Both its triumphs and its failures live at grand extremes: maddening, beautiful and awesome. The game hits each every one of its moments with grace and force, whether they're bombastic gunfights or a small moment on a boat in a lake outside Blackwater. I'm leaving my playtime overwhelmed, emotional and drained in a way that I haven't quite felt since the original Red Dead Redemption.

It's a world that feels huge at first, then small as you get to know it, and then huge again as you realize how fantastically dense it is with secrets and challenges. It gives you a simple set of tools and then asks you to do something different with them every ten minutes. Super Mario Odyssey is a fun game, an unoriginal observation that feels nonetheless vital in the modern gaming landscape. It is a game that tasks you with finding joy, and then lets you point yourself in the right direction. It is a game you should play.

Elden Ring is a stunning achievement from a literal video game architecture perspective, along with creating a difficult but not wildly punishing game that everyone, even non-Soulsborne devotees, should be able to enjoy. I have not been this impressed with an open world since Skyrim, and Elden Ring even surpasses that in many ways. It’s an easy game to recommend to anyone and everyone, and deserves the explosive sales success we’ve seen, dwarfing old FromSoft records. Elden Ring is a gaming achievement the likes of which we rarely seen, and you will be remiss to not pick it up and see what the hype is about for yourself.

Overall, Tears of the Kingdom is a genuine improvement and evolution over Breath of the Wild. While I still think the Link’s Awakening remake has been the best Zelda game on the Switch thus far, Tears of the Kingdom comes very close to that. The story is also a lot more poignant than many of the other games in the series and consequently Tears of the Kingdom feels a lot more considered. So get ready to go back to Hyrule, because it’s all very new again and entirely massive with it.

The Gods here are more human then they've ever been, and there's something as captivating about that as there was about the larger-than-life absurdity of characters like Poseidon and Hades in the original series. God of War works for what it keeps and works for what it changes. It's a foundation for a series that's suddenly a tentpole once again.

Overall, Metroid Prime Remastered is an astonishingly accurate remake of a definitive gaming classic. Not only in terms of its excellent visuals but also how it plays nearly identically to the original. Even for a game that’s now over two decades old, Metroid Prime still feels as fresh and as functionally relevant as ever. If only more modern first-person games had level design as good as this.

God of War Ragnarok is a beautiful, moving game, no longer purely centered on a father getting to know his son, but also about vengeance, forgiveness and attempting to change both prophecy, and the people we used to be, both of which prove to be equally difficult. It’s almost impossible for me to imagine those who loved the last God of War will not also appreciate this one just as much, minus a lagging stretch here or there, and the fact that it can’t be as transformative as the initial leap from the Greek games.

It’s stunning. It’s important. And it’s a deeply well-told story to the point where I genuinely cannot fathom why anyone who has fully beaten the game, not just heard the spoilers, not just watched a streamer snark their way through it or watched ripped YouTube cutscenes, doesn’t appreciate what it has achieved here.

Ultimately, I was deeply impressed by Uncharted 4, and I absolutely believe it lives up to the high bar of quality the series has set for itself, meaning all the delays were probably worth it. I think it relies entirely too much on the no-longer-innovative climbing mechanic, but there’s simply no denying that this game is a visual masterpiece with likable characters in an interesting and intense story. In short, it’s an Uncharted game, and once again, that can speak for itself.

Inside is an incredible game, a compelling artistic achievement that deserves your time no matter what genre of game you normally prefer. I [wish] there was a tiny bit more to it, but between the gameplay, the animation and the atmosphere, it’s enough to be a worthwhile experience, and one you won’t forget for a good long time to come.

It’s a stunning game that only gets more and more stunning the further you get. It’s an easy recommend to anyone, even people like me who have previously been allergic to turn-based combat. You may have to get used to it, but push past and learn the systems to experience once of the best games you may play in years.

Overall though, Super Mario Wonder is an excellent 2D platformer. With excellent level design, polished visuals and mad Wonder Flower setpieces. It’s not my favorite Super Mario game in recent years, but it’s definitely worth checking out.

It’s a simple remaster, but it makes a work of art all the more beautiful and immersive.

Overall, Demon’s Souls is still the most interesting and varied game in the Souls series. This remake not only looks lovely on the PlayStation 5 but is also a joy to play with all the tweaks and improvements that have been introduced. Now if only people would look past its supposed difficulty and see its carefully crafted intricacy instead.

