Although the ability to maintain multiple, asynchronous matches can be appealing for the puzzle-fiend in a rush, Sushi Mushi is ultimately a serviceable but generic match-three that lacks a distinct personality.

The Resident Evil: Chronicles HD Collection proves a faithful translations of one of the more interesting footnotes in the Resident Evil canon, and at least the Darkside Chronicles half of it remains a solidly-realized rail shooter-and one that's accessible even for people without the Move controller. I can't help but feel that it's a missed opportunity for developers to go back and fix problems in the original product, though.

There was something enticing there, and the exploration and the mood made it stand out beyond anything I’ve experienced recently. It’s glitchy, bewildering, addictive, and strives for greatness. I strongly recommend it, even though I’m sure it will infuriate almost as many as it enraptures.

The production values are impeccable and it runs perfectly on the PS4 Pro/PSVR — if there was more meat to it, I’d call Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot one of the most enjoyable VR cockpit games around, but with such a paucity of content, it doesn’t justify even a budget pricetag.

CrossCode is an ambitious title, has a strong style that fans of this type of RPG will appreciate, and the combat is great. Unfortunately, the lack of a compelling narrative and loads of filler made it an experience that didn’t convince me to play to the end.

I respect it as art much more than I respect it as a game, and taken as a whole, I love it as an experience. Nice work, Mashina.

While I still call myself an XCOM fan and was thrilled to see the property return after so many years, I couldn't commit to XCOM: Enemy Unknown wholeheartedly. Although I appreciate the update for modern audiences, the game comes off as a bit undercooked and stumbles on things which should be airtight. On the other hand, it's still a very welcome addition to a genre that's gone a bit stale-just be prepared for a little probing when dealing with these creatures from another world.

It exposes what a chronically under-explored medium portable gaming really is, and demonstrates the potential that exists when a creator is given some space to indulge his vision. Sure, it's unbalanced and at times inconvenient, but I'll take Boktai and games like it over Super Nintendo Entertainment System ports any day.

Overall The Banner Saga's an enjoyable product, just one that lets itself down in several key ways. It's almost where it needs to be, but these niggling issues prevent it from reaching its full potential. That said, it's a damn fine-looking game with quality writing at a reasonable price, and still comes fairly recommended for anyone looking to flee for their lives in a harsh and unforgiving environment.

Overall, the keywords for I Am Dead would probably be ‘charming’ and ‘quirky’. It isn’t a horror adventure nor a sad one, even though there are little doses of melancholy here and there. Instead, it’s a light puzzler that features some interesting game mechanics, and others that feel more appropriate to a casual mobile title — an easy recommend to casual players who are short on time and don’t mind a bit of repetition.

Was it a time-suck for me? No. But for a few hours, it forced me to solve problems in a new and challenging way.

It appears that NBA 2K has finally started to take the “next step” into greater gaming possibilities. Though MyPlayer needs a good amount of tuning and streamlining before reaching the heights of past story modes, it hints at bigger things down the line. But, based solely on the thrilling, beautiful, on-court presentation and gameplay, 2K22 is still a tremendous achievement.

I’m sure most people will have made up their minds about Gal*Gun Returns based on the game’s own tagline, or even just a few screenshots. There’s no doubt it is of niche appeal, but those of us who appreciate these sorts of absurd and bombastic stories will find an enjoyable comedic romp with a lot of replay value.

I enjoyed myself without question, but I think something like this with just tad more concreteness to it could be a real hit.

With gameplay limited to simple taps and swipes, I realize that only a niche group of people would enjoy the time spent here, and honestly, I don't feel as though Curtain Call is a complete game—I prefer to think of it as an interactive music player.

While the repetition and lack of content cooled my enthusiasm a bit, I am excited to see where DICE can take Battlefield 2042 from here — if current industry trends hold, I’m confident this will be a strong addition to my already-full shooter rotation after a few months of additions and updates.

With the Switch quickly finding success, it was inevitable that all of the titles that never got the audiences they deserved on Wii U would get a second wind on the new platform. Maybe that’s why Splatoon 2 feels like such a rehash, and hey, I still enjoyed it – I’m not unhappy with my purchase. That said, if a Splatoon 3 gets made, I hope Nintendo has some new tricks up its sleeve. Failing that, just let us play Salmon Run whenever we want, for Christ’s sake.

A strong shooter with enough depth and variety to stay addicting for a criminally long time.

Still, it's easy enough to recommend Outlast despite the weaknesses. As far as atmosphere goes, it's at the top of its class and the journey throughout is a well-constructed one, for the most part. It occasionally dips too heavily into common video game contrivances—three fuses littered around the area, three switches for a door, scrounging for batteries, that sort of thing—but it's still a gruesomely enjoyable tale despite its flaws.

I don't want that to deter anyone from playing Isolation—truth be told, I think it's one of the year's must-play releases for those with as much adoration for the original Alien film as I have.

In some ways, Yonder reminds of Animal Crossing with a bit of Fantasy Life thrown in, if one squints and tilts their head sideways. All three offer pleasant busywork and pastel colors, and they’re all just the sort of thing if a person’s in the mood for it. However, I strongly suspect that the optimal audience is comprised of kids looking for a game that offers a lot of easily-accomplished Stuff To Do without fear of restarts or penalties. Yonder: The Cloud catcher Chronicles isn’t a great fit for me and I suspect most seasoned players will bow out in a hurry, but I’m going to let my eight-year-old son sit down with it tomorrow, and I imagine I’ll have to pry him off of it with a crowbar.

With the exception of the thoroughly unnecessary Danganronpa S, the games of the Danganronpa Decadence package are still a great and unforgettable experience. Though they run better on other platforms, they’re just fine on the Switch, and players who can’t or won’t try them elsewhere won’t feel like they’re getting a worse deal. A more concerning wrinkle is that players who want as complete a Danganronpa experience as possible are better served on those other platforms, thanks to the absence of Ultra Despair Girls. As such, using the word “decadence” in the collective title comes across as a bit presumptuous on Spike Chunsoft’s part — a more accurate title might be “Danganronpa Sufficience“.

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

Like some of the narrative choices, it’s hard to know how to feel about Cloudpunk — and maybe that’s the point. It’s well-written and lovingly constructed, but it’s sometimes hard to appreciate as much as I’d like to thanks to the pacing issues. However, despite the problems, it’s definitely a journey worth taking — just go into it knowing that a little patience in some spots is required.

At issue is the way 'violence' in the game has been obscured. Despite the fact that Mega Man Zero deals with war and genocide, it's disturbing to see how often the game never completely engages with its subject matter. Any instance of violence that does occur has been minimized in various ways.

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.

The lack of difficulty and lack of evolution in the gameplay mechanics are an issue, but they don’t diminish the overall appeal of Out of Line, though they do hold it back from being something truly special. I savored exploring San’s forsaken habitat and eagerly awaited what lied around the next corner. The gameplay can’t match the lofty bar set by the presentation, but Out of Line remains a visual and atmospheric triumph.

Spacejacked is a more than competent platformer/tower defense title that falls short of being truly memorable, but perhaps it's most interesting for its iteration upon and juxtaposition of prominent game ideas, like VVVVVV's gravity-shifting, the retro-cool revival of single-screen arcade games like Woah Dave, and, hell, the main character bears more than a passing resemblance to Gordon Freeman (or am I just going crazy?)