There’s no bullshit in Planet Alpha, to put it plainly. It knows exactly what it wants to do, and it does it. There’s no filler, no cheap puzzle solutions, no game-breaking glitches, no gratuitous lean towards overused narrative crutches. It’s just a platformer, but one that emanates a graceful radiance of character and color.

Madden NFL 21 feels very much like the byproduct of a game being developed in a vacuum, devoid of any true competition. Why bother reinventing the wheel when you are the only person manufacturing them? This lack of inspiration feels like a breeding ground for many of the franchise’s biggest complaints, most of which have been festering for far too long. It’s a good thing that the next generation is on the horizon, because without that new tech boost to hang their hat on, there’s nothing substantial enough to recommend this fumble over last year’s outing.

Call of Cthulhu is worth playing if you like your Lovecraft. It’s worth playing if you like horror in general, too. However, it isn’t a must-play, despite having the potential to have established itself as one.

While it doesn’t do anything vastly new for the genre and treads the ground of repetition that puzzle games like to, Shiftlings is a solid puzzle based platformer for both solo and co-op players.

Combine the puzzles with top-notch graphics and plentiful entertaining dialogue, and you have something worth playing.

Hidden underneath all the issues with Poker Night 2, there’s an enjoyable game. If Telltale manages to patch Poker Night 2 on the PS3 to a level where it runs smoothly, you should buy it, especially if you’re a fan of the characters features in the game. Since we aren’t at that point yet, hold on to your money.

This is a cheap game that will entertain those who play it as long as they maintain the right mindset.

A huge step in the right direction for the series, and is a very enjoyable read.

Sword Art Online: Lost Song’s story is probably not going to win over non-adherents of the popular anime franchise, but thankfully it’s not required to enjoy the rest of what’s on offer: a fun, lighthearted and breezy run through well-worn action-RPG territory.

The greater likelihood though, is that confusion and frustration will kick in before the addiction does.

The best thing that Pop-Up Pilgrims does is present a fascinating papercraft pop-up world that more VR developers should explore. Had it offered a more consistent growth on mechanics and rapid change between the variety, it would have stuck with me more than it did. Instead it was a monotonous and repetitive 60 levels that didn’t offer anything memorable during the five or so hours that it took to complete. Pop-Up Pilgrims isn’t a bad game by any stretch, but it’s not all that interesting or engaging either.

Developer Clever Beans started with a great idea in Gods Will Fall, it just doesn’t seem like they fully worked it out. The game could have been more than what it is, and right now it just felt like a simplistic dungeon crawler that would feel right at home on a mobile device. It played well, it looked fine, it just could have been much more.

Astria Ascending will take many gamers back to the heyday of classic RPGs. This is a single-player turn-based game that is easy to grasp, with perhaps not enough challenge for veterans of the genre. But with an entertaining story, great musical score, and pleasing art style, there is plenty of enjoyment to be had for any RPG fan. Play Astria Ascending when you want to be completely absorbed into a game with no strings (or services) attached.

Takes a great kart racing series, and adds a much easier to use creating system. Touch screen controls make the track studio much more intuitive and easier to use. Not adding in head-to-head online racing is inexcusable in this day and age. While it doesn't totally ruin the experience, it does take away from the overall series.

It is about forcing players to make strategic moves and plan accordingly, all while giving them a limited amount of time to do so. It’s fast, it’s smart, and it’s absolutely worth picking up, especially if you dig party games.

While I understand it’s trying to emulate the movie, this ultimately makes Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son not any fun to play. Having to repeat the same tedious, overly lengthy, and often difficult, minigames over and over is just not fun. While I can say I was impressed with the storytelling and voice acting, and it really did feel a lot of effort went into making the game feel just like the movie. I just wish it was actually fun to play.

There’s a lot to love in Agents of Mayhem, which makes the pitfalls harder to swallow. An imaginative story and cast of characters is burdened by an uninspired and soulless open-world. Exciting character combat gets pushed out of the limelight by notable slowdown and other bugs that inhibit gameplay.

Destruction AllStars is loaded with style, flair, and a great core concept, but what you see is what you get. While that’s not a bad thing at all, there are very few surprises and no sense of depth lurking beneath the surface. I want more to do. I want more to chase. I want more reasons to want to jump into another match than just leveling up to earn coins for character color swaps. As a PlayStation Plus free game, there’s a lot of potential, hopefully something that Lucid Games can expand upon before asking people to pay a premium up front. In a sea of multiplayer games begging for people’s attention, Destruction AllStars has a bit more work to do to earn it.

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.

Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days suffers from many issues. Everything from choppy gameplay to bland character design plague what could have been a semi-decent title. Simply put, these are definitely dog days for Kane & Lynch and after this sequel, let's hope they stay dead men.

Dangerous Driving can be fun in short spurts. The lack of car manufacturers’ licenses is expected when any game is priced at half the cost of bigger-scale games. But the lack of even a time attack mode means that once players have beaten the campaign, there is little reason to go back besides the inclusion of online leaderboards.

It’s not always fun to read or look at, but I can get lost in grinding, evolving, and purifying more demons for hours.

When taking a step back to holistically look at Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz HD, the word that comes to mind most prominently is “underwhelming.”

The game is a great fit for younger children who might not be ready to navigate the open-world Gotham, or for gamers who would like a LEGO Batman 2 fix on the go and are open to its more condensed offerings. However, gamers looking for a game that offers everything that the home console version does and nothing else should pick up that version, as LEGO Batman 2 Vita won't quite be what they're looking for.

Orgarhythm does a great job of blending two genres together in a perfect celebration of music and strategy.

It’s undeniably a weird package, but Monster of the Deep: Final Fantasy XV manages to make its eccentricities work for it, rather than against it. Not only is it the best fishing game I’ve played in virtual reality, but it’s also a true delight for Final Fantasy fans.

NASCAR 2011: The Game has its highs and its lows, and while the overall career mode is pretty shallow and the presentation can sometimes be quite inconsistent, the core gameplay, specifically the sense of immersion, is what will be bringing players back.

The bad writing, poorly done plot, and awful camera controls makes me wonder if the gorgeously remastered graphics were even worth the time.