Minecraft fans should enjoy the references to the game, while Telltale fans will enjoy the traditional storytelling elements they’ve come to expect from the studio. The Order of the Stone grabs your attention at a number of points and sets you down the path of actually caring about what’s going on in a story set in the player-driven Minecraft universe.

Mario isn’t featured in this title, but Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker shares the same creative spark that so often fuels games bearing the Mario name.

Thankfully, the classic Lego gameplay dominates the main game, making Lego Batman 2 another goofy brick-building blast to play. [Aug 2012, p.110]

The game plays almost exactly like the Apple II original, albeit with many improvements, and the frustration involved is just as high. [Dec 2003, p.185]

But what matters most is when the bell rings, and taking control of this massive roster and mixing it up – regardless of gender – across a now-impressive selection of stipulations is a blast. Although it’s the only real game in town, WWE 2K25 retains its title as the best and most substantial pro wrestling sim fans can buy.

The real-time strategy genre remains relevant, fueled by a few big titles once in a while. While Age of Empires IV lacks any ambition to even gently jostle the standards set by Age of Empires II decades earlier, it’s a good way to play a classic-feeling RTS today with some slick polish and panache.

Boxboy is an easy-to-overlook entry in the 3DS digital library. It’s inexpensive and doesn’t have a particularly remarkable look about it, but its well-designed puzzles continue to surprise, making it absolutely worth playing.

Although it's certainly not a masterpiece, The Warriors gets by on style, flair, variety, and simple fun. [Nov 2005, p.144]

In terms of visuals and pace, Live runs circles around rival "ESPN," but the gameplay is still a distant second in terms of execution. [Nov 2004, p.142]

Shin Megami Tensei V makes smart improvements to its already strong core, creating an entertaining and rewarding journey.

The level designs and objectives just aren't as clever and the game itself is rather short, even for inexperienced FPS players. [Jan 2003, p.118]

Rather than focusing on the political or militant side of war like many games do, Bury Me, My Love's humanistic approach is refreshing. This window into war never feels heavy handed or disingenuous; it's grounded in its storytelling, and kept me glued to the screen until Nour's journey concluded.

This sequel doesn't dramatically change the formula, but like its predecessor, you want to curl up in a dark room with this mobile title and experience all it has to offer.

The visual style immediately stoked my interest. It’s arresting and stylistic, accented by interesting and appropriate movements of the camera. The graphics’ clean lines are still expressive and often a fundamental part of the puzzles, instructive in how players can move about the world and interact with it. With that also comes enriching aural flourishes that further pull you in and changes of color that help express the protagonists’ progression.

Despite making players run the same levels multiple times, The End Is Nigh is a worthy successor to Super Meat Boy. It offers the same ludicrously hard and satisfying approach to level design and spices it up with some substantial changes. Its interlocked world introduces some fun exploration, even if it can be a pain to backtrack through brutal gauntlets time and again. But if you’ve found the platform genre a little too lenient in recent years, The End is Nigh will give the fix you’ve been looking for.

Hopefully Ensemble will focus a little more on substance than style with its next game. [Dec 2005, p.184]

The games are a blast worth remembering. Old racing is the new hotness. [Oct 2005, p.128]

Home to some of the greatest gameplay that you'll ever encounter, but unless you compete online, it mostly goes to waste. [Dec 2005, p.154]

Even so, FTL is richly imagined and hard to put down, and an impressively deep and complex game for the iOS platform.

I like Fallen Enchantress. It's the closest anyone has come to producing the game I've been dreaming about since I was an adolescent with visions of wizards carving fantastical empires out of a hostile world. But as much as I feel like I should be head-over-heels in love with it, my 50-plus hours with the game leave me satisfied rather than ecstatic. Maybe some enterprising modder will use the included tools to expand on the base game's good parts while mitigating its issues and add a little soul to the mix. I'll gladly dump another 50 hours into Fallen Enchantress on that blessed day.

Whether or not Tekken is your fighting game of choice, this portable bruiser puts up features and performance that could convert some of you non-believers out there. [Sept. 2006, p.100]

Although the controls fit as comfortably as Master Chief's glove, the targeting system is too demanding of precision, especially when you are required to unload dozens of rounds into certain enemy types. [March 2005, p.136]

The immense roster is a glorious thing, but by altering the sacred Fatality, the action just isn’t up to the series’ standards or what fans expect.

Rocket Slime harnesses these creatures' irresistible charm and pairs it with cclever exploration and puzzle solving to form a fun adventure with a decidedly classic feel. [Oct. 2006, p.112]

This title is absolutely stuffed with content. [Dec 2003, p.156]

UFC still has some untapped game potential, but Throwdown is its best effort so far. [June 2002, p.78]

At its best, Warhawk delivers constant thrills through exciting team-based action that'll have you coming back for more if only to rank up to the next level in your leaderboard standings. At its worst, Warhawk will disappoint because you'll never really get a good context or sense of the world around you, since there really aren't any plot or characters to deliver those elements.

Gamifying your food habits is, indeed, an awful idea, and Consume Me lays it out in a manner I found deeply compelling and entertaining. Even if you ignore the content warning, its message is clear from its opening moments. If its ending hadn't stumbled, it might've been one of my all-time favorites, but there's still a lot to love here despite that underwhelming conclusion. Consume Me is teeming with creativity and personality, and for that, it's earned a special place in my heart.