Fire Emblem: Three Houses is far from just an upscaling of the 3DS games. It’s an evolution for the series which makes it appealing and accessible even to those who aren’t crazy about strategy RPGs. It’s a great gateway for the genre and another excellent addition to the Switch library.

Ultimately, your enjoyment of Metal Wolf Chaos XD will come down to how much you are willing to stick with some archaic design choices in order to see more of the ridiculous story and the few levels that do hold up. And because of its dated foundation, Metal Wolf Chaos needed a remake instead of a remaster.

It’s a wonderful halfway point between full-on walking sims like Gone Home and murderous first-person shooters.

If you’ve been scared off of Cage’s work before and you don’t mind a tale that takes itself much too seriously, you might just be hooked by Jodie’s journey.

There’s plenty of enjoyment to be had just beating up baddies as Wolverine, Deadpool, Spider-Man, and co., but considering the 10-year wait, Marvel fans could be forgiven for wanting a little more.

The new Face of the Franchise mode is totally underwhelming and fails to tell a meaningful story and the X-Factor abilities are helpful for newcomers but don’t really change how a solid player would play the game any. These changes are all a positive for long-term but it lacks any selling point and has launched in a frustrating state that undermines the solid football mechanics that EA has refined over the past several decades.

Intentions to do something different are appreciated, but the way these additions sabotage the previously pristine core mechanics will only make your blood boil instead.

It’s a solid brawler that hits hard and delivers a fun action movie good time for a few hours. However, that admittedly standard gameplay doesn’t make up for all the problems, and nothing from this equation makes it worth a $30 asking price.

Senran Kagura: Peach Ball is briefly enjoyable, but is bogged down by a lack of things to do aside from skipping through tedious dialogue. Senran fans may find themselves content with the ways you can, ahem, interact with its cast, but for the rest of us this is a passably decent pinball game and little else.

Beating Blazing Chrome is a badge of honor, the latest test of skill tossed onto a pile of old cartridges. You can spend hours and hours grinding out this handful of stages, experiencing both intense frustration and the rush of victory. In a world where there are so many options for your free time, the thought of grinding away at a game like this just seems insane. But to all the crazy people who disagree and want a throwback like this, I raise my glass.

I’m ecstatic that Square Enix took a gamble on this series. Dragon Quest is one of the oldest and most popular JRPG franchises, and its a perfect vehicle for this sort of gameplay. It’s colorful and friendly while still having enough adult themes to keep you hooked. I was glad to see a lot of the issues from the first game were rectified, and I can’t wait to see where the series goes from here.

In essence, it’s a boat that looks nice from the outside until you jump inside and notice all the holes actively trying to sink the whole thing.

SolSeraph‘s greatest strength is that it’s essentially a new ActRaiser game in 2019 and there is no other game quite like it currently on the market. If that’s enough to grab your interest, then you’ll have a good time with ACE Team’s latest title. However, if you lack the nostalgia for Quintet’s 1990 Super Nintendo game then you will be left with a clunky genre hybrid that feels as dated as the game it is based upon at times. There is no real evolution of the formula going on here, and that is a pretty disappointing aspect considering how far other genres have come in the past 30 years.

Metroidvanias are seen as niche games, but Bloodstained proved that you can craft a title in that tradition while making it incredibly appealing to a general audience. Ritual of the Night is one of the best games released so far this year, and even if you don’t love 2D platformers, the excellent exploration elements, movement, and combat are good enough to win anyone over.

Super Mario Maker 2 is a joyous celebration of the intricacies that go into designing the perfect level. It’s a game where you can invest hours creating and playtesting one short section of one small level, or decide to do away with creation altogether in favor of playing through its ever-growing number of courses. Despite recurring technical problems that have become synonymous with Nintendo games, Super Mario Maker 2 is still an essential Switch purchase, building upon the groundwork laid by its predecessor and adding so much more.

It does just enough to get the job done. As we’ve seen with many releases on Switch, that’s usually enough for most people.

Despite having some awkward control quirks while playing with a mouse and keyboard, the PC version of Heavy Rain is just as solid as the PlayStation 4 re-release. Both versions look superior to the PS3 original, but still have a few issues that make none of them the definitive way to play David Cage’s best title. The important distinction here is that this is now playable outside of the PlayStation ecosystem for the first time ever, so it’s being introduced to a new audience. For them, it’s a totally serviceable way to track down the Origami, Origammy, and Origarmy Killer.

