Mario Strikers: Battle League is the most stylized and chaotic Mario sports game to date, with quick, intense matches that reward strategic and aggressive playstyles. Next Level Games’ adoration for each member of the roster shines through both mid-game and during cinematics, making each contest a joy to play and watch, even with the minor but apparent online issues and the modes and unlockable gear not being deep enough to justify the full-priced title. Longtime Mario Strikers fans will get a kick out of the refined and engaging gameplay, while casual soccer fans and first-time players won’t need long to understand the compelling mayhem of the Mushroom Kingdom’s take on soccer.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge caters to a specific niche audience, but couldn’t have done a better job of it. The developers understood what made the arcade games great thirty plus years ago and build on it, creating a game that is rooted in the style of its predecessors with just enough modernization to feel contemporary. References to the classic games and cartoon are sprinkled throughout. Interactions with supporting characters like Vern and Irma are deliberately handled in a manner that would fit in during the 16-bit era. Shredder’s Revenge does rely on nostalgia for the golden age of arcade gaming for players to be completely enamored with it. Without the nostalgia goggles, it’s still a great retro beat ’em up based on its own gameplay merits, but for those who grew up with the classic Turtles, it feels like a fragment of childhood has been recreated.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords had a tough act to follow, but does an admirable job of creating the next chapter in the Old Republic. As a sequel it fails to surpass the high standard set by the original, but it’s still a great game and a must play for Star Wars fans. The story is one of the stronger ones in the Star Wars universe and the ability to mold it through player choices is the main attraction in KOTOR II. The dated mechanics and graphics benefit a lot from nostalgia goggles, but it holds up well enough where newcomers can still enjoy it and find it a worthwhile adventure.

The Quarry comes close to being Supermassive’s strongest successor to Until Dawn yet, but sadly stumbles when it comes to delivering a satisfying finale as the story fails to hit the high marks it sets up early on with its mystery. Still, for those looking for a satisfying horror game, graphic adventure or interactive movie to have a few thrills with, there’s more than enough here to deliver a satisfying experience, largely thanks to nicely-honed gameplay and a cast of likeable characters. Give it a whirl if interested, if only so you can play director even further once you finish it and try to find something new.

One of the year’s best orchestrations of gameplay and presentation in unison, Card Shark is a smart, but above all, brilliantly-crafted journey of cunning and deception.

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.

There’s a lot of enjoyable gameplay in Kao the Kangaroo. The level design is easily the biggest highlight, and while combat is simple, it’s fun and accessible for all ages to get a kick out of. The downfalls of poor voice acting and a forgettable soundtrack are easy enough to overlook; the only thing Kao really needs are fixes to the aforementioned glitches and bugs that are the sole things holding it back from being a solid and enjoyable experience all the way throughout. Assuming these all get fixed, however, Kao the Kangaroo would be worth picking up for those looking for a fun and nostalgic platformer that hearkens back to the early 3D days, but with nice modern modifications.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong has players step in the shoes of three different vampires to solve a mystery, building upon the wealth of Vampire lore, but doesn’t have much bite. The approach of making the game be entirely driven by conversation and investigation is an interesting alternative to countless vampire games that are essentially bloodbaths but doesn’t come without concessions. The emphasis on role playing and character choice helps recreate the feel of the tabletop/LARP games, but the poor puzzles and mediocre script hurt the pacing and overall experience. Fans of White Wolf’s World of Darkness will likely appreciate the work that went into bringing the role playing feel to a video game while they work to solve the mystery, but those who want something with a little more action would be best served waiting for Bloodlines 2.

While a few issues remain that hamper the experience, it’s a no-brainer to proclaim Sniper Elite 5 has taken everything that made 4 as great as it was and improved it.

In the history of gaming there have been experiences where everything about the game is fantastic except for the actual gameplay. The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story falls into this category. The well-written story keeps the player captivated through the entire playthrough while the music perfectly complements each scene. The acting cast is top notch, especially if the original Japanese audio track is used. The hexagon system of coming to a hypothesis can get quickly tedious, and with no penalty for a wrong conclusion or choices that have any impact more than the illusion of involvement, there isn’t any replay value. But the lackluster gameplay aside, The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story is a wonderful story that should be experienced and one of the better attempts at an FMV game.

Salt and Sacrifice doesn’t explain itself by words, which can make it hard to get to grips with, but when you let that go and just discover by play, the game gently drags you in and refuses to let go.

