While I would have personally preferred the addition of three player support, or even extra stages or modes, Natsume and Project Tengo did a great job of resurrecting a classic for modern audiences and adding two new playable characters. Other cool features include a timer to encourage speed runs, with online leaderboard support, and being able to unlock the soundtracks from the original and the ’94 games. Beautiful sprite art and animation, and a nostalgic-inducing soundtrack add wonderfully to the experience as well.

Rabbids Go Home is a strong recovery for the Rabbids franchise, shying away from the mini game conglomerations we've been accustomed to and bringing an entirely new adventure to the table featuring these misunderstood creatures.

R&C: A4O almost delivers a great single player and multiplayer experience, but falls a little short. Neither mode is outstanding, but the multiplayer mode is a lot of fun (especially with local friends) and the single player mode is pretty cool on its own.

Entwined will put your brain to work and force you to think with both hands at the same time. It will challenge you to do better and keep you going, while at the same time relaxing your senses. It’s not perfect, but it’s engaging enough to warrant the time, money and effort.

While Dawnguard probably could have contained a bit more for its $20 price tag, most gamers who have dedicated months of their lives to playing this game will not be disappointed with their purchase. For the time being, I'm hooked again, and that means I'm probably going to have to go pay off my ridiculously high bounty in Whiterun.

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.

In all seriousness, MLB 10: The Show takes baseball fans somewhere they were dying to go and does it in such style. Everything about this game screams perfect, but it all depends on what type of baseball fan you are and how much patience you're willing to give.

Atelier Rororna should appeal to series fans and newcomers alike. Gust did a fine job with this game and it's well worth your consideration if you're in the market for a solid JRPG.

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron is a work of surprising confidence. Combat that favors leveling up the player's, not that avatar's, skill set is worthy of admiration, as is a wildly imaginative, frenzied art department that never allows their beautiful work to overstay its welcome.

Child of Eden is a visually stunning game. Prepare to be immersed into a 3D world that you can control and protect - all with the power of multi-sensory gestures, using your hands.

Kingdom Two Crowns is not for those seeking out a traditional strategy or management game. It merely skirts the edges of the genre to present a unique vision of how this type of game may play out through a different perspective. Intense and difficult moments are often traded out for a serene blend of exploration and discovery. Though it has its pacing frustrations, those keen enough to go out of their comfort zone should find depth and satisfaction in Kingdom Two Crowns.

Overall, Indygo, while certainly nothing groundbreaking with mechanics, is a frightfully accurate portrayal of what happens in the mind of someone suffering from depression. The narrative is clearly more important than the game’s mechanics, and that shows at times, but the combination of mechanics, dialogue choice and acting help to push the message about how devastating depression can be for an individual suffering from it. Go and get this, folks. It’s a helluva experience.

Palia and its Elderwood Expansion from developer Singularity Six is a budding MMO with all sorts of green flags waving toward a long future. While the main quests may not catch your attention too hard, the customization, exploration, and new free Elderwood expansion will be enough to motivate you to give this a shot. It still has some growing pains, but right now, Palia is a solid game.

The intriguing storyline and fluidity of the game make it a good one to play.

Overall, Samurai Shodown is a fun release that brings back memories of a simpler time in the fighting genre where focus laid squarely on technique and gamer ease-of-use. The inclusion of a variety of modes helps to beef up the fighting content and offer up good challenges for those seeking them. All of this makes the experience more engaging and entertaining.

In sum, Ghostrunner on PS5 takes what was already a pretty compelling game and spruces it up just a very little bit. This is a short, narrowly-focused game that is built for speed — to that end, it does very well, but just know that going in and don’t expect a full-blown FPS-like experience. That in mind, I think you’ll appreciate what the devs were able to accomplish here.

Overall, Ghost Giant has been a fun experience for the PSVR. The characters are endearing as the story, the VR is very engaging and engulfing, and the simplicity of the controls helps to keep focus on the fun and side-experiences you happen upon. There’s a lot to love about this title.

In sum, Samurai Shodown is back and the release for the Xbox Series X does very well for itself. Though a little scant on content compared to some others in the genre, this is still a great game for fans of the franchise or the genre.

If you liked the game in one of its previous releases, you’ll like it here as well. If you didn’t, well, the portability of the Switch might help, but if not, there’s no reason to look at the Switch version any closer. Many would agree that this is one of the best open world RPGs in the last several years, so if you haven’t played it yet, this at least gives you another reminder to consider moving it to the top of your backlog.

As long as you know what your’e getting into with Ion Fury, there’s not a whole bad that I can say about it. There is some repetition and a little bit of button-hunting and I didn’t care for some of the raw simplicity of some of the bosses, but all in all, I had a great time. So I think it’s fair to say that with Ion Fury, you really get what you probably came for — an old school FPS experience with a few modern refinements that make it a standout game. That goes for both for genre newcomers as well as veterans looking for a blast of nostalgia. Plus, with the budget price of $25, it makes it very affordable.

At $20, Fatesworn offers a strong enough great to bland ratio for me to recommend. I thought the DLC felt a little formulaic, with a lot of boxes checked and not a lot of fresh creativity and inspiration, but, I adore Kingdoms of Amalur and was happy to dive into a new area with new content. Fatesworn will provide a solid ten hours, if not more, depending on the difficulty you’re playing on, your skill, and just how thorough you want to be. Given that you have to have completed the original (long) game to access this new content, Fatesworn is clearly for fans who enjoyed the original gameplay loop and want more of the same. If that’s you, like it was me, Fatesworn was worth the wait. Here’s hoping THQ Nordic keeps Amalur in their future plans.

Overall, if you liked Patapon 2 back in the day, you’re going to enjoy this release on the PlayStation 4. It doesn’t do anything particularly special other than giving you the game you might have loved in 2009 on a bigger screen.

Kitsune Tails is a charming 2D-platformer that I just adored playing. While it may have been more difficult than I had initially envisioned, completing the game to the end was worth it, if only to see Yuzu and her friends’ stories come to a close in a heartfelt way. Kitsune Games and MidBoss have given players a wealth of tools to create some cool levels and minigames, and I cannot wait to see what players create!

Clustertruck posits a world in which a mysterious force must fashionably break the will of a congregation of sentient eighteen-wheelers whom do not care if they live or die. This is exactly as fun as you think it is. A detectable absence of precision and available control may disappoint those hoping for a more air-tight platformer, but also this game is called "Clustertruck." It performs as advertised.

It's another solid addition to the PS3's library of JRPGs, and I recommend making an effort to check it out.

Overload is an ode to Descent and the fans who have longed for a true, modern successor. It delivers to those fans in spades as it reproduces the Descent experience fantastically well. There’s plenty to see and do even when you’ve completed the main game though the lack of a community to drive the multiplayer is a worry at this stage. Still, if you’re don’t care too much about online play and are a huge fan of Descent then Overload was made for you.

Darq isn’t the most difficult puzzle game out there, but it does excel in all uniqueness categories. Its greyscale art style adds to its overwhelmingly gothic vibe while providing puzzles that are difficult enough to force you to pause yet easy enough to solve. It’s definitely something to check out, even if you won’t be challenged to the fullest extent.

Simpler Times from developer stoneskip. is a short narrative with simple interactive moments holding up a melancholy adventure. The value of the game comes with the translated experience where the gameplay can mean different things to different gamers with varying perspectives from where they might be in their life. Its interpretive structure makes the gameplay and story far more meaningful than the minutes it takes to complete it all.