A charming presentation and solid foundation do precious little in light of a control scheme that's beyond frustrating for console players. The real challenge of a management simulator should always stem from having a clear hold of your surroundings and the ways that you can influence them, not the mere act of checking numbers and your progress. If you're a connoisseur of this particular brand of clunkiness, you might find something to enjoy in this new release, otherwise I would sincerely recommend checking out the game with a keyboard and mouse, if you're able.

Despite the pleasantries Titans of the Tide offers that makes it easy breezy and a fair old hoot for SpongeBob fans, you would expect this latest entry to improve on The Cosmic Shake, rather than behaving like a slippery sidestep. Unfortunately, Titans of the Tide is out of its depths because it comes across as an unfinished game that has some sparkling ideas, but the execution is hamstrung by its terrible camera and banal combat, platforming and puzzles. If you want to delve into another SpongeBob game this one might do just fine, but for everybody else Titans of the Tide is a titanic case of meh.

Cannibal Abduction provides two games that use good ideas to unfortunate effect. There is some fun to be had here, but the target audience is too specific to merit a recommendation. If you know you'll like it, you will. Otherwise, wait until a deep sale.

Underneath the thick red skin of its unpolished exterior there is an entertaining and surprisingly sophisticated roguelike brawler to be found in Hellboy Web of Wyrd. It's just a shame that sluggish combat, uninteresting lore and poorly executed exploration all conspire to drag Hellboy Web of Wyrd down into the depths.

Though Streets of Rage 4 remains the bar to pass, Double Dragon Revive even feels markedly less satisfying than the excellent Double Dragon: Rise of the Dragons which was released a little over two years ago. That said, while Double Dragon Revive does implement some neat mechanics which would serve future games well, the lackluster 3D character models and dull worlds act to its ultimate detriment, resulting in plodding combat that rarely satisfies or compels. If this was intended to be a true revival of Double Dragon, then someone forgot to bring along the soul because what we’ve ended up with is a hollow facsimile of what Double Dragon should be, rather than an evolved celebration of everything we loved about it in the first place.

Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection is a reminder of how great these games were at the time they released, but it ultimately fails to do anything better for the players than the original releases did. As much as it breaks my heart, I find it hard to recommend this game to anyone in its current state.

If you're looking to immerse yourself in a meticulously rendered world for a few minutes at a time, or just relax for a bit after a stressful day, then Perfect has you covered. If however, you're expecting anything, anything more than that then Perfect simply doesn't do enough to maintain interest.

Playing Deemo without PSVR is a very hard sell. TV Mode requires a great deal of extra practice and effort in order to regularly score well. The delightful soundtrack and charming story truly depend on a PSVR headset to succeed.

On the face of it, Peppa Pig: World Adventures looks the part, immersing your little one in their beloved world from the TV show with loads of countries to visit. But then the black screens appear. And the aural scrapings. Oh the scrapings. And the inexplicable loading times. And the curious audio mix which buries the dialogue. And the strange appearing and disappearing characters. So on the flip-side of the face of it, it's time to bring home the bacon and NOT Peppa Pig: World Adventures.

I am a massive skateboarding game fan and wanted to love this game. Skater XL just does not have enough content to remain enjoyable for very long. The levels, characters and gameplay are dull and I find it very hard to get excited about it. I think it perhaps could be a good game in the future but I do not have that long to wait. Yes, it does have a unique control system and pulling off tricks is fun but we need more than that, as that can only take you so far. Move on people, there's little to see here.

The stories and voice acting in CSI: Fatal Conspiracy are great, but the actual gameplay falls short.

In the end, you will likely finish the game in about 7-9 hours, but still feel like you didn't play it. It is that forgettable.

An unevenly executed mish-mash of ARK's cornerstone components, ARK Park shows some promise but is ultimately too flawed and poorly constructed to be recommended to anyone but wide-eyed, dino-hungry youngsters.

Start the Party offers a small set of mini-games designed to draw you directly into your television. While it may provide some fun for a small gathering of people, there are not enough mini-games to make you return for a second round.

Friday the 13th is a technical horror show redeemed by a fairly enjoyable core multiplayer experience. The nagging problem with that is that the stars have to align for players to achieve that experience in the first place. Time and effort will likely help make Friday the 13th a stronger package in the future, but time may well not be on its side if the player base dwindles rapidly.

A hardcore NIS experience for only the hardcore fan. Bad story pacing and tedious combat make this a bore for the laymen fan who is not already drawn in by NIS's humor and charm.

