Overall, Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer is a welcome spinoff that helps diversify the Animal Crossing brand and cements it as one of Nintendo’s cornerstone franchises (if it wasn’t already).

FIFA 16 delivers another deeply satisfying game of soccer replete with beloved franchise staples such as Ultimate Team, Co-op Online Seasons, etc. The core game is largely the same. But key additions in the Women’s International Tournament and the new Ultimate Team Draft add depth to a game already full of immersive play options. With the addition of Ultimate Team Draft, EA could honestly put out Ultimate Team as a stand alone release.

Despite the free-to-play model, there is a lot of fun to be had with Call of Champions without laying down a dime. It does give enough reason to break the piggy bank, but doesn’t require you to do so to enjoy it.

Year Walk is a two-hour, seven-dollar experience that far transcends both its duration and price tag. It’s a can’t miss for anyone who appreciates dark, nightmarish, and heady storytelling with a (relatively) historically-accurate mythical slant.

Superchargers is another impressive evolution in the Skylanders brand that series fans and newcomers alike should not miss.

An almost equal number of significant pros and cons make Mad Max an interesting and polarizing title. Ultimately, it's a game I would recommend, but with some due caution as described in the article.

I wanted a new distraction to pull me away from my dull adult responsibilities and force me to consider living on 5 hours of sleep. And NHL16 almost gets me there. For the majority of my time in game, I get lost in the flow crisp passes, smooth break outs and well crafted scoring opportunities. But I suddenly find myself escorted back to said world of dull adult responsibilities when my AI defenders gift wrap scoring chances for opposing attackers.

Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson is a game about girls of indeterminate age exploding out of their shirts. Sometimes there is fighting and usually it's with another girl, but it's mostly about Tamsoft creating excuses to watch gigantic breasts wobble from different angles. If that's your thing, cool, but it's not mine.

This is literally and figuratively a game changer for Destiny, and in a good way.

Stasis has its quirks and shortcomings, but its atmosphere and compelling descent into deeper and deeper levels of a proverbial Hell make it worth sticking through.

Project Mirai DX exists as a vector to push this sentiment out of your 3DS. The rhythm action is routine and the slice-of-life elements are an exercise in gratuity, but there's no denying the infectious charm endemic to all things Hatsune Miku.

A creative, well designed, and well-executed local co-op game, Lovers In A Dangerous Spacetime is fun and worth your attention.

Deciding if a vanilla racing game is worth one of those tokens is ultimately up to the consumer. What I can say is within that relatively narrow definition, Forza 6 does about everything necessary to fulfill the niche to a high degree.

A great 2D platforming party game best played locally, Runbow is a good buy for your multiplayer playlist.

Leo's Fortune assumes an identity behind the blasé eyes of its protagonist. Leo's the kind of dude who's seen it all before, a sentiment sure to be shared by any seasoned platformer enthusiast. Still, it's an inoffensive way to kill a couple hours on a Saturday, assuming ambition doesn't get the better of you first.

An instant classic in the point and click genre that plays great on the PS4 and goes highly recommended.

A solid RTS game right now, and with a bright future ahead, Act of Aggression is a strong and welcomed release.

If you're looking for a grand strategy game that has an incredible amount of depth and breadth for your PS4, this is it.

Enhanced as it may be, Risen 3: Titan Lords is still a very rough experience with too many problems that outweigh its merits.

Magnetic works best as a platformer, which may be disappointing for those who wanted intermediate to advanced puzzling.

Surrounded by a weapons-grade aura of jubilation, Tearaway Unfolded rejects traditional applications of skepticism. Criticism just evaporates under tidal waves of color and personality, positive themes and excessive joy, and the heart-melting sentiment of its ending.

Though surely there’s plenty of room for additional features and improvement, Super Mario Maker is a user-generated content experience assembled with the wisdom and mature philosophy of gaming’s finest.

A welcomed release on the PS4 that is a blast with friends for satisfying, short player sessions.

Back to Bed is a visual upgrade from its mobile brethren, but it still maintains the quick, casual fun that the mobile side sported. If you like a decent puzzle game, this might be worth looking at on the PlayStation 4.

Type-0 HD can feel like the tortuous result of hasty assembly, but if allowed the time and energy to piece itself together, it stands as clear and original as others bearing its exalted title.

Assets that were highly valued in 2001—visuals, voice acting, narrative/gameplay balance—now feel tired, awkward, and expectedly dated in 2015. With that in mind, a novel battle system serves as a decent shield for Grandia II's shortcomings. Combat drives the entire experience. Everything else is just along for the ride.

