Picks up where "Symphony of the Night" left off and stands out as one of the best portable adventures ever created.

Though Resident Evil 2 has its roots firmly in the past, it reworks the familiar horrors into something that feels brand new and all its own.

As part of the launch line-up for the Switch 2, [Donkey Kong Bananza] nicely fills the gap for one of Nintendo's signature substantial single-player adventures. But more importantly, it's an excellent game in its own right, and deserves to be mentioned alongside games like Mario Odyssey as among Nintendo's best recent work.

This is an ambitious and finely tuned adventure that gets better and better as you play.

I may not have yet unveiled all there is to know about this beastly game, even after 80 hours of play, but I do know this: I will be adventuring through Drangleic for many months to come, sure to be haunted nightly by the disturbing gazes of the faceless titans that tenderize my flesh with their two-ton hammers.

An all-around excellent game that confidently challenges, head-on, all the other WWII-themed shooters out there and comes out on top.

One of best football games to date. Madden NFL 2004 covers nearly every facet of professional football, but what makes this year's entry in the series so special is that it ties all its components together seamlessly.

Mario Kart DS represents a significant step forward for Nintendo's much-loved racing series, and not only because it's the first to feature online play.

Easily the best Crash yet. Every aspect of the game is better: new moves, levels, bosses, graphics, sound, and gameplay. It's the most fun I've had with a 3D platform game in a long, long time.

There are two kinds of video-game fans who play golf games: the kind who play hard-core golf simulations and the kind who play everything else. Mario Golf is, amazingly, the kind of golf game that could appeal to both. Anyone who would turn a blind eye to Mario Golf because of its exterior qualities will be missing perhaps the best golf game on a console.

Just as you might improperly dismiss Flower as "not a game," you might also improperly dismiss it for its brevity: You could easily finish in an hour, and that hour progresses at a relaxed pace, lulling you into security rather than pumping adrenaline into your nerves. But value is more than a simple price-to-minutes ratio, and I'd sooner revisit Flower's serenity than countless 50-hour grindfests.

Assassin's Creed II is what you'd want an action sequel to be: bigger, better, and more beautiful.

Balatro ticks all the boxes for a roguelite that creates a feedback loop that's difficult to draw yourself away from. Its fundamentals are incredibly easy to understand, even if you're unfamiliar with poker, but the ways in which it works within the game's boundaries (and often breaks free from them) injects a level of depth to each hand to play that's both challenging and rewarding to continually engage with. It's a game that will melt away time as you hit play on one run after the next, with each defeat never stinging long enough to dissuade the possibility of victory on the next. While a handful of boss antes annoyingly end runs prematurely, they're nowhere near detrimental enough to take away from the immensely satisfying balance that Balatro strikes in every other aspect.

This is a game that's chock full of pleasant surprises, from the way its items forgo tradition in interesting ways to the visual design and sense of atmosphere generated by its bizarre, neon-soaked world. Animal Well might look antiquated and familiar at first glance, but this well is cavernous and unpredictable.

An excellent racing game overall and boasts such a sheer quantity of features and options that most other racing games simply cannot compare. On top of that, solid gameplay and a diverse, flat-out terrific selection of cars help give PGR 2 plenty of long-term appeal.

More vintage players, small gameplay tweaks, and the same great presentation you expect make this the best NBA game around.

New Horizons has a slower pace even than other Animal Crossing games, and at times, that can feel unnecessarily restrictive. But there's still plenty to do, and each of those activities feeds into the next brilliantly for a rewarding and relentlessly cheerful experience. New Horizons certainly came at the right time, and its strengths are particularly comforting right now. I'm as excited to see what random events await me each morning as I am glad to have it during hard times, and that's sure to keep me coming back for the foreseeable future.

Yes, it introduces plenty of new features that enhance the gameplay that was so popular in the original game, but it doesn't drastically refresh it. It also features plenty of options to play with, but it seems like it could've used even more content.

For a story that starts with a laser focus on your character's motivations and misgivings, it tells a tale that ends up being the biggest and the best that Final Fantasy XIV has ever told. Equal parts redemption, vengeance, cruelty, and sassy Elezen, Shadowbringers promises a hell of a lot when you take your first steps into Norvrandt and delivers a truly spectacular finish even if it stumbles a little along the way.

Cataclysm doesn't improve World of Warcraft as dramatically as the free update that preceded it did, but it's still a great expansion pack for anyone with high-level characters.

A bit underwhelming. Yes, it's a fairly solid translation of one of the better first-person shooters of recent years, but it also lacks the extensive multiplayer and mod-making features of its PC cousin.

The rivalry games are incredibly entertaining, and the dynasty mode adds a tremendous amount of replay value to an already great game.

From waterskiing, to swimming alongside a whale, to riding a rocket-powered horse, to flying a flaming powder keg, Rayman 2 is full of gameplay surprises. Definitely one of the best platform games I have ever played.

Bayonetta is simultaneously gratuitous, ludicrous, and marvelous, but that's precisely why it's such a wild and fun adventure.

Diablo 3: Ultimate Evil Edition feels like the happy conclusion of a two-year public beta, with the initial purchasers on PC bearing much of the grief with the auction house and the slow pace to reach level 60.

Overwatch's strongest aspect is how it manages to constantly teach you something new. Each match reveals another detail you might have previously ignored--the audio cue that signals McCree's lethal Deadeye attack; the sound a stalwart Bastion makes when entering its dangerous turret form. Playing Overwatch is a digging process, and finding new layers is part of what makes it special. It's not impressive that Overwatch tries so many different things--it's outstanding that it succeeds in every attempt.

This is an ambitious and finely tuned adventure that gets better and better as you play.

The game is undoubtedly driven by its smartly crafted aesthetic mood, though its production never compromises the gameplay it provides.