Live A Live takes too long to settle into its RPG groove, making it a missed opportunity on too many fronts.

Kunio takes on ancient China in this mash-up of Romance of the Three Kingdoms and River City Ransom. Are these two great tastes that work together in any way at all?

Frozenheim is a visually attractive and enjoyable Viking-themed city-builder let down by shallow combat and questionable resource management.

As Dusk Falls is gripping from start to finish and has a lot to say, becoming one of the few games where your choices actually can upend the story.

Stray takes about five to six hours to finish, but it makes use of that short run time to tell a touching story between a cat and a robot drone. Its controls feel great and impactful, whether you're jumping or running. There’s so much personality to the cat, too: being able to meow on command and do cat things like knocking over items and scratching on walls is a nice touch. Stray is a tightly focused journey that is worth experiencing at least once.

Capcom’s latest pack of coin-op classics won’t disappoint old arcade hounds looking to re-experience their youth.

Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series successfully updates two solid platformers for modern audiences.

Outriders: Worldslayer is an admirable attempt to breathe new life into a solid but flawed experience. It succeeds mostly in making the problems more apparent.

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is a superb "equal" that builds on Three Houses in the best possible ways.

The Delicious Last Course? More like Decadent Dessert, as every single bite through this Cuphead DLC is as rich as it is satisfying. If you enjoyed and finished Cuphead, even as a less confident player, there's so much to love in The Delicious Last Course that it is impossible to not recommend.

Monster Hunter provides a rush and a challenge few games can match, and those pair well with a heavy build customization system and a sky-high skill ceiling. In short, Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak is good. It’s very good and worth every penny of its asking price several times over.

A great racing game that any F1 fan will love, although it fails to really set itself apart from its predecessors.

For those who love arcade fighters, the Capcom Fighting Collection offers a treasure trove of glorious nostalgia.

Mario Strikers: Battle League is a fun and chaotic experience let down by a lack of content and personality.

Starship Troopers: Terran Command tries to capture the campiness and action-packed thrills of the movie, but it falters just like the invasion of Klendathu.

The Quarry's strong cinematic horror experience and intriguing narrative make it a worthy spiritual successor to Until Dawn.

A short burst of nostalgic cartoon violence, Final Vendetta is uneven but mostly entertaining.

TMNT make a triumphant return in this pixel-perfect sequel to the classic arcade brawler. If you have a soft spot for classic arcade brawlers of the 80s and 90s, Shredder’s Revenge is a damn near perfect homage and sequel to one of the best of the era. It doesn't get much better than this.

Knights of the Old Republic II has withstood the test of time to still be one of the best examples of the RPG genre, even 20 years later.

The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story is an engaging mystery that involves murders that span over a period of 100 years.

Evil Dead captures the spirit of the movies while laying a solid foundation for an enduring multiplayer experience. Just don’t expect to have fun playing solo.

An enjoyable blend of story, puzzle-solving, and the ever-looming threat of spectacular, expensive failure keeps you coming back for more in Hardspace: Shipbreaker.

If you are really passionate about World War II shooters, are a dedicated Sniper Elite fan, or just really need to shatter some vertebrae with bullets, this could be worth a look. For everyone else, it’s probably better to set your sights elsewhere.

Is it actually fun to be a vampire? Let's find out together, in the latest attempt to export Vampire: The Masquerade to video games.

Chaos Gate Daemonhunters is an intensely challenging XCOM-like that fully embraces the aesthetic and tendencies of the Warhammer 40K universe.

Citizen Sleeper crafts a gorgeously written and thoughtfully conceptualized Cyberpunk world using RPG mechanics inspired by the best in tabletop gaming.

Rogue Legacy 2 is a worthy sequel that improves upon almost every aspect of the original, adding a wide array of new classes, abilities, and content.

We Were Here Forever has some good ideas but stumbles into unbalanced puzzles that leave one player standing around and sounding like Darth Vader in their walkie-talkie.

Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is a charming if tedious RPG that probably shouldn't have been an RPG.

Salt and Sacrifice is a labor of love, one that will scratch any Souls veteran's itch for more mysterious worlds to explore, even if it doesn't succeed at everything.

Nintendo Switch Sports is a great way to satisfy any urge to play motion control games. Unfortunately, it doesn't make any effort at being more than that.

Trek to Yomi is a gorgeous samurai adventure with satisfying 2D action and some unfortunately frustrating quirks.

Return to the world of Eldest Souls with the Depths of the Forgotten DLC, a worthy continuation of a good, sometimes great, boss rush Souls-like hybrid.

Chernobylite's next-gen upgrade makes it the best version of the game on consoles, even if it still suffers from a vein of inconsistency.

Ever thought you could do better fending off an attack from a giant monster? Kaiju Wars lets you put your money where your mouth is in this 50s retro movie-inspired game.

