It’s not on the same level in terms of…well, anything, really, but at the same time, it’s well-made enough that if you’re the kind of person it’s targeting, it’s absolutely essential.

The music in Roboquest is fantastic with the synthwave Carpenter Brut-inspired soundtrack amping me up as I ran and gunned my way through each biome. Although the gameplay can get somewhat repetitive after a while, there is still so much variety to discover. If you’re looking into dipping your toe into the Souls/rogue-like pool, I would strongly recommend giving Roboquest a look.

While enjoyable and intriguing, it wasn’t the most original game. Even though I appreciate what it takes inspiration from, it relies too heavily on the inspiration. Having said that, that may have lulled me into a false sense of security, thinking I knew what to expect from the moment I started. I had to clear my mind of preconceived notions that I would know what would happen and live in the moment. That’s what I liked about You Will Die Here Tonight. I had to work at it. It was challenging. I was transported back to the ’90s without having a strategy guide or GameFAQ to aid me. I had to rely solely on my guile, and completing the game was that much more of an accomplishment!

Obviously, not every game is going to be to everyone’s tastes. But, for the second year in a row, Jackbox Party Pack 10 delivers a set of games where everyone is bound like at least one of the games on offer – certainly a far cry from earlier editions where you knew that an entry would have at least one dud.It’s an outstanding collection from top to bottom, and it shows that as the Jackbox series enters its second decade, it’s as strong as ever.

As I said, I know that DINOSAURS: Mission Dino Camp is intended for a younger audience, so some allowances need to be made, and you shouldn’t go in expecting the greatest game ever or anything. But even kid-oriented games can be good, and when they’re done right they can offer hours of entertainment. DINOSAURS: Mission Dino Camp is definitely not done right, and for that reason should just be avoided.

The biggest selling point for me with the Separate Ways DLC is how much I wanted a game centered around Ada and her mysterious story. We always get her with background plot points and the story has indeed aged like fine wine, but still so little is known about her. I feel Resident Evil 6, which I hate to talk about, gave her the most screen time, but I think it’s time. If this remake and the DLC is any indication we are in for a solid remake of the next game or sequel in the series. I’m looking forward to it regardless as always.

DreamWorks All-Star Kart Racing is still a decent racer overall. Much like the studio that inspired it, it’s not going to make you forget the genre’s king, but there’s fun to be found here if you give it a chance.

While Die After Sunset may have spent a few years in Early Access, it still doesn’t feel like a game that should have been given a full release. No matter how good its premise may be, and how interesting an idea “single-player Fortnite” may sound on paper, it’s clear that Die After Sunset still isn’t something worthwhile.

The Invincible stands out as the best space exploration game of 2023, and yes, I understand the statement that I am making there. It is not a dig against any other games that may have come out this year and also focused on space exploration, but rather a celebration of what the team at Starward Industries has managed to accomplish with The Invincible. 2023 has been a juggernaut of a year as far as incredible game releases go, (while also being an awful year for the people making games, with over 6,000 layoffs in the industry and counting) and it would be easy for The Invincible to get lost in the shuffle. I am here to beg, to implore you, to INSIST that you take the time to check out The Invincible if it looks like something you would even be remotely interested in. I have not stopped thinking about this game since finishing it, and I think it deserves a place at the top of any “End of the Year” list for best games.

To wrap everything up, Persona 5 Tactica is a genuinely fantastic experience from start to finish, and I couldn’t be more excited to have gotten to play a Persona game in this genre. I cannot recommend this game enough to fans of tactical RPGs or Persona games, and I think it has something for everyone. I sincerely hope anyone who reads this gives Persona 5 Tactica a chance when it launches on November 17th. I think it’ll sneak on by a lot of people here at the end of the year as a genuinely fantastic title in a year so full of industry wins.

If you’ve not had the chance to check it out yet, then Alan Wake II comes highly recommended. In a stellar year of top-tier releases, sequels, and new IPs, I didn’t expect Alan Wake II to rank as highly on my personal top game list as it does now, and while we’ve still got a couple months to go, I’m fairly confident that Alan Wake II is going to be my personal game of the year.

No robot voices aside, I did quite enjoy my time with Berzerk: Recharged. it may be modernized and made a bit easier with its powerup system, but it does retain that classic arcade feel by having no goal in mind, other than getting a higher score from the last game you played. It’s definitely one of the better Recharged versions of these classic games and players of all skill levels can have a lot of fun. Try this out if your curious, or if you are a fan of the original.

If you’re like me, and were initially a little lukewarm on Cyberpunk 2077, then definitely give Phantom Liberty and the new 2.0 patch a shot. It makes for a much better experience overall, and the Phantom Liberty storyline is a blast to playthrough. This gives me a lot of hope for what the next entry in this series will end up being, and has reignited my interest in a possible follow-up in a way that I didn’t think was possible.

Star Ocean: The Second Story R is a fantastic remaster of a game from the golden era of JRPGs. The newly arranged music is great and the voice acting is good as well, and the improvements to the battle system from the original to this one is leaps and bounds better. The graphical choices made in this remaster is spot on with a nod to the original sprite graphics mixed in with more modern environments. Anyone looking for a classic-style JRPG to play should pick this one up.

