The gameplay is fun, varied and challenging, and will test the skills of even the most hardcore platforming fans.

Galak-Z is the very definition of awesome.

Sportsfriends is the most-fun party game I’ve played since the days of the original Mario Party.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is one of the best shooters of 2024. It features a highly-engaging and addictive combat system that would be lost without its cooperative and competitive modes. It’s not without its faults, though, as the campaign isn’t particularly lengthy and will rely on playing the same six missions over and over again until you level up to take on the higher difficulties, which are primarily just more enemies who hit much harder.

Still, despite being overly-casual, Trauma Team is an incredibly enjoyable game.

Inventive lore, gorgeous art direction and clever use of RPG mechanics make Endless Legend an absolute treat.

Simulacra might not be perfect, but it highlights that the found phone horror concept is one that has a significant amount of potential. For anyone looking to venture into uncharted territory with horror, Simulacra is a choice that brings a fresh, exciting new experience compared with many other titles on the market. It has a well-constructed story and demonstrates that branching narratives are built for horror titles. Kaigan Games has only scraped the surface of found phone horror, though. Should they choose to return with another installment and be able to improve on some of the notable flaws, it could end up making the real impact that it’s looking for with found phone horror on the mobile market. For now, however, Simulacra is a must-own title for any horror enthusiast. Even if it’s only for a single playthrough, it’s enough to make any player want to talk to their friend about this found phone horror title they’ve discovered.

Hitman 2 is the proper evolution to the Hitman formula. It may not be a monumental step forward for the franchise, but the number of features and adjustments that are made only help create a more gratifying and highly-captivating experience.

Terrific story and performances from its cast, smart progression, a compelling stealth-focused gameplay loop, an expanded palette in its visuals and a soundtrack that underscores the roller-coaster of emotion underpinning all of this. A Plague Tale: Requiem seldom loses its footing — a sequel and indeed a tale that’s both ambitious and compelling to the very end.

The simplicity of Phantom Spark's controls and short, easily-memorizable courses are a welcoming on-ramp for a beast of a racer, where the need for a better time eventually reveals a skill-ceiling that's far higher than it's got any right to be.

For visual novel fans, or the curious, Ever 17: The Out of Infinity is an absolute must-play. It takes the disaster movie template from the '90’s and early 2000s and adds to it, creating a thematically-diverse, gripping story. While player choice isn’t going to yield wildly divergent results, it feels like it matters to both the story and to the player, which is a feat for a game that was created so long ago. This is one where avoiding spoilers is for the best, as this title has some surprising twists and turns. Even when a story beat relies on a trope, it evolves the trope into something new and interesting. It’s also a lengthy story that takes a bit to see the final ending, but never overstays its welcome.

If Death Stranding wasn’t so padded out it could have been something special; instead, we’re left with a repetitive letdown that’s far more enjoyable to watch than play.

The problem is that. at press time, Castle Crashers is as glitchy as it gets. [Fall 2008, p.54]

For fans of the comics and adventure buffs alike, The Wolf Among Us continues to assert itself as a must-play game.

While the mechanics are stiff compared to modern games, it’s a blast from the past that will invoke nostalgia for those who haven’t played it since its initial release in 2005.

Mortal Kombat 11 provides a solid if unremarkable cast of characters to choose from and plenty of ways to customize them. It’s just a pity that much of the activities and rewards revolve so heavily around grinding and microtransactions.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 is tactical arcade sports action at its finest, and an easy way to lose far too many hours maneuvering a bouncy black and white ball into a net at the end of a grassy field.

The Spyro games were legitimately great for the time, though, and thanks to an near-perfect balance between preservation and updating, Spyro Reignited Trilogy is every bit as excellent by today’s standards.

Knockout City is easily one of the most pleasant surprises so far this year, managing to turn a game of dodgeball into an addictive and high-octane multiplayer brawl with a unique Zeerust twist in its aesthetics and silky smooth gameplay that anyone can get into. Hopefully it still ends up being a success after the current trial period, because it would be amazing to see just how massive and fun of a city Velan Studios can eventually make.

Archvale focuses on intense fantasy-RPG shooting action and giving the player all the tools necessary to handle it their way, and the result is a game that’s next to impossible to put down until the last arch stone is collected and even then maybe not. There’s never a bad time to test out Hardcore mode’s bigger maps and denser bullet patterns, after all.

One could easily make the argument that Control could very well be Remedy’s magnum opus. Not only have they managed to craft a fun and insane world full of surreal delights and impressive visuals, but they loaded it with a massive amount of secrets to hunt for and paired it alongside some of the year’s best combat. The end result is a superb third-person action game that you shouldn’t miss out on. The game may end with a not-so-subtle hint at upcoming DLC set to come in the future, but the terrific gameplay leaves one wanting more. Plus, there’s still a lot of The Oldest House to explore, even after the main game ends, so we’ll easily be occupied with more of Control, and we wouldn’t want it any other way.

Final Fantasy V is one of the more overlooked titles in the franchise, but skipping this title would be a mistake. Its story may not reach some of the highs as other entries in the franchise, but it’s still compelling enough to keep players interested. While it might not have the best Final Fantasy story, however, it has one of the best job systems. There’s grinding involved to get some of the exceptional abilities, but the freedom to customize a party however the player wants offers many opportunities for creative party configurations and encourages multiple playthroughs. Final Fantasy V Pixel Remaster updates a great classic JRPG in a way that respects the original 16-bit title, bringing enough changes to make it feel updated but keeping it familiar enough to appeal to long-time fans.

Super Mario Party Jamboree is something of a mixed experience. Its main mode, while offering a truly solid selection of fun minigames and interesting boards, suffers from a frustratingly slow rate of play. Unless it's addressed in a future update, most players are probably going to eventually get tired of everything taking longer than it should. Most of the side modes are “take it or leave it” affairs as well, but Koopathlon, Toad’s Item Factory and especially Bowser’s Kaboom Squad are together good enough to make up for that. Fans with friends to play it with will feel satisfied with Super Mario Party Jamboree, but those who don’t probably need not rush to pick this one up.

There’s no doubt that Konami still focuses on the hardcore fan as it still needs to work on providing a more fun and enticing experience as it has the technological and simulation side down. There’s no doubt that eFootball PES 2020 is the best version of the game this generation, but it’s still geared towards its own community.

Dishonored: Death of the Outsider is a fitting resolution to a familiar story. Billie Lurk is an excellent character to showcase the underside of a world already known but with plenty of mystery left in it.

There's a reason the Prince is still popular almost twenty years later, and this is it. [Sept 2007, p.69]

For under ten dollars, there’s a lot of fun to be had with SteamWorld Dig.

There are so many games in the zeitgeist that focus on offering the most realistic or the most refined and polished experience on the market, but often this can be to the detriment of fun. Tiny Terry's Turbo Trip knows this all too well, focusing solely on bringing the fun factor. It's a love letter to successful mascot platformers of old while offering some much-needed fan service to the kid-friendly GTA-clone sub-genre that gave us The Simpsons Hit and Run and Lego City Undercover. It's not a game that's going to change your life, but it's a wonderful, action-packed romp that just might make a lazy afternoon a little more memorable.