The Last Remnant is an interesting experiment in expanding the traditional turn-based battle system, but there are enough annoyances in that system and weaknesses in its setting and characters to keep this from reaching the heights it’s clearly reaching for.

Ashen uses the Souls-like formula to tell a very different, optimistic story about community. Whether you’re playing alone, with an AI companion, or with another person, combat with the game’s varied enemies and bosses is challenging and satisfying. Ashen’s world feels real and lived-in, and getting to carve out your own settlement and watch it prosper is truly satisfying.

Coffee Crisis takes the interesting concept of the classic beat ‘em up with a metal and coffee theme and attempts to run with it, only to trip over itself with a questionable implementation of modifiers that can’t be selected normally, as well as bare-bones combat. All of the pieces of a quality beat ‘em up are present in this game, but it’s not quite put together yet.

Silver Linings offers some fun moments, but ultimately lands on its face. However, I have all the confidence in the world that Insomniac’s Spider-Man will bounce back, either in future DLC or the sequel.

Below is a dark, mysterious game that invites you to illuminate its secrets, then punishes you for trying. While it does a great job invoking a sense of wonder, thanks in part to its sparse, tense soundtrack, its genuinely great moments are spread far too thin. Below will certainly be a divisive game, but it offers a compelling experience for players willing to put up with a good amount of frustration and tedium.

Elder Scrolls Online: Murkmire is a scant but slick addition to the world of Tamriel, and begs to be unleashed even further in the future. For now, the swamps and bogs come alive and while there are some less than desirable traits to be found, the overall product is solid and a must have for dedicated ESO players.

The sum of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s parts is nothing short of excellent. From single-player to local multiplayer, there are very few flaws with the experience. Whether you’re hoarding spirits in World of Light, spiking your friends in a versus match of Smashdown, or running through Classic mode with your favorite fighter, there is no shortage of smart, creative action to be had. That said, in a game so well assembled, its lackluster online portion stands out even more starkly. However, when taking Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a whole, that one blight does little to diminish the overall mastery on display. This is not a game Nintendo Switch owners should be caught without.

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.

I am the Hero is a short and sweet beat-em-up that mixes an accessible yet comprehensive gameplay system with some challenging gameplay and unique aesthetic. Pick this one up if you’ve got a hankering to destroy the forces of evil with punches and kicks!

Gris is an incredible achievement, using its art, music, and gameplay to tell a thematically consistent story about a woman overcoming her grief. Despite the weighty subject matter, the way its protagonist’s triumph over sorrow is reflected in increasingly fluid and diverse platforming makes it a joy to play. While Gris is low on challenge and impossible to fail, it still feels exciting. Even if it doesn’t sound like your kind of game, Gris absolutely deserves a try.

Hunter’s Legacy: Purrfect Edition fixes several of the issues the original game had by adding a much-needed minimap and making enemies more reactive to your attacks. However, the sound design on Ikki herself is still irksome and the game is a far cry from what it could be. I’d love to see what Lienzo does with Ikki in the future, but for now, Hunter’s Legacy: Purrfect Edition is just OK.

At its best, Desert Child captures the feeling of working toward a big dream while struggling to even buy your next meal. Unfortunately, those moments come sandwiched between a lot of repetition as the initially fun races become a chore that you have to do over and over again. Desert Child's unique setting, filled out with great art and a killer soundtrack, is fun to explore for a while, but the game runs out of gas a little too quickly.

Just Cause 4 is another solid entry in a franchise that continues to bring me hours of over-the-top, hilarious action. It doesn’t do enough to evolve the franchise, and doesn’t make enough use of the new weather effects, but the new tools available to Rico and the improvements in customization options is well-worth the price of entry.

Thronebreaker is a masterful RPG with a version of Gwent that is well-suited for a single-player experience. Even if you aren’t into card games, this one is worth a try for the story and RPG mechanics alone.

