It would have been easy for Berserk Boy to be another disappointing modern platformer trying to relive the classics. Instead, indie developer Zu Ehtisham has given us an exceptional adventure full of heart, with complex and enjoyable platforming, fast-paced combat, and lots of replay value. While there are some very minor areas I would have appreciated refinement, this was ultimately an outstanding experience that shouldn't be missed.

The Thaumaturge is a thought-provoking and haunting RPG that expertly combines gameplay and narrative, leading to one of the most unique RPG experiences you’re likely to play this year. Its stunning setting and choice-driven narrative will undoubtedly stick with me for a long time as I reflect on the tough decisions I made with Wiktor as he comes to terms with this dark, fantasy-filled version of Warsaw. The combat arguably takes too long to reveal its riches, but once that initial barrier is overcome, it offers the same level of depth and choice present in other aspects of The Thaumaturge.

WWE2K24 is a worthy addition to this long-running sports entertainment franchise. The developers have done a good job of listening to the player's woes and tweaking the formula to make something not revolutionary, but meticulously refined. There’s a vast amount of single-player grappling goodness here to enjoy, and that’s even before you get to the online modes and the inevitably bountiful community creations to come. WWE2K24 doesn’t quite finish the story but still adds a few enjoyable new chapters.

Inkulinati manages to blend style and substance, creating a game that is mechanically simple yet has a ton of strategic depth for players to discover. If you’re a fan of board games, strategy games, or even just the art style, I’d recommend checking this one out. Who knows, you might be the next Inkulinati Master.

Normally, games in a state like this leave me middled more than anything, but Nous Wave Studio’s first attempt at a premium, stand-alone JRPG in a gacha-saturated market, while a bold move, was a fruitful one. While the characters definitely need more seasoning and flavor, I especially would like to see the worldbuilding done a bit more elegantly than just dropping hot loads of info shovelfuls at a time. Yet, for all the problems I had with the worldbuilding and characters, the combat and general gameplay can carry Ex Astris alone. The visuals are stunning for a mobile game, the mechanics and systems baked in are so much fun, and the overall aesthetic designs of the world of Allindo are vibrant and unique. While off to a slightly rough start, I feel confident in saying that Nous Wave Studio’s first release has a lot going for it that makes it worth experiencing for fans of the anime RPG genre.

Deathwish Enforcers Special Edition is a gloriously gritty tribute to Sunset Riders and classic vigilante cinema. If you’re a fan of retro gaming or just love a good run-and-gun, you owe it to yourself to give it a shot. It’s a nostalgic blast to the past that’s great solo and downright irresistible if you’re able to wrangle up a posse of four like-minded vigilantes to paint the town red.

Tomb Raider I-III Remastered Starring Lara Croft takes a franchise that was flawed even in the 90s and does nothing interesting to update it. The new graphics are nice when they aren’t ruining the atmosphere of certain areas, but the modern controls somehow make these games a worse experience. There are plenty of great adventures out there starring Lara Croft. Her last trilogy was excellent, and even the 360-era titles, starting with Tomb Raider Legend, largely hold up. These original releases, though, have simply been eclipsed by far too many games at this point and are only really worth returning to if your nostalgia demands one more trip into these tombs.

As a fan of the rogue-like and monster catcher genres, Dicefolk is a treat. But while I love the design and enjoy the overall gameplay, the challenge could desperately use some retuning. But if you’re a glutton for punishment and don’t mind a ton of grinding, in that case, I can wholeheartedly recommend this challenging hybrid.

Anomaly Agent won’t leave you pondering its vast world or lore. Instead, it delivers a focused, high-octane blast of retro-infused action. The combat’s frenetic energy, the charm of its pixel art, and the genuinely funny moments of absurdity made it a blast to play from start to finish. While I wouldn’t call it a masterpiece, those craving a quick hit of adrenaline-fueled, laugh-out-loud thrills will find Anomaly Agent a worthwhile escape. And hey, sometimes a little mindless, time-bending absurdity is exactly what you need.

