The fallout of the failed kickstarter is currently too toxic for this die hard fan of the board game, but the future is still bright for this juggernaut.

Sage's Sky isn't a bad game, it's collection and reward method is just noticeably unbalanced.

The awkward controls, annoying mission design, and a sense of humor that tries way too hard all add up to a game that would be tough to love even without any technical issues. And I’m afraid to say that there are plenty of those to go around. Good concept, but that only takes you so far.

While I have high hopes that the developers can eventually optimize and patch in improvements to make it truly playable, at this point it’s really hard to recommend NBA 2K15 in its current form.

I hope the team works on fixing the issues and expanding on progression, because I want more from this world. Right now Infinite Guitars feels like playing an electric guitar with rusted strings. Despite being down on on Infinite Guitars in its current state, I’d definitely buy the soundtrack on vinyl and an artbook. Those aspects are lovely. It is just a shame that it was released with the story and some mechanics in this state with technical issues.

Ultimately, for such a short game, the replay value relies on how much fun you had playing the first time through, but given some twitchy controls and slowly paced gameplay, we didn't see much reason to go back. Aside from the movie tie-in, there isn't much to make the game stand out.

You certainly could pick your way through the game's many levels, and you might even find it passes the time nicely. I suspect, however, that most players would have a better time with one of the more traditional examples in the genre.

With enough practice, some people may warm up to the style of multiplayer battling in Resident Evil Mercenaries VS, but with so many far superior online multiplayer experiences on iOS already it doesn't seem worth the effort.

Can you have some fun with Adventure Academia? Sure. It’s not that there isn’t anything here to like. But it gels together so badly and is such a troublesome game to play that I really can’t recommend it. I’m happy to see Class of Heroes is still alive in some form, but I hope the next time it pops its head up we get something better than this.

I can’t praise Bounty Arms for much more than visuals because it’s apparent these graphics where what was most important to this game. Unfortunately, that leaves me only recommending it to those of you who love showing off how good a game can look on your iPhone. If you’re that kind of person: enjoy the show. To everyone else: avoid this game. It rests with mediocrity on nearly all fronts, barely granting it a recommendation.

There's just too much work for too little fun for anyone who isn't already attuned to what Blood Bowl is about.

In its current state, the Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition is only worth getting if you can get it at a large discount and assuming you’re willing to put up with many technical issues on Switch. While a lot of the major bugs I ran into have been addressed in patches, this is still nowhere near as good as it should be given how important these three games are to gaming in general. It also doesn’t help that the Switch patches are delayed compared to other platforms.

With only one of the two excellent games on here being playable from start to end, I can’t give this set as a whole anything better than half a score. I sincerely hope NIS patches this and takes more care with its quality control in the future.

Minecraft: Pocket Edition could potentially be an awesome thing someday. Until that day comes, though, it is best purchased by the curious, the affluent and the hardcore fan.

So, I'm sure the very perceptive among you have figured out how disappointed I am with FIFA 16 UT. EA has turned the best football series on the App Store into a game about menus with the occasional basic ball-kicking.

Unfortunately, nice looking visuals aren't enough to propel Crash Birds Islands above the rest of the 3D platformers on iOS. For fans of platformers, Crash Birds certainly has enough to satisfy any itches for a new game. However, the iffy tilt-controls, suspect upgrade system and lackluster objectives do little to appeal to anyone else.

Aesthetically, Evertales is pretty good. It looks great, sounds good, and has some cute cosmetic upgrades for its heroes. Otherwise, it's bland and boring. I've always been pleasantly surprised by these studios in the past. Evertales was a surprise, but it wasn't pleasant.

I appreciate Hit-Point trying to shore up their weak points and work outside of their comfort zone, but Valkyria Soul just doesn't work very well.

After spending more time with the international release over the last week, it seems safe to take a pass on this game.

I’m a huge fan of both Star Wars and Tower Defense, so a game like this seemed like a slam dunk in my mind. Unfortunately, the game feels more like a cash grab of a true TD game in the Star Wars universe that actually focused on gameplay or story.

Lightning Duru has some basic shooter mechanics going for it, but beyond that, I'd only recommend it to someone who has played everything in the genre, and then some.

Taken as a stand-alone effort, it's probably the best thing Sony's released on iOS so far, though that should be taken as the faint praise it sounds like.