The Force Unleashed on Switch is a good port of a rather dreary game by today's standards.

MLB The Show 22 is a solid entry in the series, but it's largely the same game as last year, for better or worse.

The great things that Elex 2 brings to the table are overshadowed by what a buggy, buggy mess it is.

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga still has some of the Lego charm, but it's a step back for the series.

Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is an excellent spin-off that adds its own twists to what makes Borderlands great.

The faithful remake of this light-gun classic only serves to highlight how bare bones it is by today's standards.

Gran Turismo 7 strikes the perfect balance between accessibility and realism in a way that caters to casual players and veterans. It's a gorgeous racing game with a surprisingly addictive gameplay loop thanks to the new Café and Menu Books systems. While some modes are certainly not as strong as others, Gran Turismo 7 checks almost all the boxes of what a driving simulator should be.

Conan Chop Chop is the video game equivalent of running in place. For every fun inclusion, there is another aspect that feels left behind.

Triangle Strategy is one of the cleverest tactics games around, with an intriguing story, rewarding choices, and (mostly) excellent stage design.

Babylon's Fall is a baffling game that lacks any distinct vision, both in terms of gameplay and artistic design.

Chocobo GP is built for fun but needs time and some more attention before it can really take the pole position.

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax is still a champion among fighting games, though the story holds it back from overwhelming victory.

It's been 10 years, but I wish Rune Factory 5 had been delayed for a bit longer. The jump to 3D was inevitable, though more time and polish could have made a significant difference. The cast and daily life are still superb, beyond Rune Factory 4 in some instances, but there's a distinct sense that Rune Factory 5 wasn't finished growing before it was harvested.

Ghostwire Tokyo is essentially what I thought it would be, for better and for worse. It's charming but empty, ambitious but too formulaic, and it's got the most personality of any game I've played this year. I sincerely hope Tango has more Ghostwire in store, either as DLC or a sequel. Despite its issues, there's nothing else quite like it.

Stranger of Paradise is a mechanically rich and satisfying action RPG marred by poor balancing and performance issues.

Forgive Me Father mixes the tried and true mechanics of classic FPS's with an atmosphere so thick it couldn't be cut through with a hail of bullets.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land marks the 30th anniversary of the ever-hungry pink squishy, proving itself a reliably safe choice for entertaining, all-ages 3D platforming in the classic Nintendo style.

Chinatown Detective Agency is an engaging point-and-click adventure with gorgeous art direction that falls just a bit short.

Weird West doesn’t quite gel on every level, but it still makes for a fascinating and deep action RPG sure to entertain fans of the late-90s CRPGs.

TUNIC brings together a gorgeous art style, phenomenal gameplay, and old-school game design baked directly into the way you discover the world, delivering one of the most enjoyable games I’ve played in years.

Almost nothing compares to Elden Ring in quality and depth. This is a game everyone should try at least once if only to get lost in the Lands Between.

Shadow Warrior 3 is a game that knows exactly what it’s doing. It’s not the best-looking game, nor the most polished. The ambitions are limited, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. This is the action movie you watch on a weekend afternoon, not Citizen Kane. That confidence results in a game that is extremely enjoyable with a great mix of action and absurdism, but also something that will be easy to forget. The linear design works for a single playthrough, which is more than enough to get what Shadow Warrior 3 has to offer.

Grid Legends is certainly not a bad racing game and has a lot of redeeming qualities, yet it doesn’t quite live up to the high quality usually associated with Codemasters. Games like Forza Horizon 5 are more fun to play while the likes of F1 2021 and Dirt offer more realistic and challenging gameplay. The introduction of the unpredictable AI is a welcome step in the right direction, as are the improvements made compared to its predecessor. However, Grid Legends can’t shake a poor story mode that bogs down the action and will disappoint those expecting a cohesive and exciting narrative.

Martha is Dead's failure to stick the landing leaves a sour taste in my mouth. The narrative and mechanical ambitions don't coalesce into something greater despite some interesting mechanics throughout. It attempts to tell a careful story about mental health but eventually devolves into cliched story beats and emotionally manipulative moments that serve no other purpose than to shock you.

Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream is a vast improvement over its predecessor. Borrowing exploration elements from the Atelier entries while keeping its traditional turn-based combat system is a great way to help it stand out within its own franchise. On top of that, the battles have more depth than ever before. Sophie Neuenmuller’s new adventure is well worth it for veterans and newcomers alike.

Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires can't make up for the shortcomings baked into the Dynasty Warriors 9 framework. Maybe Dynasty Warriors has just gone on too long; there are only so many ways to tell the same tale and upgrade the basic gameplay. Dynasty Warriors 8 understands the process, but that game came out eight years ago. Time marches on while it seems Dynasty Warriors marches backward.