Sadly, they didn’t capitalize on the potential and gamers were “stuck” with a mid-level game worthy of a rental at most.

Game of Thrones is a distinctly average affair plagued by poor visuals and monotonous combat.

Though well-intentioned as an interactive educational documentary about the spectacular lives of sugar gliders, AWAY: The Survival Series simply isn't sufficiently sophisticated or well designed enough to pass muster as a videogame that will keep you coming back. As it is, AWAY: The Survival Series is an attractive, if clunky edutainment title that only the youngest and most inexperienced PlayStation gamers will truly enjoy.

Fancy working as a game developer, learning on the job? In VR, Probe just about succeeds as an educational experience which may slowly grind you down with its frustrating and time-wasting controls. Non-VR players should give it a wide berth as those control problems kill it stone dead.

Combat is fun, but storyline confuses and gameplay is repetitive.

With more time in development and tweaks here and there to its overall design, Firegirl: Hack 'n Splash Rescue DX could really have been something. As things currently stand however, the superb premise, gorgeous visuals and compelling platforming roguelike gameplay all feel stifled under the weight of some really nasty game breaking bugs that make the game almost impossible to play for any decent period of time. A real shame.

Strikers 1945 Plus Portable feels dated, but offers classic, arcade-style action. It's a bit expensive for what you get.

Dreamfall Chapters is a hard sell for all but the most devoted fans of The Longest Journey. Story aside there’s little else that encourages investment of your time. Troublesome tech niggles alongside poor pacing and inconsistent puzzling sits some really intriguing characters and two worlds filled with narrative wonder. That you have to outpace your boredom to reach the juicy bit of Dreamfall Chapters’ rich story is perhaps the biggest obstacle of all.

There is something that really irks me when a horror game doesn't provide any scares or tension. The Occultist looked like it was going to be an entertaining experience, but it doesn't provide much entertainment. The puzzle-solving and exploration are passable, but everything else is a huge letdown.

Fans of the series will take plenty from the impressive narrative conclusion of the saga, though some flawed gameplay mechanics hold it back from being a game of any substance.

A visually attractive, if uninspiring take on the Vietnam War, Hours of Darkness feels little more than a re-skinned Far Cry 5 rather than something more ambitious.

Destruction AllStars is a clunky mess of a multiplayer experience, committing a few cardinal sins when it comes to its online experience and offering uninteresting and dull gameplay most of the time. Each character feels unique and their abilities and vehicles are fun to use, but when meshed with the rest of the experience, it doesn't work. Predatory microtransactions, a lack of lore and backstory into the AllStars, and poor single-player offerings make this the weakest PlayStation Studios title in a long time.

While Rustler manages to live up to everything it says on the tin, namely Grand Theft Auto with horses, there’s not much in its delivery that leaves any sort of memorable experience. Relying almost entirely on its humour, Rustler tries to steal your fancy with crass jokes and pop culture references. However, it never quite manages to stand out as anything more than a basic sandbox romp, with all the repetitive fetch quests in tow. Couple that with some lacklustre mechanics, and what you’ve got is a fairly disappointing GTA clone.

Overly fiddly controls combined with a brief duration, slow starting narrative and inflated price point make Loading Human's opening episode difficult to recommend, which is a shame given the sizeable ambition that lurks behind its otherwise subpar execution.

Bedlam tells a really interesting and genuinely funny tale. So it’s a shame then that few will stick round to hear all of it because the game itself is so lacking in joy.

Gleamlight's art style is beautiful and immersive, but the combat here is slow and tedious. With no story to latch onto it all just feels shallow. Even though the game is extremely short, your time and money are better spent elsewhere on other games in this genre.

Sometimes, Balan Wonderworld evokes a bygone era of platformers very well, but this is all too fleeting a feeling. All the creativity seems to have gone into the characters and music while the actual act of platforming leaves a lot to be desired. It’s far from the worst modern platformer, but given the names involved, it’s a thoroughly underwhelming one.

Lawbreakers has a decent foundation with high-action gameplay, but many fundamental things go amiss, and many decisions sacrifice its universality.

Fans of The Punisher will enjoy the comic panel cut-scenes, but the gritty world created by Marvel is lost in a sea of technical problems and monotony.

Some jokes land, and some moments shine, but most of No More Heroes: Travis Strikes Again Complete Edition relies on heavy-handed doses of breaking fourth walls and common game modes. There's an audience for this franchise, but this game doesn't offer much for anyone else.

