Part II doesn't re-invent the wheel, but it gives us a lasting glimpse of a unique world that's worth visiting time and time again.

If Beyond Blue didn't try its best to tell a personal narrative with a cast of characters, I still would've enjoyed it despite its simplicity as a game. Even though the aquatic simulation feels too surface-level at times, I can't deny the game's beautiful imagery, education-minded ambition, or tranquil appeal.

Disintegration is highly ambitious, and I think that over time a combination of free and paid DLC could shore up some of its weaknesses.

Shantae and the Seven Sirens is a compact, attractive, and agreeable adventure, but its muddled design lacks variety, innovation, and vital story engagement. As such, Seven Sirens feels like a sequel on auto-pilot, one that doesn't seize the opportunities offered by its exciting world and lively new cast, ultimately resulting in an entry that's good enough, but had the capacity to be truly magical.

As a hardcore shooter fan since the '90s, Valorant feels very well designed, and provides me with a rush I haven't gotten out of so many other big genre games in the past five years. But Valorant feels like it was meticulously designed in a laboratory to fault. It's fitting given that Riot has over a decade of data and esports experience, but the sterile feel of it does impact my decision to play it more regularly.

Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics might sound generic at first blush, but it's secretly one of the best Nintendo Switch games of 2020. It's the right game at the right time with the right temperament.

Even if it didn't have an extra chapter to conquer, Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition deserves a third release.

Signs of the Sojourner is one of the most cohesive narrative games I have ever played. The interplay between mechanics and storytelling is absolutely brilliant, which makes it a shame that it misses the mark in terms of actually being enjoyable to play. The inclusion of a frustrating "fatigue" mechanic is at odds with the general laid-back design approach to deckbuilding. There is something truly beautiful here that is worth experiencing, it's just a shame that the game seems to fight itself at every turn.

Maneater squanders some of its potential, but it's perfect for a rainy weekend when you're craving something original.

Minecraft has proven itself to be quite the enduring and endearing IP over the past decade, and Dungeons is now partially responsible for that legacy.

There's so much about Mafia II that feels like a relic of a bygone era. Video game design has long surpassed and evolved beyond this approach to storytelling. Still, I find myself oddly charmed by it. I've played Mafia II twice now, once in 2010 and once in 2020. Its foibles that irritated me a decade ago seem more forgivable now. Maybe it's because I knew to expect a flawed experience, maybe it's because I'm getting more lenient in my old age. Whatever it is, I relished blowing through a thrilling mobster drama over the course of a weekend, knowing I wouldn't have to dedicated the better part of the next month to finish it. In a lot of respects, Mafia II hasn't aged all that well; strangely, that's why I think it's a better game than it was 10 years ago.

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.

Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Mega Mix isn't as fully featured as some previous games, but the DNA is still decidedly Miku.

The Wonderful 101 deserves this new Remastered lease on life after the way it was treated on the Wii U.

Huntdown is a nihilistic, loud, explosive, even obnoxious arcade shooter. But behind its acid comic style and vulgar tone lies a superb, meticulously crafted action experience, packed with creative and addictive carnage, at a breakneck pace, for an agreeable price. Heed the warning: Do Not Sleep on Huntdown. It's an absolute blast.

Ultimately, remaking old games can be tough, but at a base level, the goal is pretty simple: To bring the best bits of an old game to life in a way that a new audience can appreciate. Trials of Mana accomplishes this goal handily. In a sense, it's an ideal remake, holding tight to the core of what made the original game (and the Mana series as a whole) so compelling to so many people at the time, while bringing a novelty and freshness to attract neophytes like yours truly.

Like many expansive online projects, the opportunity is there to really get sucked into a new and exciting world.

There's an unshakable sense that almost everything is less finely-tuned than it should be. Still, this could be one of my favorite flawed games of 2020. It could be the one asymmetrical multiplayer title I keep up with for more than a few weeks. (Sorry, Resident Evil Resistance. I tried!). Granted, I'll need IllFonic to get in the weeds and fight the urge to over-balance, and I'll need my fellow mid-level players to stick with it so the rest of us aren't carved up by diehard Predator fans.

