Sackboy is the perfect launch title to initiate young children into the next generation of games, as well as provide a rewarding and enjoyable experience for everyone else. Even though it launches with a hefty price tag, the amount of content this game has to offer more than covers its cost. Plus, you can either play this one with or without friends, and it will undoubtedly entertain all for hours. The mixture of fantastic level design, coupled with a great soundtrack, will reignite that lost feeling of childhood happiness.

It’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it succeeds at being highly entertaining despite its flaws. It's a unique experience, unlike anything else I’ve ever played.

At $12, you can’t go wrong with Implosion. While it sometimes shows its mobile roots, the Switch version of the game is frantic, fluid fun with a great amount of content and thrilling gameplay. It’s games like these that make me never lose hope that Rayark will astound me again with its next release.

Among Us is the perfect party game to play in short bursts or in a livestreaming environment. With an addictively entertaining premise, simple controls, and a brilliant execution, if you haven’t played the game yet, you need to right now.

Ys Seven is a straightforward adventuring JRPG that plays quickly, keeps things simple, and moves along with daring speed. The battles are fluid and emphasize the group dynamics of the entire party of characters. This upscaled release is a beautiful game that leaves something to be desired resolution wise, and has a flawed beginning that can frustrate many, but overall this game is another example of Ys’ long held excellence.

While Persona Q’s story may be meaningless on its own, the dungeon crawling and strategic battle system are great challenges with an excellent cast to keep you company.

Dungeon of the Endless is a clever mix of roguelike elements, tower defense gameplay, and resource management. Balancing these various mechanics, especially the resources used for tower defense, is challenging yet rewarding. The characters are interesting as well, but with some starting characters clearly being better than others, it leaves some of them on the sidelines.

Developer Moonshine Studios has built something fantastic for Stadia’s first platform exclusive. Cooperative chaos combined with a delightfully goofy storyline of a salt company gone rogue makes for many laugh out loud moments. While there are some technical hitches to iron out, Get Packed is a must have for anyone on Stadia.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 lands somewhere between remake and reimagining. It doesn’t land either perfectly, but it's still a ton of fun. There’s a lot to see and do, but I’ll always come back to just skating around, pulling off tricks just for the fun of it.

While it may not have the most captivating of storylines, the game itself is fun and addictive. It’s a great way to kill some time – no pun intended – and may leave you muttering things under your breath that make others question your sanity. Plus, you can count on new content being added in the future, which will increase the game’s replayability and won’t cost you a cent.

NBA 2K16 took some unexpected chances, and its uniqueness is respectable, even if the final product is far from perfect.

Tropico 6 overhauls the entire infrastructure, bringing forward most, but not all of the features we had with previous outings. A greater emphasis on transportation and simulation deepens the experience and makes Tropicans feel less like mere numbers. At its heart, Tropico 6 is still a game about building your empire and making it grow, but it’s the small mechanics that create a connection with your benevolent dictator, and help make your anarchy-prone archipelago feel a little like home.

Save transfers make this a great version of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla to supplement the PC or console release. However, the missing accessibility options makes it difficult to recommend to everyone.

We’ve not seen survival horror done this well in a very long time.

Advanced Warfare creates the multiplayer shooter players have been craving for years. Inspired by the old guard and incorporating a host of new features, this is the new face and bright future of Call of Duty.

With a myriad of multiplayer game types and the simple fact that this game is more fun to play with other humans makes this a great pickup if you have Xbox Live. If you don't have Live you probably want to steer clear of this game.

The Elder Scrolls Online: Thieves Guild is the most promising addition yet to the otherwise bland and repetitive experience the game has offered in the past.

It’s a strange thing to find yourself smiling so much while playing a game that has you carrying out a series of grisly murders, but that’s exactly what Hitman 2 does. Whether you’re disguising yourself as a cupcake salesman to get close to a target, or spending an hour to make someone’s death look like an accident, Hitman 2 is the best stealth action game of the year.

Pumpkin Jack is a superb game, but its flaws come baring teeth once the glass shatters and you start to notice them. The combat is fun and rewarding, the writing and story are fantastic, but there are certain parts of the game that fall short. Plus, for no more than 3 hours of playtime to finish, that $30 price tag is pretty hefty. Putting that aside, every single moment of that short playtime is fantastic. I loved every minute of it, and there’s no doubt that developer Nicolas Meyssonnier made something extra special here.

Hellblade could have been carried alone by its insanely beautiful graphics and standout voice performances — some of the best of 2017 — but while these scenarios were always refreshing interruptions from long, meditative walks through Helheim, they distracted from the game’s greater focus on demystifying a taboo mental disorder.

If you are a fan of fighting games, then you’ll definitely want to consider picking it up, as it’s one of the best fighting games on the DS.

Dragon Quest Builders 2 is a great follow-up to the original, placing you in the shoes of an amateur builder. The main story practically amounts to a fetch quest of acquiring skills and people, but that doesn't bring the game down much. Building takes the forefront, and it will definitely keep you busy.

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.

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is a fun puzzle-platformer with a huge amount of polish. The camera angles can sometimes get in the way of its greatness, but Toad’s first solo adventure is absolutely a memorable one.

Necrobarista is still a great story, but has a lot of issues a rerelease should have fixed by now. Everything from typos to not paying workers, this isn’t the ideal version of the game by any means when you add the terrible performance on top. It’s nice to cozy up with this game in bed with headphones, but it may still be better to wait for the PC update if you have a beefy desktop.

Dune:Awakening does a phenomenal job of making Arrakis come to life, from the oppressing heat and sand as far as the eye can see, to the terrifying encounters with Shai Halud. Once you get your feet under you, the game has dozens of hours of exploration and content to work through, making it a very enjoyable experience. The combat leaves a lot to be desired, but classes, weapons, and gadgets feel fun. Took some points off for lack of housing decoration options and mods, and for the lack of real end game content. Would love to see raids, or overworld bosses, and better boss encounters in Testing Stations. Over all Dune:Awakening is a unique and fun experience that will suck you in right away.

Echoes of the End may be one of 2025’s best surprises. While it has a bit of jank that leads to occasional frustration, it’s easily offset by gorgeous visuals, a great story, fascinating lore, engaging combat, smart puzzles, and excellent traversal mechanics. I desperately hope Myrkur Games continues to build and grow what has the potential to be an incredible franchise.

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury contains two excellent Mario games, but is unfortunately held back by frustrating controls, especially in multiplayer, and a lot of waiting in Bowser’s Fury when going for 100%. If you can get past that though, you’re in for some of the best 3D platforming Mario has to offer.