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.

Regardless of me being an old man yelling at the sky about the licensed presentation (or lack thereof), Madden NFL 23 is a win for console and PC. Now like I mentioned earlier, my PC use case is extremely particular, but I assume many players are now in a similar situation. Sports games on handheld have never been a great experience and Madden 23 is the first to really wow me, which is more of an example of how great the Steam Deck is, but I can’t hold that against Madden. As far as the current gen console release, Fieldsense is truly a game changer and made me think more about ball placement than I ever have in a football game. Dropping an over the should pass from Russell Wilson to Jerry Jeudy just feels extra satisfying, especially when it’s over Chiefs defensive backs. PC or Console, either way you’re a winner.

The controls are so bad, in fact, that they outweigh whatever good or interesting or intriguing things Pendula Swing may be trying to do here. There’s a lot going on, and there are all kinds of ideas, but the only way to experience any of it is by dealing with constant frustration, and in the end it doesn’t seem worth it.

The First Cases is a good tribute to one of the classic characters of fiction, and anyone who likes to curl up with a good mystery should find this to be to their liking as well.

Severed Steel doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It exists in a world where Neon White (to say nothing of Max Payne and Superhot) not only also exist, but are much, much better options if you want this kind of gameplay. With competition like that, Severed Steel doesn’t quite match up.

Cursed to Golf is designed to challenge you, frustrate you, and punish you – and even if real golf does that, this game takes it to a whole other level. If you’re the kind of person who doesn’t usually give sports games a second glance but loves difficulty ramped up to an insane degree, this should be the one sports game you make an exception for.

Digimon Survive is a talk-heavy game that expects you to spend a lot of time reading, and a little bit of time fighting. That may not be the most enjoyable thing if you just want a Pokémon substitute, but as visual novels go, it’s one of the better ones.

Basically, it’s an odd game about fishing that looks like a leftover from another generation, so if that’s what you’re after, you may be pleasantly surprised by what you find here.

Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered is a grade-A game through and through, and as long as this release hasn’t changed anything (it hasn’t), it will remain that way.

When you get down to it, it’s still a lot of basic hack and slash fights broken up by lots of endless cutscenes, with extra side quests there to pad out the length even further. I don’t foresee Sword and Fairy: Together Forever garnering the kind of following here in the west that it has in China, but if you just want to kill lots of monsters and watch lots of dialogue, it may be worth your time.

Summertime Madness doesn’t last long, and it can easily be finished in under two hours. But it’s also not the sort of game that needs to go on forever, either. It’s a challenging, engaging puzzle with enough plot to last through its runtime, and that’s enough to make it well worth a look.

There’s a lot of potential there, but unfortunately Hazel Sky never really gets into any of that. Instead, you get Shane and Erin talking about what they want to do in the future. While I’ve always had a soft spot for stories about characters on the peripheries of something bigger – only so many main characters can be The Chosen One, after all – in this case, it’s hard to care about any of it. Or maybe it’s just hard to care because the game is so poorly designed and so frustrating. Whether you’re falling through the world, or having a needed object vanish out of your hands (which happened to me with alarming regularity), or merely just fighting with the camera, Hazel Sky is chock full of terrible decisions.

Fobia – St. Dinfna Hotel provides some pretty solid chills. It’s not the sort of game that will wow you unless you’re already a fan of survival horror, but if you are a fan, it serves as a pretty solid reminder of the good things the genre has to offer.

So while Avenging Spirit might not be my top 90’s arcade game by any stretch, I do think the low price point and attention to detail on this release make it worth picking up. Its unique possession hook makes it stand out amongst other classic action games, and it can certainly be fun to run through with another player a time or two in order to see everything Avenging Spirit has to offer. So check it out when you get a chance, it’s a neat addition to your classic arcade game library.

If all you want is lots of content, then Dual Brain Complete Edition will deliver. But if you want the content to be fun or engaging, then it feels a little lacking.

Ultimately, the Wonder Boy Collection is a mediocre release. While the titles included are all decent games, it seems lackluster in options and presentation. There is a very small “gallery” of art included which is made up of Master System covers and instruction book pages as well as a small amount of promotional art from magazines. Again, seeing Master System related screens in this collection while not offering the ability to actually play those versions demonstrates how phoned-in this collection really is. While the price isn’t terrible at $29.99, I feel it should offer more in the way of playable games, options and extras. If you are interested in picking this one up, I would say wait for a sale or price drop before diving in. Decent games in an overall disappointing package.

XEL isn’t a great game. It’s not even a mediocre game. It’s a half-finished mess that shouldn’t have been released in this state.