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

A rousing tennis game for the Game Boy Advance that's thick with bells and whistles in every regard.

Rage creates an engrossing world full of dazzling detail and entertaining shooter action.

This Napoleonic strategy game isn't as revolutionary as its namesake, but it still improves upon previous Total War offerings.

The pure joy of commanding a small army of malicious minions more than makes up for Overlord's minor shortcomings.

By focusing almost exclusively on extremely intense one-on-one competitions, Table Tennis more than compensates for its lean set of options.

The omission of Peace Walker is unfortunate, but the four games and their additional content easily warrant the $40 asking price. Among the current Vita lineup, this collection glimmers like a diamond in the rough.

Samurai Shodown is a great reboot. It captures what made the original fun and unique, but also at a time when high-damage, high-stakes fighters like this are a rarity, making its combat feel both fresh and familiar. Its accessibility and easy-to-grasp gameplay belie a lot of strategic depth that makes for very intense, bloody struggles. While the single-player experience is a bit lacking, it doesn’t drag down the whole significantly--Samurai Shodown is a fighting experience well worth taking up the sword for.

It's a shame Firewatch fails as a mystery because it succeeds in so many other ways. Its world is captivating, its design is clever, and its characters are among the most well-written in gaming. Though it might sound counterintuitive, the plot is in many ways secondary to the relationship you build between Henry and Delilah, and that portion of the game is truly inspired.

It's been years since a game let you pour boiling oil on invading hordes, and Stronghold simulates castle sieges well enough to recommend it to those who are interested in the premise. But it's a hesitant recommendation, due to a poor interface and mediocre campaigns.

Open Tee isn't really any more or less accessible than Tiger, but the playful visual style will likely appeal more to those with no interest in real-world golf, and established Hot Shots fans will definitely find this to be their preferred game.

Red Orchestra is an enjoyable, team-based online shooter for those who like the Battlefield-style games but want a more technical and realistic experience.

Light on content but deep on gameplay, NBA Street Homecourt's PlayStation 3 debut is ultimately a great one.

This retail package containing Bethesda's downloadable content updates for its groundbreaking role-playing game gives you more quality questing for Oblivion for a budget price.

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

A blast to play, although it may be a brief experience for some players.

There's so much packed into this game that it's almost too complicated for its own good--almost. But once you climb The Crusaders' steep learning curve and experience the wild frenzy of its massive battles, you'll find all that complexity pays off in spades.

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. Additionally, the game's overall sense of humor is delightfully self-referential.

Makes good, solid improvements over its predecessor and stands on its own as a great version of The Sims for consoles.

This is an incredibly slick package, and not just on the surface, either. On Tour tightens up a lot of the underlying course designs and gameplay mechanics, and it quickens the pace without betraying the fundamentals of SSX.

So what's the gameplay like once you get the logistics down? In a word, irresistible. Not only is the pace challenging from the get-go, Wetrix has taken the hidden constituent that makes most good puzzle games addictive, and has upped the dosage.

Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate's Booty delivers mild-mannered humor and a satisfying adventure for you to shoot and loot your way through.

Terraria is just as magical and content-rich on consoles as it is on the PC, although the controls aren't ideal for every situation.

The move to sharp graphics makes the game feel modern, yet the series' old-school charm lives on in the vibrant colors and expressive character animations. And the soundtrack is surprisingly catchy--with hilariously passionate (if minimal) voice work and a great score. It's easy to get wrapped up in fighting and platforming through Half-Genie Hero, which speaks to the pedigree of the series, and how well it translates to Shantae's latest adventure.

While its puzzles are at times too straightforward, Little Nightmares is a chilling odyssey well worth taking.

Madden 19 is an excellent football game that improves on last year's entry in almost every way. There are problems, but there has never been a football game that more authentically represents the NFL than this in terms of presentation, controls, and depth.

Even people like me, who have long since given up the prospect of learning an instrument or making music as a creative pursuit, can rekindle a little bit of the creative spark they may have had once upon a time. The core mechanics of switching discs in and out, making new composite songs out of the pieces of others, is both compelling and exciting. Even if you play the campaign and find yourself unmotivated to make songs on your own without the score chase, the simple pleasure of having some songs you like come together into your own song is unique in games, and wholly enchanting.

