Cars 3: Driven to Win is a surprisingly refreshing racing game. While it does come with a few speed bumps here and there, the novel approach to Cars 3’s tie-in game is simply high-octane fun.

Gurumin 3D does what it needs to, and does it well. A charming throwback in form and function to classic PS1 RPGs, this re-release is a fun romp down memory lane.

Submerged: Hidden Depths is the perfect game to play when needing a break from the more stressful or narrative intense experiences. Featuring a powerful orchestral score, relaxing exploration and puzzle solving, and a subtle yet interesting story about the bonds of family and the power of hope, Submerged surprised me and provided me with one of my favorite experiences of the year.

Just like RoboCop himself, Rogue City is only human, but it’s still pretty great. With an intriguing narrative and stellar side missions, exploring Old Detroit is a real treat. Gunplay feels heavy, and engaging your friends and opponents with words as well as bullets is satisfying. In a year filled with blockbusters, this is a cult classic.

Team Sonic Racing is a fun and intelligently designed, albeit content-light, kart racer. The game’s central focus on teamwork gives the experience a unique and engaging flavor and its sense of speed kept me dialed in. But, that isn’t enough to assuage the title’s evident flaws. From an unimpressive roster of stages to lacking modes outside of Team Sonic Racing’s great single-player campaign, I’d be hard pressed to see this game lasting more than a dozen hours for many fans. While the fundamentals are fun, this racer could’ve used a tune-up before coming to market.

Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris’s new mechanics and graphical improvements make it a must-have for any couch co-op fan.

Backbone bites off far more than it can chew, with a completely out of nowhere twist in the third act, disregard of your choices, and a lack of resolution to any of its plot threads. While the promising story and gorgeous visuals had me hooked initially, the game tries to juggle too many things and ends up dropping all the balls.

Tales of Berseria is a great game, but Tales of Berseria Remastered feels pointless on top of making the game unplayable on Switch. The significant input lag makes both combat and exploration unwieldy, textures look muddy or pixelated, the low resolution causes constant shimmering, and the game is stuck at 30 fps. All previous DLC being included is basically the only thing this release has going for it.

Underneath stability problems and bugs lies one of the most ambitious games I’ve played, bringing a tabletop game level of choice to RPG enthusiasts. The rich story and excellent writing delivers in a huge way...if you can get the game to cooperate.

While it’s a bit too short to realize its full potential, Boyfriend Dungeon is still a well written and fun visual novel/dungeon crawler. The characters are lovely, and combat is simple but functional. It’s certainly worth playing, but could use more content.

You also have the ability to save anywhere. This is helpful for the game not being too frustrating as well.

Burly Men at Sea is a lesson in simple elegance and whimsical storytelling. Almost more of an experience than a game, it's intended to be enjoyed, soaked in, rather than beaten. This short yet fantastic tittle is a fantastic addition to the Switch lineup, and a must-play for everyone's inner child.

Mercenaries 2 is absolutely fun in spite of its quirks and should be at the top of everyone’s must buy list.

Book of Demons introduces a unique card-based skill system and a sense of humor to the stuck-in-its-ways ARPG genre. It has plenty of tricks in its dungeon to keep you on your toes, but gives you ample ways to form your own strategy. With three distinct classes and an endlessly replayable quest, you can get lost in Book of Demons’ papercut dungeon for quite a while.

Namco Museum for the Switch is a great attempt at a collection of classic arcade games. Fighting to become the top score on the leaderboard is fun, even if the other challenges often come off as shallow. With the detailed manuals and the great display options, adding a few more games, or even more challenges could have made this the definitive Namco Museum.

More than medi-orc-re, but less than spectacular, Orsinium seems more like a holdover expansion than an overall addition to the ESO experience.

Lego Jurassic World is full of nostalgia for fans of the franchise, while still highlighting the new film. It is the most refined Lego game and even with its downfalls it is still full of fun and charm.

While the story is a bit cliché, the setting is much better than your typical fantasy or sci-fi fare. It’s unfortunate that the combat gets bland quickly and camera issues abound.

The Outer Worlds is an awesome game, so it’s nice to have the option to enjoy it with all the amenities of a new generation of hardware. While the performance is a bit iffy, the visuals really pop, and the updated character models add to your immersion in this imaginative space adventure. It’s no surprise we’ve got a second one on the way, and now you can get ready for the sequel on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S in style.