Streets of Rage 4 is an absolute triumph. It looks stunning, it sounds sublime, and it plays like a dream. SoR 4 delivers fistfuls of knock-down, drag-out action for fans old and new, all at a modest price. It's been a long wait for the Streets of Rage faithful, but comebacks rarely get much better than this. GRAND UPPAH!

Moving Out is less strategically satisfying than I would've liked, but it's worth considering if you want something new to play along the lines of Overcooked, Tools Up, and Good Job. It deserves a spot on that co-op shortlist. At the same time, I hope we get DLC that adds more bespoke puzzle scenarios.

Cloudpunk is certainly a game worth seeing, but beyond that, there's not much to back up its cyberpunk aesthetic. Flying around in your hover car is a joy, and the city is a consistently surprising visual treat, but whenever the game gets around to providing context to all of it, it stumbles. You largely get what it says on the box, but Cloudpunk would have benefited from more compelling gameplay and a more focused story. It's not that it's badly designed or horribly written, it just doesn't quite reach the clouds.

All my quibbles are on the periphery of Gears Tactics, though. The core -- getting onto the battlefield and agonizing over every move -- is excellent. There's a smart experience here, one that feels both authentically Gears and tactics. That's the best possible outcome. Gears Tactics is a great Gears game and a great tactics game. This 90% doesn't miss.

Sakura Wars represents an ambitious new start for the franchise, one that might not be to everyone's tastes. While its mediocre combat and dialogue-heavy design may leave some players disengaged, its fabulous presentation, pleasing visuals, delightful characters, and histrionic melodrama will delight others. Perhaps most importantly, it offers the franchise a bright future bursting with potential. Encore!

While not all of the wild departures fire on all cylinders, XCOM: Chimera Squad's open-ended difficulty settings allow everyone to bend the strong combat groundwork to their will.

If the eponymous Savage Planet is your Kindred explorer's residence, the space rock called DL-C1 is a timeshare. It's a decent little getaway -- probably worth the investment, a change of pace, and the vacation is over quicker than you'd like. But, despite what the name suggests, Hot Garbage is far from a dump.

Time has been kind to Modern Warfare 2. The resonance of this particular entry is demonstrated with heartfelt passion in Beenox' high-gloss, finely-tuned remaster. While the overall package is slim and the asking price no doubt steep for some tastes, there's no denying that MW 2's provocative and exciting campaign has aged like wine, an explosive roller-coaster still worth riding.

This world is full of powerful characters and a setting that's worth remembering: remake or not.

I enjoyed my time with Treachery in Beatdown City, and despite a lack of overall polish, it does a good job of emulating beloved 8-bit fighters while maintaining its own ground as a modern brawler. I'm still left thinking about some of the unique strategic fighting elements, and as the fake PSA in the beginning of the game advises, winners don't always have to mash buttons to have a good time.

If you want to get the most out of Good Job!, forget trying to get the best score possible and just have a blast wrecking up your dad's company as this commentary on nepotism slowly plays out. That's when the game is at its best. Save those "S" rankings for a second run through.

The remake of Resident Evil 3 is going to be divisive, just as the original was.

Releasing the original Panzer Dragoon as a standalone remake is a bold move to begin with.

It's a pleasure to dive back into Control, and that's why I genuinely enjoyed my time with The Foundation. I still love hunting down every research note and every minute-long audio file -- anything to fill in more of the lore gaps in this bizarre, enigmatic world. This expansion does all of that even if it's ultimately left feeling inconsequential. Ironically, The Foundation fails to build on the excellent structure Remedy already built with Control.

It took Team Ninja over eight months to get to this point, but we finally have a post-launch DLC that's worth picking up.

Despite some lingering issues with the formula as a whole, Borderlands 3: Guns, Love, and Tentacles has a little more heart in it than the first DLC.

There's a decent multiplayer action game concept buried in here, absolutely. Some of these characters deserve to live on in future projects. At the same time, it feels like there are only so many team dynamics to experience. It's all too fleeting. Once you've hit that point of no return, there's no real motivation to continue. I'd like to pick this back up one day, but realistically, I don't see that happening...If you're even remotely interested in Bleeding Edge, play it now while the matchmaking is still lively.

This is legit, folks. A 10-12 hour Half-Life might finally be enough for you to spring for a VR headset. We can only hope it similarly reinvigorated Valve.

