Ultimately this “remaster” feels pointless, but due to the glaring issues this release has I’m not interested in playing further. I was going to hook up my 360 to compare to the original console release as well but I’m not very much interested in making my short time spent with this remaster feel worse. If this is the only way one can play Sacred 2 it may be worth it, but for people like myself who have any other option this is still a pass nearly 4 months later. Oof.

Inferno could have been a solid title if Supetrick put any sort of effort into actually improving the original game’s formula, but it instead comically doubles down on every single aspect that made it a chore to play, except now you have to pay an entry fee (which doesn’t mean microtransactions are gone, by the way). Inferno is a weird amalgamation of the first Let it Die and Deathverse, attempting to merge them into a PvPvE experience that ends up being for nobody. Maybe it’s time we simply Let it Die.

33 Immortals isn’t a finished product as of now but what the team has launched with is quite a bit of fun if you can get a room to work together. The lack of any sort of voice communication really handcuffs the MMO-type raid setting that the developers at Thunder Lotus is going for. What the game does have though is a killer hand-drawn art style, a fun and addicting gameplay loop and the benefit of being the only game of its type right now. I hope this recipe is one that sees 33 Immortals make it to the 1.0 finish line and beyond. [Early Access Provisional Score = 80]

What happened here? Well the original game wasn’t great, so Aspyr definitely had their work cut out for them. You can only polish a turd so much. The new visuals are nice, the content is cool, but playing the game is just a painful exercise in frustration. It is never fun. I was constantly thinking about turning it off. I had to force myself to finish the first level when I started playing. This game is just not fun, and it should be. How they managed to take the easiest layup in gaming, making Jedi fun to play, and completely airballed it. I would skip this one entirely.

This game is a hot mess in space. I don’t even know what is redeeming about it, I guess that its Star Trek but even that isnt enough; and I am a HUGE Trekkie.

I really feel like Sky Oceans: Wings for Hire had the potential to be a charming and engaging RPG, but it falls short in many areas which keeps it from getting airborne. The clunky controls, repetitive gameplay and numerous tech issues make it a really frustrating experience rather than an enjoyable one. Don’t be tricked by the fantastic ‘Studio Ghibli’ visuals because sadly its all smoke and mirrors with this one; the visual design just isn’t enough to save this game.

While not for everyone, Abiotic Factor is a fun, new addition to the survival games space. Drawing a lot of inspiration from the more science nature of Half-Life, is something that I think a lot of people will appreciate. There are some bugs here and I don’t appreciate the lackluster controller options, but if you are looking for something new in the survival genre, then Abiotic Factor might be for you. It is currently in early access with no firm date for 1.0 which means it can go through some changes but for now; its pretty fun to play. [Early Access Provisional Score = 70]

This pains me to say this but I cannot recommend Star Trek Legends on Steam in its current state. Issues with missing progress is the real killer for me, with so many games and not enough time I can’t keep replaying sections. The version on Apple Arcade is much better and if you are able and love Star Trek players should try that version. Maybe after a few patches the developer, Emerald City Games can get the Steam version on the right track so that more fans can go boldly where no one has gone before.

I wanted to love this game, especially when I heard that Matt and Trey wanted this as an avenue to have a sort of metaverse with the show. So, events can happen in the show on one night and the next it picking up in the game. The premise is very cool, but sadly this game ain’t it. Its going to take a lot of patches and things to get this up to snuff, which is sad because it does some neat things. The different cards in game that work as powers for one, players can choose one ‘bullshit’ card to use which is some uber power like making someone vampires, or giving super strength. All of it with the vibe that these are still kids playing outside. Sadly, it’s all just wasted in its current state, I really hope the developers can turn this around because I want to go on down to South Park and meet some friends of mine.

On the surface it appears to have little to do with the original, but the story does reveal some threads The bad thing is the combat and levels just feel so frustrating and difficult that most players will never even get to see any of it. This game didn’t make me feel like a “killing machine” with its clunky combat and constant difficulty spikes. I don’t know who this one is for, I just know it isn’t me.

