Apotheon eschews modern expectations, reflecting a far older brand of storytelling.

The visual design is excellent, the music is avant-garde and memorable, the boss encounters are thrilling, and it’s chock-full of challenges to keep you coming back and playing more.

Rollerdrome is a blast to play, especially as you get the hang of each of its systems and really start to hit the "flow" state Roll7 is trying to achieve. Revisiting old matches and wiping the floor with house players for 20- or 30-times multipliers is extremely satisfying, and doing backflips over enemies while you blast them with a shotgun always looks and feels incredibly cool. Occasionally, aspects of Rollerdrome can be a little too simple for their own good, but overall, the game is a brilliant melding of systems that don't seem like they should work together, but in practice, combines excellent elements of skaters and shooters to elevate both.

It's still a classic Castlevania homage at heart, but it has an eccentricity that feels right at home alongside the giant kitty-cats of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. When a game seems to be having this much fun at its own expense, it's hard not to join in.

Skullgirls is a risque fighter that wraps sex appeal and smooth jazz skintight around a smartly crafted fighting system.

Cuphead has been a longtime coming, and it's great to see that it lives up to its initial promises. It's beautiful to look at, and with a pitch-perfect soundtrack, it flawlessly captures the era its developers so clearly revere. It's also an intense action game that pulls no punches. It could benefit from a few tweaks, and two-player co-op doesn't feel like the valuable addition you might imagine, but Cuphead remains a rare, unique game that truly stands out.

The fast and flashy dual-stick shooting of Galaga Legions DX makes it fun to blast space bugs all over again.

But it's tough for us to say that the dunk mode really adds a lot of value to the franchise, and it's also likely to prove too difficult for most casual players to fully grasp anyway.

This is the essence of Dark Souls III: periods of doubt, followed by great reward. The journey may be rocky, but there's a throne waiting at the end.

Superliminal is a great puzzle experience, full of smart ideas that are richly realized. The game's playful use of the first-person camera and clever perspective manipulation puzzles take video game tropes and mechanics most players will be familiar with and wring something truly fresh out of them. Superliminal achieves its clear central aim--it offers up some genuinely fresh perspectives on what first-person puzzle games can do.

Rock Band for the Wii is still a great game, even if it's scaled back and late to the party.

Superliminal is a great puzzle experience, full of smart ideas that are richly realized. The game's playful use of the first-person camera and clever perspective manipulation puzzles take video game tropes and mechanics most players will be familiar with and wring something truly fresh out of them. Superliminal achieves its clear central aim--it offers up some genuinely fresh perspectives on what first-person puzzle games can do.

If you're violently allergic to puzzle games, Life Goes On won't miraculously cure you. But as long as you're open to the idea of having your mind engaged more than your trigger finger, this melon-twister's wicked personality alone might be enough to pull you into its death grip.

Monster Hunter Generations still feels like a niche, punishing game that bears more in common with Dark Souls than an adventure game you'd typically find on 3DS. But that punishment never feels arbitrary.

Taken all together, Mario 3D All-Stars is a worthwhile collection, featuring the best versions of Mario 64, Sunshine, and Galaxy to appear on a Nintendo system. Although the individual games have been sparingly touched up and there's little in the way of ancillary material to pore over, the titles themselves hold up well and are a delight to revisit. Despite their age, the games are still rife with inventive ideas and surprises, which more than makes up for the collection's presentational shortcomings.

Big Hops is a testament to how much fun can be had with simple ideas done well. Hop has a modest suite of moves, finely tuned, that string together in ways to make movement feel free-flowing and exuberant. On top of that strong foundation, it layers on flexibility making the worlds you explore feel like playgrounds for your creative thinking and platforming finesse. Altogether, the result is a delightful platformer, and the first great game of 2026.

If you've got opposable thumbs, a sense of humor, and a brain that you're not afraid to use, this puzzle-filled adventure is one well worth taking.

Ace Combat 7 is a fantastic return for a series that is at its best when it wears its heart on its wings.

King's Bounty: Crossworlds may be a more-of-the-same expansion, but it's also the best edition of the strategy role-playing hybrid yet released.

With an engaging world to explore and consistently satisfying combat to keep things entertaining, it's easy to fall in love with Death's Door. Its premise hooks you immediately, and it has the style and the substance to maintain the captivating allure of its opening. Perhaps most importantly, it's just consistently fun to play, with sharp enemy designs that keep you on your feet to challenging boss fights that test your skills in satisfying ways. There's a lot of death to deal and souls to reap, but Death's Door makes it a delight every step of the way.

