Ultimately, there’s no argument that this is the best game adaptation the franchise has seen, and it’s an undeniable improvement over its predecessor. However, the amount of rehashed material might be galling to players who want new content — those who’ll be happy with simply killing titans in a more polished fashion are the ideal audience here.

It’s hard to say whether Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth is better than Mask of Deception since they’re essentially one story split into two halves, but I found the entire tale thought-provoking and its characters lovable and (mostly) funny. It’s a visual novel worth playing, and now that I’ve reached its end, I’m a little sad saying goodbye.

Hardcore baseball fans will probably buy The Show 18 just for updated rosters (what other choice is there?) and those addicted to Diamond Dynasty have plenty to dive into here. It may not be surprising or greatly changed over last year’s version, but it’s still a solid game with plenty of content — I just can’t get over the removal of Season mode, though. Solo players — heads up.

Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet is a perfect game for anyone looking to get a taste of what MMOs feel like without wanting to dedicate hundreds of hours of their lives to the experience, and perhaps more importantly, it has an ending.

Starpoint Gemini Warlords is an impressive effort by Little Green Men, especially in light of its crowdfunded origins and community-driven design. That they’ve managed to expand the scope and scale of their game to encompass a whole other genre outweighs the concerns raised by poor balancing and a less-than-smooth final result. All the same, those concerns remain, so those who are willing to put up with the rough edges are the ones who’ll find themselves most satisfied.

Supposedly Wonderful Future is all about looking at a complicated what-if scenario, seeing how every new invention has the possibility to both help and hinder humanity, and then coming to a decision that everyone can live with. Then, it’s suddenly about a man offering truly idiotic reasons for wanting to kill himself before watching him do it. It’s a terrible ending to an otherwise fascinating, thought-provoking experience.

Neither the storyline nor the final puzzles delivered the type of reward I enjoyed with similar titles. For fans of the genre there’s plenty of challenge to be had, but those seeking something that compares a little less directly to Portal should probably hold off.

Although Moss is relatively short at around four hours long, it was firing on all cylinders at the end, the final portion of the adventure brings the beautiful score, lush visuals, and tight, varied mechanics into a unified whole that’s pushed at a frenetic pace into a satisfying climactic end. I found myself completely exhilarated and thrilled.

Local multiplayer lacks the narrative trappings of the campaigns, but serves as a solid extension of the core gameplay. Online multiplayer, however, is where Strikers Edge falters. After several attempts to evaluate it, I was never successfully matched against an opponent. So, for six-eyed folks in search of a frenetic couch co-op game, look no further. Strikers Edge is an underdog to root for. The rest of us might be better off renting Dodgeball instead.

When I got over the controls I dug into the season, gradually evolving the skill of my team’s characters was well done, and improving my standing was addictive. I’d even say that winning a match of Thetaball is as gratifying as its peers like Rocket League or #IDARB. Perseverance will reward with Thetaball. It’s got a bigger hump to get over than most other games of its kind, but its base is solid — the dev just needs to zero in on the best parts of the game and start iterating.

Being a text-based political game, Shape of America probably has fairly limited appeal at best, but it’s great to see developers taking risks on unique ideas like this and delivering them in a package of solid design and storytelling. I’m looking forward to episode two.

One of 2018’s more notable indie releases, worthwhile as a charming homage to retro action/adventure titles and as an ambitious exercise in restrained game design – it’s the world’s most agreeable game, chopped up into a hundred bite-sized pieces. I want to complain that it’s over too quickly, but then Minit makes a constant case for brevity being the soul of wit, so I guess I should shut up.

Anyone looking to smash through the game’s 705 shortcuts, billboards and jumps is a true glutton for punishment, but Burnout Paradise was never made to test players’ skills — it was made to be an escape, which is why the poor difficulty curve is so forgivable. It will always be a pleasure to return to the warm sun and speedy shenanigans of strangers in this familiar place, even if just for a few minutes.