Doom Eternal keeps the strong foundation built back in 2016 intact, while adding some of its own panache in the process.

Ultimately, though, what stings the most about seeing My Hero One's Justice 2 is how much hasn't changed since the first game.

Based on what I have been able to experience, it's what I've wanted Animal Crossing to be for many years.

If there's one point I want to get across above all others, it's this: Nioh 2 isn't as revelatory as the first game, but that shouldn't be held as a mark against it.

With the need to go bigger, Ori and the Will of the Wisps loses some of the simplicity and innocence of the original game, but it steps up in turn with bite and refinement.

It's more charitable to see One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows as more of a Hero Association RPG than a fully qualified fighting game. You won't be seeing it on the main stage at EVO anytime soon, but you can at least have a fun few hours raising your own hero.

Hardcore players might scoff at the lower ceiling compared to other fighters, but there's a lot of potential here.

Despite some minor flaws, Bloodroots is a manically fun game that oozes style. Discovering new and unique ways to use the extremely varied arsenal to my advantage kept me coming back again and again. Even when I died (and believe me, I died plenty), I was thoroughly enjoying myself. If you're in the mood for a fast, stylish action game with plenty of challenge, Bloodroots might be just what you're looking for.

Silver Dollar Games has wholeheartedly delivered on the promise of the original and managed to outdo my expectations spectacularly. One Finger Death Punch 2 is everything I love about the series turned up to 11, and it’s a fantastic example of how minimalist design can effectively carry a game, even when pared down to just two simple inputs.

Your reaction to it will likely depend on how receptive you are to Azur Lane itself. Existing fans and open-minded lovers of cute anime girls gabbing will find much to dive deep into, but everyone else is probably better off taking some shore leave.

So long as you can deal with some antiquated visuals and a bit of exploration-based frustration with the ZX games in particular, you'll have plenty of rainy days squared away.

Taur has a wonderful central idea – it lets you tear up the place with a ridiculously powerful sci-fi cannon that's a joy to control – but the elements surrounding that core concept aren't as fleshed-out, refined, or engaging. It's the kind of game that leaves you wanting a sequel that can fire on all cylinders.

I don't think anyone but Media Molecule could have nailed Dreams. It's truly one-of-a-kind.

If the shrug emoticon were a video game, it would be Code Shifter. It's just a tepid experience from top to bottom, one that doesn't do anything to make me hate it but certainly doesn't do anything to garner a recommendation.

The Bad Seed is a natural extension of everything that made Dead Cells so tireless and long-lasting. The new levels don't feel arbitrarily tacked-on (even though they essentially are), and you don't need to be a masterful player to conquer them. I could go for a few more DLC packs with this exact structure, easily.

The stakes aren't high, and given how ridiculously high the stakes often are in video game stories, I appreciate the humble slice-of-life premise. Still, I would have liked to see a little more ambition – something to wrap a bow on an otherwise pleasant present. I ended Wide Ocean Big Jacket feeling good, and it resonates, but at the same time, it's not necessarily an experience that will stick with me.

The old Blizzard, in fact, wouldn't have shipped the game so quickly at all. There are more sinister changes lurking below the surface, like the inexcusable choice to ruin the original Warcraft III launcher and bring it into the modern era: a cardinal sin.

There are many more baffling design decisions or ideas hampered by poor execution I could cover, but honestly, this is way too long a review already and I'm only going to get more upset the further I dig. I wish there was some redeeming value to Silver Falls: 3 Down Stars or it ended up in a "so bad it's good" situation, but it's just a bland survival-horror game that's light on scares and heavy on aggravation. When I wrote about it back in 2018, I had hope it would end up as one of the great final games for my beloved Nintendo 3DS. But after a month of struggling to get through it, that hope is dead.

Coffee Talk is very much a mismatched brew. Without strong focus, the surface-level approach to a catalogue of important issues hampers the writing, the principal element of all visual novels. But while its casual philosophies can sometimes be hard to swallow, great visuals, fun side modes, and a budget price point suggests that, for some readers, Coffee Talk will still go down smooth.

Journey to the Savage Planet was such a fun way to kick off the decade.