Dark Devotion is a 2D action game that focuses on combat and exploration. With a variety of weapons and items, foes, and branching pathways, you'll have plenty to fight with and experience. Some enemies, especially certain bosses, are frustrating and may have you considering throwing your controller. Even so, succeeding feels rewarding.

Nintendo Switch Sports has moments of fun, but they’re buried under forced, inaccurate motion controls and lacking minigames. Only 2 and a half of the six sports on offer here are really fun or engaging, character customization is shockingly sparse, and the novelty wears off in minutes. This feels more like a cheap imitation of Wii Sports, which was free, than anything close to worth the price of entry.

The puzzles aren’t particularly difficult and there are no bosses to speak of, but Dokomodake has a certain charm and is so enjoyable that gamers will get their money and entertainment out of it.

Snake Pass is a weird, wacky, and wonderful platformer with rewarding controls and great atmosphere. While there are a few minor issues holding it back, the game is a great throwback to the 3D platformers of the 90s, and a great indie title for the Switch.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora has some excellent mechanical depth let down by repetitive missions and a very safe story. When you’re flowing through the environment taking out RDA soldiers with volleys of arrows, it feels fantastic. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t provide many opportunities to use the full breadth of its systems. Still, it’s drop dead gorgeous and very fun for what it is.

For only $10 Pid offers far more content and a more enjoyable experience than many titles available on the marketplace. If you're a platforming junkie, don't let Pid pass you by.

Mirror’s Edge Catalyst is a gorgeous game that nails the free-running experience that fans want, but lacks an interesting narrative, compelling combat, and a fast travel system that will likely leave many fans disappointed.

On the one hand, Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened is a modern adventure game with upgraded production values and a compelling premise. On the other hand, it’s kind of a disappointment in terms of gameplay, relying heavily on pixel-hunting reminiscent of the bad old days of the early point-n-click adventure games.

Let it Die is hacky, slashy, and sometimes a little spendy, but with a game like this you can’t turn away. A deliberate and intense action murder simulator rife with humor, morbidity, and tons of style, Let it Die overcomes a few flaws to be a top notch and surprisingly great title. As it is free, there is absolutely no reason not to get it on the action.

Beyond Blue isn’t going to be for everyone. If you’re after action and excitement, this isn’t going to be for you. It’s a slow but rather peaceful experience and I was pretty relaxed while playing though. Imagine Subnautica in creative mode, minus the building elements, and imagine David Attenborough is narrating it. You can add or subtract a few points depending on how interested you are personally in ocean studies.

The bottom line is that I feel like I should be liking it a lot more than I am. I keep finding myself alternating between frustrated and bored - a combination I never thought I'd see from a Puzzle Quest game.

Phoenix Point: Behemoth Edition offers the same wealth of content available on the PC, and the controller support is good enough for those willing to overlook some fiddly inventory and menu management. However, the technical performance is far beneath what it should be, so your best bet is to wait for the promised patches to arrive, or simply enjoy a smoother ride on PC if you can.

The experience of playing Rain felt like it should have culminated in an emotional and poignant ending, but the abstruse storytelling only acted as a roadblock to a sought-after moment of epiphany – it borders on pretentiousness. But where the narrative and gameplay are let-downs, the impressive art style and outstanding soundtrack are a treat for the senses.

For a forgiving and approachable puzzle-platformer, Max lands on his feet and brings us a fantastic gaming experience. Even at a price of $15 it is easy to recommend. Great for all ages, the plot is light and the puzzles are fun from an otherwise innocuous re-imagining of a touchscreen game.

Ray Gigant sacrifices complexity for accessibility, and while the final experience is a little rote, the style and streamlining make the most compelling case for a non-fan of RPG dungeon crawling to finally get interested.

While Dragonball Xenoverse 2 has plenty of content based off of the franchise’s long history, the gameplay will most likely start to feel stale long before then.

Neocore Games should be commended for putting out such a high-quality experience where their story is equally outlandish, silly and serious – I’m personally looking forward to the recently announced sequel.

Superdimension Neptune vs. Sega Hard Girls is a match made in gaming heaven. A JRPG with some expanded and fun platforming mechanics throughout, this game improves on the Neptunia series model while sending the player on a lighthearted romp through an alternative Sega universe.

Toxic Commando is a fun game that offers some meaningful shifts on the four-player zombie-killing genre. While the story is goofy and fun, true to John Carpenter's legacy, the characters can be grating and the missions feel somewhat narratively disconnected. Gunplay and progression are well-honed, though, offering an engaging zombie-killing time any group will have a good time with.