This is the best Mario Kart game ever made, expanding an already great Wii U title into a near-perfect racing game. Even so, players who have the original on Wii U may want to wait for a sale.

It has been a very long time since I’ve felt this much passion for a game. Overwatch is a perfect storm. It’s a new IP, looks gorgeous, plays phenomenally and singlehandedly rekindled my desire to play a genre of game I thought I’d left behind at this point.

There are already plenty of solid roleplaying games on the Switch, but you absolutely need to add Dragon Quest XI S to your collection if you haven’t already done so. Put simply, it is still a thoroughly incredible game and almost peerless within the genre.

Following the somewhat disappointing The Last Guardian, this is an astonishingly good remake of a classic PS2 game and one that everyone who owns a PS4 should play.

Donkey Kong Bananza does what Super Mario Odyssey did before it: offer one of the best platforming games available on a new system. The fact that the bulk of the game is about wanton joyous destruction is also another big bonus. So, if you want to tunnel to the center of the planet and destroy most of it along the way, Donkey Kong Bananza is your kind of platformer.

Know that if you’re overwhelmed with the world, stuck inside, or adrift in a life that you know will look totally different next week — get Animal Crossing.

For fans of the first game, or Spider-Man, or action games in general, Spider-Man 2 is an easy recommendation. There are about five dozen teasers and easter eggs by the end so I’m sure we’re in for more, whether that’s another Miles-sized game or another sequel down the road. But for now, yes, this is all the Spider-action you need for a good long while.

It's a sublime distillation of everything that makes the Souls games so amazing, but it truly is more challenging than any of those games by a very long mile. I am not exaggerating here. I think Sekiro may be one of the very best games ever made, but it is not going to be for everyone. I still recommend that everyone gives it a shot. It takes patience but it's just such a well-crafted action game, I've never played anything quite like it...I'm playing the game at my own pace rather than rushing through. I'd get too frustrated, I think. So I'll take my time to finish this beast. And I'm okay with that. I'm in no hurry to be done with the world of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. It's the best game I've played since Bloodborne.

Dark Souls III is a game that harnesses nostalgia masterfully. There’s no doubt that this is a game that’s as much love letter to fans as anything else. There’s a bit more exposition, tons of familiar faces and nods to the original game, and a sense that we’re travelling back to a place we haven’t been in a long time. There’s a sadness to this adventure, but also a kind of joy.

Overall, Unicorn Overlord is one of the best tactical role-playing games I’ve played in a good while. The tactical complexity is also carefully introduced in a fairly gentle and intuitive way. With its wonderful visuals cementing this as a definitive game in the genre and one everyone should check out.

Overall, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is arguably the best game in the series and builds upon the prior entries in both a deft and quite magnificent way. Much of the performance issues seen in prior games have been resolved and the game itself is very enjoyable to play. It may seem somewhat of an enormous undertaking but the world of Aionios has a lot to offer to curious and somewhat patient players.

Overall, this is a fantastic collection of Super Mario games. From the focused and demanding Super Mario 3D World to the more experimental, though still very well executed, open world take for Bowser’s Fury. Both games have a lot to offer and will keep you very busy unlocking their innermost secrets.

Phantom Liberty is a thoroughly excellent swan song for the tumultuous saga of Cyberpunk 2077. And after playing, you will be glad that CDPR has already greenlit a sequel, despite the fact that the initial release could have sunk the entire company. It’s a redemption story on the level of No Man’s Sky or Final Fantasy XIV, and deserves to be experienced for yourself, no matter what you may have thought of Cyberpunk three years back.

This is as close to perfect as a Destiny expansion can get. If my biggest complaint is “I don’t love the new shader icons” and “the Ritual Pathfinder system should be tweaked,” I think we’re doing well. Instead, The Final Shape represents a stunning finale for a plot arc a decade long that’s not just a huge event for Destiny itself, but the entire industry, as I simply do not think that has another comparison point in the history of gaming, provided you’ve been on this ride for this long. Bungie left everything on the field and delivered on all fronts.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 is just plain, good old-fashioned arcade fun. I think we could all use a healthy dose of that right now.

No, Horizon probably isn’t as monumental of an experience as playing Uncharted or God of War for the first time, but it’s well-made, engaging and probably worth your time.

What Remains of Edith Finch is filled with excellent writing, striking visuals, and a significant sense of place, of people, of life’s ephemeral nature and our relationship to it.

