Even with its technical flaws and progression structure problems, I still can’t bring myself to dislike Little Dragons Café. When Little Dragons Café hits its stride mid-game, it is indeed a beautiful, relaxing, and wholesome experience that I would recommend to those looking for a more laid back title to cleanse their palette before this busy fall season.

I haven’t had as thoroughly as joyful of an experience with any other game this year and I expect I’ll be hard pressed to find another like it any time soon.

While there was fun to be had with the absolute bonkers nature of Slam Land, the fun ran out very quickly. It soon became evident that the mechanics were half-baked, and the disorientation that the game depends on for fun eventually turns into annoyance.

What seemed to be the most disappointing aspect of H1Z1: Battle Royale was its stubbornness to conform to different play styles.

Telltale has also integrated what might be the most robust gameplay mechanics of one of the studio’s titles yet.

State of Mind is extremely cinematic, from its sweeping cutscenes, to how the story’s drama unfolds.

A massive disappointment and not a very good game in the slightest.

Outside of the visuals boost, Madden NFL 19 feels more iterative than last year’s entry of Madden did. The series’ dedicated and interested fans that buy the game yearly and sink hundreds of hours into its game modes shouldn’t have any major issues outside of some glitchy menus, but not enough has changed to make Madden NFL 19 a worthy entry for newcomers or casual players who picked it up last year.

Dead Cells is likely the defining point of the Roguelike genre, thanks to refined combat and clever blending of genres.

All-in-all, a second portion of Overcooked‘s co-op insanity was exactly what I was looking for.

WarioWare Gold manages to be one of the most consistently enjoyable and funny 3DS games in recent memory.

[Tiny Hands Adventure] may be a fun game if you give it the chance, but it’s a more risky choice with other remastered classics readily available.

Salt and Sanctuary takes the Souls-like formula to 2D and almost perfectly executes upon it.

While some of its bugs and awkward graphics take away from the game as a whole, Remothered: Tormented Fathers is an homage to classic old-school survival horror games that fans of the genre will definitely appreciate.

The game took the developers six years to make, and this is seems to have paid off when looking at in the quality of the visuals, controls, and how well the Chasm’s take on procedural generation and the placement of its rooms works out.

A fascinating perspective on a significant historical event that affects the world today. Despite clunky mechanics and sometimes awkward visuals, the title goes above and beyond regarding storytelling by incorporating real-life pieces of media, making a nuanced and varied story out of literal history that most people know nothing about.

Bring the Crunch is another notch in the belt for South Park: The Fractured But Whole, offering fans another reason to come back to Colorado. Sure, if you aren’t a huge fan of the first game, this DLC isn’t going to change your mind. But this horror-themed storyline is going to be enough to keep most series’ fans going until the next season starts up.

While there are a couple of problems when it comes to gameplay pacing, This is the Police 2 manages to tell a relevant and enthralling story that stands out within its genre and as better than the original.

The weird thing is that I never felt this huge sense of growth with my characters as they leveled up.

Moss hits way above its weight — creating one of the few captivating, must-play stories on VR.

Like closing the final chapter on a thousand-page-long fantasy novel, The Banner Saga 3 delivers a dark and thrilling conclusion to remember.

For me, it was an experience that lost steam the longer I played, but I can’t deny how much I enjoyed its initial opening hour.

Sleep Tight’s art style and gameplay make it stand out above other twin-stick survival shooters.

Semblance is a unique platformer whose minimalistic environment is the perfect background to the satisfyingly challenging puzzles that must be solved in order to save the adorable little squish's world.

Mega Man X Legacy Collection feels like an upgrade on all fronts and should be an entry point for all Mega Man novices and longtime fans.

There wasn’t an hour of gameplay in Octopath Traveler I can say that I didn’t enjoy, which is a feat all its own.

Unravel Two is one of the finest puzzle platformers and couch co-op games in 2018.

While it is not meant to be an educational game about mental illness, I felt that its approach to the subject was exceptionally well done.

Replay value is somewhat hindered in Campaign mode but is quickly forgotten with the fast gameplay, the obsessions of upgrading your plane, and Challenge mode.

Mothergunship is worth seeing through once but I’m sure you’ll want to tackle the campaign at least one more time.

A game that shouldn’t be missed for anyone looking for a relaxed mental challenge.

Fans of the original will get their kicks while turning some aliens into exploding cows.

20XX is a game that controls nicely and surely felt needed and relevant back when it hit Early Access in 2014, but just winds up feeling underwhelming.

The newest Seasons expansion is a welcome addition and enriches the overall gameplay experience.

Sonic Mania was already a fantastic title, and Sonic Mania Plus only makes things look and feel better.

The actual driving of The Crew 2 is not up to the standards of modern racing games, and that is an important facet of any game that focuses on driving.

Super Bomberman R is living among a wave of re-imagines of classic titles and often feels too traditional for its own good.

Frontier Developments really took care with using the Jurassic Park license to its fullest.

Gamers who have not yet played Limbo but are fans of puzzle platformers should definitely pick up this title on Nintendo Switch.

