With a kickass, overcharged aesthetic and silky-smooth mechanics, BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma is one of the finest fighting games available today.

Ghost of Tsushima is one of the few games this generation that left a momentous impression on me. This is an original, impactful, beautiful and deep game, but most importantly, it’s just downright fun. Even with so few main story quests, Sucker Punch Productions focused on quality over quantity, ensuring every second is spent on something to savor.

The Zodiac Age brings what we loved from this twelve-year-old release to a new set of gamers in the best way possible. The PC version is an added bonus for fans, not to mention newcomers, as it’s easily the best way to playthrough the lengthy adventure, provided your machine is capable of running it well. Sure, the protagonist doesn’t seem all there and is arguably one of the worst in the entire franchise, but we are treated to an intriguing political plot as it unravels slowly in the background. This is a remaster for the ages, introducing high speed mode to eliminate the needless grind and the various new graphical options only help exemplify the quality of late-PS2 games. Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age for PC is the complete package.

The Coalition has gone all out to create one of the best Xbox Series X launch titles, which is both great and sad about the state of things. It’s no system seller like a Gears game should be, but it allows those who experienced it last year to marvel in its glory once more and introduce new players to the world of Sera in the most vibrant way possible.

Tales of Vesperia as a whole is a masterful game that deserves to be played by anyone who enjoys a good story. It’s not only one of the best Tales games, but it’s up there in the pantheon of impeccable RPGs. With so much new and enhanced content on an already impressive base, Tales of Vesperia Definitive Edition starts 2019 off with a bang.

Do not under any circumstances give this one a miss: Everhood is likely to be one of the most surprising, smart and moving games to surface in 2021.

The Yakuza Remastered Collection is about as perfect a rendition of the three included games as one could ask for. The three mainline PS3 games are here and look and feel better than ever. The redone scripts allow the stories to flow better and for humor to come across in ways that weren’t possible before. The visuals have been improved a bit — not radically, but more akin to a fresh paint job on a car that needs one. The bump up in visual clarity helps the games nicely, but doesn’t make the prior versions look awful either. It’s very much like the original Xbox version of GTA III receiving some mild quality of life visual upgrades, but nothing that affected the core story. Here, it just makes the story look a bit nicer while it’s being told.

Astro’s Playroom is an irresistible delight. Going into it, I thought it was just going to be a short tech demo, and while that’s partially correct, it’s more than meets the eye. It’s overflowing with PlayStation nostalgia that ’90s and ’00s kids will get an absolute kick out of it.

On the whole, Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D offers up one of the most challenging and rewarding platforming adventures in recent memory. Take note, developers, this is how a port should be done.

Lara Croft GO is a great adventure-puzzler, filled with clever problems that require either a nice amount of thought or a lot of trial and error, and usually end up with a good combination of both being used before finally earning a victory.

Exactly the kind of game a sequel should be in terms of its gameplay. Everything that worked in the first is back, but there’s more added to the foundation.

Surprising as it may be, Persona 5 Strikers is a solid follow-up to Persona 5. Atlus and Omega Force resisted the temptation to just make it yet another Dynasty Warriors clone, putting in actual effort instead. Its Warriors-style action combat integrates much of the quirks from Persona 5 and still manages to retain the fun factor too.

With Darksiders II, the franchise has cemented itself as an essential property among the likes of Devil May Cry and God of War. Even with the scale increasing in practically every area, the game manages to be less intimidating than its predecessor.

Clannad is a visual novel that everyone should complete at least once in their lives. The hard part will be securing enough time to persist through every route in the proper way to see the true ending.

Considering the significantly lower price point at launch and the hundred plus hour package, Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster for PC is a joyous occasion that allows for an additional audience to dig their teeth into the classic.