NBA 2K’s depth continues to set the bar for the genre. Like always, NBA 2K17 is several games within one. However, the amalgamation of modes delivers an especially tight package this year...The smaller issues only slightly hamper the overall experience. 2K has delivered another classic the moment you rip off the plastic.

While I really love this game, I have to dock points for performance issues. At release, a game shouldn’t have this many glitches, crashes, and other problems. Points also docked for the pacing misses and the difficulty spike at the beginning. Finally, points docked for the shoddy multiplayer, though I don’t weight this very high in my overall scoring of the game.

Overall, Metroid Dread brings a narrative close to a decades long story with excellent level design and combat. It also looks great as well. So until Samus Aran is needed once again to save the Galactic Federation, I am happy to just savour the joy of another successfully completed mission.

Nioh is a fantastic Samurai action-RPG with excellent Dark Souls inspired combat, multiplayer options and tons of content. Not for the faint of heart. Boss fights can be as tedious as they are challenging.

DMC 5 is beautifully rendered and the action is fun. However, the weak story and less-than-compelling character development and audio presentation remove the game's heart. Instead of being a masterful and complete action game, it's instead far more shallow than it could have been.

The Old Hunters is a devilishly challenging addition to an already brutal game. With its release, Bloodborne transforms into an even beastlier and more grotesque experience, and it’s better than ever—a blood diamond in the rough even in a year chalked full of incredible releases.

For every cool moment I have in Battlefield 1, whether it’s bayoneting a soldier or chopping someone in half from horseback, I’ll be blown up by twenty tanks or be headshot by twenty snipers, and often it’s more frustrating than fun. The campaign is mostly great, but again, probably no more than a 6-7 hour experience, and obviously not the worth the price of admission by itself. You will have to love multiplayer to make this game worth it, and if you don’t, well, you’re out of luck.

There are pieces of a good game and story here, but even in two hours, it feels like it wastes a lot of time and doesn’t create anything all that compelling in the end.

Overall, this is an amazing game that works on its own and fleshes out the story and setting of Final Fantasy VII in a remarkably cogent way. Fans of the original game may have wanted something more faithful in a functional sense but this is still an excellent game and one you will be more than happy to pour your time into.

I loved playing Sun and Moon and despite the fact that this is he umpteenth Pokémon game released, it’s still incredibly compelling and brilliantly paced. The story and characters are very nicely done too, though the Team Skull grunts are wonderfully cheesy in their attempt at being hip-hop infused gangsters.

Everything about Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is such a spectacle to behold, so even though it did feel a bit longer than it really needed to be, clocking in at approximately 20 hours for a typical playthrough, there was enough nuance and consistent variety to keep me engaged throughout.

The fighting itself is absolutely glorious for both fans and non-fans of the series, and for both casuals and hardcore fighting gamers. You just can't lose with Dragon Ball FighterZ.

An excellent remake of an already faultless Zelda game. If you never played the Game Boy original, then you absolutely need to pick this up. If, like me, you grew up playing this game, then there is a lot of new content to keep you busy. While Breath of the Wild was the game many bought their Switch for, Link’s Awakening has only reinforced that decision for me. So buckle up and let a friendly owl show you what Koholint Island has to offer.

Spider-Man is a fantastic action game with great movement and combat and a compelling story that's only dragged down from time to time with boring missions and QTE-based boss fights.

I loved playing Sun and Moon and despite the fact that this is he umpteenth Pokémon game released, it’s still incredibly compelling and brilliantly paced. The story and characters are very nicely done too, though the Team Skull grunts are wonderfully cheesy in their attempt at being hip-hop infused gangsters.

So it’s 5 levels really, but they are excellent levels, masterful executions of a brilliant concept by a team at the top of their game. And, on top of that, we’ve already got the other two games—which are available for dirt cheap, now—to make a single, expansive, globetrotting experience that sees our familiar, baldheaded puppetmaster accessing the world’s ultra-wealthy just when they thought they were invincible, dancing through the class divides like the nameless angel of death that he is, and then blowing someone up with an exploding golf ball or something.

Hi-Fi Rush is going to stay with me. I absolutely adore this game, far, far more than I would I would have imagined, given everything said above. It is, quite literally, infectious, as you will not only find yourself involuntarily bopping along with the beat as you play, but even after you’ve shut the game off... It’s joyful, addicting and something I may play twice just for the hell of it. An absolute win.

