Escape Academy is an endearing puzzle game that just wants to share the unique pleasure of escape rooms with everyone. Each well-designed level brings a set of clever logic puzzles that are always satisfying to solve, especially with a pal. It has a harder time bringing players a meaningful sense of failure, as the meaningless time limits suck the tension out of the room. Despite its struggles to nail down the energy of real-world escape rooms, it’s one of the most fun ways you can spend a Saturday gaming night this summer.

Yurukill: The Calumniation Games is a valiant effort to merge together two niche genres but it feels a bit underwhelming. The premise of the titular Yurukill Games is interesting and the characters have compelling backstories but there needs to be more meat and narrative justifications for the shoot-em-up gameplay sections. Without spoiling anything, the game’s ending is indeed sequel bait. If this game’s shortcomings can be addressed in a follow-up, there’s definitely potential here.

While it would be accurate to call the game a spinoff of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, that’s selling it short; it’s a full-fledged sequel, just played in a different key. Three Hopes doesn’t have the series’ signature turn-based tactics, but just about everything else is there amid its flurry of Dynasty Warriors-sized action. With no expenses spared when it comes to the mainline series’ RPG hooks, developer Omega Force creates an action game that still makes players feel like a five-star general.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge isn't just a great Turtles game for nostalgic fans. It's a perfect retro-style beat 'em up that's eager to innovate.

Neon White takes some big swings with its card-shooter/platformer premise and fortunately doesn’t miss. Its execution-heavy action is wildly fast and fun, pushing players to complete complex demon-slaying gauntlets that pepper in exciting twists through the game’s last moments. Levels can feel disappointingly linear and longer stages can drag the momentum down, but the action is largely satisfying from start to finish. That would be enough to make this a worthwhile package, but its surprisingly thoughtful commentary on spirituality and strong late-game hooks make this a game worthy of divine judgment.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge is a must-play for both TMNT and beat-’em-up fans alike. It’s a game that takes what worked in the past, but still finds space to innovate beyond its fan service and nostalgia play. If you’ve ever felt like retro revivals can’t be much more than shallow nostalgia, Shredder’s Revenge will prove that there’s still more than enough room for an old genre to grow.

Mario Strikers: Battle League is the latest in a long line of potentially great Switch games let down by sparse launch content. Strikers Club makes for a compelling competitive hook, but there’s very little to do in its off-seasons right now. That’s a shame, because the core soccer experience here is terrific. Matches are tense, team play is incredibly nuanced, and its Mushroom Kingdom cast shows more character than ever. Hopefully, a steady DLC rollout can liven the experience up over time, but Nintendo has yet to prove that it knows how to score with long-term support.

Kao the Kangaroo might not be the most innovative, difficult, or narratively satisfying platformer out there, but this game still nails the basics. As such, any fan of modern 3D platformers will find a lot to enjoy with this reboot of Kao the Kangaroo and maybe even be inspired to check out the forgotten classics Kao starred in.

Sniper Elite 5 is an increasingly rare WWII game that actually does something new with the conflict. While its story has nothing new to say and its commitment to history can be a burden on its creative potential, its open-ended missions make for a devilishly enjoyable stealth action game. Its excessive violence can be a little hard to stomach, even for the most hardened gamers, but you can’t have a guilty pleasure without a heaping helping of self-indulgence.

Hardspace: Shipbreaker is an intricate anti-puzzle game that delivers a searing commentary on corporate abuse.

Vampire: The Masquerade -- Swansong is an intricate narrative adventure game that can be too dense for its own good at times.

Hiroki's journey and his own always-spoken-aloud thoughts are what really hooked me into Trek to Yomi. The more choices I made for the samurai, the more I wanted to see how he would turn out by the game's end. It's not something I expected from the game, and it certainly doesn't redeem all of its negative traits, but Trek to Yomi's story is good enough to be more than something pushing players along.