Kaze and the Wild Masks is a must-own platformer — especially for anyone craving a new Donkey Kong Country game. The flow of the action is in line with Rare’s classic trilogy, and outshines the Returns games as well as Yooka-Laylee: The Impossible Lair. It features smooth controls and a lot of anti-frustration features to craft something that still offers a fair challenge, but scales the difficulty better than most and finds a healthy balance between collecting things and making doing so a chore. It’s genuinely rewarding to collect everything in a stage, but beating a stage on its own is still a lot of fun. It looks great and has a fantastic soundtrack to boot. No matter what platform you have, you’re in for a fun time with Kaze.

Final Fantasy IV is one of the best 16-bit RPGs with a strong story that holds up after all these years. Even though the turn-based combat and exploration with random encounters may seem simple compared to modern games, it’s still an enjoyable fourteen hour playthrough. This may not have been the remake everyone was hoping for, but Final Fantasy IV Pixel Remaster is a great version of a great game.

Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story is a fascinating exploration of a unique voice in video game history. It's an exhaustive, albeit sometimes overwhelming, homage to Minter's prolific early career. For those willing to dive into this psychedelic rabbit hole, the collection offers a rare opportunity to witness the evolution of a video game auteur in real-time. The narrative's abrupt conclusion and the repetitive nature of early games, however, may leave some players yearning for a more comprehensive portrayal of Minter's extensive catalog. In the end, Llamasoft is more than a game; it's a vibrant, chaotic museum dedicated to the wild, weird world of Jeff Minter, offering both a historical document and a testament to the enduring power of individual creativity in the ever-evolving landscape of video games.

EA put all of its chips into College Football 25, and it truly paid off. People are buying consoles just to play this game. It's a cultural phenomenon and the experience that's provided isn't replicated anywhere else. All the new additions to help make the game stand out including Wear and Tear, Turbo Mode, different coverage shells and added hot routes for pre-play, and basically everything added isn't just a gimmick, it's a substantial change. While some bugs and logic need to be addressed, College Football 25 is undoubtedly the most fun football game to come out in years. Everything College Football is here.

Shin Megami Tensei IV manages to meet its hype in some respects and fall short of it in others. Its combat is stronger than ever, adding in components that are deep, unique and reward the strategically-inclined, while the character customization options will excite those who like to build their ideal fighter.

Odd as it may sound to recommend a game moreso on its story, Ninja Theory’s latest is an interesting, if flawed, entrant.

Between the new campaign and Firefight mode, Halo 3: ODST shows that the Halo franchise can have a Spartan-free title that can still rise up to the same level of entertainment that is to be expected from the series.

With a robust adventure mode that serves as a great introduction for new players and a welcome challenge for veterans, plus a varied roster of characters and tracks that feel just as vibrant and detailed as the remaster of the Crash trilogy, the title is more than capable of appealing to players of all skill levels. Not every aspect of the game shines brightly, as a lacking battle mode, overly-lengthy progression and a rough online launch put a damper on the bandicoot’s return to racing. Thankfully, the core gameplay is as strong now as it was nearly twenty years ago, opening the door for plenty of hours of arcade racing fun that serves as a welcome reminder of the past and a new path ahead for the future of the series.

Pixeljunk Monsters is a constant struggle to properly allocate gold, gems, firepower, and time as the horde advances single file, with each level being more addictive than the last. [Spring 2008, p.61]

Weak continuity and weaker dungeon crawling gameplay make this hard to recommend to anyone who enjoys the series for its depth. If you’re not bothered by a bit of stupidity, give it a play.

It’s the type of ending so few stories get these days, and it’s told with strong performances from talented actors and gorgeous graphics that capture all the spectacle.

While not a groundbreaking game like its predecessor Resident Evil 5 offers up one of the most fun co-op experiences to date. Any fan of the RE franchise or action games in general will find a lot of enjoyment in RE 5.

Those who want the best Runner 2 experience, however, should seek it out elsewhere. If you only have a Vita to play with, though, then this is still a mighty fine way to get your dose of Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien.