SolSeraph is an interesting riff on the same package ActRaiser introduced years ago, but unfortunately it doesn't go the distance when it comes to replicating the experience players had with the Super Nintendo original.

There's a massive amount of work to be done here before I’d ever consider Hyper Scape a go-to over other options in the space.

Survival Kids is an interesting take on a popular genre, one meant for a much younger audience. At the same time, kids have been growing up on Minecraft for over a decade, so Survival Kids may not be giving the gaming youth enough credit. There are some neat ideas here, but ultimately the experience is a little too shallow for exciting play, regardless of how old you are. And retro gaming enthusiasts who may have been excited for an actual, new Survival Kids are going to walk away immediately.

There’s a lot of potential scattered around Agents of Mayhem but not enough of it is realized. The shooting and abilities are fun, the characters are interesting and could develop followings individually, but everything is hindered by a half-baked open world. No matter how fun the shooting is, the in-between moments are consistently a chore. If this was intended to spring a new series of games to life, the initial effort spits and sputters on the launch pad.

With a little more polish, God of Rock may prove itself to be a worthwhile rhythm game title yet. Unfortunately, in its current state, it feels like more of a swing and a miss than a headbanging hit.

I think Bomberman is cool and cute, but this title is not the launch that the Nintendo Switch deserved. By either offering more new content or pricing the game reasonably, Konami could have jump started the Bomberman franchise, which has been MIA for years. Instead, Super Bomberman R just doesn't give the value or the fun that the price commands. Instead, you're better off saving up an extra $10 and buying The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. If you already have a copy, you might want to think about just buying a second one instead of this title. As least then you'd get your money's worth.

As far as gameshow/sporting event-style games go, Destruction AllStars is maybe some of the most fun I’ve had in a while. I love the pageantry when a match starts and my character does their intro before kicking things off. The visuals are smooth and pristine throughout the fast-paced action and the gameplay in different modes is absolutely delightful. I would like the foot game to be boosted a bit, and it desperately needs some better cosmetics and an easy-access Mute All function, but there’s an absolutely enthralling foundation here in Destruction AllStars. I want to see more characters, more arenas, events… I want to see where Destruction AllStars goes in the long run and I’ll be happy to keep playing as we work our way there.

Madden NFL 24 also carries over a handful of bugs and visual glitches that were present not only last Madden, but the game that came before it. Bugs like the one where both teams appear frozen on the field during the cinematic view between plays, or where the camera isn’t showing the players despite them being at the line of scrimmage. It feels like such a slap in the face to the player and makes a strong argument that this franchise is long overdue for a reckoning. The real Madden heads out there will likely find Madden NFL 24 tolerable, but as a die-hard football fan, it sucks that we’re still doomed to this annual mediocrity.

Hood: Outlaws and Legends is an excellent change of pace from your standard online multiplayer games. The PvPvE style works surprisingly well, creating new obstacles and offering unique strategies at every corner. The gameplay loop can get a bit stale once you get familiar with the maps, but Sumo Digital has the groundwork for something quite special with Hood: Outlaws and Legends.

So much of Disintegration is just puzzling. It manages to eke out a space in a hybrid genre but never manages to capitalize on this newfound territory. It offers squad upgrades and control over their movement as a group but fails to let you select who to take with you on a mission or give you control over individual units. You’re given a flying hovercraft but you’re constantly butting up against invisible walls and fences one inch higher than you can fly. It’s unfortunate when a game is bad and broken, but it’s a damn shame when a game is forgettable. Disintegration does not feel up to scratch for a game releasing in 2020.

The game deftly balances exploration, crafting, combat, and puzzle-solving as you move through the game in the direction of the next story-based waypoint. It moves at an appropriate pace, and there's always something new around the corner, with plenty to discover as the world feels as though it's slowly unraveling around you.

Onee Chanbara Origin is a serviceable remake of a couple classic PS2 titles. Developer Tamsoft does a great job giving the games a visual makeover and a much more modern feel. Combat is solid, though a bit basic at times. The experience is also bogged down at times by some performance problems. That aside, and Onee Chanbara is a worthwhile remake of a fun and unique story.

There’s no denying there is fun to be had with WWE 2K15. Yet, its legacy issues and some questionable design choices keep it from greatness. And so, just like with the sad case of Daniel Bryan, fans will be left waiting and wondering what could have been if things had gone differently. Hopefully next year.

A great “demo” for fans of the film series who want to check out Forza Horizon 2 while also getting a dose of the film franchise they love so much. The game does a great job of giving players a taste of the Horizon 2 experience as I was able to complete the main story in approximately 3 hours.