Nintendo Switch Sports is exactly what it needs to be. It’s an intuitive package of Wii-era sports minigames with more precise motion controls and full online integration. Addictive activities like bowling and badminton make it one of the Switch’s best multiplayer party games, though overly complicated minigames like soccer miss the simple appeal of the series. With long-term support planned, I’m hopeful that Nintendo can build up the currently thin offering and turn it into the kind of console staple that any Switch owner needs to have installed.

Moss: Book 2 is a confident VR sequel that iterates on its predecessor just enough to make it feel new again.

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is the most engaging Lego game in years, thanks to its deeper gameplay and all of the faithfully recreated Star Wars locales that players can explore. But like the protagonists of each Star Wars trilogy, The Skywalker Saga has an identity crisis. It always feels divided between being an accurate retelling of the Star Wars series and an ambitious galactic sandbox where players can go anywhere as anyone.

While it has its quirks, Weird West is a bit of storytelling spectacle that seems to have been hand-crafted for diehard RPG fans.

While it has its quirks, Weird West is a bit of storytelling spectacle that seems to have been hand-crafted for diehard RPG fans.

“Endearing” is the best way to describe Tiny Tina's Wonderlands. It constantly laughs at itself and wants you to smile and laugh along with it, and most of the time, I did. Borderlands fans and tabletop game enthusiasts in particular will find a lot to love here. Even if you’re not a longtime fan, there really is something for everyone to enjoy in Tina’s latest adventure.

Even with its repetitive late game, I still enjoyed just about every second of Kirby and the Forgotten Land. In the game’s opening sequence, Kirby swallows a car and rides down a highway as a pop tune plays. In one shot, he’s cruising against the clear blue sky as some seagulls fly by his window. That’s how I felt whenever I booted it up: Head empty, soaking in the sunshine, not a care in the world.

Rune Factory 5 should satisfy fans and cozy game enthusiasts, but its not quite as friendly for newcomers.

Ghostwire: Tokyo is at its best when it's reimagining Japanese folklore in visually astonishing ways and delivering moving visualizations of what it’s like to pass on. It’s less compelling as a checkbox-driven open-world game, with limited content stretched too thin across its apocalyptic version of Shibuya.

Tunic desperately tries to recreate the magic of classic Legend of Zelda games, all too often doing so to a fault. It tries to be hands-off and instead leaves the player with no idea of where to go. It wants to have simple combat, akin to something like the Zelda Oracle games, but that approach gets stale incredibly fast here. More than anything though, Tunic left me feeling lost in its mysteries, which I didn’t want to solve out of need or drive, but because I couldn’t bear them anymore.

Final Fantasy Origin will enthrall players with its dumb, but awesome story and approachable Soulslike gameplay.

WWE 2K22 is a robust wrestling simulator that gets the series back on track after its nearly career-ending 2020 installment. It’s filled with modes, impressive combat tweaks, and a truly phenomenal creative suite that turn it into a hoss of a game. There’s still work to do if 2K Sports wants to fully rehabilitate the series. Multi-man matches need a rework, its more promising modes need to be expanded, and there’s still plenty of gunk to clean up. But if this is how much an annualized series can turn itself around by taking one year off, then every franchise like it should consider an offseason.

Triangle Strategy delivers smart tactics, but battles play second fiddle to its dull political lore.

Gran Turismo 7 is a comprehensive racing simulator with features that will please series fans, those looking to learn about cars, and people who just want to race casually. While this simulator is more focused on making the player feel elegant rather than exhilarated, it sticks to its vision and highlights the power of the PS5.

Grid Legends' Driven to Glory story misses more than it hits, but this is an otherwise solid, if unambitious, racing game.

Elden Ring is a new gold standard for open-world game design, dishing out some of the best freeform exploration since The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Curiosity is rewarded at every turn and secrets truly feel secret. For Souls veterans, the number of tools available adds a new level of depth to its combat that makes constant experimentation worthwhile. Even with those strengths, it’s hard to outright ignore the ugly quirks in FromSoftware’s games, which stick out even more on new tech. A stubbornness to fix archaic issues holds back what should be a once-in-a-generation game, but Elden Ring is still a landmark accomplishment in any case.