Killzone: Mercenary could have stood to provide more content, but that which is on offer is all very well polished and plays almost impeccably on Sony's latest handheld venture.

With this extended cast of highly viable characters, the only thing holding you back from picking a group of characters you enjoy is your imagination. While this hastily released upgrade definitely has some room for improvement, there is absolutely enough new content to warrant the purchase.

Along with FTL and Spelunky, Teleglitch takes the core elements of a roguelike, does away with tradition, and creates a hybrid of a game unlike any I've played before. If you are a fan of horror, top-down shooters, and RPGs, Teleglitch won't disappoint. However, you will likely disappoint yourself when you play it.

Unstoppable Gorg is a challenging, loveable, and interesting take on the tower-defense formula. It may have a somewhat limited appeal for anyone but the genre enthusiast who is tired of building mazes out of turrets, but once you switch your micromanagement mindset from passive to active, you'll find yourself coming back time and time again.

Among the wealth of Like a Dragon games we’ve had over the last year or so, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is easily the stand-out for me.

While it may not be as complicated as an actual collectible card game, or have the appeal of showing off your collection to your friends, it is a great videogame that has minimal issues and is in a neat package, so it would be foolish to try to compare it to something it’s not trying to be.

As it stands, you'll easily get around 5 hours or more out of the game by simply upgrading everything and having fun while you do it. And even when you 'complete' it, Death Rally doesn't make you feel like you are done playing it.

It's endearing, provocative, and silly. But it lacks variety and never quite recaptures the magic of its predecessor. No longer a breath a fresh air, The Second Coming settles for being an enjoyable lark. And I'm perfectly okay with that.

If you've never given Pushmo a fair shake before, trying out the free stages in Stretchmo is a great way to start.

And because she’s finally making her debut in Deluxe, this review will be all about Birdo.

Depending on how skilled you are with puzzle solving (and how good you are with your hands if you're using the Touch), I Expect You To Die could last you several hours or a few days. But what I can really get down with is that even after I had finished the handful of scenarios, I anxiously wanted to see how others would approach the same concepts, and tried out a few new tactics of my own.

If you're going physical, $30 is going to be a little too rich for what's otherwise a straight retro game with some new content, but Wild Guns Reloaded is a treat. Whether you're the type of score-attack addicted player who wants to rocket ahead in the leaderboards, or you have three other friends/family members ready for co-op, it's worth digging into.

TumbleSeed is a game that I don't think I'll ever completely finish, but it's damn impressive for those that dare to stomach its difficulty. If you're the kind of person looking for a mostly skill based game that is brutally challenging, yet very entertaining, then TumbleSeed is for you. More casual players will want to save their money and sanity for games a bit more accessible to them. Honestly, the biggest mistake here is that the developers haven't offered multiple difficulties, which will surely limit the potential player base.

Highly fun. Apart from some minor annoyances in the inventory system and difficulty balance, its challenge, sense of humor and deep customization options make for a great game with long legs and huge potential for future expansion with DLC. Old school shooter fans should take heed.

An interesting title with fun gameplay. It can be frustrating at times but a solid game and a welcome addition to the service.

If you're playing BioShock 2 for its multiplayer and not its narrative, then you're doing it wrong. Think of it as nice-to-have bonus materials in the pocket of a DVD you've been waiting for. You will enjoy it and it does add some value, but I doubt you'll often come back to it.

For being a rather unique premise, Flooded offers a very tight and polished experience. It’s the sort of thing where I’m afraid that if you either add something or take it away, it will stop working. Just a terrific execution of its thesis. I’m not certain it will necessarily soak your socks like some more expansive builders might, but your time spent stranded will be worthwhile.

An excellent package combining two great arcade classics. The niggling annoyances don't add up to any real detriment to the title and the bonuses are pleasant.

While it’s not yet perfect, Smackdown vs. Raw 2009 is easily the best wrestling game we’ve seen this generation, hands down.

It's a brilliant tribute to one of the greatest videogames ever made, and it's also a good game in its own right.

It takes time to really get into MechWarrior 5.

