At $20 and with its multiplayer mode, State of Emergency is worth picking up by anyone in of some incredibly mindless destructive fun.

I've gone on a fair bit about some of the issues with Aedis Eclipse: Generation of Chaos — difficult to learn controls, some inevitability in the tactics — but overall, it is a surprisingly different and a well-done strategy RPG title.

Nervous Brickdown isn't a game built to last. It is beautifully creative, taking a classic formula and twisting it on its ear again and again … until it runs out.

If I were to say one thing to sum up this game, I think it would be “short.” I was able to clear through Crisis Zone in a couple of hours, and I was even taking breaks to write things down.

This isn't a perfect fitness game by any means, but it's a viable option to get the family off the couch and keep them in at least decent shape until you can go outside again.

It's hard to recommend Neverland Card Battles when it mostly feels like work, but it's difficult to not love it a little after seeing it through to the end, despite its prickly exterior.

The single-player game will last the average gamer no more than 10 hours, after which your only option will be to repeat it in order to improve your score, or find some friends who also have a copy of the game so you can compete in the multiplayer matches.

At the end of the day, Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions feels like little more than a halfhearted attempt to cash in on a couple of long-running franchises. The new games included in the mix are decent, but nothing special, and the other available titles have seen better versions on other consoles. The total package is a passable way to waste some time, but there's no compelling reason to buy it.

The title throws plot pieces at you seemingly at random and will confuse you if you aren't careful. Thankfully, the game manages to be enjoyable enough to make up for this fact, but in the end, Eragon is simply another middle-of-the-road offering.

The overhaul of the Uber-Trick system did nothing to enhance the experience, (quite the opposite) the GUI presentation was bad enough to be called insulting, and there is the distinct possibility that this incarnation may alienate past fans of the franchise.

The only audience Commando 3 is likely to pull in are those who remember the originals fondly and wish to take a moment to go back to the games of their childhood. Quickly, these same people will remember that games of their childhood were awful by today's standards, and vow to never be suckered in again — at least until the next Contra remake comes out.

The game is often too easy because of its own innovations, as they aren't streamlined enough to really work as they should.

An incredibly good "gateway" game. If you want to take a child away from their Dora the Explorer and Barbie games and guide them into the more difficult, more rewarding games that the older children play, Hello Kitty Roller Rescue is the game to do it with.

All in all, Let's Tap is surprisingly fun and is as unique as can be on one of the most unique consoles out there.

Unless having a portable Street title is absolutely necessary for you for some strange reason, do yourself a favor and stick with Vol. 3 for now.

As long as you're looking to kill thousands of bad guys, you'll find something to like in Dynasty Warriors Vol. 2.

Even some of the older games, like "Samurai Showdown 3," had more going on with the same quality of graphics and sound.

The title remains mediocre in most categories, and there really isn't anything remarkable here.

Old World has its moments, but it's a very niche offering. I wouldn't recommend it to someone who isn't hardcore about 4X games because the learning curve is brutal. However, if you've played the rest and you're looking for something new, and especially if the overload of stats is something you find compelling, check out Old World. At the very least, you get to enjoy Christopher Tin's majestic soundtrack.

The graphics need to be overhauled, the missions need to be more diverse, and I would definitely like to see a deeper diplomatic side to the game. The bottom line, however, is that if you like strategy and micromanaging a lot, you should give this a try, but if you are easily bored, you'd probably want to pass on this title.

While I feel the developers missed their mark with some aspects of the humor (fart jokes are from junior high), other pieces of humor were dead-on and had me cracking up. I just wish the game could have lived up to the adventure games of yore.

Rarely have games floored me with their animations and graphics as much as Odin Sphere did, but that is almost all that is worth recommending.

Vast amounts of patience are required for some of the more peculiar puzzles, and this may turn off many gamers. There are better options available, but adventure fans may still want to give U:OW a whirl.

I'm aware that parts of this review may sound negative, but I'm glad to have played Sea of Solitude: Director's Cut on the Switch. It felt fresh and had an important message that it mostly succeeded in conveying. It's good if taken as an interactive experience, but it falters when taken as a video game. That's not necessarily bad, but it limits the potential a bit and may not sit well with everyone. Given how well this port turned out, it's worth a look if it piqued your interest and you haven't had a chance to try it elsewhere. This Switch iteration may be the best version of the game that you can currently play.