Symmetry is a beautiful and deadly puzzle of survival that successfully emphasizes the loneliness and tension in this most dire of situations. However, the collision issues that affect the player’s controls and text notifications that are too difficult to read can turn this gripping experience into something intensely frustrating in an instant. For those willing to push through these rough edges, Symmetry is a unique experience that should not be missed.

Sine Mora EX looks amazing, plays like a dream, and has a story that will leave players feeling bad about themselves and the world. That third thing may not sound like a selling point, but it’s so strange that I couldn’t help but be impressed by the audacity the developers had to include it. Horizontal Shmups don’t come smoother or better-looking than this, so it’s an easy recommendation for anyone with an interest in the genre.

While Far Cry 5 doesn’t reinvent the wheel and is not a massive change of direction for the series, it does fix many of the problems I had with earlier entries, and it jettisons a lot of unnecessary baggage that had accumulated over the years. The end result is a lot of mindless enjoyment with memorable characters that go to waste thanks to the disconnected plot. It’s not going to be my game of the year, but as a fan of this formula, I still found it worth the time I put into it.

It successfully channels the spirit of its inspiration, it will please the niche audience that remembers it, and it’s impossible not to appreciate all the TLC that must have gone into its creation. Good strategy will win games and the playbook is not shallow, but it’s impossible not to love a game where victory can also be won by killing the opposing team’s best players.

While I enjoy the idea of dedicated co-op and I’m excited to see someone exploring the space, it doesn’t feel like A Way Out trusted itself or its players to do so – the gameplay is simple to the point of being bland, the script is too predictable, and its efforts to evoke emotion feel cheap. It might be fine to play with a friend over a weekend, but it will be forgotten soon after, and it’s a shame.

Past Cure isn’t terrible. It has a great visual style, and the combat manages to offer some thrilling setpieces. It’s the lack of a coherent story that really sinks it, though. The way the script gives only glimpses of the big picture before undercutting all the work it’s done right at the end is simply unacceptable. Perhaps a sequel could redeem this effort and let the developers figure out the story they want to tell, but that doesn’t let them off the hook for keeping the player so thoroughly in the dark this time around.

It’s possible that Play With Me gets fantastic further in, and the developers certainly show a thorough understanding of the SAW franchise – this is a much better implementation than the official adaptation. Still, the experience is just too user-unfriendly to be worth spending time on. There’s some hope, however – they already noticed and fixed the match issue. Perhaps future patches will address some of the other myriad problems. Until then, however, I won’t be playing with them.

I have no doubt that the developers of Rad Rodgers meant their work to be a loving tribute to 16-bit platformers, and as long as the game restricts itself to fast action, it’s a perfectly fine experience. The puzzles and item hunting just don’t work, though, and those designs shouldn’t have made it through testing. Rad Rogers never rises to the level of the games it’s aping, which renders it inessential, because what’s the point of an homage that’s not even as good as its inspiration?

Paratopic‘s unique approach to storytelling and its unsettling content come together in a lo-fi, short experience that left me wanting more of this world and this story. But seriously, don’t watch the tapes.

Pop-Up Pilgrims has a lot to like — cute and varied character design, appropriately festive music, colorful, animated visuals that overflow with sakura blossoms. However, I simply couldn’t look past the struggles I had with the gameplay. Due to the clunky, headset-guided controls and taxing physical requirements, Pop-Up Pilgrims would probably be a better experience without VR.

I wish Ghost of a Tale was more polished and I’m annoyed that it ends as abruptly as it does, but I’m still eager to spend more time in this world. Whether Gallat continues his work or moves on to something else, he’s one to watch… and if this is what he can pull off more or less by himself, I’d love to see what he could do with a bigger team and a serious budget behind him.