Mario Tennis Aces may have you bashing your head against the wall but Nintendo brings another great game to the Switch. Adventure Mode is a bit underwhelming; despite its infuriating difficulty spike, the story can be completed in just a few hours. Adventure Mode and COM Tournament mode are great precursors to the real highlight, the online tournaments.

Even though its online multiplayer isn’t perfect, and the Switch version specifically can occasionally suffer from a lack of precision when using a controller, Sushi Striker: The Way of Sushido wound up being one of the most original and entertaining puzzle games I have played in years.

Tennis World Tour is a disappointment, plain and simple. It’s one thing to not have key features at launch, but the absence of solid gameplay puts the final nail in the coffin. It’s not only dull with its weak and monotonous presentation but frustrating as you watch your generic created character not swing at a ball they could easily hit across the court.

Antigraviator is a no-holds-bar dedication to arcadey, futuristic speed. But packing in more content would elevate the experience to something better.

Vampyr is a great experience. Its fun story will keep you intrigued for hours upon hours, and refined and simple gameplay will keep you hooked for even more.

If you can get past Everspace’s few flaws, a game that merges the best parts of roguelikes and space shooters exposes itself. The game manages to stand on its own as a unique entity within both the above genres, so Everspace should have no problem finding an audience in the sea of modern roguelikes and space shooters.

There’s no doubt that Death Road to Canada makes for a great time, regardless of whether you find yourself in the rogue-like or zombie survival camp. While the game doesn’t do much to innovate the genre at large, it’s hard to argue with having such a good time.

As a fan of beat ’em ups, I did find a bit of enjoyment in the game at a basic level, but there is no reason for me to return to Raging Justice in the future over something like Streets of Rage 2. Raging Justice should provide some adequate indie beat ’em up fun for genre veterans, but it is not very memorable, and its appeal likely won’t ever be any broader than that.

If you’ve been looking for your next dungeon crawling fix, I think Moonlighter is an easy recommendation to anybody who’s a fan of the genre. With the addition of merchant simulation, the game manages to stay refreshing throughout.

Whether you're a die-hard fan of the series or are a newcomer looking for an excellent place to jump in, most players will find something to enjoy in Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection.

State of Decay 2’s experience will boil down to how talented you are at surviving. The game challenges you to last for as long as possible. It has its moments where it can drag on, and if you’re after a game where you just want to kill mindlessly, this isn’t for you. Zombie survival simulator though? It does what it set out to achieve.

Guns of Icarus Alliance works as a competitive multiplayer game still. It offers a unique steampunk setting with ship battles that are highly intensive and a lot of fun when you get a good lobby of people together. But with an annual player count of 80 to 200 players, newcomers should be prepared to prep themselves with tutorials and PVE content.

Okomotive has done a beautiful job with their debut game of weaving together simple a simple story and gameplay with gorgeous visuals and soundtrack.

There are a few issues like the disconnect between the player and the characters or the omission of any challenge, but the story and the way it is told is done exceptionally well. Quarantine Circular is worth every minute of your time.

You could see it as a mix of old-school adventure games with unforgettable storytelling, top-notch acting, and cutting-edge graphics, and as such it’s definitely a very successful experiment. While Detroit: Become Human is the quintessential Quantic Dream game, the additional variety and the spectacular level of craftsmanship it involves may make it intriguing even for those who used not to be part of the studio’s usual target audience.

I love the inventiveness of Nintendo Labo and can see the potential in broader projects down the line.

Omensight is a title worth admiring for its bold storytelling approach and unique take on the action RPG genre.

While it may not stand up to the likes of last year’s Breath of the Wild (or many other Zelda titles for that matter), Hyrule Warriors is still an enjoyable, fast-paced, and frenetic way to play this remixed take on one of Nintendo’s oldest franchises, Musou-style.

A lack of technical polish will likely be a persistent problem for The Council.

If you’re new to the series, Redux‘s difficulty options and overall presentation are an excellent starting point for entering the deep, dark world of Shin Megami Tensei.

Easily one of the best VR shooters on PlayStation VR at the moment.

For $29.99, Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-Ality is a game worth adding to your library. It may have a linear design and a short length, but it is still a great game that stays true to the Rick and Morty IP, and I look forward to future Rick and Morty titles.

I’m thrilled to see that Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze has transitioned almost flawlessly over to the Switch.

City of Brass has a ton of cool concepts and most, if not all of them, pay off.

Tacoma‘s three-hour span was a delightful experience, and I can see myself booting it up once or twice more to comb through the space station.

If you’re looking for your next couch co-op game or something that’s easy to jump into for an hour or two, give The Swords of Ditto a try.

The possibilities are endless, and all the options are available at your fingertips all the time.

Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin may not be Psychonauts 2, but it provides enough substance and allows fans to sink their teeth into something new.

For the King isn’t hesitant to punish players for dumb moves or unlucky rolls.

The game is pretty simple to understand, and can even be a tiny bit exhilarating at first in dogfights, and relaxing in the exploration segments. Once that incredibly short space-shooter honeymoon phase wears off though, Manticore – Galaxy on Fire turns into a repetitive, unattractive slog to get through.