Quantum Error feels like a game the team had passion about. There are good ideas here wrapped in a package that is executed poorly on all fronts. It doesn’t help that the developers decided to enrage fanboy wars on Twitter leading up to the release of the game. It put it in a spotlight the game wasn’t built to take. The price tag also hurts as this is a full-priced game in a budget game build. I could be a lot more forgiving if the sticker price was around $30, but at $60 I cannot recommend anyone lay down the funds for this one. It is disappointing in almost every aspect.

I think most of us of a certain age has seen the movie Heat, robbing banks man; paper chasing. Well, the video game Payday is a lot like that movie, in its players take on various heists of money, diamonds, and more dangerous things. If they prepare correctly these crimes can go off without a hitch and so much as a roach being stepped on. However, in my experience in Payday things devolve into shootouts with the cops, exchanging hostages for more time oh and like a week of not being able to play due to the servers not working.

The very worst offense of it all is that normally, when a game is bad, I would have to suffer through it once and get to move on. In the case of Loop8, it forced me to experience the same exact terrible content over and over again by its very design, breeding a sense of resentment towards a game I haven’t felt in a very long time.

Crime Boss Rockay City deserved better, from the inexcusable number of bugs and glitches that players will come across while played the games narrative or the multiplayer missions to the just laughable performances of some actors who I used to hold in such high regard. In a different timeline this game would have just leaned 100% into the jank and made this a successful parody. But instead, it falls flat by trying to tell a serious story about an ambitious crime boss who wanted more, a story as old as time and one that’s been told a million times better before.

As for right now though I cannot recommend this to anyone when better games trying to for the same things are readily accessible, cheaper, and more successful at doing being a 3D platformer.

Postal 4 is a game that should be avoided. I can see now why some console makers did not want this travesty on their machines. This game is not fun or entertaining at all. Some of the voice work is decent and I laughed maybe twice in my entire playthrough, but on the whole it is embarrassing at best and offensive at worst. This is not a game that succeeds in its offensiveness and instead feels worse because when they attempt to be edgy it comes across as desperate.

I can’t recommend Digimon World: Next Order and honestly I have begun to question why I liked it as a kid. I am sure it had to do with the later cool evolutions that happen but there are better games and even anime’s that showcase this better than having suffered through this game. While seeing some of the old faces brought back some nostalgia in the end it was just that, and the game was just a chore to play… literally.

Wanted: Dead is a mess of a game with hints of excellence strewn about. I wanted to love it a lot more than I did. Instead the game kept making me frustrated at every turn. There have been a million examples of how to make a challenging game without making it frustrating. Wanted: Dead is the epitome of the latter. It simply uses lazy tropes instead of clever game play to create its difficulty. The end result is a game that has some great ideas, but will not interest most players. I expect most to quit before finishing the first boss.

Having only a handful of enjoyable minigames means players will end up playing the ones they dislike more, and the horribly paced board game component makes the journey getting to those minigames feel like a slog and then to not have GARFIELD VOICED IS JUS- let me calm down. Even at the ‘value’ price of $39.99 this feels overpriced, if you are a huge Garfield fan wait for a deep sale before picking this one up.

Crossfire: Legion does a great job of evoking great memories playing better games in the RTS genre. It does very little if anything to innovate and leans heavily on the tracks that many other games have laid before it. But what hurts it most of all is the fact that there is NO A.I. matchmaking, which means that if players want to play the game, they must use the multiplayer option which seems to be on its way to being abandoned at this point. So that leaves players to repeat a lackluster campaign filled with generic characters (whom they utilized some top tier talent such as Ashly Burch who is wasted here) and cliché plots. Crossfire: X was my first introduction to the world of Crossfire and as you can read in my review it was a terrible first impression. And now with Legion being the mess that it is I think I may not give Crossfire a third chance to disappoint me.

So yeah… Somerville kind of sucks. The best parts of the game are when it focuses on the alien invasion aspect. The worst parts are everything else. Honestly, skip this game. It actually makes me worried for what Playdead has coming next because they have said they want to do more than just 2D games too and if they play anything like Somerville I’ll probably skip it.

By the way, the first half of this game is the anime portion. The second half is locked behind finishing the first half and is a new story made for the game where you create your own character and level up and is probably more like the game I thought I was getting. I have heard this second half is decent but I’m not going to slog through this mess to unlock it while listening to the two characters repeat the same lines over and over and over again. I could turn off the voices but that means I turn it off even for the story beats which defeats the point entirely. An update that unlocks that second mode automatically would maybe get me to rethink my score but what this is now, I wouldn’t even tell fans of the show to play it.

