As a unique and engaging tactical RPG experience, Valkyria Chronicles II reminds us a little innovation, a little refinement, and a few good ideas can go a long way in unsouring a genre.

An extremely deep and refined 2D fighter from Japan that challenges and impresses.

Overall, VA-11 Hall-A is a unique experience that borrows some design elements from games in the past, such as Carmen Sandiego, that features solving problems through natural dialogue with ambiguous clues. The additional narrative to it is captivating at times, though some dialogue can get way too long in the tooth. The additional money-making motivation and customization options help to sell the experience a little further beyond its initial design.

Them’s Fightin’ Herds from Mane6 creates a beautiful and unique fighting experience through their fun characters, simplistic mechanics, and gorgeous environments. While the game does run slow in the scheme of fighting, the rest of it makes for a fun time.

All in all, DOOMBLADE excels as a Metroidvania and is worth your attention. I was incredibly addicted to its control scheme and its combat despite its few faults. By the time I reached the final boss, I felt challenged in all the right ways. Considering its disruptiveness, I highly recommend DOOMBLADE for Metroidvania fans who desire something new, especially those who’re playing with a controller.

You don’t need to be a BlazBlue diehard to appreciate BlazBlue Entropy Effect. Its roguelike gameplay features some of the most fun yet complex combinations of button mashing and attack chains. It is far more approachable than most roguelikes I’ve played recently thanks to how it presents complex information to players and gives them opportunities to test out mechanics without relying on trial and error.

Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley from developer Hyper Games is an adorable adventure led by a driven main character who is trying to protect his friend while keeping the environment around him free from nefarious control. While the gameplay only lasts about five hours total, the game is an easy treat to fall into and garnish a healthy amount of positivity from. It isn’t for everyone but younger gamers will enjoy the experience.

Lynked: Banner of the Spark from developer FuzzyBot is a cornucopia of different types of gameplay experiences rolled into one title and balanced in ways that work well together. The story is good, the action is easy and fun, and the crafting/building helps to bring a juxtaposition to the game’s action component. While not all of it works, the game still brings what it needs to create a big, unique, and entertaining experience.

The best RPGs impart lasting emotions on the player over the duration of the playthrough. In between its turn-based battles, light character building, and dark symbolism, OFF imprints guilt, horror, and confusion on the player in ways few games successfully pull off. OFF is an RPG that everyone should experience blindly, especially those who appreciate a haunting journey with blips of the bizarre. This remaster is not just a should-play of 2025, but a must-play of the decade. If you want OFF’s rainbow, you must have the rain.

Using the simple, lighthearted game approach from WarioWare titles and pairing that with an actual use for the design tools in Mario Paint, Nintendo has brought us a great new tool for creating our own Microgames.

One heck of a buy for $10. For anyone who has yet to venture into the Tower Defense genre of gaming, it provides a uniquely appealing style of RTS/puzzle gameplay that is sure to addict most everyone who gives it a go.

Paired with Crown of the Sunken King and Crown of the Old Iron King, it's enough to wish From Software could extend Dark Souls II's life with interminable rounds of additional content.

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.

Ghostwire: Tokyo is a good game, if only for how thick and unnerving the story and world might be. While the gameplay does come up a bit empty, the story helps to pick up the slack and make the adventure worthwhile.

Minor AI and control gripes aside, all of which are simply a testament to the times and absolutely manageable to work with, this Remaster is a gem and I really hope it’s just a sign of things to come as more C&C games get remastered with this level of passion, community involvement, skill, and heart.

Overall, Freedom Finger is an edgy side-scroller that has heart. It is led by raw rock music and visual design while toting a typical side-scrolling shooter underneath. It’s a good game that will definitely keep you challenged and amused.

Helldivers II from developer Arrowhead Game Studios is a team-driven experience that is goal-driven fun wrapped in a goofy Starship Troopers tip of the hat. While the gameplay can get repetitive, the reward system helps to balance it out.

A series as ritually re-imagined as Ys should have exhausted its creative energy several iterations ago, but Memories of Celceta corrects any suspicion of dilution or degradation. Falcom's commanding role in its production has lead to an aggressive and intuitive combat system and, along with an exploration-focused narrative, an adventure that simultaneously embraces and improves its namesake's legacy.

There’s a reason (err, several) why It Takes Two earned its Game of the Year accolades in 2021, and Switch owners now have the opportunity to play one of the best co-op games of late. The story remains meaningful, the puzzles innovative. The title continues to succeed in navigating interpersonal strife long after its release and the title’s ending being freely available to find online. Even though I knew of some of the events that occurred before reviewing, I was often surprised by its powerful storytelling. It runs incredibly well on the Switch, to boot. Some of the typical Switch-based quirks may be coming with, but it still delivers on a compelling and emotional experience without the compromises that usually accompany a Switch port. With Friend Pass baked into the game, Switch owners are able to play with those in the same room as well as afar. I would personally recommend using a voice comms platform should you play remotely, though.

SFVCE is by no means an entirely new game, it’s just a culmination of where SFV has come so far. In the last four years, the game certainly has come a long way. If you’ve waited until now to jump in, this is obviously the best version to get.

Overall, Sayonara Wild Hearts is a perfect experience. It may not last long, but it will certainly draw you in with its story, keep you there with its variety of gameplay, and then bring the entire experience together with its amazing visuals and music.

Ultimately, if you're looking for a quick, pick up and play platformer, Ninjatown: Trees of Doom! is worth a look, especially at the $.99 price point.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is the best Call of Duty in years. It doesn’t feel particularly brave or shocking to admit that fact. Each year the franchise excels in masterful gunplay and it is up to the individual developer to present something new for players to gobble up. Expect omnimovement to be incorporated into future installments to come, spread across all modes. But if Black Ops 6 is any indication of the heights Call of Duty can achieve when true work and creativity are injected into the campaign, then this is a bright future for the long-running behemoth.

Even if you do the minimum amount of side content and just stick with the main story as much as possible, you’re in for a long, interesting, and fun game. The story matter is heavy, though, and might tax some players into taking breaks more often than they might typically. To balance that, there is a lot of good humor and zaniness that you would expect from this studio, but also some endearing missions in the School Stories section where you do everything from lead a dance team, help engineer robots, box, join a motorcycle gang, and partake in a Virtua Fighter 5 tournament. Additionally, the changes that LJ has compared to the original are all positive, too — big new areas to explore, new gameplay elements in both the action and adventure portions of the experience, and yet the best parts of the original are carried over. Ultimately, this is an excellent game that I readily recommend.

Cave Story shouldn't be missed no matter what platform you play it on, but Cave Story 3D offers the most unique perspective on this independent gem.

Marvel Super Heroes is the latest, possibly greatest, in the revered LEGO games franchise. The Wii U's exclusive benefit of each player having their own screen is a big deal, but this is a fun game regardless of the platform you play it on.

I had a fun time with Hatsune Miku Project DIVA Mega Mix+ from SEGA. It was colorful, musical, and a real treat without much effort. The replayability might be an issue when you reach expert status, but the desire to achieve a better score with more accuracy, while unlocking more songs might overcome the bore that comes with less challenging difficulty. Regardless, it’s a heckuva game.

It feels like an integral piece in the burgeoning Dead Space mythos, and it does for the light gun genre what the original did for its survival/horror brethren; while it's not particularly original, it remains wonderfully engaging, masterfully executed, and, despite its brevity, a great deal of fun.