If you haven’t picked up Madden in a few years, there’s nothing glaringly wrong with this year’s release and I would recommend it. On the other side of the coin, if you’re a diehard and you play every year and might even have the free next gen release from last season, I’d say this year is a safe skip and just download this season’s roster.

Honestly, I don’t know what else there is to say about Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut other than that it’s a must-play. That was true of the game last year when it first came out, and it’s just as true now that they’ve refined and perfected it on PS5.

So while I’m not quite ready to slap a score on this just yet, I will say I’ve had a lot of fun with Aliens: Fireteam Elite, and I’m hoping the online experience holds up really well at launch. As a fan of the films, I’d like to see this one do well, and it’d be neat to see what the developers could potentially introduce in future updates considering the foundation of the game is so solid at this point.

You still build in the spaces the game wants you to build, meet objectives that are identical to what they’ve been in the last few games, and basically do everything you could do in Country Tales, and Caveman Tales, and Kingdom Tales. Admittedly, none of the games are awful, and that goes for Fate of the Pharaoh as well. They’re all mostly competent in what they’re trying to do, which is a cut above what this publisher usually puts out. But unless you’re really in the mood for a bland, overpriced resource management game, there’s really no reason to check this one out.

When The Past Was Around finds a way to include some interesting puzzles in the mix — but Florence found a way to be interactive without letting its little challenges get in the way of its story. It’s like that at every turn, in every respect. When The Past Was Around is good — but it’s no Florence.

Despite having “cleared” Hades a number of times, and having defeated the same bosses over and over again, I keep coming back for more, and a lot of that comes down to just how much damn fun the game is to play. So yeah, Hades is absolutely worth a purchase, or a second purchase even, on these new platforms. You absolutely owe it to yourself to check it out, and I can confidently say that you’ll not be disappointed.

Seriously, I can’t stress this enough: Overboard! is one of the best games I’ve played this year. It’s a delight in every way, and if you want something that’s unlike anything else out there — except, I guess, for 80 Days — then you owe it to yourself to pick it up ASAP.

Lost at Sea is the worst kind of bad game: one that’s just plain boring. You can’t even take enjoyment from its lousiness. It’s competently done, but it’s a dreadfully dull experience, and for all the game’s efforts to make you feel something, the only emotion it’s likely to evoke is boredom.

Given how much of the genre feels same-y, it’s neat to see something like Cross the Moon that goes off in completely new directions. It would be nice if it asked a little more of players than simply watching as the story unfolds, but even as it stands, it’s a nice break from the genre’s monotony.

There are long-ish dialogue sequences that can’t be skipped. In fact, you can’t even speed up the dialogue, so you have to wait as it slowly goes back and forth. In Alfonzo’s Arctic Adventure’s defence, all of this is by design. The game, after all, pitched itself on Kickstarter as a NES game, and that’s exactly what they delivered. Unfortunately, in the process they seem to have copied one of the many forgettable games that graced that system, rather than one worth imitating. If this were 35 years ago, that may have worked, but in 2021, there’s really no reason to pick it up.

Obviously, if you played Two Point Hospital last year, picking up the Jumbo Edition probably isn’t necessary (particularly since you could just get the DLC that’s included here). But if, like me, you somehow skipped out on it, now is the time to remedy that oversight, and get Two Point Hospital: Jumbo Edition stat.

Gaps by POWGI is a fun way to pass the time if, like me, you’re obsessed with words and spelling. Admittedly, if that describes you, it means that you’ll only get a few hours of enjoyment out of the game — but at least for those few hours, you’ll definitely be having fun with words.

If you don’t care about history, of course, then Cosmic Top Secret probably isn’t worth your time. Like I said, the 3D platforming element is wonky at the best of times, so if you don’t want a deep dive into Cold War history, it won’t be worth it. But if you’re in the mood to be educated as you play, Cosmic Top Secret is about as engrossing as historical games come.

Whether you want a quick Platinum or not, whether you’re great at it or terrible, none of that matters. Gutwhale feels like it’s designed to just be a deeply unsatisfying game.