It's the same adventure you may have experienced many times before, but Star Fox 64 3D is still an enjoyable journey through a dangerous galaxy.

Yoshi's Island DS is a terrific platformer that's every bit as fun and charming as its predecessor.

Fireteam Bravo 2 delivers a solid single-player campaign backed up by a fully-featured online multiplayer game, making it one of the best shooters available on the PSP.

While the game could have been lengthier, Freedom Fighters is still just an outstanding blend of pure action and tactical squad combat. The squad control works incredibly well.

Spirit of Justice takes the Ace Attorney series to new heights by treading old ground. The breadth of tools available to crack cases and the wealth of character drama keep you entangled--it's genuinely difficult to put down the 3DS in the middle of case, what with such colorful witnesses and piles of complex lies to sift through. This is courtroom drama--and the series--at its finest and most fun.

Yes, it's nice to have that attention to detail poured into the physics simulation itself, but when the likes of Forza are heaping on the features, it's hard not to feel shortchanged by GT6's lack of vision. Maybe we'll see the makeover the series sorely needs when it inevitably hits the PS4, but until then, Gran Turismo 6 remains a fantastic simulation; it's just not a great game.

There's fun to be had in Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero, but ultimately this return to form does not spark as much joy as we'd hoped.

GoldenEye 007 is an entirely new and incredibly fun shooter that doesn't rely on its prestigious pedigree to provide thrills.

Makes up for its simplistic gameplay and brief quest with a great deal of variety.

Grimly gorgeous and violently entertaining, The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile is one of the finest games released so far this year.

Sifu will likely ignite the difficulty debate once again, and it's certainly a shame that more people won't get to experience the game because of the barrier for entry. There's design and mechanical justification for having such a steep learning curve, though, and it's part of what makes Sifu so compelling. Your journey from student to master is thrilling, mainly because it's governed by your own improving skill level rather than traditional character progression. There are memorable moments that stand out throughout, such as the boss fights and an enjoyable recreation of the iconic hallway scene from Oldboy, but it's Sifu's combat that shines through most brightly. For as unique and interesting as its aging mechanic is, it wouldn't work without the combat carrying the load and ensuring that each replay is just as engaging as the last. Is one life enough to know kung fu? Maybe not. But I would happily spend mine playing Sifu to find out.

Things like the storefront and the menus and loot system don't make the game terrible, it just would've been better without them. It tries to be larger than its predecessor, there are more abilities, more weapons, more Orcs, yet it leaves you wanting less. But at its core, it's a fun experience with brilliant moments that provide fascinating insight into some of the untold stories of Middle-earth. I just wish it had known when to stop.

Cyber Shadow is a solid retro throwback with a few things that drag it down. The feeling of becoming more powerful and being able to take down huge enemy threats with your wits and skills is very rewarding, and the levels when you can use your abilities more freely to overcome challenges are quite fun. It's the trial-and-error areas littered with cheap deaths, demanding exact precision over long and frustrating stretches, that hamper the experience. Still, if you're looking for an old-school-styled ninja game that will test your skills (and sometimes your patience), Cyber Shadow is a worthy contender.

A few annoyances don't drag down Persona Q2 significantly. As a dungeon crawler, it's challenging and engaging, but doesn’t drag or feel overwhelming. As a piece of Persona fan service, it delivers the goods with delightful crossover character antics and an enjoyable theme. It all combines into a solid little RPG that can keep you hooked for its entire runtime. The curtains may be closing on the 3DS, but Persona Q2 is a terrific way to end the show.

Rin's presence still brings an intriguing new edge to Vincent's crisis, and Full Body still tells a fascinating, personal tale. The nightmarish block puzzles are still weirdly intense and satisfying to surmount, and the Stray Sheep is still a wonderful bar to spend your nights in. Full Body does a great job in refining and refreshing the Persona studio's fascinating foray into the social lives of adults, and Catherine continues to stand out as a game that feels both incredibly bizarre and authentically intimate.

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.

With plenty of control options, new courses, and compelling play both off- and online, Tiger 06 challenges you to build your golf game up from the ground floor.

Patapon 2 adds plenty of new ideas to the already unique gameplay, making it a worthy successor to the original.