King of Fighters XV completes the storyline from the previous game but doesn’t mark any significant changes otherwise. It’s an excellent overall fighter and likely to find some pull on the tournament circuit. Yet, at this point, we can’t help but feel like this is all something we’ve played many times before.

Infernax is largely exactly what you'd think at first glance. It's very retro and challenging with simplistic 8-bit graphics and gameplay. Where it excels is taking those old-school constraints and expanding on them to create a gory adventure that feels at once totally familiar but with enough depth to still be interesting and worthwhile all on its own.

Edge of Eternity has heart and Midgar Studio should be proud of what they’ve achieved for a small indie team. I just wish I liked it more. Thanks to an uninspiring story, lack of overall polish, and some uneven visuals, the final product simply can’t match the developer’s ambitions, making this a hard game to recommend. If you’re curious to dive in, there’s still plenty to like. With a versatile combat system, colorful environmental design, entertaining side content, and old-school design, JRPG fans may find something to enjoy here. It’s on Game Pass at launch, so if you’re playing on PC or Xbox, you could always dip in that way, but otherwise, you’d be better off looking elsewhere.

I might have wanted more from Pokemon Legends Arceus, and it definitely deserves more, but I’m so happy with what I got. At last, Game Freak took the imaginative, fascinating world it built all those years ago and decided to build on what makes it special — the sense of wonder and, more importantly, the Pokemon themselves. There absolutely should be a second Pokemon Legends to take these concepts and newfound worldbuilding to the next level, but until then, Pokemon Legends Arceus is one of the most satisfying and memorable Pokemon experiences to date.

To my mind, this has "cult classic" written all over it, and players who take the time to master Sifu will make it sing in a way that I can't imagine. It's a big step forward for brawlers in general, which doesn't just ape the '90s beat-'em-up the way that a Mayhem Brawler or Fight'N' Rage does, but actually adds onto it. Sifu has a lot going for it, but its questionably fair difficulty curve and the relative looseness of its controls both make it hard for me to recommend to a general audience.

Dying Light 2 is a legitimate challenger to join the ranks of the greatest open-world games. But unfortunate bugs and a lack of refinement noticeably separate it from genre luminaries.

SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters' Clash was a game I loved dearly at one time and have had a wonderful time coming back to in 2022. Fans of both SNK and Capcom can find plenty of enjoyment here, whether in the gameplay itself or just in the card art — just don't expect the bells and whistles one might expect from a modern CCG video game.

Dysmantle elevates somewhat shallow mechanics with a satisfying and addictive gameplay loop centered around exploration and character progression.

Windjammers 2 feels less like a sequel and more like a remaster of the original. Despite the new graphic overhaul and increased roster characters, it’s still fundamentally the same game. That’s not a bad thing if you enjoyed the original, but in the end, we can’t help but feel this sequel could have been bolder and opened the game up to something more expansive.

While it's packed with old-school hack and slash action, Blackwind's lack of variety and lackluster mechanics leave a lot to be desired.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Extraction is an enjoyable game alone or with a squad. Good tactical shooting meets satisfying progression, but the end game has limited appeal.

Headland is a functional experience, but it lacks enough clever ideas or impact to make a lasting impression.

I’ve enjoyed my time with Age of Empires 4 quite a bit, and I’d recommend it to any Age fan. But I wouldn’t do so without a few important caveats. Age of Empires 4 may finally be available after 16 years, but it hasn't arrived just yet. There are still resources to gather and troops to assemble.

Battlefield 2042 wants so many things that it succeeds at almost none of them. There's a good game buried beneath it all, but you'll wade through a lot of sludge to get there.

Overall, KOTOR on Nintendo Switch is well worth picking up. Not only is it relatively cheap at $15, it's still one of the very best RPGs you can play. And it's high on the list of the best Star Wars games available. There's a reason people want more KOTOR.

Blue Reflection: Second Light is an improvement upon the first game, following a group of schoolgirls looking for a way back home while fighting evil monsters.

Into the Pit is a retro FPS/roguelike that's far less than the sum of its parts. It's got great action, but everything that surrounds it is questionable.

Bright Memory Infinite's tight gunplay is simply spread too thin to make up for an otherwise uninspired experience.

I went into Forza Horizon 5 expecting a pretty racing game. What I got was an experience, a splendid open-world car exploration simulator with light RPG elements and a trunk full of things to do and see. While I’d like to see Playground try something new or perhaps break free from the existing formula next time, this is a clear candidate for 2021’s best game and a must-play, whether you have Game Pass or not.

The Switch has no shortage of multiplayer games, but there's a strong case that Mario Party Superstars is among the best on the platform. I've had more fun with it than I've had in a long time, even with laggy internet and the occasional spammy random. It's some of the best of Mario Party, and I only hope we see even more added to it in the coming months.

