Hell is Empty perfectly pays off what was built up in the first two episodes while also providing a bridge to the original series. Acting as a prequel series put Before the Storm in a tough spot, but the third episode shows that you can pull of a lofty goal like that near-perfectly. It’s a fantastic conclusion to the prequel series and a must-play for anyone who enjoyed the first two episodes. You’ll see proper payoffs to many things here, while the main game serves as a payoff for other storylines and characters introduced in this series — allowing this self-contained part of the tale to do its own thing without having to wrap up every part of the narrative.

Life Is Strange does suffer from different technical issues — much like its console counterpart in 2015 — but it’s not enough to detract newcomers from experiencing its riveting narrative in full effect. With the addition of features like Photo Mode and bonuses like the iMessage stickers, Life Is Strange reiterates why fans need to rewind time and once again step into the shoes of Max.

Floor Kids is, at its core, Tony Hawk-style action where the beat is the rail and the dance moves string together into one long trick. The art and animation are bursting with personality, and the character design is particularly excellent in that they’ve all got a solid sense of style without being over-designed. The combination of the music and art make what would otherwise be a fairly simple score-chasing rhythm game pop off the screen, lively and energetic with its own unique style.

Providing terrific arcade action, Shooty Fruity expertly blends together classic shooting galleries with much-appreciated bits of strategy, all thanks to its unique premise that has you trying to manage two different games at once. The difficulty level is always nice and fair, allowing for several different play styles and weapon combos to try, and the simple, cute enemies still put up a proper fight. Even at its most basic, it’s still a colorful blast of classic arcade fun that’s worth checking out. Odds are you won’t forget the time you blew up a sentient watermelon while successfully ringing up a purchase for a cactus anytime soon.

At the end of the day, Gang Beasts is a straight-up treat. It’s perfect for those looking for a new game to play with friends (maybe while waiting for Smash Bros. to finally come to Switch). The technical difficulties encountered are outweighed by the enormous amounts of fun to be had. Gang Beasts has so much character and moments of hilarity that it can’t be recommended enough. Gang Beasts runs $19.99 and with the promise of free new game modes, maps and other features on the horizon, it’s worth the pair of Andrew Jacksons.

It’s exciting to see a game like SeaBed receive an official English translation. After a regular onslaught of yuri nukige, it starts to feel like that’s all companies care for. Of course, we’ve seen that not to be the case in the past with releases such as Kindred Spirits on the Roof, Highway Blossoms and now SeaBed. It may not be the most fast-paced or engaging tale on the market, but it provides a distinct experience. Those looking to dive into a new yuri game can expect to swim with SeaBed for ten to twenty hours as they uncover its secrets.

Visual novel readers who enjoy relaxing with a slow-paced, sweet tale may find A Sky Full of Stars a worthy next read. Its astronomy-focused tale provides an unique take on the slice of life genre and provides characters who care about something other than the protagonist. Those opposed to censorship, however, will likely need to skip the game entirely to get their message across. With so many of MoeNovel’s peers taking the route of optional restoration patches, it’s becoming increasingly tougher for MoeNovel to justify their stance.

Tenta Shooter is a perfectly decent bullet-hell arcade game with a simple mechanic that provides nice flexibility in both score-chasing and surviving the levels. While the bullet-canceling can get you through heavy onslaughts untouched with proper use, there are enemies with attacks it can’t counter so you still need to be careful. Each level has secrets to chase after in the form of tentacle tokens, hidden in enemies that need to be defeated in a specific way to earn the drop and fairies tucked away in places even more obscure. While nobody will be ranking Tenta Shooter with the best of the genre, it’s still a fun ride, with a good balance of skill, memorization and reflex needed to clear its challenges. The porn aspect, though, just doesn’t work due to a combination of poor art and having nothing to do with the actual game, and Tenta Shooter would have been stronger without it.