Disney’s Dreamlight Village is not going to be for everyone, in fact a lot of people who may not realize that the game is a F2P experience may be upset upon paying for the founder’s pack. Yes, the game will constantly give the players tasks, and almost any action just as simple as talking to a character will provide progress. But there is nothing in the way of an endgame, the experience is not going to change, the whole of this game is living your best life in the Valley, making friends and cooking with Mickey. Sure, there is a narrative, but it is very light and not necessary as the chill nature of the game is a pleasure in and of itself to play. The classic Disney music ranging from movie themes to the ole “M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E, MICKY MOUSE…” song that I know we all heard as a kid everything about the game just puts you in a good place. [Early Access Provisional Score = 75]

If you’re here to find out if the collection is worth $30 all I have to say to you is that it is a bundle of roms in a half decent emulator wrapped up in an uninteresting package. If you have ever emulated anything on a PC, you’ve likely had a similar experience and this game offers very little more than that outside of a rewind feature and you can decide if that is worth $30 to you.

Glam’s is a game that is hard to recommend. Players and fans of twitch platformers can most certainly find some challenge here but in the precise jumping and puzzle solving of each level. The problem is, I feel like because of the control scheme and the way it feels, it makes it even more difficult to get into. Still, people looking for that challenge and having patience can find something here. Anyone who gets frustrated easily or does not like the sound of a trial-and-error style game should avoid this one.

Like most RPG’s Jax will not save the world alone, Elex 2 does offer some companions to take along on the journey. Only one at a time can accompany the player but because the AI is so laughably bad in this game, they really only serve a purpose as a ‘meat shield’. Honestly, my companions were getting dropped more than they were hitting enemies in almost every instance. It was about this time that I really began to wonder what people were talking about when they praised the original game so much. Maybe it is that much better than this one, but Elex 2 is pretty bad. Worse than that I personally didn’t find it fun, no disrespect to those that love it. As I said at the outset, I don’t mind ‘janky’ games, but Elex 2 was just ‘bridge too far’ for me.

Babylon’s Fall is not an awful game, its just not a very good one and while I would never tell anyone what to do with their money, I will strongly suggest you avoid this one as it’s fate will surely be the same as the tower for which its named.

I struggled for days to get the game to run correctly on my Series X, and even then, once I could play I had to contend with glitching through the environments and fighting with the static camera which made seeing some enemies off screen impossible. Not to mention the aforementioned lack of any real goals or objectives that are posted for players to follow. There were times where I wondered around killing hordes of Raknos, just leveling up because I couldn’t figure out where to go next. Again, these are all odd design choices, and I really think there was budget cuts or something that stopped these developers from being able to properly finish this title. Sadly, as it is, I can’t really recommend this to anyone because whatever little good it may do, the bad outweighs it by quite a bit.

CrossfireX is a bad game in its current state, the developers have committed to fixing quite a few of the issues with the game with controls being one of them. But we have to review the product that was given and not the one we hope it to be and as I said CrossfireX is bad. It is available on Xbox Game Pass currently, which makes it easier for me to tell people to give it a try, but I warn you, you wont like what you see. (That is a line from The Shadow if you didn’t know…I’m a movie nerd too) Basically that’s it, if you wanna give it a shot then the price of admission is awesome and maybe you will be one who will find something to like here. As for me, I’ll give this a few patches and come back and see if the game has improved because right now, I most assuredly did not get caught up in CrossfireX.

I wanted Aluna: Sentinel of the Shards to be great, as I said I absolutely love the lore and mythology presented here. The cutscenes are also worth noting as they employ a graphic novel – panel approach which as everyone knows I’m a sucker for comic – well anything. Everything else about this game though, from the graphics to the voice acting just feels very uninspired and lazy. It’s really a shame because the content is so interesting, the Incans deserve more time in the spotlight and despite this misstep, I hope they get it.