Sloppy collision detection and tepid attacks mean that you’re going to be taking a lot of unexpected hits. There’s a bit of wiggle room thanks to your character having a life meter, but if you run out you’ll be punted all the way back to the start of the often lengthy stage. I’ve played far worse, but I can’t find much enthusiasm for Together, especially so if you mean to play it solo.

Granted, Initiative is a perfectly capable Infinity Blade clone for folks that are fans of the Marvel universe. However, for everyone else there's really nothing here from a gameplay perspective that hasn't been seen before or implemented better.

If you really enjoy stories with that kind of vibe, you might get your money's worth here, but you're going to have to be patient with the game's many deficiencies.

It's hard to recommend Bug Invasion for anyone but the most diehard of tower defense fans looking for their next fix (and even then, I'm sure there are some classics you may have missed). For everyone else, it's probably best to avoid this infestation.

I suppose the lucky thing is that you can download Pinball M for free and try out the included table to see how much the heavy technical issues bother you. It hits some tables worse than others, but you’ll at least get a taste for the situation. As for the Death Save Bundle, I would heartily recommend picking up these tables elsewhere. Here on the Switch, I found them to be scarcely playable with the app in its current form.

Lords of the Fallen is simply a sub-par clone in a genre that requires perfect execution to be worth playing.

The extremely reasonable price makes it hard for me to say you shouldn't even consider buying Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando Mobile. If you think you can deal with the control quirks, this is a good technical conversion of the arcade game. Provided that's all you're looking for, I can think of worse ways to spend a couple of bucks. Between the control issues, the relatively low amount of content, and the inconsistent difficulty settings, Commando Mobile is probably the hardest one of these releases to recommend so far, however.

It’s bizarre that something that looks and reads like it comes from the younger generation comes off so utterly… boomer-ish. I normally get on well with Serenity Forge’s stuff, but this one just didn’t work for me. Maybe you’ll find it more relaxing than I did.

Much like the Walking Dead game and other iOS Telltale titles, if your iOS device is the only way you have to experience them then they're worth checking out, but if you've got any other piece of kit capable of running these games you'll have a substantially better experience regardless of whether you're playing on a PC or home console.

If Snoopy's Street Fair is a game for nostalgic adults, it's not interesting enough to hold any attention. If it's a game for children, the aggressive focus on IAP is distasteful.

Mighty Dungeons is hard to recommend in its current state.

Mists of Noyah is in such a buggy state that I can only hope the developers are going to swing back around and fix things up. Even if that happens, however, the game is still a long way from achieving the potential it reaches for. Enjoyable in the moment but tedious over the long haul, this is the kind of game that needed a lot more polish and testing before it was ready for prime time. Perhaps it will get hammered into shape after release, but what’s here now is rather disappointing.

My first impression of this game was how pretty it was. It’s got a nice sense of style to it, and I love the odd creatures that inhabit this world. My second impression involved getting stuck in a piece of the environment and having to reset the game. My third impression of the game is that while it’s relatively short it somehow manages to wear out all of its tricks well before it ends, and alternates between being boring and irritating in its back half. That first bug wasn’t the only one to rear its head either. There’s something worth getting into here, but there’s just too much dragging the overall experience down.

There's a great game buried here behind the initial good idea, but as it is it's just too short-lived and samey to justify the price-tag to all but the most keen strategy buffs.

With so many choices at your disposal in this genre, it's very hard to make a case for spending your time or money on Soul Savior, no matter how cool it looks.

And so, again we have a truly excellent console title that falls sadly short of the mark in making its way to the iPhone.

As it is, while Battlestone may provide you with a handful of hours of entertainment, you'll most likely reach a point where the game has nothing left to give.

I don't really know what to do with this game. I think it's mysterious in a good way, and I'd love to recommend everyone to try probing at its weird secrets. But it's also not a very strong game in the mechanical sense. In fact, it's downright hostile in some ways. If you happen to have played Yume Nikki and enjoyed it, you might find something to like here. Otherwise, it's hard to endorse Strange Telephone for much other than its well-crafted visuals and audio.

I expect better, both from Adventure Time as a franchise, and from Cartoon Network Games in particular. You're far better off picking up one of Nintendo's Rhythm Heaven games, provided you have the hardware to play them on.

Chalk this one up as a great gimmick with decent execution where the fun ends up almost totally spoiled due to monetizing virtually every aspect of the game.

At the end of it all, it just feels like there isn’t enough here to enjoy. Throw in some slightly clunky controls and it’s clear there are better ways to scratch your jigsaw itch on the platform.

