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.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 basically accomplishes what it sets out to do, but doesn't move the series forward in any significant way, even feeling like a minor step back in certain aspects.

Dark Souls 3 was a wonderful coda for the series, revisiting the best parts of Soulsborne while skillfully buffing over the pieces that didn’t work. Still, the Souls tricks and tropes that have become hallmarks are no longer groundbreaking, and there isn’t much left for Souls proper to achieve. As such, the run-of-the-mill quality of the experience offered here just doesn’t cut it anymore. While I still hold some hope that the second (and final) piece of DLC will be more substantial, Ashes of Ariandel illustrates exactly why Souls needs to end for the foreseeable future.

The sequel rights many of the first game's wrongs and is a nice, iterative step forward on the formula Monolith's been perfecting since 2005. For those who were lukewarm on the first PXZ, these improvements may make the difference.

There are dozens of Dragon Ball Z games and Kakarot represents only the latest attempt to fully retell the manga’s story in videogame form. However, the quality of the experience makes a strong argument for this entry being the last one since the cartoon graphics perfectly recreate Toriyama’s visuals and the story hits every beat far better than the anime managed to. By presenting a great story with such perfect fealty, it’s safe to say that (for now, at least) Kakarot is the definitive Dragon Ball Z videogame.

Ultimately, though, the drudgery of actually playing this game outweighs whatever interest its narrative has to offer. I have to admire the ambition of the concept here, but Stories: The Path of Destinies falls short of having systems equal to that aspiration. Like its swashbuckling hero, this game’s reach exceeds its grasp.

I don't think I can stress it enough; I really don't like the overhaul of the battle system in Xenosaga II.

The game controls nice and tight—a necessary element for successful fast action. Every button on the Dual Shock 2 is used, but it’s an extremely comfortable and intuitive layout.

The setting, urban art theme, and gravity-shifting mechanics give Sideway: New York plenty of opportunities to stand out, but it squanders all of them. Instead, Nox navigates bland levels and takes out repetitive bosses with a set of generic powers. With so much potential, it's remarkable that Sideway ended up being so ordinary. Unfortunately, that's the only remarkable thing about it.

Although it may not sound like high praise to say that The Wolf Among Us: Smoke & Mirrors is holding steady with the status quo, it's so stylish and enjoyable that I'm quite content to get more of the same.

I really didn't expect much from this game, but it overdelivered in spades.

Yatagarasu: Attack on Cataclysm is aimed at the very niche audience who genuinely champion gameplay over graphical achievements, and who aren't afraid of putting in some hard work to get the most out of it. Given its Indiegogo campaign, this game had the potential to become one of the worst cases of buyer's remorse that I've ever had, but it turned out beautifully in the end. Weird PC port quibbles notwithstanding, of course.

Having beat Neko Navy: Daydream Edition, I’m still coming back for more, Yes, I’m still not exactly sure what is going on – who’s attacking and why are these cats called in for defense? But honestly, there’s no need for a coherent story when everything else is done so well.

With streamlined and engaging mechanics and gameplay, it does the games it was inspired by proud and is a worthy addition to any tactics game library.

WrestleQuest is a fantastic homage to the wrestling scene of the ’80s and early ’90s, and expertly crafts that persona for its world. However, the slow pacing in and out of combat and various bugs dampen things. Fans of classic wrestling will delight in all the references, but players who don’t have nostalgia for the subject material will still find much to enjoy here, even if it’s not as tight an experience as it should be.

Ultimately, Tyrant’s Realm executes a gameplay loop that’s rewarding enough to render its minor inconveniences just that — minor inconveniences. It’s another successful, joyful genre-mashup that anyone looking for a retro-inspired soulslike will have a good time with.

It’s unfortunate that I find myself having to put the boot in this hard to what’s obviously a passion project from an indie developer, but my emotional state playing Fretless oscillated between boredom, irritation and occasionally finding it all mildly pleasant. Perhaps it will hit differently for someone who’s into the music scene or deckbuilders, but as a JRPG fan who’s partial to a good rhythm action game, it hit a bit of a bum note for me.

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.

Tomb Raider I-III Remastered remains an excellent collection of Lara’s first adventures that allows fans, both new and old, to dive into Lara’s earliest days and see where she got her start. Here’s hoping that The Last Revelation, Chronicles, and Angel of Darkness will be part of a second collection!

While I found Salt and Sacrifice worth breaking at least one controller over, it’s not for every Souls fan as it commits bizarre mistakes in design and comes with a few baffling omissions — in some ways, the experience is the total opposite of Hidetaka Miyazaki’s teachings. I’m glad I finished it, but it’s not an easy one to recommend.

SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake is the kind of thing I love to champion — a mid-budget licensed platformer with a few rough edges that could have easily existed in the ’00s. Sure, it’s not breaking any new ground and could use a little polish when it comes to level design and performance on the Switch, but the final product is a joyous ride from start to finish. For fans of the series like me or anyone else who can’t get enough of that yellow sponge, this undersea multiverse adventure is worth checking out.

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.

When the game lets its main character race through the world, bounding across chasms and flinging himself here and there with the grapple, it is really wonderful. That happens all too rarely, however, and instead the game breeds repeated frustration brought on by the difficulty of figuring out where the protagonist should grapple, why he can't, or what to do about it.

As a singleplayer title, it seems to offer a wealth of content — the stories have a quirky kind of charm and each scenario has four possible outcomes, with a total of over twenty endings possible. Of course, playing with rivals adds a replay value of its own, but after a little time spent with it, I came away feeling that Monster Prom is only functional at best — despite the wealth of options, the scenarios become predictable and tired quickly. Even so, a group of friends turns it into a delightfully messy romp of the kind that my younger self would have loved, minus the cocaine.

Overall, it’s more than a little eyebrow-raising to see how closely Vermintide has followed the template set by Valve, and disappointing to see that it hasn’t improved or advanced the precedent that was set — it’s just a not-as-good version with rodents in place of the undead.

While it might seem like a sci-fi soulslike, The Surge proved itself to be more than just another wannabe thanks to the outstanding twists on combat, satisfying choices in playstyle, and allowing for fearless engagement in its systems thanks to the ability to respec at any time. While I often felt wrecked and ruined by my journey through the hostile, unforgiving mega-corp, by the end I came around and instantly started a new playthrough. Deck 13 has taken the criticisms leveled at them after Lords of the Fallen, and not only responded to them, but actually used that feedback to improve in major ways. Great job.

Dull, mediocre games… well these games are like a painter's palette filled with nine shades of gray. There isn't much to work with, so the end result is as lifeless and flat as a Midwest landscape study in wintertime.

While both the core campaign and this DLC would use a little tweaking, there’s no doubt that they remain exciting, engaging plays that come recommended. As Incommodus the Servo Skull says, PURGE THE HERETICS!