In the end I think this is a good game that just missed the mark of being a truly great game.

Gato Roboto has some wonderful aesthetic choices and innovative boss fights, but the awfully short length and generic enemy design hamper an otherwise quirky title.

There is plenty to forgive Primordia for, but if you can get past the issues and lose yourself in the game there’s a rich and emotional story waiting for you. I’m a bit of a robot nut myself and despite all of my nitpicks about the game I found myself deeply affected by the ending.

Compelling single player with a fresh take on things doesn’t happen every day. It’s just that much better when it comes bundled with a fantastic multiplayer experience to boot.

Like a recently resurrected corpse, parts to ROMEO IS A DEAD MAN’s gameplay and story are cold to the touch, as it occasionally stumbles trying to grasp all of its ambitions. Yet there are just as many moments of genuine warmth, exuding confidence when expressing its boundless imagination. For my first foray into the unhinged mind of Suda51, the consistently bonkers creativity is the beating heart that gives this title strength. Creativity doesn’t automatically make for the smoothest experience. Nonetheless, this is a DeadMan I’ll look back on with both affectionate fondness, and conflicted frustration.

An average game, with some elements that take it to a higher level. What’s frustrating about it is there aren’t enough of these elements throughout, otherwise it would be a top-notch title.

Packs the well known Dynasty Warriors formula into some new and unique game modes that are truly a lot of fun.

If you have a PSP and want some Sudoku on the go, this is a great way to get your fix.

If you’re trying to figure out what it is that makes The Inner World so satisfying, you’re really not going to be able to pick any one thing. The story, graphics, and gameplay are all okay, but it’s the sum of the parts that synthesizes The Inner World into the charming gem that it is.

Minecraft: Story Mode settles into a new identity and story with “Order Up!,” one that isn’t beholden to past mistakes.

Rhythm Fighter is a wacky musical time for roguelike fans. With an amazing EDM-infused soundtrack and innovative gameplay, you should definitely download this delightful game.

Played with one’s thinking cap on, A Machine for Pigs is sure to horrify even when it doesn’t frighten.

Apex Construct provides some excellent exploration and exposition in a compelling and beautifully bizarre world. While there is a fully-baked experience here, the engaging story and compelling gameplay is marred by PSVR’s limited control scheme. It represents a step forward for the platform, and for storytelling, but a bit of polishing or patching would bring the controls to heel.

Unity’s predictable narrative and constant technical quibbles mar what would otherwise be a solid entry in the Assassin’s Creed franchise. Come for the side-content and co-op, but don’t expect any important revelations here.

Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos has a lot of obstacles in its way from becoming a solid gem worth your time. The first few hours are a bit of a drag to get through since the majority of this time you’ll spend either hating the dialogue or hating the difficulty from the (more predetermined than random) RNG that this game employs. Trudge through this and you’ll find that the learning curve gets easier, the writing simmers down a bit, but the difficulty still remains the same.

Summary: Regicide is chess. You are buying a computer chess game. Yes the graphics are tasty and the fight scenes are well done and the atmospherics are exemplary. But it’s Combat Chess with a twist, and not even a big twist.

While it doesn't have the graphics of the DS or PSP, it has a lot of fun gameplay in its favor.

Ultimately, Tormentum comes close to forming a great point-and-click adventure in 2015, but the lack of variety in the puzzle design really drags down the whole experience.

Flood of Light is a passable title for those that are hankering for a few hours of puzzle solving. While repetitive settings and cumbersome controls hamper the overall experience, there’s enough here to justify the $4.99 price tag.

Simulacra excels in premise alone. By the end of the game, I found myself wondering when a better game with this kind of concept will be released. It suffers from an identity crisis. It started out as an enticing murder mystery game, and wound up a tired metaphor.

XDefiant is a solid first-person shooter featuring familiar gameplay elements as other games in the genre but with a twist, including the different factions and their unique abilities. The factions help to keep the gameplay fresh from match to match, and they're all fairly balanced in their ability, though not necessarily their application. Unfortunately, the game still suffers with weapon balancing and hit registration, as well as missing a some accessibility and quality of life options.

If you’re itching for a hardcore co-op action experience, then you’ve struck gold with FORCED.

This is the game all of us transforming robot fans have been waiting for...sign petitions, buy two copies, solicit your Congressman, just make sure you get this game and work to make sure it gets a sequel.