Much like Bossa Studios’ Surgeon Simulator, which is more about the complication of trying to perform surgery with individually assigned buttons for fingers, I Am Bread is lighter version of that same concept where it’s not quite as frustrating, but still nonetheless a chore to play through.

If you're in the market for a casual city builder, 1849 has a lot going for it, but be aware of its limitations, too. For their first effort though, SomaSim did a fine job.

An indie gem that shouldn't be missed regardless of your platform of choice. It would have been ideal to see this re-release separate itself more from previous versions, but it's still a very good and memorable experience.

Overall, the gameplay for Madden NFL 16 has been refined, simplified and improved. It feels like it’s going back to a time where playing a football game was less of a chore and more fun.

Finding your favorite Mega Man is an invitation to one of gaming's more respectable conversations. Declaring an answer—whether it's fueled by nostalgia, objective truth, or genuine appreciation—is drawing line in a sand, and it's a resolution Mega Man Legacy Collection is designed to facilitate. It's not only how you remember these six games, it's how you want others to see them, too.

XBlaze Lost: Memories pushes the series forward and offers a solid value for those that become invested in its story and characters, but getting to that point is not a given.

If anyone reading this has a One but hasn't experienced Gears first hand, this is a must buy right before the rush of the holiday releases really gets going in a month or so. For long time Gear heads, I still think this is a worthy hard drive partition, and makes retiring the 360 from your HDMI ports that much easier.

Until Dawn doesn’t hide what it’s trying to do. It’s a game that focuses on story and QTE heavy gameplay. It has linear design driving it, while only deviating from the course with player choices, which affect the direction of the story. If you can accept these things, and realize it’s not perfect, then you’re going to probably enjoy Supermassive Games’ horror show.

The premise of Hacknet and my preexisting interest in the idea of a UNIX-based hacking sim had me going into this excited and hopeful. The quality gameplay and sense of reward from figuring things out kept me playing hours on end, and excited to tell others how cool of a game this was.

The Descent is a good addition to the Dragon Age: Inquisition family. It has great atmosphere, wonderful level design and motivates the player to explore the Deep Roads a bit. It does get repetitive in the enemy department, and brutal at times in terms of difficulty, though the rewards help to ease the pain a bit.

Everybody's Gone to the Rapture's take on interactive fiction is admirable, even in its struggle to manage personal discovery alongside narrative composition. I love its calamitous tranquility, I identify with the plights of its characters, and I'm enamored with its confident storytelling, but its reluctance to disclose its disposition adversely affects its capability.

The Swindle is frustrating at first glance, but smooths out to spread its steampunk wings thanks to some good depth, variety and quick gameplay style.

As roguelikes go, Galak-Z's tireless air of optimism makes a case for its own dimension.

Rare Replay is loaded with gems and classics that by and large have stood the test of time. Modern tweaks and goodies make it all the more worthwhile. It's the best value in gaming, and sets the bar for any compilation going forward.

Legend of Kay Anniversary is a worthy nod to a 2005 game. Despite its flaws, such as the irritating camera movement, it contains some fun moments, improved graphics and a few other little things to remind you how good it was back in the day.

It's easy to get lost inside Submerged's desolate seascapes. Its desire for pacifism and drive for hope are worthy talents, but it's the call to adventure—to indulge and explore marine tranquility and conquering vegetation—that you'll keep with you, if only for a little while.

F1 2015 rewards their passion with an impressive simulation of not only the actual races, but a slice of the elegant culture surrounding the sport. Unfortunately F1 2015 doesn't have room for much of anything else, finding itself lapped by modern peers in expected features and ease of approach.

There's enough inside Abyss Odyssey to make it all stick together, provided you can find your own spark.

As a raw turn based SRPG, Lost Dimension would not be particularly impressive. The x-factor that makes it so interesting and different is the traitor-system that adds layers of intrigue, strategy, and makes the entire experience much more interactive and robust.

Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold is a hardcore dungeon crawler flaunting an old-school difficulty, yet imbued with modern sensibilities and accessibility. It’s a terrific addition to a beloved series, and it’s truly probably also the best entry to date.

Godzilla is not a terrible game, but it's just not a lot of fun. The repetition sets in very early and it becomes a chore to play for all but the most diehard of fans.

The Magic Circle is a playable videogame about a broken videogame made by people who aren't good at making videogames.

Victor Vran is a very competent and solid game that dungeon crawling ARPG fans should not miss.

One of the best games in the first person exploration genre has a comfortable home on the PS4, although it seems like a missed opportunity to have not made this more of an extended edition of some kind.

Stardock hits it out of the park with Sorcerer King. Turn-based strategy at its finest.