While Gorogoa is one of this year’s shortest experiences, it’s still one that’s worth checking out, as it turns a relatively simple idea into one of the year’s most compelling and innovative puzzle games. Its eye-popping artwork may draw you in, but it’s the superb brain-teasers where you warp around entire worlds and a narrative that leads to some surreal visuals which will keep you hooked until it ends. You may never look at a mere four comic panels and the storytelling that can potentially occur in them in the same way again.

Okami was a high point of the PS2 era, fusing its action to an incredible art style that was years ahead of its time. It takes a bit to get moving from the opening section, but every new area is packed with things to do with little wasted space to be found and it doesn’t seem to ever stop growing. New areas bring new abilities that open up more options, both for solving puzzles in the world and taking out enemies, and there’s always something happening to pull you a little bit farther along the story. Okami HD is close to being the perfect version of the original game, sharp and crisp and beautiful in a way we could only have dreamed of when it first came out.

Even with a phenomenal world, though, the story feels boilerplate and can be downright frustrating at times, having nonsensical, poorly-established events. The combat can also be aggravating as the AI has a hard time properly comprehending their surroundings and failing to stick to a given role. It doesn’t help there’s a strong RNG element to obtaining Blades, meaning you could be stuck with a bad hand for quite some time. Still, with all of these complaints, it’s hard to put it down. With an absurd amount of content, there’s no denying there’s an addicting and alluring quality to Xenoblade Chronicles 2, which makes it all the more disappointing it turned out the way it did. It had the potential to be one of the best RPGs of the year, but instead it ends up being just above average.

Filled with half-baked ideas, repetitive mission design and the smallest explorable area yet, Curse of Osiris feels as empty and meaningless as The Dark Below. The expansion’s campaign fails to push the overall narrative forward and does little with its interesting setup, the Crucible is a mess until Bungie patches it, and the Infinite Forest feels like it needed more time in the oven. Add in some extremely-questionable business practices and you have the most disappointing expansion to hit the Destiny franchise. Though the expansion is as beautiful as ever, and the gunplay as solid as before, Curse of Osiris fails to provide Destiny 2 or Bungie with a new lease on life.

Reigns: Her Majesty is a terrific sequel that manages to top the original thanks to a few fun additions that add more strategy, a colorful cast that keeps things light-hearted, and an improved and captivating story that makes great use of its premise. And all of this is without having to sacrifice any of the innovative management gameplay that made the original a hit. It’s a quirky and enjoyable game that can easily eat of a good chunk of time before you know it, so long live this particular queen indeed!

While it takes a bit to open up, Sky Force Reloaded kicks in nicely once you’ve got a properly powerful ship and a nice selection of medals to chase after through its wide variety of levels. There’s a lot to chase after with all the pickups, powerups and bonus goodies Sky Force Reloaded throws at you, all attainable by a good combination of patience and skill. The quest to take down Scarlett Mantis and her array of multi-stage bosses is one that will take several hours of happy shooting, getting a bit stronger on each new attempt and setting the screen on fire with the broken shrapnel of downed enemies until they manage to do the same to you.

SpellForce 3 adds another entry on an already impressive list as the year comes to a close.

Dressing up as some of Capcom’s greatest characters and utilizing their weapons and abilities to destroy hundreds of zombies is a thrilling new way to experience the campaign. It’s unfortunate that PS4 players had to wait a whole year to experience this zombie-slaying adventure, but at least they’re getting a big package filled with plenty of comfort and joy.

I really wanted to like Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier. The Apes world is fascinating and a Telltale-esque game set in that universe has all the makings for an amazing experience. While it’s an awesome idea, Last Frontier’s execution just isn’t there. Hopefully Imaginati Studios and 20th Century Fox don’t give up on this idea, though. Video games are iterative and developers learn from their mistakes. While Last Frontier can’t be recommended on its own merits, its concept has potential and shouldn’t be abandoned.

