When it’s not crashing, Road Redemption offers perfect bite-sized pieces of vehicular mayhem. It’s loud and bloody and raw, and the dated graphics only increase the grit and messiness. With a few fixes, this could be an all-time classic of the genre, rather than the deeply flawed romp that it is.

Skyhill is a decently short game that can be played in bursts, and despite the inconsistencies and annoying interface, I enjoyed it and was curious enough to see it through to the end. (And there are multiple endings.) However, the ‘survival’ aspect feels nonexistent — my runs were either doomed from the beginning or flawless victories, and I can’t wholeheartedly recommend something so unbalanced from one run to the next.

While I’ll probably never know what a zarvot is, this project offers a solid arcade shooter and a decent campaign — it just needs a little more polish.

As it stands, MYZ is an excellent game that carved off too much meat when trimming the fat. It’s a delicious dish, but it might leave one hungry for more.

All in all, I like GRIP more as a concept than I do in practice. Rough and tumble racing is fine, but the combat is shaky and it’s far too easy to accidentally clip a piece of scenery and get launched into race-losing situations. It’s also downright strange that a game which promotes driving like mad also requires navigating each track like I’m walking on eggshells. GRIP should [be] bursting free of traditional racing constraints, but instead adheres to them more often than the ceilings.

I enjoyed my time with this blend of warring states Japan, three kingdoms China, and mythological fighters colliding with each other. The character roster and amount of magic flair is deep (even if the combat itself is simple) and Warriors Orochi 4 scratches a very specific itch with its over-the-top action — but not everyone has that same itch. But for those that do, it’s more of the same that fans love.

It’s not that I can’t respect it — it seems to offer decent value in that it’s essentially three different types of shooter in one package, but aside from the new Blackout mode, I’ve had significantly better experiences from many of its competitors. And honestly, Blackout’s main competition is a free-to-play game. It may be better than Fortnite in my opinion, but sixty dollars better? I’m not entirely convinced about that, and without a decent singleplayer campaign attached, it’s a pretty hard sell for anyone who isn’t already a fan.

I finished in roughly an hour and was shocked that it finished. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with short games, but brief experiences still need to deliver some substance — and sadly, Storm Boy doesn’t deliver.

It’s telling that the biggest complaint I can generate about 11-11 is that it suffers from occasionally-lazy plotting. The storytelling is good enough that the developers get away with some fairly large coincidences, and we’re asked to believe that Harry is almost unbelievably bad at languages. However, the story reaches a point where it beggars belief that he’s still baffled by what the Germans are saying. There’s not much apart from that to criticize, though — this is a great tale being told by people with the skills necessary to tell it.

Guacamelee! 2’s penchant for self-deprecating humor often functions as an acknowledgement and dismissal of its own issues. Why yes, it is awfully convenient that I’ve suddenly been pulled into an alternate timeline in which I must save the world in roughly the same manner as my last go, but no, Guacamelee! 2 doesn’t stop being an uncharacteristically halfhearted rehash just because the writers scored a few easy laughs from it.

Toast Time is a good fit for the Switch. It’s nice to play in bursts, the humor is amusing, and the levels available give the game plenty of challenge without being unfair. However, it would be better served by offering more missions for the singleplayer campaign instead of putting resources towards the lackluster multiplayer mode. Even so, I’d call it a worthwhile addition for the Switch library — it’s a simple arcade experience, but does what it does well.

Divinity 2: Original Sin is an excellent RPG that’s packed full of excellent writing, great characters and lengthy adventure filled with inventive and quirky twists on the genre. The combat can be a bit of a slog, there are a few bugs, and the console interface isn’t perfect, but it’s still an absolutely cracking title that will suck up an obscene amount of hours from those who get stuck in. As mentioned at the start of this review, Larian Studios have been making great role-playing games for years and years, and this one stands as one of their very best.

Overall, Flashpoint doesn’t offer anything that will pull new players in — almost everything in this DLC is geared toward end- or post-game content, and this is its underlying problem. If all of these elements were mixed in with the single player campaign, they’d be nice flavor in the otherwise-dull side content. However, since this DLC seems tailor-made for people who’ve already finished the story (like me) there just isn’t enough to hold my interest.

