I’m excellent at appreciating Lumines, though, and that’s especially true with Lumines Arise—which is another beautiful, transfixing, exhilarating puzzler guaranteed to stimulate both your senses and your brain. Even the really, really dumb brains.

While the first act of Ambrosia Sky is far from squeaky clean, the core of what’s here—exploring a beautifully rendered dead space station and uncovering its hidden truths while battling alien fungus with a power washer—can be quite compelling when it clicks. While its gameplay didn’t fully sink its hooks in, I’m invested enough in the secrets of this doomed space station that I may be coming back for more when the next two acts of the game launch in 2026. Hopefully, those will be a bit more polished. [Part 1 review]

With its one-of-a-kind charm and narrative chops, The Séance of Blake Manor is a master class in the detective genre and a delicious supernatural treat for the exact kind of freak I am.

Altogether this is another excellent Digital Eclipse compilation that’s as informative as it is entertaining. And whenever you get tired of learning (or, if you’re old like me, yearning for the early ‘90s), you can go and rip somebody’s spine out. Who can find fault with that?

Legends: Z-A has ultimately set the standard and new direction for what Pokémon already should have been for years now. It has cut out many of the flaws that caused previous entries to feel like a slog, and improved on technical issues in ways that it simply never should have had to. This latest game has aligned Pokémon and Animal Crossing as kindred spirits, where satisfaction is found through collecting and completion of the pokédex, the same way bugs and fossils are for the latter. These are cozier RPGs, and while that can lessen their impact compared to their more mechanically involved contemporaries, it feels more like a boon than a curse that this franchise is willing to embrace that identity. Even if none of it ever stays with you for too long after you put it down, for anyone looking to kill time exploring a world full of lovable flora and fauna, Legends: Z-A makes sure that it always feels fast and fun.

If I had to describe Ninja Gaiden 4, it’s like a metal song: loud, boisterous, hard as hell, and simultaneously brutish and complex. It’s hard to expect that much more from a Ninja Gaiden title, even in a new generation. If 4 is the base for future games, the Year of the Ninja may wind up needing a few pages in the calendar.

While there are a few problems, like the controls feeling occasionally fiddly on a controller, I was pleasantly surprised by this part of the game, and the dispatching loop does a good job putting us in Robert’s stressed-out headspace, as the happenings from this mode bleed into the cutscenes outside of them...That said, there are a few other rough edges to the experience as well, at least on PC: I had a big problem with screen tearing, even with V-sync on, as well as some audio desync issues that distractingly sprang up during more busy setpieces.

Whether it’s using Karl’s harpoon gun to pin a screenful of goblins to a wall, performing an eight billion hit aerial combo with Cider, unleashing laser blasts with Brome, or hitting people with Galandra’s big, big sword, these scraps are gratifying, intuitive, and free-form. Not many games can claim to be truly best-in-class at something, but Absolum’s beat ‘em up action makes a convincing argument.

What makes it notable and what makes it good also makes it feel simply like more Hades. Now, “more Hades” is absolutely nothing to complain about, and Supergiant remains excellent at all of the narrative elements of video game design. This isn’t the revelation that Hades was, though, and the attempts to make it mechanically different don’t distinguish themselves. Despite that, Melinoë and her travails are narratively rich, and the basic combat (whose debt to Supergiant’s first game Bastion remains unmistakable) is still strong enough, to ensure that Hades II is an excellent game that nails a precarious equity between story and action—and that should be enough to convince anybody to play it.

Despite its incredible presentation and interesting ideas about narrator reliability varying through story and gameplay, Consume Me’s ending left me wondering what the entire experience was for.

If you’re a fellow old immune or even antagonistic towards nostalgia, don’t fret: Blippo+’s presentation might ape old traditions, but the collective impact of its content is richer, deeper, and more entertaining than any mere remembrance. Blippo+’s legit art, and fun, at that. Give it a shot, and try to imagine how it could’ve become a core part of your personality if you encountered it back in the seventh grade.

Even with this love-or-hate-it plotting choice and the fact that the game probably features too much swinging a lead pipe at various freaks, it also embodies just about everything that defines the Silent Hill series at its best: an uncanny setting full of unsettling people, a hallucinatory soundtrack that sucks you into this distorted world, and lots of fog—literally and in how truths are obfuscated. It’s both raw and surprisingly empathetic towards its lead. It’s desperately about something, but still wants to make you jump out of your seat when a long-haired monster lurches from the shadows to stab you with a rusty knife. In short, it’s Silent Hill, through and through.