The Sinking City is certainly more involving and had more care put into it than last year’s official Call of Cthulhu game but besting its spiritual predecessor doesn’t mean it reaches its full potential. The detective work is quite involving, but the combat is a mess and the pretty open-world doesn’t have enough in it to justify its existence. It would’ve been better suited as a series of locations you hop between, rather than dull jaunts to get to places of interest or the various archives of information.

Although it has its shortcomings and a bit of an archaic framework, it’s even more interesting to explore now simply due to how much the series has changed since its inception.

No matter whether you’re just touring through these realms of magic or going for full mastery, Amid Evil is a blast from start to finish. Everything from the moody soundtrack to the heart-pounding circle strafing just clicks.

Simply put, F1 2019 is fantastic. There’s enough here to take you well into next season (and beyond), while the Career Mode has finally shaken off the cobwebs to emerge as a genuinely thrilling highlight that players will pump hours and days into.

Both a respectful reimagining and a superb, modernized kart racer in its own right.

SNK has a lot to celebrate with the release of Samurai Shodown as it’s a triumphant return to form for a series that hasn’t had a mainline release in over 15 years. Not only does it keep the calculated and punishing gameplay in tact, it manages to offer up a great tutorial that allows for newcomers to understand the nuance of its depth.

Any fan of Zelda will be able to enjoy this digital title thanks to its optional modes, although the best experience will be embracing its rhythm elements that make it so unique.

Much like the laid back quips of our banana buddy, it's too easy to leave My Friend Pedro without many strong feelings.

Even if you’re not huge on dungeon exploration Persona Q2 is a great game. It contains plenty of fanservice and references for fans of the main Persona titles and has a complex and rewarding combat and exploration loop that makes it worth playing even if it’s your first Persona game ever.

If you’re willing to put in the time, you’ll find a complex experience that’s satisfyingly tough to get a grasp on and equally hard to put down.

The gameplay underneath all the standard trappings is impressively solid.

There is a lot to like about Vectronom even if it never reaches any incredible highs. It’s just a well-designed rhythm game with a lot of heart put into it.

As someone who loves adventure and puzzle games, Outer Wilds was a match made in heaven. It’s not action-packed, and there’s not crafting or deep survival mechanics like most space games have. Instead, it delivers an engaging mystery that isn’t spoon fed to you. It offers its own unique challenge that I highly recommend to anyone that loves video games or space.

This is a game that takes the side activities in BioShock and puts its full weight behind it. If you’ve ever hoarded every useless scrap of paper and loose cigarette in other games, Void Bastards will reward you. It’s a constant cycle of upgrading your character and venturing deeper into the void while you find new rooms and tougher challenges. Best of all, there’s a definitive end alongside the promise of a harder difficulty. It’s everything you could want in a procedural shooter, bridging the gap between action and strategy in an innovative new way that makes it easy to want to jump into the void over and over again.

It’s a funny enough game but its one-note dialogue slightly outweighs its instances of decent humor. The mechanics work well at first, but they are too simplistic and don’t take as much advantage of the VR medium as they could. But despite their flaws, all of these parts are good enough to make Trover Saves the Universe one of the more memorable VR experiences.

Firefights are frenetic because of the intuitive gunplay mechanics that use VR intelligently to make normal tasks more involving while also going above and beyond in some instances.

Unlike Nintendogs, Little Friends isn’t a meditative game in which you joyfully play with and e-cuddle a bunch of adorbs animals. Instead, it’s a laborious slog in which strengthening your bond with your virtual pets takes too long, and the end results aren’t worth the time invested.

The disconnect that the overly convoluted plotline produces mixed with the detachment I felt with the world because of the continually shifting environment left made the whole thing feel hollow to me. I can’t recommend Layers of Fear 2 unless you just absolutely love the genre and have played everything else out there.

An interesting experiment that almost works as a video game. If you’re a grizzled Nicktoons fan willing to look past a pile of gameplay flaws, you might find that there’s a good time to be had with this good doctor. If you’re looking for your next roguelike addiction, you may want to wait for the next contender.

Whether you want to buy the complete Resident Evil Origins Collection or prefer to experience the original game on the go, Capcom did a great job with these handheld ports. Not only do both look just as good as ever before, but they are a natural fit on Nintendo Switch. The dated gameplay won’t appeal to everyone and Zero is a bummer, but the quality of the remastering can’t be denied and the REmake has plenty of fantastic scares for players to enjoy. It’s a great history lesson, even if it’s just serves as a reminder of how far the series has come over time.

No matter if it is your first time dealing with the plagas or you know RE4‘s map like the back of your hand, this is a worthwhile version that should be replayed. Even in 2019, this is still Capcom’s crowning achievement and a master class in game design.

