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.