This comically savage action game overcomes its frustrations with liberal doses of blood and guts.

Like Owlboy and Iconoclasts before it, CrossCode is the latest in a long line of longer-gestating labors of love that emerge with varying degrees of cohesion. The best thing that can be said about CrossCode is it doesn't feel at all dated or clunky on the other end of a prolonged development time. The biggest knock against it is that CrossCode can and often does wind up feeling both bloated and inspired simultaneously.

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.

Though its balance is a little questionable at times, Metal Arms has quietly come onto the scene to offer one of the most visceral and most satisfying shooting experiences in quite a while.

Where its characters fail to impress, Final Fantasy XV's beautiful world and exciting challenges save the day.

If not for some of the glaring bugs, Frontier would have delivered a truly excellent sequel to a beloved franchise.

Overall, Genshin Impact is a solid game hampered a bit by the restrictions its free-to-play model imposes. The overall production values are high, and the core gameplay is solid. In particular, the elemental interaction system is a ton of fun and gives the game a distinct personality. But while there's a lot to do, having several chunks of Genshin Impact gated off until you've reached a higher rank is an obnoxious restriction for an open-world game to have--and once you finally do see what lies in those unexplored areas, it's often a bit underwhelming. Still, it's a solid start, and I'll certainly be interested in seeing how Genshin Impact continues to evolve in future updates.

Overflowing with colorful personality, Puyo Puyo Tetris revels in its weirdness. It provides solid versions of both puzzle games and merges the two in bizarre, frantic ways that adds a fresh dash of style to these long-running series. With an array of game variations spanning single-player, along with on- and offline multiplayer, it's an incredibly meaty package that should satisfy gamers for a long time to come.

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.

An improved aiming system, awesome create-a-character options, and top-notch gameplay help the Tiger Woods PGA Tour series get off to a great start on the PlayStation 3.

Those who've already played "Tetris Attack" may want to take a pass on this as well, as the addition of the 3D mode and the Pokémon license aren't enough to justify this purchase.

That new life experience is something of a letdown, but the new items and strategic options more than make up for it.

Skulls of the Shogun is a light entertainment that remains enjoyable for just about every minute of its six- or seven-hour life span.

Packed with entertaining action and hysterical writing, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon is an '80s-inspired blast.

In Assassin's Creed, the greatest joy comes from the smallest details, and for every nerve-racking battle, there's a quiet moment that cuts to the game's heart and soul.

Moody new environments, diverse new foes, and even more of Borderlands' signature humor make this new content very entertaining and very worthwhile.

Ni No Kuni 2 is a robust game that offers ample ways to spend your time, and even if they aren't all up to the same level of quality, it's easy to appreciate how they collectively contribute to the bigger picture. It's chock full of excellent battles and surprising moments that make for a far more memorable experience than you initially expect and leaves you impressed by your own accomplishments. If you didn't play the first game, don't let this one pass you by too.

A fantastic representation of baseball, capturing the thrill and grand scale of the national pastime.

It has its restraints, but as the story closes on the plains of Luxendarc, Bravely Second's grasp more than matches its reach.

Beyond Earth's combat suffers from some balance issues though, and that's curious for a game that leans so heavily on proven systems.

When you get onto the pitch, no other football game feels as good as PES 2018.

You can really feel the burn with this collection of exercises and sports-themed challenges.

Madden NFL 26 takes a bigger leap forward than you may expect. On the field, Madden has rounded into shape and is now taking victory laps with its major and minor changes, like more exciting locomotion and lifelike player traits. Its presentation beats finally behave more like the NFL seen on TV every week, with intense weather and big-game showdowns in primetime demanding your attention. Franchise mode's RPG-like deep dive makes it feel like the destination mode it should be, and year-over-year, it represents the most dramatic improvement I can recall in the series' history. Superstar mode still feels like a work-in-progress, and MUT shows no signs of ditching its pay-to-win scheme, but for players like me, who are Franchise-focused and on-field-obsessive, Madden NFL 26 is the game you've been hoping for.

Despite its few faults, Deus Ex Go remains an increasingly fun, rewarding puzzle-solving experience.

The DS version of this great tower defense game can be a little confusing but is a lot of fun to play both solo and competitively.

When Terraria sucks you in, you might find yourself digging and crafting for far more hours than you originally intended.

