Mario Tennis Fever fixes many of the issues of previous titles, delivering a significantly improved sequel packed with content. Fans of the Mario universe will especially enjoy jumping into matches with their favourite characters, thanks to the expanded roster and gameplay that’s easy to learn but hard to master.

Fear the Timeloop has solid fundamentals that closely follow the survival-horror template established by Resident Evil, while also serving as a welcome ode to the genre’s golden era. It delivers effective scares, a good variety of enemies, and strong level design. However, in its current state, the experience is marred by numerous technical issues and aggravating, game-breaking bugs that frequently undermine what could otherwise be a solid, if slightly derivative, experience.

An excellent prequel to a great JRPG franchise, Octopath Traveller 0 sees the return of its distinctive pixelated visuals and deep combat system, this time elevated by the inclusion of truly memorable villains.

I Hate This Place feels like a project that began with a far more ambitious vision for its world. The lackluster survival and crafting systems make little sense given the game’s short length, which leaves no room for these mechanics to properly breathe. While its dungeons are engaging, featuring effective horror elements and enough loot to encourage exploration, the open world, flat characters, and mediocre combat significantly hinder the overall experience.

A-RED Walking Robot is charming and quite unique, putting players in the role of a small mechanical toy robot. Its well thought out level design, using everyday environmental objects and rooms, gives the game a much needed personality. However, its frequent reliance on trial and error leads to unfair situations that more often than not become frustrating.

After many delays, the new chapter of Inazuma Eleven is finally here, and it’s certainly worth the wait. Despite some pacing issues, it offers a broad cast of characters, diverse movesets, and a huge amount of content that will keep you hooked for hours.

Old School Rally fully justifies its name, taking players back to the era of the legendary first Colin McRae Rally and staying extremely faithful to that inspiration. While it successfully hits the nostalgia it aims for, that same devotion becomes a hindrance once the feeling wears off, leaving behind a derivative technical experience with little effort to establish its own identity.

This new DLC for Pokémon Legends Z-A is something of a double-edged sword. While it adds a wealth of new main and side missions, legendary Pokémons, and a strong cast of new characters that can keep players busy for hours, the bland new Hyperspace area and the excessive grinding required to unlock its missions ultimately drag down the experience.

If nothing else, Dreams of Another is a unique third-person game. Its dreamlike visuals and intriguing “no creation without destruction” gameplay concept immediately draw attention and pique curiosity. However, its experimental nature doesn’t fully pay off, as the tiring gameplay, sluggish pace, and a story that fails to make sense quickly wear down that initial interest.

Ultimate Zombie Defense is at least honest about its B-movie philosophy, offering simple gameplay that can hook you for several mindless gaming hours. Decimating hordes of zombies is certainly fun, but the limited content, highly derivative visuals, and lack of depth prevent it from rising above a guilty pleasure.

Dollmare is effective in its horror atmosphere, with its short duration working in its favour by keeping the simplistic, repetitive arcade gameplay fun. The factory setting also benefits from the brief length, retaining its effectiveness as the game ends before it becomes tiring.

After an enormously long development cycle, the end result was worth the wait. The developers persevered through development hell to deliver a striking retro-futuristic setting enhanced by well-crafted horror elements. Across its 4–5 hour, mostly narrative-driven experience, the story and its deadly presences will keep you on edge.

Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song Remastered is a well-made port of a classic JRPG, though it offers little beyond the bare minimum expected of a remaster. It remains an interesting piece of the genre’s history, but its quirks may deter newcomers, while longtime fans and JRPG veterans will find reasons to revisit it.

Switch owners can now see firsthand what can only be described as the ultimate ode to Dragon Ball. While the 30 FPS performance is noticeable, it doesn’t hinder the game’s easy-to-learn, hard-to-master fighting system or the richness of its content.

Gameplay is virtually non-existent in Goodnight Universe, with overly simplistic puzzles that drag down the experience. Nevertheless, its story is touching and supported by solid voice acting. It’s commendable how effectively the developers convey the world through the perspective of an infant child.