Superliminal is a great puzzle experience, full of smart ideas that are richly realized. The game's playful use of the first-person camera and clever perspective manipulation puzzles take video game tropes and mechanics most players will be familiar with and wring something truly fresh out of them. Superliminal achieves its clear central aim--it offers up some genuinely fresh perspectives on what first-person puzzle games can do.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land + Star-Crossed World takes an already-great game and gives you more of it. The upgrade doesn't feel as essential as the Zelda Switch 2 Edition games, because those helped ambitious games run more smoothly and fully realize their original potential. But it is more substantial than either of those, by nature of adding new story content and stages to explore. Kirby and the Forgotten Land was already a platforming buffet, and this add-on is a great reason to go back for seconds.

Realm of Shadows establishes a compelling Bruce Wayne narrative and is an exciting start to the series.

Coming back to Horizon for The Frozen Wilds alone is still worthwhile for the fights and sights, but it ultimately feels like a missing chapter, rather than an eye-opening extension of what came before. It's easy to imagine how newcomers to Horizon will benefit from its new gear and skills the most, for example. Likewise, its story feels better suited as an interlude than the revelatory companion to the conclusion it tries to be. Yet these are feelings that come up after more than a dozen hours of riveting battles and serene hikes flew by, so it's hard to get too upset at such a captivating experience when it's all said and done.

History is turned on its head with a great story and compelling gameplay that keeps the tempo moving.

Spider-Man 3 is a slick beat-'em-up that uses the touch screen in ways that actually enhance the experience of playing the game.

From its terrific weapon crafting system to its deep well of side content, Dead Space 3 is a massive game rich with options and personalization.

Much like From Software's earlier entries, Dark Souls III obscures its plot beneath its gameplay elements--the story is more concerned with tone than exposition. But what plot there is asks important questions: why do we place our idols in such high regard? How did they become our legends? The Lords of Cinder are imposing figures in Dark Souls III, and their power is attractive to pawns like us. But the end of their road is a lonely one--was that destination worth the sacrifice it took to get there?

With an engaging world to explore and consistently satisfying combat to keep things entertaining, it's easy to fall in love with Death's Door. Its premise hooks you immediately, and it has the style and the substance to maintain the captivating allure of its opening. Perhaps most importantly, it's just consistently fun to play, with sharp enemy designs that keep you on your feet to challenging boss fights that test your skills in satisfying ways. There's a lot of death to deal and souls to reap, but Death's Door makes it a delight every step of the way.

The third add-on pack for Fallout 3 is packed with action and gives you plenty of bang for the buck.

Band Hero makes fake plastic rock easy to pick up, family friendly, and a whole lot of fun.

There's definitely room for improvement down the road, but Rocksmith's debut has one thing going for it above all else: it's the real deal. This ambitious guitar game delivers on its promise of intense rhythm gaming action tied to the act of actual guitar playing. It has something to offer players of all skill levels, whether you're picking up and learning the guitar for the first time or have been playing for ages.

This is a game rife with options and flexibility, building on the strengths of the franchise with clever new ideas that let you tailor the experience to your liking. It hits a few sour notes in its story and struggles at times when it steps away from the core combat, but Dead Space 3 is a thrilling and worthwhile sequel.

Dear Esther spins an intriguing narrative, leaving you to decipher not only the outcome, but if this is even a game.

There are several possible endings to Dark Souls III, and although most are anticlimactic, they drive home the loneliness of the paths we took. The old lords have abandoned their posts, and in the hunt to usurp them, we descend into those dark valleys, and climb those imposing peaks. This is the essence of Dark Souls III: periods of doubt, followed by great reward. The journey may be rocky, but there's a throne waiting at the end.

It's surprising how much Doom: The Dark Ages manages to reign in some of the changes Doom Eternal made while also taking the series in a wholly new direction that redefines its rules of engagement. The emphasis is on melee combat that harmonizes beautifully with the tried-and-tested pace of Doom's action, making each new attack parried and counter-attack landed feel as satisfying as the first. It's a finely tuned adventure that delivers the power fantasy of ripping and tearing through thousands of demons without losing an underlying complexity that makes each encounter engaging to blast through. Although it can falter at times when straying too far from the fundamentals, Doom: The Dark Ages shows that there's still so much fertile ground that this series can explore, and that sometimes smart, measured changes can take the series in surprising new directions and yield some of its finest moments.