Assassin's Creed has undergone many changes in its long and storied history, and Origins feels like the first step in the start of a new journey. It has its fair share of problems, but the vision for its future is one worth pursuing.

Madden NFL 07 for the Wii isn't just a quick-and-dirty port. It's an excellent use of the Wii's motion-sensing capabilities that revitalizes Madden in a number of ways.

LostWinds is brimming with potential, but the result leaves a lot to be desired.

The gameplay holds up tremendously well on the PSP platform, as does the presentation. But the lack of compelling, differing content makes it a tough sell to those who previously invested $50 in this year's game.

Just as Final Fantasy Tactics did nearly 10 years ago, Revenant Wings successfully takes the series into uncharted waters in an unforgettable way.

Fans looking to relive the experience of SoulCalibur's early entries may be irked by this game's new additions. But once the steep learning curve is surmounted, you will find a fresh-yet-familiar fighting system that's fun to explore.

Swords & Soldiers is an engaging, goofy romp that takes out the complexity of other real-time strategy games but leaves in all the fun.

This disappointing sequel saps away the unbridled fun that made the original so enthralling.

The various quality-of-life tweaks that Nintendo has implemented here, welcome as they are, don't fix Skyward Sword's biggest issues, and it remains the most uneven 3D entry in the Zelda series. Even so, the improvements in this Switch remaster make the overall experience more enjoyable, and the characteristic Zelda magic ultimately outshines the game's faults.

Rails Across America's many weaknesses certainly don't totally dampen the fun of racing to see who can outbuild the competition.

Mostly geared toward EverQuest's dedicated, hard-core following.

The game exudes a pride in the aircraft that is palpable even to the uninitiated gamer. Just observing the aircraft in flight, especially at high altitude with contrails streaming, is enough to evoke admiration for what the developers have achieved.

While it's a bit disappointing that Afrika Korps doesn't address any of the weaknesses of Barbarossa to Berlin, it's still a great wargame, and its tank-friendly and diverse environments make it the best installment in the series.

The addition of the Online Dynasty mode will please many, but the lack of significant improvements to other key modes of NCAA Football 09 will disappoint many others.

Both on its own and as a tribute to Mario's legacy, Mario vs. Donkey Kong does a great job.

The best, most fully developed part of Deception is its fighting system. Like any great fighting game, this one carefully strikes the balance of delivering fast-paced, visceral thrills and rewarding lots of practice and complex tactics.

An engaging experience but fails to match the gameplay finesse of "GoldenEye."

In many ways, though, Wasteland 2 represents everything about classic computer role-playing games that the modern iterations of Fallout aren't.

This 2D hack-and-slash adventure lacks depth, but the striking backgrounds make it easy to get sucked into its world.

I spent all of my time playing Anno 1800 in a mild yet pervasive state of anxiety. As a city-building sim that emphasizes economic management, it is as robust and powerful as the steel factories it allows you to pollute the skies with. But for all the natural beauty of its island paradise and the architectural splendor of its churches, theatres, and piers, it's just a little too cold in its reliance on numbers and a little too impenetrable in its reluctance to show you its workings. I'm glad I visited, but I don't think I'd want to live there.

Kingdoms of Amalur's combat and character advancement are fantastic enough to overshadow how bland everything else is.

Minit’s lives might only last 60 seconds, but its extremely well-thought-out world design and engrossing loop of progress make it a curse-filled adventure that is worth dying the world over for.

Madden NFL 13 trots out the same basic experience one more time, creating an enjoyable game without any major improvements.

Poker Smash is an exciting and fast-paced puzzle game that puts an interesting twist on a fairly standard gameplay formula.

Stylish art and a gradual difficulty curve make Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony a treat for shoot-'em-up fans of all skill levels.

Call of Duty: Black Ops bears the series' standard superbly, delivering an engrossing campaign and exciting competitive multiplayer.

The pitfalls of Spec Ops don't detract from what Modern Warfare does well, though. Realism mode is an excellent addition to the slate, and although not all the new multiplayer modes are great, Gunfight and the Night Vision playlist are refreshing standouts. And while the campaign ends up playing it safe in the end, it's still a memorable one, and it lays a strong foundation for where the Modern Warfare series could go from here.