Oxenfree is more than a ghost story with a Freaks and Geeks-like coating. It's a tale of coping with loss, broken relationships, and the inflexibility with which teenagers deal with sudden change, all layered under an alarming paranormal encounter. I left Oxenfree feeling hollow and strained, emotionally spent yet excited to play again and uncover more of the mystery. It doesn't hammer you with platitudes about friendship and loss, but hands you a knot to untangle that rewards you at every success with an emotional gut punch. It doesn't ask you any big questions, and certainly isn't easy in relenting its answers; Oxenfree just is what it is, a big little game about the all-too-human inability to let go of what hurts us.

It's clear that Stormregion didn't need to fix much in Phase One, and so Phase Two plays it safe by offering more of the same. But in the case of Codename: Panzers, "more of the same" still translates into some fun and beautiful destruction.

Defend your Grannie from mutant hordes in the tough but satisfying Mutant Mudds.

After a few dozen hours the semi-ludicrous story and systems set in front of you feel so comfortable together that this mashup of developer Atlus' most popular franchise and Intelligent Systems' beloved strategy RPG seems like it was destined to be.

Often ends up feeling like a string of puzzles whose solutions are pretty obvious. Nevertheless, Full Spectrum Warrior is very good overall, and deserves credit for being something other than just another military-themed shooter or strategy game. It's just too bad that it isn't more involving.

Duke is back and he's still out of bubble gum. Come get some.

Though you won't find anything especially new in this version of the game, you will find all the same classic Mega Man goodness that was on the other versions, and at a slightly cheaper price at that.

Teardown's greatest strength then lies in its underlying premise. The ability to jump into highly reactive maps with an assortment of fun tools to tear them apart remains as entertaining now as it was when I first started playing, and the chaotic nature of its physics are a consistent source of joy. It's a pity that the campaign fails to leverage this well in its first half, exacerbated by a slow trickle of new objectives and tools to use. These help expose the smart design that Teardown has from the start, which only really becomes evident much later in its campaign. If you can get past that, or if you dive into the bursting modding scene, there's a lot of cathartic mayhem in Teardown that will likely keep you coming back for more.

Pro Evolution Soccer returns for a third PSP outing, and though it still plays a good game of football, it offers relatively few new tricks.

The battle system has a flaw or two, but the lavishly detailed world of Baten Kaitos is a great place to go for a nice fairy tale.

Wanderstop, at its core, is the type of game that I suspect a player will need to play at precisely the right time in life to truly connect with. As its story (and Alta) unraveled around me, I was reminded of my own struggles and kept thinking about how comforting it might have been back then. Regardless, I adore the fact that it exists and will surely serve that purpose for so many others. It's an audiovisual delight, its narrative and characters are memorable, and I applaud the way it tackles burnout and how self-destructive productivity can be--especially in a time when just about every other influencer is preaching hustle culture and life optimization. That said, Wanderstop is not for everyone, and its gameplay and rough edges create a formidable barrier to truly enjoying what it does well.

Tetris' first appearance on the PlayStation 3 is also one of its best.

Explosive combat and terrific controls make Renegade Ops a great vehicular dual-stick shooter.

Darwinia+ is a crazy addictive repackaging of two great puzzle real-time strategy games for Xbox Live Arcade.

Levels are linear and predictable, focused on ushering you from one straightforward encounter to another so that you can go crazy with those deranged arms of yours. If you are a fan of the original game, bear this in mind: The Darkness II is a fun, very short FPS without the authentic atmosphere and subtle touches that made its predecessor so intriguing. Still, if you've got a lust for virtual blood, The Darkness II leaks enough of it to satiate you.

Deftly avoids the many pitfalls of AI squad tactics, and this, combined with great control, mission design, and presentation, makes for a truly fantastic game.

The PC version unquestionably has the best online features of any of the game's versions, since it lets you create clubs and track various stats online.

It's unfortunate that some elements of "NBA Street's" sense of style were lost in the translation between basketball and football, and the lack of a consistently enjoyable single-player mode is a problem for sure, but the game's excellent multiplayer component and its great level of graphical polish ultimately make NFL Street a game well worth playing for any fan of the arcade football genre.

My single reservation it's that the AI isn't always as sharp as it could be...But in the end, Rifles is still a deep, satisfying, wholly entertaining wargame.

As a historical monument of two genre landmarks, it is fantastic; as two individual RPG titles, each is a masterpiece of gameplay and storytelling; but as a modern collection of classic titles, the package falls unfortunately short.

The standard that subsequent fighting games published for the Game Boy Advance must meet or beat. It compromises nothing in delivering the arcade KOF experience to the palm of your hand.

The game's real goals aren't exciting enough to carry the game, so once you've unlocked enough levels to be satisfied and gotten the hang of the controls, there really isn't a whole lot more to see. Fans of the genre will be left wanting more.

It's not for everyone--but, in the end, Crystal Chronicles can be a tremendously entertaining multiplayer game for those willing to work together to overcome some obstacles both in the game itself and in its design.

The huge number of levels available and the two-player split-screen mode -- slowdown ridden as it is -- make for an incredible amount of value.

Fans of either series would do well to check the game out.

In collecting, battling, and exploring, Sword and Shield cut out the bloat and focus on what makes these pillars of the Pokemon games so captivating in the first place. You're not held back by overly complicated back-end systems or hoops to jump through; from the outset, you can start wandering the Galar region, seeing its new Pokemon, and trying out its new battle strategies with very little in your way. This leaves you free to enjoy what Pokemon is all about, and that makes for an incredibly strong showing for the series' proper debut on Switch.

Despite its aging formula, New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe is still a great entry in the series, with its typically tight platforming and both accessibility and depth to spare. While it can feel a bit stale for those who have been round the Mushroom Kingdom one too many times before, Deluxe is well worth playing, especially if you didn't get a chance to play NSMBU on Wii U.

When combined with the original game, Tribunal's features make an excellent role-playing game even better.