The games in the Ninja Gaiden Master Collection still hold up, but the remaster falters on bringing new quality of life features and fixing some of the trilogy's more glaring issues.

There are some mechanics that ultimately feel gimmicky, but Scarlet and Violet's storytelling and exploration feel like the breath of fresh air the franchise desperately needed. More than anything, I have hope for how eventual DLC might be able to improve the overall experience or how Game Freak can learn from its mistakes to create an even more memorable experience in the future.

Battletoads returns after 26 years, and it's a love letter to gaming past and present.

RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Complete Edition is a nostalgic trip down amusement park lane that feels every bit its age.

Jumpship's debut mixes grand sci-fi and familial drama in a more cinematic take on PLAYDEAD's earlier titles to mixed effect.

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.

In spite of some humor that hasn't aged well, Saints Row 4 on the Switch is still a sandbox well worth playing in.

Rogue-lite and bullet hell fans will both find something to enjoy about HyperParasite, a retro 80's-themed bullet hell roiling over with mean streets and terrible hairdos.

Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town is a surprisingly dull and lifeless farm-sim that's a shadow of its storied self. We’re left with caricatures and a game that shows only the slightest hint of recognizing what makes a fun gameplay loop.

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.

There are some mechanics that ultimately feel gimmicky, but Scarlet and Violet's storytelling and exploration feel like the breath of fresh air the franchise desperately needed. More than anything, I have hope for how eventual DLC might be able to improve the overall experience or how Game Freak can learn from its mistakes to create an even more memorable experience in the future.

Cozy Grove presents island life sans crass Capitalistic Raccoon Overlords, and is a lovely experience through and through. If you took Animal Crossing and just indie’d the hell out of it, you’d get Cozy Grove.

In full, Lake doesn't quite reach the highs I experienced when I played it in part earlier this year. The story gets in its own way with narrative threads that compete for time and ultimately leave none of them with a satisfying conclusion. While the game is beautiful and its central mail carrier gameplay is as strangely enticing as it seemed all along, it's the people of Providence Oaks I will not miss.

Modern Warfare 2 Remastered is a mostly commanding return of the game's classic single-player, though not without a few hiccups.

Breathedge isn’t the greatest survival-crafting game out there, but it is one of the more unique. There are genuine moments of brilliance here. You have to look to find the better aspects of its storytelling and find a way around the aggravating narration, but dig deep enough, and you will find some amazing things.

The Medium is less survival-horror and more adventure-horror like the studio's past games, but so long as Bloober Team is still refining this style, the team is clearly getting better. Characters and story are stronger here than in anything this team has done yet, and the world is rich in detail and atmosphere, made all the better with a moody soundtrack.

Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed enhances the look and gameplay of the 2006 classic, but it does not solve some of the game's underlying issues.

Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions is legitimately the best arcade sports title to come out since Rocket League.

In the ever-shifting hero shooter genre, Rocket Arena makes a name for itself as the family-friendliest of the bunch without sacrificing its competitive spirit.

The Chant is by no means a great game, and there are plenty of sketchy aspects. Combat is iffy and clumsy, and there are a lot of fetch quests. Just the same, The Chant is mostly enjoyable thanks to a solid story and lush environments.

The Winters' Expansion doesn't add content to Resident Evil Village so much as it seasons it. There's some fun to be had here, but as a whole, it's a little insubstantial.

Dice Legacy is just too shallow and too reminiscent of other, better games. It's just far too simplistic to have any kind of real replayability, and since your first playthrough will be done in four or five hours at most, that leaves little to play for. Sure, the game does try to extend its replay value by offering different starting conditions and rule restrictions to try to get you to play it again, but it's the same meta every time with no real variation. There's no shortage of good roguelikes out there. Crack those open instead. You'll have a lot more fun that way.

Lords of the Fallen is a satisfying action RPG and a remarkable soft reboot of a franchise that nobody thought had a future. There’s so much more soul here than the 2014 original, along with plenty of depth for those who want to engage deeply with its systems. This includes the fully malleable customization, in which classes can equip any gear once the stat requirements are met, essentially morphing mid-playthrough. It’s unfortunate that a genuinely great game is sullied by a severe lack of polish.

Last Stop feels like a more palatable follow-up to Variable State's ponderous premiere, but one that is made without sacrificing all of the burgeoningly signature weirdness of the small team. Though the story takes risks, it manages to rein them in a bit, as not to drown its players in metaphor, something the team once seemed happy to do in 2016. Questions go unanswered and some mysteries are once again meant to idle in the player's mind, but in all, Last Stop is more popcorny than I expected but no less entertaining.

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.

Cruis’n Blast shoves players kicking and screaming to the time when the Dreamcast was king, racing was purely about things blowing up for no reason, and unicorns had great engine noises. And I love it for that.