Single player was only marginally enjoyable, but playing First to Fight on co-op mode is something you can do while your friend gets drunk, while you play some rock and roll in the background, and eat some pizza.

The developers have gotten this design down, but a complete lack of innovation and some poorly implemented features cripples Warriors Orochi.

EA Sports NHL 24 adds quite a lot this year around for an NHL game. The Exhaust Engine and Vision Passing are welcome and profound additions to the gameplay, even though the overall balance doesn't feel quite right yet. Beyond that, improvements are slim, especially if you're predominantly playing offline. Be a Pro and Franchise modes see a few adjustments to the micro-transaction-powered online modes. If you've skipped NHL games for several years, you're likely going to enjoy this iteration. If not, you'd better wait another year or two. NHL 24 is a step in the right direction, albeit a small one, but it doesn't justify the full, next-gen price.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Wrath of the Druids is a solid stand-alone story experience that takes place during Valhalla's storyline. While boasting a decent story, it never breaks the mold of the established formula, feeling more like "yet another kingmaker story" rather than an adventure that lives up to the potential of the setting. It has a few new ideas and spins a few old mechanics into a new form, but at the end of the day, it plays it way too safe, which causes it to feel uninspired. If you loved Valhalla, this DLC will give you more of that, but if you're already fatigued by its repetitive gameplay, Wrath of the Druids won't change that.

As great as Dirt 5's presentation may be, the gameplay is lacking. It looks and sounds incredible at times, but there isn't too much engaging content here to challenge players to do more and perform better as the driver. That changes if you're primarily racing against friends online or offline, but as a single-player experience, it feels flat once you peek under the flashy hood. It's fun for a few races at a time, and it's easy to jump in, but it's even easier to drop once you've had your fill.

The new abilities, such as deflecting arrows, are a welcome addition, but what the series could really use is a combat system that involved more than pressing two buttons in random combinations, a system that has worked well for the previous games in the series but has finally become stale.

I'm hooked. I love Outriders' shooting, skill, and loot mechanics and how they work together to form a highly addicting co-op shooter. While it has a lot of features that I'm not fond of, the core gameplay is solid enough to easily carry the rest of the experience. If you're into looter shooter or dungeon crawler games, Outriders will scratch that itch — if you can play it. With its current matchmaking and server issues, we cannot help but score it lower than we'd like. Whenever the technical issues are resolved, the experience could be as high as 8.3, making Outriders a co-op shooter that's well worth experiencing either alone or with friends.

If you feel like dancing and have skipped over the previous two installments, this is a pretty good starting point, despite some of its flaws. If you made the investment in the previous titles, this is a good buy since it is the best of the three, although you should only expect a newer song list and better single-player experience out of the deal.

Crafted in a TV universe that puts less emphasis on warfare, Star Trek: Encounters is a curious choice as a tactical ship combat simulation.

In the end, NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 is a fun game that may not excel from a gameplay standpoint, but its fun arcade action that has become rare in the genre. Basketball and sports fans would enjoy Playgrounds 2 if it weren't for the grindy implementation of card packs and in-game purchases.

At the end of the day, if you feel like getting startled and wandering around a horror atmosphere for a few hours, Moons of Madness will serve adequately. The visuals and sounds are well crafted and immersive. Just be aware that the game itself is mainly a walking simulator with a B-movie plot and some minigame puzzles mixed in.

With too little in the way of additional options, it becomes almost a chore to play this game for the non-enthusiast. However, Stacked has its merits, especially as a tutorial, so it is worth a try for those interested in Texas Hold 'Em and all of its different intricacies.

I found Tormented Souls to be just intriguing enough to be worth checking out if you have the time. It's a lesson in where survival-horror games have come from and what stories can still be told within the genre. With a little more modernization within the combat and cleaner visuals, this probably could have been an underground classic.

As it stands now, the game involves a lot of repetition, and what little plot exists unfolds at a snail's pace, is poorly explained, and lacks the necessary context to make sense of it. It's capable of being a very fun shooter, especially when friends comprise the rest of your squad. It's just that the rest of the game feels far from the polished content for which Bioware is known.

At the end of the day, you get what you pay for. It's a pretty inexpensive offering that gives some good thrills for a short time. If the developer released Demon Pit 2 that featured a campaign and some co-op action, I'd definitely check it out, as they have a solid foundation here. The current offering is extremely niche, so if competing on a scoreboard doesn't strike you as terribly appealing, there may be better places to spend your money.

