Hold off until this is either patched or on sale.

The disparity between the repetitive majority and the engaging finale did cause me to like The Final Station after it was said and done, but it’s not enough to overlook the significant flaws along the journey.

If you think you have what it takes to be the next "Top Gun," you can take to the skies for $15 on the PlayStation Store. However, if you decide not to take the gamble on this game, perhaps a video rental of that classic movie will give a much better feel for the real "Maverick."

With a mere $10 price tag, 4 Elements HD provides plenty of gameplay, but it's still something I would only recommend to people who are already fans of the genre, and perhaps people looking for another game to utilize their Move controller with.

WRC 6 offers up a decent alternative to Dirt Rally, specifically for fans that want a more forgiving take on the sport of rally racing, but there’s still a lot of room to improve. If the series really wants to be the rally game that most players flock to, it’ll need to offer up better tutorials, and teach players how to understand their co-driver. On top of that, there’s a general lack of polish (from technical issues to visual fidelity) that keeps the game a solid notch below the competition in its own racing niche. There’s still some fun to be had, but there’s far better racers on PlayStation 4.

It’s not frustrating that Gal*Gun 2 uses sex as a theme. It’s frustrating that Gal*Gun 2 is obsessed with sex as a plot point, mechanic, and motivator, in spite of everything else it has going for it.

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is a great Smash clone that painfully underutilizes its Nickelodeon license, to its own detriment. Lacking some of Nick’s biggest characters, franchises, and environments, absolutely no voice lines whatsoever, and all wrapped up in a rather unimpressive package, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is a good concept, and one of the best Smash-alikes to come along in the last 20 years. But it really needs a stronger presentation and more thorough use of its namesake license to earn a better foothold as a mainstay character brawler.

In a weird way, Mad Riders is a game that seems to have too many different race types. The fact is that the game seems to be at its best when the event is just a simple race.

There are neat bits and pieces here, but it all feels messy and undercooked.

Aterlier Totori is not a game for everyone, as some gamers might find themselves bored with the gather and create formula, but it is still a solid RPG experience.

This is an above average title for what Strider does do – provide action and wall climbing.

While Déraciné is worth playing and figuring out for yourself, it’s hard to recommend with enthusiasm. While intriguing and mysterious, the storytelling does have fundamental issues that make the overall mystery feel unearned and the tension intangible.

While the PlayLink technology has potential and does some really cool things by turning your phone into a controller, it also adds unnecessary complications to a game that uses the second screen functionality as more of a gimmick than a core gameplay mechanic. Hidden Agenda is a good game, but is held back from being great by trying to fit it into the party game mold.

But if you enjoy the thrill of this particular chase, and can overlook the game's average visuals, occasionally glitchy audio, and even the rather flat control scheme in cockpit mode, then you will likely enjoy MotoGP 10/11.

The difficulty alone is enough to keep you busy for a long time, even despite there being three sectors. But if you're a glutton for punishment, you could give a go at topping the leaderboards. Aside from that and few cheats that let you change the visual filter, there's really not a lot of replay value here.

Being adequate defines Zombie Soup. It’s a serviceable top-down twin-stick shooter that has players downing thousands of zombies much like many of its genre peers. However, just being solid isn’t that attractive anymore — especially in such a cramped genre. Without a defined selling point, a dozen or so engaging boss fights don’t propel Zombie Soup much past the hoards of twin-stick shooters that continue to shamble onto every digital storefront at a steady pace.

Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: Russia is the best entry in this mini-series.

Shadwen makes a lot of smart decisions, and I’ll definitely miss its rewind system in other stealth games, but it never fully comes together as a whole. There’s just not enough enemy variety, and the 15-level campaign grows tiresome as the end nears. Throw in one of the most anticlimactic endings in recent memory, and a lot of the initial goodwill is used up. While far from perfect, there’s still enough ambition here for stealth fans to appreciate, but Shadwen isn’t Agent 47.

During the course of Tchia’s tropical adventure, players will experience many great, carefully-implemented ideas. The open world influenced by New Caledonia remains sensitive to its cultural inspirations, the unique soul-jumping mechanic is a joy to use and explore, the boat controls and fully-functional ukulele are overkill in the best kind of way, and the story has both unexpected darkness and humor. Unfortunately, a handful of good ideas can’t save Tchia from running out of steam before the finale and crumbling beneath a wave of performance issues.