It’s a solid adventure game, to be sure, but given how many other adventure games are out there on every single platform, you need to be more than solid to stand out — and Sumatra: Fate of Yandi is missing that extra oomph that would put it over the edge.

Obviously, none of this should be a surprise. Timothy vs the Aliens was awful when it came out on PS4, and it’s awful now that it’s on the Switch for almost all the same reasons. It may be a little brighter and easier on the ears, but the fact remains everything else here still stinks.

If it were substantially longer, I suspect that The Flower Collectors might have felt a little pat or contrived. At this length, however, it works just fine, and it makes The Flower Collectors one of the better mystery games I’ve played in awhile.

It’s really unfortunate, because I feel like Epistory has a lot of potential to be great. Its papercraft world is gorgeous, and the voiceover narration has a lot of charm. But no matter how good those things may be — and how good this game probably is when you play it on PC — the fact of the matter is that Epistory is a lousy fit for the Switch.

As a puzzle-platformer, it’s got some issues. But as a Monkey Island-style adventure game trapped in the body of a puzzle-platformer, it’s interesting — and funny — enough that it’s more than possible to overlook those flaws.

In other words, even if The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles has “Ace Attorney” right there in its name, it’s not the Ace Attorney that you may be expecting. This game finds the series branching off into a new and different direction, and as I said up top, it’s not inherently good different or bad different, just different-different.

In the case of Super Destronaut DX 2, you get the Platinum after finishing 10 (out of 25 total) levels and hitting a fairly low score in each of the five arcade modes. Unless you’re the most dedicated Space Invaders fan ever, there’s really no reason to keep playing after that — and, really, there’s no reason to even pick it up in the first place.

So, really, the question is: how much — and what kind of — drama do you want in your games? If you want loud and flashy, then look elsewhere. But if it’s quiet, introspective, and intrapersonal, then Where The Heart Leads should be right up your alley.

Despite some of the more minor issues listed above, there was very little that was able to pull me away from The Ascent in the past week or so that I’ve been playing, and it’s certainly a game I’d like to revisit post launch with a fresh character so I can toy around with different builds and loadouts a bit more. Again, it’s an absolute no-brainer if you’re a Game Pass subscriber on Xbox, but even if you’re looking to purchase the game outright, it’s absolutely worth checking out.

It’s certainly fun to move so quickly, and with a few tweaks I feel like this could have been a great game, but as it stands, it’s not quite all there.

Obviously, given my lack of familiarity with Star Wars, you may want to take my words with a grain or two of salt. (For all I know, this could be a total affront to the Star Wars canon that still has people mad a decade and a half later.) But as a first-person shooter, it works. It may feel like a time capsule from the mid ‘00s at times, but it’s a solid enough game that it’s pretty fun to play.

It’s a phenomenal game that’s made it onto one of my favourite platforms of all time, and if you’re one of the few people still playing games on the Vita in 2021 — or if you’re playing it anywhere else, really — it’s unquestionably a great addition to your library.

It’s about as relaxing as skateboarding games get, so if you just feel like losing yourself and forgetting your worries in a sun-bleached world, this is the place to do it.

I was extremely impressed with Death’s Door from start to finish, and would absolutely implore you to check it out when it launches this week. Again, it’s just one of those games that was extremely hard to put down in order to write this review, and I’m already looking forward to going back and trying to suss out the additional secrets and puzzles I have yet to solve.

Most of the time, though, Maneater feels like a game where they spent all their creativity coming up with the premise. Don’t get me wrong: it’s a wonderfully goofy premise, and the fact I keep giving this game so many chances shows how easy it is to love. The unfortunate truth, though, is that no matter how much fun the idea of being an unstoppable killer shark may be, the reality — at least in Maneater — leaves a lot to be desired.

While Blackwood might not shake up the game, or make any huge changes to the core of what Elder Scrolls Online has become, it stands as another solid chapter to an already incredibly expansive game. ESO is my favorite MMORPG, and I come from a place of genuine love for the game when I say that I hope for something *more* in future chapters. I want ESO to continue to grow and draw in new players while retaining veterans, for another decade to come.