If you can’t tell, I didn’t like Doctor Who: Edge of Reality in this iteration. Had I played this in VR I think some of my issues would have been resolved, but the mistreatment of both Doctors is quite unforgivable and would be a huge issue in either version of the game. While I think it is almost as hard to make a good Doctor Who game as it is to make a good Star Trek game, I appreciate that studios keep trying different things… but this ain’t it bruh.

Foreclosed feels like its on a swinging pendulum where the extremes are “Frustrating” and “Mediocre” and it constantly swings in these directions within minutes of each play session. It’s all style and no substance, unfortunately. If the aiming was so haphazardly programmed and maybe an extra animation or two to make it feel like I wasn’t shooting the same person over and over, or maybe if the cover in the cover-based shooter would actually work, then maybe I could give it a pass, but the way Foreclosed is currently, I would say pass on this one. Even at deep discount, you’re just going to end up frustrated or bored.

It’s a short-lived clunky game that is priced at a whopping 40 bucks. No way would I pay that for this game. This is an eight dollar experience at best. While it’s never broken, it is never something I found myself wanting to complete. In fact, I don’t see the proper audience for this at all. Obviously someone younger than me, but good luck getting a kid to play this one for longer than about 10 minutes.

This game is not good. It plays fine at best but there is nothing else of value to experience. This is shovelware and feels like something that would be a dollar or two on the app store, and looks like it too. There is no reason why this game should drop in performance as much as it does. The nerve to ask THIRTY DOLLARS for this. There’s better ways to spend $30 and better racing games… my god there are waaaaaaaaaaay better racing games.

While I know there are fans of the series, and from what I can gather, Tormented Fathers was actually a decent time, Broken Porcelain feels off to me. Perhaps it needed a few more months of development time to work out the bugs and maybe have a better optimized stealth mechanic, but I don’t think we’ll ever know. There is some complexity to the story and some decent atmosphere, but it takes a lot to actually get into it. If you’re invested in the series, this is a maybe, but if you’re looking for a horror stealth game, there are others to just play much better.

So how do I review something that I can barely play? I suppose I can start by not recommending it as that section is so brutally unfair that it’s not fun. It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten frustrated at a game but this game got me there. I am disappointed because this game was really cool until that point and I am sure it is really cool afterwards too but I’m not going to sit there and bash my head against something that clearly puts luck over actual skill.

The worst part about this was that every second of this game was enjoyable. It was funny. It was charming. The music was great. I had a lot of fun. But ultimately the gameplay sort of just boils down to Just Dance in VR and Just Dance releases at a discount price and has more “game” just by the sheer number of songs. I mean there really isn’t much to say about Space Channel 5 VR other than there is not enough game here for the price they are asking, and more salt is poured into the wound because what is here is a lot of fun.

Disaster Report 4 should be avoided. If looked at as a survival game it fails even on the merits of past titles in the series. If looked at as a visual novel it fails on the fact it is not compelling, poorly written, and lacks any sort of gameplay hook to engage the player. I am unsure who this is for, but for people like myself who found entertainment in Disaster Report and Raw Danger this is nowhere near as good as either of those games. If I had to sum up this game in one word the best I could do is two words and a hyphen: half-baked.

In the past when I have reviewed these games I have generally come down on the “yeah they are flawed and stale but if you’re a big fan of the product it’s worth checking this new one out”. I genuinely felt like last year’s game was turning a corner for the franchise. Unfortunately the only corner they turned was the corner of the ring and they “turned” it into an unescapable hellmouth where your character clips through the geometry around the stairs. This game is bad- very bad. Even if you’re a huge WWE fan you shouldn’t play it. 2K should take a year off, scrap this engine, and start over from scratch.

It seems like Breakpoint saw the Assassin’s Creeds, the Far Cry’s, and The Divisions and decided it wanted to incorporate that into its own game. The issue is that throwing everything and the kitchen sink into the game isn’t going to make it great. They have a decent frame for Breakpoint and the feel of it is fine, but when trying to navigate the world or even the menus gives you a headache, it may be time to take a step back and think on what you need to do to make it better. The only way to play this game is with co-op friends. Single player people should avoid this one. You will be bored and frustrated within two hours. Even with some friends the issues will become bothersome, but at least you’ll have someone to complain with.