“Adorable” is about the biggest compliment I can give to Catlateral Damage as a whole. As a cat lover, I relished the chance to vicariously experience the destruction they cause, only to find that knocking things over ad nauseum wasn’t all I thought it would be. In any case, there are plenty of laughs and smiles to be had if you’re of a mind to enjoy this silly “Simulator” stuff, and creator Chris Chung has seen fit to stuff the game with a plethora of cutesy collectibles (including a surprise “Pawlatinum!”). Go in with modest expectations and a lighthearted attitude and you’ll be sure to have a good time.

AvP far outstrips the movies of the same name, but is no where near the landmark experience that the original game was.

Aragami 2 had potential to be a great follow up to an indie classic released five years ago. Unfortunately it lacks any real challenge and feels bloated with repetitive mission types and locations. The game starts to overstay its welcome after a while, but there’s definitely fun to be had before reaching that stage if you can put up with the plenty of bugs that still need to be fixed.

If I’m being honest, reviewing Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots comes with its own pain points, but very little of that has to do with the game itself. Yes, there are certainly some shortcomings, some of which I hope can be addressed post-launch, but my misgivings come from whether or not I should recommend it to others. On the one hand, I’ve genuinely enjoyed my time with Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots, and it’s likely that other fans of the franchise will as well. That being said, it’s difficult to recommend it to those who haven’t gravitated towards the genre in the past. And even for those who grew up playing these types of games, you should temper your expectations a bit. For every birdie or eagle that Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots lands, its head gets stuck in a sand trap just as often.

On the surface it would appear that Livelock is trying to bring something new and interesting to the PlayStation 4. Unfortunately, though perfectly competent as an action game, ends up falling flat on execution. The predictable storyline, inconsistent production values and lackluster variety mar what could have been a fun distraction during the summer’s AAA famine.

I was all set to jump into Zanki Zero and have a good time uncovering a mystery, crawling through dungeons and even seeing what I could pull off after several rounds of surviving, dying, and using that cloning loop to get ever stronger. Instead I found a bunch of tedium fueled by disparate systems not playing well with each other, disappointing combat, and a story that constantly tried to disguise how shallow it was via torturing its characters.

A Juggler’s Tale is enjoyable for what it is, but it doesn’t quite reach the particularly memorable nature of similar indie games it so obviously takes inspiration from. There’s a great introspective narrative with some brilliant themes regarding personal freedoms and cutting the strings of toxic relationships throughout, but a short runtime and occasionally obtuse puzzles and mechanics leave it feeling a bit more tangled up than it should by the end.

In practice, Smashbox Arena ends up being a lot of fun, with precise tracking and fast paced competitive gameplay that hides a lot of depth and strategy, but it’s ultimately held back my a number of technical issues and the lack of a strong online community.

It may have been something special back in 2008, but it is definitely showing its age — especially when compared to The Chinese Room’s later releases, Esther falls dramatically short of modern expectations.

Dead Secret works as a mobile VR game, but its simplistic roots are painfully obvious on the PlayStation.

Insane Robots’ character and map designs are cute, and the grid overworld meta keeps the downtime interesting. The wide smattering of augments are a neat way to differentiate each fight. It’s hard to ignore that the experience is marred by a trove of RNG dependencies. It feels a little too random at times, bordering less on “cool card game” and more on “Pengu1n of D00M.”

If Asksys Games and Nihon Falcom were serious about porting Tokyo Xanadu to the PS4, there was a lot more that could have been done. Graphics needed a major overhaul, and the additional side stories were merely fluff that didn’t contribute a lot to making an already bland story more interesting.

Crisis accomplished its goal of immersing me in the role, even if some of the more brilliant ape interactions were one-off moments rather than regularly used mechanics. Sadly, this brilliant immersion is hampered by dull environments, enemy encounters that become boring, and a fairly weak story that requires the films in order to mean much.

The Bureau is a decent game that fails to bring anything new to gamers’ tables. With a period alien invasion having been done before in titles like Resistance, gameplay mechanics ripped straight from Mass Effect, and XCOM elements wrangled together, The Bureau feels like an unpolished conglomeration of games that have come before it.

Makes some great improvements over the first and is by far the better game, but not as much better as we would hope. The gameplay takes a huge step forward to provide the fun, albeit easy, combat that the first game lacked. However, the story takes a huge step back, making even the game of golf seem interesting, which becomes even more frustrating with the quick and small dungeons that push you quickly back to the story.

At $4.99 the game is at the top end of the minis price range, making it rather costly for a game that is basically just a rudimentary time management game. Supermarket Mania can provide hours of enjoyment for fans of management sims, but it does little to provide anything new or unique, and fails to expand upon the genre.