Roundguard will feel awfully familiar to anyone who’s ever played Peggle (which should be everyone, because it’s an amazing game). Everything from the way your hero bounces all over the place, to the layouts of the pegs, even to the way the game slows down and zooms in as you near your final obstacle in each level — all of these things feel straight out of Peggle. Seeing as we’re eight years out from the last proper Peggle game, though, that’s not a bad thing. It’s a great formula, and if EA aren’t doing anything with it, it’s nice to see Roundguard pick it up and give it a whole new coat of paint. It may not be the most original game, but it sure is a lot of fun.

Honestly, it took me more time to write this review than it did to finish Donuts’n’Justice. If you feel like spending 20 minutes with a game you’ll forget within moments of finishing it, here’s the game for that, but I don’t see why you’d want to bother.

Oceanhorn 2 wears its influences pretty clearly on its sleeve, and it does so in a way that doesn’t always do it any favours, but if you can ignore that and accept it on its own terms, you’ll find a game that’s pretty enjoyable in its own right.

Of course, the worst part of that is that, like those other games, Kingdom Tales typically costs $10 — which seems to be about $9 too much, seeing as you could probably find a mobile game with the exact same gameplay (not to mention no eye-searingly bad cutscenes) for a fraction of the price. Simply being able to play the game on your Switch is no reason to pay extra, especially when the only thing that differs between these games is the theme.

I honestly didn’t know it was possible for a hidden object game to fail this miserably. And yet, every step of the way, The Mysterious Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde achieves that dubious honour. I don’t know why someone decided that a ten-year-old DS game with bad reviews needed to be revived, because abominations like this should stay dead and buried in the past.

Wingspan on the Switch is probably great if you’ve played it before — or, at least, if you can use any of the many handy guides you can find online as a how-to guide — but if you’re a newcomer looking for a fun board game to pick up and play, this one may not be it.

While there are some classic remasters and remakes that leave you wondering what made them so great in the first place, that’s not the case with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2. It’s been remade in a way that makes it feel thoroughly modern (in a good way), and even if you’re entirely new to the series, you should find plenty to enjoy here.

It’s certainly one of my favorite Switch games of the year so far, and an excellent RPG altogether. Even if you’re not the biggest Monster Hunter fan in the world, I think you’ll find the unique monster gathering mechanic to be quite addictive, making this a hard game to put down.

It looks nice, it plays well, and it doesn’t try to be anything more than it is. What more could you want in a game of pool?

You can easily get by in this game with just sailing around, enjoying the wide open spaces and getting lulled into a meditative state, and every so often picking off an easy ship when you stumble across one. That may not be the point of the game, but it certainly made my experience a pretty good one. Does that mean I played King of Seas wrong? Probably. But I’ve always thought that one of the signs of a good game is that it allows you to play it your way — and there’s no denying King of Seas gives you freedom to do just that.

Obviously, your enjoyment of Scarlet Nexus will likely be greater if you actually do enjoy anime (or maybe not – or all I know, this game’s story may be horrifically bad!). But if you’re indifferent to the genre, you shouldn’t let that stop you from enjoying a very fun action game.

As rough as Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection is in places — and it’s very, very rough — it makes up for that by also being a whole lot of fun. I leave it up to you to decide exactly how much poor performance you’re willing to put up with to play a very enjoyable trilogy — because in this case, you’ve got to be willing to put up with quite a bit.

The moments where everything comes together and the game genuinely feels fun are far too rare. Obviously, given it’s from Nintendo, you know that Mario Golf: Super Rush will be competently made, and you could never describe it as a bad game. But there’s a difference between not bad, and genuinely good or enjoyable — and it’s a gulf that Mario Golf: Super Rush never quite manages to get out of.