On the surface WRC 8 would look like a game made for rally fans, but it misses the mark by miles and with there being so many other fantastic rally and racing games already out there to choose from, I can only recommend that you go looking elsewhere.

This game is simply not very good. I have played worse for sure, but the mistakes made here are purely by design. Players should get the benefit of the doubt on making jumps, or maybe don’t have most jumps lead to instant death. Enemies should be fun to fight, not unwanted encounters that can kill you or at least break all your armor. Inventory this limited in an RPG is absurd. Don’t let the somewhat interesting, Breath of the Wild art style fool either, because the game isn’t all that pretty in gameplay; it comes off lifeless and bland.

This game has so much potential, but it is so barren I can’t recommend it. The visual and audio aesthetic are right up my alley, but I found myself bored. It harkens back to the No Man’s Sky release: plenty of space to do absolutely nothing. This feels like early access, not a full retail release. Skip until they announce any potential updates that add content to this.

Anyone who like unfairly hard games may enjoy this but everyone else should just skip this game. I waited to see if a patch would maybe make it better but that patch never came. I can’t say it isn’t worth the time or money because I’m sure someone will enjoy it, but there are so many better stealth and action games out there that I refuse to put a price point on any half baked recommendation I could give this. Just don’t pay full price because that is highway robbery.

I am sorry to say that Anthem has fallen short in pretty much every way. Not only do I believe that Anthem was never originally conceived to be a Live Service game and was hijacked by EA to jump on that bandwagon, but also that this game was released in an unfinished state. This has left such a sour taste in my mouth because when Anthem is working well, it can be a real fun time; flying around, getting into intense battles against humans and beasts. But it has so spectacularly failed in all other areas that I simply cannot recommend this game. And with The Division 2, a game that has experience in the Live Service sector only weeks away from launching, I feel like this Anthem will just fall on deaf ears.

I was excited for the return of Gungrave. Especially since PlayStation VR had been so impressive for me recently diving into the technology. Sadly this experience is just not worth dropping the cash for. There are a ton of better VR experiences for Sony’s headset.

Nippon Marathon in theory is a good idea, but when it came to actually playing the game I did not enjoy myself and I really wanted to. Maybe there’s fun to be had if played with friends but I was so put off myself that I wouldn’t force any friends to play it.

Maybe they can turn this game around. Maybe they can fix the bugs, add some actual life into the world, and make it to where playing with friends is more than just a co-op buddy. They did a lot for Elder Scrolls Online, maybe they can do it here, but I’ll be the first to tell you to wait until that happens before taking these country roads home.

The easiest answer I have for that is to just not buy this game, even now that its price has been dropped to $30. Adventure Time fans deserve better. Kids deserve better. If this game goes on a deep discount I’m sure there’s at least $10 worth of content here, but honestly there’s still better games to spend that money on.

Shinobi Striker could have had some decent material if the combat and camera wasn’t so clunky. The issue is that because of this mixed with the overly dull mission structure and chaotic multiplayer makes for just a bad experience overall. If only there was some redeeming quality to it, I would suggest it to maybe hardcore Naruto fans, but aside from the visuals looking pretty good, that’s all I can say. My time with Shinobi Striker was a boring, frustrating grind that I really don’t think is worth your time. Even for the hardcore Naruto fans, I would say at least wait for a major price drop.

In spite of the wacky and colorful art design, Shikhondo: Soul Eater is a bland and unfulfilling experience. The gameplay is just okay, and there are no hooks that give this Flatline a heartbeat.

Gene Rain is one of those games that has the potential of having the it’s so bad, it’s good stamp on it, but actually playing the game is a frustrating chore that many will turn off after about 30 minutes. On top of that, they’re asking 30 bucks for it, which is about as laughable as the game’s voiced dialog. If this was maybe a 10 dollar game, I would say bad game fans could find some fun out of Mystery Science Theater 3000’ing it, but no way should anyone spend as much as they’re asking for it now. It’s confusing, boring, frustrating, and not worth your time and money.

I would say if you’re looking for a trial and error game with high difficulty, but rewarding game play, go for Trials over Guts and Glory. You’ll get a few laughs seeing how characters die, but in the end, it becomes frustrating far too quickly.