Minor graphical hiccups aside, Shin Megami Tensei V is an outstanding RPG, made all the more so by its countless improvements over its older siblings. It's tough but enthralling, and brimming with style. More importantly, perhaps, it has great ideas executed to something near perfection. It's been a long wait since Atlus first announced SMT V at the Switch reveal show, but it was absolutely worth it.

Ubisoft's second effort into mountain and extreme sports is an obvious hit. Leveraging the tech of modern platforms makes Riders Republic a fast-moving, always exciting open world, but it also makes room for those who just want to soak up the scenes of life from the mountaintop. While the audio tracks may have you reaching for the mute button, it's maybe a better experience with your own custom soundtrack free of the super-dorks roaming the cutscenes anyway. In a year where Ubisoft's sandboxes were seeming stale, Riders Republic manages to keep me chasing down every icon like I rarely do anymore.

Unpacking is something I play when other games are too stressful or busy to suit my mood. It's a concept I'd never have thought would make for such a rewarding experience, but beyond its simple premise is a story of interesting people and gameplay that inventively combines the homemaking of The Sims with the light-puzzling of a point-and-click.

Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water is a welcome return of an obscure, yet memorable PS2-era series. This revamp of the Wii U version still feels firmly rooted in the past, but it makes such superb use of atmospheric visual and audio effects that the overall experience is a unique take on horror games. It’s well worth giving this remake a second chance.

Made with clear and undivided attention toward its players who may be discovering video games for the first time ever in their young lives, My Friend Peppa is a lovely achievement in family gaming.

I really didn't expect to enjoy Guardians of the Galaxy as much as I did. The game's marketing left me incredibly lukewarm, and I wasn't sure what to expect, even after the first couple of hours with the game. What I found, however, is one of the best stories of the entire year. There's definitely a bit of tedium packed into the overall experience, but Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy is an adventure well worth taking, warts and all.

Dying Light is six years old, but it hasn't lost its edge. A fantastic parkour system, extensive combat customization, and a unique take on the zombie-filled post-apocalyptic world mean Techland's horror game still holds its own after so long. Sure, the resolution could be better on Nintendo Switch, and it's still the same iffy story, but having Dying Light portable and with all the DLC more than makes up for that.

In all, House of Ashes feels marginally better than Little Hope, which I felt was certainly better than Man of Medan. That means The Dark Pictures entries are, by my measure, on an upward trajectory, and I sincerely hope Supermassive is able to make more of them. While I don't think this series has achieved its full potential yet, I think it's just one really great script away from achieving that. As a game, The Dark Pictures is in a great place now. As a script, this third entry in the series goes for The Descent and winds up only decent.

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is an entertaining platform fighter. It bleeds nostalgia, has a good roster of characters, and plays uniquely enough to stand on its own for casual and competitive players alike. The online portions are great when things are working. There isn’t much to do when they aren't, beyond playing local matches and the lackluster Arcade mode. Thankfully, All-Star Brawl was made with updates in mind.

The experience of playing Hell Let Loose is largely dependent on the player. People new to the genre, especially those playing solo, may be inclined to abandon the game entirely after just a few hours, and I wouldn’t blame them. But Milsim veterans, and players who stick around long enough to learn the ropes and find a squad, will find a deep and rewarding experience in this WWI shooter.

Metroid finally returns with a new sequel, and it’s exactly what we expect from the series. It’s a fine return to form for Samus with a huge world to explore but definitely doesn’t reinvent the wheel.

Back 4 Blood comes after a decade of L4D-likes and from the studio that made the timeless original, but it fails to capture the same magic even as well as some prior imitators.

Rogue Lords needs a lot more polish before I could feel comfortable recommending it. The UI's messy, the pacing is off, and it makes itself hard to get into, with overcomplicated mechanics presented in obscure, difficult-to-interpret ways. I like its atmosphere and the glee it takes in letting you be evil, but if I wasn't reviewing it, I probably would've dropped Rogue Lords after the first hour. There's fun to be had here if you can push through it, but like a lot of Eurojank games, it doesn't feel like it's entirely finished.

Far Cry 6 sits at the dead-end of a decade of sandboxes. Existing primarily as a sprawling checklist, its story shows flashes of excellence in a barrage of bad jokes and sometimes fun but familiar tasks.

Astria Ascending wants to be so many things, and perhaps that’s part of the problem. Instead of trying to be mature or recognizable, it should focus on its unique qualities and develop them into something interesting. Whatever the case, it’s difficult to recommend Astria Ascending. There are dozens of other RPGs to give your time and money to, but if you’re curious about this one anyway, I’d strongly suggest waiting for a sale.

Alan Wake still shines in a modern landscape thanks to its unique story and intoxicating atmosphere, and the remastered visuals modernize it just in time for Remedy's inevitable sequel.

Collecting three superb Castlevania entries from the Game Boy Advance era and one more obscure SNES offering, this is a must-have for any fan of the genre that Castlevania carved out.