APEX Construct manages what few others have – it creates a fully-fledged action adventure experience in VR. The levels are expansive and detailed, the story is intriguing enough to keep people trailblazing through each new area, and the combat – while occasionally frustrating – is just the kind of thing players looking to test their virtual bow skills will gobble up. It’s as good an adventure as I’ve seen in the made-for-VR world.

Binary Stars is not only a shmup, it’s also takes cues from roguelikes like randomly generated levels and permadeath. I may never finish it, but even so, Steredenn: Binary Stars is worth playing, and I will happily play it over and over again.

Fundamentally, the palette of action choices felt too limited, and the stately procession of single challengers makes each melee seem slow and boring. The premise feels compromised by the use of defense solely as a way to build up to violent attacks, rather than a way of dealing with bosses on its own. There’s an interesting idea or two in here, but they’re not developed into a complete, coherent experience.

Crossing Souls has great style and art direction, and while the plot can be quite cheesy, it’s in a good way. It’s just a shame that poor controls dampen what should be a more enjoyable retro-inspired experience than it is.

I cannot overstate how pointless and infuriating Castle of Heart feels to play.

Ni No Kuni II is absolutely delightful. While the original was bogged down by some cumbersome mechanics, Level 5 has done an outstanding job of cutting the fat while adding new elements and keeping things fresh — It has almost none of the filler that plagues the JRPG genre. I can’t stress how happy it makes me to see a game as good as this appeal to both someone like me, and to children as well. But most importantly, it’s not a kids’ game — it’s just a fantastic JRPG.

Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology offers a staggering amount of content for the price — there are nearly 300 different events to see, and the campaign can finish with dozens of possible endings. Patient RPG fans looking for intriguing story hooks and puzzle-like battle mechanics would do well to try it. Those looking to simply enjoy the narrative without being punished can also dip into Friendly mode and enjoy the experience as well.

Although it’s a bit short with only four levels, two difficulties, a weekly challenge, and an online score attack leaderboard, it’s right in line with what I’ve come to expect from an arcade-style title, and in its favor, it’s a rather refreshing take on the ‘shooting gallery’ genre that is quickly becoming stale among VR offerings.

The Council: Episode 1, The Mad Ones is a treasure thanks to a great story that’s well-told, some of the highest Interactive Movie production values I’ve seen, and a skill and experience system that serves to make it even deeper and more replayable than it already was. And the cliffhanger ending? It’s so compelling that I can’t wait for the next chapter to arrive.

Those hankering for something reminiscent of Advance Wars or Valkyria Chronicles will find much to enjoy, and players looking to challenge their grey matter should absolutely give it a try.

Mulaka is a treat for the eyes that’s just fine as it is, but I can’t help but feel there were many opportunities where it could have, and should have, done more.

The overall story does come up short when stacked against the incredible Yakuza 0, but it’s still a joy to take Kiryu out for a stroll in the most meticulously-crafted and comically-dangerous rendition of Japan ever offered.

When it was first announced by Konami and revealed to have not only a survival focus but (gasp!) zombies, a lot of folks, myself included, rolled their eyes at the idea. But after playing and completing Metal Gear Survive, it won me over. It’s an enjoyable, bizarre and flawed creation, and I’m glad it exists.

The single player modes aren’t particularly engaging, and the broken online makes engaging in the multiplayer take way longer than it needs to. Those lucky enough to have a thriving local fighting scene are the real winners here until the servers are sorted out. FighterZ isn’t entirely my thing, but it’s easy to see that it’s as well-made, polished, and fanservicey as humanly possible.

Bridge Constructor Portal is a great way to introduce a newcomer like me to this surprisingly popular genre. It uses the borrowed IP well, and while not every joke hits, the fact that the dev was able to shoehorn that Portal flavor into a completely new genre is commendable. This is probably isn’t the product that Valve fans were wishing for, but let’s stop berating them and enjoy what we’ve received — turning up one’s nose at a surprise gift like this would be silly.

