In the end, NBA 2K24 might be the finest sports videogame I’ve ever resented. The butter-smooth gameplay, extensive core modes, and pristine visuals will deliver months upon months of top-tier digital hoops, which is reflected in the final score. However, those interested in character and team advancement will likely find the reliance on microtransactions to be too demanding and expensive to realistically pursue.

It's to Lost Planet's credit that the skillful handling of the difficulty and level design puts the player in a state of desperation for almost the entire length of the game.

On one level, I feel a little cheated by Neptunia x Senran Kagura: Ninja Wars — generally we can expect a new Senran Kagura and a new Neptunia every year, so it’s a bit of a disappointment that in 2021 audiences are getting a single game from both franchises. Fortunately it’s an exceptional piece of work. It won’t give players everything they’d expect from either franchise, it has satisfying systems and some of the funniest writing either series has seen in years. This is a good action-adventure, but for fans of either series, it’s absolutely essential.

Doraemon: Story Of Seasons is one of the nicest surprises of the year. I wasn’t expecting a non-Stardew Valley farming sim to grab me like it did, and I certainly wasn’t expecting it from a Doraemon game, but here we are. On top of a great evolution in the farming RPG genre, it’s also a fantastic use of a coveted license. Stardew Valley 2 is probably a long way off, but the people that gave Eric Barone most of his ideas have just given us a substitute worthy of both franchises.

Writing a review of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is something I never thought I’d get to do, but I am so glad that Capcom decided to take a chance in bringing these two exceptional stories to the West. Despite its status as an offshoot from the main franchise and a heavy reliance on very specific settings, it might even represent the best opportunity to delve into this wonderfully quirky and original series thanks to excellent quality-of-life improvements and slick presentation. Longtime fans have surely bought it already, but The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is a fantastic pickup for anyone looking for a good yarn coming from a series filled with them.

Despite those bumps, there's no arguing that Telltale is turning out must-play material with The Walking Dead, and unless the game somehow crashes and burns on an epic scale before it reaches the end of the fifth and final episodes, it's guaranteed to earn a spot on my year-end "best" list. Don't miss it.

Rising from the ashes, Sleeping Dogs has proven just how wrong Activision was to cancel it 18 months ago. It takes several gameplay styles from many of the best open world games of this generation and gives them a distinct Hong Kong cinema feel.

A port of a six-year-old PS2 title might not fit the profile of a platform defining title, and it might be more than a little ironic, but the fact that the game manages to accomplish this so far out from its initial release is a testament to its quality.

While I don’t think Sonic Origins Plus will convince doubters of the initial release to convert and I still have my qualms over some of the presentation choice, there’s no doubt that Sega managed to make a solid package even better.

Kentucky Route Zero is an absolutely amazing adventure that is packed with personality, and bolstered by stunning visuals and music. Some long-in-the-tooth plot segments slightly diminished my enjoyment, but the story always remained moving and intriguing.

Addictive personalities will no doubt find themselves caught up in the game to the exclusion of all else. There's always one more quest to undertake, one more rare to find, one more level to grow…it's these elements that keep people coming back.

Road To Ballhalla is a delight. It rises above its inspirations to bring a new musical sensibility to the action puzzle genre. While some levels can be frustrating or even punishing, it never feels unfair — clearly a huge amount of thought has gone into balancing the difficulty, and anyone who brings a steady hand and a good amount of patience will find one of the most wonderfully kinetic puzzlers around.

It's not the longest game, and it's not the most complex game, but it succeeds at almost everything it sets out to do-which puts it head and shoulders above most other games out there, Star Wars-related or not.

If viewed as an RPG with a tiny world and far too much text, I would imagine players walking away from Fate/Extra feeling unsatisfied or bored. However, when taken as what it really is-a visual novel with a superb level of gameplay-then it can only be appreciated as the fine effort that it is.

Katana ZERO is relatively short action experience, but the fast, brutal, and provocative play left me wanting more — and that’s about the highest praise I can give it.

