If you’ve taken the plunge and picked up a PlayStation VR2 and have any sort of love at all for Star Wars, Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge – Enhanced Edition is certainly worth a consideration and a look. (

I can’t judge Shadow Warrior 3: Definitive Edition on how well it matches up with its predecessors. What I can do, however, is judge Shadow Warrior 3: Definitive Edition on how much fun it is – and by that metric, I can’t imagine a more enjoyable game.

Once Upon A Jester isn’t like too many other games out there, but if you’re willing to give it a chance, you’ll find that it does what it sets out to do incredibly well.

Having the Baba Yaga myth wrapping it all together ensures that Blacktail takes that well-worn gameplay and gives it a unique spin. It may have flown mostly under the radar so far, but it’s enjoyable enough that it deserves a much wider audience.

For newcomers, Tales of Symphonia Remastered is a great pickup but for veterans looking for more, you won’t find anything new here sadly. If you are collector of the Tales games it will be worth adding to the collection.

While it’s not the longest game, I feel VR games shouldn’t be too long due to eye strain and fatigue. I found myself not wanting to stop playing which says a lot for a VR title. Highly recommended especially on PlayStation VR2.

If you can tolerate subpar visuals, you’re still getting a full-featured baseball game you can bring with you anywhere.

Even if Castle Renovator delivered on exactly what its name promised, I have a hard time imagining it’d be much more fun. There’s a way to make these job sims fun, and a way to make them feel like a dull slog, and every design decision here ensures that this game falls squarely in the latter camp.

Terminal Velocity: Boosted Edition may not feel as cutting edge as it did when it was first released (assuming it felt that way even then), but the passage of time hasn’t made it any less enjoyable.

To be fair, part of the reason it feels like MLB The Show 23 is treading water is that, for so many years, it was far and away the best sports game available. When you nail a sport so accurately, all that’s left is the sort of tinkering around the edges that MLB The Show 23 does here. But unless you have a burning need to play as Satchel Paige – and who could blame you if you do? – it makes it really difficult to see why you’d want to pick it up rather than just sticking with MLB The Show 22.

Mind you, if you’re not a fan of its art style, then Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon is a much harder sell, with the gorgeous visuals covering up gameplay that’s only rarely very fun. I still maintain that it’s great to see an established series take risks like this – and it’ll be interesting to see where the series evolves from here – but as of now, there’s still much room for improvement.

I’d probably recommend the original release, which is available at a much cheaper price across all platforms, and then maybe pick up the DLC on the side, instead of opting for this new Spacer’s Choice Edition. Ideally additional patches will get this version of the game to where it needs to be, but out of the gate this is not a version of The Outer Worlds I would recommend picking up.

To be sure, Fashion Police Squad isn’t going to make you forget the games it’s borrowing from. But part of why it’s so fun is because it’s poking fun at a genre that can sometimes feel like it hasn’t evolved much since the original DOOM, and showing that there’s still room for it to grow and evolve. As Fashion Police Squad shows, there’s still some life – and some room to innovate – in the old genre yet.

Wo Long exists at an intersection between Nioh and Sekiro, and unfortunately falls short of both and fails to establish an identity of its own. While I enjoyed my time with Wo Long, and had a fine experience, it passed from my mind almost as soon as I was done with it. I still sit and wait patiently for the day that From Software announces a follow-up to the perfection that was Sekiro, and an opportunity to try out Nioh 3 is something I would not pass up. Wo Long simply fails to impress in the ways those games do, and ends up planting itself firmly in the “Good but forgettable” category.

Again, it’d be nice if Justice League: Cosmic Chaos allowed you to play through that story with a friend (or, better still, a son/daughter/niece/nephew just getting into gaming), but even as a solo experience, this is a surprisingly good time.

WWE 2K23 makes all the right moves and improves on the great foundation 2K22 set out to establish following some rocky years (no Rock pun necessary). Some of the entrances and visuals this year really rival the on-screen product and really make other products look absolutely terrible, despite them not even being released yet (cough—AEW Fight/Delayed Forever—cough). With the already announced DLC plans, the roster (when all is said and done) is the most complete it’s been in a very long time and it’s damn impressive. Pair that with the creation suite and your dream match options are only limited by your imagination. As you can see, I’m really smitten with this year’s release and I highly recommend it.