If you’re a fan of the franchise or want to get in on some good, old-fashioned melee combat with undies and lady bits in between, Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus is a great place to start.

I'm just glad that the gameplay is so solid and feels so new that the sound of a less-than-desirable song is still something worth playing.

Annoyances aside, MLB The Show 17 continues to iterate without the technical baggage a few games back. Beyond the attempts to monetize players through microtransactions (which mainly work as boosts), I didn't really have any major issues with any given aspect of the game. We're only a few more days out until the 2017 season, and I'm counting on using The Show as my companion for it.

In a word, Sokobond is elegant. It is elegant in its concept, it is elegant in its aesthetic direction, and it is elegant in its puzzle design.

#IDARB reminds me of the core reason why I play videogames, the honest fun and good spirit of the design with the tight competitive gameplay make this a perfect game to sit back and let the world slip away.

NEO: The World Ends with You is a sequel worth waiting for.

With the various quality of life improvements, Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux is simply a more playable version of an already great game. I really enjoyed it the first time around nine years ago, and replaying it today reminds of why it was the ideal game to introduce me to the Shin Megami Tensei franchise.

It's a simple game, but it does exactly what it sets out to do and it has a cute, clean aesthetic that serves it well.

Costume Quest 2 still has that Double Fine charm and any game that includes a Blazing Saddles joke in 2014 is okay in my book.

This has some great potential as a bite-sized series to spend an evening with. If I had kids, this is exactly the sort of experience I'd want to share with them. As a thirty-one-year-old bachelor, I still think it's pretty gosh darn rad.

Aliens vs. Pinball is great, both as a novelty and as a serious set of tables. Whether you're just a fan of Aliens stuff and like the idea of a fun way to kill a few minutes here and there, or the kind of fanatic that will obsess over a table, playing over and over again to complete all the objectives and set a massive score, you can't go wrong.

It's campy fun and that's perfectly fine. Just don't expect too much more.

Scarlet Nexus is, ultimately, some gorgeous, action-heavy comfort food. It is Saturday morning anime in game form, and while it will struggle to hold your attention from a story perspective, it’s also a good way to lose 30 hours in a fun combat system. It’s not a narrative powerhouse, but if you need a vehicle for bashing monsters with the might of your brain, it’ll suit that need just fine.

Valkyria Chronicles Remastered is just as great of a game as it was eight years ago. Having it perform better and run smoother is a gift. A few things hold it back from perfection, but I'd rather have a war game strive for something new and risky like this than go with safe boilerplate action sequences. I'm happy Sega took a chance on this one.

Mortal Kombat X's impact isn't as explosive as 2011, but it's well polished and a worthy successor.

Whether I’m laughing out loud over a brilliant strategy gone awry or just barely getting onto an escape vehicle with Ridden right on my heels, Back 4 Blood has the right formula for a good few weekends of co-op fun. If it gets even more support and updates down the line, I could see this taking up a spot as a go-to social game for quite a while to come. Really, it just feels good to have this sort of game back again.

Hopalong: The Badlands is a fun and intuitive arcade shooter that lasts just long enough for you to feel like you've truly mastered its controls, but not too long to overstay its welcome.

Little Hope proves that the Dark Pictures format isn't a fluke and I'm excited for Supermassive to continue honing its craft. On that note, I love how these games tease forthcoming installments with collectible in-game premonitions. Next up, the seemingly Descent-inspired House of Ashes.

I'm trying to be a bit vague here when it comes to Inmost's narrative details to avoid spoilers, but don't cancel that Apple Arcade subscription just yet.

PAYDAY 2 is undeniably rough and needs a couple of updates to fill in a few blanks, but the thrill of robbing banks, smashing jewel cases, and cooking meth is too great for the asking price not be returned to the player in spades.

To the delight of many, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is less X and more traditional Xenoblade.

Transformed is the perfect arcade racer for those that feel left out by Forza and Need for Speed's latest open-world, multiplayer focused outings. Sega has cherry-picked the best elements of kart racers and applied it to the best arcade racing games to create a sleeper hit that's great fan service and great fun.