Death Howl does the unthinkable by delivering a deckbuilder that isn’t a roguelike, and mostly succeeds. Its atmospheric, fantasy-infused Neolithic setting and beautiful retro visuals are paired with a well-crafted, card-based combat system. Unfortunately, excessive grinding and uneven difficulty in tougher battles can make victory feel overly dependent on RNG.

Once Upon a Jester starts off on a positive note, thanks to its humour and its, initially, charming visuals. However, those simplistic visuals soon become tiring and uninspired, and the lack of any meaningful gameplay turns the experience into a slog. The story could have been its redeeming factor, but unfortunately the game falls short even in that regard.

Unfortunately, the only real positive to be said for Project Motor Racing is its strong selection of cars. Beyond that, it’s disappointing in nearly every respect, showing clear signs of having released far too early in its development cycle. The visuals are subpar, the AI is virtually nonexistent, and the handling is noticeably problematic. There are plenty of other issues as well, but to keep it brief, it simply can’t compete within the demanding genre of driving simulators.

The Last Case of John Morley is a passable narrative noir experience, supported by an engaging story and well-crafted environments. Its brief runtime will likely hold your attention, though it never offers anything particularly memorable in its overall story or especially deep in its NPC interactions. Not great, not terrible, as the modern saying goes.

It’s hard not to be taken in by the allure of driving a train through infinite space. Maintaining, expanding, and improving your locomotive never gets old, especially as the rails unfurl into the cosmos. Voidtrain can certainly hook you with its premise and well-made crafting systems. However, it’s held back by repetition in everything outside the train, from the overly similar station layouts to the one-note arenas. A diamond in the rough, then, but one that’s still worth the ticket price for fans of the genre.

After Shredder’s Revenge, Dotemu returns with another loving ode to classic beat ’em ups. Marvel: Cosmic Invasion features an excellent roster of both beloved and obscure Marvel characters, backed by a satisfying and richly designed combat system. It doesn’t exactly tread new ground for the genre, but that doesn’t detract from the fact that this is yet another strong entry in the ongoing renaissance of classic beat ’em ups.

Demonschool is unapologetically an unofficial indie take on Persona. Its colourful pixel art and well-designed battle system give it plenty of charm, fast, simple, and consistently enjoyable, but the developers may have aimed a bit too high. Although it aspires to be a 30–40 hour epic, it simply lacks the mystery, character depth, and overall variety needed to support that length, causing the experience to drag about halfway through.

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond reaffirms that, even almost 20 years after the third game, the Metroid Prime series remains a one-of-a-kind experience in the medium. Its striking art direction elevates the entire adventure without relying on photorealism, while the sense of isolation, exploration, discovery, and environmental adversity, all supported by excellent audio design, delivers a superb return for Samus Aran that is guaranteed to excite longtime fans.

Fans of the series will be delighted by the significantly improved UI, which makes city-building as addictive as ever. The visuals are gorgeous, packed with detail and enhanced by excellent lighting effects. Still, one can’t help but wish for more coherence between the various gameplay systems, as some feel undercooked, suggesting the game may have been released a bit earlier than it should have been.

The original Syberia is, without question, a classic of the genre. This remastered edition, however, is oddly lacking in quality-of-life improvements. The audio suffers from mixing issues, and the visuals are inconsistent, with particularly underwhelming cinematics. While the reworked in-game graphics do help modernize the experience, they’re not enough to elevate this release into a truly definitive edition.

For anyone growing up with Hero Quest, Dark Quest 4 is an easy recommendation. The developers show real love for the classic tabletop experience, delivering charming aesthetics and a wealth of content, from diverse heroes to a generous lineup of quests.

Dispatch proves that the episodic format in gaming is far from derivative, it just requires the right content, a timely and consistent release schedule, and, of course, strong writing to make its cliffhangers land. This essentially visual-novel experience excels on all fronts, keeping us hooked each week and making us genuinely care about its characters. It ensures we think twice before every decision, no matter how big or small their impact on the story.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 delivers one of the weakest campaigns in the series, with a disjointed story and a lack of the bombastic set pieces fans expect. Its multiplayer, however, is far stronger, offering fast-paced gameplay and a solid variety of well-designed maps.