While it’s still got room to grow, what’s here is great for fans of baseball. MLB The Show 17 is a clear step up from 2016 in gameplay, presentation, and overall experience. Some control and commentary quibbles remain, but not enough to detract from what is the best in the series to date, and one of the best baseball games today. As a PS4 exclusive, Xbox players should be envious.

Friday the 13th manages to both perfectly capture the look and feel of the iconic films while also creating a fantastic multiplayer experience. It’s one of the best marriages of property and genre I’ve ever encountered – this is absolutely the most Friday the 13th that a Friday the 13th could possibly be. With only three maps and only half of the possible Jasons, the developer has a lot of room to expand. However, it’s already a great game, and a rare asymmetrical experience that’s just as satisfying no matter which side the player randomly spawns as. It’s been 30 long years since the last Friday the 13th game, and after playing this, I feel like it was worth the wait.

Tekken 7 is a tough one to judge. The fighting’s competent, the roster’s huge, it looks and sounds good, and there’s a ton of stuff to learn. It’s also easy to pick up for beginners, and experts have access to a veritable playground of skills to show off mid-match. However, it doesn’t feel like a particularly huge leap for the series, the online’s spotty, the rage attacks and move spamming feel way too pervasive in matchmaking, and I expected more content given how long it’s taken to hit home.

Mechrunner has a unique setting for an infinite runner and the combat usually works great, but there are just too many design mistakes to overlook. For an infinite runner to be successful, it has to feel like a game of pure skill. Players have to be able to see the threats coming, and be able to react with precise controls. Mechrunner just can’t offer that kind of experience, and it fails as a result.

The Silver Case is a dud, through and through. With neither story nor gameplay to grab its audience, and with production values that never manage to impress, all players are left with is an impenetrable plot which takes too long to unfold. It’s possible this would have worked better as an actual novel – as a visual novel, there’s nothing here to recommend.

Ultimately, the small amount of content at launch is Ancient Amuletor’s greatest weakness. With no story whatsoever, only four characters, and four levels, it feels more like an early access game than a full release, although its low price point does somewhat reflect this. The core mechanics are solid the characters all feature distinct combat styles, so it does offer an engaging, immersive tower defense experience, especially on higher difficulties and with more players added. However, with the release schedule and pricing for DLC still vague, I can only recommend Ancient Amuletor to PSVR owners starving for something to play.

Dreamfall: Chapters is the finale that this trilogy deserves — the story is top-notch, anyone coming to this with no knowledge of the previous entries will still be entertained, and longtime fans will get to finally walk away content – if not a little sad – that The Longest Journey has now come to an end.

While it’s serviceable enough in a mechanical sense, The Ringed City fails to deliver the closure that is built up to throughout both pieces of Dark Souls 3 DLC. There are numerous lore points during play that are ostensibly A Big Deal, but they all fizzle out by the end. After spending more than 400 hours with the series, it was deeply disappointing to me to see so many promising notes capped with such a meager payoff.

When it’s on, Arms is a blast, and it feels like no other fighter on the market today. That traditional Nintendo charm is all over this thing too, from the sharp presentation to the terrific character designs and instantly hummable theme song. This first endeavor leaves plenty of room for improvement, but I’d love to see Arms become a mainstay on the Switch.

Despite the second half not equaling the taut opening, Narcosis is still a great horror title. Now that first-person horror is a dime a dozen, it’s easy to be skeptical about these games, but Honor Code left a solid impression by mixing effective jump scares with abstract horror. They also know when to let off the throttle to build suspense instead of ramming enemies down players’ throats every ten seconds — and hey, if players (like me!) are incredibly creeped out by spider crabs and other gross ocean wildlife, they should get ready for a stressful ride in almost all the right ways.

Star Trek: Bridge Crew accomplishes what no previous game came close to — it truly makes the player feel as if they’re on the bridge of a starship, taking part in sci-fi adventures. When a skilled crew is working under an able captain, Bridge Crew offers a uniquely thrilling experience, making everyone feel that they’re contributing equally to every part of the mission. There are plenty of co-op games out there, but I’ve never encountered one as purely collaborative as this. This isn’t about characters with different skillsets making up for each others’ shortcomings, this is about transforming four people into cogs in a machine designed to do incredible things.

Compile Heart’s ambition in trying to leave its comfort zone should be lauded, but unfortunately, Dark Rose Valkyrie‘s release in a period full of landmark JRPGs (not least among them Persona 5 and Final Fantasy XV) highlights how tough it is to make a JRPG that can stick the landing. In leaner years it would be endearing enough for a player to push past its awkward aspects, but against such stiff competition, there’s simply no reason to settle for this botched execution.

The Castle Of Shikigami, while known and appreciated in the shmup community, is definitely not a top-tier bullet-hell. Its sequels are better and available on other consoles, so anyone who appreciates its bizarre aesthetic can get their fix elsewhere. It’s a noteworthy entry in the genre, but at this point it’s hardly a necessary one except for the most serious of shmup fans — in 2017, this game is obsolete.

