While a few issues remain, Lost Judgment improves on its predecessor in almost every way and is a must-play for fans of the Yakuza series.

Most players will finish Tinykin in only a matter of hours. It’s a small game that provides a bit of fun before you move on to something else. There are certainly elements of it taken from other games in the genre, but it brings them together in a way that is new and shows a great deal of imagination, and it really doesn’t do much wrong. So if you’re craving a 3D platformer that doesn’t just feel like all the other ones you’ve played before, you should absolutely check out Tinykin.

Restless Soul looks great and can be genuinely funny, at least in small doses. Its various parts aren’t badly designed, they just don’t fit together well, and its insistence on never letting up on the humor prevents any chance of it connecting with players on anything but a surface level. If this style of humor is up your alley, you could have a fun, if forgettable, weekend with it, but everyone else should stay away.

White Day: A Labyrinth Named School is a somewhat uneven package, arguably held back by how dated the jump scares and obtuse nature of the puzzles feel. That doesn’t mean it’s not worth experiencing, though – if you value an uncomfortable, oppressive atmosphere in your survival horror, along with a haunting and compelling story, then White Day: A Labyrinth Named School is definitely worthy of your time.

Steelrising is yet another feather in Spiders’ cap that clearly shows how far the developer has come. Not content with putting out a steady stream of sprawling Western RPGs, the plucky French studio has made a largely seamless transition to the souls-like genre. Hitbox frustrations aside, Steelrising’s challenging combat and deep world-building feel like the work of a team who have been churning out souls-likes for years, rather than a studio stepping into uncharted territory, and they’ve successfully created a world that I hope we see a lot more of in the coming years.

Gerda: A Flame in Winter is a masterful work of art in both the gaming and storytelling spheres; both aspects enhanced by the other, their impact reduced should they be somehow disconnected from each other. Every moment I spent with it was simultaneously energizing and exhausting, as I was emotionally drained on Gerda’s behalf after each level but couldn’t stop myself from continuing the story, desperate to know what happened next. If you’ve ever wondered what you would do as a civilian in WWII, Gerda: A Flame in Winter gives you the ability to see through the Danish resistance’s eyes.

I’m very ambivalent about Tower of Fantasy, but despite seeing quite a few flaws, I also see a lot of potential here. The attempts to riff on Genshin Impact and Honkai Impact 3rd wind up leaving some of the things it attempts to emulate feeling inferior to where it’s drawing inspiration from. That said, what it tries to do differently is help make a functional, stable platform from which Tower of Fantasy could truly start to grow from, and make something entirely fresh and unique from its competition. The exploration features, the Relic system, and even the weapon types are willing to come together and make something fun and unique, but it’s held back by a mostly lackluster world, bad story writing, annoying upgrade systems, and currency overload. I’d say go in strictly on Free-to-Play ideals, temper your expectations and focus on the things it does differently, and you’ll probably find something to like.

Overall, Video Game Fables is a solid RPG experience, and is even more impressive when you consider that it was made by just one person. It’s quirky, it’s cute, it’s addicting, and it never takes itself seriously. Even if you’re burnt out on turn-based RPGs, I think there’s still a lot to enjoy here. While not a perfect game, it’s an undeniably enjoyable and delightful one.

I’m in awe of Ooblets; it managed to take several distinct and highly developed mechanics and make sure each one was deeply complex instead of a cheap afterthought. The farming portion satisfies, the card-based, turn-based dance battles are addicting, and the task management system keeps players busy, busy, busy. It’s unfortunate that progress still feels like it’s moving at a snail’s pace, but at least there are cute lil ooblets to show for it. If all you want to do is dance (and farm, and forage, and cook, and shop, and…), then Ooblets challenges you to take control of your formerly toot life and make it an awesome one.

Cursed to Golf is a brilliant little golf game. Its smart design encourages creativity, and its roguelike elements, while harsh, aren’t brutal enough to derail the experience. It’s astonishing how well the individual parts from different genres mix into a cohesive whole—or should I say “hole”? More than anything, though, it’s just fun. That’s all there is to it: it’s just a fun game that deserves your attention.

I’m not sure I’ve ever related more to a character in a video game than I do to Kay. Our experiences aren’t identical, but her pain is mine, or at least it’s close enough that I can feel it. Norco isn’t able to fully give her the healing she’ll always want but never fully achieve, but its understanding of pain, loss, and the need to keep moving are a remarkable achievement which helped me process some of my own feelings as well. Any fan of adventure games should absolutely check it out.

Even days after seeing the credits roll, I can’t quit IMMORTALITY. I want to understand more, dig deeper, and find more clips. There’s so much to see here and so many mysteries hidden inside this game, seemingly just one moment of intuition away. I enjoyed Sam Barlow’s past work, particularly Her Story, but I was unprepared for the depth of feeling I found within IMMORTALITY. What he and his team have created is nothing short of a masterpiece.

Shin-chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation -The Endless Seven-Day Journey- is an easy recommendation to any fan of Shin Chan, but also to those who love slice of life comfort games. You don’t need to be familiar with the franchise to enjoy what’s on offer, but those who are will absolutely adore this outlandish adventure featuring the beloved and crude kindergartener. If you’re ready to spend your summer vacation catching bugs, fighting dinosaurs, and taking in the beautiful sights this quaint Kyushu village has to offer, Shin-chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation -The Endless Seven-Day Journey- is just a train ride away.

Honestly, even though I wasn’t really familiar with Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid before playing Burst Forth!!, I might be a fan now. This is a solid Shmup with good graphics, compelling gameplay, and a shocking amount of replayability. If you enjoy the series or the genre, I’d say this is well worth the price of admission. In the meantime, I might start looking into this quirky little anime.