Depth of Extinction has a solid concept but suffers from repeated assets, uninspiring combat and questionable mechanics. With all the other tactics options on the market, I find it impossible to recommend this one.

Black Bird is stunning. It’s rare to see a project so finely tuned, so perfectly balanced, confidently paced and smartly constructed, let alone from a team whose previous work was an iOS puzzler. This is fantastic stuff. So, like I said earlier… I think I need to go download Million Onion Hotel now.

Steel Rats, with its demanding combat and big-budget action, pretty much builds a whole new genre around itself. I’ve seen stunt racing and vehicular combat before, but the developers have blended the two so exquisitely that the it defies comparison to anything else. Naturally, Steel Rats ends with an obvious sequel hook, so I’ll end this review with a ‘More, please.’

So, is The Long Journey Home worth it? Overall I’d say yes, the moments of discovery and dealing with alien races makes the experience worth engaging in. My only hope is that the developers introduce a difficulty setting that allows players to dial back the drudgery of resource collection. The good outweighs the bad here, but there’s a much better experience waiting to be discovered underneath the busywork and failure.

At face value, Transpose is a wonderful VR puzzle game that’s as entertaining as it is mind-boggling. However, on the mornings when I started my day with Transpose, I found myself possessed of a calmness and patience that I had difficulty characterizing. As pretentious and hyperbolic as it sounds, the mindfulness and self-acceptance that it imbued in me made Secret Location’s work as transformative — it was an incredible experience to wave to myself, to give myself a high five, to rip my own heart out, or to stand beside myself while waiting longingly for another me.

The monsters are creepy, the combat is great, and the setting is endlessly explorable – Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics has plenty going for it, and yet it still feels underdeveloped. The RPG elements are thin, and the story is little more than a skeletal justification for the next skirmish. There’s plenty of stellar design here, but it feels like a preview of a more robust experience. It’s a fantastic use of the Cthulhu Mythos and a solid game, but I’m guessing the franchise will have more to offer next time.

The most positive thing I can say about Fallout 76 is that a train wreck of this magnitude might finally yank Bethesda – a company that gets away with too much – back to reality. Maybe it’s finally time to update that engine. Maybe it’s not a good idea to slap the Fallout name onto a game that isn’t fit for release and expect it to go over well.

Heavy Fire: Red Shadow is a head-scratcher. It does what it says it does and certainly contains an extended turret section that spans multiple hours with competent delivery from the development team. It’s also unpretentious, which is something I want to admire. That said, the results are tepid and this version, remarkably, feels like a step back from its already basic predecessors.

I’m fine with gut-wrenching violence if it’s taken seriously or if there’s a point to be made, but Rise & Shine’s over-the-top carnage is constantly being interrupted by some of the laziest and most ill-timed humor imaginable, all in service of a message that isn’t particularly original or insightful. These uncomfortable tonal shifts would be enough to tarnish even a good game, but the frustrating and underwhelming Rise & Shine isn’t worth putting up with it.

The standalone Gwent release is free on GOG, and I encourage those who enjoy it to shell out the money for Thronebreaker, a strong expansion of both the base game and the Witcher universe. Geralt’s portion of this story may have concluded, but the folks at CD Projekt RED seem committed to sharing more tales from this world, and I couldn’t be more excited.

Pig Eat Ball is vaguely similar to might be seen as an interstellar version of Hungry Hungry Hippos. Players compete to do various things (including making a sandwich!) but if players bite another’s tail, they vomit up their balls and other players have a chance to grab them. It’s not a mode I’ll do on a regular basis, but I can’t deny it was a good time. As a genuine fan of Nathan’s for many years, I’m glad to see that the guy is still making games, and for those out there who have yet to sample his work, now is the perfect time to try.

After more than fifty hours in Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, I am still a tourist because I can’t possibly live here. After marching through countless quests, this installment struck me as nothing so much as a devoted recitation of franchise iconography that will only feel warm and comfortable to long-time MH veterans. There is an experience suggested by the mechanics that could amount to more than a whimsical hack-a-thon where players frantically chase piñatas that occasionally breathe fire, but that world never materializes beyond the momentary thrill of the hunt.

Assault Spy is entertaining, but it’s highly flawed. I’d be hard-pressed to pay full price for it, but the laughs alone make it worth tracking down once it goes on sale.