ROTK13 lacks any of the basic macro and combat strategy fundamentals of previous titles, making this a sequel in name only. If you liked Sphere of Influence then you’ll enjoy this title too. But for those who waited for an ROTK game, keep waiting.

The basics of F1 2015 are unquestionably solid, but the basics are pretty much all it has to offer.

Too short to go anywhere storywise, a lack of genuine peril, and devoid of character development, ‘’Assembly Required’’ is easily the weakest episode of a Telltale series post-Walking Dead. The world it exists in continues to shine, but anything original flounders.

Katana Kami: A Way Of The Samurai Story attempts to bring back a beloved PS2 franchise with a new twist. However, its lackluster execution and heavy repetitiveness leaves very little excitement in its wake. Fans might find some appeal here, but only consider this game if you're looking for a repetitive and simplistic dungeon crawler.

60 Seconds! offers up a different way to play a mobile game that features some light-hearted gameplay and a brief time sink. However, gameplay quickly contradicts itself, and the port work offers little help to the cause. There is some fun and some charm, but it's very short lived.

An unnecessary release which cobbles together pieces from other, better racing games into a competent but dull experience. Save your cash and grab a copy of Burnout Paradise Remastered instead.

Valhalla Hills tries to bring The Settlers II gameplay up to snuff but while it improves in some areas, it completely negates some aspects on what made The Settlers II so much fun in the first place. Building and autonomy is done decently well but with the lack of continuation and multiplayer makes it pale in comparison. Its price for entry is very worrying too and doesn’t help matters.

Only hardcore RPG fans will have the patience to grind through an admittedly ambitious game whose avant-garde approach forgets the basics of what makes an RPG fun.

Tamarin has a quirky and fun concept (a monkey with a gun), but its poor 3D platforming, inability to inform the player properly about objectives and where to go, and dated look with bugs make it a title that few people have any good reason to play, especially when there are much better games of the genre out there right now on PS4.

Rango: The Video Game has some great moments. Unfortunately, those only constitute about an hour of the game; the other four hours are pretty boring for all but young kids and the casual crowd.

The humour is missing as are the voices of the Muppets in this bland entry-level platformer for Vita.

Rainbow Skies has a few good ideas, but those aren't enough to move past its bland narrative and repetitive gameplay.

Starfield plays as you would expect an RPG to play in the sense that the inputs do what you want them to do. Performance also works well enough, particularly for a Bethesda game. Odds are, however, that you won't want to play for very long anyway. In this game, you get nothing but residual information about the world around you and humdrum experiences for you to play. Even in Dark Souls, you receive a challenge that faces you head on and you get rewards for surmounting that challenge. Whether it's the plot or the gameplay, Starfield puts any interest you may have on the back burner for something much more mundane to take its place.

Jeremy McGrath's Offroad is a competent racer, though with numerous issues and little replay value, you may want to look elsewhere for your offroad kicks.

The Spider-Man game franchise has long been a series that gamers have always thought should work, but it rarely has. The third attempt from Beenox, but first attempt at an open world version, shows some promise, but it has a lot of cracks along the way.

Skydance's Behemoth offers a huge amount of spectacle with the four giant creatures you'll take down over the course of your time with it, but spectacle is the majority of what's on offer. It's a shallow game with a combat system that never challenges you to evolve your tactics (even when/if it's working properly), a repetitive gameplay-loop, runtime bloating encounters and box-pushing puzzles, and a story that does nothing new with uninteresting characters. Traversing around with a grapple hook and climbing the giant beasts at least proved both consistently fun and an interesting gameplay experience in VR, and it has its fair share of visually striking moments, but that isn't enough to recommend it.

Gunscape could be a good game creator with a healthy lifespan, but a high price point, unoriginal concepts, and muddled ideals are just the tip of the iceberg that looks like it will sink the game's lofty ambitions.

The aging loud-mouth hero does not take himself too seriously in Duke Nukem Forever, and neither should you. Overall, nostalgia simply is not enough to save this bland and repetitive shooter.

Override 2: Super Mech League is a playable game, but almost all of its parts feel poorly thought out or are lacklustre to play. The gameplay is repetitive and uninspired and the few technical issues and lack of players mean you will just be fighting bots the entire time. Ultimately, this experience really isn't worth a look.

I personally enjoyed Zenith, the story and writing kept me going though all the various issues it presented. The amount of bugs, glitches, and technical performance issues just can’t be overlooked, especially for a casual gamer.

Periods of fun stealth play aren't enough to rescue the second entry in the Chronicles saga from being a forgettable, average platformer.

