NHL 21 has taken the best of what has been offered this generation in the series and sprinkled goodness on top. Be A Pro is a much-needed change and is the first innovative offline mode since implementing the expansion draft. It’s deep enough and feels fresh and could rejuvenate buzz into the series. HUT remains HUT with just more ways to grind for cards. Franchise Mode’s new coaching options are a good update for the league, but it’s only a surface change. The NHL series can no doubt benefit the most from a next-gen overhaul, but there’s enough here for yearly NHL players or those that have skipped a few years. Also, it’s worth mentioning EA is adding NHL 94 for those that pre-ordered later this month.

With the right mindset, the game design is perfect for a brain cleanse or to serve as a half distraction while contemplating a more complex problem.

NHL 16 is a triumphant return to form. After the debacle that was the razor-thin NHL 15, EA has restored all of the beloved modes to the game and they’re better than ever. More still, the game itself is simply better than ever before with slick mechanics, fantastic visuals and incredible detail to individual arenas.

Hypserspace Invaders II: Pixel Edition fuses an intense arcade shooter with eye-searing effects laid over chunky-pixel art, perfectly fused with its fantastic electronic soundtrack, as much a music album as a shooter and with both parts making each other all the better by contrast.

Birushana: Rising Flower of Genpei is an action-packed visual novel sure to capture the attention and hearts of otome fans. While some may bristle over one romanceable route or some of the darker content, it’s a title with a lot going for it. Whether players opt into just one route, or go for a full completion, they’ll be on quite a journey from anywhere between ten to sixty hours. Anyone with a taste for Japanese historical fiction owes it to themselves to dive into Birushana: Rising Flower of Genpei.

It’s a solid value given how much time can be spent with the new maps.

Zombasite may only require roughly a third of gig of hard drive space, but it crams a lot of substance into that small section of hard drive space.

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.

Atelier Iris 3 is a game that fundamentally works on a design level, which can't always be said for its predecessors. [June 2007, p.64]

As far as thrillers are concerned, few video games make it anywhere near the skillful story weaving present within the Higurashi series. Higurashi When They Cry Hou – Ch.2 Watanagashi is yet another look into the Watanagashi mystery and makes us want to know even more.

DNF Duel successfully brings the world of Dungeon Fighter Online to a fighting game arena with all the ingredients that made previous Arc System Works games great. The Story Mode provides interesting background about each character’s reason for fighting while the smooth mechanics give reason for having them continue to fight. The animation quality and art direction make this one of those games that is almost as entertaining to watch as it is to play. All the design elements of gameplay, graphics and music come together in a way that proves that while most current games embrace 3D, there’s still relevance in 2D tournament fighters.

HuniePop is pornography – darn fine pornography at that – but it’s also a shockingly good puzzle game. Occasionally those two identities feel at odds with each other, but for the most part they work in concert to show you a good time.

The depths and caverns of Grime are home to terrible creatures, weird residents, gorgeous scenery and a huge amount of secrets to chase after, and once you get a hang of it, it’s almost impossible to stop until you’ve fought and explored through every inch of its twisted world.

Anyone wanting a single player experience should probably wait for a sale, but everyone else would be well served snagging a copy as soon as possible.

Whether you play with the keyboard/mouse setup or use a 360 pad, you’ll get solid controls. It’s a challenging, but rewarding game and its surreal audio/visual combination will be stuck in your head for quite some time.

While a lot of focus on VR games comes from playing games in a first-person view, it’s great to have a change of pace with a real-time strategy game that includes an FPS element. On the outside, Out of Ammo doesn’t look inviting. Once you’re plopped in to the battlefield and realize all the small things needed to win on top of managing a base, though, it’s enthralling. The controls take a while to get comfortable with, but you’ll notice your own progression. As great as Resident Evil 7 or Gran Turismo Sport are in VR, Out of Ammo is the most fun I’ve had with PSVR. Just make it so players can retry a mission and not force them to exit out.

Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising manages to be more than the sum of its parts, becoming a likeable adventure that not only sets up the world for the main event to come in Hundred Heroes, but stands as a great little action-RPG in its own right.