Overall, it’s tough to describe Tetris Effect as anything other than what it is – a great game of Tetris with a bunch of cool modes and filtered through the same stylistic lens as Lumines and Rez. It looks awesome in VR too, though the lack of greater online functionality is unfortunate. Still, it turns out that the Effect of playing Tetris is simply having a damned good time.

Episode 4 just doesn’t offer the thrills or compelling mysteries of the previous episodes because it’s all about the setup for Episode 5, but the developers have earned enough goodwill to trust that this is all building to something truly memorable.

There’s not much within the game that is poorly done, or even downright bad, but the problem is Nefarious tries to do too much, and in that attempt, ends up doing none of it exceptionally well.

Horizon 4 is far and away the most joyous and welcoming racing game I’ve ever played. It’s flexibility in difficulty and customization are laudable, but there’s one word that comes to mind when I think of this game — freeing. Watching the stunning countryside of Britain whiz by in a dream car is just liberating.

Even with some bum sections and controls that aren’t great, the art style and story focuses on a country that was heavily impacted by fascism — aftershocks are still felt there every Independence Day when Neo-Nazis and Antifa fight each other – and this narrative isn’t often told in this medium. The developers attempt to eschew politics, but their work is a good solicitation against repeating the mistakes of the past, and a compelling argument for compassion in the current climate.

Equal parts fascinating and frustrating, The Bard’s Tale IV is not what I was hoping for. With patching and better documentation, it could be a stellar roleplaying experience. As it stands, this Bard needs to practice her tune.

Putting the requirement for a controller aside, 428: Shibuya Scramble is a thoroughly unique offering in the visual novel space, and well worth picking up for any player interested in game narrative, the uniqueness of Japanese adventures, or those who just want to get some reading done.

If the devs had simply dropped the skill points and let players freely explore at their own pace, it would have been a better experience. It’s still a good one, though, and a required play for anyone with even the slightest interest in the mythos that inspired it. Ratin

Frankly, if Astro Bot isn’t my favorite game this year, I’ll not only eat my hat, I’ll roam the lands eating every hat I come into contact with — it’s that damn good, and the definitive argument for owning a PSVR headset.

My time with Starlink: Battle for Atlas was surprising, but that doesn’t mean that it was positive. It’s got lot of potential that goes unrealized since the story and quests are a wash and the toys-to-life aspect is DOA, but the ship mechanics are dead-on and it’s not hard to imagine how some retooling and editing could result in the best Star Fox game ever made. This Battle has been lost, but I believe that Ubisoft can ultimately win this war.

While I’m slightly disappointed that a game reportedly containing 500,000 unique lines of dialogue still isn’t interested in telling a tight three-act story, RDR2 is without a doubt Rockstar’s best game to date. It offers their strongest cast of characters, their most detailed open world, and an appropriate pace to allow both to coexist. Rockstar more or less invented the modern sandbox game, and it’s a joy to see them finally breaking new ground again.

Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey is a perfect example of why pacing matters, and it also demonstrates that massive, sprawling worlds don’t make an excellent adventure through size alone. When all was said and done, Odyssey offers 40 hours of great material wrapped up in another 40 hours of busywork that made this Greek journey a slog to get through. heads up, developers — just because there’s a ton to do doesn’t mean that it’s worth doing.

My Brother Rabbit wants to tug the heartstrings as it messes with the mind, and it does an exceptional job of both. There’s something heartbreakingly absurd about watching a stuffed rabbit doing its best to take care of an anthropomorphized plant, but it’s the abstraction that cuts right to the heart of the situation — this is a story about children trying to process huge issues so far out of their realm that the fantasy interpretations actually make more sense. It’s challenging and touching, sweet and scary, and one of the best things that Artifex Mundi has produced. R

In terms of puzzles alone Flood of Light is acceptable, but everything else drags it down. The audiovisual experience is one-note, and the story is unsatisfying even when it can be clearly understood. As an experience overall, Flood of Light ends up being merely mediocre.

Ambiguity aside, The Midnight Sanctuary was thought-provoking and enjoyable, and a gem to look at. It won’t be for everyone, but for those who enjoy visual novels or similar fare, I’d urge them to set aside a couple of hours for it. And maybe a drink to go with it, too.