An endless runner that at least dares to try some different ideas, Corridor Z still unfortunately remains very much stuck in the mud of its two overplayed tropes found in its chosen genre and theme. It is, however, still a fairly serviceable runner that’ll whittle away a few minutes a day for a short time.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 is a low point for series. A passable multiplayer suite can't prop up the uninspired campaign, and dreadfully dull zombies mode. The series needs to take a break from the annualised release schedule, and inject some much needed creativity into the legendary franchise.

Nice concept, but an under-developed storyline, simple puzzles and graphical issues make The Assembly one of the PSVR launch games to avoid.

Kismet looks great and is a fun 15 minute experience for the low price point, but ultimately it lacks depth and interaction.

There's no getting around the fact that Lost Soul Aside feels like it belongs in the mid 2010s and honestly that would be fine were it not the fact that the game feels so compromised in so many other aspects of its design that it's difficult to shake the feeling that it just feels outdated, rather than a heartfelt love letter to the past. Though the soundtrack is frequently excellent and the combat reliably exciting, neither are enough to save Lost Soul Aside from tumbling into a deep abyss of rank mediocrity, which is a shame; especially considering the sheer amount of graft that has gone into the game since its inception all those years ago.

Filthy Lucre strives to be a game of interesting choices between caution and gung-ho action. Unfortunately, the lack of challenge and inept AI mean that neither style of play is satisfying.

Valhalla Knights 3 is an impressive concept, but poor execution, lame grinding, and exploitative "Sexy Time" events are a fan disservice.

H.A.W.X. 2 is one repetitive ride that offers little thrills outside of crashing.

Attractive visuals and decent handling isn't enough to pull Red Wings: Aces of the Sky out of the doldrums of mediocrity, thanks in no small part to a distinct lack of variety in the mission objectives and uninspiring game design.

Pets struggles to teach an old dog new tricks. It takes a few steps forward and the same steps back, so a couple of more laps around the obstacle course might be needed before this pooch can storm out of the gate running like a champion.

In Too Deep suffers greatly from an over familiarity with both post-apocalyptic worlds and Telltale’s own formula. If not for Michonne herself, this would be a truly disastrous start to the latest entry in this partnership.

Another competent karaoke game to add to the ever-increasing pile. Limited in original ideas and possessing a poor range of variety in musical terms, NOW That’s What I Call Sing is a rather underwhelming addition to the genre.

Assault Gunner HD manages to make mech-based combat boring and lifeless but may appeal to diehard mech fans just looking to destroy robots. A 2012 Japanese import that translated poorly from Vita to PS4.

An effective if not particularly ambitious or polished reboot of an arcade classic, Q*Bert Rebooted is as accessible as the franchise has ever been but offers little in the way of significant new additions to keep players hooked in the long term and remains hobbled by a lack of leaderboards.

Even though Disgaea 6 Complete brings in accessibility options, the game itself reacts negatively to some of them. A simplistic AI can't contend with automation, while the hefty price tag alone for a year old game makes this a hard pass. There are hints of fun here for a new player, but in making this game easier to play, Disgaea 6 Complete makes the franchise formula look antiquated.

It's easy to make a game that feels like Monster Hunter, but it's nearly impossible to make a game as good. After playing Army Corps of Hell for much longer than I should have, I know that SE could have definitely put a little more time into this game to make it a contender in PlayStation Vita's massive launch line-up.

Only a game due to the fact that one must handle a controller to experience it, Affected: The Manor is better described as a brief trip into a decently designed fun-house. There's nothing wrong with that, but there's also nothing notable about it. With no gameplay to speak of, Affected is strictly one and done.

SPRAWL has a few solid core features that work well, letting you string along enough good moments that you're actually having fun. But its shortcomings ultimately reveal how shallow it is, and the truth is that SPRAWL doesn't present a compelling case for why you should play it over other recently released boomer-shooters that are doing more interesting things in the genre. Also my version is currently broken, so that doesn't help - but at least that's something fixable without re-making the whole game.

Sadly a compelling setting, great performances and some occasionally stunning visuals aren't enough to overcome the horrendously uneven and frequently broken combat system which sits at the heart of 1348 Ex Voto and threatens to cast this otherwise intriguing and ambitious indie effort into the ninth circle of mediocrity.

The FMV acting is great, as are the production values but ultimately the story just doesn't hold up. There's simply too much repetition required to uncover everything Night Book has to offer.

When AER: Memories of Old is focused on soaring through the skies, or tackling a multi-room temple puzzle, it’s at its best. The rest of the time it fails to register much interest in its lackluster story and world.