Tennis World Tour is a mess of a game. The AI is a joke that makes it too easy to beat, the modes are lacking, there are glitches galore, and I honestly think the support for this game is not happening, which means that online multiplayer may very well never come. If you’re looking for a Tennis game to sink time into, I would say stick to something else. Anything else, really. This one is not worth your time or your money.

Truly, I think the good folks at Deep Silver are a talented bunch, capable of making great games. Seeing them relegated to porting a mediocre game from the mobile devices instead of creating a new title that would better showcase their talent as well as the strength of the platform is a shame indeed. If you’ve been waiting for a quality game to fill that void until Star Fox makes a return on the Switch, you best keep waiting.

Fear Effect Sedna is a bad game.

If the idea was to preserve the original experience as much as possible while bringing the visuals up to modern standards, Secret of Mana fails with its slew of technical issues and unimpressive graphic design. If the intent was to forge a brand new experience based on the original, Secret of Mana fails as the dated combat engine challenged me in all the wrong ways and the added elements like voice acting fell flat with poor performances all around.

I hate to be overtly negative about any videogame, but Road Rage is a classic example of a game that just disappoints on almost every level. I can’t recommend this game to anyone, not even for a cheap price because it just feels like a game that was made back in 1994, and that’s even a disservice to some of the great games released back then. I just see no redeeming factors for Road Rage unless silly ragdoll physics is a preference. Otherwise, I’d avoid at all cost.

Spelunker Party seems completely at odds with the type of game it is trying to be. Frustrating controls and poor gameplay design are the things you want to try and avoid when making a platformer. But it is the slow pace of both the game and the progression that feels most out of place and one that makes this game the kind you want to avoid.

Visually the game looks bland. Level design is uninspired and the enemies are repetitive. Hitting bosses causes them to flash and nothing feels satisfying. Bubsy does utter a lot of quips, and there is even a verbosity slider to turn his one-liners up or down in frequency, but honestly you should just turn them off. The return of Bubsy is a travesty. He was a remnant of a forgotten age that should have stayed in the past. Nothing about this reboot feels good and the criminally short play time is the final nail in the coffin. Very few people asked for the resurrection of Bubsy, and after his comeback, even less will want him to return again.

The idea of a superhero FPS sounds great on paper, but an intriguing story and a cool concept cannot save Megaton Rainfall from being a subpar action shooter; one that fails to realise the potential of the genre.

The tutorial here had me extremely impressed and brought the entire package and themes of the game to the forefront. Now if the multiplayer continued that or there was a single player story to keep this momentum going, this would have been an overall good package that takes advantage of its best elements. The driving is solid, the combat is ok, but the theme is excellent and it’s all surrounded by a game that just feels lacking. I love what the developers are going for here, but it feels like a huge squandered opportunity.

Hidden Dragon Legend is the classic example of a game trying to be bigger than it’s potential budget or development. There is a great idea here marred by too many issues for me to really recommend this to anyone except the hardcore action or indie supporters. There is fun to be had, but it comes with serious caveats.

I pretty much dreaded returning to this game for review after the first go, but I still persisted. The theme of wet t-shirts, water guns, and silly antics is something that I could overlook regardless of how much it just made me uncomfortable at times, but the core gameplay mechanics here just didn’t do it for me. Who could I recommend this game to then? Players that are fans of the storyline and banter between the girls, and the overall visual design of the game might be pleased, but anyone looking for anything past the busting babes or wet shirts are bound to be disappointed.

Aside from a few very rare moments of fun, that’s ultimately the problem with Drive Girls. It has a unique premise but nothing else stands out, and what is left is a game that is neither very fun, very memorable, nor even interesting. It’s a game that I could only recommend to the utmost hardcore fans of niche games, and that’s knowing all the caveats. It’s just a title I couldn’t get into, I couldn’t enjoy, and ultimately felt like barely any effort was put into to make it engaging or stand out. The premise alone sounds so interesting, so its makes the final results hurt even more. This is one flat tire.

Sure the price is cheap and for a few minutes most might be entertained but the level of repetition, dull gameplay, and boring visuals do nothing to make players want to continue the Flip Wars, and it’s ultimately a failure in almost every sense. The game works and doesn’t seem to have any huge issues, but that’s about the best I can say.