I have not given up on Dark Alliance, and I hope they continue to improve and change the game into something great. With some variety, the combat could get better. With some balancing changes or NPC companions, solo play could become viable and fun. Some adjustments to the gear drops and mechanics could deepen that system and improve upon what they started with. I was left frustrated and disappointed with Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance, but I will keep coming back to see how it grows in the coming months, and hope to be able to love it in the future.

In an ideal world, Buildings Have Feelings Too! would have found a way to couple its inventive premise and fun aesthetic with equally enjoyable gameplay. As it stands, however, there’s just too great a disconnect between the two to make the game worth your while.

While not every event is a winner in Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, the experience is a fun one that is easy enough to pick up and play for family and friends yet still competitive enough to hook players into upping their skills and going for the gold. If you’re a fan of the genre or the Olympics themselves, certainly consider checking it out.

Because there’s such a disconnect between what it wants to be and what it actually is, it’s hard to know whether to recommend Glyph. It doesn’t come anywhere close to achieving what it sets out to do, but it still offers enough that if you can overlook its failures, there’s a decent enough game hiding underneath.

If I were inclined to be generous to Protocol (and I’m not), I’d say it’s more a failure of execution than of ideas. After all, it’s at least smart enough to know that it needs to be better than it is. Still, the end result is the same: a game that’s not particularly fun to play.

Fly Together! was clearly meant to be played, well, together. And I have no doubt that it’s even more fun when you play with people. But the fact is, it’s still totally worth picking up, even if you just want to play solo.

While I can’t wholeheartedly suggest Legend of Mana to everyone, I would say it’s worth a look if you’re willing to sink time into understanding the mechanics of the game and don’t mind a little aimless exploration. Or, if you’re like me and already knew what to expect going in, you can have a little peace of mind that Square Enix and M2 did a really solid job of bringing Legend of Mana back to life on modern hardware.

Rabisco+ is a simple game with all kinds of inventiveness, and plenty of charm to boot, which makes it well worth investigating — short Platinum or not.

Sometimes bad games can be fun, in their own warped way. Hike is not. Hike is just plain bad, boring, and totally disrespectful of players’ time. You’re better off going for an actual hike and getting the attendant health benefits than you would be spending a single cent or second on this putrid game.

Honestly, there’s zero reason to pick up Zotrix Starglider, even if you’re a fan of shmups. There are dozens and dozens of them on the Switch. Even if I’ve only played a handful of them, I feel quite confident in stating that this has got to be one of the worst.

What we have here is a prime example of how to do fighting games the right way. Guilty Gear -Strive- has enough for single players as well as the online crowd. It doesn’t just cater to the advanced player, but rather keeps a good balance whether you are an expert or just a beginner. Stunning to look at and listen to, and a total joy to actually play, Guilty Gear -Strive- is one that should not be missed. Even if you’ve never played a GG game before, you owe it to yourself to experience this title.

These games still hold up today, and while the visual improvements do not make the games feel “Next-Gen”, they definitely bring the games up to date and make them more than playable. The Mass Effect Legendary Edition is the perfect way for both longtime fans and series newcomers alike to experience one of the finest franchises in gaming history.

I get that Legends of Ethernal is really trying to be heartfelt in its story, and tries back that up with “hand-crafted” graphics that are supposed to make you feel all warm and fuzzy towards the game. But it undercuts the vibe it’s going for with a punishing difficulty level and lousy combat. Maybe that’s enough to win over masochists with a soft spot for a very specific art style, but personally, I think I’ll just pass.

Earth Defense Force: World Brothers could have gone horribly wrong. I mean, yes, the series was starting to feel a little stale, but at least it was comfortable. Trying something so new could have been a huge misfire. In this case, though, it’s not. World Brothers takes the series in a somewhat new direction and it mostly succeeds in what it wants to do, which means that it’s worth playing whether you’re a newcomer to the series or a grizzled EDF vet.

For as long as the adventure lasts, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart does pretty much everything that a Ratchet and Clank fan and PS5 player would hope for. It tells a great story, has trademark humor and quality voice acting, and the pacing and gameplay is always satisfying and enjoyable. If you’re looking for a new PS5 exclusive for the summer, this is it.