The newest Def Jam fighter may be an update of a nearly two-year-old game, but this PSP brawler still packs a punch.

Evergate is remarkably clever. It's a short and sweet treat of a game that constantly invents new ways to interact with the world and to blend game elements together, making for a satisfying test of brainpower and reflexes.

There's definitely room for improvement down the road, but Rocksmith's debut has one thing going for it above all else: it's the real deal. This ambitious guitar game delivers on its promise of intense rhythm gaming action tied to the act of actual guitar playing. It has something to offer players of all skill levels, whether you're picking up and learning the guitar for the first time or have been playing for ages.

This beautiful, gravity-defying multiplayer action game is a robot-killing blast.

An uproariously fun and enjoyable post-Apocalyptic adventure that is a little too familiar at times.

This sequel goes light on the role-playing, but still presents a compelling puzzle experience that's as enjoyable and addictive as the original.

For all the risks Sunset Overdrive takes with its vibrant art direction and intuitive level design, the Mystery of the Mooil Rig is a fundamentally safe spin-off. It’s impressively consistent with the main game, and enough that relearning the controls takes no time, even if you haven’t touched Sunset Overdrive since launch week.

Evergate is remarkably clever. It's a short and sweet treat of a game that constantly invents new ways to interact with the world and to blend game elements together, making for a satisfying test of brainpower and reflexes.

A great game overall. Its voice acting, with the exception of the Borg, is superb--the game even features Patrick Stewart as Captain Picard, who provides voice-over for the game's tutorials.

Arc System Works continues to set a high standard for fighting games with DNF Duel, creating an experience that's both simple enough for new players and robust enough for fighting veterans. 16 unique characters offer plenty of variety, the core fighting system rewards players who dig into it, and the online offerings feel like the arcade scenes of old. I would have preferred a more in-depth story mode, but the rest of what the game brings more than makes up for the misstep. DNF Duel not only excels as a fighting game, but it also reinforces the versatility of the entire genre through its adaptation of an established IP into a whole new experience.

I consistently enjoyed Technobabylon. The puzzles are always meaningful, and the story proves that you can teach the aging dog of cyberpunk some new tricks.

Borderlands 3 has a few stumbling blocks when it comes to bosses, but these fights are overshadowed by the game's rewarding gunplay and over-the-top humor. The game's character-driven narrative acts as a satisfying finale for the loot-shooter franchise, and the new mechanics and features--especially the reworked skill trees and weapon manufacturer effects--give you plenty of agency in how you want to play through it. If you've never been a fan of the franchise, it's unlikely Borderlands 3 does enough things differently to change your mind, as the game best excels at continuing what the series has always done: deliver a humorous tall tale of misfits looting and shooting their way to heroism.

A game that warrants repeated playthroughs to see both endings and experience other relationship choices. Alone With You bears some heavy thematic overlap with recent games like SOMA, Everyone’s Gone to Rapture, and other story-centric releases that focus on the nature of what makes you human, the importance of relationships and contact, and mortality. It’s different enough to feel new despite its retro roots, delivering impactful scenes that shine thanks to a stellar script that brings its few, but emotionally charged, characters to life.

A host of significant additions make this the most exhaustive, but also the most streamlined, Football Manager to date.

There aren't many other games that pull off the same distinct art style as Mouse: P.I. For Hire. Cuphead is the only one that comes to mind, which makes it easy to fall for the game's presentational charms. There's rarely a frame that isn't bursting with style and creativity, and it's none too shabby as a retro-style shooter either. Mouse: P.I. might not reinvent the wheel, but its arsenal of weapons is punchy and delightfully varied, while the fluidity of movement makes for some thrilling, high-speed shootouts. In this instance, you should have no qualms about handing over money to the mouse.

The campaign hits the same satisfying rhythms, the multiplayer captures the same frenetic intensity, and the cooperative zombies mode delivers the same stale undead-massacring action. Caught between striving for the future and remaining rooted in the past, Black Ops II finds solid footing, providing another great ride on the Call of Duty rollercoaster.

