Erica tells a boilerplate story—but tells it very well. With a fresh, intuitive interface and some of the best production values and acting ever seen in a video game, Erica feels very much like what it aspires to be—an interactive film. Erica is perhaps an odd experiment, but one well worth experiencing for gamers that enjoy trips off the beaten path.

While interesting on paper, The Church in the Darkness is mostly just a collection of anti-capitalist audio logs blaring over harder-than-it-needs-to-be stealth gameplay. There's no love lost in this place.

Remnant is on my list of biggest surprises of 2019. I was apprehensive since I'm not a fan of Souls-like games, but this one is right up my alley. The combat is fantastic and it's even better when you are playing with others online.

A wonderful story that is now supported by great looking characters and backgrounds, Final Fantasy VIII is worth the pickup twenty years after it's initial launch.

Damsel is a fun arcade-style platformer/shooter/speedrunner/whatever genre you want to call it. The comic-style motif is a nice concept that I haven’t seen for a long time and the gameplay is pretty fluid. The darkness of the stages and the similarities between the three game modes kind of bring the game down a little, but it’s still an enjoyable outing for the Nintendo Switch.

GORN makes a gory, bloodfest type of fighting into a fun pastime that can also serve as a fairly good cardio workout. While there are buckets of blood and dismembered body parts flying around, it is designed in a way to make what would normally be prohibitively gross into something so fun that you will find yourself laughing at the incredible mayhem that surrounds you.

Million to One Hero is a well-polished game in the “custom level creation” genre (is that a genre…well it is now). The controls are fluid and you’ll have to employ a lot of skill to finish some of the creations players can come up with. The level creation itself is pretty robust, though it would have been nice if some of the icons were a little bigger on the screen, and combining levels into a mini-adventure is a nice touch. If you’re a fan of 2D platforming and level creation, you’ll find a lot to do in Million to One Hero for a satisfying price.

I can’t say enough good things about Rebel Galaxy Outlaw. It’s a sucker punch aimed at all the bloated, morbidly obese space sims out on the market today. Yes, there’s room for them, too. But Outlaw distills the ‘90s space-combat and trading sim into a great-looking, great-playing game for a new generation.

Ion Fury made me feel like a kid again and it's not just nostalgia that makes the game great. The is classic run and gun FPS action at it's purest and despite running on 20 year old tech, it's still a hell of a lot of fun and is one of my favorite games of 2019 so far.

Solo: Islands of the Heart seems like it’s trying to be your counselor. Go to an actual counselor. The gameplay is calming, the scenery is cute, the colors are vibrant, the design is unique, and the puzzles require a good amount of thinking without being too easy, but its attempt to analyze a real human person with pre-determined questions starts it off teetering on the wrong foot. It never quite regains its balance.

Wolfenstein: Youngblood takes one of my favorite FPS series and ruins it with repetitive grind, bloated FPS mechanics, a broken, mandatory co-op system and a frankly insulting story. Don’t touch this one with a ten foot pole.

This content is pretty much dedicated to the Attack on Titan faithful. It's not enough content to justify a whole new game, but it does a good job at being a pretty beefy add-on, but the high cost of entry makes it a tough sell.

While the game itself is really quite good, the lack of gameplay options and lack of thought into porting over the control scheme make for an average experience overall. This is a port that feels very much like one done with the absolute minimal effort required, and that's just not good enough for 2019 when so many other games this year have done so much better in this same PC to console space.

If you aren’t a fan of games like What Remains of Edith Finch and Fe, where combat and thrill takes a backseat to emotion and art, then I’ll be honest—this probably isn’t the game for you, and that’s okay. But for those of you who enjoy games with meaning, games with abstraction, or games with that unique artistic beauty that so often blossoms in indie games, then Kay is waiting for you on the Sea of Solitude.

While its procedurally-generated nature produces some annoying issues, Nightmare Reaper has a creative story, punchy edge-of-your-seat action and a deep, entertaining arsenal. This is one bad dream you won’t regret ripping and tearing your way through.

If you can imagine Asteroids meets Frogger in Space, you have a fairly good idea of what to expect from LOST ORBIT: Terminal Velocity. The game play is entertaining and the difficulty levels ramp up at a reasonable slope. The storyline doesn't bring much to the table, but the game mechanics stand on their own just fine.

Rudimentary in visuals, content and gameplay, Boxing Champs barely qualifies as a free phone game, much less a 15 dollar eShop title.

Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled is a refreshing take on the aggressive kart racing genre. While it’s certainly not perfect, it’s packed with content that can keep the player engaged for a long time.

Blazing Chrome is a great throwback to games such as Contra; simple run-and-guns with swarms of enemies, awesome boss fights, special weapons, and a great soundtrack to go with it. With fluid controls, multiple difficulties, and a stage select so you can pick which stage to tackle in any order, Blazing Chrome is definitely worth picking up if you’re into Contra-style games.

A remastered game is still the same old game, but with prettier graphics. Current owners of Sniper Elite 2 probably won't find better graphics to be worth a purchase, but new players wanting to start the venerable series near the beginning might want to give it a try.

What goes down must come up. The Sinking City is more than the sum of its glitchy b-game parts. Balanced detective work makes up for shoddy gunplay. A gruff and well-realized cast makes up for brain-dead AI. This is unironically a highwater mark for both detective fiction and Lovecraftian Horror in video gaming.

Despite this score appearing low. I freaking love this game. But I would be remiss if I didn't point out the flaws that felt more common than the shard drops in the game's early going. I'm really hopeful for the future of this title, because I don't think Iga would be willing to let this game (Blood)stain his legacy.

Riverbond is a simple game that follows a blueprint. By mixing up characters, weapons, and environments, Riverbond does a decent job of reiterating this predictable path in such a way that each level is still a unique world – which is necessary to keep the player engaged and entertained. Overall, gameplay is easygoing and doesn’t require much effort or critical thinking, making Riverbond a solid option to power up and knock out on a slow day.

Warlocks 2: Godslayers is enjoyable for the most part, but the difficult and tedious combat can take the fun out of the game for some people. The game is definitely geared for multiplayer as the combat can be overwhelming during solo play. Beyond that there are a few minor performance hiccups though it doesn’t normally affect any major gameplay. If you can get past that and the difficult-at-times combat, you’ll find an enjoyable and humorous game with some interesting gameplay mechanics and even more interesting writing.

F1 2019 encompasses the breadth of experiences, car choices, track choices that provide a far deeper experience for the player than would be available in a generic sim. That depth truly demonstrates the complexity of not only the hardware, but the ever-changing conditions during a race. The updated graphics make use of more sophisticated lighting conditions, but most of the game will be familiar from last year. Formula 1 is the most sophisticated, expensive, unique, and popular auto racing league on the planet; it would take close to a decade to build a game/simulator to do it justice in all of its beauty and complexity. F1 2019 might have just accomplished exactly that.

Hardcore fans of the series and the pro players will likely love Samurai Shodown. This game is gonna be great to watch and I suspect it will thrive in the FGC tournament scene. Unfortunately that while the fighting game part of it is great, the rest is a really barebones package that most likely won't hold the attention of others for an extended period of time.

Observation spins a chilling and seductive science fiction tale of suspense and mystery, juxtaposed against strong adventure gameplay and stellar production values.

Some of the Detective mechanics can be hit or miss at times but still hold up enough to make Judgment a fantastic game. An engrossing story, fun missions, fun side activities and great fighting mechanics makes for a great game that both fans of the Yakuza series and those who have never played a Yakuza game before can enjoy.