All things considered, Borderlands 3: Ultimate Edition is a pretty neat achievement that’s only slightly undermined by the fact that we had an even better port of an even more well-received open-world game from a previous generation just a few months ago. Even so, this is a fun game in its own right, and if you’re after a big, open-world shooter with lots of guns and gore on the Switch, this is definitely one of your better options.

The incredibly dull combat is enough to make The Smurfs 2: The Prisoner of the Green Stone a clear step down from Mission Vileaf. You could do a lot worse, for sure, but its predecessor shows you can definitely do better, too.

For those of you who missed it’s original release on the Apple Arcade, and I’m almost sure that was just about everyone, you owe it to yourself to download this release on your favorite console and enjoy. Even if you’ve never heard of Space Harrier, you will have fun playing through this, with its great action, soundtrack and tons of unlockables. Air Twister is definitely one that needs to be in your collection. I cannot recommend it enough.

Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man who Erased his Name is the second volley in Ryu Ga Gotoku’s year long triple threat (February’s Like a Dragon: Ishin! And January 2024’s Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth are the other prongs of this attack!). While it is not as voluminous as the feudal era title that came before it, I can stay storywise Gaiden is more impactful and frankly I do appreciate its existence (Even though I was squarely in the camp of letting Kiryu walk away into the sunset never to be heard from again…), it lays the groundwork for his participation in the upcoming Infinite Wealth. For fans who have enjoyed any of Kiryu’s adventures you owe it to yourself to take this one on as it further adds to the legend of the Dragon of Dojima…even if that’s not him anymore. Let’s hope nothing bad befalls this man in subsequent titles…hasn’t he suffered enough, perhaps a trip to Hawaii will do him some good!

I have no doubt that some people are absolutely going to love Jusant – but it’s definitely not for me. If you’re a fan of climbing, you’ll find plenty to love here, but I found it all too frustrating to ever get lost in the game.

There’s a weight of history behind Saints Row, and no matter whether you’re comparing it to the more serious early games or the sillier later ones, it’s pretty clear that the Saints Row reboot doesn’t live up to any of them.

RoboCop: Rogue City managed to be one giant leap in the right direction for a property that could never find a proper footing in the video game space. It worked extremely well as a bridge to the 2nd and 3rd films and managed to provide an action packed romp for someone who is looking for your usual power fantasy experience. I hope Tayon gets a second crack at the guy and really lets loose without the confines of the two films holding them back. That and maybe put less cutscenes of Robo watching a car drive off…it happens more than you think. Otherwise if you’re a fan of RoboCop or are Robo-curious, you owe it to yourself to check out Rogue City…and yes spend more than a dollar when acquiring it (This was the best I could do in cramming that line in, anyways go pick up this game…I need to figure out how to do well in the shooting range).

None of this is to say the game is bad, because it isn’t! And to be honest with you, the receptiveness to feedback that the team has shown in the short time since launch, and how quickly they patched out the performance issues on PC (which bear no further mentioning than that, now that they have been fixed) makes me think that some of this will get taken care of in the near future! I can see enemy density being adjusted, I can see some of the absurdly spongy health bars getting knocked down a good bit to help with the flow of combat, I can see some adjustments to checkpoint placements, etc. There is a LOT to love here with Lords of the Fallen, and I am genuinely optimistic about the legs this game has, and the potential it has to really go far.

Perhaps this title might inspire someone to work on a title which aligns more to the property… Otherwise buy it if you want to support the franchise, but if you’re looking for an enjoyable platformer there’s other options available out there. I guess it goes without saying, perhaps we shouldn’t have disturbed these relics of the past…

If you were a fan of the first Ghostrunner, it’s pretty much a sure thing that you’ll love the sequel. It takes everything that made the first game good and ramps it up a few notches – and, thankfully, it does it all on hardware that doesn’t have too many issues running it.

Even if the graphics were perfect, Wild Card Football would still suffer from the fact that it’s not very fun. The Switch has a big, football-shaped hole in its catalogue, and Wild Card Football would clearly love to fill it, but it’s pretty clear that the results fall well short of a first down.

It would be easy to speculate what “substances” the developers were on when they conceived and put this game together, but come on…this is Nintendo we’re talking about here. The only “substance” they have an abundance of is imagination and thank goodness. As Super Mario Bros. Wonder is definitely a timeless classic that will survive the test of time. Let’s hope this isn’t the first time Mario and Co spend time in this foreign land or at least let’s hope the mushroom kingdom imports some of their wares. With that said…Sorry Peter and Miles, I’ve got to finish the Special World before I head back to New York City…looks like this vacation in the Flower Kingdom is gonna last just a bit longer!

Overall, Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 is a pretty substantial collection (even with Vol. 2 in the works) with six games and a ton of bonus content ranging from graphic novels, soundtracks, scripts and more. Metal Gear Solid is really the only game I have any complaints about. Since it’s being emulated, and there are plenty of emulators out there that can smooth out or upscale textures, they could have used or created an emulator that allows for some smoother textures and/or upscaling. This is still a must have for any Metal Gear fan, and even if you are new to the series or have only played Metal Gear Solid V, this is a perfect opportunity to play the games that started it all!

Overall, Haunted House is fun for a while, but it begins to lose it’s charm the further you get into it. The game is okay for a few runs, but you may begin to lose interest quickly and want to stop. It’s a decent remake for sure, though very average overall and just not as compelling or satisfying as other roguelites or even other Atari remakes available. Maybe try a demo before purchasing to see if this will appeal to you.