Sinner does what it sets out to do and looks fine enough while doing it, but it just doesn’t feel like its own product, and given how unique the premise is, that should speak volumes on how forgettable Sinner’s core battles actually are. I love the concept, but I hope someone eventually does something more interesting with it.

There’s not enough to Blade Strangers to recommend it unreservedly, especially with a sparse playable roster and a lack of game modes, but the fighting is undoubtedly solid and enjoyable in bursts. It doesn’t have legs, but it does what it sets out to do, and does it surprisingly well.

Those rough spots aside, The Missing isn’t just a great game — it’s an important one. It uses grim and upsetting content to put players inside of the mind of a troubled person, then offers them a path towards healing. It doesn’t suggest that overcoming mental and social problems is easy, but it resonates like few other things have in recent memory. I can’t say that I personally related to J.J.’s struggle, but by the end of the story, I can say that I felt her pain — and isn’t that what art is for?

While the story may be uninspiring and some mechanics don’t quite stick the landing, I found myself returning to Shadows Awakening mostly for the amusing stories of the puppets. Even so, the characters alone can’t carry the game — maybe fans of this IP will be happy to jump in and will find the mediocre gameplay enough, but for those like me, it’s hard to recommend this title as a starting point to the Heretic Kingdoms world.

No good thing can last forever though, and as pretty and pleasant as the islands are, I couldn’t stay. After finishing a section, I often made Arina and Frendt run back and forth just to look at the details and to enjoy the complete, endearing picture, but that’s not how progress is made. I had to make them move on. Reminiscing on and remembering the past is sweet and often important, but we can’t spend too much time on it — The Gardens Between serves as a gentle reminder to anyone who may have forgotten that.

Despite its limited ambitions, Citrouille manages to nail the basics, and that’s worth noting. The controls are tight, the systems all work together perfectly, and other than those damned salamanders, when players fail it feels like a lapse in skill rather than unfair design. It may be inessential, but it’s inessential in a winning way.

As one might expect, it offers excellent platforming, interesting and well-defined bosses, and great atmosphere — everything about it feels like a fantastic entry into a hallowed series while still offering new features that keep it fresh for new fans. Mega Man is back!

I can’t say that Okami will make it into my all-time favorites, but it’s memorable nonetheless. Exploring Nippon and meeting all of its goofy, painted inhabitants makes up for the repetition of combat, but it’s a shame that it didn’t quit while it was ahead — the excessive length and repetitive combat only served to dampen the things it got right.

I said that this is a perfect match of developer and IP, and that’s not an exaggeration. The Yakuza Studio has not only produced the best Fist of the North Star game ever, but also one of their best overall. This is a setting more raw and gloriously over-the-top than their usual, but they never tamp down the humanistic streak that defines the entire series. Wipe away the blood and guts, and underneath is a beautiful story about the importance of working together, and how selflessness is the ultimate virtue.

Hardcore fans of the original show, if they exist, may find something to like in Punch Line’s exploration of alternate possibilities. Other folks just looking for a decent adventure game with a nice look had best project their spirits to more promising prospects.

It’s a real shame to see such great card/strategy combat bogged down by its interface, but perhaps there will be updates rectifying some of these issues. From what I’ve read of Deep Sky Derelicts’ early access development updates, the team behind the game seems responsive to feedback. So, here’s to hoping that the rock-solid combat and deckbuilding are supported by UI and quality-of-life changes in the future. Until then, DSD will likely drift around in the endless void that is my Steam library.

While I’m intrigued by the promise of the relationship between Clementine and AJ, these first two episodes of The Final Season don’t honestly stand out in any other way. The climax of this season is yet to come, though — I can’t wait to see if Skybound (TWD creator Robert Kirkman’s company, who just promised to finish the series) will deliver on what could be a final rollercoaster of emotions. Maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel for this series, and for Clementine as well.

While I’m intrigued by the promise of the relationship between Clementine and AJ, these first two episodes of The Final Season don’t honestly stand out in any other way. The climax of this season is yet to come, though — I can’t wait to see if Skybound (TWD creator Robert Kirkman’s company, who just promised to finish the series) will deliver on what could be a final rollercoaster of emotions. Maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel for this series, and for Clementine as well.

