NBA 2K16 is full of features and detail. It’s possibly the most complete game to the series.

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.

If you've never played BlazBlue, then Continuum Shift Extend is the place to start, and there's no better platform to do it on than the PS Vita. If you have previously enjoyed the BlazBlue series, that's a bit of a tougher call and will largely depend on the value of the added characters and increased control allowed by this new system.

As an inexpensive downloadable title—again, the first few tutorial stages are free, and buying the four-pack of add-ons makes it ten bucks—I can’t help but say I enjoyed it, despite the repetition of what was necessary in each level.

Skylanders Superchargers revs up its cyber-engine to offer fans a huge variety of vehicular and action platforming gameplay. After several iterations, this series now offers a surprising amount of depth, but it still lacks a serious challenge.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the definitive edition of a franchise-defining kart racer, no longer constrained by Wii U’s teensy install base and poised to dish out hours of enjoyment from its new hybrid home. Not everyone will be tempted, but if you missed the original Mario Kart 8, it’s an absolute must-buy.

There are simply so many things to do that I'm reminded of an MMO where players have to spend an hour getting ready for a 30-minute fight. As a result, I find myself only playing for an hour or two at a time now whereas I was playing for several hours in a row during the first half.

Among the stronger expansions for The Sims 3, University Life fills in the time gap missing from the series and offers enough depth to extend the life of every Sim meaningfully. In addition to introducing a new plant-based Sim type, the added social content broadens the interaction of the Sim universe.

As a single-playthrough experience, Ori and the Blind Forest is a wonderful example of sublime presentation, a simple but heartfelt story, and challenging platforming.

Blackguards 2 had a rocky launch, but the 2.0 patch release fixes virtually all the technical and balancing issues that I encountered with it. I found its story to be a little pedestrian, but really enjoyed the gameplay and customizability of the characters.

There’s a certain sense of satisfaction that comes from sneaking through an entire building of guards and making it out with a bag full of loot. It’s one that video games don’t take advantage of often enough. Monaco takes that and makes it an exciting and challenging affair to enjoy with friends. Just make sure you don’t sign up for the job if you plan to play alone.

With everything running at 1080p, this is certainly eye candy. Just be sure to keep up, because neither Dante nor Virgil, or the demon horde for that matter, is going to drop the action because you're a little rusty.

Skullgirls is an engaging, memorable fighting game that presents more of a skeleton than a full experience-but that skeleton is both rock-solid and highly flexible. The bulk of a fighting game is really its gameplay and characters, and Skullgirls has both elements focused and condensed like coal into a diamond, offering pick-up-and-play casual action with pretty visuals but a lot of combo potential and depth that sidesteps the cheaper, unfair aspects of other fighters. It's the most noteworthy original fighter to come along this entire generation after Blazblue. Its practical shortcomings hold it back a bit (time will tell if DLC fleshes these out), but it's ambitiously refined for such a smaller-scale game and at least a must-try for fighting game fans.

D4 is a game that knows what it is. It’s quirky and odd with an outrageous story and over-the-top characters, and that may not sit well with some people, but that’s the kind of game Swery is known to make.

For the $15 asking price, you'd be hard-pressed to find another multiplayer experience on a console with this much meat on its bones.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is a taste of what happens when a developer decides to contend with nearly every good fantasy RPG idea. It's an astoundingly extensive-and foolhardy-task for an original IP, whose largest mistake is not that it's unpolished in spots, but that it, of little fault of its own, comes only a few months after The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. Knowing this well ahead of time likely propelled 38 Studio and Big Huge Games toward a cel-shaded, casual, jack-of-all-trades design, but all things considered, Reckoning carries enough momentum to sustain its lengthy journey and sweeping world. It will not change the way you think about fantasy RPGs, but it certainly fits right in.

Just a polished version of an already great game, but for me, it was a bit more special. With the technical issues eliminated, Dark Souls can shine and is a much more satisfying experience.

Its treatment of the soundtrack and sound effects is evident of the grander attitude toward the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection. It shows how much care and thought went into every corner of it.

Despite my disappointment at some aspects of Resident Evil 3 remake, it's far from a bad game. In fact, my biggest issue is that I want more than what's there. Though the story is short, what's there is exhilarating, and it kept me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end. I can only imagine how good it would be if Capcom gave it another six months to a year in development, and all the missing features and abridged or cut locations were included.

If you're a long time CRPG fan, or you never really gave them a try, Pillars of Eternity 2 is an excellent choice. It has the complexity of CRPGs of old but without the clunkiness. It's a much bigger, more polished game than the first in almost every way and a worthy successor.

In the end, it can feel like we're left with half a game, sort of like that bad guy we ripped the legs off of earlier. The Darkness II features a tight experience with exemplary voice-acting and wonderfully gory graphics. As a piece of storytelling it is one of the better games this generation.

With only a scant amount of truly unique experiences coming to the few reaming arcades in America, it is great that Killer Queen Black exists. This is an experience that you won’t get anywhere else, and it deserves to go beyond its current cult status.

If you go into Resident Evil Requiem without expectations, you’ll find it’s a great game. However, many long-time fans of the series did expect that Requiem would be a celebration of the series’ 30th anniversary. Capcom hasn’t done a great job so far, and using the game to advertise a $215,000 car and a couple of $1,500+ limited-edition watches has me questioning whether the company has once again lost touch with its fanbase. I’m hoping Requiem is a setup for a major twist that rewards fans for their knowledge of the franchise and propels the series into its next phase. Because of just how odd a taste this game left in my mouth, my score is mostly (and optimistically) based on the gameplay and the story, outside of its connections to the series as a whole.

The new Blaster Battles, Multi-Build evolved puzzles, and the flying stages are sheer fun to be had by all and made me feel a bit nostalgic for other classic Star Wars games. The Force is clearly strong with TT Fusion.

Destiny still has a few issues that could be sorted out, but The Taken King brings hope that future Destiny expansions will fix those too.

For the price, and if you’re up to the challenge, you can’t go wrong with New Super Luigi U.

What Final Fantasy XV succeeds at more than anything is providing an unpredictable and memorable adventure. Captivating story and characters were sacrificed along the way, but more than anything this game needed to prove that Final Fantasy can still execute greatness while taking risks. Its combat system and world design carry most of the weight, supported by attractive secondary activities and a great progression system.

Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition like last year’s Bayonetta 2 is for hardcore action gamers. It rewards practice and patience. The level design can get repetitive, but the levels aren't really why anyone plays a Devil May Cry game.