Crashlands swooped in under my radar and surprised me with its complex yet streamlined gameplay and laugh-out-loud humor.

Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy is a loving remaster of a series of fan-favorite games. If you need a dose of 32-bit nostalgia, or if you want to see where one of gaming’s iconic characters started you can’t go wrong here.

While this may not come as a surprise, the Tempest expansion has added a lot more *ahem* depth, with its sea-focused expansion. It wastes no time getting to the good parts, and keeps you engaged while you're there. I mean, what other game will let you be a grotesque sea-pirate bent on conquering the planet?

Simply because the World Cup is mentioned in this year’s installment, I’d say add this to your collection, but if you’re neck deep in collected items from last year’s title, sticking with the old might not be a bad idea.

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.

If you’re willing to dedicate the time to truly understand it, though, then Continue will take you on an original journey, one which you’ve never embarked on before and one which you'll find nowhere else.

Although the special modes tire after a few dozen serves and the modes are a little shallow, despite the constant stream of unlockables, Mario and friends are still a blast to play with and letting your Mii join in on the fun is a natural evolution for the roster. As a package, Mario Tennis Open isn't a killer app, but it's another must-have title for 3DS owners.

Overall, Back 4 Blood is a great successor to Left 4 Dead. It definitely needs some tweaks here and there, but it’s a blast with or without friends, and the bots are pretty decent as well. Turtle Rock Studios could have just made a straight clone of L4D, but it didn’t. As the various new systems get polished and balanced, this game will likely be looked on as finely as its predecessors.

From the moment the first dragon, Nestor, tells you how to find the balloonist until the end of the Super Bonus World in Spyro 3, the Spyro Reignited Trilogy is an utter delight.

With a disaster scenario in hand, or perhaps one created with their easy-to-use scenario editor, you'll get more than enough enjoyment out of Cities: Skylines - Natural Disasters to both consider it a true expansion and make it worth its asking price.

For handheld gamers this holiday season, the pickings remain slim, but Fantasy Life offers an idealized imaginative antithesis to all-out action like you’d find in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS.

As of right now, I can’t recommend Shadowbringers as a direct starting point for Final Fantasy 14. Instead, play through the base content a bit and get a feel for it. You’ll thank yourself later.

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.

Splatoon isn't a perfect game, but it's fun. Really, really fun. It's the start of a promising IP for Nintendo, and it's something unique for Wii U as an action-packed shooter that's also still capable of retaining its family-friendly image. It's the '90s paintball craze meets Call of Duty and it's totally da bomb and funky fresh.

While Dyad offers quite a bit of gameplay for $15, it can be seen as a one-trick pony. By the time you've beaten every level, you'll probably be fatigued and bored with its gameplay. What's more, it doesn't have the endless replayability of other arcade games.

Is The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 worth getting? Definitely! Although it doesn't add much innovation to the series, this game offers a more complex and fine-tuned adventure than its predecessor.

Not much else has been added to the experience, save for full trophy support on PS3. This is Stranger's Wrath. If you've played it before, you'll recognize it and appreciate the facelift. If you haven't, here's your chance to step back in time without the rose-colored glasses you might have grown accustomed to.

Although the poor lip-syncing diminishes the impact of the dialogue and several hackneyed characters blemish the overall story, the first episode of Life Is Strange is easily worth its five-dollar price tag and positions Dontnod Entertainment as one developer to watch out for this year.

Give Destiny a try if you like the idea of cooperation blended evenly with competition. The truth remains in its satisfyingly responsive mechanics, relatively forgiving checkpoint systems, competitive multiplayer, and the opportunity to blast away a million and one guys if that's what your story really needs to framed around.

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.

Blue Reflection is a hidden gem that any anime and JRPG fan will not want to miss this year.

Nothing short of a spectacular stealth game that brings the genre back to its roots and I can’t wait to see where it goes from here.

What the game does well it does very well, the action combat system being the foremost example of that. There's no shortage of small missteps that interfered with my total satisfaction with the game, made even more annoying by the fact that most of them could have had simple fixes. But the good does significantly outweigh the bad, and if you're looking for an MMO that plays very dynamically and differently from most of the pack, Tera is right up your alley.

Grid 2 is a fun racing game that has an unfortunately aggressive AI and begins to feel a little stale about halfway through. It's still a strong arcade racing game that's more often fun than frustrating—even if you find yourself spamming the flashback button when clubbed by aggressive drivers who blast you into a spin or are a little too late or early on setting up a drift. It's a fun experience with varied race types, even if it loses some of the exhilaration later on in the game.

This game is aimed at a particular audience, and those who get a rush of nostalgia from seeing Goku and his friends duke it out with the universe’s biggest baddies will love it. Others may need a proper introduction with the series before they soak up everything DBZ: Kakarot has to offer.

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.

Judging by how fun GNOG is even sans PlayStation VR, and knowing what VR is generally like having tried it many times, it feels safe to recommend GNOG wholeheartedly if you possess the tech for its full potential. Otherwise, the recommendation is less obvious; GNOG hosts pleasant, colorful visuals, a literal interactive toy box, and clever puzzles that tax the mind but perhaps don’t ever truly test it. GNOG is thus an imaginative, worthwhile creation, unlikely to win over non-puzzle fans but certain to at the very least charm most everyone else. If you do own PlayStation VR, my gut tells me you’ll want to experience GNOG regardless. If not, its mere $15 asking price is, in my view, still plenty justified.

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.