Welcome to the Weird West. The turn based tactics inspired by XCOM work surprisingly well with the mysterious story that is filled with decisions and consequences.

Despite the simple shooter passages, the lovingly staged Star Wars stories offer more content than Vader Immortal and have been thoroughly pimped for PSVR2.

Solid oldschool arcade action proving that shoot em up doesn’t always have to equal bullet hell. And with the director’s cut you not only get new levels but a decent, albeit hectical co-op mode as well.

Where would I rather play Madden this year? On Xbox 360 or Xbox One? Even though I like some of the visual enhancements I’d have to choose the current gen console.

Intense and emotional journey into the past, carried by lively dialogue and interesting characters.

This is no quaint river rafting trip where you can sense the spirit of Huckleberry Finn. This is a relentless beast that let’s you die without warning. But even once you got the basics covered this is not as engrossing as Don’t Starve – even though artdesign and music are top notch.

Pathfinder has some flaws, but nonetheless delivers a tremendous amount of entertainment for fans of pen & paper fantasy.

Regarding the toybox, the progress is evident and worth every penny – especially with the wide range of readied community content. But when it comes to pure gaming content you not only get less than before out of the box, missions play out too similar too often.

The visuals are excellent, the fights are explosive. But in terms of storytelling or enhancing the gameplay this add-on can’t keep up with the quality of Second Son.

I didn't have to jump over my shadow to give this rating: Even if SCHiM falls short of its ideas, the charming game treasure offers a great presentation, a beautiful story and a fun gameplay flow.

The incredible presentation sums up all known UFO-stereotypes and is a treasure trove for trash fans. The game itself is far less spectacular albeit showing some interesting ideas. Plants vs. Zombies still reigns supreme, but Unstoppable Gorg delivers an exciting new look on the genre.

Technically flawless bully kick, which is decent in terms of play, but not outstanding. In terms of scope, however, Nintendo urgently needs to improve.

Traveller’s Tales could have improved the visuals, while gamers used to recent Lego games will be shocked when they hear the mumbling and grunting that serves as communication. But that aside Harry’s adventures still show off their charm, their humor and especially some of the most beautifully crafted hub areas in the history of Lego adventures.

Nicely presented puzzle game with a light-/shadow-theme. But it just doesn’t take off, neither mechanically nor in the narrative.

Technically sound port of two great ninja action games, who visibly aged, but mechanically are still appealing. But don’t expect any bonus content – and the third game in the collection never was really good.

While the puzzles are challenging and a clear improvement on act 1, the humor as well as the storytelling are below Schafer standards.

The fun you’ll have with this over-the-top action in a remote corner of the Saint’s Row universe strongly depends on your sense of humor. If you think that the sometimes subtle, but mostly vulgar and in-your-face jokes or ridiculous dialogues are not funny, you will stumble rather sooner than later over the redundant mission design.

You need brains and skills to lead the cute but deadly alien to freedom in this puzzle-rich stealth action. Warp might be a brief delight, but a delight it definitely is.

In terms of storytelling this is a step forward to the pilot episode, but it still lacks gaming elements.

This is the best entry in the franchise yet: The level design is great and you have loads of options to get the job done. But the save system is very inflexible and the dumb enemies drag the experience down.

War of the Roses is what happens when you cross medieval weaponry with the Battlefield-franchise. It is motivating to fight for your next level up and the spoils that come with it, but nonetheless this game feels like it is released prematurely.

The story is as confusing as the characters are interesting. But then, who needs a story, when you can have well executed old-school brawling fun? The multiplayer keeps things interesting, but be warned: Your frustration threshold will be put to the test before you start to enjoy the hectic, sometimes chaotic but always entertaining mayhem.

Appealing mix of visual novel, dating sim and mech battles, that will be fought for the first time in franchise history in realtime instead of turns – it almost feels like a musou brawler (for better or worse).

Even the nice setting with vampires in the Wild West can hardly save anything: The hectic gameplay with annoying opponent spam, which no combat system can cope with, is unimaginative and lacks a real spark of charm.

You don’t necessarily need a Nintendo system to dive into an extensive and thoroughly entertaining monster catching experience.

Two charming but old-fashioned survival horrors with more trial & error than suspense.

No-frills sequel of the acclaimed Steampunk dungeon crawler, that unfortunately doesn’t take much advantage of the Switch’s special features.

This homage to Micro Machines works surprisingly well – until you hit the in-app-purchases wall.

If you focus on the main and the wasteland missions you’ll discover a tight and gripping story with characters that George Miller will certainly approve of – as well as the intense and explosive action. But if you stray from the path you’ll only find generic collecting in an open world that doesn’t offer too much variety.

There is a lot to love: The level design in this stealth gem is beautiful, the challenge level is high, the main character is a cynical bastard. Unfortunately in later levels the balancing is not as convincing.

Inspired by classic Zelda games Sparklite’s strengths are its motivating character development as well as the hunt for loot, while the co-op-mode leaves a lot to be desired.