Final Fantasy Tactics is still the brilliant tactical role-playing game I thoroughly enjoyed playing at the end of the ‘90s. This new and updated HD remaster in the form of The Ivalice Chronicles is a welcome addition, especially for newer players, but it’s the original game that makes this collection so very special.

Halo Infinite might be the best campaign 343 has done, but considering I didn’t love the last two, I’m not sure how much weight that carries. Halo Reach remains the gold standard for me in that department, and while I had a lot of fun here zipping around the open world, and I can see the potential of the concept, something about Infinite feels small and unfinished to me compared to both other Halo campaigns, and other open world titles. I don’t need (or want) a sprawling Assassin’s Creed map that takes 200 hours to clear, but I think I need more diversity than what’s here, and a better story with better characters told within it.

Overall, Xenoblade Chronicles X is a massive role-playing game that is more scaled towards the mecha than the on-foot component. The initial on-foot sections take a while, but once you get your Doll license, the world of Mira literally opens up. So stick with this one; it’s a long road but still one worth the effort of traveling.

Fallout 4’s greatest triumph, and its one major point of evolution is in its storytelling, crafting a lengthy, unexpected ending and resolution that I will remember for years to come. It also remains one of the best games in existence for those who simply like to wander and explore and unearth long-buried secrets. But it struggles with archaic gameplay systems and an inflexible engine that anchor the game to the past for all the wrong reasons. Fans may enjoy more Fallout and a brand new map to explore, but this sequel will not be heralded as revolutionary or overly impressive this time around.

It delivers the speed and technical component of F1 racing without overwhelming a casual fan with jargon or overly complex concepts. At the same time, it stays true to its core audience with the most authentic virtual F1 experience around. It may not get all the hoopla that more popular titles in the genre receive, but F1 2017 is one of the most complete sports video games released in awhile.

My impressions are overwhelmingly positive based on what I’ve experienced so far, from the map to the gameplay to the new systems to even the story, which I was not expecting. Blizzard really seems like they’ve nailed this, and I’m going to say the only way this will be poorly received at launch is if technical issues kill people’s ability to play. But once it gets rolling? Yes, I think you’re going to like Diablo 4.

You won’t find a more complete racing experience in gaming. In the grand scheme of things, Codemasters does most things as well if not better than every other developer of racing games in the industry. Visually, the game is stunning and the gameplay is balanced for all players. On the downside, a little more imagination would place this undisputed king of racers even higher on that mountain.

Mario Kart World is a huge undertaking, but it still offers the classic Mario Kart progression we’ve all grown up with. Whether this will sell as much as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe remains to be seen, but from the off, Mario Kart World definitely has an enormous amount of content to wrap your head around, and the multiplayer will likely keep it an evergreen release for years to come, much like the other games in the series have been.

Dishonored 2 doesn’t live up to the original, but it still provides great gameplay mechanics and a sense of freedom you can’t find anywhere else.

Overall, Bayonetta 3 delivers a frantically intense approach to “stylish combat”, with a complex and multi-layered combat system that has remained remarkably robust across each game in the series. While the presentation is hugely over the top, Bayonetta 3’s real worth is in how it plays and as such comes thoroughly recommended to anyone that can keep up.

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is a great follow-up to The New Order, though it falls short in level design and stealth. It's well worth your time and money if you love single-player games, but it wouldn't kill you to wait for a sale.

On the positive side, the stellar gameplay that has long been associated with the series is again, even better than it was last year. The slow and steady improvement to visuals continues as Sony tinkers with lighting and textures. Diamond Dynasty continues to grow and it has become the best collector mode in any sports video game. On the negative side, the franchise mode and Road to the Show are integral parts of The Show experience and haven't seen much improvement. Luckily, both were already fun, but how long can Sony continue to deliver such small improvements to key modes? At least one more year.

Resident Evil 7 Biohazard is a great new direction for the series that's genuinely scary and is only marginally held back by tedious combat.

The gameplay is the star here. Rise of The Tomb Raider does everything Tomb Raider did and does it better, taking a still-growing heroine into an unfamiliar location and unfolding its lethal mysteries as we grow to meet them. This is still not the game it could be, but it’s remarkable how quickly Crystal Dynamics has taken a half-dead franchise and turned into one of the most vital experiences on the market today, true to its essential character while still feeling absolutely new. This is the new standard for third-person shooter/adventure games. I want another.

Overall, Ace Combat 7 on Switch is as good as it was back in 2019. The performance of the game is also surprisingly good and it plays pretty much identically. You get a few extra DLC trinkets in this release too, but nothing beats unlocking and flying the mighty X-02S Strike Wyvern into the thick of combat.

