Hive Jump is a fun and exciting retro shooter romp, with plenty of variety and a great co-op multiplayer experience marred by a lonely single player mode.

Tales of Berseria’s heavy anime and manga influence and its incredibly lengthy campaign will likely be a difficult barrier of entry for many gamers. That said, RPG fans won’t want to pass this one up. Its style may be over the top, but there is actually a pretty compelling story here and an unforgettable cast of characters with unique abilities to get to know. All of that on top of a challenging combat system make this the best installment in the Tales franchise in recent memory.

While Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue suffers from Square’s scattershot approach to what has been included in the collection, it nevertheless remains a must-have for Kingdom Hearts fans, especially those who didn’t have access to Dream Drop Distance the first time around because of the franchise’s odd migration to and from Sony and Nintendo devices seemingly at a whim.

Gravity Rush 2‘s post-launch support and top notch visual presentation combined with its engaging combat and engrossing story ensure fans of the original or Gravity Rush Remastered will find plenty to love about the sequel. It’s held back by poorly designed stealth missions that serve little purpose other than keeping players away from the better parts of the game and a wonky camera that can be downright disorienting at times, but otherwise Gravity Rush 2 is bigger and better than the first game.

Overall, The Walking Dead: A New Frontier is off to a solid start. Fans of the series will definitely have plenty to enjoy here – and emotionally suffer through – and players who found the game to be too clunky and slow previously may appreciate this entry more.

Overall, The Walking Dead: A New Frontier is off to a solid start. Fans of the series will definitely have plenty to enjoy here – and emotionally suffer through – and players who found the game to be too clunky and slow previously may appreciate this entry more.

Dead Rising 4 is certainly good, but it’s still not as good as it could have been.

After a decade of work, Square Enix has succeeded in delivering a Final Fantasy experience that can please long-time fans, while simultaneously luring in a new generation of adventurers. The game isn’t quite perfect, but it is close enough that it will very likely be a game of the year contender on many lists.

Story wise and visually the game has a lot going for it, but mechanically there are some genuinely troubling areas. Everything works, but it is nowhere near as polished as it should be, and occasionally that lack of polish hurts the overall experience. The Last Guardian is going to be a memorable release; there’s no doubt about that. But its legacy won’t be quite what fans had hoped.

When stacked up to the Wii U version, there’s little doubt that Super Mario Maker For Nintendo 3DS is the lesser of the two – and it doesn’t even support 3D on the notoriously 3D-enabled handheld. The lack of online sharing is only made more baffling by the fact that apparent user-made levels from the Wii U iteration can be accessed through the ‘100 Mario Challenge’ mode, while the exclusion of Mystery Mushrooms also makes little to no sense given how prominent amiibo support on the portable is nowadays.

It’s an absolute blast to build attractions and customize each park’s look from the ground up, and the game consistently keeps things fun and light. It’s hard to shake a feeling of utter satisfaction when one grabs a first-person seat and rides through a freshly built coaster, or watches as a series of triggers make a giant leviathan pop out of a lake every time guests walk near it.

Watch Dogs 2 excels at variety and, although there are many repetitive chores that players can choose to do in the open world, the main campaign never feels stale or redundant. Each mission takes players to a new, unique location full of bizarre characters and pop culture references and the lengthy campaign manages to fly by thanks to the immersive environment and the entertaining company that Marcus keeps.

Sun and Moon are the biggest changes that the core Pokemon series has ever attempted. Removing gyms, Hidden Machines (HMs), and altering original Pocket Monsters was a huge gamble – and all of it has paid off. Honoring the franchise’s past while looking to the future must have been a difficult ideal for Nintendo and The Pokemon Company to nail down, but the end result of this undertaking is a pair of lovingly-crafted, must-haves for fans new and old. Truly, this is the celebration of Pokemon that gamers have been waiting for.

Sun and Moon are the biggest changes that the core Pokemon series has ever attempted. Removing gyms, Hidden Machines (HMs), and altering original Pocket Monsters was a huge gamble – and all of it has paid off. Honoring the franchise’s past while looking to the future must have been a difficult ideal for Nintendo and The Pokemon Company to nail down, but the end result of this undertaking is a pair of lovingly-crafted, must-haves for fans new and old. Truly, this is the celebration of Pokemon that gamers have been waiting for.

The opportunity to revisit Call of Duty 4‘s multiplayer without the annoyance of hackers ruining the fun is one that will be hard to pass up for those that loved the original. Even so, the multiplayer also feels somewhat dated compared to most modern shooters on the market. While there’s something to be said for the impeccable map design and polish of Modern Warfare Remastered‘s multiplayer, it’s still the same experience as before, and may come across as rather simplistic and plain to those that have been playing this year’s new shooters.

The game is not perfect, and some may find the odd all-or-nothing decision regarding forces to recruit jarring, or the locations within the world itself a little too devoid of scope to be a truly immersive experience. However, it’s in the large concepts, and in its gentle manipulation of the player’s trained responses, that Tyranny finds its purpose. A must-have for fans of the genre, and a worthwhile title for those after a truly different experience.

An enjoyable sign that Nintendo is still willing to experiment with the series. More importantly, it’s proof that the developer will go out of its way to accommodate those hoping to play with nearby friends, and that’s a noteworthy selling point for a notorious multiplayer title.

The updated graphics may not feel truly current-gen to Xbox One and PS4 players, but the quality and originality of the game’s mechanics and setting are still a step above the competition.

Even though Zombies in Spaceland and multiplayer are just more of the same, as a whole, it’s hard to find an FPS on the market as fully-featured as Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. The campaign is the surprise highlight, with heart-pounding action, jaw-dropping graphics, and fresh ideas for the series, making it worth checking out even for those disappointed by its sci-fi themes.

In short, FIFA 17 is a fuller experience than previous games, and when that’s married up with the slick, licensed depth and complex player ratings that fans expect, it’s hard to find reasons not to pick it up. The gaming equivalent of a half-volley into the top corner.

Titanfall 2 has succeeded in surpassing the original title in every way. It delivers an emotional, action-packed single player experience that will leave fans new and old feeling satisfied, and the fluid combat mechanic both in and out of one’s titan packs plenty of punches and doesn’t hold back when it comes to the visceral brutality of pilot warfare.

Broken DLC promises, long load times, and story padding hurt Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, but it is still a game with plenty of content for Dragon Ball fans to sink their teeth into. It has a large roster full of diverse fighters, endless character creation possibilities, a streamlined hub world, and an engaging story. Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 is a vast improvement over the original, and should leave franchise fans satisfied.

A remarkable blend of old-school JRPG mannerisms and innovative, mold-shattering gameplay elements that challenge what a Final Fantasy game is “supposed” to look like.

Sometimes innovation requires a look back rather than ahead. Battlefield 1 is proof of that.

Until Dawn: Rush of Blood features a haunting atmosphere and plenty of scares, but the experience is hampered by a constant need to calibrate the hardware.

Paper Mario: Color Splash is the best looking installment in the series, offering the most immersive world to-date. Still, its battle system suffers in a misguided bid to innovate.

It’s a compelling virtual reality experience that is a great way to sell people on the potential of the technology, and while it has some issues, like occasionally spotty motion controls and a short play time, it’s still a must-have title for anyone’s PlayStation VR library.

The arrival of Yo-Kai Watch 2: Bony Spirits provides fans with a familiar experience that changes very, very little when compared to the first iteration of the series.