A Short Hike is far from perfect, but it absolutely is unique and worth your time. It's also super fucking rad, and I love it. Warts and all. If you’re looking for something different, and you don’t mind the price of admission, I think this is more than worth the price of entry. It may not be perfect, but life never is, and that’s fine and beautiful in its own way.

I urge you to pick The Messenger back up and give Picnic Panic a shot: if only for more sassy shopkeeper dialogue.

Kill la Kill: IF succeeds in translating its namesake's hyper-kinetic universe, wild action, and extreme characters into a fun experience, but is held back by lackluster side-content and flaws inherent to its own design. It's worth your time if you're already a franchise fan, but those yet to be ensnared by Life-Fibers should wait until this particular couture number moves to the reduced rail.

I would need to grow a few more hands to count how many times I had to stop playing Sky out of frustration. Whether it was the game not allowing me to move off a ledge or sending my character spiraling down the side of a mountain when all I did was slightly touch the digital joystick, the touch controls and often excruciating camera gut what should be an awe-inspiring vision of discovery. I absolutely believe Sky: Children of the Light is a game most everyone should experience because it is blissful, imaginative, and a sight to behold. I just think most everyone should wait for a console or PC release to do so.

While strategy is indubitably a large part of Fire Emblem's DNA, the vast majority of my enjoyment was found having lunch with classmates and getting to know them better.

Maybe I just expected too much, but I find myself missing the careful balance of story and gameplay that The New Order had down pat. Youngblood makes plenty of strides forward for this series, but it also takes some steps backward that end up hurting the overall package.

There's potential, but Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot ends before it can reach most of it.

Automachef is home to some mind-melting challenges, but if you're up to the task, you're eventually in for blissful breakthroughs. Just don't come in expecting to unwind after a long day at work.

If you wanted any real form of closure, it's not happening here. I was honestly shocked when the game ended. Not because of some amazing revelation that blew my mind, but just because The Council simply... ends. This is easily the shortest episode, yet it still feels like it drags at times. Now that is what I call an accomplishment.

Beyond that feeling of individuality, I'm just not sold on what Niantic has created here. There are small, annoying issues with storage, access to necessary potion ingredients, and the wild inconsistency of how well it rates my spell tracing, but the far bigger problem with Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is its inability to utilize the IP and the technology in a way that is not only engaging but also distinct from Niantic's other games. I have no doubt in my mind there is a great Harry Potter AR game out there. This just isn't it.

With the Marvel IP less muddled and the simplicity of this deal between Marvel and Nintendo, I'd love to see another with enhancements in tow.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey: Fate of Atlantis has been one of the more consistent DLC storylines in the history of the series.

But that toolkit is only half of the equation. The other half is a platform game with no quality control, no impetus for putting legitimate effort into your original designs, and no way to weed out poor content creators other than trusting that players will be able to discern the difference between a bad level and good level and rate them accordingly. Given how many positive messages I've seen attached to genuinely bad stages, I don't have much faith in the Mario Maker community right now and I question whether it'll get better down the line.

I'm conflicted. Cooperative titles like this are hard to find nowadays, especially with drop-in, drop-out co-op. There's no denying it's fun exploring with a friend and the game contains some genuinely clever challenges, especially during the boss fights. There's the seed of a great game here, and I'd genuinely like to see more like it. I really hope BonusXP gets the chance to use this engine to make something else: It's pretty good for a licensed product, but ultimately, that's all it is.

With Blazing Chrome you kind of get what you get: it's an hour and change shooter that pays extreme homage to the Contra series.

It's easy for me to say Dragon Quest Builders 2 is a good game because it'd be a lie for me to say otherwise. The groundwork laid by the first title is still sound, but it just didn't grab me the same way its predecessor did. That doesn't mean I'm going to stop playing anytime soon -- I still have my home island to complete -- but it does mean it's not going to get my undivided attention for weeks-on-end like the first game did.

The combat, too, can get a little confusing when a bunch of characters are on-screen. You'll end up hitting the wrong foe, which then allows your intended target to get some free hits on you. The abundance of techniques doesn't add much, either, as the basic punch and kick combos do fine against everyone. I know this isn't meant to be specifically a beat-'em-up, but the gameplay feels a little basic.

It's a shame Nintendo cut and ran with microtransactions after one misstep, their first, no less, in the mobile market.

Marvelous and Honey∞Parade Games' biggest mistake with Senran Kagura: Peach Ball was treating it as a budget title because it deserves so much more: more tables, more girls, more everything. Combining the cheeseball sexuality of Senran with pinball is perhaps the most brilliant idea this franchise has ever had and the execution of what is here is nearly flawless. But the lack of a diverse set of pinball tables and a curtailed cast keep Peach Ball from reaching the excellence it could have so easily achieved if the developers had more time and more ideas for what they wanted Peach Ball to be.

I appreciate Ace Team's attempt here, I really do. It's kind of amazing that this game exists in 2019 under Sega. It's not as original as the team's past projects, but SolSeraph has a lot to like if you're looking for a modern take on an absolute gem of the 16-bit era. Part of me wonders how outlandish these creators could've gotten with a bigger budget and scope, but as a tribute, this still hits the spot. Even if SolSeraph fails to raise the bar, I'm so happy someone took another crack at ActRaiser.

Sea of Solitude stands out as heartfelt, almost painfully sincere, so much so that I hesitated to actually put a score on this review at all. It felt almost crass to do so, like being allowed to read a relative's diary, only to give it a thumbs-up or -down. Though engaging gameplay and meaningful messaging aren't mutually exclusive in games, Sea of Solitude is squarely one of a growing number of titles that challenges the notion that "fun and entertainment" should be a game's main priority in every case.

The combo of real-time lanes and card-based abilities allows Teppen to feel more intense than most of the other card games on the market.

This is how an MMO ages gracefully: Final Fantasy XIV is arguably the best it has ever been.

Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled not only succeeds as a loving and faithful adaptation of the classic PS1 release, but it has been turbo-boosted by a glut of welcome new content including characters, tracks, and modes. Though it occasionally shows its age in course design, and erratically pumps the brakes with a surprising difficulty spike, Nitro-Fueled remains a fast and fun kart racer, sure to please old fans and worthy of a test drive from new ones.

The non-horde levels are all well-crafted. To exceed, you're going to need to have a solid grasp on strategically throwing food, flipping switches to rearrange the kitchen layout during key moments, and being efficient with when and where you move your pots, pans, and bowls. Both in scope and challenge, Night of the Hangry Horde is exactly where I want Overcooked 2 DLC to land. I wasn't keeping precise track of time, but it took us three decently lengthy sessions to finish all 20 levels.

As much as I adore the story and atmosphere of The Sinking City, it definitely feels like a budget title at times. If you can get past the weak combat, harmless jank, and enjoy a solid detective experience that won't hold your hand and throw tough choices your way, you shouldn't pass up on it. Even more so if you're a fan of Lovecraft.

The Switch version...lags way behind the others in nearly every conceivable way.

Action-wise, Devil May Cry still wipes the floor with most standard genre fare.