Sanatorium: A Mental Asylum Simulator is a unique, compelling little indie title that examines the dark, sometimes stigmatized world of mental health. It does so in a lovely way that is clearly made by a team with tons of respect and sensitivity. The oddball staff members at the asylum are full of charm, and the patients are just as endearing. It struggles with some unfortunate design choices and some unusual bugs in the menus, but is overall worth a bit of your time.

Blackwood Crossing is sure to tug at your heartstrings at some point throughout its 2-3 hours, but in a way that feels genuine and thought-provoking, rather than manipulative or forced.

Daemon X Machina may very well be one of the most refined mech-based shooters, but some questionable design choices leave more to be desired from the game.

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.

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.

A great addition to the Switch’s library. But at $40 it won’t be for everybody on day one. I think hardcore Street Fighter fans will find the content included pretty enjoyable, and young kids who may not have had the opportunity to experience those games will find it a lot of fun too.

There are certain things that don’t quite connect and a handful of plot holes that stick out, but Dark Pictures: Little Hope is definitely worth your time if you’re a fan of the genre or liked Until Dawn and were disappointed with Man of Medan. It’s a game that’s best enjoyed when being played with a group of people to shout out which decisions to make and pass the controller around. At its best, Little Hope is chilling and gripping and creates an internal conflict in the player between wanting to press on and being too scared to see what lies behind the next door.

Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream is a good game that could have been so much more if some changes were made. The game is way too short, and the fact that there's usually only one solution in each level removes replayability, making it a one-and-done experience with almost zero reason to return. Unless, however, you're a completionist looking to find all the collectibles. Still, I'm happy I played it due to its fantastic stealth mechanics and heartfelt "stick it to the man" story of political corruption.

World War Z provides a fun zombie killing experience that should leave fans of the Left 4 Dead titles pretty happy.

Halo Wars 2 is still a highly recommendable title — in fact, likely one of the best RTS games that can be found on the current generation. However, accessibility on consoles came with a price to both controls and gameplay in both campaign and multiplayer modes.

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

I enjoyed my time with Expeditions: Viking, even though noticeable technical problems can hold it back. Its engaging story kept me constantly intrigued, and made me want to survive for the sake of my village. Long load times and a few glitched out quests really held back the experience from ascending the level to other great strategy titles, but I would definitely recommend to strategy fans because of its deep and engaging gameplay.

Dandara is more than the average Metroidvania and is a game worth your time.

Octopath Traveler 0 introduces a new town building system to its endless turn-based battles, but doesn't innovate much outside of that. Combat feels fun and powerful, but with this being the fourth game in the series, it could use a touch up. In the end, Octopath Traveler 0 is an incredibly enjoyable JRPG, but one that feels like it's just spinning its wheels at this point. Town building is fun, but ultimately shallow.

A cathartic conclusion that will satisfy fans of Trails' dungeon crawling experience.

Minecraft Legends is an action-strategy game that doesn't take itself too seriously, making it an easy game to hop into, while simultaneously lacking the depth to keep hardcore fans of the strategy genre coming back. The extra Monthly Challenge and PvP modes add some much-needed variety that helps compensate for the main campaign's shortcomings. Ultimately, Legends has a great foundation for future updates and is a good game to play over a long weekend.

Fan service it may be, but RoboCop: Rogue City does just enough to stand up on its own merits. There's not a lot of depth to it, and it retreads a lot of old ground, but the charm just about shines through.

It’s hard not to feel like Star Wars Battlefront II should’ve been better than what it is. While some like to think that the implementation of loot crates is a worse crime than that of killing younglings, in reality it just proves to be uninteresting and makes it more likely for me to bounce off of the multiplayer sooner rather than later. The real disappointment falls upon that of the campaign which I clearly had too much hope for. It’s not a story that I would say I hate more than sand, but it also isn’t memorable at all.

My favorite artistic element of The World Ends With You has always been the soundtrack, which is carried over successfully in Final Remix.

Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope is a decent RPG that has many ambitious mechanics and puts a lot of focus on story development.

Last Day of June doesn’t feel like it takes place in a virtual reality, it feels like it takes place within a beautiful, breathing summer painting.

Berserk and the Band of the Hawk's gameplay would definitely stand toe-to-toe with other licensed musou games like One Piece: Pirate Warriors and Dynasty Warriors: Gundam, but maybe this game could have strayed further away from the typical musou formula like what fans saw with Attack on Titan. Instead, it seems Omega Force played it a little too safe.

Given that we’re now officially halfway through the season, Episode 3 of A New Frontier feels more like it is just getting started rather than reaching a big revelation or story point that feels like it will guide the remainder of the season.

Super Dragon Ball Heroes: World Mission does an admirable job at replicating the original Japanese arcade game on the Nintendo Switch.

Ruffy And The Riverside has a lot of cool and new ideas, but doesn't always execute on the necessary basics. The hand-drawn levels and characters are awesome, the semi-open world is fun to traverse and works well as a collect-a-thon, and several gameplay switch-ups and surprises along the way feel refreshing. Unfortunately, the few bosses and enemies present here are quite bland, and though the environmental puzzle-solving is initially unique and rewarding, it eventually stalls out in creativity and challenge. Overall, Ruffy ends up feeling a bit inconsistent, but it's still a cute, enjoyable indie that has me looking forward to future efforts from Zockrates Laboratories.

Overall, the result is quite charming. I'd not call Quartet's visuals "innovative," but they're executed well, with clear thought and care put into those nostalgic sprites.

Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception is definitely a game that’ll appeal more to fans of visual novels as opposed to SRPGs. The strategy sections are a nice break from the game’s mountains of dialog but they’re not too memorable outside of being a short break from the bulk of what you’ll be doing early on. The game is pretty long and does drag at the beginning, but fans of the visual novel genre should find a lot of what they’re looking for.

My favorite mode in Mirage: Arcane Warfare is the 3v3 Arena. In this mode, players are pitted against each other on a small map, keeping the action fast-paced and entertaining.