All in all, Thymesia is a mixed bag, but it scores where it counts. The tactical combat is a fun mix of BloodBorne and Sekiro that stumbles in several places. It's not distinct in its appearance, and it doesn't do as well in level and boss designs compared to other games of its genre. If you can look past that, Thymesia provides about 10 hours of content that won't shake up the genre but can entertain the right players.

As you manage your squads and try to take down the Queen's men in Jagged Alliance: Back in Action, you can't help but feel that the game could have been a lot more. The open premise really works and allows for you to tackle nearly any obstacle in the game as you see fit. The game is fun, but it has a lot of baggage and head-scratchingly rough edges that dull the enjoyment. The title does a passable job of bringing the Jagged Alliance series back to life, but it's not as good as it could've been, and it doesn't live up to the legacy of its predecessors.

Call of Duty 4: Reflex Edition could have been an amazing game. With a proper port, this could have been a perfect complement to the previous iteration of the title. However, the port job feels like it was cheaply thrown together, and an unfortunately large amount gets lost in translation.

If you're looking for an open-world RPG that tends to throw you into the deep end, Kingdom Come: Deliverance definitely scratches that itch. The game could still use some patches, and I suspect many people are going to want to dip into mods to smooth down some of the title's rougher edges. There's a fine game under the layers of clunky systems and punishing early mechanics, but Kingdom Come: Deliverance is enjoyed as much as it is endured, and how often that wavers back and forth is perhaps the game's largest shortcoming.

Yet another disappointing offering from the folks on Sonic Team. They're starting to get back onto the right track, focusing on 2D speed rather than 3D worldcombing, but the inclusions of the fighting mode and the all-powerful AI are a definite detraction from the title's quality, and really, can't we get the characters some new voices?

One Piece: Unlimited World Red Deluxe Edition provides an entertaining but flawed take on the One Piece franchise. Its story and gameplay show signs of promise, but repetitive and recycled missions, levels, and enemies drag down the game, especially during its later hours. Those looking for quick, mindless One Piece action should enjoy Unlimited World Red Deluxe Edition. However, those looking for a more complex and original game should keep waiting; the One Piece game of our dreams hasn't arrived just yet.

As long as you don't mind the echo coming from the hosts and have friends who want more substance than what minigames can offer, you'll be fine with this decent budget title.

A great game for its intended audience, kids who love baseball and might like to pretend they're on a championship prep team. Adults will likely tire of the simplistic gameplay rather quickly, while those more attached to Major League Baseball will be underwhelmed by the lack of star players and personalities.

Overall, Warhammer: Age of Sigmar - Tempestfall feels a bit rough around the edges. Technical issues and a shallow and repetitive combat system keep it from being a standout VR title. Tempestfall's visuals and environments are often breathtaking and a joy to explore, especially if you are a fan of the franchise. It feels like Tempestfall could have used another year of development time to iron out some of its technical difficulties and to make combat more engaging and deeper to carry the experience.

Kingdoms and Castles is a solid effort, especially coming from such a small team. The game lacks longevity, but at $10, it may be worth picking up by those who enjoy base-building games but don't enjoy the difficulty and complexity that often comes with the genre.

Miami Law is certainly an acquired taste. It's not a visually stunning game and the sound, or lack thereof, leaves something to be desired.

The puzzles are the meat of the gameplay, but it feels the need to make you kill time between puzzles by sneaking past idiots or beating the snot out of invalids.

As a sum of its parts, Crysis on the Switch is another "miracle" port that turned out less magical than others of its kind. It's a less extreme example of the dissonance between being able to run a game and whether it should have been ported in the first place. It's not as pared back as The Outer Worlds was, but it also doesn't offer a lot of content, and its shortcomings in different areas are enough to hamper the experience. If you cannot play Crysis on any other platform, this may be as good as it's going to get, but if you don't care about portable play, the Switch version isn't as good of a proposition as it should have been.

While the main platforming gameplay in WALL-E for the Wii is solid and fun, it's really not good for more than a single playthrough and a collecting run.

There's nothing groundbreaking here, and it provides more of the same, with few improvements, and therein lies the rub: NFL Street 3 plays it far too safe. The new features work and the new modes are entertaining, but as a whole, it is sometimes too close to the previous edition.

An enjoyable, if slightly simple, way to spend a few hours. It's as addictive as side-scrollers come but is overly reliant on its film inspiration to fill in the gaps of the story and create a pre-existing bond with characters.