There simultaneously needed to be a lot more of Rage 2 and lot less; a lot more depth in its driving, story, and missions and a lot less repeated content and long stretches of empty landscape. With all of the fluff in between frenetic firefights, most of Rage 2‘s incredible moments are bookended by elements that are underbaked by comparison. But id’s knack for making impeccable first-person shooting mechanics makes Rage 2 succeed despite having faults that would doom a lesser shooter.

A Plague Tale tells a tale about human cruelty, the loss of innocence, survival, and family via its beautiful visual and imaginative level design, but it feels like near the game’s end confidence was lost in this vision. It gets in its own way by deciding that something bigger was needed to keep the player’s attention. It’s a sour end to an otherwise great game.

It all falls on the characters but the game’s cast isn’t strong enough to bear that burden. Its tame story would be more acceptable if the many soft moments in between beats had less cringeworthy dialogue and more actual humor.

The masterful character work and slowly building absurdity prove that this game isn’t just a joke, even if it does have a giant purple dildo bat in it.

Despite some setbacks with the fetch quests and the bad jokes, Provinciano’s follow-up to his classic Retro City Rampage doesn’t disappoint. Shakedown Hawaii has loads of replay value, between acquisitions, mayhem, and raging through city streets. It is splendidly designed, composed, and its visuals are a great nostalgic reminder of the SNES era.

While there are certainly some rough edges that keep it from being truly great, They Came From Below is We Happy Few at its best and then some. It’s the dark cinematic adventure that fans wanted from the original game, even if it tackles very different themes.

Despite having a story that is filled with cybernetically enhanced people trying to cope with their dystopian life that is blurred more than ever due to lifelike artificial intelligence, VA-11 Hall-A is remarkably human in its nature.

Everything about it makes sense, and it’s a better game at the end of the day due to the added polish. However, it’s not nearly good enough to get recommended with the games it’s now competing with and has lost much of its original appeal along the way.

Mortal Kombat 11’s toned down yet more tactical play gives it its own style that also remains true to the heart of the series. Although the franchise has been all about ripping out beating hearts, MK11 thankfully knew to leave that heart intact.

Anno 1800 is one of the most fun city-builders I’ve played in a long time. The construction of your city isn’t as complex as Cities: Skylines, but the complex supply and demand mechanics make Anno more action-packed than many combat oriented RTS games. You’ll constantly be juggling trade routes and worker types, and it all adds up to an incredibly rewarding experience.

It’s not the greatest playing horror game, and some aspects feel extremely dated. However, Yuppie Psycho is undeniably worth playing for anyone that is looking for something weird and wants art to actually have something to say.

The game is a little too easy, especially for those of you not worried about collecting every crown. The hint system provides too much of a safety net that is far too easy to fall back on. Thankfully, though, the series clever puzzles are as entertaining as they ever have been and keep the pesky frame rate issues and low difficulty from boxing you out of enjoying Qbby’s latest adventure.

Days Gone is one of the better zombie games in recent years. It doesn't beat out the Resident Evil 2 remake (very few games do) as being my go-to zombie fix, but it's an entertaining if somewhat unevenly-paced adventure through post-apocalyptic Oregon.

No, this isn’t a total essential purchase since some key titles are missing. But for those of you that are Konami fans or just need some old school fun to sink your teeth into, you could do a lot worse. Besides, at least Thunder Cross is surprisingly good. Who saw that coming?

It demonstrates that an actual sequel is long overdue as the core gameplay is still compelling in 2019 and no other game has quite filled that same niche. Either way, Capcom’s underrated gem is worth playing in one of its various ways and is well worth the time investment due to its fantastic ending.

Everything about Cuphead just feels right, even all these months after its original release. As it stands right now, this game is nearly flawless in its own right, thanks to its responsive controls and signature style.

If you can ignore gameplay flaws and focus on style, you might fall in love with its VHS trappings. However, if you want something beyond style, if you want an interesting interactive tale or a precise action game, you should look elsewhere.

Some of the more unique levels are a blast to play and the core combat is fun from start to finish. The cooperative focus is also a great bullet point in its favor, and it’s implemented in such a way that the single-player doesn’t feel lessened because of it.

While My Time At Portia does stretch a bit too far into the realm of realism, it also offers an accessible entry point into this style of gaming. It’s constantly surprising how much fun it is to sit down, turn on a podcast, and farm for hours.

Hell is Other Demons captures a certain vibe incredibly well. Its inspirations, from Devil Daggers to Super Crate Box, are clearly visible but everything clicks together into a wholly original creation.