At about $10, Family Vacation: California is probably a little overpriced — especially when you can buy the game on PC for less than $3 as of this writing. And, obviously, if you want anything more than just a hidden object game, Family Vacation: California won’t give you that. But, again, if you want to turn your brain off and hunt for donuts and triangle rulers and all kinds of other weirdly placed junk, here’s your chance.

Maybe I have a soft spot for short geese games and this one is definitely short. I wish there was a little bit more story and maybe dial back on the Metal Slug homages. The game has some unique features, but they never seem fully fleshed out and useful. Otherwise this is a completely serviceable shoot ’em up that fans of Metal Slug will surely get a kick out of.

There’s more depth here than in most rhythm games, which means that it’s awfully easy to get sucked in — and provided you don’t mind hearing some of the same music over and over again, that’s definitely not a bad thing.

To be clear, Astrologaster probably isn’t for everyone. Humour is, of course, very subjective…and that’s without even factoring in the choral music. But if you’re looking for a game that’s completely unlike anything else out there, look no further, because this is definitely it.

Provided you can overlook plenty of gaps in logic (not to mention hideous graphics and lousy voice acting), there’s something to be said for Jurassic World Evolution. It may not be the greatest amusement park sim or city builder the Switch has to offer, but it’s solid enough in its own right that it’s at least pretty fun time.

To spite the rough and buggy nature of Rust Console Edition at launch, it fills a certain void in the online survival genre on consoles and is certainly worth checking out for those craving a more grounded experience.

Given that Through the Darkest of Times is built around telling a story, having obvious narrative problems — whether in terms of continuity, hamfistedness, or whatever — represents a bit of an issue. There are still some interesting ideas to be found here, and the setting alone makes it feel like few other games, but if you go in expecting something groundbreaking, you may find yourself disappointed.

Wonder Boy: Asha In Monster World is a very nostalgic good time. The reimagined visuals only make the experience better. If you purchase the physical copy, you will have the opportunity to play the original game as it comes free as a bonus. The original game is also fully translated into English for the first time since the limited Wii Virtual Console release. This is one of the best games in the series and it’s fantastic that more gamers can now play this “lost” sequel. RPG and platformer fans will have a blast with this one, while newcomers will surely find something to enjoy as well.

While you can certainly play it straight, it’s a lot better if you take all the weird detours it offers — and the end result is a game that, even if it’s not 100% unique, is still well worth checking out.

C14 isn’t the greatest visual novel I’ve ever played, but it’s not the worst by a long shot, and given the developer’s track record I’ll count that as a positive.

Given how much I enjoyed Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion from start to end, I’m feeling pretty confident right now that I’ll be remembering this game fondly for quite some time.

It goes from being just plain dull to being dull and doltish. Norman’s Great Illusion may think of itself as a treatise designed to make you think and awaken a class consciousness, but the reality is that it’s closer to a cheaply printed pamphlet that’s not even worth the sheet of paper it’s printed on — or, in this case, it’s not even worth the bandwidth you’d use to download it or the bytes it would take up in your harddrive.

Biomutant has been hit with multiple delays, but unfortunately still feels like a half-finished product. The morality system is little more than a means to a few strong magic attacks, and the choices you make throughout the story are laughably irrelevant. A lot of the choices like the single narrator for all of the voiceover, and the overly simple combo mechanics can all be called creative choices, but in the grand scheme of things simply feel like the quickest route to a finished product. I truly wanted to love Biomutant, it has been high on my list of “must plays” since it was first announced, but in its current state, I simply cannot recommend anyone rush to buy it for $60.

Playing the HD Remaster filled me with regret in that I could’ve enjoyed this deep and engrossing title many years ago (The copy I bought from amazon is still sealed…). Yes, while it would’ve been nice that all the DLC was just baked into the base game, but it’s a small price to pay to be able to recruit demons on the go, or not have to worry about losing access to the title if a digital storefront shutters (I mean Steam will never close…will it?). Don’t make the 16 year mistake I did by letting this one pass you by.

