Controversy aside, Fatal Fury has come back in a big way with City Of The Wolves. I can't get enough of the REV System and its tactical edge to the classic 2D fighting format, as it adds an energy to each match that other fighters don't have. The roster offers plenty of variety and experimentation, and each member of it looks incredible thanks to the comic-themed style. I just wish there were more to do with these characters that didn't feel as repetitive as Episodes Of South Town does. Luckily, a very solid online environment fixes the issue, as every match I've played so far has run without incident.

The expansion adds a few things that help make the game seem more goal-oriented and a few things that are just plain weird--but it does have some neat new tricks to keep fans of The Sims interested.

Tiger Woods 12 is another great golf sim, in large part thanks to the addition of the Masters at Augusta.

With inventive gravity-based puzzles and new birds to fling, Angry Birds Space is a fresh take on a familiar formula.

This great fighting game nails the look and feel of the UFC and demands strategy as well as quick reflexes.

W.M.D. is easily the best game in the Worms series in several years. It stays true to the 2D, animated roots of the ’90s games while adding enough new features to keep it feeling fresh and relevant. The relatively simple gameplay is overflowing with finesse and strategy, the presentation is fantastic, and offline or on, Worms is just incredibly fun.

It's hard not to be drawn in by Frozen Synapse 2's style, but it's even harder to pull away once the game's combat gets its hooks in you.

This is how it feels to play Octopath Traveler 0: a seemingly endless pattern of ever-deeper combat challenges and strategic wrinkles, slowly revealing themselves to you over and over through dozens of hours. I've seen credits, in a sense, but there's still so much more to do and explore. It feels like a game that could go on forever. I just might let it.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is a superb Star Wars game that gets into the nitty-gritty of the struggle of what it takes for a Jedi Knight to begin the journey toward the rank of Master.

Outriders is a game that isn't defined by big new ideas, but rather a variety of familiar elements mixed together in experimental ways. It's a role-playing game with loot-shooter elements; it's a serious, dark sci-fi outing that often comes with a pretty big dose of humor; it's a third-person cover shooter that demands you rush out and smash enemies with your ludicrously lethal magic powers. Whether this mixture works for you will determine how much you'll enjoy exploring the war-torn planet of Enoch and the last desperate vestige of humanity clinging to life there.

Enslaved is an affecting adventure that makes strong use of its characters and story to create a believable world.

Soft Body is captivating. It’s the fish tank to my inner cat, a fascinating display of methodical movement, clever sound, and unusually satisfying puzzle solving. It’s a minimalist, meditative arcade throwback whose simplicity sometimes backfires into chaotic design, but more frequently delivers challenging and beautiful puzzles.

W.M.D. is easily the best game in the Worms series in several years. It stays true to the 2D, animated roots of the ’90s games while adding enough new features to keep it feeling fresh and relevant. The relatively simple gameplay is overflowing with finesse and strategy, the presentation is fantastic, and offline or on, Worms is just incredibly fun.

Gurumin's engaging combat mechanics, likable characters, and standout music easily make up for its more glaringly unoriginal qualities.

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

The moments where Outriders is taking daring swings at mixing disparate elements are when it's at its best. The game is surprisingly deft at combining things that shouldn't work together: Its story is often funny but similarly severe; its combat requires you to take cover and to charge; its abilities make you phenomenally powerful but prone to overestimating yourself. If you can find the balance in Outriders, People Can Fly's RPG-shooter finds ways to combine well-worn video game ideas into something new and fun. Especially when you're accompanied by friends and put the time in to really understand the game's systems, Outriders rewards you with epic battle moments and a sprawling scope. It left me wanting to continue venturing out into the wilds of Enoch to see what I might find there--and to smash whatever it was with seismic earthquake magic.

Pure doesn't blaze many new trails, but this off-road racer still delivers an intense, tricked-out thrill ride.

Taken as a whole, however, Etrian Odyssey IV is the most impressive and entertaining entry in the series yet. It may be somewhat old-fashioned, but modern sensibilities make it both challenging and welcoming, and rich lore draws you into its world.

With the miniseries now complete, the game’s biggest flaw is in its structure. At least a half hour shorter than the other two episodes, What We Deserve nails the story Telltale has been tiptoeing around since first minute, and it’s something that only begins to present itself towards the end of Episode 2 before taking off here.

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

As memorable as it is to navigate tilting rooms with only a few hanging lamps to light the way, it is that spider that most embodies Limbo's somber spirit. The later puzzles are complex and clever, but they don't haunt the heart. The finale feels abrupt because it returns to the first hour's imagery, having abandoned it for long enough to have altered your personal connection with the game from an emotional one to an intellectual one. And yet the end offers insight into a backstory left otherwise untouched--enough of it to inspire another playthrough, this time ever so much wiser than you were before.

As it is now, VF5 REVO is the best currently available version of an all-time great 3D fighting game. If you're willing to put the effort into it, Virtua Fighter will reward you with some of the most intense fighting out there. Just please, make sure your PC runs it at a proper frame rate before you do anything else.

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition isn't this huge transformation for the original trilogy. The remastered Mass Effect 1 is a more enjoyable experience than playing the original game today, and makes for a far more palatable entry point to the series. And Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 look far better than they did before, with minor but welcome changes to specific pieces of content. But otherwise this remaster delivers the same experience the original trilogy did. In some respects, that's not a wholly good thing--time has reinforced and made clearer certain underlying issues of the trilogy. But there's a reason the Mass Effect trilogy is beloved by so many: Its strength resides in the wonderful journey that it sends you on, one that's preserved in this remaster.

Being a slightly less-than-perfect approximation of building with Lego bricks still means it is almost perfect, though, and that's remarkably impressive. While some of the build challenges feel repetitive and the controls can be fiddly, this is a great concept executed well, and pays respectful homage to the classic toy. Lego Bricktales sets a new template for what a Lego game can be, and I'd love to see developer Clockstone build on it even more.

Making a good retro-style game is hard--balancing old-fashioned play mechanics with newer advancements in game design is a tough tightrope to walk. But Panzer Paladin manages that balancing act with few slip-ups, delivering solid platforming action, fierce weapon duels, epic boss fights, and a cool weapon-sacrifice mechanic, all dressed up in an immensely charming classic-robot-anime wrapping. While it might have its brief moments of annoyance, the amazing globe-trotting, alien-smashing adventure of Flame and Grit proves to be a delight from beginning to end.

New characters, modes, and gameplay refinements make Continuum Shift the best version of this great 2D fighting game.

Eiyuden Chronicle hits the retro-RPG sweet spot nicely. It's focused on delivering that warm, comforting feeling of a classic JRPG, and even all of the side distractions--the card minigame, the weird Pokemon/Beyblade hybrid top minigame, the raising/racing sim, even commodities trading--don't distract too much from the game's prime mission. Add some gorgeously painted and animated spritework and a stellar soundtrack into the mix, and you've got a delightful experience that sometimes falters, though not enough to make you put it down. Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes might not be revolutionary, but it successfully delivered on its core promise--and that's really all it needed to do.

It may be light on gameplay modes, but Tekken 6 is still a great fighting game sporting some serious good looks.