For as gorgeous as Eastward‘s graphics are, and as endearing as some of its characters become, and as much as I need its soundtrack on vinyl as soon as possible, it also falls short in some ways that leave its conclusion feeling a bit off. It’s one of the more promising debuts I’ve seen, and Pixpil has ensured I’ll be incredibly interested in whatever they do next. Eastward is something a fan of pixel art and good music, with a weakness for video game nostalgia, deserves to check out. It’s just also a journey that left me wanting a little more.

The world of Viva Piñata seems right at home on the DS. Despite carrying over some faults from the original and dealing with minor limitations, Pocket Paradise is a terrific addition to the DS library and in many ways improves upon the Xbox 360 version.

Strong Badia the Free is mostly made up of all new environments, so it in no way felt like a simple recycling of Homestar Ruiner, and while the game's structure of "convert a country, to move to the next country" makes it inherently more predictable than Homestar Ruiner was, it's still full of surprises.

It alternately shocks and entertains without resorting to the boring, repetitive combat we usually associate with survival horror. Black Plague is nowhere near perfect, but it still deserves to be played.

A fine alternative RTS that expands upon an already fantastic universe and one of Final Fantasy's most compelling stories and casts to date. But while their grip on the gameplay end of things has improved dramatically over Heroes of Mana, Wings makes a few mistakes that keep things a little less strategy and a little more mob slaughter.

Strong Badia the Free is mostly made up of all new environments, so it in no way felt like a simple recycling of Homestar Ruiner, and while the game's structure of "convert a country, to move to the next country" makes it inherently more predictable than Homestar Ruiner was, it's still full of surprises.

Chasm was worth the wait regardless of its shortcomings. It's gorgeous, it sounds wondrous, and even though I'm not quite at the point where I can call it a "classic," it honors the genre. I hope the follow-up doesn't take nearly as long.

I can wholeheartedly recommend the full-price purchase of Wario Land: Shake It to only three groups of people: kids between 5-10 years old, die-hard fans of hand-drawn animation, and people who love "easy but smart" 2D platformers.

Pokémon has always literally been give and take since the second generation. Some give more than others, and Sword and Shield has taken away quite a bit.

It's held back by some dated design philosophies and a short playtime, but Detention still packs one hell of a punch.

Just enough obstacles exist to make that story feel as though it was earned, that the player participated in the telling, but conveying the story is the priority.

The studio is finding a way to improve upon the core tenets of the game while maintaining an episodic format, which many other developers don't tend to do.

For all of its flaws, it's still a remarkably fun game with plenty of character. When you're commanding armies of dragons and giants to annihilate cities protected by ghost ships or rat snipers, it's easier to overlook the game's shortcomings. I know that I'll certainly be playing a few more campaigns, and once the multiplayer gets added I'll play even more.

Culdcept Saga doesn't do its best to be accessible and easy to appreciate, and that's probably its biggest downfall. But, when you get past the incredibly steep learning curve, insane match times, and sometimes cheap AI, you'll find a deep, rewarding strategy gaming experience.

When everything comes together, Golem has some of the best PlayStation VR combat I've played, and a story worth hearing. When it's off, even a little, frustration follows. If you can tolerate backtracking and don't mind dealing with occasional VR tech idiosyncrasies, you're gonna have a grand time.

FTG may be a bit rough to get into at first, but with a little dedication and the right type of niche desires this may be a little slice of heaven for you. If you aren't interested in the subject matter I'd suggest finding another tactical strategy game to enjoy.

Now that the season pass is in the hopper, it's easy to feel like Pokemon Sword and Shield are a transitional generation to something greater.

While I didn't have any trouble seeing this season through per se -- as the amazing action choreography helped -- City of Light did run out of gas once most of the major players bowed out. But truth be told, Telltale has created a strong universe to keep expanding on, and as long as it can keep supplanting well-known characters in the future, I can see an excuse to keep making this series more than any of its other projects to date.

