While cumbersome controls and an oddly-behaving combo meter can betray the underlining intention of pace and of orderly chaos ruling over, Zombie Army 4: Dead War does just enough to shun these unfortunate moments. Players voluntarily, not forcibly, involving themselves with such madness with sufficiently-positive results.

It’s fun to look at and more fun to play — especially with gyro controls. If you’ve been seeking a new FPS adventure on Switch, give Hypercharge Unboxed a shot.

Re Mind rehashes so much Kingdom Hearts III that, when stripped away, leaves little new and worthwhile to dig into. The base game remains as fun to play as ever, but players don’t need to pay extra money to enjoy that. The new Limit Cut battles are a highlight that displays the complexity of the mechanics, but the other new additions aren’t anything special. Scala Ad Caelum and the Final Fantasy characters are deeply disappointing. The new cutscenes are nice, but they don’t answer many of the lingering questions. Kingdom Hearts III remains an excellent game, and Re Mind does allow players to jump back in for a few hours, but $29.99 is too much to ask for a DLC that barely adds anything new.

Typhoon Studios has created an indie title that will capture the attention of the masses. On the surface, Journey to the Savage Planet is an attractive title based on the sci-fi and exploration elements, but it’s the humor, gameplay elements and puzzle solving that pulls you in.

The new features, content and high-definition visuals aren’t quite enough to make it feel like a brand new game all over again, but they do go a long way towards enhancing what was already there. Its story is easy to get into for those who allow themselves to go along for the ride; the main characters are a likable bunch and its generally positive atmosphere and bright presentation is even infectious at times. The combat takes a bit to come into its own, but becomes a real spectacle once it does. Some might find that slowness and the large amount of dialogue to be annoying, but the game’s inherent positivity and silliness will likely still be enough to make it an overall fun experience.

What I enjoyed was minimal compared to the game’s content, so it does not come with a high recommendation. But if you’re a hardcore DBZ fan like I am, you’ll still manage to find some entertainment in the game. Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is not the best love letter written to fans, but it’s still a love letter nonetheless.

There are many elements it copies, carries over and at times doesn’t quite capitalize on — despite the brief flashes of promise and suggestion of something more lying in wait — but Super Crush KO is a sufficient follow-up to Graceful Explosion Machine and a pleasant-enough challenge for those looking for 2020’s first, quick colorful and chaotic fix.

What makes Lightmatter work isn’t the puzzles or the story but how well the two fit together. Every new room is a different challenge and comes with its own chunk of story as well. It also helps that the game has a distinct art style, mostly blues and blacks but with everything clearly defined in bold solid colors. The player moves at a decent speed, and movement is nicely responsive so there’s never any impatience at enacting an attempt at a new possible solution. There’s an unanswered mystery as to the player’s identity, teased at but never revealed in any kind of believable way, but in the end it’s not important.

Haunted: Halloween ’86 maintains the essences of its predecessor while generally improving all aspects of it. It succeeds in reminding us that video games were still great even with simpler and more limited hardware, but those limitations remind us how far the medium has advanced. The appeal of this title is pretty much going to be limited to the niche market of retro gamers but after spending some time in Possum Hollow I wouldn’t object to there being a Halloween ’87 in the future.

There’s a lot to like about Seven Days. The best aspects are the intriguing storyline which takes the start of a story many people know and turns it on its head. Then there’s the writing which is great at getting players involved with each spirit and her specific plight. Unfortunately, not every spirit gets equal amounts of attention. Some feel like they’re more of a side story than a main plot point. Perhaps the writers felt it was necessary to break things up with lighthearted chapters when other chapters bring readers to tears. Those looking for a bittersweet tale instead of scary ghost story will find Seven Days hits that mark.

Call it an insistence on reinforcing the strategy side of things or not, the game can fall victim to its own limitations. But for those with an adoration for lore and for that looming sense of desperation more so, while not entirely original in tone or presentation, Phoenix Point does just enough for those restrictions to fall by the wayside.

What Wattam does successfully is reinforce the idea of play, that doing silly things is fun and doing them with friends is even better. Wattam remembers that child-like is very different from childish, and that carefree play should be as important to a grown-up adult as it was back before we all began taking things so seriously.

Indivisible is a rare game that can rise above so many things not coming together, and whether you decide to dive in now with all its faults or wait another year for the ongoing polishing efforts to pay off, it will deliver a fantastic adventure that should easily stay with you long past the final closing credits.

The hardcore fanbase will appreciate MechWarrior 5 at its core as it feels like a game that wishes it had today’s hardware technology 30 years ago. The combat can be good, but becomes bland and redundant over time. Fan will also appreciate the story lore and how it progresses along with the strategy elements. Unfortunately, though, it feels like a game that could have used more time but had already been delayed. There are spots where it shines and most of this is experienced early on. But the more time spent with the game and learning how to do things just to progress becomes dull and ultimately you feel left behind as the game clock starts to pull away.

Whether you’re a new fan looking to get into the series, or a veteran player wanting to revisit a classic title, Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition is a must-play for any RTS fan.

