Every Monday the LeftStickRight team will take on a different topic surrounding news or interesting topics about games or the gaming industry and open it up for discussion. Our three editors will give their perspective and you are welcome to give your own. Agree? Disagree?

The topic this week is: What game have you played recently that had a crucial flaw from making it really work for you? What recent game just didn’t quite make a great impression because of some fleeting mechanic or awkward piece?

Ian H’s Take

While I can sense that Ian Y is going to be frothing while he reads this, my pick would have to be Demon’s Souls. Though, to be fair, it would have been something else if I wasn’t already reviewing it and didn’t want to give out my whole review prematurely.

It’s a divisive game, which I understand, and there are elements of it that I found endearing. The level of persistence available that allowed other players around the world to enter the same space without adversely affecting your play was unique, especially on the console landscape, and the party system used to conquer bosses was also fairly well implemented. I liked that the previous players could leave messages, as well, if they were only stock and mostly useless. The fact that positive and useful comments were rewarded with life energy was also really cool.

What I didn’t like was mostly everything else, and even elements of the above. The setting was bland, the controls were stiff and awkward, and the game was punishingly hard to an extent where it didn’t feel difficult if not poorly designed. If it was meant to be played with others, the lack of a ranking system or ability to see what class of player you were about to work with did not help. And a game that was supposed to be a test of game player chops certainly shouldn’t be so repetitive with no real account for elevating skill level besides the ability to grind, horde healing items and find ways to exploit the larger bosses.

Yes, there’s a lot of innovative small pieces to the game. But the actual controls, design and environments of the game are so static that it feels like a modern game that hasn’t quite evolved all the way. It has a lot of old school design concepts mired in a company that wasn’t ready to make that generation leap. It would have been great to see the controls tightened up and the combat to be a bit more varied and engaging. It was hard to tell when I was in any real danger until I was dead, and that’s hardly a challenge as much as a big “Ha ha! Looks like you suck at games!”

Ian Y’s Take

The game I played most recently that could have been much better than it was, is Borderlands for the PS3. It had the makings of a great game: good controls, interesting character classes and addictive loot farming . The game also had an attractive sense of humour and style about it. The weapons, there probably the best part; being able to carry with you a small but ever changing arsenal deadly firearms.

Unfortunately, it suffered from a severe lack of content. The environments were large and expansive but never filled with anything of interest. And with so few NPCs to interact with, the world felt dead and empty except for the packs of enemies looking to ruin your day. The quests weren’t very interesting either, mostly “go here, kill this guy” or “bring back x-number of these things”. There just wasn’t enough there to hold my attention and after a couple of weeks, I moved on to other games.

Tim’s Take

Don’t laugh, but I actually tried Jambo! Safari: Animal Rescue for the Wii.

My cousin and I had fond memories of the arcade machine back in the day. It was a lot like Crazy Taxi, except your passengers were wild animals and you didn’t necessarily drive them to KFC as much as chase them down and lasso them up like a Kenyan rodeo. So maybe it wasn’t much like Crazy Taxi at all, but it was a fun, fast-paced arcade title for what it was worth.

And if they had tried to stick more closely to the arcade, maybe adding some remixed elements and separate skill tests a la the Crazy Taxi console games, Animal Rescue could have been more fun than it is. Unfortunately, the developers decided to take the Wii’s low road and “casualize” the game, turning into the original title suffocatingly wrapped in tedious trash pickup quests and animal medicine mini-games that involve patting animals with the Wii-mote. Patting. Nintenlions this is not, nor is it Trauma Savannah. Instead, it’s a disappointment for an older fanbase.

If they had stuck more to the Jambo! roots and made it a budget title – -or even a WiiWare release — Animal Rescue could have worked. But you can only spread so much ointment on zebras before you realize you’re wasting your time.