Basically, it all comes down to how much you miss the flying levels in Rayman Origins and/or Jetpack Joyride, and how okay you are with seeing their core mechanics resurrected with little of the charm and none of the originality. Skyland Rush – Air Raid Attack imitates those games pretty well, but doesn’t add anything of its own in the process.

As much fun as I had with Rain On Your Parade, however, I still keep going back to how the game’s desperate desire to be liked was somewhat off-putting. It’s unfortunate the developers didn’t have more confidence in their abilities to make a fun game without all the viral bells and whistles, because even without them, there’s something here that’s well worth playing.

Ultimately, if you played Days Gone and it didn’t click with you before, it probably won’t now. Like I said, it is not a perfect game. The story is not very deep, side characters can be a joke at times, the game tends to meander on its way to the real plot points, etc. None of this is changed with the PC release, but the performance is leaps and bounds beyond what it was on the PS4. If you never had a chance to play it back in 2019, or just skipped out on it for whatever reason, the PC version is the absolute best way to play Days Gone.

Overall, I enjoyed revisiting Assassin’s Creed Valhalla for this expansion, and consider it to be a fine add-on to the game. Whether you’re in the middle of a current playthrough or would be coming back to the game after completion, you’ll find you can jump into Wrath of the Druids at pretty much any point, which is a good way to handle an expansion in an open world game like this one. Admittedly I’m not particularly wowed by any one element here, but if you’ve already enjoyed Valhalla up to this point, I can’t really see a reason to not pick up the expansion as well. You’re definitely getting a sizable amount of engaging content for the asking price, and some of the new mechanics and gear available makes for a pretty entertaining time overall.

Ladders by POWGI isn’t a perfect word game, but it’s still highly enjoyable, so if you’re fond of word ladders, it’s definitely worth spending some time with the game.

It shows itself to be so willing to skewer a genre that’s ripe for it, but then it falls into the same traps and pitfalls that you’d expect in any other survival game. If you’re a fan of the genre anyway, that may not matter, and you may appreciate a bit of humour added on to the usual, but if you’re hoping that Breathedge might be a breath of fresh air, look elsewhere.

Resident Evil Village is not a game for everyone, and I feel Resident Evil 7 fans will enjoy it much more than the average player — but having fan favorite Chris Redfield back into the story was a welcome addition (including the retcon of his appearance in RE7).

Let me put it this way: you know how dreams are usually only interesting to the person having them? Dreaming Sarah is like that. There’s undoubtedly some fascinating ideas here that made a lot of sense to the developer, but as a game to play, it leaves a whole lot to be desired.

Ultimately, though, Distraint 2 doesn’t offer much that you couldn’t have gotten out of the first game. If you missed that first game, then that may make this one a little more interesting, but if you played it and enjoyed it, be aware you’re not getting that much more out of this one.

As I said up top, it’s intriguing, if nothing else. Probably not intriguing enough to sustain a whole game, but there are still some interesting ideas to be found in Mail Mole that make it worth your time if you feel like taking a bit of a risk.

Like I said, there are all kinds of really terrible games lingering around the outskirts of the eShop, trying to sucker you in with low prices before they instantly reveal their awfulness. Toree 3D may look like it belongs with those other bottom feeders, but if you give it a chance, you’ll probably be surprised and kind of impressed by what you find.

I admit that I doubted Capcom's ability to continue their fear effect *snicker* with the Resident Evil franchise. But it seems that they are not only becoming bigger and more graphically intense, but more engrossing as well. With the crisp new 3D world, the wonderfully modeled characters, music and sound effects to die for (couldn't help it), and a story line that takes you on a 2 disc ride of suspense, what else do you need? Well, maybe better voice actors. Steve's voice was grating on me throughout the first half of the game. But other than that, this game is a must own Dreamcast title along with Crazy Taxi, Soul Calibur, and Dead or Alive 2.

Like I said, all of these things have obvious fixes, and you can easily imagine them all being tweaked just enough to make Sanity of Morris a tense, compelling game. In this form, though, all it does is frustrate and annoy you. Steer well clear of it, and maybe hope the developers can execute on their ideas a little better next time out.