Like every incarnation of the game, even the Re Mind DLC is going to both confuse and excite people en masse.

Despite some technical misgivings, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners honors the Walking Dead name: a rarity in the current climate.

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is not the anime game to end all anime games. It's not going to convert any non-believers or onboard them into this decades-old classic universe. Even as someone who still re-watches DBZ, it can be grating at times ⁠— but the juice is mostly worth the squeeze.

Although it does have some issues with text readability in handheld mode, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore otherwise represents a clear improvement over its Wii U counterpart. The ability to speed up Session combos makes the combat feel substantially faster in the game’s later stages, and the new content exclusive to the Switch release is a more than welcome addition to an already sizeable package. Despite my one issue with it, I can’t help but consider it the superior version of an already excellent game.

Cross Rays still has room to improve for both presentation and gameplay elements, but the new changes result in a better game. In an era where many Gundam games are failing to improve over their predecessor, seeing Cross Rays try and succeed to be a better game is a much-needed sight. Hopefully the team at Tom Create keeps the trend going with the next one, because they have the foundation needed to create something special, especially if they make it a crossover entry.

Having an extended campaign with some really out-there storylines would have been a fantastic use of paid DLC, but for now you're stuck just doing the same errands over and over or restarting once again.

Borderlands 3's first DLC is quirky and action-packed, but I was decidedly left wanting more.

Unfortunately, SuperMash is a game where the concept is better than the execution. While the spritework and chiptunes are nice, the gameplay holds the whole thing back; a big problem when the gameplay is supposed to be the main feature. Ironically, the mashed-up games usually end up being less than the sum of their parts.

I'm not sure if Takahashi will ever be able to top Katamari Damacy – for my money, it's one of the greatest video games ever made – but Wattam captures that sense of whimsy and magic in its own way. The care-free music and gosh-darn-huggable character designs make this a must-play for fans.

It takes time to really get into MechWarrior 5.

A fantastic way to spend an evening, and it improves and builds on the strengths of the original in iterative but meaningful ways. Whatever happens next, I’m fully invested in this series. The price is more than fair, and it’s a unique passion project that’s so dang wholesome and smile-inducing. It’ll montage dance its way into your heart and prove that ground pies, picked up and cleaned off, can still be delicious, perfectly sanitary sources of nourishment.

Tools Up doesn't make the most of its clever co-op gaming concept, but I still had a decent enough time. I'll be there day one if a sequel ever takes this home-renovation hook and runs wild with it.

This is a historic moment for the series: half a decade later, I can recommend picking up anything and everything Shovel Knight related.

Ancestors is a large, fussy, and at times uneven survival experience, but it's also deeply gratifying once you sink your teeth in.

Life is Strange 2 represents a sophistication of Dontnod's storytelling capabilities because it effectively adds up and weighs moral decisions to truly influence the narrative outcome. Every ending comes with some degree of complication -- that much was to be expected -- but it's satisfying because they're all befitting of the characters you molded. Whichever direction you took Sean and Daniel's lives, chances are you'll feel responsible for their fates. It's personal. Because it's personal, it's memorable. That's about the utmost positive quality for this style of story.

Although the concept of a "Diablo spinoff for the Darksiders series" had the potential to just be a big bowl of wrong, the mad men and women at Airship Syndicate pulled it off.

Even when it's not sounding like an improv group at a Bernie Sanders rally, Heroland is a gem. It's incredibly funny, the characters are some of the most charming I met all year, and its unique take on turn-based battles made a strategist out of me. I just wish I didn't need to do so much grinding to see the game through to the end.

Arise: A Simple Story is true to its name and offers both function and form, which is why I'm so anxious to see what Piccolo Studio has next in the pipeline.

There isn't a strong narrative that strings together this adventure, but the lack of one makes the whole experience a bit more beguiling.

As I walked back to Shenhua's cottage to turn in for the night after a hard day's work, earning back the money I had gambled away, it hit me: people just aren't making many games like this anymore.

It’s a refreshing change of pace from moody protagonists saving the world from unambiguously evil villains. While I like to poke fun at fashion issues like Ryza’s butt hungrily devouring her shorts, I had fun with Atelier Ryza. It’s not quite enough to get me to run out and pick up the rest of the series, but if I’m ever in the mood for some more anime crafting hijinks, I’ll probably give them a look.