As I mentioned earlier, the reply value for Resident Evil 4 is through the roof. Knowing how much time I put into Village, which has a fraction of the content here, there is plenty of fun and horror to be experienced. My hope is that many gamers can experience the remake on their own as I did, and have that feeling of playing it for the first time. As of now, Resident Evil 4 remake has officially dethroned Dead Space has as my Game of the Year.

You don’t need a tonne of context to figure out that your goal is to use your cards to wipe out the monsters – and the game is accessible and intuitive enough that you don’t need much more than that to go on. There are some challenging battles the further in you get, obviously, but generally speaking this game is very easy to pick up. But again, if you want to play this on the Steam Deck, be warned that you’ll be missing a pretty major chunk of the game. It’s probably not the best way to be exposed to Last Kids on Earth for the first time – but so, Hit the Deck is still a pretty enjoyable deck-based battler, even with those shortcomings.

Overall, Tactics Ogre: Reborn is a fantastic game! As a fan that has played all three it’s hard to say which version I like best. I like the system changes made in Tactics Ogre: Reborn, simplifying removing skill points from the game and entirely relying on magic points in fights makes a lot more sense. The biggest problem with this version is removing random encounters from the game. While I understand the choice, they could have just added the level cap and possibly kept random encounters — which is something I enjoyed doing in other tactical RPGs such as Final Fantasy Tactics. Overall, I really enjoyed my time in Tactics Ogre: Reborn and look forward to many more hours with the game.

Even if you somehow ignore the platforming and the combat – and you shouldn’t, because those are the most important parts of the game – there’s nothing here worth recommending. You have a garish color scheme, annoyingly repetitive music, and grating voices. The Legend of Gwen is just an all-around bad, bad game.

Scars Above is a competent enough game that efficiently gets you through its six-hour runtime. It won’t make you forget its influences, but if you can find this one on sale, you could definitely do a lot worse.

It should be pretty obvious by now if you’re taking the plunge and picking up a PlayStation VR2, Horizon: Call of the Mountain is a must have launch game. It could do a couple of things better, though overall it’s an impressive, well-rounded showcase of the technology and yet another solid adventure in the Horizon universe worth taking.

Caverns of Mars: Recharged originally struck me as a strange choice for this treatment. I remain under the impression that many gamers out there may not be familiar the original game all that well, but it turns out, that will not matter. Even if you’ve never played the original, this updated version is strong enough to stand on it’s own with no need to fall back on a legacy. This is one of the more addicting Recharged games to be released in this line, and I can highly recommend this to anyone that likes a simple and fun challenge. A great “pick-up and play” title that will take sometime to master.

Overall, I’ve really enjoyed my time with Pinball FX and can definitely see myself continuing to play down the road. I’m excited to see what tables are coming next, and as a casual pinball player I’d say the physics here feel pretty great on current-gen consoles. Also, you can give it a try for free, as the base download will grant you one free table. If you complete the tutorial mode, you’ll also get a free 24hr Pinball Pass that’ll allow you to download and try out every table available, so you can really decide for yourself if the latest iteration of Pinball FX is for you.

As I said up top, I know what I like in my monster training games (which is to say, Pokémon and imitators like Nexomon and Coromon), and what I don’t. And, unfortunately, Digimon Next: World Order – with its endless focus on grinding and training and, uh, pooping – is definitely in the category of what I don’t like.

I get that I Am Your President isn’t trying to be Suzerain or Democracy, so expecting it to be on par with either of those isn’t fair. But it’d be nice if it made any effort whatsoever, rather than thinking that a few pop culture references and some vaguely political words are enough to make it a political simulator. There’s room for a good, snarky satire game, but this definitely isn’t it.

None of this is to say that Jurassic World Aftermath Collection is bad, it is simply “fine”, but at launch when held up against the likes of Horizon: Call of the Mountain and Resident Evil Village, fine is not enough to keep me invested. Aftermath honestly feels like a proof of concept, not a full-fledged game, and that is definitely a disappointment for something I was pretty excited about at first.