Back in 2005, I liked Resident Evil 4, but I didn’t love it. The remake hasn’t changed that. Unlike the Resident Evil 2 remake, which was revolutionary, Resident Evil 4’s glow-up is more of a faithful recreation rather than an overhaul. It changes just enough that, if you loved the original, I can’t guarantee this will leave you unperturbed. Meanwhile, if you didn’t like its first iteration, it’s not impossible that this will change your mind. The best I can say is that it is an earnest effort at recapturing the magic, and it’s worth checking out. It remains, as it always was, maddeningly inconsistent.

It's a shame that there's such a weird barrier between the player and actually playing the levels they want. With a bit more tweaking of how many coins it takes to unlock each stage, or the elimination of the system entirely, Ms. Splosion Man would be one of the finest games on the entire App Store.

The Wolf Among Us: In Sheep's Clothing isn't a wholly satisfying penultimate episode, but it's about on par with its predecessors in terms of quality. You'll get enough answers and confrontations to be entertained throughout, but it most definitely leaves a lot to be resolved in the final episode.

If you hate GTA games because you feel like they're too "bland," Vice City is your gateway drug. It oozes more charm than pretty much any game in the series outside of possibly San Andreas (provided you're a fan of hip-hop culture for that entry), and the smaller scale of the city makes it a much more manageable affair. If you're curious about the franchise, this is a great starting point before GTA V hits next year.

What initially seemed like a fun way to kill a few hours has turned out to be a highly entertaining time sink.

Anomaly 2 is an immediate and exciting strategy game unlike any other, but over time the repetition and lack of depth leaves something to be desired.

Assassin's Creed: Pirates is a very silly game, but it's a great distraction if you're left wanting more after Black Flag. With a host of content, tons of customization and fast-paced combat, there's hardly a dull moment in Pirates. The fact that there's no money-grubbing microtransactions to ruin the experience is the cherry on top.

Battlezone: Combat Commander is a relic of its time. It’s clear this is a love letter to fans of the original, a nicer way to play a game plagued with some unfortunate problems back when it was released.

Octopath Traveler is a small triumph in that it mostly delivers on its promise to give us eight stories worth seeing through.

I’m not sure Emio is going to stick with me in the same way that Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo will. If anything does cement itself in my mind, it will be its conclusion, which is so incredibly impactful, partly because you’ve spent so much time immersed in the very human side of its mystery. It’s also impactful because it’s incredibly dark in a way the rest of the narrative only hinted at. You’ll just have to do some digging before you find the body.

I'm grateful that another Wario game even exists, and WarioWare: Get It Together! is going to be a hit for a lot of people who are already dedicated to this special brand of weird.

A game of this magnitude is bound to have its successes and failures, and Assassin's Creed Syndicate definitely has both. But, in most instances, gameplay and narrative are interwoven nicely enough to keep us vested in our pursuit of a better London.

The package doesn't reach the bar raised by Harmonix's first single-band outing.

A morbid, humorous romp filled with life lessons which should be apparent already to all but the total sociopath. While there are some niggling issues with overall polish, it's a fun time for fans of adventure games that should set you to giggling and, hopefully, feeling just a little bit guilty about that glee.

Every time I returned to Fury Unleashed I found myself enjoying what I played. It’s maybe not something that sucked me in and kept me glued to the screen until the end, but it entertained whenever I gave it a chance. For its price, it’s a worthwhile diversion. I just wouldn’t be surprised if nothing inside you gets unleashed.

Galaga Legions is a fun, imaginative XBLA game that I'd recommend in a heartbeat during almost any other time of the year -- but given its lack of content and the other, much more impressive games from the Summer of Arcade, Galaga Legions might not be for everyone.

While I can't wholly recommend Dark Arisen to anyone but the most hardcore of Dragon's Dogma fans, if you haven't touched the franchise yet, this is a perfect opportunity to do so. Despite the issues, the series is an intriguing prospect that does many things right, and shouldn't be missed by action or RPG fans alike.

A mixed bag. It’s vastly better than its predecessors in many ways, but there are a few areas -- big ones -- where it falls flat. Still, I can say without hesitation that it’s easily the best Madden game since the franchise entered the high-definition era.

