If you liked the original Persona Q, Persona Q2 checks the same boxes while adding a few new wrinkles to the formula. As a Persona fan, it feels like the ultimate tribute to the last 13 years of the series, with nostalgic music and callbacks to previous events. When I wasn’t chuckling over a joke between the cast members, I was reveling in fusing new personas and finally besting a long, punishing boss battle. Persona Q2 is a worthy last hurrah for the 3DS, and helps the system go out on a high note.

Like any good extraction shooter, Marathon is a game about the choice and consequences inherent within a run. Yet, it's more than just that. Bungie's excellent audio design and gunplay, paired with increasingly complicated level design borrowing from over a decade of expertise designing Destiny raids coalesce into something special. Marathon is proof Bungie is still at the top of its game.

Borderlands 3 is a love letter to its fans and a celebration of the style of play it first popularized. Filled with characters from previous installments, and unapologetic in its silly humor and bombastic action, it’s an amusing ride that seems hesitant to innovate. If more of what you loved before is your chief desire, Gearbox has granted that wish through a game of impressive scope that charts some very safe territory.

This game serves its audience of hardcore fans well. However, at this point Patapon needs to take a cue from its titular characters and start the evolution ­process.

If you play this game the way you should – by slaughtering victims in the most foul of ways – it ends up being a non-stop highlight reel. The ranked boss battles are especially entertaining – think Mortal Kombat Fatalities with the budget of a Star Wars movie.

I can’t deny the allure of the formula Timespinner is aging, and if its pixelated font and damage numbers give you nostalgic shivers, don’t hesitate to give it a shot. It doesn’t escape its genre trappings, but its combat, late-game exploration, and interesting plot make for a strong foundation that hooked me long enough for it to all come together.

Does what a lot of titles fall well short of - delivering an engagning mix of styles to form a cohesive whole that spurs you on every step of the way. [Nov. 2003, p.152]

Final Fantasy XV is unlike any RPG or open-world experience I’ve played before. It succeeds and struggles in finding its unique stance, but a few problematic designs don’t hold it back from being a hell of a journey. Just days after playing it, I find myself reflecting on it fondly. The thoughts of that damn car are recessed and blanketed by Noctis’ journey and some of the stunning moments that unfolded within it. I wasn’t a fan of Final Fantasy XIII’s sequels, but I hope Square returns with another XV or a similarly designed sequel to iron out the rough spots. There’s a solid foundation here that begs to be explored further.

You will find yourself delving deeper into the seedy underbelly of amusement than you ever thought possible. [Dec 2004, p.188]

Ultimately, Puyo Puyo Tetris still includes the ability to play classic Tetris or Puyo Puyo to your heart's content, and that core gameplay remains as fun and absorbing as ever. While that's probably enough for most fans to justify the purchase, I wish the new flavors were more appetizing.

It's not Agent 47's best performance, but as always, he gets the job done.

It's brilliant, and I can't wait to see how the team expands on other areas of a sim's life, because now they have my rapt attention. [Apr 2005, p.139]

It's the kind of strategy game that I love; it lets you visualize and execute your best-laid plans, even if they can go down in flames. [Feb 2013, p.92]

Its stunning visual style, high concept story, and wildly open level design are like nothing else, even if too much repetition begins to frustrate in the later hours. It’s a game people will still be talking about five years from now.

The Show 14 is another pennant-winning effort for Sony San Diego that showcases improvements both on and off the field, and opens avenues of play to people looking to digest baseball in different ways.

Even with 60+ hours' worth of gameplay, some parts of Bravely Second's skeleton are still surprisingly bare.

This is a must play for strategy fans, and if you’ve always been curious about the genre but never jumped in, your opportunity is here.

When I finished Deus Ex, I was mostly content with the four hours I had plugged into it. I occasionally felt clever at solving a tricky puzzle, and I liked the visual presentation. However, it didn’t sink its hooks into me like Hitman Go – a game I still return to occasionally years later. I doubt I’ll ever play Deus Ex Go again, but it was fun while it lasted.

Plants vs. Zombies is a great game, but explore your options before committing to this version of it.

Terraria may not be accessible, but this sandbox is so deep that you might find yourself buried in self-appointed goals and chasing that carrot of upgradable gear into the early hours of the morning. The combat and controls could use more polish, but a nearly infinite well of items and randomly generated worlds make up for those faults. A lot of games try to hold your hand through a scripted experience, but Terraria makes a good argument for the merits of directionless creation.

I definitely had some fun with this game, but when I was having trouble calling pre-snap commands I couldn’t shake the feeling that for all this title’s individuality, I’d still rather play regular Madden.

While many of Vive’s launch applications are demos or betas, Audioshield is a solid and complete game, and its ability to read and create playable tracks from any piece of music provides effectively endless replay value. This is an early testament to the power of VR to create novel experiences in established genres, and music-game faithful should seek an opportunity to at least try out this new take on interactive music play. [Tested with Vive]

My only real gripe about the game is the insane load times, which is more a fault of the PSP than the actual game. [Feb 2006, p.113]

Visage creates a palpable playground for fans of horror to revel in, tapping into different flavors of fear to create an unsettling experience. All too often, genre titles fall back on repetitive jump scares and shock value, but Visage lets the house burn into your brain and leaves you questioning every decision to open a door or descend a staircase.

Even though Revenant Wings isn’t an outstanding title, it still manages to do something remarkable: It’s a playable and fun handheld RTS – and probably the first of its kind.

Soulcalibur V is the next-gen Soulcalibur that I've been wanting as a fan for years. At the same time, it's nothing if not more Soulcalibur. Now if Namco Bandai would release a DLC pack with the full Soul Calibur II roster, I could finally retire that disc.

Super Scribblenauts still stands head and shoulders above its puzzle brethren in terms of innovation and originality. The ability to tackle puzzles again to find new solutions, the addition of a puzzle creator, and special levels that focus on action-oriented play give Maxwell's adventure surprising longevity.

In some ways, Skyward Sword was the end of an era. It follows the pattern Nintendo established back in 1998 with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and it was the last game in the series before Nintendo reconceived the series with Breath of the Wild. In some ways, Skyward Sword perfects Ocarina's template, but that formula also feels well-worn and stuffed with unnecessary junk. Despite all the ways Nintendo updated this package, Skyward Sword remains far from my favorite entry in the series, but this is clearly the best way to play this blemished gem.