To get Sonic Colors: Ultimate’s fun gameplay on PC means putting up with graphics that are, at best, an eyesore. Given that there are plenty of other options for playing the game, it may not be a trade-off you want – or need – to make.

It’s pretty much what you’d expect from a 2D Kirby game – but seeing as the baseline for those is “cute platformer that won’t tax you too much and that you can play with pretty much anyone,” that’s hardly a bad thing. Add in a few new elements, and you have the ingredients for a pretty solid remake.

Wonder Boy Anniversary Collection is a far better release that the original Collection. The amount of games and extra editions help to make this the definitive Wonder Boy Collection. The minor control issues and changes are a bit disappointing, but a few patches could be applied to fix these. It does retain the original collections very bland presentation and menu system, so it tends to feel more like a DLC add-on than a whole new collection. However it’s a vast improvement over the previous one. If you own the original release, you owe it to yourself to delete that one and pick this one up. If you skipped the first one, then this is the one that you need to get. This is one of the most complete collections of a single game series I have seen, and even with it’s minor flaws, I can highly recommend this for your library.

It’s a one-man passion project, and you hate to criticize something that someone has spent more than a decade working on. But the simple fact is that it’s just not very good, and it’s certainly not something you need to spend your time or money on right now.

If that’s what you’re after – more Castlevania, without actually playing Castlevania again – then that’s fine, and Elderand will provide you with a perfectly competent experience. But given that other games have taken that route and shown far more personality, it’s hard to see why you’d want to choose this game instead of any of those other ones.

Was this title worth the near-decade wait? Absolutely! Like a Dragon: Ishin! delivered on story, gameplay and replayability. Despite my minor complaints about some quality of life issues, I’ve spent more hours than I needed to solving the problems of the citizens of Kyo, shaking down roaming thugs in hopes of extracting a much needed crafting material or perhaps recruiting them into my squadron. Western fans of the series are treated to a wondrous experience that they were deprived of and one would hope their support would give RGG Studios the will to bring other Japanese only experiences out to the west or remake other side titles. I’m looking at you Like a Dragon Online, the Kurohyō titles and of course Yakuza: Dead Souls.

It complements Volume 1 nicely, and shows that for a little-loved handheld with a small library, the Neo Geo Pocket Color had a pretty impressive collection of games.

To be sure, Akka Arrh is a niche game: to enjoy it, you not only need to enjoy old school arcade shooters, you also need to enjoy Llamasoft’s specific brand of psychedelic weirdness on top of that, as well as the weird idiosyncrasies in the game design. But if all of that appeals to you – and to be honest, it appeals to me way more than I thought possible – then the good news is that Akka Arrh exists, and it’s pretty fun.

Just about the only complaint I could think of for the game is that its online multiplayer isn’t well-populated given that it’s not exactly setting the charts alight – but a) it’s fun in single-player, and b) that’s the sort of thing that could be fixed if Sackboy had the popularity it deserves. Do your part to help with that by checking it out, and get a pretty wonderful 3D platformer in the bargain.

I would dismiss Treehouse Riddle, however, because it’s just not that interesting a game. It too often feels like you’re just doing puzzles for the sake of doing puzzles, and, as other games have shown, there’s ways of making that a lot more interesting than it’s done here.

It has some pretty visuals and solid voice acting, but at the end of the day, there’s really not much more here than trying to give historical import to snapping that perfect Instagram moment.

Personally, I’m here for the open world, story building and pure action when I turn on Far Cry. I commend Ubisoft for going in a vastly different direction and the visuals give me mixed feels reminiscent of Blood Dragon, Trials Fusion and Future elements from the Assassin’s Creed franchise. It’s not bad in any way, just not for me. I think fans of rougelike games may enjoy this via discovery like I did with Blood Dragon. It’s not Far Cry in spirit but it follows a similar trend of out of the box DLC for the Far Cry series.