Like so many challenging score chases, Bloodroots is still incredibly satisfying when you’re eventually successful. At its highest heights, you’ll find your way around, bouncing from weapon to weapon, kill to kill, to string together a perfect run. Better yet, there are so many ways to approach each area that, no matter how well you do, you can always do it better, faster, crazier. Even when playing Bloodroots is painful--like throw your controller so hard it bounces off the ground, hits you in the head, then breaks your TV painful--there’s always a wildly fun run within reach.

Don't let the understated presentation fool you: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 is a great portable golf game.

With its better balance, new features, and addictive gameplay, PSO Version 2 stands out as one of the last great games for the system.

Despite the occasional frustration in exploring its dream landscapes, the whole of AI: the Somnium Files winds up being a fun, thrilling, and engaging experience. The story is filled with intriguing twists and shocking surprises, and the characters and their individual arcs inspire you to care about what happens to them. The somnium dream worlds add a layer of psychological horror to the ongoing mystery, and Date and Aiba’s constant back-and-forth interactions provide levity to make every investigation all the more amusing. AI's unconventional detective story is one you won’t soon forget.

Metro 2033 is a dark journey saturated with an enthralling atmosphere that will reward intrepid adventurers.

The newest entry in the revered series features plenty of awesome action, a great new character...and a bit of repetition.

Multiplayer co-op and a number of other great additions make diving into Orcs Must Die! 2 a delight.

Great. With just a bit more variety to its tracks and a slightly better career mode, it definitely could have been better, but it has great graphics, solid sound, and the sort of easy learning curve that makes it a driving game that anyone can excel at.

There are moments in this game about which I can't go into detail, but they are the main reason I've given this game the high score you see below. The first time I came upon an example of a particular game mechanic, I jumped out of my seat with excitement, alerting my wife that what I thought Immortality was going to be had dramatically changed in an instant. Even once I learned how Immortality works, it continued to surprise me with what it would show me, what it would tell me, and best of all, what it would refuse to tell me, leaving me to dwell on it long after I finally discovered Marissa's fate.

Observation is a wonderful example of how to do focused, self-contained science-fiction storytelling in a game. It's well-written and clever, and nails the sci-fi tropes and aesthetics it both plays to and builds upon. It's a game that demands to be analyzed and thought about further once you're done with it, and while the internal world of the game is small, inhabiting it is a real pleasure.

Space Invaders Extreme is short, but there's plenty to keep your hands, eyes, and ears occupied during this psychedelic invasion.

It creates the most accurate representation of the world of Springfield ever put into a game, and it manages to make the gameplay surrounding it quite a lot of fun.

A funky little pocket peripheral adds a fun new twist to a dated formula.

Observation is a wonderful example of how to do focused, self-contained science-fiction storytelling in a game. It's well-written and clever, and nails the sci-fi tropes and aesthetics it both plays to and builds upon. It's a game that demands to be analyzed and thought about further once you're done with it, and while the internal world of the game is small, inhabiting it is a real pleasure.

Crazy stunts, a huge gameworld, and a playful attitude make Just Cause 2 a lot of fun despite its annoyances.

TrackMania 2: Canyon is an exciting arcade racer that fluctuates between the highly accessible and the extremely complex.

The combination of careful, quiet exploration punctuated by fierce combat is what makes Beyond the Myth so much fun.

Overcooked contains all the necessary ingredients for a truly excellent co-op game.

Beat Saber is an exhilarating rush and an exhausting game to play in the best way.

Arkanoid is as much fun today as it was 20 years ago, and the DS version is arguably the best yet.

Enjoyable combat and a great loot system make this hack-and-slash role-playing game hard to put down.

It's certainly a bold undertaking that delves into some philosophical and science-fiction territory that most games wouldn't dare touch, and though it may not be a superior game to its predecessor, on its own merits it's a great and original experience that's well worthwhile.

Little things mean a lot in NHL 12, which subtly refines the best arcade hockey game ever made.

Delayed gratification from the episodic release schedule or not, this 2016 take on Hitman is a brilliant game. Expansive level design and nearly unlimited replay value courtesy of so many routes to your assassinations (and so many methods with which to carry them out) make the experience almost completely different each and every time you play. Yes, Agent 47 took his time getting here, but it was time well spent.

While it does lack some of the extra bells and whistles of other modern games, The Binding of Isaac remains an enjoyable (and demented) adventure.

Grim Dawn can be like pulling the lever on a slot machine, the only difference being that the reward here isn’t cash but the gory explosion of beasts and the clink of loot-drops. I know from personal experience that this game has that certain something, and even if you think that you've grown tired of games of its ilk, Grim Dawn has enough tricks up its sleeve to charm even the most grizzled veteran.

A dizzying variety of new and classic armaments and parts, allowing for unprecedented amounts of Armored Core customization.

The Brigmore Witches is a haunting end to the Dishonored story arc.

Delayed gratification from the episodic release schedule or not, this 2016 take on Hitman is a brilliant game. Expansive level design and nearly unlimited replay value courtesy of so many routes to your assassinations (and so many methods with which to carry them out) make the experience almost completely different each and every time you play. Yes, Agent 47 took his time getting here, but it was time well spent.

Orwell is a hard experience to pull back from, even as the dirtiness of your job sinks in. It uses simple mechanics to tell a complex and engaging story, one that feels particularly relevant right now. This is a game where your choices matter and resonate, and which will leave you with plenty to think about once it’s over.

Pokemon X and Y benefit greatly from their leap to a fully 3D world, and have plenty to offer both veterans and novices alike.

If you missed the first game, though, this is the better of the two, and the tutorial will ease you into what its 2D skateboarding is all about. And if you loved it the first time around, "more OlliOlli" shouldn't sound like a bad thing. Provided you can get over the difficulty hump, you'll find a great high score chase in OlliOlli2.

Starseed Pilgrim makes saving the sky from a virulent blackness an especially rewarding challenge.

Ridge Racer Unbounded is a dramatic departure for the series, but one that's filled with some gloriously destructive, fast-paced racing.

This is one of the best traditional point-and-click games out there--it oozes charm, keeps the puzzles sensible, and boasts a story that makes you laugh and warms your heart.

Blacklist makes it fun to fly solo, but it's when you join others that the stealth action really heats up.

A stimulating ride that throws everything at you at once--in a good way.

Despite these faults, Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun is an extremely fun game with a contagious reverence for classic '90s shooters and the Warhammer universe at large. Its entire arsenal of flesh-combusting weapons is a joy to use, and its simple gameplay loop is kept fresh by a steady supply of new armaments and enemy types to squash under the almighty boot of the Imperium. It's not trying to revolutionize the genre and that's perfectly fine; it's the type of game to hire avid Warhammer fan Rahul Kohli (Gears of War 5, Midnight Mass) to voice its protagonist, only to make him exceptionally easy to miss unless you stumble upon the "Taunt" button. There aren't any gameplay advantages to hitting this button, but you do get to hear Kohli relish in delivering some Space Marine-appropriate lines as he nails the angry, regal tone. That's almost worth the price of admission alone.

Delayed gratification from the episodic release schedule or not, this 2016 take on Hitman is a brilliant game. Expansive level design and nearly unlimited replay value courtesy of so many routes to your assassinations (and so many methods with which to carry them out) make the experience almost completely different each and every time you play. Yes, Agent 47 took his time getting here, but it was time well spent.

Pokemon X/Y isn't quite a mega evolution of its numerous predecessors, but like a dark move played against a ghost- or psychic-type pokemon, it doesn't disappoint.

In essence, this is a standalone experience for Star Wars fans looking for a raucous thrill ride without all the massively multiplayer thrills. The Old Republic has needed this missing piece for some time now, and now that it has arrived, it's time to be the Jedi or Sith you've always wanted to be.

You'd be doing yourself a great disservice to dismiss Unbounded just because it doesn't handle like you're used to, or because Reiko isn't there to mentally undress during loading screens.

Cadence of Hyrule is a fantastic Zelda game in its own right, even though it adopts the gameplay mechanics of another series. Beyond the aesthetics, it nails the satisfying sense of exploration and increasing power, and it revels in the joy of discovery, as all the best Zelda games do. It's an extremely successful melding of two great game series and an experience that makes you feel eager for Nintendo to do more interesting things with their major licenses.

More content and clever courses make Pacific Rift everything you'd want in a Motorstorm sequel.

On a pure gameplay level, Fighting EX Layer is an absolute treat. What it lacks in bells and whistles it delivers in pure, fun combat. This is a game made for the sort of people who will spend hours perfecting an impractical, extremely-precise combo in training mode simply for the satisfaction of having done it. If that describes you, then Fighting EX Layer will be worth everything you put into it.

After years of solitude, the world's most addictive management game goes multiplayer with great results.