The main thing, though, is that Easy Come Easy Golf is a joy to play. Whether you’re a newcomer to the sport/the developer or a seasoned veteran, this game will have something for you. It shows that even if the name on the game may have changed, it’s still fully lives up to Clap Hanz’s very high standards.

Lack of story aside, it’s hard to argue that Research and Destroy doesn’t do a decent job of developing its own niche within this crowded turn-based strategy genre. It’s definitely better if you can play it with others – whether in-person or online – but it’s solid enough that even if you’re playing solo, you should get a few hours of fun out of it.

As much as I enjoyed Gigapocalypse, however, I wouldn’t say that I whole-heartedly recommend it. For one thing, it’s really hard to imagine playing it with anything other than a touchscreen (though a mouse might be a decent alternative). At the same time, though, the performance on the Switch isn’t the greatest, to put it mildly. So the window for enjoying it is awfully narrow. Still, if you’re okay with compromising here and there, it makes for a pretty fun time.

I’ve really enjoyed my time with Shovel Knight Dig, and it’s a fantastic follow-up to the first Shovel Knight adventure. Everything comes together so well here, and it feels so great to play, that you’ll have a tough time putting this one down. Ideally we’ll see the game support more platforms down the road, but for now if you’ve got access to a PC, Switch, or iOS platform, then I’d highly suggest checking it out.

If you stepped away from Aliens: Fireteam Elite after launch, I’m not sure that the Pathogen expansion brings enough to the table to bring you back, but I can’t really argue that the $14.99 price point seems pretty fair considering all the extra stuff that comes along with the new, albeit short, story content. The new class perks are fun to play around with, giving you unique modifiers for your main special skill, most of which really boosts up your power level when paired with the right modifications. I certainly had some fun revisiting the game, and if you’ve been playing the game a fair amount up to this point, I can’t really see a reason not to pick up the DLC. Just temper your expectations when it comes to the new story missions and boss fight, which won’t blow you away in comparison to the main campaign.

Whether you’re intimately familiar with Mobile Suit Gundam or a total newcomer, the basic gist of the game should be enough to suck you in and keep you riveted. That it’s not shows just how forgettable this gameplay is – and forgettable is never a word that should apply to robots trying to blow each other up.

Royal Frontier is enjoyable enough – and short enough – that it’s worth playing through. It’s fun to see a game adding new elements to a well-worn formula, and it makes this game an easy recommendation.

It’s not inconceivable that LEGO Brawls could turn into something fun one day. If it were beefed up with loads more content, along with more interesting and more dynamic fighters, it would definitely be a lot more interesting. But in this state, with so little content – and with the content that is there being of such poor quality – there’s no way to classify LEGO Brawls as anything other than a massive disappointment.

It’s meant to be pleasant and cozy, and everything about it – from the folksy characters, to the fiddle music, to the lovely voxel art – is designed to be as warm and upbeat and wholesome as possible. And more often than not, it succeeds at being a pleasant experience. You wouldn’t think a fishing game, of all things, as being cuddly and cozy and inviting – but Moonglow Bay proves that it’s not just possible, it’s also pretty fun.

Voyage is probably the first game I’ve ever played from Ratalaika where its visuals are so good that they make the game worth playing, even if the gameplay itself isn’t that challenging or exciting. It may not mean that you need to stop what you’re doing right now to play Voyage, but it does mean that if you decide to pick this game up, you may get a lot more out of it than you could’ve possibly expected going in.

Hell Pie clearly isn’t for everybody, but if you’re the sort of person who loves pushing boundaries – and your definition of boundaries haven’t changed much since you were in high school – then it might just be the game for you.

I really found myself engrossed with Metal: Hellsinger, and the solid FPS gunplay paired with a challenging rhythm mechanic keeps you pretty engaged throughout. It’s a neat concept that certainly hasn’t worn out its welcome so far, and I’d certainly like to see it expanded upon in the future, so hopefully a sequel or DLC won’t be out of the question. Definitely check it out Metal: Hellsinger if any of this sounds intriguing, you won’t be disappointed.

To be sure, there are worse ways to waste three hours than in the presence of very good voice actors doing their thing over gorgeous visuals. And, like I said, the game always tries to make you feel like you’re in the presence of something great. But the reality is, no matter how much South of the Circle aspires to greatness, with a story like this, it’s never more than merely okay.

If you’re fond of stealth horror and don’t mind a bit of shallowness, then Yuoni could be something you’ll enjoy, at least for a short time. But for anyone else, I don’t think it’ll be nearly as appealing.

