All in all, Sine Mora succeeds in applying a different concept to a side-scrolling shooter and it works. There might be a few questionable thoughts about the storyline, but it certainly does not shed any negative light on its chaotic and addictive gameplay.

Despite its disappointingly lopsided online play, Shift is easily among the best multiplatform racing games available, and its cockpit view sets a new gold standard for the genre.

I’m loving Need For Speed: Most Wanted. It’s a great combination of "Underground" and "Hot Pursuit," and it’s just one hell of a lot of fun.

Bangai-O Spirits is one of, if not the most, fully-featured and expansive shmups ever created, but it’s absolutely unmerciful in its brutality.

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Wii U Edition is worth it for anyone looking to build out their launch library on Nintendo's new console. It's got everything Namco packed in earlier this year, and that's about all you need to know. Tekken Ball and Mushroom Battle, while briefly entertaining, don't add much. Still, TTT2 is strong enough in its own right that we don't need to tag out just yet.

Nier Replicant ver. 1.22 is an excellent spin on the traditional hero’s journey and will give Nier Automata fans a new appreciation for that title. It’s a lovingly crafted rerelease and will delight both new and old players alike.

Most of its success relies on the existing design of the pinball machines instead of any design elements it adds, but it doesn’t really need to do more than let the machines speak for themselves.

The shock of change is overwhelming at first, but give the game enough time to develop and you'll soon appreciate its intricacies. A few problematic design choices aside, there's a lot of fun to be had in this newest and most Final-est of Fantasies.

Vets, however, might find it hard to overlook the lacking A.I., inability to jump and brief Story. The future looks good, but far from perfect.

For a game made by an independent studio paid for by crowd-funding, it sure looks and feels top-class. Those who funded the game should be proud of themselves, and so should the team members who crafted it.

Save some rare problems with Danny’s jumps and the viewing of very complex levels do crop up, but they’re few and far between, and they hardly mar the impressive, challenging and marvelously-presented experience.

This game is a masterpiece and is worth every single penny. If you've been excitedly waiting for Riven, never fear, you'll love it. This game has proved itself in all aspects, the only way someone could not like it is because it's too intellectually challenging, or they simply don't like these types of games.

Even with its technical drawbacks, Borderlands is a shooter for people who want something a little more engaging. It will remind you of every FPS you’ve enjoyed over the last few years, stealing bits of brilliance here and there to make its own enthralling experience.

Despite its flaws, Age of Empires is great fun to play. The graphics and sound effects are of high quality, and the computer plays a respectable game. In fact, there is a very large selection of AIs to choose from in the scenario editor.

An uneven mixture of gorgeous graphics, upgradeable street racing vehicles, variety of race modes, unique customization, lack of opposition, repetitive tracks, and no law enforcement presence... Involving and fun, although not quite as engrossing as "NFS:HP2."

This is the kind of thing I love about quirky little gems like this: They can either fall entirely flat, or they can be the diamond you know is easily lost in the dark recesses of the cheap-o games section of your online retailer of choice.

Taking its name from one of the most seminal technological inventions of the 20th century, Transistor is unequivocally one of the greatest games this year and rivals Journey as one of the best indie titles this decade.

Lumines Electronic Symphony doesn't fuss around with twists and turns with the core puzzling concept, sustaining that psychedelic synesthesia which sparks our continued adoration for the series.

A downgrade in the look and sound combined with increasingly annoying platforming and camera issues get in the way of this warrior's ultimate victory.

Splatoon 2 is a measured dose of the same game you likely remember from the Wii U, a colorfully-inked tour-de-force of multiplayer action with a single-player afterthought. You'll want to clock hours and hours in-game for sure, but you'll be left scratching your head at some of the strange decisions Nintendo made this time around. Luckily, there's still plenty of fun to be had here, even if you can't decide if you're a kid or a squid.

When you consider a game that lets you play as a cat, chances are you wouldn’t imagine that game then taking place in a cyberpunk city overrun with headcrabs where humanity has been eradicated and replaced with friendly robots. BlueTwelve has provided a gorgeous and unique setting to match its unique protagonist, and although its action and puzzle-solving may be too simple for some tastes, it excels where it matters — and what matters is making you feel like a cat.

While Crackdown isn’t long on story or particularly original, it is as fun and addictive as the first syllable in its name implies. It may not be the biggest sandbox on the playground, but I sure had fun playing in it.

In essence, Observer plays out much the same way FMV games from the 90s did. Fittingly, players are in this game as an observer, and those who chafe at lack of agency should look elsewhere. This is Daniel Lazarski’s tale, and it’s not a happy one, but it is one worth playing for any sci-fi or cyberpunk fan.

It takes place in a gigantic world with loads of great content, and the seemingly endless number of small quests means that if you only have a half-hour to play, you can actually get something done. However, Everquest II isn’t terribly intuitive or noob-friendly when you’re just starting out.

I could go on and on about how utterly incredible Kazama Kiryu is as a character, and how the Yakuza series has broadened my horizons when it comes to Japanese games. If you've played Yakuza in the past, I think you'll get a tremendous amount of enjoyment out of this game.

As unfriendly as it to beginners and, well, anyone that isn’t used to pressing every button and moving the joystick on the controller in every which way, that’s just perfect for a brand that is “as real as it gets”.

Little Nightmares 2 succeeds in building on the foundation that the original game laid out. The folks at Tarsier Studios have expanded on the story and lore with new characters and settings, added gameplay mechanics that don’t overcomplicate the action or bloat the pacing, and proven themselves worryingly imaginative when it comes to thinking up dastardly denizens of a perfectly grim world.

For years Madden has been improving visually and adding features, but to what end? What you're left with every year is a game with a split personality: An awesome football game that's great to play with your friends or even online, but makes you want to smash your machine if you ever play against the computer.