Arizona Sunshine is a game that allows players to chill out and blast zombies to pieces in the comfort of their own homes, living out their dreams of slipping into a world where they can use an epic arsenal of weapons to completely eradicate a shambling threat. That may not be the highest bar to clear, but Vertigo Games accomplishes it with style.

Dynasty Warriors 9 is a complete mess. The open-world elements like crafting, hunting and finding landmarks don’t fit with the story, and the technological sacrifices made to include them ensure that the mass battle sequences are nearly non-functional.

In the end, Typoman might appear to offer a clever blend of Limbo’s brooding world and Scribblenauts’ creative spark, but summing it up as such would gloss over the fact that its limitations never let it ascend to the heights that a combination of those titles might suggest.

The underwhelming mouse-based elements are frustrating because they’re so unnecessary when compared to the interesting stuff going on with the characters and concepts. When it acts more like a visual novel, The Red Strings Club work crackles with lively ideas and compelling characters. Had it focused on that and pared away the irrelevancies, The Red Strings Club would be the amazing experience that it almost was.

Secret of Mana isn’t an improvement in any way, and as such it fails the number one requirement of a remake – there’s no reason to recommend it over the original. Square Enix’s attempts to modernize this classic only make it feel older and less relevant, and the resulting mess is something I can’t see appealing to anyone. Returning fans will wish they were playing the original, and newcomers will likely wonder why Secret of Mana was ever such a big deal to begin with.

As a straight cis man, I acknowledge that I’m not the authoritative voice on any of this. However, while I’m mixed on how well A Normal Lost Phone conveys its intended message, the game’s design is too interesting to dismiss, and it’s so short and cheap that anyone who’s curious can (and should) come to their own conclusions.

White Day isn’t at the top of its genre, but it’s a solid entry. The real surprise, though, is the effective post-release work that the developers did to fix their game and transform it into something worthwhile after starting it off as a frustrating failure. There are plenty of issues with taking games away from physical media, but examples like this support the concept — the developers didn’t release an unfinished work, they’d just made bad design choices. Luckily, the current nature of gaming gave them a chance to turn a mediocre work into a good one, and they were smart enough to take it.

The sad part is that with some real work put into it, Payday 2 could have been awesome on the Switch. If some of the old problems had been solved, motion controls included and the graphics updated, that would have been a great start. Instead, I’m left with poor visuals, glitching enemies, terrible AI and no way to coordinate with anyone who wants to play. As it stands, it’s extraordinarily difficult to recommend this version of Payday 2 when better versions of this broken game exist at half price on other platforms.

Bithell’s first experimental foray into doing a game short is a successful one. My time spent riding the rails with this robot detective was pleasant enough, and I have much respect for any game that respects my time. I’m up for another, sir.

For players intrigued by SOMA but hesitant to jump in due to the sneaking and hiding, there’s never been a better time to try it. While much of the challenge from the original mode is gone, the story, sound design and slow-burn exploration are more far more meaningful than its handful of monsters. SOMA hosts one of the best stories I’ve experienced in a videogame, and now the lowered barrier for entry will allow more people to experience it — if that’s not the mark of a successful addition, then I don’t know what is.

With platforming tough enough to challenge even the most seasoned player, accessibility options making it approachable, and a narrative that delivers on multiple levels, Celeste is a winner from any angle. Don’t be afraid to make this climb – the view from the top is worth it.

Descenders is a yet another successful experiment in expanding roguelike concepts into new and different genres, along with tight controls, realistic physics, and easy-to-execute stunts. Randomized courses and great downhill play would have been more than enough to make it worth recommending, but the player choice of overworld maps and the risk-based scoring system raise it to another level. This is not to be missed for fans of the stunt biking experience.

That’s a minor flaw, however, in a game that is a sparkling and unique addition to the Metroidvania stable. While Dandara’s world has ostensibly little to do with Dandara the historical warrior apart from inspiration, I hope that players finish the game and feel as interested to explore her story as I was to explore Long Hat House’s gorgeous and intricate world.