In the end, the most notable thing about this title is its cheeky title, pointing to ambitions it's ill-equipped to achieve.

It really is a shame about the controls, because otherwise Dark Incursion would be a game worth checking out simply for its somewhat successful implementation of the Metroidvania formula on iOS.

This game, like many Warhammer games, gives plenty of signs that there's a huge, interesting universe, it just needs to do more to be welcoming to someone who's curious enough to find out more, but wants some guidance. And the rest of the experience isn't good enough to really justify non-Warhammer fans checking this out.

Combine the game itself feeling somewhat undercooked in terms of modes and features and the atrocious technical performance, and you have a rather bitter pill for any Switch-owning Dynasty Warriors fans that choose to swallow it. I won’t say you can’t mine some enjoyment out of this version of the game, but you’re going to have to be more forgiving than you’ve had to be with any prior Warriors game on the platform.

In the end, I find Batman: Arkham Origins to be a very frustrating piece of software in multiple ways. Perhaps unfairly, I don't like that even though the hardware is capable of more, we keep getting these increasingly cut-down experiences from Warner Brothers.

Ultimately, if you love Superman and you miss the days when arcade games didn't bother with all that story nonsense and just let you get straight to beating stuff up, you might get something out of this game.

Like most MOBAs, The Witcher Battle Arena is free to play, so of course you’re free to check it out on your own accord. However, I just don’t think it’s worth your time at this point.

Roller Coaster Tycoon Adventures is a game I want to enjoy, and I felt like this Deluxe release had the opportunity to iron out the issues of the original release and deliver on that potential. Sadly, the problems that were present in the 2018 release of Roller Coaster Tycoon Adventures persist in Roller Coaster Tycoon Adventures Deluxe. It’s plagued with bugs, technical issues, and some plain odd UI decisions. You get more of almost everything, but what the game really needed is nowhere to be found. There’s little reason to bother with this broken-down attraction when much better rides can be found a short walk away.

The actual gameplay is, as I said, fun in short bursts, and when the cash is rolling, it's fun to upgrade your gear and get new weapons

If you're just looking for something that plays Lonely Rolling Star while you hammer away at the screen, trying to reach increasingly distant basketballs and cows, you might be satisfied with this game for a few minutes here and there. I just can't help but think this could have been far more interesting or fun than it is, even within the limits of the tapping genre as we know it.

As it stands, Call of Mini Zombies 2 offers too much of a grind with too little of an incentive to keep playing. When (if?) multiplayer finally debuts, Zombies 2 might have enough to be worth a download. However, for now, there's just not enough there except for the most diehard of fans.

Bop It! Smash isn't a bad game. It's a different take on a popular formula, albeit one that holds less appeal and staying power than the original.

All three modes start off with some painfully simple puzzles, but eventually provide a decent enough challenge to make you think. You get tons of puzzles, probably more than you’ll want or need. It functions well enough, but it’s just missing that bit of zest to help it stand out. Mini Words Collection assuredly offers up enough of what it’s serving for the meager price it commands, but a buffet is only as good as the taste of the dishes.

This is a bland, boring racing game compared not only to previous iOS Need For Speed titles, but also other racers already on the App Store.

Between crashes and money-eating bugs, it's too likely you'll lose it. Once it's fixed, I think people who have enjoyed King's other games will be quite satisfied with Diamond Digger Saga, even if it's less diamond than cubic zirconium.

Is Xanadu worth playing today? Only for a certain type of player. You’re going to have to do some research and spend a lot of time learning how things work before you can really enjoy yourself. The ability to make use of pre-set save states helps you see more of the game if you can’t wrap your head around it, but I think this particular EGGCONSOLE release is only for students of gaming history and those who like to chew around complicated, merciless games. It’s presented as well as it can be, but there’s only so much you can do to make a game like this appeal in the current year.

Until that system or something else suitable is incorporated in Samurai Shodown II though, you have a very pretty piece of videogame history that is probably best left to one of its re-releases on a console with physical controls, or if you have the cash, a real Neo Geo console.

I can’t imagine many people will get much fun out of grinding their way through the RPG in this set, but the action-RPG is tolerable enough. I have to commend ININ for translating these games just on principle, and for the most part Ratalaika’s emulation does the job. That said, there are some bugs with some of the emulator options, and I can’t imagine this set being a good value for most people. Sometimes things that are lost are better off unfound.

Its super simple and inarguably flawed, but its persistent upgrade system is a great carrot-on-the-stick and its modern war trappings do set Dawn of War apart.