Unfortunately, the game comes off as disappointingly beholden to classic computer RPG style despite being a modern creation, and the world feels dry and dull. I can’t imagine many players who aren’t already familiar with the license finding much enjoyment here. But worst of all? This particular version is a terrible port that’s nearly unplayable in some areas, and serves as a good example that not every game belongs on the Switch.

Patobox is easily one of the strangest, most beautiful games I’ve played this year. While the exploration and puzzles felt like they didn’t quite mesh with the boxing, the experience shines with simplicity and stylish charisma.

It’s more than enough that Spider-Man’s mechanics are so smooth and exhilarating that I was actively seeking out new excuses to partake in them, even when there was repetition in the actual tasks. In so thoroughly capturing what it’s like to be this character, Insomniac hasn’t simply made a great Spider-Man game, but the great Spider-Man game. I’m glad that Activision lost the license.

The Capcom Beat ‘Em Up Bundle is a great collection of famous (and not-so-famous) games from what I would consider to be a golden age for the publisher, and despite their age and simple designs, there’s still some fight left in these old dogs.

Old School Musical is a wonderful audio tribute that keeps the beat of classic games going on and on and on.

Shenmue occupies its own space and couldn’t care less if prospective players adjust to the rules. The result is something weird, ambitious, flawed, and endearingly unique. As someone who came to it decades after its initial release, I’m glad I won’t have to wait as long as everyone else did to jump back into this world.

Human Fall Flat is a puzzle game with so many possible solutions, workarounds, and approaches that playing with other people makes for a genuinely interesting experience. Any game that makes me laugh as hard as this one deserves some praise, but particularly when it’s as well-designed, challenging, and entertaining as this one.

Overall, there are some incredible ideas in We Happy Few‘s dystopian world, but the tedious gameplay gave me the feeling that a project like this has more potential as a story-driven adventure in a more compact world. With greater focus on its excellent narrative, sound and visuals, and an addition of moral choices, it would rise above the unsatisfying mixed-genre affair that it currently is.

The King’s Bird has a strong conceptual foundation, but the experience falls victim to the “git gud” mentality. It shines when players are allowed to explore the freedom of flight, but that light dwindles over time and is finally snuffed out in the final hours by tragic oversights that have been compounded on for hours.

SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy is a tough sell. Dedicated King of Fighters fans and SNK enthusiasts like myself will find the battle system too simple and limiting, and the roster is missing too many of SNK’s finest female characters. Also, anyone hoping to perform a five finger knuckle shuffle while seeing Leona cosplaying as Heidern or a female Terry Bogard will be stymied by the poor graphics and inferior character models.

Originally, I had planned to write this review after I completed Graveyard Keeper, but after 100 in-game days I still have a ton of quests left, two Church expansions to build, and at least one area left to unlock. I’m not sure how much left there is to this one because it’s the sort of experience that hides its true scope, but I can say that it’s one I have a hard time putting down and I’m looking forward to (hopefully) reuniting the Keeper with his wife.

Xeno is charmingly strange thanks to its bizarre enemies and low difficulty level — it was a breeze to play through. It feels skeletal, however, and only those who wonder would happen if a three-story Maus tank battled a Rhino made of rocket launchers should give it a serious look.

Immortal’s pursuit of the hardcore label speaks to a certain presumptiveness in its design – that its impenetrable nature will be offset by a community looking for new challenges to overcome and new mysteries to unravel. Dark Souls got away with that approach because every aspect of it was so meticulously fine-tuned. Immortal’s extreme difficulty only highlights how fundamentally its ideas don’t run together. If there’s anything worse than a bad game, it’s a hostile bad game.

When moving through one of Shio’s stronger, more flowing stages, the difficulty curve is manageable. Unfortunately, the difficulty is unpleasantly noticeable and frustrating thanks to many poor choices in level design and the hero’s inability to move more precisely. Those looking for a challenge will find it in Shio, but me? I’d rather take a leisurely stroll.