Despite a gorgeous world, stunning sketchbook visuals, and fantastic music, Stonefly is actively dragged down because of its frustrating and cumbersome combat mechanics that create situations that are a pain to tackle. Everything surrounding combat is great, but there is so much of blowing bugs off of platforms that I Don't recommend you give Stonefly a try.

Despite its potential, Sword and Fairy: Together Forever gets bogged down by a slow start, odd writing, repetitious fetch quests, and unpolished boss mechanics. Occasional variety in gameplay and well put together segments can carry the day for some, but too many lulls and too much tedium get in the way of what could have been a solid experience.

Loop8: Summer of Gods tries many ideas but doesn't execute any of them well. Most of the game involves you building your relationship with people who don't even want to help you save the world. Its combat is unrewarding and doesn't even feel like its necessary. Its only saving grace is its great art design and, on most occasions, its voice acting.

Strangely, while Shadow Labyrinth is a solid Metroidvania that carries inspiration from various sources, it doesn't feel inspired because it leans too heavily on the nostalgia of Puck's Pac-Man sensibilities. Serviceable is the best way to describe Shadow Labyrinth because it's a competent experience and it might be satisfying if all you're looking for is a general Metroidvania experience.

What should have been a great return for the ten year old classic ends up being one of the worst remaster I've ever played, with almost no graphical updates and staggering framerate issues. A remaster should fix the issues of the original not make them worse.

Nickelodeon All-Stars is an obvious yet forgivable clone the manages to squeeze tiny sprinkles of originality in to its mix. However, the chasm left by what is missing from the game at the moment is almost irredeemable. Whilst the actual fighting mechanics of the core gameplay are well worked for competitive play, the lack of voice acting, game modes and general party utility leaves much to be desired. The general zaniness of Nickelodeon carries reasonably in the game, but certainly not enough to warrant purchase by casual players who are fans of the franchise.

What could be isn't in this portable Ridge Racer, and what is should be in a better game.

There’s a perfectly fine racing game somewhere in this mess of half-baked ideas. A fun arcade racer has been drowned in enough ‘one more thing’ additions to fill the entire run of Columbo, and the result is a rather unpleasant muddle of bland story, stop-start driving, and player control being ripped away just as things get juicy.

Death Or Treat can be a fun 2D rogue-lite at first, but the gameplay becomes bland far too quickly, well before the much more polished final stage which comes too late to be the game's savior, and the charm created by its admittedly excellent visual style and animation isn't enough to keep you going, especially when that visual style is bogged down by commentary that only distracts you from the game's world.

Dust & Neon nails the fundamentals of a twin-stick, looter shooter it feels far too limited, familiar and simply isn't ambitious enough to stand out from its genre peers. Though still reliably satisfying to play at times, Dust & Neon just doesn't offer anything new.

It seems that this ninja should have stayed in the shadows.

Jedi Outcast then is still capable of delivering modest morsels of Star Wars infused fun, it's just a shame that while the lack of effort which has been made with the port justifies its budget price, it does not make magically make a 2002 title equally as compelling in 2019. Here's hoping that next year's remaster of Star Wars Jedi Knight III: Jedi Academy is better, because the force is not quite so strong with this one.

When Outcast Second Contact was announced I was jumping with glee, one of my favourite games of the 90’s finally being remade for the modern age. If only the team had spent more time fixing the performance issues before release.

By only making skin deep improvements to the game and not touching any of the deep-seated flaws that lurk at the core of Gods original 1991 offering, Gods Remastered ends up being a largely disappointing and straight-laced remaster that will likely only appeal to the most die-hard of fans.

The only thing epic about Lord of the Rings: Conquest is its musical score.

Blitz: The League II disappoints on almost every level, leaving gamers praying to be tackled by Lawrence Taylor himself rather than being forced to play the game.

Much like the namesake character himself, The Lord of The Rings: Gollum couldn't be saved from what it became. Frustrating platforming coupled with boring gameplay and cheap ways to die make any experience hard to play. Unfortunately, the intriguing setting and lore exploration can't come close to overshadowing the game's fundamental issues.

Crazy by name only, this iOS port costs three times as much for the same amount of content. With simplistic controls and bad replay incentives, this game has little to recommend.

A flawed take on the survival adventure template, The Solus Project's subpar execution ultimately undermines the few moments of true enjoyment that it occasionally provides.

A mediocre third-person stealth effort revolving around a singular gimmick that is both intriguing and also damning to its ambitions, Shadwen is nowhere near the lofty standard that we would expect from the house that Trine built.