As it stands, my early hours in Wild Hearts have definitely been enjoyable. Performance had some hiccups prior to the day one patch, which seem to have smoothed out a bit on Xbox Series X, so that’s off to a good start at least. Also, while my online play was limited prior to launch, the handful of team-ups I did have went smoothly, and the online multiplayer functionality here is pretty easy to understand, so barring any network issues I think it’ll work pretty well at launch. For the time being I’m calling this a review in progress primarily because I’ve not approached the end game content yet, which if you’ve any experience with Monster Hunter styled games like Wild Hearts, you’ll realize that can be a pretty major component. So for now I’ll hold off on giving this a proper score, but will say that everything I’ve played so far has been immensely promising.

It might be fine on PC (though the Steam reviews indicate even that’s a bit of a mixed bag), but as far as the Switch release goes, even if you’re a huge fan of motorcycles, you’re better of skipping this one.

The visuals are great, and the story may be a tad generic but fits well into the kind of world they built. I hope to get better at the game and think we need more games that bring melee action into the blend of shooters, but the controls need to feel just right for it to work on a grand scale. Wanted: Dead is an okay hybrid game and despite it giving me vibes from my time with Devil’s Third, this is a way better experience overall and would-be players should check all the videos before making that final decision.

It’s not too often a game will work your brain and whet your appetite, but Freshly Frosted manages to achieve that rare double feat.

All in all, I think Fire Emblem Engage is worth checking out. It’ll be a pretty appealing entry for both long-time and new Fire Emblem Fans, the Engage mechanic adds a fun layer to the already excellent combat system, and the bevy of new characters introduced are all generally entertaining. The look of the game is fantastic on the aging Switch hardware, bolstered by the excellent character designs, and the music is really well done. It might not be the best Fire Emblem on the Switch, but it’s still a really solid adventure regardless.

Given that its seven levels are highly replayable due to all those collectibles, plus a timer that gives you reason to strive for a S-tier run, and you can see why it’s easy to recommend this game.

If you’ve ever wished you could get that acceptance letter to Hogwarts – or even if you want a fun fantasy game you can sink yourself into for hours and hours and hours – this is what you’ve always dreamed of. It’s hard to imagine another game topping this one in 2023.

Honestly, I cannot recommend this game enough, and has me super stoked for the Resident Evil 4 Remake coming in March, will that dethrone this for me as Game of The Year? Time will tell.

They may have copied the Nintendo behemoth in lots of ways, and the game may provide an interesting glimpse into how Pokémon might look with a more populated world, but anyone hoping this would displace (or even come close to) the venerable series will find themselves sorely disappointed.

SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake is a fun 3D platformer that any fan of the series will enjoy to play. You can tell this game wasn’t a hastily thrown together, cheap cash in. The 10 hour platformer is charming and F.U.N. and it will definitely have you singing Sweet Victory.

I cannot overstate how bland I found Neptunia: Sisters vs. Sisters to be, I was actually pretty surprised by how bored I found myself hour after hour. I can safely say that you’d be fine avoiding this one, and if you’re a fan of the series, you’d probably still do well to steer clear of this entry.

There’s not much to give an opinion on here, as much of the change implemented is visual and quality of life. It’s a welcome update, and if it’s been a while since you’ve played or if you’ve just never gotten around to it, now is a great time to do so. The Witcher 3 has been in a good place for a while, but these upgrades further cement it in it’s spot as one of the all-time greats.

Despite the sheer amount of words that have been written about the game – including by me, I’ll acknowledge as I pass the 1,500 word mark on this review – the reality is that it’s just a forgettable, mediocre game. It does plenty of things very poorly, but it also does one or two things well enough that you can’t say it’s completely and irredeemably awful. There’s no real reason to seek the game out, and there’s no reason (apart, maybe, from that stupid talking bracelet) to avoid it at all costs: Forspoken is just kind of there.

I realize I’m spending way too much time complaining about a game that’s only $5. But the fact is, this developer used to be a reliable source of fun, inexpensive retro-tinged games. As Slime’s Journey shows, lightUP’s games are still inexpensive and retro-tinged, but they’re certainly not very fun.

