Starship Home is perhaps the most impressive use of mixed reality I've seen, using cutting edge tech to deliver a charming and delightful space adventure. While there is some comfortable repetition in the gameplay, the game remains entertaining thoughout, and delivers great value for the low price.

The team behind Exploding Kittens VR has certainly built a fun and unique way to experience the popular card game. It is an absolute blast in multiplayer with friends. But in the end, your enjoyment of this application will entirely depend on your enjoyment of the game it is based on. There are a few bells and whistles - and the bot-based practice mode is a nice way to learn the game - but unless you are actively playing with humans, you are going to run out of steam pretty quickly.

A fabulous port of a fabulous game, God of War Ragnarok combines great story telling, great action, and great graphics to deliver a top notch experience.

Epic Mickey: Rebrushed is a sandbox collect-a-thon that pays homage to the earliest eras of Disney creations. This no risk/no reward game looks good from the opening, but just seems like an animated feature that went on for 12 hours too long. With too much chatter, not enough fun, and literal pocket thinner, Epic is not the word I would paint here.

Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland is a fun little game based on the classic Nicktoon, but unfortunately it’s a little too short and too easy for the price. The ability to swap between the four main babies and each having their own strengths and weaknesses is nice, plus the graphics and audio are pretty spot on from what Klasky Csupó gave us over three decades ago. However, the high price point for a rather easy game that can be completed in under ninety minutes will likely be a bit of a turnoff for a lot of people. If you’re able to wait for it to go on sale, it’s definitely worth checking out.

Toy Tactics is a great example of "less is more", brilliantly opening-up the RTS genre to newcomers, while still managing to challenge longtime fans with confident, intuitive gameplay design. An excellent singleplayer suite overshadows a seemingly DOA multiplayer mode, but that shouldn’t stop you from playing one of the finest strategy titles in recent memory.

The real question I set out to answer for myself was a simple one. Is Athena Crisis a true successor to the Advance Wars and Wargroove formula? Or does it feel more like a cheap knockoff, trying to get a quick buck from an unsuspecting gamer? I think seeing all the units that are available to play with speaks enough for itself to show that this isn’t the Advance Wars you grew up with. While the dialogue does feel a bit Saturday morning cartoon, the amount of choices you have when crafting an army are massive. Add a campaign editor, and a few other customization options and you have a title that is worthy of the games it wants to emulate. Not only that, but sets the bar for the next title in this genre to rise up to.

While there may have the smallest step taken toward improving the gameplay, Madden 25 falls completely flat because the proper simulation modes still feel the same and haven't changed much. The UI may look different, but the same options for relocation/renovation, the same team management options, and soulless superstar options drag this game down back to where the franchise has been for the past several years. It's disappointing in every sense of the word.

The Hunt: Showdown 1896 might be the best extraction shooter out there right now. It marries weapons and traits into a meaningful character loadouts with solid gameplay mechanics set against a gritty, horrific world. But this won't be news to Hunt veterans, to whom this latest update and upgrade will ultimately be best enjoyed. The onboarding experience seems a bit of a bridge too far to really welcome in new blood to mire of the bayou or chill of the mountains. However, if you have some friends to jump in together, and if you're willing to stick it out to really level up in this game, you will surely be rewarded for your sweat and tears.

While it is almost miraculous that many of the properties in this game are represented in video game form, Funko Fusion is missing a sense of fun or satisfaction. With very little explanation of the game's mechanics, the player is left to wander from world to world, shooting endless waves of enemies, fiddling around with obtuse puzzles, pondering the universe and the point of it all.

Caravan SandWitch is a gorgeous, cozy exploration game with a story that falls flat. It won’t hold a spell over you for long, but a weekend is all it needs.

While the on-court gameplay improvements from last year are incremental and subtle, NBA 2K25 is still the high-water mark for sports games. A more newcomer-friendly MyCAREER, and the addition of worthwhile game modes to MyTEAM make this one of the best entries in the series, even despite it constantly trying to reach deeper into your pocket.

Yars: Rising is an ambitious spiritual sequel to Yars' Revenge, and will give you a challenge; Wayforward and Atari worked their magic all through this one. Not so much in enemy variation, but Emi keeps the combat exciting and fun, and the hacks are that old Atari 2600 difficulty. Samus and Megaman would be proud. You will be too.

A full and comprehensive release of all of Capcom's Marvel games in arcade-perfect condition, with a bunch of options, extras, and bonuses. This package includes everything the fighting game community has been asking for. Spend some time, attempt to get good, then hop online to get beat up. The advanced players been waiting for this for a long time.