Ark: Survival Evolved is an open-world survival game where you're fighting against the elements and the dinosaurs around you. There are some nice concepts implemented, but framerate and performance issues drag the game down. Unless these are somehow fixed, you might be better off steering clear.

Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden’s blend of turn-based tactical combat with stealth is interesting, but not always successful, and its story doesn’t take advantage of its unique setting. Although the ability to explore the world and sneak up on enemies adds a fun twist to the genre, it brings unwelcome complications and technical hiccups as well. I also ran into numerous performance issues, including game-ending freezes, that strained my initial fondness for the game.

Ultra Space Battle Brawl is a neon and slicked back bout of space madness that I only wish had been around when I was still young enough to really grasp it. A simplistic pong-like battle brawler makes for a unique experience to say the least. The game wears thin over the time you play quicker than most it seems, but the experience is still worth a try.

60 Parsecs is a simple game about not dying in space. While not complex in gameplay, 60 Parsecs is incredibly deep with strategy, problem-solving, and smart resource planning. The game expertly blends a cartoonish and goofy world with some of the darkest elements of death and isolation. 60 Parsecs is a surprisingly fantastic game that has a large amount of replay value. It’s well worth a look.

New studio flukyMachine’s 2D runner-style platformer is every bored student’s notebook come to life, proudly embracing its own eccentricities in the visuals department. But turn the page and one will find that the gameplay lacks the same luster, living in the shadows of its influences. While it does sport more-than-serviceable gameplay, Escape Doodland is a game worth playing for its charm and simplicity, not for its depth of mechanics or level design prowess.

The First Tree tells an incredibly personal and melancholy story about the loss of a loved through the eyes of a fox within a dream world. Wandering through beautiful, abstract worlds, you learn the narrator’s story as the fox searches for her missing kits. It has a surprising number of platformer elements, given the nature of the game, but doesn’t distract from the beautiful story within this short exploration game.

Nairi: Tower of Shirin is a witty, cute, and quirky point-and-click adventure. Silly and slightly morbid, Nairi shines with unique characters, hand-drawn artwork, and challenging but fair puzzles. It is held back slightly by some confusing navigation, a few bugs, and the inability to save your progress, but this charming little gem is a must-play for fans of the genre.

ABZÛ is nothing short of a work of art. Diving through its gorgeous cel-shaded ocean with the title’s sweeping orchestra in the background enraptured me from the first moment of the game. This is an experience that shouldn't be missed.

Cattails is a cute, light-hearted RPG that revolves around hunting, foraging, and trying to restore the Forest Guardian. The gameplay is easy to pick up and play at any time, but can become a bit monotonous after awhile. The game isn't very exciting, and is meant more for relaxing gaming.

World of Final Fantasy Maxima is by no means perfect (it, in fact, has many notable flaws) but I had a fun time indulging in my love of Final Fantasy and with a Pokemon twist. This new Maxima add-on only makes the overall experience better, but is a fairly light package for anyone that played the base game already. If you were champing at the bit for any new content, then this gives players some new monsters to collect, but it ultimately is more additive than transformative.

Pokémon Let’s Go is a curious game which bucks the established trends of mainline Pokémon titles. The series’ signature, turn-based combat takes a backseat to the experience of simply existing in the world of Pokémon, capturing Kanto’s ‘mons with brand-new, well-executed capturing mechanics. This game lacks many of the “hardcore” features that scores of fans, myself included, have come to expect from a new title. However, in the wake of these features is a Pokémon experience that engaged me in a manner unlike any title in the series’ past.

Featuring a great value of three games in the package, the Persona Dancing Endless Night Collection is the best way to experience Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight and Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight. While a bit grindy later on, some killer tracks, entertaining gameplay, and a refreshing aesthetic, the games in this collection are chart-toppers.

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.

Bendy and the Ink Machine takes players down a corrupted nostalgia trip, full of old school cartoon characters mixed with twisted horror. Exploration, puzzle solving, and the occasional fight are the name of the game, even if the save system could be better. If you don't enter Joey Drew Studios for the gameplay, you'll be enthralled by the story.