Kingdom Hearts: Re:Coded is one of the low points of the franchise's history. The game has some great ideas buried within, but the execution leaves much to be desired.

Playing through Yooka-Laylee is fun. It has plenty of rough patches, but it's a fun journey if you ignore its shortcomings. It may be tough, it's not a pure joy ride, and it isn't the best collect-a-thon, but there are plenty of charming characters and incredibly goofy dialogue. Genre fans who loved Banjo will find things to like in Yooka-Laylee. Here's hoping that Playtonic revisits the world it has created in Yooka-Laylee and develops it further in a sequel that has some fresh new ideas and a more polished approach.

Its mix of arcade and realism — combined with almost no challenge from the AI, unimpressive graphics, mediocre audio, and dated controls — drag down the title.

I have a hard time finding justification for the reduction in weapons and the tragic loss of the true campaign mode. While it is still a fun game to play with some friends, it had the potential to be more so, and it also had the potential to be vastly more entertaining for a single player.

Most of the time the gameplay never crests much higher than mediocre.

By today's standards, Sands of Destruction falls well short of the benchmarks set by other top-tier RPGs. The entire experience takes a few steps down the path toward immortality, but then comes running headlong back into well-worn trail of every other JRPG before it.

It's a fun shooter with a well-done bullet-time feature and a decent storyline. What more could you ask for from a $20 dollar game? Oh, Hubbardium-crazed humans? It's got that too!

Ultimate Band is a game that has its heart in the right place but comes up short in execution.

It's a shame that MLB 2K8 is the only baseball offering for Xbox 360 owners, as the efforts to do more than a simple roster update have resulted in a game that has solid ideas and a deep set of features, but is so buggy and inconsistent in almost every regard that it isn't worth your time unless you absolutely have to play a baseball game.

Wild Arms XF is a title that picks up on one of the major weak points of the genre and improves upon it in a welcome stroke, but seems to favor an increase in difficulty simply for difficulty's sake and has a nasty habit of halfway playing the game for you.

Don't come into Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi: The Genie and the Amp expecting too much, and you'll be satisfied with what you get – a fun, short brawling romp that is reasonably well-suited to portable play.

With few novel twists on basic platformer elements and passable visuals, Pac-Man World 3’s only shot at investing Pac-Man with the charm of a Ratchet or a Clank rests with its story. It disappoints severely on that count.

All in all, despite Might & Magic: Chess Royale being free to play, I have a hard time recommending the game as anything other than an introduction to auto-battlers or a very casual experience to distract a few minutes while waiting in line. It's overly simplified and displays little in the way of character. With several games of this nature on the market, it's difficult to see how Chess Royale could compete.

Rather than put forth any real creative effort, it is a mere repackaging of existing content in an effort to earn some quick cash.

On a console as truly different as the DS is from anything before it, a Bomberman game should feel much more new than this one does. We’ve been here, we’ve done that, and once the 8-player luster wears off -- if you can get that many DS systems in one place to begin with -- the empty steps to nowhere taken by Hudson become very, very clear.

Overall, King of Seas is a serviceable action-RPG with a pirates theme that is intended for a more casual audience. Its mechanics are solid, and the title is entertaining enough for short bursts of gameplay, but its grindy and repetitive nature quickly takes the wind out of its sails. Some of my complaints are certainly fixable in future updates, at which point I imagine the game to be a solid option for those who yearn for a decent but simplistic pirate life simulator. For now, I'd steer clear until some changes are implemented, or you can wait for a substantial sale.

With a unique combat system, colorful graphics, and character upgrade options that deliver plenty of challenges, Rondo of Swords might not be the kind of war that everyone may want to fight, but it won't hold back those who decide to take up the struggle.

As stated time and time again in this review, it's the young fans of Ben 10 Alien Force: Vilgax Attacks who will get the most enjoyment out of this game.

Overall, Lost Sphear is a solid JRPG title. It incrementally improves upon I Am Setsuna, but players who didn't like that game likely won't like this offering, either. There's an imbalance that feels like it's punishing us for being good by making the game a tad easy on occasions. It feels like an indie game in length and ambition, since it tries out new things, but it falls short. The $50 price tag doesn't align with what Lost Sphear achieves, so this game is best for fans and nostalgia seekers.

