If only they would hear my plea and allow me to turn down the master track.

All of which is to say: buy Thomas Was Alone. Buy it for yourself. Buy it for your friends. Buy it for random strangers on the street. It's seriously that good.

I definitely think Rune Factory 4 is worth a look, whether you’re a fan of the series or not, as it offers up a pretty unique experience on the 3DS.

All in all, this initial DLC pack is worth picking up, especially if you’re still toying around with Breath of the Wild. Granted, the next story focused pack is probably the more hotly anticipated of the two, but the gameplay features, additional difficulty, and the Trial of the Sword challenge are nothing to scoff at here. Definitely pick this up, it’s well worth the asking price.

All in all, though, the two games are highly enjoyable. I don’t know if KLONOA Phantasy Reverie Series is going to be the game that finally gives Klonoa the audience it deserves. But if there’s any justice in the world, it will be.

Nevertheless Grid 2 is still a worthy sequel that offers a good and deep racing experience that should please any diehard fan, even if it doesn't give you that OMG face at any time during your experience.

If you want my advice, keep the idea, change the time line, okay?

Atelier Shallie Plus is not all that different from any other Atelier game. There's a brief moment at the beginning of the game, when your characters are adrift at sea, when it doesn't seem like things will be proceeding as normal…and then you hit dry land, and it reverts to the same broad formula. If you've been desperate for the game to switch things up, the simple fact that you can make things move more quickly probably won't win you over now. But if you just want another Atelier game that delivers on the series' usual level of quality, you're in luck. Atelier Shallie Plus lives up to the standard set by its predecessors — for better and for worse.

Tropico 6 is fantastically addictive, and worth checking out regardless of whether you’re into the minute details of urban planning, or if you’re more a big picture kind of person. Whichever it is, you’ll find plenty to love here.

Unfortunately for Dog Witch, the gameplay does very little to differentiate itself or to set the game apart. The game claims to have 150+ items that can be mixed and matched in different ways, but all in all, it mostly feels like you’re playing the same actions over and over again. While it certainly takes a little longer to master than your average Slay the Spire clone – in part, I think, because every run feels so short – the gameplay feels a little lacking in the sort of inspiration that will keep you coming back again and again.

Rebelstar: Tactical Command's shortcomings are vastly outweighed by the ingenius design and fun gameplay.

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.

The combination of pretty new graphics, the same old music and the same old control is something of a spade.

Personally, I don't have any place for a game like this on my shelf when I already have the whole Tony Hawk dynasty. Would I recommend it to my friends that have kids? Surely.

If RPG gaming were a diet, Dragon Warrior 7 would be several truckloads of raw meat. It ain't pretty, but there is a lot of it and it sure does satisfy. It'll also give you a heart attack in large doses.

But when ATV Offroad Fury 2 is every bit as good – even graphically, and extremely inexpensive because of its age, there's very little reason to get this version.

As far as ports go, Overclocked is a little light on content, and as good as the voice acting addition is, I don't think it's a big enough change to warrant a second buy.

But just because a game is fuelled by good intentions doesn't mean that you have to play it — and personally, considering how readily available these traumatic stories are in real life, I'd much rather play games that act as a safe space away from it all.

It's not quite flawless, and it would be great to see a current gen Ace Combat that would run at 60fps, but Namco's attempt at revitalizing the series is actually pretty solid.

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.

Trials games have always been all about that feeling of “just one more try…”, and Trials Rising is no different. This is the best game of its type on the Switch, and one that’s sure to get its hooks into you and keep them there.

I won't deny that it has a great art style, but the rest of the game could have certainly used the same attention to detail.

A fantastic game, and definitely what I was hoping for when I first saw those initial screenshots a while back. The capturing mechanic is fun and interesting, while at the same time being tied into familiar third person controls for shooter fans, so there's nothing here that takes a lot of time to get used to.

If you go into this expecting a light hearted, breezy romp through the Mushroom Kingdom, you'll definitely have some fun with it. But the more hardcore player out there might find themselves a bit put-off by the overall ease and lack of challenge, so here's to hoping that New Super Mario Bros. Wii U can strike a better balance between fun and difficulty than NSMB 2 managed to do.

No, it feels, as I said, like Oxenfree’s writers had written themselves into a corner, and figured a mostly unexplained offscreen resolution was the only way to get out of it. If you’re able to overlook that and focus on the first 95% or so that’s highly satisfying, you should still go for it, since the journey up to that point is extremely well-done, but if you want any sort of closure, be aware before you go into it that this game’s ending is going to drive you nuts.

Game play in the first NFL Street hampered on the difficulty on playing defense. This has all been fixed in NFL Street 2 as there are a larger amount of both offence and defensive plays that not only give you a chance of catching a player off guard for the easy score, but for that quick sack as well.

Banishers is definitely better than Don’t Nod’s previous action efforts, and if they decide to revisit this world again, they’ll be starting from a very solid base.

I can’t recommend Grand Slam Tennis enough for Wii owners, and am excited to see what changes are made when this title hits Xbox 360 and PS3 later this year.