Katama Kami: A Way of the Samurai Story is a well-crafted adventure that mixes rogue-lites with sword play in interesting ways. The risk/reward system for the dungeon crawling is something that keeps you on your toes at all times, while carefully balancing equipment stashes with what you bring out in the field is trial and error at its best. The action is fast and never gets bogged down by having a lot of enemies on-screen, even if the graphics do have some detail-related shortcomings. The animations are solid and the soundtrack is exceptional even if it isn’t the most memorable. The woodland-finned soundtrack keeps you invested as you go from dungeon-to-dungeon and slay all manners of enemy to survive.

The new features, updates and overall expansion of scope in Far Cry 5 help separate it from other titles, but even though this is arguably the best entry since Far Cry 3, it might be too similar for people burnt out on the franchise.

With a solid fighting engine, plenty of room for customization, a copious offering of modes, delightfully oldschool graphics and sound and some solid controls, Battle Grounds is a game that should be played by anyone who loves nostalgic beat’em ups, especially ones that are very stylized and very Japanese.

Summon Night 6: Lost Borders excellently brings together visual novels and tactical RPGs. Fans of the visual novel portion may be turned off a bit by the English voice-over work, but the story itself is amusing. It may not be the most memorable out there, but it works as a slice of life with a supernatural twist. The tactical RPG portion of the game is its strongest point — and good enough to where any fan of that genre should consider Summon Night 6 to enjoy that alone. It has a much brisker pace than most and keeps the action moving when other games would have a lull. The graphics are strong — especially given it being a Vita game at its core — and the overall audio work is great thanks to a well-crafted soundtrack and strong design.

All-out warfare has come to the Vita, and the excellent Worms series continues. As long as we don’t have to deal with another Worms: Ultimate Mayhem. That was reprehensible.

Mr. Driller DrillLand is a top-notch puzzle game eighteen years after its initial release and doesn’t look or feel its age at all. Quite a bit of care clearly went into making sure the game looked and played better than ever before and things like a revamped UI and border art help it look like a newer game than it is. The core gameplay is far more robust than any other entry in the series, and for that matter, many puzzle games since. It’s an addictive game and the theme park trappings help it play host to diverse themes that you normally don’t see in puzzle games, alongside adding in gameplay mechanics from other genres to keep things fresh. It’s a must-buy for any Mr. Driller fan or any puzzle fan in your household.

Outside of a sub-par soundtrack, Mantis Burn Racing is the finest overhead racer in years. It combines skillful racing with a level of excitement that is usually absent from the sub-genre.

Once you get past the vertigo, Retrovirus becomes a great little shooter that also resurrects an FPS sub-genre that absolutely deserves its new lease on life.

I’m inclined to call F1 2019 the most complete version of Codemasters’ series to date. The Career Mode has some good ideas and the inclusion of the new classic cars and the F2 cars add a bit of variety to the series. If you pay for something, however, you shouldn’t need to wait to unlock it. The AI can be a killer and racing online will have you weeding through some jobbers until you gain some experience on the Super License. Running at a silky smooth frame rate and capturing the sound of the cars while not having an overly-difficult handling model makes the core game the best that it will be this generation. F1 2019 is embracing the legacy of the sport and stays true to providing a true replication of Formula One.

Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe is a wonderful remaster with a good amount of love put into it. While it may not be as vast as last year’s new Forgotten Land title, it has a lot to offer players, especially those who may not have touched it before. Those who have previously played Return to Dream Land might not have much to look forward here unless they’re a hardcore fan, but those who like Kirby and have never tried this title will want to consider picking it up. It doesn’t do anything crazy compared to the typical Kirby adventure, but it’s so well put together with tons of optional activities that it’s well worth going along with Kirby and his friends to see it through to the end.

It has an old-school feel to it that brings to mind the days of scrambling for quarters blended with some good old-fashioned ultraviolence, simple yet effective combat, surreal dystopian horror and some surprisingly deep gameplay elements. It’s just that it has a bit of a difficulty spike and a few annoying combat elements holding it back from true greatness.