I enjoyed the basic story, and the pop culture references added flavor, even if anything Power Rangers-specific went right over my head. For those in center of the Venn diagram that combines turn-based strategy games and ‘90s sentai, Chroma Squad will deliver exactly what they’re looking for.

After my love affair with nearly every game that inspired Prey, it seems tailor-made to satisfy me. It is indeed a Corey-Ass Game. Although it does have a few rough spots, Prey is phenomenal, and I immediately dived back in to play more as soon as the credits rolled — a rarity for me. Arkane Studios has been on a hot streak with its past three titles, and I’m looking forward to whatever they try to hypnotize me with next. Or maybe the hypnosis is so ingrained at this point they’ve simply conditioned me to enjoy everything they produce? Hypnotists, indeed.

As a musou brawler, Estival Versus is simply average. The gameplay is tight, but has no special innovations or notable facets, beyond copious amounts of nudity. Seriously, the game even allows players to end matches with what can only be termed ‘Nudalities’. No, it’s the story that elevates the game to an entirely higher level. It’s funny and thoughtful and heartwrenching, and the gameplay was as good as its story, this would be one of the all-time greats, but even though it can’t quite match that lofty quality, it still stands as an impressive experience from beginning to end.

Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers is perhaps the best version of one of the best fighting games to date. The new visuals and audio take the presentation to the next level, and playing with the creepy-cool alternate characters is great. Moreover, the Switch’s biggest draw is its portability, so there’s finally a way to play Street Fighter with a friend on a single unit, anytime and anywhere. It might not be enough to win back players who have no desire to revisit this classic, but this reviewer does not count himself among that group.

As a graphic adventure and 3D puzzle game, The Assembly is a success. As a VR interpretation of the same, it’s fantastic. The world is easy to explore, and interesting enough to make that exploration a pleasure. While it might be a little pricey for such a limited experience, it’s a solid adventure title that had me enthralled and left me wanting more. The Assembly may be an outwardly sterile place, but it’s filled with enough human intrigue to warrant the trip.

While reading off of my TV for forty hours took some getting used to, I’m glad I read Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception. The characters are well-written, it’s beautiful to look at, and I can’t wait to see where it’s all going.

Persona 5 is periodically fascinating, but it’s unable to maintain the required level of interest and energy over such an extended running time. If it were half as long and cut out most of the repetition, it’d be a much tighter, more enjoyable experience. As it stands, adventuring with the Phantom Thieves sags way too often to be a heartfelt recommendation.

Without a story or even a philosophy to fall back on, Ovivo is forced to stand on its gameplay, its art, and its music. At times, those all sync up and produce a flowing, memorable meditative experience. Mostly, though, the zooming and fiddliness get in the way of the art, or the dull bits of the art get in the way of the experience. For a truly minimalist and meditative experience, ditch the game and just grab the soundtrack.

With A New Frontier, Telltale is stumbling over the age and limitations of its dated engine and game mechanics while also running into the problem of franchise fatigue. There are only so many zombie hordes, self-interested road warriors, and family disputes they can explore before it all starts to feel rote. Javi’s story isn’t a total loss thanks to the development of the core characters, but the studio will have to think of ways to keep this world fresh and interesting if it hopes to continue producing the further adventures of Clementine and other assorted survivors.

Although it’s clear the experimental narrative adventure genre isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, What Remains of Edith Finch proves that videogames are still ripe with opportunities for deep, mature storytelling. Tissue companies might notice a bump in sales as long as developers like Giant Sparrow are around, too.

With its bleak atmosphere and intriguing story, Dying: Reborn is an acceptable effort, bringing the escape room experience to consoles in an interesting, if often disturbing fashion. The PSVR version, while a little more viscerally effective, just doesn’t feel like a complete experience to recommend. Add in some weird glitches that make examining items in VR exceedingly difficult, and the result is the opposite of Resident Evil 7 – this is a VR-enabled game that’s much more satisfying when played on a standard television.

For players on another console or who are a little luckier with bugs than me, I’d say that The Inner World is generally an enjoyable experience with cute animations and quirky humor — I would definitely recommend it, and based on the number of times my boyfriend turned off his own game to watch me play this one, I would say it’s also good for friends to play together.

I really wanted to love Little Nightmares, and in some ways, I do. It tells an intriguing, ambiguous story through a gorgeous, gothic-inspired art style. However, the moment-to-moment interaction suffers from loose controls, questionable physics, and cat-and-mouse sequences that quickly grow tedious. To its credit, the story begins and ends on strong high notes, making both a good first impression and a final lasting one. More art exhibit than enjoyable game, Little Nightmares nevertheless deserves to be in the same conversations as Limbo and Inside, if not because it tops them, then because it shares the same artistic and narrative ambitions.

On the other hand, the minimal number of changes made to this re-release likely helped keep the entry fee reasonable. As much as I loved Vanquish when it first launched, it was tough to justify paying full price for a five-hour title with no multiplayer, few extras, and little replay incentive. Now, PC gamers can finally get their hands on an overlooked gem from the last generation for a fair $20. It’s worth it for the nonstop excitement Vanquish still offers, and I’d have been far less eager to see cover-based shooters go if they’d all been this energetic.

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.