Aside from that disappointment and a bit too much late-game grinding in order to unlock the final string of bosses, World simplifies the series without watering it down and expands its scope without spreading itself too thin. If early sales are any indication, this is the entry that will finally make Monster Hunter a serious presence amongst Western audiences, and that’s a long-overdue victory.

Even with all of the bells, whistles, and new gameplay mechanics, Space Invaders Extreme manages to nail the challenge and thrill associated with its ancestor. Blazing speed, an empowered player, and enemies with varied abilities can’t obscure the fact that it’s the classic foundation underneath that makes this game work so well, and SIE proves that it’s still viable today.

When Dissidia Final Fantasy NT is firing on all cylinders, it’s a unique experience that sings the glory of its intricate, slightly-too-complicated combat system. It’s just a shame that the spare nature of its arcade origins and the indifferent effort put into teaching its systems will stymie players who aren’t enthralled enough with the Final Fantasy brand to stick it out.

It may not offer all of the answers I crave, but it manages to improve on the main game’s already well-crafted mechanics, and also builds an intriguing story that ties in beautifully with the existing plot.

While I’m glad we finally got the Arcade mode SFV players always wanted, I’m left wondering who’s going to purchase this repackaged title. Those already in possession of the game get the updates for free, and I’m guessing that anyone who wanted to be competitive already bought it long ago. Those not interested in going online now have something to chew on with Arcade, but it pales in comparison to what other, more offline-friendly titles are doing. Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition is definitely a better package than Street Fighter V was at launch, but it still feels like it has a way to go.

As a moody sci-fi walking sim, The Station is a minor success. The environments look great and the puzzles offer just enough interaction to keep the player engaged while moving through the world. Sadly, the story just can’t manage to hold up its end. Between the odd timeline issues, the poor job the devs do of keeping their twist under wraps, and an ending that raises far more questions than it answers, the plot squanders some very interesting ideas.

I would have never guessed that The Fall, Part 2: Unbound would land this flatly after adoring the original, but the plot doesn’t click, the premise is too idiosyncratic, and the puzzles are too unintuitive – I’m still a fan of ARID, but this entire thing needs to be boiled down and streamlined into a more elegant, sensible package. And, it has to be said… after getting a wonderfully complete story in The Fall and seeing the reaching stumble that Unbound is, I’m not convinced that there was ever enough here for a trilogy.

With attractive pixel-art design, an entertaining narrative, and largely compelling gameplay, Aegis Defenders is mostly a winner. Unfortunately, the guesswork and lack of flexibility in tower implementation keeps it from being an unqualified success, though. The developers have made a valiant effort at combining genres here, but as good as their platforming is, they didn’t think the tower defense through as well as they needed to, leaving Aegis Defenders a game that gets within striking distance of greatness without ever managing to hit it.

NitW could also do more with its platforming. Five minutes in, the game tutorializes its jumping, and that tutorial is more challenging than any section that follows throughout the rest of its ten hour runtime. Ultimately, though, those issues do little to detract from the excellent characters and story at the heart of Infinite Fall’s debut. Night in the Woods’ story is the main attraction, and its superb execution was enough to keep me hooked.

I like Teriel as a character, and I dig the mordant, yet surprisingly colorful world that IMGN.PRO and Fool’s Theory have put him in. This team is clearly talented on certain levels, but there’s a lot of refining and revising to be done before I’d be even remotely interested in seeing more of Teriel’s story.

Chromagun has obviously been influenced by other titles, but it’s got a lot of charm and the puzzle designs are always interesting. The difficulty curve is gentle as well, in large part because the developers have scattered the tough ones evenly throughout. The lack of constant barriers keeps the game playably fresh, and my attention stayed sharp. It’s all very competent, which should be taken as a positive, because in light of the competition it’s all that can be hoped for.