Minor flaws aside, Yakuza Kiwami 2 is a great reimagining, reworked with love and pride by a team who clearly understand what makes their games shine. Even though there are loads of Kiryu’s adventures to choose from at this point, this one stands apart as one of the best. It may not dethrone 0 as the definitive Yakuza experience, but it’s still an excellent entry in its own right and has essentially become the gold standard by which all remakes should be measured.

For a title on Switch, it’s great — do a run or two while waiting in line for the bus or commuting on a subway and then set it down. On console or PC, I’m not sure it would be worth the pricetag.

With peerless strategy gameplay, brilliant level design, and great storytelling, Valkyria Chronicles 4 is a worthy inheritor of the name. And just in case the number in the title seems daunting, rest assured, the game is every bit as playable for complete newcomers to the series as it is for those who’ve been waiting 8 years for the series to return to the west.

The Council once again manages to make player actions feel vital in a way that few narrative choice titles accomplish – in fact, there are some diverging plot points that are so significant I have a difficult time imagining how many versions of conversations will have to be crafted for the last two episodes. This is also an episodic series where major characters can die, and that adds a level of danger to every interaction that few in its genre can match. Episode four can’t arrive quickly enough!

Though I can’t tell if The Lion’s Song is any better on Switch than it is on PC or mobile, I can say that it’s a unique and brilliant narrative adventure that offers an artistic journey into the hearts and minds of creators amidst a singularly dynamic time in history.

Alter Army is an amusing romp that can easily kill time as players go deeper into the world and uncover its mysteries. The current level of bugginess is disappointing, but I’d still say it’s a solid choice from a brand-new studio, even if it ends a bit earlier than I was expecting.

Being the first battle royale game may have been enough a few years ago, but in the current market where Fortnite is the biggest thing in the world, it takes greater ambition than “ugly but functional” to stand out. The best thing I can say about H1Z1 is that it’s free, but even so, I still can’t recommend it when its biggest competition is also free and offers a far better version of this same premise.

No matter how salacious things may get, Reflexions never loses sight of the sweetness at the game’s core – fundamentally, this is a game about a girl attempting to overcome her shyness and tell a boy how she feels about him. While I’ll be happy to get back to battling demons and ninjas when the next full entry in the series is released, I won’t say that this is a waste of the franchise or a disrespectful use of its main character – just the opposite, in fact.

People who aren’t interested in classic JRPGs may not find anything here to pull them back in, but for everyone else, Dragon Quest XI is guaranteed to scratch that particular itch for quite some time. Not bad, Square Enix, not bad at all.

Into the Breach feels even more at home on the Switch, since it’s not technically demanding and its campaign options cater to both long and short sessions alike. I’m glad I had an excuse to revisit it, because I nearly failed to recognize this gem as one of the year’s best and most addicting releases.

Unravel Two is a fairly compact jaunt with only seven levels and some optional challenges for those who want them, but I found it to be the perfect length for what it is. The runtime offers a satisfying array of puzzles that function equally as well with one player as they do for two, it’s stunning to look at, a pleasure to listen to, and although they might not be ranked alongside other videogame luminaries, I adore yarnies. I’m not sure if a third game is in the cards considering how quickly Unravel Two was forgotten, but if so, I’d be more than happy to go on an adventure with them again.

No Man’s Sky NEXT was a meditative experience for me. The simple loop of landing, scanning flora and fauna, scrounging for minerals, and finally walking up a hill to experience a breathtaking vista never got old. Others may struggle with the game’s openness, and others will likely feel intimidated by such a non-guided experience. But for those craving an experience full of addictive play loops and the ability to go anywhere? This game is for them.

Despite some minor bumps in the road, my younger self would have looked past them and enjoyed The Low Road, and my older self agrees – It’s a point-and-click adventure that delivers a satisfying story, a wonderful soundtrack, and fantastic design.

Flipping Death’s slight mechanical complaints don’t detract from the strength of a great voice cast and an understanding that the audience should care about what happens next, not just that they should be laughing.

The playable aspect of Black Friday is unremarkable, its story has an odd structure, and its documentary aspect, on Switch at least, has some problems with execution. Nonetheless, 1979 Revolution: Black Friday is an understanding treatment of people and events that are all too often viewed as wholly evil by Westerners. This is a thoughtful, sympathetic showcase for a fraught historical moment that still affects global politics today.

