If you can handle the difficulty and don't mind an exercise in frustration, this is one of the best platformers out there and an honorable ode to the glorious days of old-school. If you prefer a more easy going experience, you may want to pass on SMB and save yourself the rise in blood pressure.

You could just plow through the story and ignore a lot of the side stuff and be completely happy. In fact, you'll probably get a good 20 plus hours out of that. However, if you choose to feed all the animals, collect all the treasures, complete the bestiary and find all the beads you'll find it very rewarding without being too tedious.

This is Civilization at its best and over time it will ripen like a fine wine and become a masterpiece. 2K Games have outdone themselves in making some massive changes without changing the core gameplay and alienating their fans.

Super Mario 3D Land is the first 3DS title that really takes advantage of the 3D capabilities of the system.

The PC port of The Last of Us Part II Remastered feels like a miracle. The game runs incredibly and looks fantastic, on both a desktop PC and Steam Deck. A lot of care has been taken to get this game to this level on PC, and it really shows in every frame.

It may be a poor teacher with text-heavy interfaces, but Monster Hunter: World is a great entry into the franchise if you haven't played anything from the series thus far. It's polished and filled with content, and you'll regret not immersing yourself in the series sooner. It provides a challenging yet enjoyable combat system that will keep you on your toes, and the variety of menacing monsters adds new challenges and keeps things from getting dull. You’ll happily trade hours of your free time for more monsters to hunt, capture, and slay.

This is a breakthrough in what interactivity can accomplish with little aid from more traditional storytelling mechanics – its resulting importance to this medium is no exaggeration.

The big things presented here are no slowdown, nice graphics, co-op Story mode play, a good amount of single and multi-player options outside of the Story mode and a plethora of extras and cheats to obtain.

Guild Wars 2 represents a raising of the bar for MMOs, taking the best aspects of a great many titles that have come before it and polishing them up in a way that makes it addictive and fun for all. Given the rate that ArenaNet has been addressing player concerns and patching them, I think we can expect great things from Guild Wars 2.

The downright beautiful visuals work together with solid technical gameplay and an online experience that is easy to get into to make a game that is hard to harp on. Really, my only complaints center around several interface issues which are annoyances rather than serious bugs in the game.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 for the PS5 is a great PlayStation game, but not necessarily a great PS5 game. It’s still a ton of fun to play, with no noticeable bugs or glitches. However, the only utilized PS5 feature is improved loading times. Adaptic triggers and haptic feedback felt largely unused, so much so it felt more like I was playing with a PS4 controller. Nonetheless, that doesn’t stop this remake from being amazing --- it’s still a ton of fun to play, and for new players there’s plenty of content to chew through that you won’t necessarily be missing those missed DualSense features.

Chicory: A Colorful Tale, while not perfect on Switch, is still a great game you need to play. The new controls schemes have their issues, but they also have their moments to shine.

Moss: Book II is a genuinely emotional, surprisingly creative, and incredibly gorgeous follow-up to its critically acclaimed predecessor. Book II takes the themes and gameplay ideas from the first title and nearly perfects them and in doing so has created a longer, more difficult, and more fulfilling adventure for Quill.

If you enjoyed The Bloody Baron quest line in The Witcher III: Wild Hunt, you will absolutely love Hearts of Stone. While it is the first piece of DLC with a price tag, the storyline justifies that at twice the price.

Atlus has done an incredible job with creating a portable version of Persona 3, and if you are a fan of the series or are looking for a JRPG to add to your collection, then P3P is definitely worth getting.

Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, despite being a remake of a 21 year old game, feels like a breath of fresh air. It masterfully combines action and turn-based combat using some in-depth character customization and weaves an intricate tale of love, empathy, political strife, and redemption. It’s a game that is almost always firing on all cylinders, keeping you engaged on this road and those beyond.

Resident Evil 4 was a triumph of a remake, and it somehow one upped itself with VR. The movement is perfect, the terror is real, and it’s a fantastic new way to experience one of the best ways of the year. After eighteen years, Resident Evil 4 is the gift that keeps on giving.

Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition is the best version of Monolithsoft’s masterpiece. Its additions serve to streamline the experience and make an already great game that much better. Its expansion Future Connected gives some much needed closure on one of the story’s best and most complex characters while spicing up the exploration and combat in a fun, new way. If you’re not already a fan, this version might just hook you like it has so many others.

A fantastic PC title that didn't get watered down in the conversion to console. If this is the future of console gaming, I'm sold.

This game is a refined and better game than "Burnout 3" even if there are a couple missteps along the way. The graphics, sound and overall sense of speed are greatly improved and the game is as addicting as ever.

Nomada Studios has truly cemented their place in the indie landscape as a representative of how video games are a strong narrative medium. They do this through beautifully crafted animation, vibrant backgrounds, and a whimsical yet powerful soundtrack. Every element of Neva perfectly encapsulates the immersive experience of the player, from story to gameplay, resulting in Neva standing tall in the face of its predecessor, Gris, as its own masterpiece.

An excellent game to introduce someone to the Metroid universe.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D is an immensely enjoyable experience.

Overall this game was a unique experience that is not your everyday type of game, but is worth playing and I would suggest this game to almost anyone. It is a game that simply tells a beautiful and tragic story. It sucks you in emotionally and does not let go.

Monster Hunter World: Iceborne adds just what Monster Hunter World needed and even more quality of life changes to the greatest Monster Hunter game of all time. The new monsters and quests pack a punch, and there’s enough content to justify the price. If you’re going to take on this cool expansion, make sure you bring along some friends and a few hot drinks.

Despelote was a bit of a personal one for me, and I can see why some players may not love it due to it being a walking simulator where you kick a ball around. But for anyone willing to give it a chance, you’ll find a snippet of pure sentiment to engage with as you put on the shoes of its developer. You see Ecuador for its authentic self as a child and witness a moment that you probably never batted an eye at before. But you leave with a fuzzy feeling, wanting to reminisce about your own memories you had as a child.

In a world where multiple save points, extra lives and cheat codes dominate, it's down-right refreshing to see a title step up and proclaim "I am difficult, and that's all right." Demon's Souls is that title, and for that I commend it.

Obsidian’s Pillars of Eternity is a love letter to those gamers who remember RPGs of old – when parties were large, adventures were world-sprawling, and you read a book or two worth of words before the world was saved.