Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 is a triumphant return for the series and makes a strong claim for the best skateboarding game ever. It’s a must-play for fans of the series and newcomers alike, and I hope this isn’t the last Pro Skater game we see from Vicarious Visions.

Rich, philosophical story...that's not as clever as the original story.

If you've never played Tribes before, well, heed my advice - "There ain't no butter like butter that's washed down with a healthy helping of squirrel."

Several interesting twists on the classic arcade shooter bring this game up a few notches.

For the players who aren’t scared away by NHL 09’s realistic difficulty, they're whole seasons ahead for training custom characters and learning the stingy A.I..

If Ori burned you before (as it had me), don’t expect an apology here. It’s still pretty, fun, and occasionally frustrating, and it still might burn your parent’s house down.

Despite some questionable (and that’s being friendly) difficulty scaling, Nier: Automata is largely a success. It’s the most unique game I’ve played in 2017, one that will assuredly be in our thoughts when it comes time to consider the best game of the year. You'll have so much to do and so many ways to do it, with a series of endings as vast as a game like Torment: Tides of Numenera (which was mostly text-based). Nier: Automata begs to be replayed, even as it's punishing you for doing so.

Though it doesn’t quite match the intricate strategies of Lumines, it isn’t supposed to. Meteos manages to be interesting and engaging without feeling like just another Tetris clone. Not bad for a new drug.

If it’s hockey you’re looking for, get ready to lose a few teeth and go tough it out already.

It Takes Two is one of the most delightful and ceaselessly entertaining co-op games I’ve played. Hazelight offers so many exciting levels, abilities, set-pieces, and mini-games, but does not let this extreme level of variety affect its quality. Every new idea is introduced to the game with care and used in a way that players can enjoy, before promptly being recycled out for an even better one. That this is the developer’s first platformer is staggeringly impressive, and I can only hope that this won’t be its final flirtation with a genre it’s clearly head over heels for.

This game is as much an adventure for your eyes as it is for your reflexes.

Will of the Wisps doesn’t jump as high as Ori and the Blind Forest and falls in a few extra pits yet it is still a worthy enough successor. Comparisons between the two are not always favorable to the sequel, especially considering how it repeats some of the same beats. But that same familiarity is also what gives Will of the Wisps its vivid art style and well-paced, difficult platforming that make both titles such noteworthy entries in the crowded Metroidvania genre.

What is remarkable is that, even despite these drawbacks, the steep learning curve, accurate controls, and heated tactical challenge make Vegas’ online game the most complete for the 360 so far.

It doesn't change the face of the Warcraft world, but it does bump the experience up another notch. En'shu falah-nah, my brothers. See you on the field of battle.

All in all, if you buy StarCraft, you're buying it for the multi-player. The single-player is just too short and disappointing...The game just doesn't live up to the lofty goals of its predecessors, and for that, it suffers.

These minor faults—jerky background characters and a lack of add-on extras for the sake of variety—may seem silly when we're talking about a gorgeous remake of one of the arcade's few luminaries. Still, the lack of renovation below the surface might make the celebration short-lived.

The new features are generally welcomed but don’t change the fact that this is largely the same game you probably spent way too much time with last year.

Though the cracks with stealth and freerunning are starting to show with time, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag does the one thing it means to do surprisingly well: pirates. Sailing the high seas, finding hidden treasure chests among gorgeous tropical archipelagos, letting the waves of turquoise water crash into the Jackdaw, plundering enemy ships without remorse, and hearing your crew sing authentic sea shanties has never felt better.

As a singleplayer experience, Bad Company 2 is mostly forgettable, which is a disappointment considering how entertaining the first game’s campaign was. Thankfully the multiplayer features are so polished and well designed that BC2’s shortcomings won’t matter in the slightest.

Left Behind barely scratches the itch I’ve been hoping to claw at since I put the controller down last summer. It's a bite-sized extension of the characters and lives fans connected with so deeply.

Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart is the first PS5 exclusive that I can recommend everyone go out and buy. It's a cutting-edge visual masterclass of what the PS5 is capable of, but with the soul of the original R&C games, packaged with a comprehensive set of accessibility options.

A prime example of intelligently controlled chaos wherein the gameplay experiences are as diverse as snowflakes.

The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition comes highly recommended, whether or not you are a series aficionado like myself, or just a noob pirate.

It deserves wholeheartedly to be on a list of nominees later this year. Play Shovel Knight. It is a damn delight.

Ubisoft's platformer was one of the best games money could buy last year, and it's one of the best games you can play on your PlayStation Vita now.

Respected gameplay in nice new wrapping and ties it up with amazing online integration, which hints at things to come.

As a singleplayer experience, Bad Company 2 is mostly forgettable, which is a disappointment considering how entertaining the first game’s campaign was. Thankfully the multiplayer features are so polished and well designed that BC2’s shortcomings won’t matter in the slightest.

With its frantic dual-screen battles in a dense little city, The World Ends With You is a surprisingly hardcore, impossibly ambitious DS title. This pint-size powerhouse might sadly intimidate a few DS owners and their Pokeymans. Don’t get scared off; put down your Zeldas and your juice boxes for two minutes and try taking on The World.