Audica is a fantastic rhythm-shooter but it does come with a small disclaimer. Playing it at its best took a certain amount of tweaking, adjusting various options until the game felt right. Thankfully those options are all waiting in the Settings screen and difficulty selection, but playing it vanilla/Standard felt kind of bland. Once corrected, though, Audica transformed into an incredibly fun and nicely challenging musical target range, where each new stretch of song brought a note pattern that lit up the sky with the pyrotechnics of its destruction. It’s an arcade light show set to an energetic soundtrack with note patterns that stream in from all around, keeping you constantly on your toes as the music comes to life through firepower.

EarthNight has limited scope, but does what it does very well. Its fast-paced platforming meshes in nicely with a soundtrack that doesn’t stop delivering satisfying music. It has some of the best gameplay/soundtrack integration out there and is a must for anyone who loves endless runners. It’s challenging and unlike a lot of runners, tests your platforming skills early and often with a blend of perilous jumps and tricky enemy placement. It looks gorgeous with a painted art style that works well still and in motion. Anyone who enjoys a challenging runner will want to give EarthNight a try ASAP.

Whether it’s the indulgence of its presentation or simply the lack of reason from its players to really care about such a dire portrayal of modern-day life (implying harsher truths or not), Mosaic seldom lands any sort of balance between involvement through gameplay and artistic direction for the journey to feel worth trudging through. For a game all about trying to break out of a cycle and changing one’s perspective, Mosaic seems oddly content in the same drab pretense that in the end, through needless repetition, still arrives at nowhere meaningful or memorable.

Even though the franchise’s future looks concerning, whether you’re a newcomer or a hardcore fan, you owe it to yourself to revisit where the series began and took form.

It’s a bit of an odd title, but one that should be relished by Gundam diehards and fans of more casual turn-based strategy alike. Now, if Bandai Namco can start cutting through some of the licensing nightmare so we can get a full Western release of a proper Super Robot Wars title, we’ll be well on our way to a gaming paradise.

While Blacksad: Under the Skin shows a lot of promise in its story, world and a couple of neat gameplay mechanics that help put you right in Blacksad’s shoes, it unfortunately suffers when it comes to the execution. Be it clunky pixel hunts, an awkward interface or a myriad of potential glitches, the end result comes off as a bit of a janky, unpolished mess. Pendulo isn’t exactly a perfect developer, but this may end up being their weakest work yet, at least until future patches can improve things. For now, though, best to just turn down this case.

Some players may want to mainline Shenmue III in order to see all the story has it has to offer as quickly as possible. This is not advised. For one, there’s actually not very much new story information to glean during a playthrough. Secondly, doing so would make the more annoying aspects of the game all the more glaring. It’s much better to savor Shenmue III at a leisurely pace. There’s tons of enjoyment to be had simply taking in the scenery, wasting hours fulfilling weird requests for NPCs or even just fishing. It may not be perfect, but it is undoubtedly a Shenmue title. Even after all these years, there are no other games quite like it out there.

Removing the nostalgia filter, a lot of the gameplay elements of Romancing SaGa 3 simply won’t be that enjoyable for people who are die hard RPG fans of that era. Keeping that caveat in mind, fans of that era of gaming can find a lot to enjoy in this title, provided they are willing to deal with the lack of direction and unconventional approach to the JRPG formula.

To say that Tokyo Ghoul: re Call to Exist is a letdown is an understatement. This is a title poised to irritate fans, befuddle neophytes and generally just waste the time for everyone involved. This is a true throwback to ye olde days of bad cash ins. As one ages, nostalgia becomes a comfortable past time. Not in this case, though. Not in this case.

Black Future ’88 is almost a quintessential throwback to ’80s arcade games, with rock-solid gameplay taken straight from the era and mixed in with several interesting and unique gameplay twists. You may only get eighteen minutes at a time to take everything in, but what you’ll be hit with is a heavy dose of fast-paced action, a killer soundtrack, and and a ton of weapons and gameplay features to work with that reward you for experimenting and exploring every bit of Skymelt. You may be trapped in the ’80s here, but at least you’re trapped alongside some of the best parts of it. Well, at least when it comes to video games. We can’t help if you get permanently trapped alongside Kajagoogoo or something similar, after all.

Hashihime of the Old Book Town provides an engaging story from beginning to end. Despite weaving in and out through different timelines, it never becomes overly complex as can occur with time travel fiction. The only let down might be the strange note that the writers chose to end the story on. Everything else, however, makes Hashihime of the Old Book Town a game that you’re not likely to forget anytime soon.

The mix of action adventure with stealth gameplay elements creates a gaming experience that doesn’t get boring and the overall atmosphere has a bit of a Silent Hill vibe. The unclear circumstances that lead to the current state of Sally’s town help build intrigue as pieces of that world’s history gradually are revealed throughout the game. GYLT may not be the killer app to necessitate acquiring a Stadia, but it is an enjoyable game and a few more exclusive titles of this caliber could help make Stadia a viable contender in the video game market.

Superliminal has a unique concept for a puzzle game and nice and trippy visuals to accompany it, but alas, that’s the majority of what it has going for it. The short length combined with the lack of difficulty and any interesting story means that the game will barely leave an impact on you, and there really isn’t any reason to revisit it. And it’s a shame, because it starts out impressive, but then the novelty wears off quickly. While it may still be an okay game overall, there are many other first-person puzzlers worth checking out instead which do a better job of thinking outside the box.