With its solid gameplay, touching story and attractive art design, Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon is a fantastic Action-RPG. Clear objectives ensures that players never have trouble moving the story forward, while likable characters pull them into the story. Just as importantly, the game respects the player’s time — coming in at around 25 hours, it tells a complete, affecting story without dragging on. It’s rare that I’ll go back and explore New Game+ modes, but the high quality of the narrative and the fact that I got the sad ending has convinced me that it’s worth a second look.

Tesla vs Lovecraft is a delight thanks to its fast, tight action and its smart use of setting to push it over the top. As far as twin-stick shooters go, they don’t get much better than this.

While I could make small critiques on the loading times, that the animation’s a little on the heavy side, or that many of the combo links have a strange stop/start quality to them, it’s just too easy to keep waxing lyrical about how great Injustice 2 is. On nearly every level it shines – the combat’s fast-paced, satisfying to play and looks incredible. There’s tons to do, the roster’s chock-full of fan favorites and niche crowd pleasers alike, and it’s a solid offering for solo players as well as those who are itching to take the game online. From nearly every angle, this one’s a winner.

Any newcomers intrigued by the Ace Attorney concept should definitely play the original Phoenix Wright trilogy first since Apollo Justice is uneven in tone and quality, but it’s still a worthwhile entry and this remaster is both competent and fairly priced.

Even with its sci-fi and puzzle elements set aside, Cold Iron is simply the best western dueling game available in VR. The fact that it has a great story and rewarding puzzles is just icing on this six-shootin’ cake.

It’s still kind of incredible to think that a single developer working alone made something like Iconoclasts, but after playing, it’s easy to see why it took as long as it did. Rough patches might remain, but Iconoclasts is a singular effort that, had it lived in the time of its inspirations, might have stood tall alongside them to inspire future generations of creators. In present day, it’s a sharply contemporary work that incorporates those lessons to result in a brilliant, unique experience.

The Surge is mechanically compelling. Battles are challenging and brutal. Traversing the environment is tense, and, ultimately, rewarding when a shortcut or a new area is unlocked. The fact that the core of the experience is frequently exhilarating, so often makes the faulty links in the chain all the more confusing and frustrating. A Walk in the Park is a rollercoaster ride of an experience. It’s just unfortunate that big chunks of the track are missing.

Although this is ultimately just more Dishonored, fans now have five more missions to play and some new powers to test out. Those who didn’t like the original games or who feel burned out on the franchise won’t find anything here to change their minds, but if this is, indeed, Arkane’s sendoff for the series, they went out on a good note.

Shadow of the Colossus ranks among the best works this medium has ever produced, so giving it new life in this way is both giving players everywhere a gift and erecting a monument to its greatness.

Despite how many technical and design issues it has now, and regardless of however irrelevant it may be in a few years, PUBG is revelatory, and will always hold a special place in my heart.

End of Zoe is incredibly well-paced and zips through four mid-sized locations in around an hour, including a return to an old haunt that’s been completely transformed by the Umbrella-led cleanup. End of Zoe is an incredible expansion to RE7 not just because it completely rebuilds the core gameplay and still works perfectly, but because it reinforces just how transformative VR is to the horror experience.

The new areas are a little more open than one might expect from the claustrophobic RE7, but they’re packed with enemies to blast with Chris’ new semi-auto shotgun, and the faster, more combat-heavy gameplay works just as well in first person as the main game’s slow and tense exploration does. There’s a about an hour of content in Not A Hero, including a boss fight and a truly jarring close-quarters battle that proved traumatic in VR. This is a stellar piece of bonus content, which has only one thing keeping it from being the definitive piece of Resident Evil 7 DLC – it’s not End of Zoe.

Another year, another fantastic game in the Atelier series. Wonderful characters, an expansive story, a great big open world to explore… never once has it felt like this series has rested on its laurels. I see similar themes and callbacks to earlier games, of course, but fundamentally each Atelier series looks at what came before and builds something new and beautiful atop it – and Firis is no exception. I feel like I say it every year, but I honestly have no idea how they’re going to top this. And yet, I’m fairly confident that they’ll manage it somehow.

