Need for Speed Heat features plenty of hours worth of high octane racing while representing an encouraging return to form for the franchise as it heads into the next generation.

It’s not that Conception Plus: Maidens of the Twelve Stars is a terrible game. In small bits, it can be fun to progress through the story and make the numbers get bigger. The problem is that, once the weirdness wears off, it’s an achingly average to below average JRPG. So much feels padded for the sake of prolonging the run time, the environments of the dungeons never feel interesting, and the challenge is to the player’s patience, not their brain. Spike Chunsoft have a concept here, but it’s one that needs a little more time gestating. Considering how great Spike Chunsoft is as a developer and publisher, we should hope for better than Conception Plus: Maidens of the Twelve Stars.

Manifold Garden is an incredibly stylish first-person puzzler, like walking through the architectural drawings of a pandimensional designer. Some of the individual rooms are a little too sterile for their own good but these are always followed up with incredible views that stretch out forever in geometrically pleasing patterns of infinite repetition. The tendrils of darkness overrunning the garden are a passive threat at their worst, leaving you free to explore and experiment, flipping the world around to see it from a new perspective. The garden may have seen better days but chasing away the darkness is just the excuse needed to take it all in, solving its mysteries and coming to grips with a creation that only follows the rules of 3D space when it feels like it.

While the 3DS title may have received mixed reception, Luigi’s Mansion 3 is a wonderful return to form from the first title that does the series justice. It’s on par, if not better, than the original simply because of the great atmosphere and wonderful puzzling challenge it brings. While fighting enemies isn’t the most difficult thing ever, especially for older players, it’s still fun and never overstays its welcome between exploring each and every floor in the haunted hotel. Luigi’s Mansion 3 is an absolutely wonderful time that makes it easy to want to jump in and keep exploring the hotel to find every last secret it has to offer.

Despite the addition of retro 2D events and a story mode, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 does little to improve the franchise thanks to middling minigame design and an empty, lackluster campaign. The more creative and deep gameplay arises in the story and dream minigames, but convoluted controls and brief runtimes hold back the majority of the events from entertaining players for more than a couple of attempts. The simplistic story will likely amuse fans of a younger age, but for most Mario, Sonic, Olympics and minigames fans, this crossover continues to disregard its potential and does little to justify its $60 price tag by offering only a few hours worth of polished but mostly mediocre minigames.

There’s no real wrong way to play Disgaea and there’s endless fun to be had in Hell with its lovable cast of characters. Disgaea 4 Complete+ is yet another wonderful addition from the franchise brought to modern consoles, and fans of the series or tactics titles should not miss out on it.

Destiny Connect: Tick-Tock Travelers is a fantastic game full of heart. Breezy with a bit of substance to it, the battle system is a ton of fun and the time travel-centric mystery plot is a lot of fun to see unfold. If you’re looking for a fun RPG for younger players or just want something that’s a bit like a Studio Ghibli film in game form, pick it up. There’s a lot to love about Destiny Connect: Tick-Tock Travelers and you can’t go wrong grabbing it on either the PS4 or Switch.

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.

While players won’t get jacked muscles playing Ring Fit Adventure, it’s a fantastic way to do exercise indoors when other ways to work out are expensive or inconvenient. There’s a ton of variety here to allow players to exercise how they like even without touching the adventure mode. Nintendo has really outdone themselves by combining an encouraging RPG adventure with exercise to push players to their limit in Ring Fit Adventure.

Disney Classic Games: Aladdin and The Lion King is a prime example of how a retro game collection should be assembled. The included games are both great games from the 16-bit era.

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD isn’t a perfect recreation of the original game due to some things being improved and others being taken away. The overall presentation is more enjoyable when it comes to the main game, but the massive drop-off in mini-game selection hurts the replay value.

WWE 2K20 can’t be recommended in its current state and something like this should have never been released. There are less than a handful of bright spots and if they had just launched with 2K Originals and more importantly The Fiend, the most over WWE Superstar right now, it would have helped. What you get is a buggy experience and one glaring issue hampering an enjoyable experience in each of its different modes. MyCareer would be worth progressing through if you can stomach the awful loading times and Showcase would be great if the gameplay didn’t hinder actual advancement through the mode. In the end, it’s still a WWE game and Visual Concepts is promising patches.

While Afterparty arguably doesn’t quite hit the same overall heights as its older sibling, it still manages to deliver one amazing adventure of its own, largely thanks to a terrific sense of humor, a unique story, and some truly astounding writing and dialogue.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare delivers a fantastic package of content that does the Modern Warfare name proud. Infinity Ward is back in action and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare delivers on nearly every front.

It shows its age in some spots but for the most part it’s enjoyable. People with fond memories of it would probably enjoy this update over the original if for no other reason than the visual facelift. Its style has as much to do with its legacy as the gameplay but this is one of the more memorable titles to grace the original PlayStation. In spite of the areas where this title has not aged well, MediEvil is still fun and darkly charming adventure, and like Sir Daniel this HD remake still shows there’s life left in this corpse.