The '90s are back, sort of, in a comic book/urban fantasy mash-up that provides some co-op fun but can't quite live up to the rest of its genre.

Maneater's deep combat and deeper oceans provide just the type of blissful escapism we need right now.

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is a fun little title for fans of Action-RPGs with not much roleplaying to speak of. It’s far from perfect, but with a runtime of 15 to 20 hours, being a pleasant diversion is enough to earn its keep.

Even if you thought you were "done" with Assassin's Creed Valhalla already, Wrath of the Druids has more than enough elements to drag you back in. It may not break a lot of new ground, but raiding monasteries, making terrible decisions, double-crossing friend and foe, and partaking in more drinking contests is good fun and a well-made complement to an already great game.

Madden 22 tries its best to improve with some updates to its gameplay, The Yard, and Franchise Mode that feel like a step in the right direction. However, rehashing of old systems and ideas, a continued push towards microtransaction-laden content, and bugs getting worse and worse means that this iteration will need extra time to really grow as a program.

While the bones of a great battle royale are here, there’s just not enough meat on ‘em at present.

Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge is a uniquely fun farming sim fueled by heart, a message of conservation, and a whole lot of frogs.

Maquette is a realistic, empathetic portrayal of two people falling in love and what comes next. If it was only that, it would make a great audio drama, or with some tweaking, a touching movie or book. But it's a game, and despite the awe-inspiring first impression it delivers, the cagey puzzle logic can leave you more hopeless than the central pair's prospects for longevity.

The presentation of Blue Fire is clean and elegant. It’s clear a lot of care and love has gone into the lore, writing, music, and overall design of the game. But sadly, the actual mechanical parts don’t quite hang together. There are a lot of interesting ideas at work, but they just can't elevate Blue Fire above a curiosity. Coupled with the bugs, I’m hesitant to recommend it to anyone but the most ardent of platforming fans.

Atomic Heart does many things well. It capably takes what games like Bioshock did before and puts a unique spin on it. The guns and powers are fun to use, fighting rampaging robots is a blast, and the setting of an alternate-history 1950’s Russia is fresh and interesting. The protagonist, unfortunately, is a deluge of awful dialogue, and the attitudes for female-presenting characters are concerning. Mix in slogging through open-world segments of infinitely respawning enemies, and you have a good game that is a few better choices away from being great.

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?

A unique direction for the Digimon franchise comes with growing pains and flashes of greatness in equal measure.

While Mario Golf: Super Rush isn't the deepest experience, the arcade gameplay and modes on offer allow it to stay on par.

Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythmic Adventure Pack is a novelty game, and like most novelties, it's shallow with short-lived appeal. It doesn't offer enough variety in songs to make an easy recommendation, and it certainly falls short with its adventure modes. There are better rhythm games on Nintendo Switch for the same price or less.

Visually, The Callisto Protocol is one of the only games for the PS5 and Xbox Series X that feels like a next-generation game. But that ambition has clearly come at a cost. For all its bells and whistles, The Callisto Protocol isn't doing much of anything new with its story or design. It's not just a Dead Space imitator, but it does manage to take a lot of the ideas from earlier action horror games and execute them half as well. Alongside myriad factors and the fact that New Game Plus and Hardcore modes — staple features of the genre — aren't coming until next year is evidence that The Callisto Protocol should have been given more time to have a smoother, fully-featured launch.

Enjoyed hacking a way at poor, helpless souls in the first game? Then check in and see how the evolution fairs in the sequel.

Whether you love Italian folklore, architecture, music, or just want to explore a new souls-like, Enotria: The Last Song, is a title you’ll want to pick up. It features easy to pick up combat mechanics, a spin on parrying, and a fully detailed world filled with foes to defeat.

Killer Klowns is a faithful adaptation, but nostalgia cannot compensate for lacking features that other asymmetrical horrors do better.

Madden 21 takes a few shots down field but ultimately plays it safe — and in some ways, too safe.

One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 is not only one of the best One Piece games but possibly one of the best Musou games around.

The game feels like a regression from Supermassive's previous work. The Quarry was a refreshing return to form for Supermassive, but The Devil in Me and the overall lackluster quality of the rest of The Dark Pictures Anthology make me think that this IP may be out of ideas.

For me, Outcast: A New Beginning was really a tug-of-war between “it’s fun,” and “it’s driving me crazy.” While some features stood out to me, like the jetpack and weapon modules, they really couldn’t make up for the lackluster characters, a map that was just too big, and bugs that ruin the experience. Fans of the franchise may want to give it a try to compare to the classic experience as it’s undoubtedly a step up in terms of mechanics. However, it’s not necessarily something I would want to play again myself, which lowers my rating for the game overall, and honestly, restricts me from recommending it to others.

