Overall, Riders Republic is a fantastic game and the most addictive extreme sports game on the market outside of maybe the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2 remake. The variety of sports enables the experience to remain fresh, while those wanting a greater challenge can enjoy more events faster by stepping their game up and going for a more all-encompassing experience with more tricks and tougher difficulty. Cross-generation buyers will be in for a far better experience on the PS5 thanks to the SSD speeding things up and making for a much smoother experience, but the PS4 version is impressive given the tech. If it wasn’t for the SSD’s speed, the feeling of both versions’ races would be quite similar and you can’t go wrong with any version.

Simple, addictive, colorful, and cheap; twenty dollars gets you about ten hours of entertainment, and more if you're a completionist. It's also difficult to describe in any way that makes any sort of sense, since it's one of those uniquely Japanese games that seems to have been conceptualized in the depths of a fever dream.

Even with the pending release of Bioware titles on the Xbox, I see very few titles that are going to approach the scope, grandeur and majesty that this one is able to exude so naturally.

I'm sorry I didn't review Warlords Battlecry earlier because I think it would have found its way onto our Game of the Year ballot under one heading or another.

Citizens of Earth is a must-have for anyone who loved Earthbound either in its heyday or has had a chance to play it with the Wii U re-release.

Yuke’s hard work has paid off in spades with UFC 2009: Undisputed. While the game may have taken more time than some fans would have liked to hit shelves, the wait was worth it as they delivered a top-shelf game in every area that counts and provided an amazing base that they can build upon in the future.

If you enjoy Civ V and Gods and Kings, this latest expansion is a must-buy, no-brainer. And while heaping massive amounts of glowing praise on a game might make for an unexciting review, I can’t help but to keep heaping. After all, Civilization V is now the most consistently fun game, from start to finish, in the series’ history. Well done, Firaxis.

In Europe, Rayman can almost do no wrong. It is truly a European figurehead. Its style is a testament to that.

It's not without its flaws--I think multiplayer could do with one more person on each team, given the size of the levels, and singleplayer has that issue with superhuman guards I was talking about--but it's still a pretty good purchase for stealth action gamers.

Final Fantasy XIII is an epic game that plays to its strengths by taking risks.

Even with the limited franchise feature, 2K5 is still one of the better sports titles on the market today, and extremely affordable for any baseball fans.

Maybe I didn't toll hard enough so I'll toll again: the Xbox is a fine platform for the next Grand Theft Auto to show up on.

I would recommend this game to everyone, without any hesitation. What it does well, it does amazingly well and where it stumbles, it's only ever a minor hiccup.

While Media Molecule is no longer directly in charge, the trio of new developers took the LittleBigPlanet spirit and ran with it. You wouldn't even know it was made by a veritable conglomerate of companies. I'll be honest, they should all be commended for making what could be the best LBP yet.

Beyond Good & Evil's gameplay is part and parcel of an elegantly imagined gameworld. The animation is so smooth as to be almost flawless.

It’s fun, vibrant, challenging, charming and rewarding. And the best part, it only costs $20.

The standard that expansion packs for RTS titles will be judged by. Not only did it advance and improve the story of Warcraft, but it also introduced an innovative campaign for one of gaming’s most respected factions. What’s more, the sheer number of enhancements makes each mission enjoyable to play from the first building placed to the last enemy destroyed.

Even with the limited franchise feature, 2K5 is still one of the better sports titles on the market today, and extremely affordable for any baseball fans.

Anyone expecting a purely frenetic racing game should pass, but this should provide sim racing fans with a satisfying game. There’s a lot to tinker with here, and gaming gearheads will be in heaven.

Thus, while Templar's precursor may have been merely good when it was initially released, in the face of new competition from much shallower titles, it is even better, like Citizen Kane's positive reappraisal.

Final Fantasy XIII is an epic game that plays to its strengths by taking risks.

The same beautiful artwork is there, but now there are more puzzles, better, deeper characters, and, I’m not sure how to describe this, but a wonderful mood to the game. In short, Syberia is the best adventure to come out in the last two years.

Dead or Alive 5 Plus is an incredibly accurate recreation of a modern console fighter, and suffers very little in the transition from the big to little screen.

God of War II begins with a bang louder than a falling Kraken and does not let up for the next dozen or so hours you will spend engrossed in its mythos.

Series vets with fond memories of the Pro Race Driver/TOCA games on previous systems should pick this up immediately, and if you're unsure about it, there's a demo available for download that’ll give you a good idea as to how easily most of the cars can be controlled, but won't give you a very accurate view of just how many kinds of racing styles are represented in the full game.

EA Sports UFC 4 is EA’s strongest MMA game yet, even if it isn’t quite all it could be. The career mode is top-shelf, but it’s still a bit disappointing to not see PRIDE replicated in an EA UFC game when they had their own expy for its follow-up in DREAM in EA MMA. Still, EA Sports UFC 4 manages to deliver the best-playing MMA action in company history and maybe we’ll see some new content down the road to fill in some of the gaps in mode selection and the roster. As it stands, this is a must-play game for MMA fans and finally provides a satisfying, easy to learn submission system that makes the entirety of MMA action enjoyable for players of all skill levels.

All in all, Shadow Complex is a finely-crafted game that is sure to please anyone with a fondness for the older Metroids or the newer side-scrolling Castlevanias as this offers up a similar experience, with some of its own touches that help it stand out from the rest.

Despite the game’s short life span, it is still one of the most entertaining platform games for any system, past or present.