Rich exploration of a mysterious world centered around two endearing protagonists.

The exciting fight for survival with motivating crafting and heavy weapons finally gets a technically worthy and significantly more handsome implementation on the PSVR2.

This is like a visit to your favorite burger joint: Once you start, it is hard to stop. But unfortunately the shark rampage doesn't last too long, leaving you hungry for more.

Quotation forthcoming.

Even though the world seems alive and the characters are quite charming, the work as a sleuth doesn’t feel methodologically sound.

The concept is simple and motivating, while the technical execution is solid and delivers accurate head tracking. Unfortunately there can be a bug that can keep you from moving to the next level. Pity.

The dynamic battles are well executed, the 3D-effects strike you with immense feeling of depth. But Mercury Steam can’t get a grip on the spirit of past mobile Castlevanias. This plays more like a two-dimensional God of War than a modern variation of the cult vampire saga.

Quotation forthcoming.

This two year old adventure looks great on PS4. And with the addition of playing the episodes in chronological order this is clearly the best version of Beyond. Nonetheless some of the old basic problems remain.

This is definitely entertaining arcade hockey and better than its predecessor– unfortunately EA neglects the core simulation.

In performance mode this cloud-version of Control works surprisingly well, but displays some compression errors. Quality mode on the other hand is utterly useless.

Remember Me is a game of discrepancies. You’ll encounter incredibly atmospheric scenes just to be followed by weak or boring moments. The art design is exquisite, but the linear levels hardly make you want to look around. The most interesting part, the memory manipulation falls short and is overshadowed by incoherent fighting. What could have been extraordinary, is something you won’t remember in a few weeks.

This is a playable nightmare that will make you lose your mind. Unfortunately you lose a sense of danger and fear too soon.

Shallow, yet entertaining co-op carnage that lacks variety in the long run and only lives up to its potential with a full team.

This is a wild Japanese superheros-spoof mixed with a hack&slay extravaganza. Despite control issues this was and still is in a lot of ways a remarkable videogame.

Anno 2205 is a needed step forward for the series. Even though it can’t match up to the classic Anno 1404 the courage to implement some significant changes to a proven formula is noteworthy.

This is a thoroughly entertaining dynamic and enormously complex politics simulation on an interplanetary level. Unfortunately the turn based battles feel tacked on and war eventually is too powerful.

An atmospheric coming-of-age adventure with a strong '90s feel, its strongest selling point being its well-written and drawn main characters. The soundtrack is smashing, but Don't Nod runs out of steam for the finale, leaving many questions completely unanswered.

A charming adventure with interesting viewpoint changes as well as enchanting music and art design. The puzzles on the other hand are way too easy, while the story feels unnecessarily rushed.

The story is great, the voice-acting top-notch and the visuals are among the best that Lego games have to offer. Mechanically though, this is as far as Traveller’s Tales can stretch the current mechanics. The core gameplay desperately needs an overhaul.

Tales of Zestiria starts slow, but once it shifts into high gear it delivers. A monumental anime rpg.

If you got a weak spot for goofy slapstick comedy, you are in for a treat! A smooth interface complements the old-school approach, although puzzles should have been more of a challenge.

Not a loveless licensing, but a real RoboCop game that doesn’t skimp on bullets or laughs.

After the hectic prologue I wanted to give up, but I am happy I hung in there. Erica's supernatural abilities are the highlight of the puzzle design. It feels fresh to "summon" old evidence or victims to get new information. The start to this series is far from perfect but it definitely sparked my curiosity.

You will find motivating team abilities and well constructed tracks, but also some slight problems with visuals and balance. A decent, but futile try to dethrone Mario Kart 8 as this generation’s top fun racer.

It may look like a casual game but the mechanics including tactical party management as well as unlockable and combinable abilities keep you motivated. At least until routine sets in. Solid entertainment for aficionados of turn-based board games.

In addition to the framerate issues non-existent in its PS4- or One-siblings and the non-optimized controls, some probably well meant gameplay additions backfire, making this the least desirable entry in the Re-Mars-tered versions.

Quotation forthcoming.

An exciting sci-fi adventure with great dialogue and fantastic visuals, which Lem’s original novel captures excellently.

Shay Cormac is the most mature character of the franchise. His motives are believable, his destiny comprehensible. The team draws a vivid picture of the former antagonists – but the recycled mechanics lack this depth even more with this ending to the North America trilogy.

As weird as it sounds to mix brawling and bullet hell, Senko no Rondo 2 pulls it off. There are shortcomings but whoever is looking for a different approach to “duel” games, should give this beat-em-shmup a try.

Phoenix Online manages to produce another entertaining adventure thriller with the same mystical puzzle atmosphere as the predecessor.

When it comes to generating pure Star Wars atmosphere this is a dream come true. But even that can’t hide the fact that in the end the content is fun but at this stage very limited.

This is pure mediocrity. The simple driving physics deliver solid arcade feeling, but the boring story and some disputable design decisions throw a spanner in the works.

