It is a worthy successor to one of the finest adventure series ever to sail the seven seas. Here is to hoping Telltale can keep the Jolly Roger flying as high as it does here throughout the full length of the Tales season.

It made me want to break my Switch in half. But even in its most aggressively exasperating moments, Katana Zero remains bleak, beautiful, bloody, and brilliant.

Lone Echo strikes an exciting balance between exploration and puzzles that make space seem like a playground for the player. It really nails the relationship between the two main characters and does a great job of telling an interesting, if a bit predictable, story thanks to a unique conversation mechanic and great voice acting.

Imperator: Rome feels like it's yet another step in Paradox's attempts to make the perfect grand strategy game. It pulls bits from Paradox's storied past in the genre and adopts it for the ancient era. Because of this, it doesn't feel like past releases where the game does one thing fantastically and falters in the rest of the mechanics but instead refines past mechanics into a marble bust of megalomaniacal fun. Ave Imperator: Rome!

WWE 2K14 lets me be creative, it told me a wonderful story of titans colliding, and gave me the gift of being a kid again. 2K Sports really picked the ball up and ran with it.

I want to stress that Wo Long is not going to be for everyone. It can be extremely punishing, especially if you're butting heads with the parry system. But the setting, the aesthetics, and action sensibilities from a learned team made it all worth it to push through and get over that hump.

It sometimes feels antiquated; a late arriver to a bygone era of JRPGs. An amalgamation of the directness of SNES RPGs and the pomp of the PS2 flavor. I can only dream of what the series would be like with a bigger budget and staff. But even with what we have now, Metal Max Xeno Reborn is something special. Now, you’ll have to excuse me while I go to work digging through the series past. I need more, and I need it now.

Whether you're the type of player who enjoys crafting, endgame content, or role-playing, there's so much to do here for people of all skill levels it's insane. While I fizzled out a bit after completing the main story in 2.5, Heavensward has rekindled my flame.

Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is a remarkable experience. It takes the classic farming formula and gives it a purpose beyond just seeing how many S-ranked tomatoes you can grow. With its focus on family, legacy, and living a good life, this is a farming sim where what you do away from the fields is as important as what you do when you’re tilling that land. It’s a game that encourages a healthy work-life balance, and there is no better lesson we need in our modern era than that.

However, this entry feels like a true next-gen title, with all the charm of the Pokémon franchise and just the right amount of features and complexities to have players journeying through Hoenn for years to come.

Forza Horizon 4 is another fantastically fun Forza Horizon game even if it's tough to pinpoint Playground's grandest ambition.

Inti Creates can just keep making games throughout my lifetime.

It's simple, yet challenging, and although it seems low-tech, it actually gives you some rather high-tech contraptions to overcome. It's not just one of the best AR games available, but one of the most fun, challenging, and satisfying puzzle titles on the Vita in general.

For those new to the Kingdom Hearts universe or fans just brushing up before the release of Kingdom Hearts III, this is one of the most faithful remasters of any game I’ve ever played. With the PlayStation 3 nearing obsolescence, it’s great to see such an amazing system have this collection as one of its swan songs.

It also feels like one of the tightest games in the series, with a satisfying, revealing narrative that a few of the games in the series has lacked.

Overall, you’re coming to it after 1800, 1404, or others. It’s a good game with great mechanics taken from its predecessors that haven’t aged a bit, and you can expect to find an awesome experience that is only bound to get better as Ubisoft inevitably expands it with more content and DLCs.

As far as Nintendo DS role-playing games go, this is my new favorite, hands down. But then again, I'm a huge fan of both dungeon crawling and Atlus' Shin Megami Tensei series games.

Unwound Future isn't innovative or groundbreaking, and what few changes exist are mostly just new puzzle types, but the game and overall story are polished, interesting, and just simply fun. Layton and Luke's adventures will have you playing for a while, and even though the game isn't doing anything new, it avoids ever feeling stale.

This is the most polished version of Naughty Dog’s vision, and it’s chocked full of content.

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.

VA-11 HALL-A is a damn fine video game, and that’s the bottom line.

Aztez is an absolute killer. It's cool, brutal, and a masochistic amount of fun.

In all, Tomodachi Life is filled with pure, unbridled joy. It puts a stupid grin on my face and keeps it there through its duration. Some might complain that it is "not a game," but they can go on hating. It does require the player to put in some love, flair, and wit, but what comes out is magic.

This is the first fighting game I've recommended to my non-fighting game friends in a long time. Whether you just like the idea of a DC superhero punch party, enjoy RPGish gear hooks, or have been looking for an approachable way into fighting games, Injustice 2 has you covered.

Five Nights at Freddy's VR: Help Wanted is the real deal.

Mega Man 9 is a fantastic game. The music is incredible, seven out of eight of its stages are amongst the best the series has ever seen, it has butt kicking extra features, a great story, and it's only ten bucks. It's damn tempting to just give the game a 10 and be done with it.

Yoku's Island Express is a delight, plain and simple. It's gorgeous, plays beautifully, and I hope it's the start of a new franchise, because I want to play a lot more of this.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown has translated incredibly well to the iOS platform as whole.