In a year full of massive, story-driven and crunch-produced experiences, it’s refreshing to spend time with something so straightforward. Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 does something simple but does it right, and when I’m dropping blocks or matching puyos, I just can’t seem to put my Switch down.

Even though the spectacular combat in Dragon’s Dogma makes it seem like a successor to other Capcom fantasy beat-em-ups, the depth of its world design and surprising story twists make it one of the more fascinating games of its era. With a fantastic port for the Switch audience, it’s as if Capcom made a deal with a dragon and somehow came out the winner.

Despite these minor hiccups, Tower of Guns almost perfectly achieves what it sets out to do. The tower can be run quickly, but the array of weapon and perk choices, combined with the randomness of the drops, the bosses, and the levels themselves, produces an enormous variety that ensures running it almost never gets old.

This is a fantastic presentation of two top-notch virtual novels. My only major quibble is that player is never made aware of how important it is to play the two games in the correct order. It’s not enough to see a couple of endings in 999 – if players don’t make it to the true ending before moving on to VLR, it will be casually spoiled in the most off-handed way imaginable. Beyond that, very little goes wrong here, and I’d say that this one of the best visual novel experiences I’ve had.

I understand that the last arena is supposed to be a quote-unquote boss fight, but I feel the drastic shift will sucker punch players right at the end of the game. Don’t get me wrong though, I enjoyed Boomerang X. Enemy designs were clever and paired well with the abilities available, and even though the plot was thin, there was just enough to keep me curious right up until the end.

While it doesn’t revolutionize the groundwork set by its predecessor, Horizon Chase Turbo 2 remains a great racer that gets plenty right. With a solid career mode, a varied,, colorful garage and some of the best retro aesthetics ever, Horizon Chase Turbo 2 is an easy winner for arcade racing fans.

Dead Rising 4 may not be the series’ high point, but it’s easily the second-best, and a great experience in its own right. Zombie slaughtering has never been this accessible or thrilling, and the developers at Capcom Vancouver have once again proven that they know exactly what to do with a winning formula.

I enjoyed the characters, I enjoyed the strategy, there's a ludicrous amount of content, and there's even pass-the-handheld multiplayer for those into that sort of thing. Apart from the less-than-sizzling looks, this one's a must-have for any turn-based strat fan with a 3DS.

Indigo 7 might not win any awards for writing, but I’ll be damned if there’s another arcade puzzler with this much charm and an equally addicting gameplay hook. Similar to the great Puyo Puyo Tetris 2, it’s an experience that’s preventing me from putting my Switch down.

Buckshot Roulette has tension and drama, enough strategy to make gameplay not fully dependent on luck, and the fact that the dealer doesn’t always make the right move just puts it over the top. While there’s currently not much content as it’s still under development, the joy in its simple, ruthless premise makes it an easy recommendation regardless.

With new console hardware expected to arrive by late 2020, there’s a good chance much of 2K Sports’ design and programming teams are hard at work making the most of new technology. However, that doesn’t excuse the visual and gameplay gaps that shouldn’t be here. That said, NBA 2K20 is still a fantastic basketball sim with enough modes and features to keep fans busy until those revolutionary next steps start to come in over the next few years.

Distrust is pretty top-notch stuff. It’s the sign of intelligent and well-considered mechanics that something as inherently repetitive as Distrust never once felt tedious to me. Russian publisher Alawar previously gave us last year’s Beholder, a similarly high-concept little gem from their home country. This makes them two-for-two on Steam releases, and I can’t wait to see what other fascinating indies they bring us from their side of the world.

It’s easy to think that the run-based deckbuilder genre has been entirely tapped out, but Roguebook counters that notion in an instant. Though its broader narrative and post-game balance may be a little thin, everything else between these pages is incredibly rich and satisfying. By combining the elegance of tabletop map exploration with a thoughtful evolution of deckbuilding mechanics, Abrakam and Richard Garfield have found a match made for the history books.