Planetside 2 is entertaining, huge and still a work in progress. It’s certainly worth a go, if you have the available time on your side.

Most sports would probably be better if human participants were replaced with cars. While this thesis is typically reserved for late night conversations with close friends, Psyonix accepted it as a genuine assignment and produced Rocket League. It's soccer with cars—and the execution of this idea has no business being as good as the fantasy.

It hits some of its marks—a generous frame-rate and a firm commitment to kitsch melodrama among them—but it's closer to the edges boredom and mediocrity. For a game meant to elicit a range of responses, all that it leaves the player is trite indifference.

As a successor to an admired name from a bygone era, Deception IV: The Nightmare Princess falls short of accrued expectations. As a means of introducing a different style of game to a different time and place, Deception IV is an exemplar of viable defiance against rote standards. Your position determines Deception IV's place—a setting made homelier through The Nightmare Princess' abundance of extra content—but it doesn't impede its lack of conformity.

Tembo The Badass Elephant is a high quality, gorgeous, fun, and challenging 2D platformer that I'm happy to recommend.

Playing as Batgirl is not quite as interesting as I had hoped primarily due to a lazy hacking mechanic, but, A Matter of Family was still different, interesting, and fun enough to recommend to Arkham fans.

Miracle Cure is a few healthy refinements away from the category of controlled substance, and purchasing it won’t require your driver’s license. But purely as a source of unique puzzle entertainment, it has all the active ingredients of an addictive puzzler—just with a few unwanted side effects.

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour may not win any awards for visuals, but it’s a solid experience in the gameplay department with flexible controls, entertaining modes and enough depth to keep you going for awhile.

God of War III is still an excellent game five years later. The Remastered version is the best way to play it, but, it's a somewhat underwhelming release because it is so similar to the PS3's Ultimate Edition. This is not a Definitive Edition technically, but more content and thus value would have been great to see included here.

The Bozak Horde is Dying Light's dalliance into the efficiency of combat and movement. The peculiar tightness at which it operates may be a boon to mechanic-obsessives and speed runners, but it simultaneously precludes other venues of appreciation.

J-Stars Victory Vs+ brings together some good fighting moments with popular Bandai Namco licenses, while offering up somewhat addictive, yet sporadic, gameplay flow. Improvements in environment variety, CPU artificial intelligence and visuals could help to make this a more memorable brawler in the future, as it falls short in these categories as it stands.

As a commemoration of style and simplicity, Spectra speaks in the dearth of speedy arcade racers. Regrettably, Spectra's ambition, like its appeal, doesn't stretch beyond austere representation.

Traverser is keen to demonstrate that a submission to genre norms isn't an admission of exhausted objectives. Physics puzzles, light stealth, passable platforming, and a decent run of boss fights—it's all well covered ground, but Traverser's endearing characters and engaging fiction make it easy to pass through.

Quality over quantity; Emergence is not a big release, but the value here for those that played the original game is spot-on.

Payday 2 Crimewave Edition brings all the fun of Payday to the console. It's the game to buy if you're looking for a new, smart shooter.

Capcom did a lot more than just spruce up the graphics and add in some concept art with the DMC4 Special Edition. The new playable content makes this a significantly different game than it was seven years ago, and one that any DMC fan should own.

What Whispering Willows lacks in complicated hands-on gameplay, it makes up for in story and atmosphere.

Rocksteady and WBIE have managed to capture lightning in a bottle three consecutive times with the Arkham series, with the most refined and focused strike being Arkham Knight.

The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited makes its console debut in quite a functionally good fashion. The additional content, improved stability and expansive adventure makes for a great game.

The Devil May Cry 4 core gameplay that made it fun in 2008 is still very much alive and breathing underneath the ‘special edition’ moniker, though some of the gameplay mechanics have been smoothed out. The added characters, improvement in visuals and price point might make this something to jump on, especially if you have never played the game.

Jurassic World is a bit more constrained when compared to recent LEGO titles. There’s less open world exploration and more linear gameplay design. What it lacks in exploration, it makes up for with story, presentation and quick gameplay design.

Dirty Bomb is a nice shooter that is a perfect F2P alternative to a lot of the major FPS titles out today. The game is still in beta however, so there are a lot of features to be added and a lot of flaws to buff out. Hope that the devs can fix what needs to be fixed and polish this game to fulfill the potential it shows.

Kholat is a compelling release set against a fascinating backdrop that drew me in early and kept me playing. It offers a memorable, if not completely satisfying, experience that's worth checking out.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is an exhibition of lessons learned not only from CD Projeckt RED’s past work, but also from a spectrum of open-world and role-playing contemporaries. It's expected for games of this nature to excel at taking your time away. What's most impressive about The Witcher 3 is that rarely seems to waste it.