While there’s been no content added to either the PlayStation or Xbox versions, you’ll still have plenty to do here. There’s the main questline to engage with that’ll take you through multiple monster quest tiers, which is somewhat short compared to other Monster Hunter titles. But the online hub quests expand that out even further, offering up more story content that goes beyond the end credits of the game, and has a number of challenging fights for experienced hunters. There’s also a whole host of free downloadable quests to engage with, encompassing the free DLC that’s come out on prior versions of the game. All in all, you’ll be able to spend a lot of time exploring and hunting down giant monsters, which is pretty much what you want out of a new Monster Hunter game.

The Forest Quartet clearly has its heart in the right place, and any game that gets people thinking about overcoming their own demons is a good thing. But as a game, there’s just nothing interesting here.

It’s a lot deeper and more touching than its title suggests, so it’s worth keeping an eye on it, waiting for a sale, and then grabbing the when the price is right.

It’s a gorgeous, relaxing game that changes every time you play it, and it’s got a world that’s easy to get immersed in.

Session: Skate Sim is true to its name: it’s a true-to-life skateboarding simulator, so if that’s all you want to do, it’ll more than deliver.

Aka clearly has its heart in the right place, but it doesn’t have anything that goes a little deeper or that asks anything of its players, and without that it just feels like a cut-rate version of Animal Crossing.

It’s really too bad that the gameplay doesn’t come anywhere close to matching the inventiveness, because, as I said up top, Paper Cut Mansion is just brimming with ideas. There’s a huge gap, unfortunately, between coming up with something cool and making it work, and unfortunately it’s not a divide that this game is able to bridge.

If I had more time to play through Chained Echoes before the holidays hit, it most definitely would have made my top 10 list for the year of 2022. It’s every bit as stellar as you’ve likely heard so far, and something that is certainly worth checking out regardless of your platform preference. I’ve found it to be a perfect Switch experience, but I’d imagine that it runs extremely well on any console you might choose, and right now it’s freely available to play on Xbox via Game Pass. So definitely check out Chained Echoes, you will not be disappointed.

I think, in the end, it all comes down to how you look at it. If you look at Windosill and just see a game where you tap the screen a few times, move a train across the bottom, and finish it all in well under half an hour, it’s definitely not something I’d recommend. But if you’re looking for something that feels almost as much like a toy and/or a piece of art as it does a video game, Windosill might just deliver on that.

I’d go as far as saying that Bailey pretty much single-handedly makes Jurassic World Aftermath Collection a worthwhile experience. Without her, this is a decent (if a little slow-moving) stealth game. With her literally guiding you through the ruins of the infamous theme park, the whole thing becomes worth your time and money.

It is very hard to stand out in this much crowded racing genre, but Need For Speed Unbound pulls it off. The title is easily the best entry in years and sets a foundation that can easily be built upon. After many years of having an identity crisis, I can see the game evolving from here. With a consistent 4K resolution and 60fps framerate NFS Unbound showcases what could be the future of the series.

Everything in One True Hero has been done before – and much, much better – and you’d be wise to play one of the games it’s borrowing instead.

ARK: Ultimate Survivor Edition still isn’t a game for everyone, but at least now it can be said it’s a game that some people might enjoy.

I’d say that the lack of a quest list might just be Time on Frog Island’s biggest issue. After all, we’re talking about a game that’s basically nothing but fetch quests, so for the game to not include a way of keeping track of your one task seems like a major oversight. Then again, maybe the makers of Time on Frog Island just figured they could get by on a cute premise and general aesthetic. To be sure, in some cases that may be enough, but in this case, it just means you have a game that has the right tone but none of the right content.

Unlike some games that try hard to be good-natured and relaxing but actually aren’t, Lil Gator Game is exactly what it looks like on the surface: a sweet, adorable game that never feels like it’s trying too hard to be either of those things, but that’s guaranteed to win you over all the same.

Instead of being immersed in the environment of The Callisto Protocol, I found myself thinking back and wishing more and more that I was playing Dead Space. There are promises of patches to improve some of the complaints around the actual mechanics of the game, but I don’t see anything on the horizon elevating The Callisto Protocol above mediocrity.

It’s an interesting take on a formula you’d think would be played out by now, done in a way that shows there’s life in the card-based genre yet.