While excellent, Vampire Survivors it is still an overly simple game. This is also pretty much a straightforward port across to a new system. There is nothing unique about this version vs any previous medium the game has landed on. But it remains unpretentious and excellent fun, is dirt cheap to jump into, and lays out the roadmap to play through it while drip feeding progress adeptly. It deserves to land as close to perfect as our scoring system permits.

Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions feels a bit light on content, but the translation of a nonsense literary sport into a playable game has been handled nicely. There are a lot of nice unlockables included in the base game with no microtransactions, and those that feel confident enough will enjoy the online play. For those looking for a deep single player experience, though, there is not a ton here. Still, Quidditch Champions is fun in short bursts, and it will be interesting to see how it develops over time.

A total package and a feast for the senses, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 should not be missed. It feels like a game brought forward from the Xbox 360 era in the best possible way. Put simply, Space Marine 2 is on the short list for 2024’s best shooter.

There’s nothing crazy about Peglin. The game is straightforward but still offers plenty of twists the further into your game session you manage to get. This is one of those no two rounds are the same games, a staple in roguelight titles I have come to enjoy. The better you become at playing Peglin the longer those sessions tend to become. I don’t daydream about Peglin, which is to say the worst thing I can think about Peglin; it’s there, it’s fun, but I don’t feel much of a sense of accomplishment once I move onto something else.

Concord may not be worth $40 to some, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t $40 worth of game here. With PlayStation levels of production value, and exceptional gameplay, fans of hero or team-based shooters should find Concord appealing – if they give it a chance.

Team ASOBI came out swinging for the fences, expanding on the existing games in the series in every direction. Astro Bot is a delight in every sense of the word. A magnificent tour through Sony PlayStation’s history, the franchise – and the Astro Bot character – has enough charm and chops to now launch forward as PlayStation's premier mascot-driven series. Stellar platforming, a mountain of secrets, and a never-ending sense of discovery and adventure, Astro Bot is a new classic. So. Much. Fun.

A roguelike for fans of city-builders, Roots of Yggdrasil deftly extends its branches to those who typically shy away from the live-die-repeat nature of the genre. It's not perfect, but speaking the city-builder language makes this an inviting roguelike experience that will challenge but not frustrate you.

For fans of Dead by Daylight, The Casting of Frank Stone is an incredible experience that expands the lore of the game in ways we have wanted to see for so long. For everyone else this will play as a great Supermassive movie based game. I do think that non DBD fans are gonna be missing out because lot of the big moments, reveals, lore and references are just gonna go over their heads, but if you are a fan of Dead by Daylight this is an experience you won't want to miss.

Some RTS remasters have been terrible, chock full of issues. Age of Mythology: Retold is not one of them. Some bumps, like the terrible, lifeless voice acting are hard to get over. I love the idea of being able to play with a controller, and the support is there, it still doesn’t feel right. The campaign is great once you get into it, and there is plenty to keep a single player happy for some time. This one is hard not to recommend to fans of the RTS genre who like to relive a bit of their younger days, but might be a bit to much to chew off for the casual fan.

Star Wars Outlaws is a good time, once you come to terms with it's stealth gameplay. While the visuals feel rough around the edges, the story and writing are fun and the gameplay can be surprisingly engaging. Things do wear thin after doing the same stealth missions over and over again, but this is still a trip to the outer rim well worth taking.

Cat Quest III serves as a fantastic introduction to this charming franchise. With surprisingly deep combat, intriguing exploration, and wild story turns, the game kept me up far later than I intended for several nights in a row. Appropriate for the kids, but good enough that Dad soon booted the kids off the controller and took over. If you can stand the endless puns, this is a great, breezy action RPG that will entertain the entire family for hours.

I’ve never been as emotionally affected by a video game as I was by Farewell North. It’s a gorgeous bit of storytelling, flanked by music and art that is just as beautiful. You can see its emotional gut-punch coming, but good luck avoiding it.

Eleven years is a long time in between games, and the developers at EA Orlando largely did a good job. There's a lot of fun gameplay but there are some issues that will need fixing for the next version. Dynasty mode is the star of the show here with so much depth you might get overwhelmed. Here's hoping EA Orlando builds upon the success of this game and does even better next year.

Shoulders of Giants: Ultimate is not the roguelike that breaks the mold for those trying to get into the genre, and I can’t say that roguelike veterans would find its gameplay loop compelling either. It’s wide range of weaponry and abilities does create bursts of fun, but unfortunately it wears thin relatively quickly.