As weird as some the diplomacy and other mechanics can be, it’s an impressive title with a ton of depth to get stuck into. Now, I’d better get back to my current mission in progress — those enemy armies won’t eat themselves, after all.

While I’m glad that I waited for Darkest Dungeon to hit the Switch, I still have misgivings. It’s certainly better on the go now than it was on the Vita, if for no other reason than the screen is simply larger, but it doesn’t feel like a great fit. However, in docked mode it’s still the same amazing game that it’s always been, although it looks sharper on PS4. After holding out all this time to finally get the optimal experience, there’s just no easy answer. However, one thing does remain clear — now that the devs have added even more tweaks and amenities, the core experience is still outstanding no matter what platform it’s on.

While the idea of starting a whole new sport may seem a little ambitious, Sparc‘s developers have pulled it off effectively. I don’t know if it will catch on, or how widely it will spread, but it establishes everything that it needs to. It’s easy to start, it tests reflexes aggressively, and at the end of a few matches, everyone will feel like they had a good workout. Really, what more does a sport need?

Even if Bungie backtracks on some of these horrendous missteps, there’s evidence that the dev team is either flailing around without a clear idea of the experience they want to present, or even worse, they’re happy to offer the least amount of mediocre content possible until the player base starts pushing back. When free-to-play titles like Warframe and Let it Die seem monumentally more generous and offer vastly more entertainment value than a triple-A sixty dollar release built with a budget large enough to feed whole continents, it’s clear that something has gone horribly wrong.

Well O’Neill is clearly a smart man and a sharply observant writer, but this is a case where some restraint and a shorter running time would’ve made Little Red Lie a more tolerable, or perhaps even an enlightening experience. Instead, it’s an interminable slog through a world of misery starring terrible people, and I left it feeling worse for wear.

Once I overcame my disorientation, figured out my tasks and conquered the middle of the Inverse, the last few sections were considerably more straightforward and delivered feelings of being awestruck similar to those I experienced at its beginning. InnerSpace suffers from some minor issues, but remains a game full of original ideas that’s worth getting lost in.

Hidden Dragon Legend has some good visual design but not much else, and it’s a shame. I appreciated the style, but the actual game is so shoddily produced that it’s impossible to enjoy. I don’t care that enemies look good if fighting them is sluggish and repetitive. With tighter controls and fluid combat, Hidden Dragon Legend could have been a minor gem, but it’s just an attractive failure.

I can’t make too much of the annoyances of the poorly-tuned jumping or terrible collision model. Even if The Secret Mine had rock-solid code, that foundation would be supporting an edifice of sand. Toby: The Secret Mine adds nothing of value to Limbo’s formula and accomplishes far less artistically than its progenitor. Even if it were better to play, there would still be no reason to play it.

In my view, Football manager 2018 is an absolute triumph that revels in the cliche, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. The changes, and especially the new dynamics system have never had me feeling closer to my squad, the new engine is slick, and the additional motion captured animations really do freshen up the proceedings. This is another truly stellar outing from Sports Interactive, true masters of their craft and pioneers of the management genre.

Shadowgate, Déjà vu and The Uninvited are obtuse, they’re rough to look at, and finding answers online is required, but their charm and atmosphere certainly carries through, even after so many years. Picking up all three of these classics for eight dollars is a no-brainer, but the quality time I had introducing these to my son was priceless.

Confusing movement patterns could be overlooked during most battles, but the same can’t be said about the pace of ACORN Tactics. Taking time to plan out the attacks of six different machines can understandably be a little time consuming. However, waiting for the enemy to complete its turn should not take the same amount of time. By the end of the campaign, missions were taking around thirty minutes to complete. Unfortunately, ten to fifteen of those minutes was just me staring at the screen as the AI took its sweet, sweet time to attack. An option to allow the AI to move faster would have greatly improved the flow of the game. As is, the battles are just too slow. ACORN Tactics is an interesting case – it may be the first time I’ve ever enjoyed the later stages of the game and at the same time wished it would hurry up and be over.