The Minecraft oriented theme, gracious lack of user-generated phallic sculptures, and chilled-out crafting action may be right up your alley. Personally, I'd rather punch a tree.

But... as far as fundamentals go, the fact that Judge Dredd vs. Zombies's combat rocks is a pretty big boon to what is otherwise a fairly competent, yet occasionally annoying game. The bad parts, and particularly the greedy free-to-play hooks and the barrage of Dredd-isms, are the big stains.

If you really like dolphins, then you might have enough love in your heart to fumble around with the controls enough to enjoy the spectacle and oddity of Shark Eaters.

With some tweaks to the controls and interface, and perhaps some sort of filter for what kind of keywords are utilized, then Tweet Land could end up being something pretty special. It feels like it's just a couple notches off of being something great, and I hope it gets there someday.

High Flyer Death Defyer had the makings of an excellent game, particularly with its nice graphic style, story and core gameplay. Unfortunately, these features don't mean much when the controls are this frustrating.

In the end, the biggest problem with this game is that it's charmingly vapid: the exact opposite of Lauren Faust's reboot of the franchise.

At first, the Switch version seems fine enough. A clear visual downgrade, but it’s all running reasonably smoothly. But once you start getting to busier battles, more crowded areas, and situations with more chaos, everything comes unglued. The framerate flies all over the place, which is bad in a game whose chief combat gimmick is timed dodging. It hitches up at times, and flatout stops in the middle of the action to do whatever. I recognize the technical challenges in realizing this port on this hardware, but if this is the best that could be mustered, it perhaps should not have been done. We’re left with a heavily troubled port of a rather middling game, and I don’t know that filling in the story gaps is worth dealing with that.

MotoGP 2010 isn't the worst racing game that I've played on iPhone, but it's far from the best.

Every time I found myself having a bit of fun with XEL, something would happen to ruin it. A weird bug here, a tiny hard-to-spot thing there, or just some vexing performance issues. Without those problems, I’d give the game a mild recommendation to action-adventure fans. With them, it’s hard to be very positive about it at all. There are so many great games of this sort on the Switch that it’s hard to muster much enthusiasm for a merely decent one, let alone one that trips over its own feet so often.

Ultimately this is one for diehard Monopoly fans only, who are in the market for a quick and dirty arcade version of the app they've undoubtedly already got on their iPhone or iPad. For anyone interested in a digitized board game, this is just too anemic and pandering to satisfy.

If you're looking for a simple, weapons-based racer with multiplayer and don't care about customizability or excessive replayability, then Mad Wheels may be a title worthy of your attention. If you're looking for a game with more substance and depth, then Death Rally still remains the perennial favorite and recommended title.

While I respect Topple Zip‘s unusual design, the PC-8801 probably wasn’t the best platform to realize it. This release is up to the usual standards of the EGGCONSOLE line in terms of the wrapper’s options and extras, and there’s almost no language barrier to worry about either. But the game itself just isn’t very fun to play, so it’s really just one for people who enjoy poking at ancient oddities.

I found enough things to like in Hell Pie that I could probably see my way to recommending it on other platforms. On Switch, there are just too many technical issues dragging down the experience for my liking. If you’re very tolerant of that kind of thing, you might still enjoy the game. It has some fun ideas, a crass but amusing sense of humor, and some interesting levels. But it’s hard to enjoy any of that when you miss a jump because the framerate took a dive and the camera went wacky at a critical moment.

Mighty Switch Force! Hose It Down! isn't a bad game, but between its brevity and lack of interesting ideas, it's not a very good one, either.

In spite of its insistence otherwise, Cube Blast is more about getting a good shuffle and/or abusing power-ups than any actual strategy. The production values are nice enough and there’s a basic appeal to this sort of thing, but I simply can’t see any reason to recommend throwing money down on this over playing the free mobile version.

Overall, Volcano Tower is an interesting diversion from the standard platformer and many runner or roguelike games, mixing a few genres together. However, it is very repetitive and a bit obtrusive with the ads.

As it stands, Fish Pond Park is an afternoon trip to the pond and not much more than that.

It's bland, SimCity type of stuff with Kairosoft's characteristic wrapper.

It’s a shame that the game’s flaws detract so much from its innovations, because I’ve never seen a strategy game that feels as tense as Overland, and I was always compelled as I slowly unlocked its mysteries. But each time I died and had to start over, I found myself wanting to restart less and less, frustrated at how tedious, buggy, and poorly-streamlined the game turned out to be.

