Metal Slug Tactics is refreshing, leaning into its roots as a charming 90s arcade title while reinventing itself as a tactical RPG. You needn’t be a Metal Slug fan to enjoy the amount of depth here – it’s a treat of highly engaging gameplay and a must-listen of a soundtrack. I want more from Leikir Studio and sincerely hope they make the UI more user-friendly to ease the learning process.

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.

Decline’s Drops is a heavily stylized indie experience that takes standard platforming mechanics and combines it with its own unique vision. The atmosphere of this game is meticulously crafted to tell a melancholy story about environmentalism. If you’re a fan of platformers, I would recommend checking out Decline’s Drops, though be warned about potential frustration at the hands of imprecise controls. Overall, Decline’s Drops is a good game that can become truly great with a little more gameplay tweaking.

Shin Chan: Shiro and the Coal Town from developer h.a.n.d., Inc. and publisher Neos Corporation, is a wonderful introduction to open-world games for a younger gaming audience. It features beautifully drawn animation, fantastic environments, deep gameplay, and plenty of exploration to keep players engaged and locked in.

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered from developers Guerilla Games and Nixxes is a worthy update from the 2017 game. The update brings many visual enhancements, improves environments, and creates better character interactions. It brings a great game up to PlayStation 5 standards and helps bridge the gap between the original and the sequel.

Fear the Spotlight from developer Cozy Game Pals and publisher Blumhouse Games is a frightfully fun romp that balances out puzzles and stealth inside of a horror experience. While it won’t redefine the horror genre in gaming with its narrative, it still delivers enough to be entertaining and scary.

Squirrel with a Gun is charming and a nutty idea at first glance. It’s better enjoyed in small bursts as to keep its small supply of silliness enjoyed to the fullest extent. If you’ve ever wanted to go nuts being a squirrel with a large arsenal of guns, this is the simulation for you.

Life is Strange: Double Exposure brings back Max Caulfield for a new adventure, allowing Deck Nine to incorporate everything they’ve learned from the series so far. It captures the raw emotion of True Colors and the intriguing mystery of Max’s inaugural journey. But even with new powers, the emotional stakes are the same as ever for Max and the player as Double Exposure proves life can always get stranger.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard certainly closes a chapter for Dragon Age as a whole. But one can’t help but look more brightly at the future, one where Bioware has seemingly broke a curse it has been shackled with for years. As labyrinthine as a task it would have seemed, Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a promise to fans that BioWare is one of the best storytellers in the medium, one capable of bombastic gameplay and enthralling narratives that linger for years.

Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven is an amazing remake from developer and publisher Square Enix. It takes an already beautiful classic and properly retools it with a modern look and gameplay backbone. While not everything is perfect, it still maintains its charm and the structure that made it memorable back in the day.

El Paso, Elsewhere is an audacious game that, while not afraid to borrow inspiration, plays with expectations. At its beating heart is a brisk, fun shooter. But that core is supplemented by an incredibly powerful narrative both expertly acted and expertly written, allowing all the action to be drenched with meaning. Style and substance don’t have to clash or supplant each other and in the case of El Paso, Elsewhere, it’s rife with both.

To say that Yakuza Kiwami is a great Nintendo Switch game is an understatement. It’s a fantastic port of an existing remaster that serves as one of the best entry points in the Yakuza series. It might have less to “do,” but that’s more of a reason for SEGA to port the rest of the Yakuza games for Nintendo players in the future. Hopefully (and I sincerely mean this), Ryu Ga Gotoku brings more of its library to Switch owners…preferably at the same quality as Yakuza Kiwami.

Sonic X Shadow Generations makes Sonic look better than ever before thanks to its graphical makeover and additional playable campaign featuring the one, and only, Shadow the Hedgehog. With the spotlight on Shadow, players can now play as him in all of his glory while being treated to cinematic sequences that, quite frankly, look cool as hell.

Unknown 9: Awakening from developer Reflector Entertainment and publisher Bandai Namco Entertainment is a game more about what could have been rather than what turned out to be. With a better story that builds out the world, its characters, and more interesting enemies, the game would have been more of what it intended. It had the makings of a good fantasy/sci-fi action adventure but just didn’t make it there.