Strange Brigade is the rare title that manages to construct completely satisfying single- and multiplayer experiences in the exact same space. It’s not a huge project — a motivated team could blast through in under five hours while digging up all of the secrets might take closer to twenty — but it’s immensely replayable thanks to character variety and the different dynamics of co-op and solo modes.

While the story was a non-event and there’s not nearly enough absurd hijinks happening to suit my taste, I still found Donut County to be a worthwhile experience that was hard to put down. Making things disappear into the earth like a wrathful subterranean god was cathartic in an unexpected way. I’m not sure that I can fully articulate it, but I do recommend it.

There’s not much else to say about Kero Blaster. It looks cute, it’s simple and easy to play, and it’s put together well. For people who want a brief distraction that doesn’t require much time or commitment, this fits the bill and feels right at home on the Switch. I won’t turn down filet medallions if they’re in front of me, but a good ham and cheese can make me just as happy.

Ys: Memories of Celceta makes it easy to overlook its shortcomings. A likeable cast, an intriguing mystery, and smooth combat made my time with the game fly by. I hadn’t played a Ys game in over two decades when I decided to give this one a try, and I’m now convinced that I should delve a little deeper into the library of games to see what other gems I’ve missed.

Anyone looking for high-quality turn-based strategy that eschews the aliens, giant robots, and dragons that generally populate the genre will find Phantom Doctrine to be just the thing they’ve been looking for.

Overall, Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle brings a welcome shot of vitality to the turn-based strategy genre thanks to interesting team mechanics and a colorful Nintendo theme that sets it apart from its contemporaries. Taking one of the biggest IPs in the world and marrying it to an all new type of gameplay was a huge risk that paid off wonderfully, and I’m glad that it finally found its way to my Switch. Now, bring me a sequel with a couple of needed improvements and 100% fewer rabbids, and we’re in business…

With some tweaking, Mothergunship could easily become a must-play. As it stands, only those with high-level twitch skills are going to have an enjoyable time. People like me might eventually get through the campaign, but I’m not sure I want to anymore.

Sadly, all its clever systems end up centering on warfare, and it is in warfare where Taishi too often fails to deliver. For every pitched battle ending in an exhilarating upset victory, there were a dozen that left me feeling like they were wasting my time. Despite all the clever tools in Kou Shibusawa’s thirty-year vision for historical simulation, I frequently had no way to create a new history for a unified Japan without marching into the inevitable.

That Death’s Gambit is beautiful and rewarding enough to be worth the struggle is what makes it a more successful homage to Dark Souls than most. It’s not the most creative game, but that doesn’t matter when so few developers are capable of pulling this kind of trick off.

Cosmic Star Heroine has the pieces in place to become a modern classic JRPG in the same way that Shovel Knight and Freedom Planet take their cues from old-school platformers. Given the amount of effort that went into the battle system, it’s clear that Zeboyd Games did their homework on the mechanics of their ancestors. However, while they definitely nailed the combat, the narrative is too rushed and the characters too shallow for Cosmic Star Heroine to reach the majesty of the games that inspired it.

The twin-stick genre is one of my favorites and I can’t help but take it a little personally that Bad Trip only made half the journey toward being a great game. Here’s hoping that Zombie Dynamics can build on their solid aesthetics and create an experience worthy of such a slick look next time out.

Fortunately, not even the rough patches could shake the shine off of the gift that Detached had given me. The likelihood that I will ever board a spaceship in real life decreases with each passing day as the responsibilities of adulthood tether me to the ground, but at least now I can load up Detached, put on my helmet, and dream my dreams again.

Sadly, The Mooseman is a mixed experience. As a piece of art, it is by turns creepy and sublime. As a game, it is a disappointment. The power of its best moments is remarkable, so I hope that, in the future, this creative team will realize their attempts to implement traditional forms of play limit, rather than elevate, their work.

For fans of Tempest and previous Minter games, Tempest 4000 is more of what they love. For those wanting precise arcade action or something new from this creator, it’s a flashing, overwhelming disappointment.

There’s nothing here that rises above serviceable. Omega Strike offers tight controls, satisfying platforming and combat, and one of the most forgettable metroidvania worlds I’ve ever encountered. It’s cute and I’ve played worse, but it never manages to rise above the crowd.