It is relentlessly charming, consistently charming, and punctuated in every moment by the sheer joy of sucking. When the weather turns cold, pop this one in and imagine the troubles of the world gone, at least for a few hours.

Titanfall 2 is a masterpiece of game design that breathes life into the first-person shooter genre and treats its audience with respect.

Overall, Armored Core VI is a proper mecha action game. It’s not the best game in the series, but it is solidly done. The new target assist setup works fine and is also able to be turned off if need be. The story and localization are great, and very much inline with the Japanese dialogue for the first time in the series’ history. It’s also definitely a return to form for the Armored Core series, but the never-ending boss fights do take away from the decent mission structure and pacing, especially later in the game. However, for someone like me that’s been playing Armored Core games for over 25 years, it’s nice that this series is back and finally being given a proper chance to shine.

Dragon Quest XI is one of the best role-playing games I have ever played. Not only is it wonderfully well-made and great fun but it also has a fantastic story with lovable characters created by Akira Toriyama and a beautiful musical score by the legendary Koichi Sugiyama.

Sonic Mania is probably one of the best Sonic games ever made and is a very carefully and thoughtfully crafted game. It could have easily ended up a complete mess but the design of the game is such that it uses only what it needs to and by keeping things simple, it ends up being a wonderfully focused game.

I think the whole thing works so well, I hope that EA decides to release it on PC, and even on consoles. The brand already has a presence outside of mobile and tablet, and I think this game would do well in the same markets as Hearthstone. And really, I like this game a lot more than the original Plants Vs. Zombies. It’s harder to compare it to Garden Warfare since that’s a full-blown shooter and it’s like comparing Guacodiles to Zapricots.

Overall, despite all these faults, I found the game enjoyable throughout. A great deal of effort clearly went into making this game work and bringing SR388 to life once again. However, as a Metroid game, it still falls short of earlier releases.

Pragmata is a very fresh take on a modern third-person shooter, with a unique combat setup that is equal parts tactics and brute force skill. It also looks wonderful throughout, and the interactions between Hugh, Diana, and Cabin are a lot of fun and genuinely sweet. It may be a bit too early to call, but thus far, this is easily my game of the year.

If you’re a sports gamer who isn’t necessarily into hockey video games, you may be missing out on a title that has produced a rapidly improving product over the past two years. NHL 20 is my favorite edition of the series since NHL 13, and one of the best in franchise history.

Overall, Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a good game but not a great one. The echoes setup is certainly cerebral, but the lack of basic combat moves outside of the Swordfighter Form is jarring and only emphasized further at the end of the game. Here’s hoping that the next time Zelda ventures out into the wild world of Hyrule, someone remembers to give her a sword.

Overall, this is a good PC port of the first Dragon Quest Builders but has some weird design changes taken from the second game that take away from what originally made this game so special. If you have no other option than to pick up the PC version, you will definitely enjoy yourself, but it’s sadly not as good as the PlayStation 4 and Switch versions.

I really do love this game. Yes, Bethesda doesn’t match some of its peers in many places, but in part that’s because it’s trying to do everything, all at once. But if you wanted a giant Bethesda RPG set in space with better combat and a whole lot of time to level and build things and explore and find secrets, yeah, this is it. They did it. Enjoy.

Overall, Metal Gear Solid Delta is a superb remake of probably the best stealth action game ever made. It’s even more impressive that this was achieved with an insane level of accuracy in a completely separate engine and toolset. I would even go so far as to say that this version supersedes the original in almost every way, and comes highly recommended to anyone who wants to crawl on their belly through a jungle while eating snakes.

On a whole, you can tell the dev team focused most of their attention on tightening gameplay. That’s understandable, but this approach has left many of the modes feeling a tad empty.

Overall, Octopath Traveler II is an excellent sequel to the endearing and much loved first game. It doesn’t offer up anything all that new in the gameplay department, but all the new characters and their stories are nicely engaging, as is the excellent combat.

The Show is still striving for perfection, but if you love baseball and video games, you need this in your life.

It’s hard to imagine that Destiny 2 won’t satisfy fans of the original, but it’s also the type of game that will allow new players to jump right in, and skip some of the worst growing pains of the series. While there’s still room for improvement, and for this universe to live up to its full potential, Destiny 2 makes undeniable progress, and reinforces the idea that this is a series we’ll be playing for at least an entire decade, when all is said and done.