I wouldn’t go as far to say this twin stick shooter is bad or even a horrible experience, as there is fun to be had, and if players are into the theme and style, it can offer a handful of hours of entertainment. Survival mode is an additional mode to keep players busy, and co-op is always fun, but being limited to local only is a missed opportunity. The red planet can be an extremely exciting setting in videogames, but here it’s just another color palette.

Overall I was left feeling empty whilst playing Randall. A game that tried very hard to shine with its varying gameplay styles, but ends up failing on all fronts; and totally messes up the platforming elements, making it frustrating to play.

While the concepts are interesting and really have something special in mind, the execution and technical issues really hold back Friday the 13th from living up to its own hype. There are a few moments of fun here and there, but the Xbox One version is still having issues finding games for people, myself included. I hear the other versions are in better shape than this one, so if you’re still really interested in it, maybe get if for PC or PS4. Even then, I must warn you, there is some fun to see, but in the end it is still a clunky, random experience that I feel needed a few more months of development.

At times I could see the appeal, but there’s just too many core problems with this game to recommend it to anyone who hasn’t already immersed themselves in the series. The mixture of boredom and confusion made me wish I was doing just about anything else.

There are a lot of cool ideas here; the crafting system for example is robust and interesting, but it doesn’t make up for all the issues the game has. Tie that in with the complete lack of originality and Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 feels like a half-baked attempt at the genre. It could have been great; it SHOULD have been interesting, but in the end it just ends up frustrating and disappointing. There are much better games in this genre, and there is little reason to invest in this sniper’s mission.

Now, while for the most part the game was inoffensive, it did feel rather boring and broken in some ways, but at the $29.99 price tag they’re asking for, I feel inclined to do more than just blow it off and ignore it. I now have to actively tell people to avoid this title. Even with the amount of races offered in single player, there is no way I would spend up to 30 dollars on this title. I would go as far as maybe ten bucks at the most. With the unfortunate physics, the bland presentation, and some broken mechanics, I can’t really suggest this game at full price. As I said earlier, ten dollars is kind of the sweet spot for this one and even then, it can be a stretch. It teeters on bad, but in the end, ends up being just bland and a bit boring.

Troll and I was a miserable experience in just about every way imaginable. There are technical problems abound and the sum parts of its design baffle. Don’t play it out of curiosity, you won’t enjoy it.

In the end, Anoxemia is a decent game with a really bad mechanic. Or rather, missing a big mechanic. A checkpoint here or there wouldn’t break the game, but at the same time, it would have made that game pretty short. I see why they did it, but that doesn’t stop the game from getting frustrating quick due to both restarting levels as well as not being able to actually control the one thing that can die and force me to start over. It’s a budget title, but even then, I would suggest either a price drop or an avoidance altogether.

Even with the WRC and FIA license, coupled with lots of content and a split screen mode cannot make up for the performance issues I experienced; resulting in a game that I am unlikely to go back to. If you are hankering for some rally action, I would recommend waiting until June to see if Dirt 4 scratches your itch.

Pixel Heroes: Byte and Magic simply decides when it’s your time to die and doesn’t equip you with enough tools for a fair fight. The combat is not strategic enough to justify the difficulty. The characters fleeting charm doesn’t justify the headache.

Double Dragon IV sounds like a surefire winner on paper. Craft a sequel to one of the most beloved arcade games of all-time, keep it retro in spirit, profit. However, seeing as the game was announced and released in just over a month it feels like about that much effort went into crafting this game. Will we ever get a solid follow-up to one of the greatest arcade games of all-time? Things are not looking promising for Billy and Jimmy.

Even with the nostalgia factor, I really don’t think this game holds up enough for even the hardcore fans of Power Rangers. It quickly becomes a boring trek even with friends playing alongside you. It looks like a game for kids, but there’s no way it would hold their attention for long, and the adults that loved the Rangers as kids will find it far too repetitive to keep going. Unfortunately, I just can’t really recommend this game to many people. At least not until after a deep price cut.

Bon Appétit will still have its followers, and while not inherently bad as far as gameplay goes, the songs used don’t really do much for me and as we all know, the visual style and content makes me feel gross pretty much all of the time.

