I really wanted to love Big Hops, since it’s clearly made by folks who share my fondness for the 3D platformer genre. But while that passion has birthed a terrific moveset, Big Hops is ultimately a selection of great mechanics in search of a tighter, more focused game.

Big fans of professional soccer or management sims may find more to like in Nutmeg! than I did, but as for me, I’m putting in my resignation from the team.

Those looking for a simple-yet-effective grind and not bothered by bad voice acting will enjoy Dragonkin: The Banished. It doesn’t attempt to rewrite the ARPG, but it provides a solid loop with a novel approach to skill-building that serves as an antidote to the terminally-online titans of the genre.

Anthem#9 looks fantastic in trailers and the gem matching mechanics are satisfying — piecing together a giant combination of attacks feels great. On the other hand, the UI needs work, the difficulty spike going from the basic (AKA tutorial) missions to the extra missions is supremely out of whack, and all the white flashes made me sick and will likely trigger seizures in photosensitive people. I want to like Anthem#9 more than I do, but it really doesn’t like me back.

At the end of the day, Unbeatable is a solid rhythm title with great audio-visual presentation and and a heartwarming narrative, though some lackluster pacing and inconsistent voice application make it a trickier recommendation than I would have expected.

There’s nothing meaningful to recommend this title, and it’s easy to call it the weakest entry in the entire Kain series—an outcome that falls far short of the modern revival I had hoped for.

Love Eternal is very demanding game — it demands perfection for its platforming, focus for the narrative beats, and patience for both. I can say that it’s one of the most unique games I’ve played in a very long while, and maybe with time I’ll come to enjoy it more than I did. I never stopped being intrigued enough to keep pressing on, but the frustration it put me through only took away from the experience overall.

While Painkiller’s attempt to reboot is a worthy goal, but the reality is that it just doesn’t get the franchise where it needs to go, as it’s not something easily recommended to a friend thanks to its mediocre nature, nor is it a a true single-player experience for those old-school Painkiller fans out there. Just like its protagonists, the game is caught in a purgatory between the modern online gaming landscape and its classic arena shooter legacy, fighting for a redemption that isn’t looking likely to come.

Overall, JDM: Japanese Drift Master is a stylish racer with a lot of anime charm. I am in love with the anime aesthetic and as a huge fan of classic Japanese street cars, I was happy to see my non-Toyota favorites here. Unfortunately, its handling model makes the entire package turn out to be an inconsistent ride.

The excellent color palette, cute yak animations, witty writing, and excellent soundtrack were simply not enough to encourage me to play further. All of the novel concepts and innovations presented to me were swiftly undone by the insufficient interface controls near the halfway point of the campaign. Fighting with this interface felt like I was a monk trying to coax my yak up a ramp, and that yak was unwilling to take another step.

Speeding through the world while listening to the perfectly-tuned soundtrack, I did find myself getting lost in the experience, exactly as the developers hoped I would. More than once I knew the exact route to the next objective, yet decided to do a few more dry runs, just because I was enjoying the driving too much. I’m not saying that there aren’t frustrations to be found in Adrift, but I still found this one of the most relaxing things I’ve played in ages. Just being in this world is a delight, and when I’d finally finished exploring it, I was a little sad that there wasn’t more to see. It won’t be for everyone, but for those who click with it, it’ll be just what they were looking for.

Without the insane sense of humor and quality retro styling, I probably wouldn’t give it a moment’s thought. But, it does have those qualities, and uses them to excellent effect, even while the gameplay is disappointingly pedestrian. It has some neat quirks, amusing throwbacks and charm aplenty, but overall it’s nothing to brainwash a princess over.

As it stands, the framework of a promising tycoon game flickers beneath the strobe lights, but it struggles to justify the cover charge. Moments of satisfaction are undercut by clumsy onboarding and a lack of personality, leaving the whole experience feeling flatter than it should. Unfortunately, Disco Simulator hints at a better party than the one it ultimately throws.

While its mechanics never quite cohere into a truly transcendent experience, the developers’ understanding of their protagonist helps to bolster Styx: Blades of Greed against becoming just another anonymous sneak-‘em-up. They’ve provided a play space that’s free of judgment and agnostic to the moralistic implications of player behavior, and I felt no pangs of guilt as I went about systematically murdering a fortress full of guards and staff, stealing all I could in the process – after all, it’s what Styx would do, and they probably deserved it anyway.

I am Future targets the fans of slower crafty games. Gathering resources, dismantling objects, farming, fishing… it all comes together to make a non-rushed title, and while I wanted to like it, it just didn’t click. Quests ended up feeling like chores, and the story wasn’t exciting enough to make up for the lackluster gameplay. Overall, I am Future offers a pleasant starting loop, but it never evolves into anything bigger.

