It’s a delightfully lighthearted game with a seriously impressive UI, retaining all the charm of Theme Hospital while adding a slew of improvements for a modern audience.

This isn’t the game for everyone. Dragon Quest 11 is unabashedly a traditional JRPG. For some, the slower pacing and linear experience aren’t going to be appealing. However, for those who have fallen in love with the genre, and grew up adoring Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, and others, this game is the ultimate expression of the traditional JRPG.

It may occasionally feel like a relic, but like the members of the Strange Brigade have shown, sometimes that’s just what you’re looking for.

It built a hilarious narrative around that silly concept and used that concept as a vessel for its heartwarming story and incredible humor that comes out in its writing and irreverent gameplay. For a game about garbage, its wholesomeness and “holesomeness” make it the very opposite of trash.

Yakuza Kiwami 2 is one of the best games ever made.

Ingenuity is the key differentiating factor and that’s what drags down Guacamelee 2 from achieving the same level of greatness. It sacrifices originality for comfort. And that mask is still quite comfortable but, like dressing up as a luchador in back-to-back Halloweens, it’s not as impressive the second time around.

Its better camera, updated presentation, and deeper gameplay mechanics have me interested in whatever new things the studio is cooking up after it puts Clementine’s story to rest.

For $60 I needed to see more quality, and instead became overloaded with quantity.

The narrative and character interaction leave a bit to be desired, but the overall quality of the game overshadows its deficiencies.

It harnessed that frantic pace inherent to the food service industry and built a co-op game around it; one that surpasses its predecessor in every way.

Although the game sadly doesn’t use mechanics to tell its story, it represents both the good and bad extremes of what only gaming can do: imbue an emotional tale through interactivity and be technically busted. While Anamorphine’s story is still worth seeing through, it’s a shame that its shoddy optimization tries to actively thwart its touching message at every turn.

Technical hiccups and a few narrative shortcomings hold it back a bit but its honest look at the Iranian Revolution is unflinching, educational, engrossing, and hopefully inspirational for those trying to make games capable of enabling cultural empathy in its players.

This series is better than it has any business being. If you’re tired of the cookie cutter, hum-drum crap coming out of big studios, Yakuza 0 is the prescription for you.

This is another retro collection that does an excellent job of preserving a classic franchise in an accessible form on current-gen platforms and is worth your attention whether you’re a long-time fan or someone who’s looking to get into the Mega Man X series for the first time.

Unfortunately, a recipe is only as good as its ingredients. Narcosis’ voice acting and writing might hold water but the outdated visuals, laughable horror, and poor gameplay weigh the game down and cause it to sink faster than a corpse with cinder block shoes.

Bomb Chicken isn’t an innovative, genre-shaking, powerhouse. It doesn’t set out to be. Instead, you get some real solid 2D platforming action with a unique mechanic that sets it apart from its predecessors. It’s a welcome addition to the Switch’s growing library of quality indie games and a smart purchase for anyone who’s looking to kill a little time.

Red Faction Guerilla ReMARStered is far from perfect, but it’s fun, and it’s proof that not every game needs to have a serious, super in-depth narrative to please.

Fast gunplay, likable characters, and its weapon crafting system work incredibly well when the difficulty doesn’t spike too hard and kill the pacing and framerate. It’s almost there in many respects which make the prospect of a sequel awfully alluring but it’s executed well enough to make it a good game in its own right.

For only a $5 upgrade fee, they get all of those warm fuzzy feelings but with two great new characters and a small handful of remixed content that doesn’t quite break the bank nor provide a ton of value. However, the early 1990s infrastructure that the game prides itself on hasn’t aged quite as gracefully and, while it still has plenty of charm, it doesn’t fit in as elegantly with the current 2018 era that it’s being released in.

$60 for a game that’s approaching a year old is a bit much, especially given that it doesn’t include the DLC.

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.

Rather than spend time with this frustrating game, do yourself a favor and just import Gundam Breaker 3.

I would have liked to have seen a more smooth difficulty ramp in the Adventure Mode, and more options when it comes to multiplayer matches. However, those are things that can be fixed with patches, and fundamentally Mario Aces Tennis gets things right much more often than it gets them wrong.

If you’re a fan of puzzle games, rhythm games, or just chilling out with a game that gives more than it demands, I heartily recommend Lumines Remastered. It’s a great addition to the Switch library and an excellent starting point for those who have never experienced the franchise before. For those who are longtime fans, it’s a love song to the original and the definitive form of the first Lumines title.

The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit captures the awkward nostalgia of being a child quite well even if it falters in other areas.

Bethesda could have written Prey off with no further support, or released a DLC that just did more of the same, but it didn't. Prey: Mooncrash is an excellent expansion to a great game and adds enough of a twist to feel fresh and exciting.

I can't recommend this game as the payout of eye candy isn't worth the time you have to put in slogging through hell behind the eyes of a depressingly slow husk of a dead man.

Arguably the best Jurassic Park-themed game to date, and a must-buy for fans of the films.