Despite the clear effort that went into build diversity and satisfying naval combat, Skull and Bones’s core gameplay loops simply aren’t enough to stop this ship from sinking. Mindless grinds, tedious busywork, and a complete lack of any meaningful gameplay hooks outside of the core combat result in an experience that feels incomplete despite the plethora of Ubisoft checklists that there is to work through in your time at sea. If you’re someone who enjoys tinkering with builds and doesn’t mind grinding for materials in a constant pursuit of that next upgrade for hours on end, then you may find something to like here. Otherwise, this is a voyage into tedium-induced insanity that you can definitely afford to miss.

It’s not often we see a Game of the Year contender so early in the year, but here we are. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is an unforgettable follow-up to one of the finest remakes ever produced. Deftly building upon the rock-solid foundation of its predecessor, it evolves the combat and progression systems in subtle yet exciting ways while setting you loose in a massive world that you’ll want to explore to the fullest. With countless activities to keep you busy and a gripping story that will leave both Final Fantasy VII veterans and newcomers alike on the edge of their seats, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is an unmissable adventure.

I love horror games. I’m also a fairly forgiving guy when it comes to slip-ups. But there are times when you just have to call out a bad game for being a bad game. There’s a between a lovingly crafted game with a few hiccups here and there and a game that hasn’t had proper time and effort put into it. And, between its lackluster landscape and myriad bugs, Soviet Project falls firmly into the latter category.

Fixeight may not be as good as its predecessor, but it’s still a fun run-and-gun game in its own right. The main action still feels fantastic, and some of the boss battles are truly thrilling. If Toaplan had focused on what worked best here, we might have even gotten a must-play title. Instead, Fixeight is worth checking out for players who enjoyed Out Zone or are picking up these games in a bundle.

In some ways, Batsugun is a victim of its own success. It’s still an excellent shmup, but it stands out slightly less than it did upon release simply because so many of its best ideas have been stolen by so many other games over the last 31 years. Despite that, fans of the genre will find a game that absolutely holds up and is a blast to play even today.

Though I enjoyed the comedy and references in Dungeons & Doomknights, I feel its audience is limited by how inconsistently fun the experience actually is. Not only is it mechanically rough at many times, but the combat itself just doesn’t satisfy. Once I realized all this, I admittedly soured over the adventure. That said, if you’re a hardcore fan of new examples of classic games, you’ll probably find something to justify checking it out.

Still, despite a number of parts of Islands of Insight not connecting with me fully, what always did was the puzzles themselves. They’re so consistently engaging that I found myself ignoring the parts of the game that I didn’t love so I could keep engaging with them. Islands of Insight is a great game to jump into for ten minutes just to knock a few puzzles out before going about your day or to get lost in for hours as you try to solve every match 3 puzzle you can find.

Under Night In-Birth II is a fantastic fighting game experience when you focus solely on the core mechanics and how enjoyable it is to immerse yourself in the depths of its more intricate systems. Examining the package as a whole presents it as one that is perhaps a bit lacking on the content side, with there being a real absence of meaningful offline single-player modes to dive into, which in turn leads to a world that’s difficult to comprehend if you’re coming to this with no prior knowledge of the series. That being said, if you’re a fighting game purist who just wants a new fighting game to master that will offer hours upon hours of fun as you master its many interlocking systems, or you want something simple enough that you can enjoy a few casual rounds with friends here and there, then Under Night In-Birth II fits the bill almost perfectly.

Developer Ironwood Studios’ first go at the rogue-like genre has not only come out fresh as it gets but also put such a unique spin on a classic crafting/survival formula that I sincerely hope the term “road-lites” takes off. Hardly a pothole was hit riding along the anomalous, unstable ridgelines, with a perfectly-tuned balance of cautious material gathering, intense and atmospheric car treks, and wild sci-fi worldbuilding. I was absolutely enamored by the “car”-acterization of the humble station wagon that’s your mobile base, with the Quirk system being a highlight of the various gameplay mechanics that made Pacific Drive’s number one character stand out, just as it should.

I had an absolute blast playing GUNVOLT RECORDS Cychronicle for this review. Not only does it feature fantastic artwork and a variety of pumping tunes to enjoy, but there’s plenty of challenge for all gamers. Plus, if I know Inti Creates, they’ll find a way to totally outdo themselves in any future musical adventures. So, if you love the Gunvolt series and want a refreshing change of pace, this is absolutely the game for you.