Unless you’re a well-meaning-yet-misguided parent from the 80s who magically found themselves transported to the year 2022 (in which case there are other things I would be worrying about), you really have zero reason not to play this game. Cult of the Lamb is the evil-worshipping, cult-building, god-slaying video game with a perfect creepy-cute aesthetic that I never knew that I wanted—and I’m so incredibly glad that it exists.

Arcade Paradise is a fantastic management sim for those who love the genre. It may be asking a lot of players to prioritize other people’s laundry over games upfront, but the payoff is a literal heaven for those who have always wished to build their own arcade and play every game within it for free. If you enjoy a good management sim and love the idea of hopping from game to game to game as a major mechanic, Arcade Paradise is worth its weight in quarters.

The developers of We Are OFK don’t even pretend to care about making a traditional video game. It’s clear that instead, the entire goal here was to tell a story, and that’s incredibly well done. Not perfectly so. I don’t love where We Are OFK leaves one of their characters in particular, and the ending feels rushed. After spending hours with these four characters, setting up conflict, it feels like a lot of things get pushed aside to get to where the game needs them to end up, almost like the development team ran out of time. With deep character writing, fantastic voice acting, and killer visuals, though, I’d recommend We Are OFK to anyone who is okay with this being a story first, a vehicle for releasing music second, and barely a game at all.

If you’re expecting Destroy All Humans 2! – Reprobed to be more of a remaster of the original game than a remake, you’ll likely be happy with the results. The game looks great and feels extremely faithful to the time it was released. Those with nostalgia for the original will get what they need out of it. After finally spending some time with it, though, I can say confidently that this was only ever an okay game, featuring the same lack of content and empty areas that open-world games of that era were known for. Today's open-world games are better at creating an overall experience worth your time.

At the end of my hauntingly simple mission, I really wanted to walk out liking SENSEs: Midnightmore than I did. There’s a great aesthetic, cool ideas, and some real potential with the fixed camera angles, but it’s all buried by bad stealth mechanics, a puddle-deep story, and horror disarming bugs and hiccups.

South of the Circle definitely looks and feels like it was made by a BAFTA-winning team, which means that players should know they’re walking into an artistic endeavor instead of an action-packed adventure. Sure, there’s action, and there’s adventure, but it’s more of a passive movie than an active experience. As long as you set your expectations accordingly, South of the Circle will thrill (and chill!) anyone looking for a unique setting and exciting story.

Super Bullet Break uses its difficulty and gacha mechanics to truly great effect, elevating what would otherwise be a fairly standard deck builder, into something that is fiendishly addictive and easy to dump hours into. Sure, the early game can be brutally difficult, and some may find that off-putting, but stick around past those early stages, and Super Bullet Break’s moreish gacha systems will almost certainly suck you in, due to the way in which the randomized systems bring the creative options for deck building to the forefront.

Thymesia embodies the ever-rising popularity of the Soulslike genre incredibly well. As an indie Soulslike, it knows it can’t necessarily be as big and as bold as its source material, but it also doesn’t want to simply be written off as a sub-par copy of something that’s already been done. And the end result is something kinda-sorta in-between of those two things. I can appreciate Thymesia for what it does well—namely, its hauntingly beautiful visuals and fine-tuned combat basics—but its more creative endeavors felt more like the game trying to be different just for the sake of being different. I’m not sure that Thymesia is going to be at the forefront of its given genre, but it’s still a pestilence-ridden egg worth cracking open for those hungry for some new Soulslike action.

When everything comes together, Rollerdrome feels incredible, but too often, things get buried under the weight of its many systems. While even at its worst, there is definitely fun to be had here, this feels like an incredible concept for a game where the developers needed to spend a little more time workshopping what aspects of it were really needed. It’s still a good game, though, and the foundation is in place for a sequel to be truly incredible.

What the Saints Row reboot truly reminds us is that -- whatever situation they may find themselves in -- the Saints do it for each other. 2022's Saints Row is less about reeling it in and more about coming home. And in the house that Santo Ileso's Saints built, "damn, it feels good to be a gangster.

While it doesn’t end as well as it starts, that doesn’t ultimately change how much I love Xenoblade Chronicles 3. With fantastic characters, deep combat, and an enormous world to explore, it was more than worth pushing through those final hours to see the ending to one of my favorite RPGs in years. Monolith Soft have the Xenoblade series back on the right path, and I can’t wait to see where they go next. I just hope next time they have the confidence to end their game when it’s ready to end.

Midnight Fight Express has a lot of personality and can be fun for a bit, but when a game is built almost entirely around combat, you need that combat to feel great, and here it just feels okay. Attempts to provide some variety are noble, but meet with mixed success despite some really cool set pieces. A great soundtrack kept me going until the end, but those wanting an irreverent brawler aren’t lacking choices in recent years, and Midnight Fight Express never fully manages to stand out from the crowd.

Soul Hackers 2 made some interesting decisions—some of which I don’t totally agree with. But, even with whatever grievances I might have, I can’t deny that the game was ultimately both incredibly fun and well put-together. Devil Summoner might not carry the same weight as other spinoff series within the MegaTen universe, but Soul Hackers 2 is one heck of a ride from start to finish.

I had an absolute blast with GigaBash. Despite this, solo players need not apply. There just isn’t enough content here to justify the investment. Still, that’s not who GigaBash was made for and for the target audience, Passion Republic Games have delivered. If you regularly have friends to play with, there are few games released this year I would say are more worthy of your time and money.