If you’ve been looking for a game with the charm and slow world-building of Stardew Valley or My Time in Portia without the strict always time mechanic or a heavy focus on crafting, this is the game you’ve been waiting for. The combat and inventory could be improved upon, but overall this game is pretty grape… I mean great!

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is a fantastic game that elevates itself above the trappings of more general hack-and-slash fests thanks to its incredible and engaging narrative, epic musical soundtrack, and overall fun and fluid gameplay. It's a very worthy successor to Hyrule Warriors as well as an official entry into The Legend of Zelda lore.

Pokemon Unite busts out the gate as a very solid, very easy to pick up and play MOBA game. Even as someone who does not like MOBAs, I found myself getting really into the rounds and figuring out the tools quickly. Cute visuals, fun unlockables and a fun variety of play styles keep matches fresh and a quick chat feature helps avoid the toxicity that normally sticks to MOBAs like glue.

Bluepoint Games’ remake loses some visual style when compared to the original, but its revamped controls and incredible attention to detail are more than enough to make up for it. The new release manages to keep the heart and soul of the franchise while making it more accessible than ever.

Shin-chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation -The Endless Seven-Day Journey- is exactly what the trailer promised. It’s a heartfelt summer vacation sim mixed with Stardew Valley-style side quests mixed in with a sprinkle of time travel and dinosaurs, because why not?

A beautifully atmospheric game of exploration that tasks you with climbing a structure of which the top cannot be seen from the ground, Jusant gives me the chill but thought provoking climbing experience I didn’t know I needed. It’s a fantastic game for the people who loved something like “Only Up” but died a little on a personal level every time they fell all the way back down. Jusant is a wonderfully unique experience with very well executed mechanics and I can’t recommend this enough.

Aside from its occasionally imprecise aiming and uncharacteristically restricting final moments, My Friend Pedro is a gorgeous amalgamation of the best portions of many wildly different genres.

While the lack of a story felt like a ton of missed potential, the gorgeous art and the beautifully complex but fun controls kept me enthralled. The difficulty was ridiculously high but the developers have already stated they’re working to patch that. For people looking for a beat ’em up style game, Sifu offers one of the most remarkably unique entries into that genre, especially if you want more from your beat ’em up than button mashing.

PGA TOUR 2K23 doesn’t hit you with a shipload of content, but with some of the best gameplay ever in a golf game along with returning features like MyCAREER, Societies, Quick Match, and the course designer as well as the addition of Topgolf and the new MyPLAYER Archetype/Skill system, there’s plenty of replay value at the virtual links.

Obsidian takes the aging Bethesda open-world RPG formula and makes it feel fresh with an outer space setting, shorter length and incredibly sharp writing that should appeal to fans of that signature style of game and fun sci-fi adventures.

Combining a hearty single-player campaign with interesting new combat mechanics, decent netplay and a character creator that’s honestly worth the price of admission alone, Soulcalibur VI takes its rightful place on the stage of history as one of the best fighters out right now.

Hatsune Miku Project Diva Mega Mix+ isn’t quite the PC port we would hope for but it is a great start for the series or for PC players to dip their toe into the Weeb-fueled rhythm game.

WarioWare: Get It Together! is short but it’s an absolute blast to play and will keep you hooked with everything it throws at you. The single-play story can beaten quickly but the replay value is in the different characters and figuring out how they handle each puzzle. The graphics are wild and fun, the controls are really solid, and the wealth of multiplayer options make this a blast for multiplayer couch sessions.

The battle mechanics do feel a bit more sped up from before which marked an improvement to the quality of life that was needed to keep the pace of the battles up. A large roster also keeps things interesting but there is a locking feature where some characters can’t be changed out, limiting the usage of the expansive roster in the beginning.

Kingdom Hearts III is a welcome return of the Disney action-RPG epic and the best game in the series to date, making you really want to see the next chapter in the series as soon as possible.

Approachable, but surprisingly deep, Knockout City is one of 2021’s biggest surprises and a refreshing take on the team-based competitive multiplayer genre.

Pikmin 3 Deluxe for the Nintendo Switch takes an already great game and sweetens it with updated visuals, improved controls and impressive (though uncharacteristically difficult) side missions to create a title that would make most Switch game collections incomplete without.

While not the most complex game in the world, Penko Park is an adorable ride through a creepy little zoo of the cutest little creatures and a relaxing time for a casual experience.

Valkyria Chronicles 4 is arguably the high point of the series with great and varied tactical action and customization. However, its attempt at being a serious drama about the high cost of war on both sides is undercut by a ridiculous amount of gratuitous objectification.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is a fresh and exciting reboot that feels completely new yet satisfyingly familiar. It breathes new life into the franchise by updating and modernizing what many consider to be one of CoD‘s best sub-series. Not every new addition or tweak lands perfectly, but overall Modern Warfare is a great package.

From the music to the visuals, from the gameplay to the story, this game packs quite the punch. Scarlet Nexus is a game that has definitely had a lot of love put into it. It isn’t some kind of one-and-done, generic feeling hack and slash game that people vaguely remember six months after launch. It’s a game that deserves the attention from people who like anime games and those on the fence about it.

Where Winds Meet is one messy and unapologetically dense online game. It tried to mix all the good and the bad of open-world games and staple features of live-service releases -- whether it actually works or not. But it's the first time a wuxia game, or even an MMO in general, has truly felt like a living, breathing world -- not just a theme park of instanced dungeons and fetch quests. Anyone hunting for their next timesink, whether solo or with friends, will find Where Winds Meet surprisingly easy to get hooked on.

The controls aren’t the best as the characters accelerate really bizarrely but the worlds are inventive, the ideas are unique and ever-changing, and the multiplayer is an absolute blast. The addition of the challenging single-player-centric Bowser’s Fury is such a powerful bonus. With the wide variety of ways to play this game, Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury is easily a must-have for Nintendo Switch owners.

The Champions’ Ballad hits a few stumbling blocks in its execution, but by and large is an excellent coda to the soaring symphony that is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. With a balanced mix of combat, exploration, story, challenge, and discovery, there’s no reason to stay away from the DLC if you, like most of us, enjoyed the game to begin with.

Red Dead Redemption 2‘s attention to detail, engaging storytelling and beautiful graphics make it a must-play game. Despite some clunky control schemes and questionable new features, Red Dead Redemption 2 was a wonderful experience that offered a nice change of pace that separates itself from other open world games.

Marvel's Spider-Man finally gives players the best opportunity to do whatever a spider can.

Splatoon 2 provides a second chance at life for the Wii U’s best game, drawing in a new Switch audience with the staples that made the first game great and adding just enough quality of life adjustments and new modes to entice veterans. Robust launch content and a steady stream of promised updates should quickly soothe series naysayers, even if there are still a few desired features off the table. Above all else, Splatoon 2 radiates silly, squiddy fun throughout; a don’t-miss title when you take the plunge and pick up a Switch.

Despite the core gameplay being a remarkably basic RPG, Nintendo more than makes up for this by creating a world that makes fun of RPG tropes while giving you full ownership of every single character in the game. This allows for randomly generated funny moments and a feeling of ownership not found in many other titles. If you’re looking for a serious RPG, it’s not here; but, if you’re looking for a fun time filled with memes and light-hearted fun, you’re not going to do much better than Miitopia.