While it could use more enemy variety and some areas that are more open, Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is a highly engaging action RPG featuring a love story I wanted to see through to its haunting conclusion. There are a lot of RPGs releasing in the first couple of months of this year, and with many of them being higher profile, it would be easy to overlook Banishers, but I hope players don’t do so. This is the exact sort of title we need studios to invest in more often.

More than anything, I feel amazing Metroidvanias need to strike a great balance between combat and exploration, where everything you accomplish is constantly bringing you one step closer to reaching the end of the game. I don’t feel that’s the case in Ultros. The rewind aspect of the game, combined with constantly losing platforming abilities and combat upgrades, makes the entire experience a painful slog. So even though I respect the ambition and creativity on display, ultimately, that’s not enough to elevate this game beyond its peers.

While the Switch may not be the best place to play The Outer Wilds, it still offers an experience absolutely filled with wonder on Nintendo’s platform. Switch owners who still haven’t had a chance to explore its mysteries now have one less excuse not to do so.

Tiger-Heli is a perfectly fine shooter. It controls well and has a solid enough loop. While it might have been revolutionary and offered something truly new back in 1985 though, that’s simply not the case in 2024. It’s short and doesn’t do anything that a million games in the genre haven’t done better in the years since. This is the sort of game that’s great to see included in a collection, so its historical impact isn’t forgotten, but it is hard to justify as a solo release. You can buy the latest set of Toaplan releases in a bundle, and if you do, give Tiger-Heli at least a quick play, if only for a glimpse of how far the genre has come from even a solid game of its era. As a standalone release, though, there are simply far better options.

While most of Vimana is fine, the minor issues that are here do get old as you play more of the game, and there’s little about it that stands out from a million other games in the genre. The few somewhat unique aspects at play here feel entirely inessential. It leads to a game that is perfectly playable and fairly enjoyable at times but which is hard to recommend except perhaps to shmup novices who want a solid-looking game with a killer soundtrack that feels possible for them to beat or to genre completionists who want to check out a game from a popular developer in the genre which is finally able to be played at home.

Had more care been given to crafting a more handcrafted campaign that relied less on repetitive busywork and more on the cinematic set-pieces that we know the looter shooter genre is capable of when done right, then this may have been a different story, and the admittedly enjoyable combat would have had the chance to shine more had the activities surrounding it been remotely enjoyable or creative. As it stands, though, this is one of the worst campaigns ever to grace a videogame, never mind a live service, with an endgame that does the unforgivable and asks you to continue grinding out the same content that you’ve just slogged through.

Tekken 8 offers a ton of ways to fight whether you want to head online or you’re looking for a fully featured single-player experience. A lot of them are just okay, but when you have this much variety, something is bound to stick, and even when some of its modes weren’t blowing me away, the fantastic combat at the center of this experience did. This isn’t a massive evolution for the Tekken series, but fans looking for their new fix will get what they want, while new players will find perhaps the most accessible Tekken yet.

Granblue Fantasy: Relink is a triumph and one of the most mechanically deep and rewarding action-RPGs in recent memory. It’s easy to pick up, yet difficult to master combat feels great in motion, and it’s all in service of a world and cast of characters that are more than worthy of your time and attention. Between the substantial single-player portion and the incredibly generous multiplayer offering, there’s a wealth of content on offer for those wanting to really invest and dig into the game’s many progression systems. If you’ve ever found yourself wondering what the result would be if Tails of Arise and Monster Hunter had a baby, Granblue Fantasy: Relink is the answer, and it’s glorious.

Persona 3 Reload adds a ton of updates that make it look and play better than ever, ensuring this is the best version of the game, even if certain fans will miss a few additions from previous re-releases that weren’t included here. It doesn’t, however, fix some of the core issues with the original game, such as a dungeon that is rarely exciting to explore, too many social links that are frustrating to complete, and poor balance between its available time periods. Fans of the series will still have a blast revisiting it, and those checking it out for the first time will find a lot of the same things they loved in the series’ later entries. At the end of the day, though, the reason Persona 3 has never been quite as popular as the two games that came after it isn’t due to it coming out at the wrong time; It’s because it just isn’t as good as they are.