Evil Dead: The Game is undoubtedly the best Evil Dead game yet. There’s a lot here that fans of the franchise will appreciate with Easter Eggs and the overall atmosphere. The game is a lot of fun to play thanks to the strategy, upgrades and combat, but playing as the Kandarian Demon offers a deeper experience and removes the need to worry about communicating with teammates. While there’s DLC coming if you go with the Deluxe Edition, there really is only this mode and while upgrading the different units adds longevity, it’s a bit of a cop out going this direction with adding length to the game. It also only costs $39.99 on all platforms for the standard version, and the price is well worth the fun. If the player base stays with combining platforms, this should help out with the experience down the road.

Soundfall is a superb game that manages to marry several different genres together. It would be more accessible with an auto-perfect timing option, but even without it, it’s a fun experience for twin-stick shooting fans while also working as a way for rhythm -centric players to explore a different genre. As a twin-stick shooter, it’s exciting and as a rhythm game, it offers a level of variety that is unmatched in the genre. The soundtrack is top-tier and made better on PC with custom soundtracks as an option to integrate fully into the game. Soundfall is a must-have for anyone seeking out a new twin-stick shooter or just wanting to try something new that’s unlike anything out there.

Cotton Fantasy nicely follows up on the reboot while also sticking too close to the formula, feeling like an extension of what the reboot was visually and in terms of gameplay. It does feature more variety with behind-the-back action, but it feels like a waste to have that relegated to bonus areas instead of integrating it into at least one action stage given that the prior entry in the series was behind-the-back fully and this feels like a tease. Other than that shortcoming, Cotton Fantasy is a tremendous experience and a ton of fun for anyone who enjoyed the series before or just got introduced to it via the reboot. It’s an excellent side-scrolling shooter and one with a lot of visual and audio variety.

Lumote‘s sound, art and puzzle design are excellent from beginning to end, and if that end shows up a little more quickly than I’d have wished then that just means it never wore thin in its six-hour runtime. And after it’s over there’s always New Game+, which fills in the details as to exactly what’s going on in this self-contained little slice of environmental strangeness.

Nintendo Switch Sports doesn’t revolutionize motion-controlled gaming, but instead brings it back at its peak with six enjoyable sports that play great locally or online. Some events, like volleyball or tennis, may feel more shallow than their compatriots, and the absence of a traditional online bowling mode against strangers is hard to overlook. But whether you’re looking to rise through the Pro League ranks or for a fun afternoon with family and friends that doesn’t involve sitting on the couch, Nintendo Switch Sports has plenty to offer gaming fans of all ages that are looking to clash swords, score goals or knock pins.

Prinny Presents NIS Classics Vol. 2 is a must-have for tactical RPG fans who missed out on either included game. Both Makai Kingdom and Z.H.P.: Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman are excellent, with Unlosing Ranger being a game that slipped between the cracks in its time and now truly gets a chance to shine on a greater stage. There’s still nothing like it on the market, and after nearly two decades, Makai Kingdom‘s take on tactical combat still has elements that haven’t been copied. This second batch of NIS Classics is a great one and something that offers two titles that have not only held up well, but have concepts that we haven’t seen done to death since their original release.

While it could stand to be longer, if only to deliver more when it come to some of its more ambitious elements, Trek to Yomi is an amazing action game that makes terrific use of its cinematic presentation, using Kurosawa vibes to impact both the gameplay and visuals in clever ways.

To say Loot River is a game mechanically and visually enticing would be to downplay just what makes a game of this stature such a treat to repeatedly explore. Unusual a pitch it might’ve sounded, the eccentric implication that “Dark Souls meets Tetris” isn’t entirely unwarranted. In a game whose novel implementation of movement alone is one with a plentiful amount of offensive, defensive and tactical potential, let alone a mere tool for traversal that can be as equally costly as it is a helpful aid. Just like its technical niceties that add so much to the pixelated aesthetic, it’s what the game doesn’t reveal at the outset — and thus, that desire to figure out the true path to success — that is by far the most impressive thing about Loot River. One that not only justifies its quirky alternative to run-based progression, but through it transforms the game from that of a humble roguelite into one that, strangely enough, is just as much puzzle-platformer as it is grueling dungeon-crawler.