We had a lot of praise for Rocksmith 2014 on previous gen, and it’s transition to new platforms has only improved on that.

The Sims 4: Get Together utilizes the new club system to have new experiences, ways to play, and is a great social feature. Although it is a great expansion and allows for new and exciting gameplay, it fails to bring enough to the table for new players or people looking to get back to the Sims franchise.

LOUD on Planet X truly is the indie kid’s rhythm game. While the way it decides the beat of each song can be frustrating at the start, the incredible music catalog aims to keep you coming back.

This is the best Guitar Hero title to date and it returns to the formula that worked so well for Guitar Hero III. The storyline differentiates it from the competition and its over-the-top heavy metal look and feel work for it quite well.

Double Kick Heroes is, by far, one of the most unique rhythm games I've played. While some of the early songs are dull and the difficulty modes need adjusting, I can still confidently recommend this to hardcore rhythm game fans.

Echo is a game that presents some very original and interesting game mechanics while creating an enjoyable and full world. The characters of En and London were brought to life expertly by Rose Leslie and Nick Boulton. A lack of diversity in the game puzzles and environments drag it down a little but the changes in style save it from becoming bland and make Echo a very enjoyable experience.

The story may not be the greatest, but the gameplay is solid and for that alone you should check it out.

While the single player may end like a car crash, the multiplayer seems to live forever.

I hope that this isn't the last Deadly Creatures game we see. The concept is really great, and a lot of times, this game feels like it's laying the groundwork for a pretty cool franchise.

Steep is a triumph at merging gameplay and presentation to deliver players a sense of place in its beautiful open world. Controlling each sport feels simple yet laser precise, and the diversity in sports and challenges encouraged me to stay in the game even when challenges became too frustrating or uninteresting. Add to this a solid layer of social functionality, albeit shallow when playing with strangers, and you have a game that reaches the great heights it endeavors to recreate.

The My Sims Cozy Bundle will give you a nice hit of nostalgia and charm, but not much beyond that. MySims and MySims Kingdom are pretty simple and repetitive games, what you see is what you get. While you can make your own fun, it’s only within the limitations of each title.

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is a high-quality mobile title that lives up to its console counterparts, and is certainly better than most of what you'll find available in the free-to-play market today. Unfortunately its confusion over the value of its content and barely-there social features make me question its long-term staying power.

A good game. It just has no longevity and should just be a rent unless you are really hard up for a shooter.

With only a few technical hiccups, Immortals Fenyx Rising: A New God represents a dozen hours of vault-based challenges that will put your platforming and logic skills to the test. If you want more Fenyx Rising but harder, then this expansion is a must-have.

Rogue Lords is a fine game with some novel systems for lovers of roguelites to play around with, but it will not grab your attention long enough to keep you coming back. Given its premise and stellar art design, that’s a shame.

Steelrising is another gem from the mine that is Spiders. The choice of the steampunk, alternate history French revolution setting is amazing, and somehow the Soulslike formula works beautifully in tandem. Throw in a distinctive story and phenomenal assist mode, and Steelrising is a sleeper hit in a year where we could use another.

All's Justice delivers on the fundamentals for a great fanservice game. However, in some places it asks a bit too much from fans while failing to deliver what we'd expect by this point in the series.

Axel and Pixel gets full credit for attempting to make a creative, artistic game, but the low difficulty and short length cause it to unfortunately fall short of the mark.

Wizard with a Gun excels at providing players with a deep magic system and a wild world to inflict it on. With the world hanging on by a thread, it’s up to you to rewind time again and again until your mission is complete.

While repeat visits become somewhat predictable, Until Dawn: Rush of Blood offers up some genuine scares by tapping into some of our most twisted fears. While the game doesn’t take long to complete, watching your friends play it never stops being fun.

Narcosis is a survival horror game that provides so much more than a few gimmicky jump-scares. This is a beautifully written, immersive psychological thriller which tells a compelling, tragic story, demands observation, planning and problem solving, and yes, also throws a few shriek-worthy jump-scares into the mix. It leaves you questioning reality and explores just what a person and the human mind can handle when pushed to the limit. Solid voice acting and narration makes this an incredibly personal story, and while it’s not entirely free of motion sickness, being aware of where your head and body are can help you avoid the worst of it. Odds are, you’ll be so full of adrenaline that you probably won’t fully register the motion sickness until you take off the headgear. Narcosis is a shining example of a virtual reality psychological thriller done right, and a is must play for any horror junkie.

