Fobia – St. Dinfna Hotel is worth playing for patient survival horror fans who want something lighter on combat, and can handle budget-constrained rough edges. Monsters wander around in an effort to raise the stakes, but the focus is on meticulous exploration, just-cryptic-enough puzzle-solving, and mentally mapping out the many, many hotel halls.

If you’re looking for a compelling detective adventure with heart and smarts, it’s easy to recommend AI: The Sominum Files – nirvanA Initiative. It feels like the realization of what this world can be, and a promising step forward from its predecessor. It might still have a few wrinkles, but by the final credits roll, it’ll likely win over any investigator’s heart.

Pocky & Rocky Reshrined is exactly as it promises: more Pocky & Rocky.

There are a few situations where you should still jump on Sonic Origins.

The more I played Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, the more I liked it.

If shoving Toonami and the Titanfall 2 Pilot’s Gauntlet into a blender and turning it to the highest speed sounds like a good time, then Neon White might be what you’re looking for. It’s a blood-pumping, speed-infused anime shooter with style and a decent bit of heart. While it’s short and sweet, Neon White gives just enough to get the player keen on shaving off seconds and fractions of seconds until they are, indeed, a speedrunning freak. For anyone who likes to go fast, that’s at least worth the price of admission.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge is a delightful celebration of the Heroes in a Half-Shell. More importantly, it’s simply a helluva lot of fun to play. It breaks little in the way of new ground, remaining rooted in old-school cool, but it does offer wild, satisfying combat, packed out with personality and charm. For anyone who ever jumped off a schoolyard wall — tree branch in hand — shouting “Cowabunga!”, Shredder’s Revenge is absolutely worth shelling out for.

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.

I was shocked that Mario Strikers: Battle League had this much going on under the surface.

The Quarry is as good as I was hoping it'd be, and that's a pleasant surprise.

I want to make this clear: without microtransactions in play at all, Diablo Immortal is actually a fun little multiplayer-centric take on the formula, especially on its native mobile home.

If you’re wondering if it’s worth picking up, I guess I’d say that it probably is. If you’ve never played a Sniper Elite game before, Sniper Elite 5 is as good as any to jump in with. You don’t need previous experience to understand what’s going on. If you’ve played every game in the series, then you know if you’re going to like this one. However, if you bounced off the previous titles, this one absolutely isn’t going to change your mind. Not in the same way a bullet to a Nazi’s cerebral cortex does.

You can throw a rock at the Steam Marketplace and hit a pixel art platformer that has heart but misses what made the era appealing. Belle Boomerang is not one of those games. It deserves attention, and I’m hoping that its charming visuals will help it achieve that. Don’t let this one get lost in the mix. It’s a tight experience, with its own unique challenges, and front-to-back variety. It may not completely reinvent the platforming genre, but it hits the target masterfully.

It’s not a ridiculous proposition, but it’s not an outstanding one either. Snow Bros. isn’t exactly a classic, so while I’m happy to see it pop up again, I’m not very enthusiastic enough about the end result to start throwing around recommendations. It’s not a game that has been ported very often, so having it available at all is worth the release.

Evil Dead: The Game is an authentic and passionate recreation of a chaotic, violent, and wildly slapstick classic. Though plaudits are deserved for the title’s atmosphere and fan-pleasing references, a litany of technical hiccups, unstable mechanics, and odd design choices frequently hinder this promising release. In time, Evil Dead can become something very special. But as it stands, it still delivers a fistful of fun for its ravenous fanbase. Shop Smart.

Hardspace: Shipbreaker is successful in just about everything it attempts. Not only is its gameplay extremely replayable and constantly satisfying, but it also manages to stack it all on a very solid narrative foundation. Tangibly, it feels like keeping your head down while forces bigger than you decide your fate. Gross. But if you don’t want all the horrible management talk and resistance to unionization to drag you down, you can just go in and hack some ships apart. It’s a serene zero-g experience while a wasp flies around in your helmet. Ignore it, and maybe it will leave you alone. Except probably not, wasps are jerks.

Evil Dead: The Game is an authentic and passionate recreation of a chaotic, violent, and wildly slapstick classic. Though plaudits are deserved for the title’s atmosphere and fan-pleasing references, a litany of technical hiccups, unstable mechanics, and odd design choices frequently hinder this promising release. In time, Evil Dead can become something very special. But as it stands, it still delivers a fistful of fun for its ravenous fanbase. Shop Smart.

Kao the Kangaroo feels like a game that has more potential that wasn't executed on, but the vibrant visuals go a really long way.

Touken Ranbu Warriors isn’t a game for traditional Musou/Warriors fans. This one’s aimed directly at the crowd that didn’t have to Google the term “Saniwa” when reading this review.

If you’re heavily interested in a vampire-fueled mystery game with some good “a-ha” moments, Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong can deliver. It’ll falter and miss some notes here and there, but it does at least sate my thirst for some vampire storytelling for now.

Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is a game that will grow on certain types of people, if it doesn't charm you out of the gate.

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe might joke about overly aggrandizing reviews, but it’s one of the few games that’s actually deserving of one. For all its smugness, I’d love to sit here and tell you that The Stanley Parable is pretentious and full of shit, but it earns every right to its pretension. And I for one and so glad I’m here to see it. There’s a reason it’s considered one of the best games of all time.

The gameplay is just overwhelmingly underwhelming. Poor exploration, unimpressive combat, and a merely passable narrative can’t be made up for by aesthetics. Which is too bad, because the aesthetics are terrific. The backgrounds have a stunning amount of variety to them and are of almost poetic quality. I suppose if you saw Trek to Yomi and this is what grabbed you, then you’re all set. However, if you want strong gameplay to back that up, then it just isn’t worth the trek.

The Eye isn’t perfect and, in the end, it wasn’t my home. But it is the place where I discovered a different one. Citizen Sleeper elicits feelings like that incredibly well, while providing a practically catered experience that will stick with me, long after my departure from Erlin’s Eye.

Before you pick up Nintendo Switch Sports, carefully weigh your options of how many people you'll have readily available to play.

I’m not certain if I’m personally going to return to Dorfromantik following this review, simply due to my mind’s response to its relaxing gameplay. On the other hand, I would at least recommend giving it a try. The price seems right for something that you may either embrace as a calming way to take a moment, or bounce off of because it’s just not for you. However, in terms of execution, I’d argue that Dorfromantik absolutely nails it.

I knew from my limited time with the Early Access version that Rogue Legacy 2 would be great, but I didn’t necessarily think it would go on to become one of the best games of 2022 and one of my favorite roguelite games. The competition is fierce, but it’s ready.

It hurts that the gameplay loop is so enjoyable, but falls apart when it comes to progression. The whole product has a fun aesthetic, a sense of humor that avoids the pitfall of being too mean-spirited, and an impressive soundtrack. Godlike Burger works better than it has any right to be, but lets itself down when it comes to tying everything together. It’s like having a perfectly good burger that someone has topped with grilled pineapple; it doesn’t matter how good the meat is, you completely ruined it with your horrible life choices!