While not all the games featured in Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster are gold, what you do get is some love and care shown to some classic titles, a completely retooled UI and soundtrack, and all while leaving the core gameplay untouched.

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero from developer Spike Chunsoft and publisher Bandai Namco is a wonderful fighting experience. It has all the bells and whistles, including a massive number of characters from the series and different ways you can customize and shape them. The imbalanced fighting might be tough for some players to overcome to enjoy the experience.

While the power of a PC environment can never be trumped by a console, and that’s where console games are born, so it should be the apex technology leader in gaming, the console version of New World: Aeternum works very well. The controller layout is easy to use, the graphics are premium, though some enemies are very blah when it comes to detailed character modeling, and everything you would expect from the PC version is here. Having the ability to easily communicate due to PSN and easily grouping with friends will be a treat on console...The game works solidly on the PlayStation and it’s a game I will revisit multiple times before I’m done with it or before a new expansion is released.

Neva is both touching meditation and thrilling adventure. Undoubtedly a work of art exemplified by the sheer artistry on display with its painterly world and brilliant use of color. While captivating and stunning purely from a visual perspective, Nomada uses elegant platforming to craft equally intriguing displays of puzzle solving and spectacle. Trapped in a picture frame, a tale of loss, growth, and rebirth such as this would be hard to parse yet remain poignant and interpretive but Neva captures this depth in stunning movement, a true masterpiece.

Duck Paradox is a unique gem, featuring an adorable charm and highly replayable loop that feels like an old-school platformer more than a modern roguelike. Steep bullet hell difficulty aside, it deserves more content to keep players saving the day with an ever-growing waddling of ducks alongside of Dr. Paraducks!

Phoenix Springs is not a transformative point-and-click adventure game. While it offers a unique “inventory” mechanic, its ebb and flow are still dictated by the whims of the player’s propensity for thinking outside literal and figurative boxes and a developer who crafts the solutions within. Though it may frustrate those who approach it casually, a stellar visual palette may offer enough enticement to look up solutions online as a lubricant towards progressing the narrative. Deep within its recesses, Phoenix Springs is beautiful and perplexing but to many it will always be a mystery.

Atari 50 – The Wider World of Atari from developer Digital Eclipse adds to the overall Atari 50 historical package but doesn’t bring the strongest line-up of history or games seen in the original release.

Throne and Liberty from developer NCSOFT and publisher Amazon Games is starting on the right note. The game offers a bevy of content, a fun and complicated backend, and enough motivation to keep exploring and grinding its lands. It does need better direction and connection with quests, as well as balanced PvP. As it stands, the start is good, and the future looks like it could be better.

Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns adds a good amount of kontent for MK1. Price concerns aside, the additions of Sektor, Cyrax, and Noob Saibot should be seen as a blessing for MK fans. It remains to be seen about the future of MK1’s story and the rest of the Guest Fighters coming soon, but this is a good step in the right direction for a larger-form kontent in year 2 of MK1.

NHL 25 is a good game. Don’t get me wrong. The work and progress that the team has put into this year’s release shows itself. There have been a lot of quality-of-life improvements to the in-game product that make me feel good. To me, this feels like the first time this has been as close to real as possible. There are a few things that feel out of place, but overall the improvements are there. However, I just don’t know if this is enough of a step or leap forward to justify it for the average NHL fan or game player.

Grapple Dogs: Cosmic Canines is no exception to Medallion Games’ track record of fun retro platforming but with a modern engine and clear design. Swinging and gaining momentum takes a smidge to get used to (just like the previous title, for what it’s worth), but Grapple Dogs is forgiving enough to let the player fail gracefully and improve their platforming mastery bit by bit.

Final Fantasy XVI from Square Enix is a marvelous experience that brings strong characters, a passionate and fiery revenge-driven story, and simplistic action that is just as easy to pick up and go. It’s one of the best Final Fantasy games in the series, and certainly a solid option for PC gamers.

God of War: Ragnarök from Santa Monica Studio and Sony Interactive Entertainment is a beast on the PC. It brings the same big adventure while sporting some of the most gorgeous graphics the game has shown to date.

This is all to say that the overall direction of Keylocker as a JRPG is top notch. It contains beautiful pixel art, excellent soundtrack, thorough worldbuilding, and difficult gameplay. It’s only held back by a lack of optimization of its Switch port.