It may not strive to reinvent the genre, or do anything especially new, but it makes good use of the Wiimote and is a pleasant experience overall.

Yet another cutesy game that is veiling the usual raison d'etre of video games — killing — and isn't anything new. Peanuts characters should soften the blow of the dropping biplanes, but really, maybe you should pick up a later volume of those complete Peanuts collections, and show your children a true work of art.

Yet another cutesy game that is veiling the usual raison d'etre of video games — killing — and isn't anything new. Peanuts characters should soften the blow of the dropping biplanes, but really, maybe you should pick up a later volume of those complete Peanuts collections, and show your children a true work of art.

Playing an FPS on the PSP for the first time was a mix of fun action and occasional frustration, not only because of the controls, but because Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 offers a remarkably basic experience that hearkens back to the early days of shooters.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine has a few serious problems that Wolverine's healing factor just isn't strong enough to recover from: repetitive backdrops, cookie-cutter enemies, and inconsistent graphics and dialogue. It's quick, brutal, dumb and repetitive.

At the end of the day, Dragon Ball: Raging Blast just isn't that good of a game. Despite the rich amount of content present, it doesn't seem to have the amount of polish and playability as Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit — or even some of the earlier entries.

With a disappointingly forgettable story, solid but unremarkable action, and with little else to look forward to in the multiplayer mode, there's not much of a reason to dig for the truth behind this particular conspiracy.

Flock! is a game with an endearing presentation but it's sadly followed by incredibly weak execution in the core gameplay, especially in the offering of campaign levels.

Zoo Tycoon was never an amazing game on the PC, and the transition to the small screen has lost a little depth, a little character, a little challenge and a lot of graphical magic.

It is certainly a good start, but it's nowhere near the level at which "NBA Street" was when it was first introduced into the market.

Jillian Michaels' Fitness Ultimatum 2010 is not bad, but that doesn't make it good, either. There are decent ideas here, but if you want a fitness game for the Wii, you'll want to go with the best, and Fitness Ultimatum 2010 isn't it.

Throw in some of the options that were removed from this release, such as new officer and duel modes, and they'll have plenty enough to land another $60 from the fans.

If you have several friends with DSes, you should add at least [10 points] to its score, since you won't be spending much time in its single-player mode, except perhaps to practice. It's an excellent party game.

The problem is that it should have been done better. This is the Xbox 360 dammit, show it some respect and put some effort into your ports people.

The new features breathe some life into the stagnating DDR formula, but so little of it is actually fun that it quickly devolves into plain old DDR with a few gimmicks — the game even calls them gimmicks.

Flock! is a game with an endearing presentation but it's sadly followed by incredibly weak execution in the core gameplay, especially in the offering of campaign levels.

Flock! is a game with an endearing presentation but it's sadly followed by incredibly weak execution in the core gameplay, especially in the offering of campaign levels.

Arma II is a very deep portrayal of warfare, and it's not for the faint of heart who want their shooters to involve little more than pointing a gun and shooting. However, its depth is somewhat two-faced, as though its environments and overall feel seems as real as ever, the multitude of bugs that you will face really take you out of the fight before you've even been felled by enemy fire.

There's nothing functionally wrong with the game, but the brutal truth is that there isn't a whole lot right with it, either. It simply is, existing for the sake of its own presence. The mechanics may work, but this one could have really used a bit more polish.

With a disappointingly forgettable story, solid but unremarkable action, and with little else to look forward to in the multiplayer mode, there's not much of a reason to dig for the truth behind this particular conspiracy.

Seasoned tabletop players and those who are willing to invest the time and effort into learning the systems could sink their teeth into this one if they're willing to look past its buggy warts, but Kingmaker doesn't offer enough different or intriguing content to win over someone who isn't already invested in this system and world.

It's the perfect game to plop in front of a five-year-old for an hour or two, but don't expect to have your kids coming back to it down the road.

Bleak Faith: Forsaken has a lot of potential, and the developers seem dedicated to updating the game, so it's possible that a lot of this review will be outdated in a few months. At the moment, it's a testament to the difficulty of making a good Soulslike. All of the pieces are there, but they don't fit together properly, which exacerbates the genre flaws more significantly than any other type of game on the market. Bleak Faith has some strengths if you're willing to work past its flaws, but it doesn't stand out among the absolute glut of similar titles on the market.

I didn't have a great deal of fun with Digimon World Championship, but in part, I feel that it's because these games just aren't intended for me anymore.