A charming though uneventful narrative about stopping a cosmic darkness from consuming the galaxy rounds out this delightful package. Like the best sequels, Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope builds upon Kingdom Battle’s foundation with smart tweaks and fun additions to emerge as a better game in every way.

Gotham Knights didn’t wow me with its overly familiar objectives, combat, and activities, but it didn’t leave me sour. It’s fun to control some new heroes as they brood over Gotham from its building overhangs and uncover hidden plots against its people. Those heroes are right to wonder if they’re living up to a vaunted legacy. And even if they’re not quite up to snuff, Gotham has enough baddies to punch to make for a good time, whoever you are.

Ultimately, New Tales From The Borderlands feels like more of the same and fans of the first are likely to enjoy this, but given it’s been nearly eight years since that first one, I wanted more of an evolution.

I was relieved when Requiem’s second set of credits rolled. Not because I didn’t enjoy playing the game, but because the de Runes’ journey in this game is tense and stressful for much of it. At times, it feels too long and oddly sadistic in its focus on inflicting fakeouts, pain, and suffering on the de Runes. Other times, I admired Asobo’s command of this series, its rat-infested stealth mechanics, and its grandiose storytelling. Fortunately, the latter edges out the former, and Requiem feels like much more than just a follow-up. With this journey behind me, I’m excited about where the series might go from here, but if Asobo plans a break for the franchise, rest assured that Requiem goes out with an impressive bang.

Overwatch 2 doesn’t flip the formula the way you might expect a long-awaited, numbered sequel would. But through various clever tweaks, it’s a well-rounded evolution of the experience into which I’ve poured more than a thousand hours since 2016. I may never recreate the magic of those first few years in Overwatch, but Overwatch 2 is a big step towards restoring the faith in the franchise and has me thinking it’s time to pour a few more hundred hours into my favorite team-based shooter.

Dorfromantik balances its strategic and cozy elements well, and it's easy to fall into a serene trance of dropping tiles. Pulling the camera back to reveal the full scope of my landscape always feels like a satisfying reward for my subtle, hard work, much like stepping back to admire a finished painting. While it's not the sort of puzzle game I feel compelled to play more than a session or two a day, I always appreciate the improved mood with which it leaves me.

There’s a famous saying from former footballer Gary Lineker that “football is a simple game – 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes – and at the end, the Germans always win.” I want to make a similar assessment of EA’s yearly soccer game: FIFA 23 is a good game – it’s flashy, fun to play, and has a lot of modes – but in the end, you realize it’s mostly the same game you’ve been playing for years.

Because most of my eight hours with Dig were spent spelunking through stages leading down, I rarely had to think about the game’s roguelite efforts. I spent most of my time playing through beautiful stages to the tune of chippy synth tunes, fascinated with how far Nitrome and Yacht Club were able to stretch the “dig” aspect of this game. Perhaps the roguelite nature of Dig will play a bigger role in my post-game excavations because I’m rearing to jump back in to discover all of its secrets. Even if it doesn’t, though, I know I still have at least a few more hours of great Shovel Knight gameplay ahead of me and in the world of platforming, that’s a treasure worth digging up.

Return to Monkey Island is profoundly nostalgic and relentlessly funny, and I'm once again a kid, laughing at Guybrush's umpteenth last-ditch efforts to distract his opponents with, "Look behind you, a three-headed monkey!"

Tinykin feels comforting in an old-school sense. Its challenges never become convoluted, nor does its design reinvent the wheel, and that’s okay. Tinykin executes its handful of ideas exceptionally well, making it a thoroughly enjoyable and laid-back journey that only requires six to eight hours of your time. Don’t let this delightful adventure sneak under your radar.

Temtem may look like a copycat on its surface, but its deviations from the Pokémon formula pay off considerably. With unique battling elements and an engaging MMO structure, Temtem evolves as its own experience and offers a vast, challenging adventure that even those without a Nintendo console can enjoy.

Overall, NBA 2K23 is a fitting tribute to the historical legends and iconic moments that made this sport what it is today. Though the game has its fair share of issues with its poor narrative choices and omnipresent microtransactions, it’s still a solid improvement over the previous game. This year’s release isn’t quite the flashy free-throw line dunk that lands a perfect score, but it is a worthy, all-around effort that would earn M.J.’s shrug of approval.

I’m so glad Metal: Hellsinger ends with the promise of more to come because I already want more from this series.

Ooblets offers solid fun, and I enjoy its cheerful tone. I only wish playing it didn’t feel so much like work. Despite the pride I had in my farm, clearing checklists eventually felt more laborious than satisfying. There’s fun to be had as long as you’re willing to work for it.

Splatoon 3 doesn’t reinvent the wheel, nor does it need to. Instead, it improves nearly every franchise element in sometimes small but meaningful ways. With an already-robust set of content available at launch and at least two years of free and premium content on the horizon, Splatoon 3 is simultaneously the series’ best entry to date and its most promising.