If you count yourself among a smaller audience that, for example, knows what an RTS or a Metroidvania is, this is a great game. It does exactly what it sets out to do, and it does it well, but it will feel overwhelming to those that have signed on during the Switch era.

Dragon Quest Builders 2 is a good game but not a great one. Its main mistake is trying to do too much and reducing the effectiveness of the player in combat and building. My only hope is that the eventual third game returns to a more focused approach, as I really feel that with the Dragon Quest Builders series, these games benefit from the mantra that less is more.

The Show looks good, plays great and is deep enough to overshadow moderately unbalanced visuals and a slight void of personality. If you’ve always loved the series, the fire will still burn despite the minor infractions.

Overall, Kirby and the Forgotten Land is an amazing and involved modern platformer, with a surprising amount of content. While Super Mario 3D World gets a lot of attention on the Switch, Kirby and the Forgotten Land is actually the better game and pushes the platforming genre forward in a surprisingly involved way.

With its strong gameplay, deep feature set and above-average visuals, the good far outweighs the bad with Dirt 4.

This is truly one of the best racing games you'll ever play.

Overall, it comes down to this; should you buy Pokémon Ultra Sun and Pokémon Ultra Moon if you already bought and played through Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon. The answer is an emphatic yes. There is a lot of new content in these Ultra versions to warrant an all-new playthrough, not to mention the swathes of improvements and other changes to the games. Considering how good Sun and Moon were, these new Ultra versions improve upon those games noticeably.

There isn’t a ton to dislike about F1 2021. The latest version adds to the series’ win streak with another strong iteration. With a few additional layers to the visual and audio presentation, we could have been looking at a form of racing perfection. As it is, F1 2021 is still really good.

Aside from the missing customization, this is easily the best and most complete FIFA ever. There are other areas with minor issues, but nothing worthy of mentioning in the negatives section. Tightened gameplay, improved visuals and The Journey make this a monumental achievement in the series and it reestablishes the series as the King of the Pitch, yet again.

It’s a ton of fun, a great challenge, and a wonderful new take on the Souls formula, with plenty of its own tricks to make it original and fun on its own merits. The couch co-op seals the deal, though online multiplayer would also be nice. Making matters even better, the game only costs $17.99. You can’t go wrong.

The amount of quality content in multiplayer, and the ability to change Horde difficulty levels and play casual or competitive in Versus, makes Gears of War 4 a terrific deal, especially given the quality of the product.

Halo 5: Guardians is a smashing success. The campaign isn’t the strongest of the series, but it’s still a fun space opera romp, and it’s ending transforms the Halo universe completely...The phenomenal multiplayer makes this a must-have game, and probably the most compelling Xbox One exclusive to date.

This is an old game on a new system; I can't recommend it at full price even with the DLC. Besides, the best way to play is still on PC with mods. Even with the bonus of on-the-go, I can't go back to a modless version now. Oh, and the combat is still incredibly cumbersome, even more dated than the graphics...I give the game a Hold.

It has nearly all of the strengths of Human Revolution, but in a smaller, shorter package. The relative length, and the overall lack of evolution from a game made five years ago is striking. There are minor improvements, sure, but given how long it’s been, frankly I expected a lot more. I don’t regret my time with the game as I love this world, and gameplay is still a lot of fun, but what was revolutionary five years ago seems rather ordinary now, given that so little has changed.

Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake is arguably as good as the remake of the third Dragon Quest game, if not better. The stories of both games have also been fleshed out and tied together more coherently than ever before. While the third game in the Erdrick Trilogy defined modern role-playing games, it’s wonderful that the other two parts to this story have finally been given such genuinely excellent remakes.

Clocking in at around 7 hours and costing a slightly-discounted $40 at launch makes this the perfect extension of the Uncharted series.

Ninja Gaiden is back in a big way in 2025 with the prior release of Ninja Gaiden 2 Black earlier this year and soon, Ninja Gaiden 4 in just a few short months. But much to my surprise and delight, Ryu Hayabusa’s continuation into the realm of AAA 3D action elites once again does not mean the abandonment of where the series started this time around.

Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is probably one of the best remakes I’ve ever played. Doubly so, as it nails what made the original game so special. While some have had issues with how Japanese role-playing games work, the Wizardry lineage is also hard to ignore, so those criticisms are clearly moot and quite ignorant by this point. In any case, if you’ve never played a Dragon Quest game, then this is the one to start with.