I really wish there was something redeeming in Battle Crashers outside of the visuals. The game really does look great, and the fan service is certainly there, but the tedium of finishing a level is just deflating. I love the genre, and the license lends itself well to this type of game, but the developers somehow made this devoid of any joy to play.

Yes, the game was finally starting to grab me ever so slightly and then it just sort of ends. It makes me wonder if the game was even finished, or they just decided to wrap up and release.

As it stands, LI:39 is only for the utmost curious and those that want to test their patience.

Saying that the later levels in HoPiko require precision would be a gross understatement – they require absolute perfection in timing and all else. Some may like that about it, but no one will enjoy dying randomly and starting over on levels they’ve completed a dozen times already.

Monster Jam: Crush It! has little to no redeeming value. It plays poorly, it doesn’t look great, and it is simply not as enjoyable as the name suggests. Decades later I am still waiting on that great monster truck game. Sadly, this is not it.

I just felt the overall package was extremely confusing, not fun to play, and gave me hardly any compelling reasons to keep trying other than wanting to see more of the same.

I can’t overlook all the issues for the console versions of this game. It feels like very little was done to make it a more streamlined console version. From menus, to font size, controls, and more. It looks extremely dated, like something that somehow got shelved in the early 90’s. It’s got a lot of depth, at least more than expected for a game of this visual style and setting. Just everything that tries to shine is muddied with everything else.

With no end game and very slow mechanics due to the game’s reliance on microtransactions it feels like nothing more than a cash grab.

When I review a game, no matter how bad it may be, I try to find some kind of redeemable feature that stands out, like something that stops the gameplay from being a total letdown. But with Shiny, there just isn’t one. An uninspiring story, bugs and performance issues and frustrating gameplay makes Shiny a game I just cannot recommend for anyone.

Touhou Genso Rondo: Bullet Ballet has something going for it and it is honestly something I had never seen before, but the way it plays mixed with a confusing tutorial that doesn’t explain things in the best way it could really make this game feel like I’m slogging through an interesting game while in the dark.

I turned the game off with a One Way Trip to the delete key. I appreciate what they were going for here, but it wasn’t for me in the slightest.

If you’re a hardcore fan of the genre and just simply need to add another twin stick notch in your action belt, by all means go for it, just know your mileage may vary. I’d rather watch the news than play Action News Heroes and that says enough. For maximum enjoyment, at least brings friends; co-op makes every game better right? This has been Justin reporting live about Action News Heroes gameplay, goodnight.

Little King’s Story is not the worst port to have ever existed. However, the myriad problems that exist in the game mean the overall experience playing it on PC is badly tarnished. Essentially, it’s just really, really annoying. At the moment it is a bit of a broken mess and, until these issues are addressed anyone wishing to experience this title would do better to revisit the Wii original than waste time or money here.

Ninja Pizza Girl showed a lot of promise. The gameplay was solid enough, a lot of the music choices were great, and there were funny and quirky ideas. Unfortunately, the game frustrated me in several other areas. While the game had many rough edges, I still saw charm and effort put forth by Disparity Games.

Dex just never stood out enough for me. The generic and clichéd story left me cold, and the technical issues made the game hard to like. However, it is worth noting that the various performance issues I encountered on the Xbox One were not present on the PC version. So if you feel like you need to check Dex out and have the ability to do so, get it on PC. It doesn’t differ much in general, but at least it will be slightly more pleasant to play.

MX Vs. ATV Supercross: Encore is not a very well done game. While it has a few redeeming qualities, the actual racing and controls (the part of the game that really matters) is just far too inconsistent and just not that fun to play.

Rather than investing in an immersive, intuitive, enjoyable gameplay experience, they have, unfortunately, created a generic and rather boring click fest of a game.

Stay away from this game even for a cheap buck. Who ya gonna call? Hopefully the store where this game was purchased from in hopes of asking for a refund.

There’s a lot of new interest and goodwill rolling JJBA’s way in the last few years and I truly wish that this was competent fighter that I could point to get the gamer crowd interested in this legendary manga/anime series. However, the shallow, uninteresting combat, boring story mode and the lack of a local multiplayer mode makes this one hard to recommend, even to the most diehard of fans.