With the addition of the Champions League license, FIFA 19 is able to realistically portray the European soccer experience. Introduction scenes and team anthems will satisfy soccer fans without a doubt. Alex Hunter’s story also gets a conclusion in The Journey’s third season, and while it may be a classic success story, the dilemmas you have to face as Alex allow you to feel like you’re living the life of an actual soccer player.

Orthodox yet sophisticated action, a wacky art style, a crazy score and events that make great use of these characteristics make Ape Out a thrilling experience throughout.

Katana Zero offers stunning visuals and striking effects, but both its gameplay and story feel incomplete. Including its atmosphere, Katana Zero has a lot to offer, which makes it feel all the more like a wasted opportunity in its current state.

Though its mechanics are not always well explained, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 offers a timeless tale of adventure and an incredibly deep battle system.

Just like Ginga Force and Eschatos, Natsuki Chronicles is a side-scrolling shmup true to the DNA of developer Qute. While it caters towards a wide audience ranging from newcomers to veterans of the genre, the balance between the story-heavy chronicle mode and the more traditional arcade mode isn’t great. There’s some great level design to enjoy here, but Natsuki Chronicles fails to exceed the developer’s previous titles.

As a new entry in the Pokémon series, Pokémon Legends Arceus might deserve a 9, but if you were to think of it as a new RPG, a 7 might sound more fair. Roaming around in a large world and catching Pokémon in real-time itself is a blast, but the battle system is a bit too old-school for its own good, and the story never reaches its full potential. That said, it cannot be denied that Game Freak has finally created a new type of experience for this long running series.

Dragon Quest VII Reimagined reconstructs the original’s sprawling narrative with a far brisker, more accessible pace. That approach may well represent the optimal solution for guiding modern players through such an enormous adventure, yet it comes at a cost. In streamlining the experience, the game sacrifices some of the strategic depth expected of an RPG, as well as the literary weight of the original’s meditation on the limits of salvation. It is charming and eminently approachable, but the sharp edges that once lingered in the heart have been smoothed away—resulting in a remake that feels exemplary, yet somewhat too well-behaved for its own good.

The Forza series is famous for its engine sounds, which have reached new heights for Forza Motorsport. The graphics are outstandingly beautiful, especially in their rendering of the air. The racing is highly enjoyable, and the powerful assistance makes it more playable with a normal controller. When played with a racing wheel controller, the force feedback is more accurate than before, making Forza Motorsport a simulator that is also fun to play. There is not much to do beyond racing, and if you want to modify your car things can get a little bit grindy, but Forza Motorsport does offer you the chance to learn more about cars.

The Breaking Point narrative mode allows the player to join races while feeling like they’re the lead in a Hollywood movie. That being said, the mode’s story is linear and your racing efforts don’t necessarily have an effect on its scenario. While the career mode is as well made as always, if you’ve played the series before, there’s just not enough to make the experience feel fresh again.

While Lost Judgment’s many systems might not look like much separately, together they succeed in creating a varied experience like no other. With the new setting of a Japanese high school and a story about bullying, the game depicts modern Japanese society in an exaggerated way similar to the Yakuza series while feeling fresh at the same time. However, shallow yet frequent battles and a story that starts to drag in the second half exhaust the player way more than necessary.

The combination between deck-building and speedy real-time action make One Step From Eden a revolutionary title. While difficult and lacking in story, it’s definitely a game anyone should try.

While using a similar format as 2012’s Journey, developer Thatgamecompany manages to deliver an experience that feels genuinely new by implementing more communication mechanics and adding more diversity in its gameplay. At launch, the more complex package does make Sky feel less refined and not as pure as Journey, but we are excited to see how this online experience evolves from here.

Eastward’s action and puzzles play things a bit too much by the book, the plot and storytelling don’t really come together, and the dialogue lacks wit. But even with so many negative aspects, the top-notch pixel art is true craftsmanship. These wonderful graphics were enough for me to push through, and perhaps you will too.

Anyone can pick this up and be moved. Florence is universal art.

The Outer Worlds is an RPG with an incredible amount of choices to make, to the extent that it can sometimes feel more like an adventure game. While it becomes more linear near the end, there are few games that give the player this much freedom of choice.

RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army is not a remaster that relies solely on nostalgia. With fully voiced storytelling and refreshed graphics, the sense of immersion has been deepened, and the Imperial Capital — where modernization and superstition, science and the occult intertwine — feels more alive. Battles have been refined into a polished action experience through a variety of new elements, while the distinctive resource management system feels innovative even today. The one shortcoming lies in the simplicity of ally demon AI, which at times clashes with the freedom of character development. Even so, this work has successfully transformed from an eccentric title into an epic that can truly reach a wide audience.

Cult of the Lamb is a cute yet dark and grotesque experience. The gameplay loop of managing a dark cult and exploring dungeons is quite addictive. However, in the latter half of the game conditions become more favorable for the player, to the extent that much of the game’s tension is lost.

Bad Japanese localization prevents the player from getting invested in the story, but both in gameplay and story Banner Saga 3 is a worthy conclusion to an epic trilogy.

From stage design to game systems, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a dream package for Castlevania fans, yet at the same time manages to be interesting for newcomers as well. While story-wise things can sometimes get a little bit too familiar, the new protagonist does add a fresh touch to the formula.

A fresh new gameplay experience with breathtaking photorealistic yet surreal visuals, Death Stranding provides an experience that goes beyond the usual boundaries of videogames. Future developers may draw influence from the game’s redefined concept of terrain and its traversal.

The mysterious atmosphere that Amanita Design is known for is present in Creaks, but it never reaches the heights of the developer’s previous works. In particular, the puzzle gameplay feels old and pulls the player out of the experience. The only part where it feels like Amanita Design reaches its true potential is not the main game, but the collectable paintings.

With eFootball in its title, this year’s PES comes with visual enhancements that make it even more realistic, while keeping the exhilarating soccer gameplay intact. The new finesse dribble mechanic allows the player to make slight adjustments with the right analog stick, which feels like you are directly in control. With legendary coaches and derby match scenarios, Master League is now more addictive than ever before.

NINJA GAIDEN 4 delivers an astonishing “high-risk, ultra-return” style of action. It goes far beyond simple parries or evasions — its system allows players to even toy with bosses by taking calculated risks, resulting in an incredibly satisfying gameplay experience. It truly opens up new possibilities for 3D action games and will undoubtedly stand as a significant milestone in the genre’s history. Whether everyone fully understands that right now, however, is another matter.

This may be an expansion for a game that is essentially a multiplayer experience, but the solo campaign is the real attraction in Octo Expansion. If you couldn’t get into the multiplayer, give this a try.

This 8-bit spin-off of Koji Igarashi’s Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is at the same time a nostalgic linear sidescroller and a modern game that manages to be accessible to new players.

Wargroove might not surprise, but it does a good job in reviving and refreshing a classic genre. If you’re curious about strategy games, this one has all the answers.

Sakuna’s deep rice-farming experience is truly unique. Making perfect rice is difficult at first, but you will become attached to the rice plants you have been cultivating over the in-game years. With intuitive controls, the side-scrolling action and dungeon exploration section is an enthralling experience as well. Sakuna is great at connecting these two different styles of gameplay, creating a well-balanced game with lots of variety all round.

If you look at Mega Man 11 as a standalone experience, it’s a fun game. The Double Gear system indeed feels fresh, but essentially, it’s still that same Mega Man you’ve already experienced in countless other iterations.