Taken on its own terms, Stitchy in Tooki Trouble is perfectly fine, but when you factor in that you could just play the game(s) that have influenced everything about it, it’s hard to wonder why you’d play this over the original.

Given how thoroughly Castaway Paradise tries to rip off Animal Crossing, I don’t know why you’d want to play it on the Switch, rather than just picking up the last year’s GOTY, given that one is already a Switch exclusive. I know that imitation is supposed to be the sincerest form of flattery, but no matter how flattering Castaway Paradise is, you’re probably just better off buying Animal Crossing (or, failing that, deleting your save file and starting over again).

In other words, all things considered, El Hijo – A Wild West Tale is pretty enjoyable. In fact (and please forgive me for the terrible pun I’m about to inflict on you), you might even say it’s a stealth game that stole its way into my heart.

There are plenty of environmental puzzles to be solved, but they pretty much all involve picking the right words in order to progress — whether it’s stepping on the right highlighted word, or picking a word like “repair” in order to fix the path ahead. There are only a couple of places where you’ll need to pause and think about what you’re doing. But, I mean, that’s kind of the point of any good fiction, right? If you’re actively taken out of a story by thinking about the mechanics of it all, then the story hasn’t done a great job of hooking you in. Lost Words may not be the greatest fiction you’ll ever read, but it will keep you hooked from the first to last page, and in this case, that’s enough.

Basically, Ravensword: Shadowlands fails on every level imaginable. It wants to be an on-the-cheap version of Skyrim, except it feels more like a weird knock-off made by some people who became vaguely aware Skyrim exists after having had it described to them very poorly, and who then proceeded to make a subpar version of that. It’s really not good, and given that you can get the actual Skyrim for not very much these days on pretty much every console under the sun, you’re better off just getting that instead.

While One Escape is tolerable for what it is — a short puzzle-platformer with an easy Platinum — there are more interesting games to play, and it’s hard to see why it’d be worth playing this one over any of them.

Because Hero-U feels so heavily indebted to a particular moment in gaming history, it’s really hard to fully enjoy the game unless you lived in that particular moment (or, I guess, if you somehow developed an appreciation for the genre in the ensuing decades). If the idea of a point-and-click adventure that’s heavy on the puns and on the clicking sounds like heaven to you, then you’ll be in luck with Hero-U, but otherwise, you’ll probably want to skip this one.

Really, as twitchy platformers go, Pinkman+ does so much right that it’s easy to fall in love with the game. It doesn’t try to do too much, but it does what it does exceedingly well.

Judgment is a great title to play to get acquainted with the type of games Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio puts out. If you don’t want the baggage of over 8 plus titles over your head, this is currently a one and done title, however you want to see what else has happened in Kamurocho, you also have the option to explore the main line series (which included “free” on Gamepass via Microsoft). Either way you’ll definitely see the studio in a different light if you play this title.

I recognize that How to Take Off Your Mask Remastered is clearly not for me, so I’m not going to complain too long or too loudly about this. But given that other, better otome games are out there, I just don’t know why you’d want to play this one instead.

Still, despite its issues, I mostly enjoyed my time with Outriders, and with a few more updates and tweaks I think it’ll be at a point where I’d like to go back and play more of the end-game content or roll another character class. I’d say it’s a harder sell at full price for $60 right now, but it’s more of a no-brainer to try out if you have the option to do so on Xbox platforms via Gamepass.

As I said up top, despite all my complaints, I’m not going to deny that MLB The Show 21 is a solid, well-made baseball game. If you haven’t played the series in years, or if you’re coming to it on Xbox, then it’s probably a must-play. But if you’ve been sinking years into it already, there’s not much here that will make it worth playing.

I had no expectations for it going in, but it shows immediately that it can do one thing exceptionally well. If they could have made a game that lived up to that — or even came close to living up to that — then it could’ve been worth playing. As it stands, though, it just feels like a lot of wasted potential.