This game stands as a proof of concept, a testament that there’s still life in the arcade racing genre. The road ahead is pretty rocky, but the spirit is as alive as ever. Here’s hoping that there’s plenty more Dangerous Driving in the future.

The co-op is absolutely broken and made me want to just quit playing. I sincerely hope that Nintendo patches those issues because anyone who wants this game for its multiplayer is going to be incredibly disappointed.

With the PC version, you can tweak Final Fantasy 7 until practically every aspect is improved. The other editions of the game,including the Switch version, just can’t compete with that amount of flexibility.

Unlike Strafe, Hypnospace Outlaw delivers on exactly what it sets out to do right out of the gate. It’s got some issues but most of them stem from wanting more, which is a good sign.

Despite its flaws, Tropico 6 will definitely cause you to stay up later than you should. If you’re willing to forgive the lack of structure, you can spend hours and hours building on each of the included maps. There’s even a randomized map generator once you squeeze all the fun from the included content. In this way, Tropico 6 feels like an old school PC release, but it should still appeal to a wide variety of players looking to rule the tropics with a tanned iron fist.

As a singular episode, it’s fine. But in the grander scheme of wrapping up a six-year storyline and four-episode arc, it’s also just fine and that middle of the road result is a bit of a disappointment.

Sekiro is a great game. Despite my complaints with its boss fights and the elimination of the equipment system Dark Souls was known for, it was a challenging and exciting adventure through Feudal Japan. If you’re a From Software fan, it’s a must-buy game, even with the changes, and it’s a decent place to start even if you’ve never played a From game before. However, Sekiro is far from perfection.

From the half-hearted RPG elements that either needed to be expanded upon or removed to the frustrating story layout, there are too many issues that get in the way of enjoying creating a bristling magical city.

Ultimately, The Division 2 is a safe sequel for Massive Entertainment to have made and is a safe purchase for anyone looking to grind for loot in a well-paced, co-op experience set within a gorgeous open world. It might not push the envelope in a significant way, but it still provides a rock solid foundation at launch, and I’m excited to see what the developers add in the months and years to come.

It fully engages you throughout your journey, but it’s all over before you know it.

This was a poor attempt at reviving the franchise, and Front Mission deserves better.

Not even the basic shooting of Moss Destruction can hang, even in the best case scenario. And when the core is a bit rotten, that’s not a good sign.

Its reluctance to properly evolve keep it from being the king of its genre, but its commitment to its stylish and responsive mechanics still makes it one of the best hack and slash games, crown or not.

Despite a few quibbles that most new players won’t even notice, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy is an impressive remastering of three of the greatest adventure games ever made.

Despite still struggling to tell a captivating story, Dead or Alive 6 is an improvement in nearly every area from its predecessor. Not only has it become more beginner friendly due to a great tutorial and the Fatal Rush mechanic, but players have more reasons to hone their skills offline due to the DOA Quest mode.

While the gameplay definitely shows its age in spots, ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove! is exactly what was advertised to Kickstarter backers in 2015. An updated version of the duo’s original Genesis exploits both in spirit and design, it manages to remain a charming experience no matter how ruthless its old school gameplay can be at times.

Despite its flaws, there is some merit to Tech Support: Error Unknown. It does capture the feeling of working in a fast paced support environment. You get a sense of sympathy towards the worker’s plight just by going through the motions. However, it doesn’t do a great job of integrating anything else into the equation due to its unwillingness to open up.

While it’s a bit disappointing that the bulk of the package is just a compilation of already released content, it’s still easy to recommend NieR: Autoamta Game of the YoRHa Edition to anyone that hasn’t already played the best game of 2017.

Its collection of well-designed tracks are wonderful playgrounds for its familiar yet still addictive physics-heavy biking gameplay.

Unfortunately, I feel like fixing this game goes beyond patching glitches, fixing bugs, and then cramming in expansions. To bring this game up to the must-play level, many aspects of the game need a full overhaul.

Apex Legends has raised the bar for battle royale games. It minimizes downtime, places an emphasis on intense gunfights, and replaces nameless characters with a memorable bunch of heroes.

The little issues stack up so high that it’s hard to really recommend playing this over any other game in the genre. Especially on Switch, where the portable mode is beyond broken. If you were hoping to have a fun time on the go with some Nazi tactics, I just have one phrase for you: Next time Charlie. Next time.

The fighting is repetitive and dull, the infrastructure is more annoying than entertaining, and it’s a gigantic disappointment from start to finish. Not only do the franchises represented deserve better than this, but it’s an awful way to celebrate the manga giant’s 50th anniversary.