Unfortunately, all the new things Crisis of the Planet of the Apes introduced are overlooked when you factor in its short length, repetition, and lack of exploration plague the title.

Quotation forthcoming.

Once mastered, God of War’s combat is one of the most rewarding I have tried in a long time. Kratos becomes a hurricane of death and destruction, blocking, shield bashing, slicing, dicing, spinning around and throwing his axe at an enemy further away, while pummeling closer monsters with punches and kicks, and then recalling the weapon to catch two more draugr in the back, before going in for one of the several spectacular finishers. It’s fast, complex, addictive, and exhilarating, but I never once felt like I wasn’t in control.

Extinction’s story and some repetitiveness do ultimately let the package down as a whole, but I am glad to see Iron Galaxy tried tackle a different idea outside of their comfort zone, even if it didn’t pan out entirely.

This niche of the RTS genre isn’t often catered-to outside of the Pikmin series, so it’s nice to see these developers branch out and be successful.

Though it may be short on depth, Detective Pikachu makes up for its lack of difficulty with a ton of personality and charm.

The game has a decent amount of modes that ultimately all work together in helping the player learn and progress through the game. So if you’ve been itching for a cheap shoot’em up game on the handheld-console hybrid, maybe do yourself a favor and check out this one.

Sea of Thieves is a mixed bag of emotions for me. It’s a great social experience to play with a group of friends and sail on the prettiest water you will ever see in a video game. It’s also bogged down by tedious and repetitive voyages that reward you with meager pay. When you can eventually purchase an item, it will only affect how you look. If that is the case, it seems puzzling that I can’t create a character I want to flaunt to any passerby. There is enjoyment to be found in Sea of Thieves, but not enough to keep you interested in the long term.

The Mysterious Paintings has a good battle system and premise, but overall I wanted more from the final entry in the Mysterious trilogy. It seems like a missed opportunity to not include an open world and instead opt for a streamlined adventure with quick travel being the only option for exploration.

All in all, Devil May Cry HD Collection the second go around is an unacceptable product, which feels like a waste of money.

The Alliance Alive is a straightforward and fun JRPG with enough to keep the player invested throughout its story, but it could use some work on difficulty balancing and the inclusion of voice over.

With a captivating scenario, diverse gameplay options, breathtaking background, and a colorful cast of characters, Far Cry 5 is primed as one of 2018’s earliest Game of the Year contenders.

A Way Out has some ambitious, fantastic ideas at its core, but it’s unfortunately surrounded by tiresome gameplay mechanics and a story that is just a bit too straightforward.

Burnout Paradise Remastered is a breath of fresh air for the racing genre. It takes the realistic aspects of racing and throws them out the window with fast and furious driving that feels great. The sense of speed achieved as you zip through the streets of Paradise City listening to Soundgarden’s ‘Rusty Cage’ is truly astounding. It’s both frantic and fun.

Kirby Star Allies is another solid addition to the Nintendo Switch, and it does everything it has to as a Kirby game, I just hope that in the future, Nintendo will try to expand upon what already makes Kirby so great as they have with titles like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey.

I loved every moment of Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom and could easily recommend it as an entry point to the genre for newcomers as well as longtime fans of the genre. Developer Level-5 has truly outdone themselves with this one and I would just like to say to them, thank you for the adventure.

Once the mechanics click, the game is incredibly satisfying and rewarding. All of this is packaged with a simple aesthetic and decent soundtrack that are both stylish and fit its sci-fi theme. If you’re a fan of city builders, Haemimont Games’ latest is worth playing.

While it doesn’t do anything that’s new gameplay-wise, I found the narrative to be intriguing throughout and worth sitting through to the end.

Attack on Titan 2 is an action game through and through, but also has time to slow it down for fans that want to spend time with their favorite characters.

Despite the few shortcomings, Yakuza 6 is a worthy successor for the franchise and an absolutely fantastic experience that will keep most enthralled from the beginning to the end, with a whole lot of extremely welcome detours due to the wealth of side stories and additional content.

If you can get past the slow start and some of the glaring technical problems of The Mad Ones, then you will find the most innovative episodic adventure game to come from a studio other than Telltale.

The 25th Ward: The Silver Case takes chances and pushes the boundaries of storytelling and character development.

A great game. The story is gripping and enticing, and for people that don’t want it, it’s not forced down your throat. While improvements could be made to the controls and framerate, I had a blast with Q.U.B.E. 2 and I hope that Toxic Games decides to add more to the game in the months to come.

Blasters of the Universe is a diamond in the rough that is worth owning.

I feel like I want to recommend the game to peers if only to have more people to talk about the story with and hear their interpretations of the events that transpired.

Fear Effect Sedna is saved by a great story and awesome puzzle design.

Muv-Luv alternative is the perfect crowning for an emotional rollercoaster that will shake you up harder than the cockpit of a TSF at full running speed.

While the developers did squeeze as much potential as their studio could out of this concept, to sometimes remarkable results, Kingdom Come: Deliverance may have been a tad too bit ambitious for them on a technical level.

The worst part of Metal Gear Survive is its opening hours.