E.V.O.: The Search for Eden really shouldn’t be fun. It’s an Action-RPG with almost no redeeming qualities, save for its one highly enjoyable system of evolution. The developers seem to have made the game entirely dependent on that feature, and amazingly, their gambit worked. Even though almost all of the gameplay consists of grinding for EVO (evolution) points to further tweak your Darwinian nightmare, the promise of that next upgrade is just enough motivation to keep playing. I find it ...

Hudson’s Adventure Island is Super Mario Bros. on steroids.

A fresh team of developers from Squaresoft (the company’s North American wing) oversaw development with little direction from the head office. Apparently, their instructions were simply to craft a game about a boy and his dog traveling through a world comprised of cheesy movie environments. Given this simplistic premise and the relative inexperience of the developers, it’s not surprising that the product the team produced has so little in common with most other Square titles of the era.

Atelier Ayesha is a shallow affair. I like its looks and the sweet music it plays, but it just doesn’t appeal to me intellectually.

Etrian Odyssey IV, the latest installment in the series and the first to appear on the 3DS, does an excellent job of adding convenience without sacrificing any of the franchise’s charms. And don’t worry: it’s still really difficult.

Mr. Gimmick (also known as Gimmick! in the original Japanese version) is a creative NES platformer that few people have ever heard of. Strangely enough, the only place outside of Japan where the game saw release was Scandinavia.

Developers these days often try to pack as many features into their games as possible, but, for the most part, those features wind up feeling half-assed. In contrast, Generation of Chaos: Pandora’s Reflection emphasizes a single feature and streamlines everything else to accommodate it.