If you just want a game that’s a joy to play, this is it. Between the beautiful colours, the relaxing gameplay, and the thrill of gliding and soaring through the world, there’s enough to make Wavetale well worth your time.

It’s neat to see someone capture the feel of a bygone generation as well as this game does, but absent any real identity of its own, it’s hard to see why you’d play this instead of going back and replaying the originals.

In setting out to combine two very different genres, it put itself in a situation where it had to be both a solid pinball game and a decent dungeon crawler. Instead, it’s only so-so at both halves of that equation, which makes it difficult to recommend.

Of course, if you just want more Portal, that might make The Entropy Centre enough for you. It’s not much more than that, but it also sticks so closely to the formula that it doesn’t do anything crazy that would make you dislike the game, either. It’s a well-worn path at this point, and The Entropy Centre never once strays from it.

Don’t get me wrong, Marvel Midnight Suns fits squarely into that lineage, but there’s also much more to it than simply getting your squadmates into the right position. It’s an interesting mix, but it’s also one that the game more or less pulls off pretty well.

It’s a solid shooter that often manages to nail its jokes, has a unique visual style, and feels pretty great to control the further into the campaign you get. It isn’t going to be the best shooter of all time, but it’s certainly fun while it lasts, and worth checking out.

All in all, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is pretty enjoyable, but definitely lacking on content at launch. There’s a really good launching point presented at the moment and I expect the long term lifespan of Darktide will be great. There are a few small bugs to work out, but nothing I encountered that was unforgivable. I don’t think there’s much you haven’t seen here before, other than maybe the setting, but it’s fun nonetheless.

New Joe and Mac: Caveman Ninja just barely passes as a decent remake of the original. Making gameplay mechanics fit the new visuals better and fixing sound problems really needs to be top priority, possibly with a few update patches. The Hunger/Health meter also really needs to be adjusted as not to deplete as fast as it does here. It’s definitely not horrible overall, but also doesn’t live up to the fun factor of the original. If I had to break everything down here, I would say this release largely feels unfinished. In it’s current form, it’s good, but it can, and should be, much better. I would recommend waiting for a few quality patches or a price drop before diving into this one.

I enjoyed revisiting Front Mission, and I think the base game is neat enough to warrant a look for any RPG fan out there that hasn’t had the opportunity to play one of these games yet. Both campaigns are pretty sizable, it took me a bit to finish the initial OCU campaign, and then there’s the tougher UCS campaign to check out that I haven’t finished, so you’ll certainly get a number of hours out of the game if you decide to dive in. I’d suggest giving Front Missions 1st: Remake a shot, maybe more so if you’ve never played the game before, just keep in mind that it’s a prettier port of a classic strategy RPG that may not have all the bells and whistles you’re used to with more modern titles.

Star Ocean: The Divine Force is an improvement from the previous game; Integrity and Faithlessness, but this is not a return to form to games like Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, or The Second Story. tri-Ace, to me, could do no wrong during the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 era. I would love to see tri-Ace return to greatness with a higher quality new Star Ocean title, but with this one I’ll have to settle for average.

The bottom line is that Super Kiwi 64 is an enjoyable 3D platformer that brings its influences to mind without ever feeling like it’s just a copy-paste of older, better games. Add in a pretty decent price, and it makes Super Kiwi 64 difficult to resist.

Retro Goal is just a really fun game all-around. It captures not just the spirit of the sport it’s trying to emulate, but also the essence of what makes a great soccer game. It may not look like the new standard for soccer games on the Switch, but if you pick it up, you’ll soon find it makes a very convincing argument.

I can only recommend this if you are already a fan or like fast paced puzzle games in general. Nothing bad or horrible with this release, but also nothing groundbreaking, Just an above average classic puzzle game with a great challenge. Pick it up if you want to experience the world of Arkanoid.

It may not last that long, but it also never comes close to wearing out its welcome. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is an excellent sequel to an equally excellent game, and now that it’s out on PC, it’s absolutely worth your time (even if that time is over far too soon).