The Pokemon Sword and Shield Isle of Armor DLC is a worthy add-on to the base game, despite being somewhat light on content.

For all its faults, though, Star Ocean: The Divine Force is a relentlessly charming game that reminds me of the best PS2 RPGs. It won’t convert anyone; this is very much a JRPG, albeit a modern one. So if you don’t like the genre, this won’t change your mind. But if you’re looking for a fun romp across the stars, you’ll find The Divine Force to be a journey worth taking.

I love Outlast and horror games in general. So, I enjoy The Outlast Trials well enough to recommend it as a solid experience. There’s a lot of room for it to grow yet, but Red Barrels delivers a terrifying game that you can complete the main section of in about four hours if you don’t fail any trials. It’s the kind of game that doesn’t force you to play it constantly, but you can always come back to it and have a good time with friends.

Thymesia is one of the best Souls-likes to enter the genre in years and is worth your time, attention, and occasional rage moment. If you played too much Elden Ring and are looking for something to provide a relatively bite-sized but tightly packed Souls experience, this is the game for you.

The real issues arise as you get further into High on Life, and the game's humor and shooting both start to grow stale. I wish High on Life evolved more and put more complexity into its second half, which is sadly too focused on back-tracking. If you're a fan of Roiland's previous works, you'll likely find a lot to love here, and even if you're not, this a shooter with a unique aesthetic and sense of humor you won't find anywhere else. Just be aware that your hours of fun might come with a healthy dose of frustration.

Earth Defense Force: World Brothers manages to mix adorable block graphics with surprisingly rigorous and intense shooting action. While there are some areas where it feels a little too dumbed down, the overall game is a fun and frantic arcade shoot fest. The sheer variety of characters, weapons, levels, enemies, and team-building options is impressive. This makes it a solid choice, especially as a shooter to play with the kids.

Madden 23 unfortunately delivers another lukewarm experience that isn't saved by its new key features.

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

Fairy Tail is an occasionally charming game for fans at best, and an incredibly repetitive RPG at worst.

Mystery Dungeon DX gets the story right, but ultimately fails to deliver on everything else.

Monster Energy Supercross 4 is not a Jack of All Trades. It attempts to do many things, but most of them fall flat. However, what it does do well, namely thrilling and authentic motocross racing, it does with complete mastery. This is an occasionally great game that is often mediocre, and a minor upgrade as a sequel.

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.

Bubble Bobble returns in fine form, showing off to a new generation why it’s earned such a following over the decades. This new version looks great, is full of nostalgic charm, and most importantly, tons of dinosaur bubble-filled charm.

Naruto x Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections is built on the solid foundation of Storm games that came before it. But it fails to truly set itself apart. Between the lack of innovation, numerous issues at launch, and average story modes, Naruto x Boruto ends up feeling unfinished. While the fighting is fun in its own right, this game still needs a fair amount of polish.

For a time, the beats of nostalgia carry this remake, but eventually, the goggles fall off and its dated gameplay is laid bare.

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.

What makes NBA 2K24 all the more frustrating is that at its core, it’s a perfectly competent, if not exceptional, sports game. That’s especially true when compared to contemporaries such as FIFA (soon to be EA Sports FC) and Madden. Not only is the open-world adjacent MyCareer mode fun, but new modes such as Mamba Moments and the time-warping myNBA Eras also give you tons of mileage. But to get the absolute most out of it, you’re forced to pay extra. And that’s a hard pill to swallow.

Those who played Deliver Us the Moon may find something more to love here, but I had a hard time coming back to the Red Planet between sessions. Knowing I would spend my time with bland characters only to walk around empty space stations before being sucked back into the narrative melodrama ultimately proved as cold as the vacuum of space.

Ultimately, King of Seas makes for a great take on the pirate’s life. Admittedly, it’s a slow burner at first and because of the more precise nature of its combat, 3DCloud’s newest game won’t appeal to everyone, so I’d recommend trying the demo first. Should you stick with it, there’s an entertaining world with enjoyable exploration, in-depth combat, and pleasant visuals. Backed up by a great swashbuckling soundtrack, these aren’t shallow waters.

Worms Rumble takes the long-running turn-based series into the world of real-time online action for the first time. Worms works in real-time as a fast-paced, side-scrolling free-for-all, even with all the omissions and limitations. Despite all the complaints, Worms Rumble is a ton of fun. That said, this feels like a slight divergence from the main series.

Snack World works as a tasty, but not entirely satisfying, appetizer, with too much filler and some strange balancing choices.

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.

Serious Sam 4 is a delightfully old-school first-person shooter that doesn't bring a ton of new stuff to the table but still hits all the right notes.

Soulstice is a completely serviceable action title that contains plenty of thrills and some stellar combat, even if its story and presentation fail to rise above its inspirations. Nothing about Soulstice will redefine the character-action genre, but if you're hungry for a deep and challenging experience, it should fit that need nicely.