ILMxLAB did a great job of taking an existing expanded universe storyline and making it their own.

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.

On one hand, the online is absolutely broken and embarrassing. On the other, anytime I'm not dealing with that nonsense, I'm having fun with the game. Maybe in a couple of months, when I've min-maxed every Pokémon in the Dex and am just focusing on raids, I'll feel more antagonistic toward the game and its woeful online, but right now, when I'm doing literally anything else in it, I'm having a good time.

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.

For a title set far into the future, Terminator: Resistance remains disappointingly locked into the past. With lackluster design, story, dialogue, AI, and combat, Terminator: Resistance is a genre example generations out of time.

Gylt is very much in the same spirit as Concrete Genie in that it's a short but mostly engaging romp that's best enjoyed by the right kind of audience.

You’re going to occasionally roll your eyes at a cheesy moment or groan at a technical issue, but Respawn did right by Star Wars.

It’s a beautiful story about caring and being there for the people who matter most. It’s also really gosh darn funny, and I love it.

In reality, for the hour or so I enjoyed the game with a friend, we were on the same page for most every mission. However, the fickle nature of the controls kept us from completing these missions as quickly as possible.

Superliminal's satisfying every time a puzzle clicks. It sounds obvious, but that's the most redeeming trait a puzzle game can have. Sometimes it'll take you by surprise, sometimes you'll train your eye to see it coming. But analyzing a situation, exploring possibilities, and approaching it from unique angles never fails to be rewarding. Is that enough to offset the realization that you're starting from obtuse and working backward toward logical? It all depends on your perspective.

Afterparty is a unique look at the people we are, the people we wish to be, and how the world, its occupants, and even ourselves can frequently f.ck with both. While as a video game it offers mostly persistent conversation, that conversation is excellently performed and smartly written. Despite undeniable narrative and technical shortcomings, Afterparty is still a shindig worth turning up to, even if the invite seemed a little more promising.

The heart and soul of Disco Elysium is stumbling through success, which has a certain charm to it. Sometimes that road is bumpy and restricted, but the fluff behind those bumps is at least interesting.

Disney Tsum Tsum Festival is packed with stuff to do, but most of it should be left to full family households with everyone on deck.

The co-op angle alone is enough for The Lord of the Rings: Adventure Card Game to stand out above the crowd, especially on consoles with cross-play support.

I want to like Battle Operation 2, I really do. I like the flow of matches, the gameplay is great, and I adore the large roster of mobile suits. However, every system surrounding that solid foundation seems to undermine it at every step. Maybe future updates can salvage Battle Operation 2's myriad problems. But, they've all these issues have probably been present since the game launched in Japan over a year ago; that doesn't bode well for anything getting fixed. As is, the state of Mobile Suit Gundam: Battle Operation 2 is inexcusable, especially for a sequel.

This is the sort of game that begs for a photo mode (more so than nearly anything else this past year), so take advantage of it.

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020's retro suite is compact but it kicks everything up a notch.

Even with occasional design quirks and bugs holding it back, I adore this game as is. Similar to Planet Coaster, I think it'll get better over time, and Frontier will surely flesh out the species list with DLC packs. But even if that doesn't happen, I'll be satisfied. Some of us have been waiting decades for a game like Planet Zoo to come along and scratch our Zoo Tycoon itch. Now that it's here, I can't get enough.

Two weeks of a workout regiment is not nearly long enough to give a full assessment of how effective it is, but it is enough time to see that Ring Fit Adventure is one well-crafted exercise game. Will it be good enough to help me overcome this lifelong struggle? Ask me again in a month and then five months after that.

Death Stranding is not the overly-strange inaccessible walled garden the marketing campaign has made it out to be.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare isn't the best Call of Duty game. Hell, it's not even the best Modern Warfare game. But it does maintain the series tradition of delivering a solid feature-packed release. Modern Warfare offers a great single-player campaign and exciting multiplayer gameplay, all dressed up in excellent visuals and terrific sound. Death, taxes, and Call of Duty. The brand may long in the tooth, but it isn't ready for discharge anytime soon.