Super Mario Party’s core Party mode and excellent minigames are the true Super Stars in this package. However, they’re diluted by the extra modes. While some are genuinely creative and engaging, such as the team-based Partner Party and the fully cooperative River Survival, others feel like afterthoughts. Everything included can still be hilarious fun with a good group of friends, but a sharper focus on the classic board game/minigame combo and an increased online presence would have enhanced its longevity. As it is now, Super Mario Party may not be the life of the party, but it’s a solid step in the right direction for this long-running series.

Divinity: Dragon Commander is an excellently written and polished blend of action, RPG, and strategy that delivers on each front without feeling disjointed or glaringly weak in any one area. It’s a game in which each component meshes together well as a whole package, and the end result is a fantastic genre mixing title that is both entertaining and thoughtfully constructed.

Sushi Striker: The Way of Sushido is a deliciously clever approach to the match-3 genre that may satiate puzzle lovers’ tastes. The game’s meaty content and RPG mechanics are filling, but its long stretches of stagnant levels amount to a bunch of tasty appetizers as opposed to a full course feast. Altogether, it won't be the highlight of everyone's menu, as it costs almost as much as a full-priced Switch game. Nevertheless, if you crave a unique 1v1 puzzler, Sushi Striker is a delectable game backed up by a scrumptious story.

I just think the execution of the game is nowhere near as good as it could have been. The potential for this game is endless and I think Nintendo only brought us with an average gaming experience.

There’s just something exhilarating about driving a tank, dodging the artillery shells pounding the ground around you, while light tanks scout hostiles, medium and heavy tanks duel it out in the middle of the map, tank destroyers picking off targets from afar, and you find yourself backed into a corner, surrounded and outnumbered, your tracks damaged, and your only allies being your tank’s smoking cannon and high explosive rounds.

Beyond just the fact that it’s a little boring to play, there are also the weird problems to deal with, and the game’s charm is nowhere near enough to make up for them. Even when you’re playing, it does so much of taking care of itself that I started to wonder why I’m even playing this when it can so easily play itself.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time with Masquerada: Songs and Shadows. Granted, it doesn't have the deepest combat system out there, and its isometric graphics aren't what anyone would call top-notch (although both those things are solid for an indie title). But what it does have is a lot of HEART. The story is intriguing and well told and the audio is just fantastic. If you're looking for a song to get lost in, Maquerada may be just what you're looking for.

As a snippet of what The New Order has to offer, I’m quite impressed with The Old Blood.

The Club was a pleasant surprise. It's a guns blazing light hearted action experience that may not be the best shooter out there but it doesn't have to be.

Best known for the revolutionary judgment ring combat system, this game continues with a well-paced story for a refreshingly different RPG.

Progressing through the levels felt way too slow, finding collectible candles frustrated me, and I wasn’t particularly fond of the camera. The story failed to grab my attention due to the bland protagonist and the boring narrative. The gameplay mechanics stay somewhat interesting throughout, but the level design, platforming, and puzzles hold it back from greatness. Candleman is a decent experience, but it’s not a game I’d recommend without a few warnings.

Even though I may have sounded a bit overly critical of Momodora:RUM over the course of this review, there is still a perfectly serviceable game here that will certainly find its audience. If you're the type of person who skips cutscenes and plays games at a decibel only a pigeon could appreciate, then I just might have the game for you. While the actual act of playing the game is a pleasure, it's kind of like building a sandcastle in the middle of a construction site; there's fun to be had, but the circumstances you find yourself in are less than ideal.

Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken was a genuine surprise. I wasn’t expecting much outside of a silly romp that pitted chickens against penguins for world supremacy. What I got was a game that had contained the plight of child soldiers, guerrilla warfare and redemption all wrapped in a near-inappropriate layer of silliness.

Somewhere, deep down in The Final Station, is a game that you can fall in love with – a rough adventure where you uncover a mystery and where every moment is filled with tension or despair. Unfortunately, the game that you actually get is too shallow and repetitive to be satisfying, and the story is so confusing that it is downright broken. The story’s failures are especially disappointing, because you can see the makings of something great around the periphery.

A bit more emphasis on story or perhaps more variety in the combat situations would be welcome shots in the arm.