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.

There's an absurd amount of classic Shmup love here, even if these collections are a little too light on extras.

Port Royale 4 is an economy management game set during the Caribbean age of piracy. It nails its trade but walks the plank in a few other areas.

Taken on its own and within a bubble, AEW: Fight Forever certainly provides a unique flair for those who like pro-wrestling games. Sadly, when considering other wrestling games, such as WWE 2K23 and Fire Pro Wrestling World, it falls short of the mark. This isn’t Le Champion; it’s Le Chump-ion.

Dustborn is an interesting game for people with an acquired taste. It succeeds as an art project but fails in many regards as a video game.

Disjunction is a fun stealth action game with great art and music, but there aren't enough interesting elements to keep the gameplay from eventually growing stale. It is held back by a lack of interesting development in both gameplay and story, however, and overstays its welcome. This is a good first outing from a small development team that can’t quite live up to its legendary predecessors.

The DioField Chronicle is a unique strategy RPG that tries something truly new in the genre, even if it stumbles a bit along the way.

Gotham Knights is a surprising game. On the surface, it looks like a lesser knockoff of the Batman games that came before, but underneath that rough exterior is a well-crafted action RPG with outstanding co-op, engaging characters, and a story worth taking time to enjoy.

If what you’re looking for is a quick burst of arcade action, or just a decent action game you can jump into and play for 10 to 20 minutes, Gaiden’s got you covered. It doesn’t have quite as much depth as something like Streets of Rage 4, but its crowd-control mechanics are an entertaining addition to the basic beat-’em-up formula.

Aliens Fireteam Elite already has new story missions lined up for the future, so there’s a distinct possibility the game will be able to hold player interest for a while. If you’ve got bug-hunting buddies to play with, you’ll have a much better time. Single players, however, should probably give it a pass.

Lacking fresh ideas, NBA 2K21 feels like it's just going through the motions and is a placeholder for its next-gen counterpart.

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

This flashy remake of Abe's sequel is gorgeous to look at, but it rarely captures the excitement or feeling of the Oddworld forebears.

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.

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

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

Ultimately, there is a great game somewhere in Rust Console Edition. Mixing its social aspects, which allow you to approach and talk to anyone, with such a formidable survival experience is a neat inclusion that makes for some of my most memorable moments in a genre game. However, with an unforgiving logged-off state and other players constantly murdering and looting you, it feels impossible to imagine having a fully equipped save for any real length of time — at least not within dozens if not hundreds of hours in the game.

SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated hits you with nostalgia, but that's not enough to carry it forward in 2020.

Retrosoft clearly understands the kind of game it wanted to make in RetroMania, and aesthetically, it succeeds. Gaining the momentum in a match that's in full swing, and keeping it until victory, is exhilarating. But as of now, RetroMania perpetuates aspects of pro wrestling that are better left in the past.

Sure, being able to take it on the go sweetens the deal ever-so-slightly, but that's hardly worth it when it looks and plays like an absolute mess. Even the best-looking version of Crysis still doesn't hold up as well today, simply due to its outdated gameplay mechanics.

The Destiny 2 Lightfall expansion trips at the starting gun and falters almost the whole way through.

With Biomutant, the end result is a game that I enjoyed playing, despite the criticisms and score. I burn out fast with most open-world games, but I wanted to explore every corner of this unconventional world, even when it didn’t always give me a good reason to. I don’t think you can call a game bold enough to mix so many influences together safe, but there’s a distinct sense Experiment 101 came close to playing it safe. Whether from budget restraints, time restrictions, or COVID impacts, I don’t know, but Biomutant needs a sequel or DLC to make the most out of the strong foundation already present.

Maneater: Truth Quest might not completely deliver on its irreverence this time around, but being a mega still delights.

Overall, The Casting Of Frank Stone is thrilling and engaging as a Dead By Daylight player and as a narrative adventure gamer. The gameplay mechanics are simplistic, but that was to be expected with a narrative game such as this. My only gripe is the lack of a ‘skip scene’ feature when replaying certain chapters. If I could skip every scene where Stan is speaking, I would. The Cutting Room feature makes up for a lot of any small annoyances. though. Any missed Trinkets or Relliks can be uncovered later and there are so many more paths to unlock. I look forward to discovering what other horrors await the film crew in The Casting Of Frank Stone.

Marvel's Avengers is the most broken gaming experience in 2020, and even if it was polished, it would be severely flawed.

Could it be improved over time with updates? Absolutely. The previous game has a long history of improving implementations and walking back on changes. As a fan of the series, this regrettably feels par for the course. However, a new entry should have a strong start and not be equal parts fun and frustrating. It could be fantastic in a year if not less, but right now it’s just squandered potential.