This all adds up to a competently-made title that won’t leave anyone completely disappointed, but the prevalence of technical issues leads me to knock the final score down. Metroidvania fans might find some enjoyment with Adventure of Samsara, but I’d bet it will disappear from their memories as soon as credits roll.

EA markets NHL 26 as “the most authentic hockey experience yet,” and that’s not entirely wrong. The physics refinements, data integration, and visual polish make this the best version for anyone who skipped last year. But the improvements are incremental, not transformative. If you already own NHL 25, you’ve seen nearly everything this has to offer… it’s just a little smoother, a little prettier, and a little harder to justify at full price.

Full Metal Schoolgirl is a title that clearly knows its niche and embraces it fully. It never takes itself too seriously, and cute girls shooting cyborgs with massive guns is a winning concept. Unfortunately, a couple confusing design choices hold it back from being something I can sink countless hours into, but those who don’t mind repetition and love the aesthetic will find a worthwhile tower climb.

I had a lovely time with Constance. It’s not a lore-intensive metroidvania, it’s not particularly difficult unless the player wishes to test themselves, and it never outstayed its welcome. Among the titanic release of Silksong and other metroidvanias, Constance still managed to make an impression on me. Don’t let this one pass you by.

Maybe after the devs squash the bugs and make a few other changes I’ll want to come back and dig some more, but in its current state, Mole Maiden doesn’t feel like it’s quite ready to surface.

It’s great to finally have Everybody’s Golf on PC, and even though this entry fails to meet the series’ usual high standards, it still offers a fine walk out on the links. That said, it’s impossible to shake the feeling that it’s only achieved the absolute minimum here. Until the various bugs and other issues are patched out, I simply can’t recommend Everybody’s Golf in its current state. No matter how good the general golfing experience is, it’s impossible to ignore the wonky physics and overall lack of ambition. What should have been a near-effortless hole in one is perilously close to becoming a triple bogey instead.

Siegecaster is an intentionally difficult game built by and for the hardest of the hardcore — and this feels like a bit of a tragedy to me. It’s rare that I’ll review a game without completing it, but after a dozen hours I decided to stop banging my head against the eighth level and call it quits. While I don’t doubt that this is the experience that the developers intended to craft, I can’t help but feel that a few quality-of-life changes could have made this an innovative tower defense classic, rather than what feels like a dispatch from an alternate timeline where arcade-style quarter-snatching difficulty levels remained the norm in videogame design…

There is clear care put into this expansion and it’s easy to see the vision Ironwood Studios had, it just didn’t land with me. However, I do hope they continue trying to experiment because I would love this studio to create a new experience as much as I love the original Pacific Drive.

Little Nightmares 3 might be the least of the trilogy so far, but anyone who wants to have a new experience in its horribly bleak and oppressive world will still find this a great opportunity to do so — it just doesn’t come together as darkly perfect as it should.

Ultimately, Slime Rancher 2 is a strange beast. On paper it has everything the original does, and more. More slimes, more unlocks and more imaginative environments. Sadly, the frustrations overshadowed many of those positives for me, as many of the new additions actively work against the tone of the experience. Quicker access to fast travel or unlimited stamina would go a long way to easing these complaints, and make me feel less like my time was being wasted. I’ve been rather negative on its latter sections, but for those who enjoyed the original Slime Rancher, it manages to hit many of the same pleasant notes — but maybe have a guide handy to minimize the travel and grinding.

Real talk, this entry won’t convert anyone tiring of EA’s approach to the world’s favorite sport, and longtime fans will likely feel the same frustrations they’ve felt for years. However, for anyone who still finds joy in a well-timed through ball or a diving header in extra time, it can deliver a good experience. It captures enough of football’s rhythm to be a good purchase for dedicated fans, but the execution just isn’t as sharp as I expected at this point.

Ultimately, Voyagers lands in a weird place for me as far as recommending it goes, and also with who I would recommend it for. The simplicity and repetition of the experience means it’s hard to recommend to older players who might be looking for a little more meat on the bone. On the other hand, it might not be right for a younger audience due to the execution issues with some of the puzzles. Despite landing in this mixed middle ground, I did have an enjoyable time with my wife, and we walked away with fond memories of it, so for me Lego Voyagers gets 6.5 stuck together bricks out of 10.

For players who want the deepiest, crunchiest, most byzantine and flexible factory builder out there without any distractions, Little Rocket Lab will disappoint. But for people who have tried the big names in this genre and found them daunting or chilly, and who are still looking for their entry point into the conveyor-belt and throughput analysis lifestyle, Little Rocket Lab may be the one. It’s a really good game that I personally didn’t like very much, but I think — and kind of hope — I’m in the minority.