These small flaws aside, True Colors is tugs at your heartstrings and doesn’t let go until its credits roll. It’s a wholesome game that covers some deep subject matter, but gives it to you in a way that makes for an enjoyable viewing and gaming experience. Fans of the series will love how familiar it feels to the other games, but everyone will appreciate how mature its themes are that continue to emphasize the uniqueness and unexpectedness life can bring – superpowers in hand or not.

Darkest Dungeon II continues the legacy of the original game as a brutally dark and difficult roguelite turn-based RPG. Much like the characters in the game, riding out in a hopeless effort to stave off the apocalypse, the player will find themself pushing forward despite certain defeat, with only a weak promise that next time it will be a little easier. It’s impressive that such a relentlessly challenging game can still have the player coming back for more.

Faithfully recreating some of the most famous moments in the series, Sparking Zero is the one Dragon Ball game that offers you tons of content to really enjoy all the aspects of the series. Battles are faster than ever, the roster is huge, and there are even ways you can reinvent or reimagine your own scenarios for your favorite characters to experience. It’s a fighter at its core, but it also offers fans the tools to make it the Dragon Ball game they have always dreamed of.

Replaying the same level over and over again to grind out XP you need to advance isn’t a challenge, it’s poor design. Randomly making your enemies invincible to spice up the difficulty isn’t a challenge, it’s poor design. I could go on, but I think this review is becoming like one of Sifu’s levels – endlessly repeating itself.

Personally, I just think this is a piece of a very well-made game. This is not your perfect title, but it certainly is an extremely successful continuation of the legend from 1999. If you are fans of Jagged Alliance 2 and were quietly counting on a modernized version of the game, part three will definitely meet your expectations.

Skyward Sword HD certainly has its quirks, and it’s not perfect, but for fans of the series it is a faithful and well-improved remaster that will remind you how much you enjoy the older Legend of Zelda games. If all you’re looking forward to is the next Breath of the Wild, it could be worth taking a look, because there are a lot of great experiences and potential additions that might find their way into the next game. Not to mention that a more story-focused game might give you more of an appreciation for the hidden corners in Breath of the Wild.

Wings of Ruin’s strengths are easily noticeable and will keep you playing it for weeks. Its story may not be groundbreaking, but what it offers is crafted with love and is geared to both fans and newcomers to the series. It’s definitely not your average Monster Hunter game, but its mix of RPG and Pokemon-like elements make it its own kind of wonderful.

Almost every element of the new Age of Empires made me remember how much fun RTS games used to be back in the day. I've played the remastered trilogy in recent years, but Relic's fresh approach has kept me up several nights trying to win potentially impossible battles against three enemies at once. And it's probably that enjoyment and the ability to lose myself in my favorite game that matters most to me.

Syberia: The World Before is a rather solid adventure game that leans into its overall history and the standard adventure game tropes. While that may not be for everyone, it most certainly weaves a narrative that’s relevant to understand our collective past… and then recognize why it is repeating itself today, approximately 80 years later. I wish more video games could be that relevant.

Ishin not only features classic themes Like a Dragon is known for, but it also manages to mix in enough variety in its mini-games and side stories to give us a new way to enjoy all the action, brawls, and ridiculousness we have come to expect from the series.

Stellar Blade is an above-average title. Well-developed, with a captivating story from the first moment, and most importantly engaging due to thoroughly well-planned and competently executed gameplay. The South Korean studio Shift Up performed exceptionally well, and despite my initial skepticism, I ultimately saw it as one of the top games of 2024.

Perhaps a more precise description would be to label Senua's Saga: Hellblade II as a bridge that connects walking sims with action games, incorporating the finest elements of both genres. This is probably the best movie you can play in right now.

Lost Ark is a beautiful and engaging MMORPG, which is surprising considering the game has been on the market for over three years already. Fans of the genre will enjoy all the staples that the genre has become known for, but for others, the repetitive combat and linear quests can bog down the experience somewhat. But overall, while it may not exceed any expectations, Lost Ark does set a standard for what modern MMORPGs should strive for.