Admittedly, I have a soft spot for Star Ocean: The Last Hope, but this is merely a good remaster of a flawed game. It has solid combat mechanics (that do take a little while to become a little deeper than hammering on the attack button) and Square Enix has done a solid job touching it up to be presentable on modern hardware. It was a long and unique experience when it launched in 2009, but unfortunately the remaster only reminds us of the issues that plagued it. Considering Square Enix launched the remaster at a highly-discounted price, there’s a little more value to The Last Hope, but that doesn’t change the fact that there are some baffling design choices and an infuriatingly cockeyed story tucked in. Even with satisfactory combat, there are just too many good stories out there to recommend this overly-long adventure.

DOOM VFR is an outstanding, but limited, game. The lack of arcade and multiplayer content hurts the overall package, but it does its sole purpose of replicating the campaign in VR incredibly well. The fat has been trimmed from it resulting in an all killer, no filler approach that keeps the tension and action levels at a high point that exceeds even the base campaign from the reboot. Anyone who enjoyed that and wants to play it in VR should do so if they have a Vive or a PlayStation VR.

Steep: Road to the Olympics brings enough new content to the table to make it a worthwhile acquisition for any Steep fan. The Become a Legend mode in particular adds a goal-focused narrative that so many gamers have been conditioned to crave while Japan allows the free form exploration of some nice looking snow-covered countryside. Steep was not on the smoothest course when it was first released, but the numerous tweaks and additional content have made it a more enjoyable experience overall. People who were completely unimpressed by Steep when it was first released will likely not see enough of a change to have this content change their mind, but those who were will find a lot to love in the expansion.

Party Planet succeeds at offering a lot of variety in one package, but the quality of the games wildly varies. While many are good — but also derivative of other games — others simply aren’t worth playing often due to a limited concept. Still, if you’re looking for a product to please not only yourself, but a group of friends either casually or at work, this will do the trick. In fact, it’s better-served as a break room game due to the super-short nature of some of the games. While some of the games support up to four players — each with their own Joy-Con — having them all playable with a single Joy-Con is impressive and ensures that, at worst, folks just have to take turns in a larger setting to enjoy the games.

Ode is a unique mix of platforming, exploration and music. It’s accessible to everyone and can be enjoyed by casual and hardcore gamers alike. As much as it succeeds at providing a unique experience, it also fails to scratch a lot of the common gaming itches. Ode is short enough to not overstay its welcome and simple enough for something to pick up and play when you’re in the mood for something different. It’s not a title most people will want to play all the time, but every now and then it can be the perfect title to break up the repetition of more traditional titles.

Desert Bus VR is deeply tedious but that’s the whole point. It’s not a game meant to be played seriously but rather for a charity event, which changes the rules significantly. The old Sega CD version won’t be going anywhere, but this looks nicer, the ability to have friends along adds a fun social aspect and those can help make for better charity streams and hopefully bigger donations. Plus, if you just want to get a taste of the trip, the price tag of Free is a great incentive to put in a bit of time behind the wheel. Desert Bus VR is a fantastic upgrade to one of the strangest success stories in the history of gaming and one that should help raise a nice chunk of change for a worthy cause.

Tartarus doesn’t quite deliver the experience it’s aiming for. It’s light on story, but manages to make Cooper interesting and easy to identify with. Frustrating stealth segment aside, this can be recommended to those who enjoy feeling computer savvy or are just looking for a different kind of puzzle experience.

The Nintendo Switch deserves more ports from esteemed franchise such as this, and while there are a couple hiccups in the execution, Capcom has done a solid job bringing the two games to the console-handheld hybrid.

The PC version of Injustice 2 is just as great as the console version, but currently comes cheaper on the consoles.

There’s a couple of fun new features implemented in Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, and it’s the definitive edition for newcomers, but overall there’s not enough to make it worth playing through again for veterans.

There’s a couple of fun new features implemented in Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, and it’s the definitive edition for newcomers, but overall there’s not enough to make it worth playing through again for veterans.