Hammerwatch 2 is an interesting game that would probably be controversial enough on its own merits, but with frequent bugs of the worst sort and an interface clearly designed for computer users, it crosses the line into something I just can’t recommend in its current state. I actually enjoyed the game when it was working properly, but there are only so many times I can lose a dozen hours of progress before calling it a day. Maybe after a few patches this will be worth spending time with, but for now I’d avoid it.

I agree with the sentiment of Limited Run Games on Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties: Definitive Edition. We shouldn’t only preserve and make accessible the good games from gaming history. The bad stuff has its place too, at least in the context of the medium as an art form. But this is also a product, and taken in that context I have a really hard time recommending this. The game itself is as awful as advertised, and while there has been a good effort made here to provide a lot of extra material, I didn’t come away from this with any real insight into how this whole mess happened or even really why we should care about it specifically. There’s probably a story here, but it’s one this release doesn’t do a good job of telling.

Croma isn't a bad game, by any stretch – in fact, I enjoy it a lot. But it is a simple game, one that might endure in the same way that Canabalt endures, something to come back to when an errant OpenFeint notification reminds you how easy it is to kill an afternoon chasing the dragon.

I don't think it will take a lot of hammering to make this into a more challenging game, and it will be all the better for it. That will just leave Ms. Spell with the problem of being a rather ordinary example of its genre on a platform positively drowning in more interesting ideas. I suppose if you like the idea of a roguelite but find the general difficulty of the genre intimidating, you might enjoy Ms. Spell. Otherwise, this is a hard game to recommend in its current form.

The writing in Hearts of Iron: War Stories was interesting enough to hold my attention for its brief running time, but the dull choices and disappointing ending system make it pretty hard to recommend.

Overall, Marcus Level is a great casual game if you’re looking for something to kick back to, but it’s definitely only a game for those who have oodles of patience and a lot of spare time on their hands.

I appreciate that Everdream Valley zigged where I expected it to zag, and there are times when I think it almost gets what it’s going for. There’s certainly something here that a person could grab on to if they’re in the right frame of mind. But there are just so many bits of the game that feel half-baked or not properly thought-out, and the technical issues are frequent and unpleasant. It might eventually get updated into something worth punting on, but for now I’d give it a wide berth.

It's worth a pass unless you're the most die-hard fan of Crescent Moon games.

There are plenty of games out there that respect my time and money, and this isn't one of them.

It has all the makings of a good game but fails to execute most of them well. Rather than rewarding you the more you play, it feels like it’s punishing you by everything you have to do the further you go. If there was just the one change of your crew being able to make daily items for you, it would be tremendously better. Until then, it falls into mediocrity.

I think Warbot Assault is perhaps interesting to check out for its 'giant robots punching others in the face' premise. It's just not one with much lasting appeal beyond that.

The biggest issue with Valthirian Arc: Hero School Story 2 right now is the general bugginess of it. If it gets some fixes, I’m sure it will settle into that same niche the first game did. Not that interesting for simulation fans, nor all that exciting for RPG fans, but for those who feel like dabbling in a low-impact version of both put together, it’s okay. It’s too bad it isn’t more than that, because the concept is really good and a sequel is ideally where things ought to come together.

Perhaps with updates, Gamevil will add more to Dark Avenger, and bring it up to a competitive level. It’s worthwhile to try because it’s different enough and free, but unless you’re playing on the subway or are bored at work and have nothing better to do, it won’t last you long.

For all the merits of Samurai Love Ballad: Party, it's that essential aspect, more than anything else, that makes it hard to recommend.

It is just a simple tilt-based game, but as far as the game's core concept is concerned, it's really cool– Especially if you've got an extensive Facebook photo collection.

On paper, the looping concept and setting could’ve worked well, but it feels like there was a disconnect between the people working on the in-game combat and dialogue systems with the rest of the game. Loop8: Summer of Gods is one of the biggest disappointments of 2023. It had so much potential, and I hope this idea is revisited in the future, but I cannot recommend it right now unless you’re ok with boring gameplay that feels more like a chore than anything. The great art, music, and voice acting sadly isn’t enough to elevate this to something I can recommend at full price. It should’ve been better.

Still, the gameplay is fun enough to have a go at once in a while and for a dollar you can have a Rainbow Pony in your pocket, which is a statement I'm proud to be able to say in my lifetime.