It doesn't claim to be anything but a wave-based, score-centric space-arcade game, and that works in its favor. The simple design allows the game to focus on its wonderfully satisfying mechanics, even if they aren't communicated very well through the poor tutorial.

If you happen to miss this return to Kanto that's perfectly fine, but I was mostly delighted to go back.

It's one of the most expensive propositions in all of gaming right now, but the gameplay is there and the Starter Pack stands on its own. While the campaign can be a bit uneven at times, the always reliable LEGO charm and the innovation of the physical aspect of Dimensions allows it to excel.

If you happen to miss this return to Kanto that's perfectly fine, but I was mostly delighted to go back.

Derrick the Deathfin is an easy recommendation for anyone who likes their platformers with a unique flare. Its self-referential humor and topical environmental humor are more than enough to give it a personality that you won't find outside Banjo-Kazooie.

I’m sort of in the same position as I was last time around: I enjoyed the experience, but I’m not exactly in a hurry to go out and pick up the rest of the series.

Ghosts 'n Goblins Resurrection isn't firing on all cylinders constantly, but when you're in the groove, on any difficulty, or even with co-op in high gear, it reminds me of why I started to like this series in the first place.

If you're big into the Mighty series, you'll probably have a decent time with Academy. It's a bit too chaotic to be a worthwhile multiplayer party game if that's primarily what you're looking for, but the great gameplay from the past Switch Force games has translated over in a nearly 1:1 ratio, which is fine by me.

REPLACED is a visually stunning and narratively gripping cyberpunk adventure that’s hard to look away from, even when it stumbles. Its gorgeous 2.5D world, compelling story, and thoughtful character work make it stand out, but frustrating readability issues in both platforming and combat occasionally impede the experience. Despite these shortcomings, REPLACED’s style and substance shine through, making it an easy recommendation for fans of cinematic platformers and dystopian thrillers.

Dreadnought is off to a good start. Whether Yager's pretty, engaging space battler has long-term legs will depend on how it grows the ship roster, and on how many people, overall, are willing to commit.

If Opoona had a more motivating story and more enjoyable in-game tasks, it would rank as one of the best RPGs of the past five years, due in no small part to its innovative battle system and unique in-game world.

With all that said, I can clearly see why Corpse Party is a cult classic. It’s a dismal, oppressive horror game that sinks you into the hell it has constructed. It presents a thick, sticky mystery to wade through and presents it with panache. It’s maybe not the most essential remaster of a game, but the same spooky tale of hopelessness is still present. I just wish it would keep its obvious fascination with human excrement to itself.

A quaint game and a splendid diversion from the rest of the Apple Arcade lineup. It's not the type of game people are going to subscribe to the service just to play, but it is a wonderful supplement to the more time-consuming titles available.

I came into The Endless Seven-Day Journey expected to revel in its recreation of the leisurely days of summer. I didn’t expect I’d leave it with a whole town full of characters I’m genuinely delighted by. And that’s why I enjoyed being in this world as much as I did. It’s an altruistic bit of nicecore gaming that plays like a warm memory of youth. Even if I don’t care for Crayon Shin-chan, this is a game I’m going to return to when I need a break from adulting all day.

Everything that made the first two Yomawari games special are here. The only problem is that nothing was added on top. This isn’t Yomawari: Plus One; it’s Yomawari: Another One. I wouldn’t even say it’s Yomawari: The Best One.

Dishonored 2 tries to take on so much that it can't actually keep up with itself, even on PC. If Arkane can get a handle on the optimization and delivers a DLC campaign that's on par with the original's take on Daud, it'll be one of the easiest recommendations I've made all year.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a perfectly good game, but it feels as though it never figures out a way to address the most compelling aspect of this arc: Lara's personal growth.

Despite the marketing of a more 'serious' tone this is still very much EDF.

It's not a bad game, but it's not a "must have" either. The LEGO Movie Videogame does a decent job telling the movie's story and being its own licensed tie-in game -- to its own licensed tie-in movie. Thankfully, both are fun in their own right.