Blossom Tales II does little to hide its Zelda inspiration from the player. While it doesn’t reach the heights of Nintendo’s legendary franchise, it does smooth over many of the early-‘90s design conventions present in games like A Link to the Past to deliver an adventure able to be enjoyed by players of all ages and experience levels. Blossom Tales II is a better game than its predecessor, and I hope we continue to get more adventures from Lily, Chrys, and their grandpa in the future.

The Madden NFL series has long had a solid gameplay foundation, maintained by small improvements year over year. Madden NFL 23 is the first iteration in a long time that rebuilds that foundation, and that’s where this year's greatest success lies. Some slippery collisions aside, the more physics-based action is a good change, and the control over ball placement from Skill-Based passing is a welcome addition. This comes at the cost of only minor updates to the core gameplay modes, but it was ultimately the right call to make, and Madden is a better game for it.

It may not push your new hardware to the limit and is a little rough around the edges, but the latest Saints Row is everything it needs to be, delivering a wonderful comedic experience with plenty of depth. While a little irritating, I was never bored and wanted to see where my team’s goofy antics would take them next. The payoffs are often worth the time investment, and just veering off the beaten path pays dividends. I’m glad the Saints are back, hopefully for another long haul.

I just wish I was rewarded with a bit more humanity and meaning to my struggles by seeing them create that memory for themselves.

Rollerdrome immediately clicked with me, and I ate it all up. As polished and fun as the experience is, it feels like Roll7 is just dipping its toes into the water. I hope this talented studio gets the chance to make a sequel to further flesh out this unique concept with more detail in the story and greater player progression. Regardless, Rollerdrome is a fantastic first foot forward. I adored the campaign gameplay and have a feeling my friend group will use this unique title for late-night scoring competitions.

I applaud Digimon Survive for being a dark, harrowing, and wonderful visual novel, and subverting what I thought a Digimon story could be. While I wish the combat evolved as much as the surrounding story presentation, it’s not enough to deter someone from seeing the narrative through. Don’t expect a tactical masterpiece, but rather a well-made melancholy tale depicting Digimon in a light they haven’t been in before.

The current free and paid mini Battle Passes and daily quests kept me busy throughout my time with MultiVersus. While I enjoyed unlocking content, the need to grind out repetitive bot matches to hit some numbers in a reasonable amount of time can be a slog. Completed seasonal goals annoyingly didn’t clear out for me so I had to dig into the menus and turn past a page of grayed-out items to check my progress constantly. Living games have the potential to go in frustrating directions, but MultiVersus has a strong foundation. If it can meaningfully roll out content and smooth out its rough edges, this could become a new crossover obsession for years to come.

In the post-game cleanup, I’m only now engaging with the aesthetic-serving aspects of Cult of the Lamb. I’m finally making my cult feel like mine and not one I’m sure every other player will at some point make to cultivate as many resources as possible. I only wished I had felt this earlier in my 19-hour journey. Still, everything I did leading up to it, from the fast-paced dungeon combat that never grew stale to the factory-like base building that nailed the stress of resource management, was enough and then some to keep me engaged and indoctrinated.

Whether you’re playing the goal-based scenarios or the open-ended sandbox mode, I still can’t stop thinking of ways to design a perfect dining hall. Though the frustration of failure sometimes got the better of me, I often couldn’t wait to get back in front of Recipe for Disaster to play through several more days of this enthralling restaurant simulation.

Despite its bleak inspirations – privatized education – Two Point Campus never feels callous. It’s more ideological than anything else, depicting a world where businesses and people flourish together. Profit and expansion are undoubtedly crucial to the experience, but you can only achieve those goals by cultivating a top-tier environment for students. This isn’t to say Two Point Campus shies away from low-hanging fruit; its signature British humor is at its best when poking fun at students and faculty. But ultimately, Two Point Campus is a deeply-engaging management sim that doesn’t force you to punch down, and it’s more enjoyable for it.

My party of seven felt like a little army when explosive Arts and flashy Ouroboros combos lit up an already-chaotic battlefield. And the quality-of-life improvements like customizable shortcut hotbars and in-game GPS streamlined menu-surfing and traversal. Still, the narrative and world designs left much to be desired as critical plot twists are frustratingly obvious, character growth is virtually nonexistent, and navigation in each uninspired environment proves to be a tiring exercise. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a double-edged sword that needs a bit more sharpening.

We’ll never know how Live A Live would have fared in the U.S. back in the day. Flash forward nearly three decades, and I can’t recommend this revitalized relic enough. It’s that good. This is another must-play Switch RPG that entertains in ways I didn’t expect and kept me glued to the screen for well over 20 hours.

For players interested in the progress of interactive narrative frameworks, it’s a laudable success. But even for someone who never plays games, it works. That’s because good characters and storytelling make for a universal experience, and this is a project that has both.