I know that, as a middle-aged man, I’m clearly not the target audience for a game about rebuilding your family estate and bonding with your horse. At the same time, though, I can’t imagine that the people who would be interested in that would want to put up with it, either. Horse Tales plays poorly and performs even worse, and it’s bound to disappoint anyone who picks it up.

To be fair, during the more traditional gameplay sections, the game performs mostly fine. But seeing as you spend the vast majority of your time here wandering through a hideous open world, the performance is an issue. If you can put up with that thanks to a deep and abiding love of all things Sonic, I wouldn’t fault you – but if you take one look at this ugly mess and decide you don’t want any part of it, I wouldn’t blame you for that either.

As I said, there’s pleasure to be found in a bit of neatness and order, and A Little to the Left appeals to that specific part of the brain. But it doesn’t do it consistently enough to make the game worth playing, unless you like having a bit of frustration mixed in with your cute and cozy puzzles.

Even with all those pros working in the game’s favour, it’s hard to recommend Alan Wake Remastered when it means suffering through such a terrible port. Unless you’re a Switch-only gamer, you’d be well-advised to ignore this altogether, and playing the game on any of the many other systems this is available on. And if your only option is the Switch? Maybe skip this one and just trust everyone who says it’s a game well worth playing.

This is a otome romance novel through and through – and what’s more, it’s a good enough otome that even if the setting doesn’t sound all that romantic, it still achieves its goal.

It’s a love letter to gaming – as in, a love letter to almost every genre you can think of – and it’s designed to look like someone drew it up in a notebook, which only adds to the charm. It’s all over the place, but if you want something unlike anything else, this is the game you’re after.

Dorfromantik is all about keeping things calm and challenging you just enough to keep you coming back for more, and it’s guaranteed to get you hooked.

I’ll take a “glass half full” approach to Smurfs Kart, though: if you had told me going into the game that I’d be left wanting more, I wouldn’t have believed you. As I wrote up top, it’s not about to challenge Mario Kart for the genre’s throne, but if you’re just after a kart racer that does a lot of things right, you’d be well-advised to look here.

As I noted above, my only real complaint about Jackbox Party Pack 9 is that there aren’t any drawing games – and that’s more a minor quibble than anything else, since I enjoyed all five games here so much. As the series nears its tenth entry, you’d think that the creative minds at Jackbox might be running out of ideas, but Jackbox Party Pack 9 suggests that they’re only just starting to hit their collective stride.

To say that the Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration is jam packed with content is an understatement. Atari and Digital Eclipse really did a great job with this release and you can tell a lot of work went into making it. Despite some of the odd game choices and the inclusion of terrible Atari XE games this is a fantastic collection overall and should not be missed by anyone. Even if you find Atari rather primitive, you owe it to yourself to take this collection for a spin. The tons of informative interviews, promotion material and superior game list makes this release worth every penny. Highly Recommended!

Sonic Frontiers is certainly different from what we’ve come to expect from Sonic and company – both for better and for worse. I don’t think anyone is going to compare it to Mario’s forays into open (or open-ish) worlds, but if nothing else, it definitely provides an interesting way forward for a series that has often seemed like it’s wandering aimlessly in search of a purpose. Sonic Frontiers doesn’t give it that purpose, but it does suggest it’s not far off from finding it, either.

Gearbox Studios took a chance by giving us a sequel to such a critically acclaimed and highly regarded title. They delivered in giving us that same feeling we got playing Tales, a game with humor and heart. I enjoyed being able to play in this sandbox with these new characters and giving us one of the funniest games of 2022. Don’t let the lack of gameplay and stretched out story deter you away from the title. If you have never played the first Tales you’re in for a treat. I would recommend also circling back and playing the first if you have not gotten to experience it.

To do all that Farm Manager 2022 has to offer, you need to be willing to put up with some atrocious controls, and you need to be interested in putting in a lot of very detailed work. It’s certainly not to my tastes – give me the zen pleasures of the Farming Simulator series any day – but if it’s a management sim you’re after, you’ll find plenty to sink your teeth into here.

You’ll need to be in the mood for something very short, and very weird, but in the end, you’ll be left with a game that leaves you thinking about it for a while afterwards.