It’s still entertaining. A repetitive kind of entertaining, but entertaining nonetheless. You’ll get a kick out of smashing robots up with your bare hands and you’ll fist pump in joy when you make a death-defying leap across a tower block. Its clipped length works in its favor as it never truly outstays its welcome.

Far Cry New Dawn is fine, functional, and sometimes fun, but it mostly just hovers around the middle, neither touching greatness nor mediocrity but occupying the safe, boring plateau in between.

Metro Exodus is everything I wish the Fallout series would be. It’s a serious story that takes you on an epic journey across a continent and makes you feel like what you’re doing actually matters. It lasts just long enough (around 25-30 hours) to really blow it out of the park and leave you wanting more. 4A Games did a great job on Metro Exodus, but a few glitches (particularly in the audio department) keep it from being a true masterpiece.

In a perfect world, God Eater 3 would have been a leap in quality similar to Monster Hunter World and had been the big coming out party for the series. Sadly, that isn’t the case here at all. Instead, fans got more of the same with little innovation and the extra difficulty feeling more artificial than interesting.

I see the appeal in Monster Energy Supercross 2. For all the limits concerning presentation and graphical fidelity, you can feel how precise the gameplay can be with all the cranks turned to 11. If you’re looking for an accurate simulation of Supercross, this is going to satisfy. Even though this is a sequel, it feels like a foundation that can be built upon in future games, and I hope that Milestone expands the feature set the next time out.

As much as I enjoy Ace Combat 7, though, you can see where Team Aces played it safe. There’s very little in the way of new features, and some of the cool options from past games have been removed in favor of a more streamlined experience. Multiplayer makes up for this a bit, but it too has design problems that put its future in doubt in my eyes. That being said, this is an excellent game and a fantastic Ace Combat game, and I’m glad to see the main series making a return after so many years.

Slay the Spire is one of the most satisfying games I’ve played in recent memory. Laying down a series of cards and watching as they wreaked havoc on enemies made me feel like a strategic mastermind, and that this could be done without spending hundreds of hours building a deck was refreshing. Slay the Spire has spent all its energy in order to firmly sink its claws into me, and I can’t envisage putting this game down for a long time.99

Wargroove is a gorgeous example of high fidelity pixel art, even when you’re fully zoomed out during gameplay. The battle scenes are vibrant and energetic, although they do take a bit too long to play out. There’s nothing in-game quite as pretty as the fully animated cutscene that starts everything off, but we can’t have everything.

The game’s breakneck finale—when it eventually does get there—makes up for everything: It makes up for the series’ confusing plot; it makes up for the fact that it takes nearly a whole day’s worth of playtime to reach that moment; it makes up for the hokey stuff about believing in your friends and, golly gosh, light will save the day.

Life is Strange 2 Episode 2 feels more like a crossover bonus sequel to The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit than a true continuation of the first episode. While it does slowly inch toward the story at large, it fails in making a meaningful plot of its own in the meantime and lacks much substance thanks to the clumsy dialogue and boring scenes.

Pikuniku is an odd game, yes, but it is a fun, relaxing one to boot. There are few better ways to spend an afternoon than in its colorful, quirky world. It may not be long but you’ll have a big, dumb smile on your face the whole time; a pure realization of quality over quantity.

It has heart and soul, telling an emotional tale that’s full of wonder. Wandersong isn’t perfect, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

It’s a game that aims low and achieves those goals, but only for a small, niche audience. If your life’s work is mastering this specific brand of platforming, then this is an obvious purchase. Most of the rest of us will find more enjoyment in watching the game streamed during an Awesome Games Done Quick event than actually playing it.

Whether you're a long time fan or a newcomer, Resident Evil 2 remake is an absolutely fantastic game. It's the best in the series yet and wholly outshined my most optimistic expectations. It doesn't supersede the original, but it's an excellent retelling, a wonderful update, and an excellent experience.

It’s got a lot of the fourth-wall breaking humor that made that game so famous, while still going its own way when it comes to narrative and world design. I ended up loving the whole ridiculous thing, and it’s a great play, and something different, for anyone who likes RPGs.

If you’re willing to play a decent brawler that’s regularly interrupted by junky D-grade platforming to get to the madness, you’ll get a lot out of it. If you’re looking for a gameplay tour-de-force instead of a weird trip, you should probably look elsewhere.

It’s odd that Capcom has done so little to the hibernating series and let this beloved game wither away under the harsh sands of time.