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.