Wanderstars makes using the word homage less scary because it knows what lessons to learn from the past. It recognizes what’s good about its inspirations and what to leave behind, while ensuring its unique personality shines throughout its entire runtime. At every step in the journey, I was excited to see what mess Ringo and Wolfe would find themselves in; I knew that, regardless of what was waiting for them, an adventure worthy of the works that inspired it was about to unfold.

While at its best, Eclipsium is dream logic in playable form, its high points are dragged down by lackluster puzzles and some far less interesting treks through dry landscapes. In the end, it’s the kind of game that will probably play best in short clips on social media, where its eye-catching art style and occasional clever turns will more or less have the same power they do in the context. Instead of coming across as consistently evocative, the game’s terseness can make it feel like it doesn’t have a great deal to say.

While the explicit storytelling didn’t come together, this doesn’t entirely undermine the game’s strong sense of ambiance or the tension of its survival horror loop. Whether it’s frantic encounters that have you juggling between weapons, scares amplified by a demonic flashlight that loves to turn off at inopportune times, or the satisfaction of progressing through these interconnected areas, the act of working through Cronos: The New Dawn is a well-measured mixture of frights and thrills. While its narrative failings prevent this experience from merging into a cohesive whole, at least it channels the appeal of its video game inspirations.

Metal Eden is a fun introduction for a boomer-shooter novice, but its stop-start nature, from the giddy highs of breakneck action to neck-breaking narrative brick walls, burned me out.

There are not very many good reasons to replay any 2006 video game in 2025, especially one with a story that shows its age so much, even though Reloaded has upgraded just about everything else. But as an artifact of a simpler time, Gears of War has cultural value, and the series’ progression over its later entries can only be truly understood if you play the first one and see its simplicity.

Metal Gear Solid 3 Delta: Snake Eater preserves everything that made the original one of the best games ever, mostly by changing as little as possible outside its visuals and a few gameplay updates that smooth things out. While it may be a tad more difficult to recommend to those who already own the remaster or who have a PS2 with the original at the ready, this is an excellent version of one of the best games ever made.

Skaters and surfers talk about the serenity they feel when everything comes together and they feel as one with their board, and that’s a high you’ll feel often in Sword of the Sea.

These issues feel like small bumps in what was largely a pleasantly hectic time. It was hard for Blomkest and its residents to not grow on me, as well as the day-to-day of dashing around a supermarket ensuring I had enough fish sticks or pads stocked. The game understands what it wants to get across, that growing a business is a lot of work and, even when it does finally grow, the taste can be more bitter than sweet given the accompanying moral conundrums and human costs. Discounty confidently executes that message, stumbling more with overall polish than what’s at the heart of its content.

It might not entirely live up to the full promise of a comprehensive Gradius compilation, but Gradius Origins still does a great job of compiling the games that are here—and Salamander III holds up its end of the bargain as a continuation of the series. If you’re a shmuphead or a Gradius fan, you probably already knew to pick this one up; if you’re at all interested in the genre, though, and want to get a feel for how it grew and changed during the ‘80s and ‘90s, Gradius Origins is a fantastic (if very challenging) introduction.

Playing it is similar to eating a fancy pastry; it’s bite-sized, surprising, and absolutely delightful. Furthermore, MakeRoom affirms the idea that there is beauty in limitation, and its curated experience ensures that every player leaves feeling like a professional interior decorator.

Still, even with these many rough stretches, there’s enough worth seeing in Abyssus that fans of run-based first-person shooting will likely be willing to power through many of these problems. Its core run-and-gunning offers twitchy thrills, and when the customization works, it leads to some wildly different weapons. While there likely isn’t any saving the game’s lackluster worldbuilding, with some progression tweaks and difficulty adjustments, it’s easy to imagine this being a much more airtight ship. And even with some leaks, Abyssus is still largely worth checking out thanks to its frenetic gunplay and compounding upgrades that will leave you the king of the sea.

Where Dead Take distinguishes itself from Layers of Fear 2, however, is through its inventive blend of FMV splicing sequences and environmental puzzles which, in the spirit of classic Resident Evil, occasionally feature fiendishly difficult scenarios that push the player’s powers of observation, intuition, and recollection to the test.