Although maybe not as deep of an experience as you could find on the PC, if you are looking for The Sims on a console this is a great option.

Shift DX takes one premise and remarkably makes it last for 200+ levels. Its healthy mix of spatial reasoning and platforming obstacles effectively tests your mind and reflexes. I’m convinced that this game stimulates a part of your brain that you rarely use, and it feels great. If you are even a casual fan of puzzle platformers, Shift DX will turn your world upside-down.

All in all if you are looking for a fun strategy sports themed game with a multiplayer focus, this one might be worth taking a look at.

I’m still surprised with how well the drama is acted and how the script effortlessly transports you into a Medieval Europe frame of mind without too many anachronisms to ruin the flow. You don’t see very many video games like this and even though there’s still more game to play, I find the whole thing very cool. Kingdom Come: Deliverance requires a whole lot of patience, reading, studying, and analyzing how things work. Beyond these hurdles lies a fine piece of interactive historical fiction.

Ghost Recon: Wildlands is by no means a terrible, or even bad, game: it provides moments of intense fun, particularly with friends, when you're trying to clear out a base without being detected. Yet, it has some serious issues. The A.I. coding is just not good; the huge draw distances causes stutter and screen-tearing on consoles; and even though there is undeniably a lot of content in the form of missions and things to collect, it does become repetitive and dull—just how quickly it becomes a drag depends on your tolerance for walking around and collecting things, I suppose. But if you don't have friends to play with, and you have to rely on boneheaded teammate A.I. to help you fight questionable and irrational enemy A.I., then the game's problems are amplified.

Shadowrun Returns is enjoyable while it lasts, thanks in large part to its great writing and enthralling murder mystery.

It never completely captures the intensity or fun of previous Starfox titles and the strategy elements don’t offer enough depth to completely make up for it.

The game is greatly hindered in two key areas. First its story is nothing short of terrible. Second, and I think far more detrimental, is that it sticks dangerously close to the two games before it. From a pure technical standpoint, the game is sublime. It plays beautifully and is still an incredibly enjoyable game. But the lingering feeling like you’ve done all of this before never left me throughout my time with the game. And for a game that’s supposed to take place over 10,000 years ago that’s a problem.

It may sound like I'm nitpicking a lot, but the issues I've highlighted are relatively minor when looking at The Evil Within 2 as a whole. This game is just plain fun. I don't remember the last time when I had completed a game's campaign and immediately wanted to start a new game and play it all over again. The Evil Within 2 had that effect on me. The constant shifting between the visceral gunplay and tense stealth sections provided hours of entertainment. The Evil Within 2 wears its inspirations unabashedly. The crafting and resource gathering feel like they were ripped straight out of The Last of Us. The gunplay and stealth feels similar to Resident Evil 4 or even Uncharted. The juxtaposition between open world areas and linear corridors has a Silent Hill: Downpour vibe. However, the folks over at Tango Gameworks have taken these inspirations and molded them into a mad scientist amalgamation of ideas that feel like its own beautiful, yet horrific, beast.

Alan Wake is at its best when it is tense yet manageable. Those moments when you know you have little ammo but can strategically take out a group of baddies with the right timing are absolutely incredible. Sadly those moments don't pop up often in American Nightmare and the story dies out pretty quickly which was the original game's saving grace. I can't speak for every fan of Alan Wake but it was the story and atmosphere that pulled me in like darkness did to Wake, without those being exciting the gun-play does little to hold my interest.

Unless you are a diehard Spider-Man fan I would say there are better games to sink your time into this fall.

I must say that I went with my gut instinct and although Day of Reckoning 2 is a solid game I just felt like there was something that was needed in this game, maybe a better story mode that would take this game to the top.

For those unaware, Wasteland 2 was a kickstarted game that amassed nearly $3 million in donations back in 2012. The developer inXile Entertainment clearly spent their time and resources to make a fantastic experience that has an identity to stand on its own despite being clearly inspired by other games in its genre. I’m truly grateful that I gave Wasteland 2 another chance, and I recommend you to do the same as well. If you want a stylish, character-driven adventure in the pits of despair, Wasteland 2 is here to scratch that itch!