It’s built around an engaging story that never outlasts its welcome – the story of a boy pining for his lost love has obviously been done countless times before, but the way it’s told here is nicely done. Further, it ties into an interesting mechanic – since the boy is collecting the soul fragments at the behest of a being called the Soul Collector, he has the ability to switch realities and see another world. This, in turn, makes the puzzles a lot more interesting, as you often have to switch back and forth to figure out what to do next.Obviously, none of this is enough to make Eternal Hope feel like it rises about its influences. But at the very least, it’s enough to help the game carve out its own tiny niche within the world of Limbo clones.

Much like Choose Your Own Adventure books could be reread over and over again as you tried to find all the different paths, Steve Jackson’s Sorcery! is the kind of game you can play over and over again as you try to uncover all the different twists and turns you missed the first few times around (and given the sheer number of possibly story combinations, you’ll need to play through the game several times and several ways to see everything). Much like inkle’s other, later games, Sorcery! is highly replayable and an essential experience for anyone who’s even kind of interested in adventure games.

It feels like a comfort food RPG for Shin Megami fans, one that you’ll likely enjoy while waiting for the next big thing, but not one that’s going to come close to dominating that #1 RPG spot on most lists for the year. It doesn’t take a lot of chances, and instead just tends to lean into the elements that people already enjoy from other Shin Megami games. As such, it’s not going to really bump the Devil Summoner subseries to new heights, and I suspect it’ll be a while before we see another entry in this particular series, but overall Soul Hackers 2 is a solid bit of fun, and easy to suggest to anyone that has any sort of affinity for these games.

It’s got an interesting story and it’s set in an interesting world, but you’ll be spending a lot of time sidetracking into minute, extraneous details that make those bigger picture things difficult to see.

I still don’t know if I’d call in the best Crossword Puzzle Word Game ever, but I’d still say it’s a pretty fun take on the genre if you’re a fan.

PAC-MAN WORLD Re-PAC may not be one of the greatest games of all time being brought back for a new generation to discover, but it’s still a decent enough 3D platformer that lots of people – myself included – are going to enjoy.

Overall there is not enough here to recommend to most players. Souls veterans will be left wanting more, and most likely frustrated by the limited options available to approaching combat encounters. Newcomers to the Souls-like games will most likely be put off by the initial difficulty, as well as the massive skill check that the first boss poses. A forgettable story, relatively bland world, and overly simplistic combat leave quite a lot to be desired after the initial hour or two with Thymesia.

It’s still not a complex game, obviously. And you’re still likely to eventually get bored by its relative simplicity. But it’s a mark of how enjoyable Bit Orchard is that you’ll almost inevitably find yourself getting sucked right back in.

Forget debating whether video games are art – here’s a game that asks whether art are video games, and then shows that the answer is a pretty clear yes.

In many cases, it’s hard to step back to a older game from a previous generation when you are spoiled with the latest release such as The Last of Us Part II. To be able to go back to the original The Last of Us with a very close visual retelling to the top notch sequel is nothing short of magnificent.

If you’ve played any first-person puzzlers in the past decade-plus, you’ll know exactly what to expect in Hourglass. But if you liked any of them, the good news is that you’ll at least find things to enjoy here, too. Hourglass may not be original, but it’s still a decent enough way to spend a few hours.

Even if Blossom Tales isn’t all that original, that doesn’t make it any less fun. The world is fun to explore, the puzzles are fun to solve, and the story is engaging and enjoyable. It may not make you forget its obvious influences, but at the very least, it does right by them, and tries its best to live up to their sterling reputations.

I really, really dug my time spent with Arcade Paradise, and thought the sheer variety of arcade games was pretty impressive, as was the actual amount of upgrades and story content available. It took a lot longer to complete than I anticipated, right around the 20-hour mark or so for me, which makes for a pretty hefty “arcade” experience to be sure. My only serious complaint is the sheer number of bugs I encountered while playing. Nothing that was necessarily game-breaking, but I did have a lot of recurring issues while playing through our review copy on the Switch, which has not been fixed yet. However, a PC patch was just made available this week that does seem to address the bugs I encountered, and my understanding based on the official Arcade Paradise Twitter account is that this patch should be going live for consoles next week. I would advise holding off on purchasing the game until that patch goes live, assuming you’re considering a console version of the game, but outside of that, I think Arcade Paradise is well worth your time.

Two Point Campus is basically a perfect management sim. It’s filled with content (with more likely on the way, if Two Point Hospital is any guide) and it’s absurdly accessible, and it’s worth picking up no matter your usual interest in the genre.