It speaks to Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound’s strengths that the worst thing I can say about it is that it’s not revolutionary: sometimes you simply want to play as a pair of Hypercharged ninjas cutting through cronies in a high-octane pixelated bloodbath. After a decade-plus break since the last new game in the series, it makes sense why they chose to play it safe, and The Game Kitchen’s latest successfully pushes that premise to its limits.

While Fretless may not fully realize its own potential, the game is such a fun time with so many clever ideas that it’s absolutely worth experiencing.

I’ll likely continue playing Killing Floor 3. I’ll happily reserve a few Friday nights with my friend group for old times’ sake. We’ll likely bemoan the loss of identity of the series once more, while trying to ignore the microtransactions thrown in our way. We’ll complain about how bad a stereotype Luna is. We’ll have a hard time trying to tell a Fleshpound and a Scrake apart, considering how the art style is embedded in the grey and bland monotone of your usual modern game using the tech of Unreal Engine 5. But when the experience tries to be a copy of everything but itself, and not one of its limbs seems designed to stand out and leave a lasting impression, does any of this matter?

Wheel World doesn’t veer off its steady, stately course that often. For most of the time it’s less interested in a story than an atmosphere, a vibe that’s lightly philosophical, a touch spiritual, and as thoughtful as it is playful. It won’t change your life the way cycling seems to do for its strongest advocates, but it might make you reflect upon it and your connection to the world around you, and if it does it’s already done more than most video games even aspire to.

While Monument Valley may feel less novel now than it did in 2014, enough of its core appeal remains to make this sequel largely worthwhile. It combines a distinctive style of abstract art with puzzle sequences that are just engaging enough to draw us into these optical illusions. While it doesn’t land as resoundingly as the first game, Monument Valley 3 still cuts a pretty picture.

Sometimes it felt like I was losing hours of playtime just to coordinate these skill trees. And its incredibly generous attitude towards respecing is a wonder, letting the player easily change and try new things without being punished. Wuchang is a Soulslike that mutes some of the genre’s stricter precepts without sanding away all of the friction or rough edges, and that should really help this fallen feather float.

Despite my irritations with flat writing and stereotypes in The Drifter, I was deeply impressed by its puzzle design, look, and deliciously eerie atmosphere. That’s why I’m disappointed I can’t recommend it whole-heartedly, because there’s a lot in here that’s truly special. But for a group of designers who claim to be heavily influenced by Stephen King, The Drifter is surprisingly superficial when it comes to the core traits of its ensemble cast. King doesn’t always manage to avoid stereotypes himself, but his best works are celebrated for including fully-realized characters who don’t fall neatly into expected roles. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on what the creators of The Drifter do next; I imagine that, much like Stephen King, they’ll continue to grow and make even more creative games in the future. But until then, I’ll be wishing that The Drifter had gotten just one more draft.

Shadow Labyrinth is a perfectly fine Metroid riff. The level design, the pacing of new power-ups, and the mechanical satisfaction of mastering its different forms of precision-demanding motion make it both very easy and demanding to play.

It’s hard to explain to people apathetic or ambivalent to sports games, but criticism that they’re annual roster updates originates from communities that love sports and want these video games to be as great as they can. There was a time Madden seemed to be actively getting worse every year. It took NCAA Football most of the PS3/360 era to find its footing. For all my concerns about tightening the screws around Dynasty mode, there’s clearly a lot of effort here, and the actual on-field gameplay is tremendous fun. Considering this series’ history, and how it went away for a decade, I’m often evaluating the new one from the perspective of “If they never make another one, will this be a worthy legacy for the work invested and for the passion the people have for the sport?” For College Football 26, despite some caveats, the answer is yes. They’ve definitely raised the floor and they haven’t hit the ceiling. After over 1000 hours in its predecessors, I put over 200 hours into College Football 25; I’ll be surprised if I don’t put even more into College Football 26.

Despite these annoyances, Everdeep Aurora still makes for an engaging five to six hours. Not only does it nail the little gameplay touches to make the most of its spelunking, but it also trusts the player enough to let them make discoveries for themselves. What starts as a game about a cat digging a hole to find their mom reveals itself to be something more compelling as you excavate the truths of the Everdeep. If you’re willing to go deep enough, that is.

As beautiful and engaging as the world that Bithell Games has built for Catalyst is, and as pleasant as it is to move around in it, there’s just a surprising lack of anything going on in it for Exo to do besides move and fight.