Lonely Mountains: Downhill is easily the best mountain biking game available. True, there’s not a lot of competition, but even if there was it would be hard to top. The terrain is a blast to explore, each bike opens up a different style of play and the atmosphere is about as close to perfect as you could hope for. The progression system to unlock new bikes takes a bit too long, and sometimes the bike physics get a bit wonky, but it’s hard to let that get in the way when the next trail opens up or a new shortcut reveals a path that knocks several seconds off the clock. The wilderness of Lonely Mountains: Downhill seems initially empty because there are no other people to be found, but they’d just get in the way of enjoying the peaceful serenity to be found in bouncing down the trail while holding on for dear life.

Even with these unfortunate and evident shortcomings on the technical side, The Outer Worlds is a rewarding and ultimately intriguing adventure to partake in. Delivering on that same kind of old-and-new synergy of RPG staples that have allowed this niche of AA-tier RPGs -- limitations notwithstanding -- to flourish in recent years.

Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville may have a few technical hiccups and design missteps, but it remains a fun, cheerful shooter that’s engaging for players of all ages.

Doraemon Story of Seasons is one of the most unique crossovers for both franchises. While many players may be unfamiliar with Doraemon, it’s still a wonderful time for anyone who wants a relaxing farming adventure. One of the best things about this unique scenario is not having to worry about romantic relationships, instead just focusing on getting to know villagers and creating a wonderful farm while trying to get Noby and his friends home. It may not be the most innovative take on Story of Seasons, but the unique elements it brings to the table are well worth giving it a try especially when it’s so easy to sink an entire day or more farming through each season in one sitting. Story of Seasons fans will be delighted with just how wonderful this unique take on the series fits, and it’s worth it to get to spend some time with Doraemon and friends.

The Ninja Saviors: The Return of the Warriors is a revival of an old game in a style that is rarely seen these days. It’s a game that showcases how fun the style of game can be but also shows off all the limitations that were around in the ’90s. It’s a fun and challenging game that can be completed in an hour or two. The remake did a good job of making it look nice on modern consoles and the two player co-op mode was an essential addition. Like many retro titles, however, this is targeted to the nostalgia market and while playing it can remind people that good games existed in all decades, the limitations of its era are glaringly apparent.

Mary Skelter 2 is a welcome return to the horrible living Jail and anyone who is intrigued that missed the original Vita release is taken care of with the added bonus of the original game as a free download. The gameplay isn’t exactly groundbreaking but there’s enough going on to keep the formula feeling fresh with the environmental puzzles and hazards along with the customization of blood maidens. Compile Heart/Idea Factory titles have their own weird charm about them and those familiar with their other titles will find that same comfort with this one. Overall Mary Skelter 2 is a fun dungeon crawler that finds a healthy balance between levity and disturbing.

It may not achieve the same immediate and resounding brilliance as its predecessors, but The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III is brilliant nonetheless. By modern design standards, albeit not a graphical showcase, one of the best examples of what JRPGs can be.

While it has its occasional little issues here and there, Felix the Reaper stands out as one of the year’s best puzzlers. Felix himself may easily lure you in with his charming appearance and cute design, along with a colorful world that he inhabits full of morbid humor and terrific music, but once you’re in, you’ll find a highly challenging game with superb, rewarding gameplay that will have you tearing out your hair one minute and cheering in delight the next, like any good puzzle game that puts up a fight. If death should indeed be considered a joyous occasion, then Felix appropriately brings along one delightful party via his game.

While the title does not have a quantity of gameplay, it sticks to its indie roots to make sure there is quality in what little there is. If you’re looking for a gripping, emotional science-fiction story, Deliver Us the Moon is waiting.

Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation shows its age even with the modernization but it also holds up very well. The game mechanics and story progression are echoes of a forgotten past which will invoke nostalgia in older gamers but may just seem archaic to the younger crowd. This one holds up the best out of the three Switch titles. The first two games are mainly worth playing for historical interest or nostalgia but this one should be played by any JRPG fan for its own merits. While this title does a nice job of concluding the Erdrick trilogy, it’s a great title in its own right and still enjoyable over thirty years after its release. It would be great if the subsequent Zenithian trilogy found its way onto Switch.

It would be easy to say that you should just wait until later to pick up Killer Queen Black once more content has poured in, but no, you should check it out as soon as you can. The action is still quick and intense while requiring a healthy dose of strategy, it’s visually stunning and it’s another stellar example of “easy to learn, hard to master.” Top it all off with the insane amount of fun that can be had while playing with friends and Killer Queen Black a no-brainer. Much like the NBA Jams and Mortal Kombat IIs of the ’90s, what we have here is an impressive home version of an arcade hit that can easily keep you tied up for a while.

Once the feel of the grind of the Career Mode begins, the initial appeal starts to wear off even though the varying race experiences try to hide it. The multiplayer experience is seemingly just an afterthought with something that could have had so much potential. But with beautiful visuals and impressive gameplay, fans of the original GRID will find that this modern version will suit them on the track.

Valfaris is pure badassery in every level, from its brutal environments, the monstrous abominations of its bosses and of course the driving guitar soundtrack pushing the action forwards. It’s hardcore run & gun action from the very start and exactly what we dreamed 16-bit gaming would grow into back in the day.