Housemarque merges twinstick shooting with platforming, while adding their signature particle action style. But with its focus on action there is not enough exploration to be found for oldschool platforming fans. Nonetheless in its best moments this feels like Metroid on speed.

An interesting pack full of content from a former Assassin’s Creed era. While the story and setting is one of the most interesting ones in the franchise history, mechanically it shows the age of the original and is evident of the progress the AC games made since then.

The action seems interesting at first but remains superficial most of the time. Unlike the story that asks about the value of humanity with the answers showing different aspects of the topic.

The sabbatical that EA gave its basketball franchise was a year well spent. In certain aspects like presentation and fluidity on the court it still is inferior to Visual Concepts’ 2K series, but overall it is a big step forward in almost every area. I found myself spending a lot of time in NBA Live trying to become The One.

It has some mechanical shortcomings and the character behaviour could be more realistic-. But nonetheless GreedFall delivers an atmospheric roleplaying experience with an interesting story set in a baroque fantasy world.

If Dear Esther is a dark audiobook, Proteus is an interactive painting. Small things combine to build a living world.

It is not the prettiest undead game out there. And with the omission of the second screen (even though it would have been possible on Vita or SmartGlass devices) the great atmosphere and immersion suffer, which characterized the WiiU version. But at its core it still is a tense and hard fought fight for survival.

Compared to games like The Raven everything seems old-fashioned. But in a kinda good way.

Very nice indie adventure with an exciting approach - but the gameplay is lukewarm and the story doesn't really get going either.

Massive Chalice delivers decent turn based fantasy strategy that falls short when compared to Disgaea or Fire Emblem. But the metagame where you take care of a whole kingdom and play royal matchmaker is worth the simplistic battles.

Competent core with little flesh: The disciplines of Nintendo Switch Sports work well and are welcome party guests, but Nintendo has sloppy in scope, modes and many subtleties.

A lightning fast reaction test that lacks accurate controls and variety.

Small problems as well as the not consequently modernized, but extremely hardware-hungry visuals are annoying - but despite all of this you still experience a thrilling gangster drama.

Good idea, tenacious execution. In theory the snaky movement concept with its fluid motions and climbing is a neat addition to platforming, but in the end everything is a tad too sluggish.

Superficially beautiful and graphically impressive adventure with an exciting setting and atmosphere typical of the franchise. It sometimes seems a bit unloving due to the unoriginal story and flat characters.

Pid summons a bizarre scenario full of weird characters and situations. The art design is simple, but very unique, the direction is plain but mysterious.

Without the need for a portal this is a decent mobile version of the best Skylanders to date. Unfortunately there are certain import restrictions that devalue your collection.

It is technically improved but still far from being up-to-date. But behind the façade hides a very tense and multifaceted fight for survival. Once you’re infected it is damn hard to get away from State of Decay.

Yukes listened to last years’ complaints and offers some interesting solutions. Starting with a huge roster and significant improvement of fight pacing with the new counter restrictions they are on a good way.

At its core this is still an extremely good action roleplaying game. But it would have deserved a better and more intricate remaster treatment instead of this effort.

A true and very solid sequel to the roughly ten year old tower defense action.

It is short, but Rain gives you tons of magical, suspenseful and emotional moments.

A refreshingly simple, yet fitting art design and a great mixture of components make this a turn based dungeon crawler like no other. Unfortunately your success depends a little too much on luck and it shows a tendency for grind.

It’s not as fascinating as the touch (or gesture) based predecessor, but it is an interesting mixture of platforming and physics based puzzles nonetheless.

Xenoverse 2 definitely serves up more content than the predecessor and looks crisp in 60fps. But nonetheless the visuals are totally outdated while the time travel theme leads to some poor design choices like replaying quite a few fights from part 1. The fighting mechanics can salvage a lot, though.

If you can do without endgame item grind, you can get quite a bit out of this dungeon crawler. You’ll encounter dozens of enemies, collect hundreds of items of loot – you’ll even get a very interesting sidekick that is more than just the inventory donkey or fight support and a tower defense variation.

Yes, it is entertaining. But is also hardly more than a fairly short and repetitive time travel trip through Sega's console history.

Decent football/soccer game with more strengths than weaknesses, a great presentation and a bucketload of licences. Having said that, it still feels more like an update, while Volta still lacks some punch.

Entertaining escape from a bizarre alien world, that shows a few minor problems when it comes to platforming.

A fast-paced, brutal, straightforward shooter spectacle – the kind horror film alumnus John Carpenter lends his name to. If you want to unleash Snake Plissken-style co-op mayhem, you'll love it. Solo players should look elsewhere.

Don’t get fooled by the cheesy description “Sci-Fi Romance”. This is an intelligent adventure novel. Unfortunately the puzzles can’t live up to the storytelling.

If you like your adventure loaded with puzzles, this might not be your cup of tea. But if you like unusual characters and stories, you should join Horatio and Crispin on their pixelated retro-journey.

Romeo is a Dead Man is a wild fever dream, you probably won’t experience again. Not everything works, but a lot of it surprises.