How far it feels like the concept of Sniper Elite VR has come. I won’t say this game is perfect, but I will say it’s one of the most visceral and satisfying stealth-action shooters I’ve played in VR. The weapons handle nicely, the missions and locations are hugely varied, and the comfort options are abundant and easily understandable. I wish it catered better to left-handed shooting and that some weapons had better interactivity, and I’m just not crazy about head-on combat here. It’s also not exactly a looker. That said, what a step-up from what I know about Sniper Elite VR. When the dust settles, I’ll have a hard time thinking of a game that made it more satisfying to look down a scope and deliver distant absolution to virtual fascists.

Astor: Blade of the Monolith reflects one of the coolest aspects of video games as a medium with a deep history of iteration. You can take a familiar set of concepts, add new context, and come up with something that stands on its own rather than feeling like a ripoff. Astor does this with an impressive sense of knowledge and understanding of not only Zelda-style exploration, but character action-style combat. The latter is much more niche and specialized, therefore harder to pull off. It’s not quite a bullseye, but gets respectfully close and has me curious about further updates, as well as what this studio does next.

The team at Saibot Studios have made exactly what they promised to their Kickstarter backers, but I was left wanting more. This doesn't make Hellbound a bad game, but it certainly feels like there were a few things left on the cutting room floor as I finished the game. After a somewhat slow start in the campaign, I was happy to finish the fight, and any fan of 1990s FPS fans could do worse than slaying demons in Hellbound.

I'm sure Shadowrun Chronicles: Boston Lockdown will eventually get itself together and grow with new features and content. Hopefully, it can overcome its server problems before they drive away its player community. Personally, I want to stay, but this town is making it really hard to.

Seeing it through the prism of the old Oregon Trail, I enjoyed Ashwalkers and its myriad of tough, meaningful choices. Its heavy material and its dreary art style doesn't make it a game that I plan to revisit very often. I can appreciate the variety of scenarios, especially the idea that players can select different starting points after multiple playthroughs. In that sense, it's unlike a lot of survival games out today and worth playing through at least once.

It’s a game that feels like it should have had a big manual when it first launched, but without that manual, you only have half the picture, and so you’re stumbling around in the dark trying to make sense of everything. Sometimes that’s fun and mysterious. But a little too often, various parts of the game clash, and Labyrinth of Lost Souls becomes more trouble than it’s worth.

The open-world aspect is one I found myself enjoying more often than not as having an entire nation to drive across was thrilling and quite memorable. On the other hand, unfair AI, an online multiplayer that is far from fair, and a spec system that kept me from wanting to experiment out of my comfort zone were just some of a few things that I felt are holding back The Crew from being the next great racing franchise.

An excellent re-release of a PlayStation classic, even if it feels as though it squandered some of the potential it has as a new PlayStation 4 release. It still has the same excellent music, memorable characters, and zany charm it had when it originally released, and if you never got a chance to check it out, you’re in for a real treat. I hope Um Jammer Lammy gets the same treatment going forward.

Ultimately my time with Broken Roads didn’t light up any of the parts of my brain that video games typically do on some level or another. There’s some promise at first with its distinct, all-encompassing cultural flavor. But the scenario holding up the setting only struggled to capture my interest. Combat was a similar vibe, feeling like doing chores in the middle of reading a middle of the road novel in a crowded genre. While cool on paper the morality system did more harm than good, overloading the dialogue and getting in the way of character and personality. Nothing in Broken Roads felt bad or, well, broken. But whenever I played it, unless I was chuckling at the slang translator doing something weird I was always thinking of other things I would rather be doing.

Ryse is a decent game, given its length, but it's one that is certainly more fun to look at than it is to play.

The game is one that can be hard to play and hard to return to, but it's also hard to put down once you do.

Traverser provides a sweet experience, but doesn't provide a challenge compelling enough to return to.

Infinity Strash plays with its own legacy a bit, mostly by using models from Dragon Quest proper instead of imitating the manga’s art style. But the rest of the game, while fun in that lizard brain kind of way, doesn’t do a ton to separate itself from its peers. Fans of the series will have a decent time, but there’s not much here for folks on the outside. If you’re curious about Dragon Quest as a whole, we recommend starting elsewhere.

In an effort to adopt the stylings of other popular, open-world racers, Need For Speed: Payback presents some fun ideas with poor execution. It also misses an opportunity to elevate an NFS staple with a tacked-on, linear version of Pursuit that annoys while simultaneously reminding me of the absence of a Burnout game on the market.