Other than the roguelite gameplay levers that are more punishing and artificially slow in gating variance for the player, ROBOBEAT is a fun rhythm mashup. I highly recommend it for those wanting to show off their FPS and parkour skills while shooting along to the beat of an incredible soundtrack.

s.p.l.i.t. from developer Mike Klubnika brings mind-bending logic problems delivered through a unique command-line backdrop. While the command-line adventure doesn’t last long, it does enough to warrant a hard look for gamers in search of a good challenge.

With only a few minor issues, Insomniac has produced not only the best Resistance game to date, but one of the best FPS games I have ever experienced.

One of the best gaming purchases you will make all year.

Bye-Bye Boxboy! is a succinct, value-packed title. It’s the bookend of a great puzzle series and it doesn’t try to be more than what it is — an addictive puzzler that’s accessible and not overly difficult. For only $5, it’s an excellent deal and can be enjoyed it short five minute spurts or for much longer at a time. No 3D support is included, so you can enjoy this just as well on a 2DS as a 3DS. If you’re into puzzlers, or this series already, this is probably the easiest recommendation I’ll make all year.

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.

The peculiar art direction never grows old, and does well to amuse anyone contending with Winterbottom's resilient challenge. Not for the faint of heart, but a great game never the less.

Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse is a more refined and fun journey than the previous entry in the series. It brings a spooky and entertaining narrative that works well with more focused gameplay elements that the series is improving upon.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is really quite good on the PC, both in the presentation and gameplay departments, though a strange departure from the Metal Gear Solid series. In the end, it's a fun game that hopefully will carry some of its elements into future MGS titles.

For me, my bottomline is that Darksiders is a tremendous amount of fun because it's very well designed from top to bottom with just a handful of drawbacks. None of these drawbacks are critical enough to thwart an epic, and truly enjoyable experience.

Bluepoint has done a phenomenal job recreating the core principles and "feel" that make Titanfall a can't miss online title for the One...Of course some concessions had to be made, and they came in the looks department.

Cat Quest III from developer The Gentlebros is perfection. It’s a fun and fast game that has a complicated backend to keep the gameplay interesting. Its mixture of gameplay elements, from ships to dungeons, keeps it engaging and fun throughout the entire experience.

File this game under 'must have' for your PS3 library. Sucker Punch has done a great job building upon their first success in nearly every way.

Yakuza 5 is a response to the complacency of Western development. While previous Yakuza games dabbled through extraneous minigames, divergent player-controlled characters, and eccentric sidequests, none sewed its threads together with the consequence and commitment of Yakuza 5. Bloat is the inevitable negative, and Yakuza 5 shows some superfluous heft, but it's such a mountain of effort and arrangement that it's tough not to stand in awe of its accomplishments.

MLB The Show 25 from San Diego Studio is a good upgrade from last year’s game. The gameplay feels tighter and smoother on the offense and defense side of the field. Including the new feature Diamond Quest gives more depth to what a typical baseball game would be, bringing in new ideas on how you can compete in Diamond Dynasty. MLB leads the way again by bringing a solid experience and off-beat innovation that works more than it doesn’t.

Vicarious Visions sets a new bar for the Skylanders series with Swap Force. They give you more characters, better level design, improved looks and a larger library of Skylanders to play with. It's definitely the best game in the series so far.

In the moments that I played and experienced Gris I believed it was the most dazzling and elegant game I had ever seen. It was the most I’ve been in to a game in the current calendar year. Astonishment is temporary and hyperbole rationally fades into coherence, but I hope the strength and singularity of Gris stays with me forever.

SteamWorld Heist II from developer Thunderful Development is one of the deeper gaming experiences I have run across in 2024. It contains a hefty amount of strategy in its gameplay while offering up a bigger and richer variety in its exploration and gameplay options. It can be restrictive at times with its gameplay progression but not enough to run the experience.

Ape Out parades the alliance between thunderous jazz and an irritated bloodthirsty gorilla. Two unrelated objects defined by being out of control are both under your control in the form of a violent top-down brawler. Symbols crash when gorillas and humans clash and the performance is beautiful and preposterous.

An excellent fighter and another superb addition to the series, MKX kicks ass.

Road to Empress, from developer New One Studio, is a high-quality FMV experience that might fall a bit short on bending the story through player choices, but is nonetheless entertaining from beginning to end with the amount of interactivity it does deliver within a high-quality production wrapper.

Professor Layton and the Last Specter continues to push the high production values of the cartoon mystery series while still providing a slew of enjoyable puzzles along the way.

Limbo is a classic, it’s definitely on the list of top indie games of all time, and you should 100% pick it up for the Switch. It may be a short run through but it will definitely be one that sticks with you.

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.

Dark Souls is one of the most important and powerful games ever made. Switch is the least pleasant place to play it. It works—this is still Dark Souls and Dark Souls is still very good—but sacrifices in presentation and control scream inferiority next to original and Remastered editions of the same game.

The core combat is probably the simplest in all of RPG-dom, and yet it remains an ideal system to deliver turn-based entertainment. If you're a Pokemon fan and you've yet to pick this one up (now a week after its release date), then I assume you've got a good reason to wait.

Frozen Wilds fits perfectly within the original content from Horizon Zero Dawn. The new weapons make for a better, more motivating experience. On top of this, the story expands upon the mythology that the original HZD built, making it a bigger world with more worthwhile content to live within. It’s quite remarkable how well Guerrilla built this game and how perfectly the DLC fits within it. I’m still at awe at the girth and life Horizon Zero Dawn brings with it during every storyline and every quest. This is still very much my GOTY, especially with the Frozen Wilds now a firm reminder of how great this gameplay experience can be and is from beginning to end.

I loved the game but it still didn't seem to reach the level of greatness that was the DS version (I felt that its predecessor had a few more enjoyable songs, better endless mini-games and a little more charm overall). Nonetheless, Rhythm Heaven Fever is still a gem of a game that shouldn't be missed for the avid Wii owner.