Road Rage isn’t half the game that it wants to be, and it’s hard to understand how it was released in its current state. There are plenty of places where I was able to drive through level geometry and out into a blank void, causing a crash. Likewise, I frequently found myself clipping off of courses into walled-off areas, and because the developers neglected to include a method for resetting my bike onto the track, I’d be forced to restart. Racing superbikes in a crowded city with narrow streets is a terrible concept to build a game around, and Road Rage marries that terrible concept with awful execution to create something that’s far less than the sum of its questionable parts.

For those who are in search of a good puzzler wrapped up in bloody homage, Slayaway Camp: Butcher’s Cut is a great way to go.

As someone with no deep knowledge of the franchise and severe misgivings about fighting game innovations, I was pleasantly surprised at how extremely playable Gundam Versus is. Great balancing and simple controls allow anyone to jump right into the combat, and the matches are always brief enough that I never felt like I was being forced to wallow in failure while learning the ropes. It turns out that a player doesn’t need to already know and love Gundam to appreciate high-speed robot carnage.

Opus is a small-scale experience, and I find that to be totally appropriate. While the story didn’t end on the strongest of notes, I enjoyed the ride and thought it was not only a positive experience, but a great fit for the Switch. However, I was only tolerating the telescope portions in order to find out where the plot was going, so basically half of this game was a wash. Since the entire thing can be completed in two hours or so, it’s not too hard to put up with actually searching for Earth, but fans of small games and indies should expect to show up to Opus for the narrative and nothing else.

Nearly a dozen years after it’s initial release, Okami remains a beautifully-realized vision that will still be enticing to players for a long time to come.

I’ve seen articles mentioning that Gorogoa was created by a single man over a number of years, and it’s clearly a monumental labor of love. I want to respect that and I appreciate the amount of work that must’ve gone into this title… I honestly can’t even imagine. That said, as someone coming to this project knowing nothing about it beforehand, I found the Swiss-watch mechanics and detailed illustrations to be impressive, but the experience fell short in all other aspects. I’d love to view an edited Let’s Play of all the sequences being solved in order, but I have a tough time recommending it as something to play.

This is ultimately what playing League of War VR Arena is — standing across from someone at a fake battlefield table, setting down toy soldiers, and watching them haphazardly run into battle like of a bunch of wind-up toys.

After having gone through as much of the content as I could without teammates, my take on Raiders of the Broken Planet is that it’s a great B-tier action title shoehorned into an episodic games-as-service model that absolutely does not fit. If it was a standard single-player or couch co-op effort, episodic or not, I’d have no problem recommending it to folks who don’t mind rough edges wrapped in style and character. However, I’ve got serious reservations that this project could have ever worked, and these concerns seem founded since no one’s playing. Broken Planet is a great property with a lot of potential, but it’s in desperate need of a structure that makes more sense.

The modified sports represented here include such standards as baseball, volleyball, and golf. However, outside of the volleyball levels, few of the games closely resemble the sport they are based on. The basics are there, like swinging a club in golf or trying to hit homeruns in baseball, but players shouldn’t expect anything close to simulations.

My hope is that the final expansion will right the ship and highlight what makes Little Nightmares unique. However, for the time being, the Maw’s dirtiest secret is that it’s not actually hiding anything interesting.

While the criticisms are worth mentioning, anyone who’s a fan of Resident Evil and has somehow not played this pair yet is sure to enjoy both, although I still maintain that Revelations 1 is the better of the two. With an ability to sync save data between games and an emphasis on bit-sized gameplay sessions, these entries are near-perfectly suited for the Switch library.