Black Myth: Wukong uses the wonderful canvas of Chinese mythology to draw you into its world that is both beautiful and dangerous. Struggling at times to fully tell its story, its narrative mostly gives the game structure while leaving out a lot of detailed substance hoping for you to somehow make it make sense. Sure, the game’s emphasis is combat, but for a soulslike game that looks this beautiful and has so much lore attached to it, you would hope it also spent more time focusing on its story. Its combat offers you plenty of ways to experiment what works for you, but it also offers you enough difficulty to keep you on your toes and adapting to each new situation. These elements make for a game that rewards you with the thrill of a battle and doesn’t punish you too much for making mistakes. While its world is not the easiest to explore or to comprehend, Wukong’s rewards are worth it and make for a thrilling journey of discovery.

Kena is an enjoyable adventure that mixes familiar elements with the occasional difficulty spike to shake things up. It plays it safe with simplistic combat and an old-school format, but its impressive presentation ultimately lulls you into its world nicely. Its cutscenes tell a story that leaves you curious for more, so here’s hoping that this is just the beginning of great things to come.

An improvement over Fire Emblem Warriors and a new perspective on the universe of Three Houses, Three Hopes gives you plenty to do and presents it all in a way that makes for a robust musou experience that is more than just mashing buttons. While the game can tend to drag on at times with a story muddled in politics, you are sure to find joy in its various features that marry two genres together in a surprising, yet successful way.

Focusing more on its traditional combat experience, Fire Emblem Engage is an impressive game that tries to give you a lot to play with and succeeds in feeling refreshing yet on brand. Its Emblem mechanic brings nostalgic elements to battle while introducing better ways to modify and customize your party, though its social aspects are more toned down than in previous installments.

Cereza and the Lost Demon is a charming title that sticks with you throughout its 15 or so hour runtime. It may not have the mature flashiness of its main series counterparts, but it doesn’t need it to impress anyone. Its inventive level designs are a treat to behold, and when you need to use both Cereza and Cheshire to solve a unique puzzle, the game shines. Sure, it could be more difficult and offer more varied combat elements, but fans and newcomers alike are sure to be lulled by its magic.

It has some shaky moments, but Halo Infinite ditches the numbered installments and offers us a familiar, yet fresh take on the series. Its open-world setting serves as a foundation for what’s to come, and its story plants the seeds of future conflicts that will need resolution. It has elements in its campaign and online modes that for sure could be refined, but its emotional evolution, combat fluidity, and ever-addictive multiplayer are sure to please veterans and newcomers alike.

Overall, it’s a calm and relaxing journey through a strange fantasy world that will be exactly what some players are looking for.

While Tempest Rising may not reinvent the genre, it provides a strong foundation that helps shape it for future iterations.

The Lunar: Remastered Collection is a victim of its own faithfulness. While its upgraded visuals—the retro pixel art character sprites and environments and the hand-drawn cutscenes—are stunning, they only barely distract from an otherwise outdated RPG experience. Lunar’s stories and character might have felt fresh and original in the 1990s, but today, they come across as cliché and uninspired. There is fun to be had here, but there are plenty of other great modern RPGs, too. I have a hard time imagining anyone choosing to jump into the world of Lunar today if they don’t have pre-existing nostalgia for the series.

With a solid script, robust soundtrack, and plethora of expertly delivered lines, it’s obvious a lot of care was put into making Guardians of the Galaxy feel like you were playing through an interactive movie. Its gameplay choices won’t win any awards, but the magic it makes with its witty lines and casual banter succeed in inviting you into its strange, goofy, and striking world.

Its morale rankings, experience you get from fighting enemies, and generous way to customize your favorite pieces of armor give you the tools you need to take on some tough foes that will kill you, yes, but will also provide you with over 30 hours of satisfying punishment. There is no denying Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty has a high learning curve, but as many Chinese proverbs will tell you, patience, practice, and some great parrying skills will get you far.

Overall, The Falconeer: Warrior Edition is a great experience. Hopefully future titles can take a lesson from this game in terms of how players can explore their open world, and what they can find. But all of that is the cherry on top of an engaging story, breathtaking visuals, and the pure joy that comes from riding on the back of a giant warbird.

In the end, its expert cast, beautiful worlds, and clever writing together tell a very stimulating story of discovery, despite its otherwise quirky exterior.

Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves is a very good representative of the genre, but I feel that after a maximum of a few months, I will put it aside. I want something more from a title of this caliber.

Amerzone: The Explorer’s Legacy might be the strangest gaming experience I’ve had in a long time. This is a remake of a 1999 first-person point-and-click adventure, and while it vastly improved the visuals of the entire experience, the controls are still stuck in the past.