As of episode four, Minecraft: Story Mode feels like it’s on the right track to conclude in a more interesting way than it originally appeared, but I’m not sure yet whether that makes dragging yourself through the first three episodes worth it to see the better places the series goes as it nears its conclusion.

Star Ocean: The Last Hope HD and 4K Remaster is a beautifully rebuilt hidden JRPG gem from prior era of gaming. The game plays slow, and that drags the action down during battles, but adds depth and purpose to the world exploration. The upscaling is thorough and very well accomplished, and with a high quality soundtrack to accompany you, Star Ocean: The Last Hope is bound to provide hours of quality fun.

Gas Station Simulator feels like a weird game to want to play, but you want to play it. Like most simulators, the tasks at hand are menial and repetitive, but it’s generally a fun game to keep progressing through. The upgrades and tools are well placed to keep you from feeling like you’re dealing with too much busy work, and the humor the game injects keeps things lighthearted. Although, if we could just get rid of Dennis, I wouldn’t complain.

Monster Energy Supercross 25 is a fun racing simulator that is a fine entry point for new players. The tracks are gorgeous, the sound is fantastic, and improving in this game feels so good.

War never changes, and Call Of Duty is in fact still Call Of Duty. Sledgehammer Games however has happened across an intriguing formula, connecting what has worked in previous games and integrating it into their own. The campaign is stunning, and while short lived has a ton of heart, Zombies is as fun and maybe more inviting than it’s ever been, and the multiplayer hard carries this entry to a round 11 victory. This culmination of all things Call Of Duty has resulted in something the entire series can look to, a blueprint on how to build a meaty and superb first person shooter experience.

Another Episode may not be the game that some Danganronpa fans want, but it’s the game that the series needs. The spin-off shows that there is substance for this series outside the walls of Hope’s Peak while maintaining enough ties to its core story to feel essential.

With high production values, solid voicework, and impressive scale, The Mage’s Tale was every bit worth the wait. While the controls are certainly obtuse for the platform, the fun storyline, puzzles, and spellcrafting makes it a fun addition to the Vive library.

The story and setting are what Gunslinger excels in. Locations are varied yet believable, every actor sounds like they belong in a western, and some sound effects sound straight out of an old film. While the plot isn’t too deep, the characters are simplistic, and the level design and game mechanics feel at odds with each other, the narration and bits of historical accuracy are enough to keep you playing to the end.

Dead or Alive 6 is a good addition to the fighting game scene, although it doesn't stand out from the crowd. The story is okay, but probably resonates better with longtime fans. The combat is fluid, action-packed, and plenty of fun regardless.

The Invincible is a beautiful visual representation of the novel of the same name written by Stanislaw Lem decades ago. You are immersed in the world through game mechanics and design that allow you to interact in unique ways. Unfortunately, the game still suffers from performance and technical issues that should have already been addressed in the time since the game launched.

While a step up from last year in terms of included tracks, Just Dance 2017 doesn’t bring a lot new to the table — the meat and potatoes lies in Just Dance Unlimited. The Switch version specifically functions as well as you might expect, offering up an easy second player controller courtesy of readily-available Joy-Cons, though the experience becomes difficult visually once undocked. At this point, it’s what you’d expect from Just Dance, but on a new platform. Consider this tiny cartridge your portal into Just Dance Unlimited as I imagine 2017 might be where physical entries to the series end.

If you love RPGs for their rich characters and ability to tell a great story then Arc the Lad is for you. If you absolutely must have complex character development (stats), or an open ended game you probably won't like Arc the Lad.

Vampyr manages to deliver on its promise to make choices matter. Every decision has implications that spider out in unseen directions, often far into the future. While there are some wobbles in terms of combat and load times, the engaging storyline and premise carry this title far.

Tanuki Justice is a throwback to the run and gun games of the 80s and 90s, for better or for worse. While it does sport some challenging difficulty and a distinct pixel art style, some of it goes into unfair territory and ends up being an exercise in frustration.

Destroy All Humans 2 Reprobed is a beautifully done remake of a cult classic that fans are sure to enjoy. There are some bugs and glitches that still need to be ironed out and the boss battles are more exhausting than truly challenging. But, praise be to Arkvoodle.

There are some framerate hitches to go along with the graphical and lighting overhaul, and there isn’t a whole lot new here, but if you missed out the first time, don’t let this one pass you by.