Rogue Legacy 2 is an enormous beast of an adventure, packed with fast combat, great platforming and endless replayability. It’s the kind of game that can be actively difficult to stop playing, with the spoils from one run opening up new opportunities in the next that can be difficult to resist checking out. While progress can be slow it rarely turns into a grind, with most hits and the inevitable death of the current hero feeling fair and avoidable if only you’d been just a bit more skilled. The generations come and go with each one sacrificing a member to castle and lands beyond, but the family obsession burns through the ages and makes it easier for the next descendant to go further and become stronger. It may take countless millennia to learn all the castle’s secrets, but seeing as it’s almost impossible to walk away from the quest, they’re bound to be unraveled some day.

While Research and Destroy has a few flaws and comes across as way better when playing in co-op, it can’t be denied that it’s still a great blend of action and strategy, one that embraces classic science fiction and crafts spectacular moments of action out of it, eight seconds at a time. The thrill of successfully taking your time to eliminate a horde of supernatural by using a series of quick actions is something players will love, and has indeed made for a mostly terrific turn-based action hybrid that the developers should be proud of.

The scale of one’s enjoyment with a game like B.I.O.T.A. depends entirely on what kind of game you’re expecting and more importantly, what area of game you end up gravitating towards coming out of it. For those in the Metroidvania camp, the game is an inoffensive if not entirely unique interpretation on the template. But on the platforming side, fortunes are far more favorable, playing host to sequences that are both well-executed and challenging on top. The fact these bright spots are so tucked away, though — caught between needless back-tracking and a general world design that can feel too linear — can lend itself to B.I.O.T.A. feeling too uneven and demanding on one’s patience to warrant seeing it through. Even so, it’s these precision platforming sequences, working together with the hyper-retro leanings, that just about pulls it from out the doldrums. It might not be posing any original ideas, but for better or worse, B.I.O.T.A.‘s know-how on old-school traits just about keeps it afloat.

MotoGP 22 is the best game in the series to date, but is hampered by its aging core design. Nine Season 2009 is a revolution in racing games as it’s one thing to include legendary riders or drivers and tracks, but another to do a documentary featuring the entire season. The racing is what’s most important and this is the most accessible and fun the racing has been to date all while managing to the up the realism with the tyre and suspension models in the game. The visual and audio design is beginning to feel dated, although certain aspects have been increased for the current generation of consoles, but none of this changes or improves from last year. Then again, the game is only $50, but maybe an overhaul of the visuals and audio would justify a higher price when factoring in the innovative content that Milestone continues to provide year-over-year.

This is a remaster where the highs of unleashing the Force conflict with the lows of the original product. Quality-of-life improvements like the inclusion of traditional controls and the bump to the resolution help improve the game immensely. At the same time, the gameplay’s clunkiness, glitches and performance issues found on the Wii remain persistent issues in this remaster. For $19.99, there’s a decent amount of content and a chance to explore an old chapter relegated to Legends territory. Unfortunately, many of the more pressing issues were never addressed in this remaster. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is fun in short bursts on Switch, but the further you go, the more contained the Force starts to feel.

Postal 4: No Regerts is a return to form to the cult classic Postal 2. Unfortunately, while it does stay true to what made it successful among its fanbase, it doesn’t raise the bar in any area where it could be considered a great game. For a series known for pushing the envelope, Postal 4 feels like it plays things too safe. The gameplay mechanics are rough around the edges, while the attempts at edgy humor fall short. The potential is there, but regerttably the writers never push it to a level where it would be memorable. What we end up with is a game that is enjoyable but ultimately unremarkable.

The House of the Dead: Remake had a lot working in its favor going in that didn’t pan out in the end. The main problems lie in the controls, which never work as well as they should, at least at launch. It’s entirely possible like with the Panzer Dragoon Remake that improvements make the post-launch experience better, but as it stands, it’s hard to recommend this for serious light gun fans or those just looking to see what all the fuss was about in the genre 20-30 years ago. Playing the game varies from being fun when things work to being frustrating when they don’t work well — and that happens more than it should. It’s not a great-looking game, but does sound great and will hopefully receive post-launch support to improve the experience overall.

Weird West offers up a world of intrigue with a terrific blend of classic Western fiction and supernatural elements, with a lot of enjoyable story bits and and a world that can change on a whim, but it’s one whose awkward combat and bugs make for a bit of an uphill battle when it comes to truly enjoying this world. WolfEye should definitely be commended for their ambition and unique ideas, and the end result is still an enjoyable game, just one that could have used some extra spit and polish.

In what is at times an incoherent and questionable selection of titles — compiled in what feels as drab and corporately sterile an attire one can find — there does remain worthwhile moments to look back on with Taito Milestones.