There is something inherently relaxing about hearing cows moo in the distance while I drive a tractor to my cornfield at sunrise. And, when I feel lazy I can hire someone to drive my tractor for me. Back and forth. Up and down. Back and forth. It’s mesmerizing and boring all at the same time; and so is Farming Simulator 2015.

The concept of The Escapists—make friends, make enemies, make crazy tools, and escape from prison through any applicable deviancy—is easy to fall in love with. Reality, positioning The Escapists as a beautiful machine undermined by the gears assigned to power it, is more cruel.

House of Wolves adds many of the tools that Destiny needs to be successful in the long term. It gives players more content than ever, while still keeping old content relevant. It strikes a new balance between PVE and PVP end-game activities. But at the end of the day, this is still Destiny—and Destiny is nothing if not polarizing.

The Executioner is short, but enjoyable. And at $5, it's worth playing on its own or as a fun way to wrap up your time The Evil Within.

Swords and Soldiers II is a unique take on real-time strategy gameplay that permutes the established formulas equally as much as it simplifies them. The result is an accessible—yet satisfyingly challenging—game which feels just as frenzied as the typical RTS title, but which can be enjoyed in bite-sized portions.

Don’t Starve is a weird and wonderful jaunt through a purgatorial wilderness. With the Reign of Giants DLC, there’s enough content for even well-seasoned Don’t Starve players. The brutal and unforgiving permadeath mechanic heightens tension and emphasizes player prudence. The lack of stylus and touch controls feels like a real missed opportunity to advantage of the platform’s primary peripheral.

"Splatoon" is everything you could want out of a new Nintendo IP. It somehow manages to be both cute and cool.

SFIV is a proof-of-concept to how a Street Fighter game can turn out when built and utilized properly on big time hardware.

Stretchmo is a great free-to-play puzzle game. Intelligent Systems does a superb job with putting together a bevy of creative puzzles to run through with a not so painful price tag attached.

Sunset survives as the antithesis of contemporary narrative construction, but lacks the confidence and vitality to thrive inside of its admirable periphery. It's all support with little regard for structure.

Technobabylon is loaded with cool ideas and it's a lot of fun to play. The story, multiple playable characters, creative and interesting settings, and challenging but logical puzzles kept me entertained from start to finish.

It's an unexpected dichotomy—tranquility isn't the sort of evocation expected of extremely topical police-state paranoia—but one that Neon Struct dispenses with plausible seeds of insurrection. Colorful symmetry is the expected outcome, but Neon Struct surprises with plenty of shades of grey, too.

While Puzzle & Dragons Z + Super Mario Bros. Edition might seem like another tile-based puzzle game that doesn’t go beyond what’s on the surface, it’s far deeper than what you would expect. It has RPG elements and a bevy of options to engage and motivate the addiction it creates.

Schrödinger's Cat and the Raiders of the Lost Quark is a fun platformer that has an interesting quark system in place to make puzzle solving unique and engaging. The game isn’t perfect by any means, but it’s good and unique enough in certain areas to warrant at least a look.

Cool concept and well executed, Lost Orbit is worth your attention.

A robust, entirely worthwhile release that gives you plenty of bang for the buck and expands upon one of last year's best games in a purposeful way.

For those that really enjoy the point and click genre, Perils of Man is worth a look, despite its flaws.

Color Guardians is a simple game with a straightforward purpose - run and button-mash. It will certainly challenge gamers with fast gameplay and demand multi-tasking sharpness from its players, but doesn't offer a lot beyond those things.

Among contemporary Ys releases and remakes—Seven, The Oath in Felghana, and Memories of Celceta—The Ark of Napishtim is more reliant on support provided by its adopted hardware. Unfortunately its tangled journey to the personal computer cost as many features as it gained, leaving The Ark of Napishtim as little more than a curious architect of the Ys games that followed.

Project CARS is going to give some of the bigger racing games a run for their money. There is depth, detail and fun to be had with this game. It certainly was worth the wait.

Ultimately, Block N Load is a ….load of fun (I’m sorry) and will be seeing a lot more playtime on my part moving forward. A highly strategic game that allows you a lot of freedom in what that strategy is. The team with the most innovative plan will likely be the winner, and that key element of innovation can come from anyone and any class.

A very worthwhile game for anyone who enjoys a point and click adventure with a compelling story, characters, and outstanding presentation.

Truth may be the driving force of any revenge tale, but whether Westerado's truth is fabricated, earned, implied, or rejected is left to the player. You can practically do whatever you want, and, rather than damn the consequences, Westerado makes it easier to embrace them.