Yes, Octopath Traveler 0 can feel a bit bloated at times, but it’s also the best thematic use of the series to date of the “anthology” style of storytelling, all held together by deliciously dark villains and an uplifting core message. More than anything, it’s astounding how ambitious this game is in terms of transforming a mobile experience into a single-player RPG — on a level that we’ve quite honestly never seen in video games before. It’s experimental and messy in many ways, but so much more compelling because of that exact reason...In a world where mobile games end service and ultimately disappear from history, I genuinely hope this is a blueprint both Square Enix and others can continue to use. But in the meantime, I can at least say Octopath is on the right track.

Ultimately, much of Metroid Prime 4 feels like a failed experiment. As great as it is to explore the lightning-struck Volt Forge or pick through the haunted remains of the Ice Belt facility, the game’s standout moments are buried in drudgery.

There’s something for everyone here. For Marvel fans, it's chock-full of crowd-pleasing Easter eggs and fan service. For nostalgic arcade junkies, it's an absolute blast to play through, and it looks and sounds damn good the entire time. Marvel Comics Invasion is the definitive Marvel beat ‘em up, and one that will be well worth revisiting as many times as we did its arcade forebearers 30 years ago.

Kirby Air Riders is absolutely not going to be a game for everyone, and it doesn’t want to be. And it won’t be a constant in your life either. But like that weird uncle and his larger-than-life stories, it’s probably an experience you’ll remember fondly now and again. And in a world where video games are obsessed with occupying your time and stringing you along for weeks, months, even years — that’s undeniably refreshing.

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a game that manages to capture the very feeling of the word ‘resilience’ quite the same way. And that applies to even the gameplay experience of methodically learning the systems and improving. I can easily see Lumines Arise being one of those yearly games for me, the select few I play through as a kind of comfort pick. And I guarantee you’ll find your own something out of it too – even if I can’t say exactly what that’ll be.

It’s almost impossible to find copies of many Tales games today, and Bandai could’ve simply ported the game to modern platforms and been done with it. But Tales of Xillia Remastered is the best version it can be, a hidden gem polished to a sheen. RPG fans shouldn’t miss it.

I might hesitate to call Age of Imprisonment an “essential” Switch 2 game, but it’s a crucial piece of giving the system a strongly varied first-year lineup. And, more than anything, it makes me excited to see the future of Koei Tecmo and Nintendo’s budding relationship.

This remake is one for the ages, and that’s whether you remember playing Dragon Warrior 2 on a little CRT television three decades ago or whether you’ve never even touched the series in your life. And there are decades of games and history to dive into if you can’t get enough.

The sequel utterly revels in the absurdity of its satire on capitalism, government, authoritarianism, and individuality – even if it takes a bit longer to get situated than the first game.

Overall, it feels like Z-A has made a definitive statement about what the “Legends” games are able to aspire to – a way for Pokémon to get weird and experimental alongside the main games. Looking back, that’s the most compelling part about Z-A: the promise it holds for the series’ future and the steps it takes to do something different. So even if Z-A isn’t everything I wanted it to be, it’s a world I dearly enjoyed getting to live in.

Battlefield 6 is a new high point for the franchise, and the beginning of an overdue journey towards making things right.

I played Hades 2 and Absolum back-to-back, and Absolum feels like the perfect chaser.

Easily one of the most jaw-droppingly gorgeous games I’ve ever played in my life, Ghost of Yotei is a sequel that makes a strong first impression, and makes a handful of meaningful improvements over its predecessor. But as a sequel, it lacks a bit of the novelty that Ghost of Tsushima had, and while many elements of Yotei are objectively stronger, just a bit of its shine wears off after a few dozen hours of formulaic open world design.

There’s still a lot to love about Consume Me, up to a point. Its funny, poignant story feels as original as it does relatable, supported by its wonderfully playful art. As an example of how mechanics can evoke emotions and draw players deeper into a story, it’s nearly unrivaled. But the fact that failure is never really an option is at odds with the story it’s trying to tell, and ultimately, the abrupt conclusion to that story undercuts the very points it tries to make. Consume Me is utterly original and in many ways feels like a genuine step forward for personal narratives in games, but while it is worth experiencing on those grounds, it sputters out just shy of being something incredible.

Immortal family drama is at the heart of Hades II, just as it was its 2020 predecessor. This time, though, the stakes are higher, the cast is larger, and the action is more demanding, mostly for the better.

It’s a game that manages to honor the series’ legacy, while simultaneously pushing it in a new direction, and it might just be the best Silent Hill to date.

Borderlands 4 rises above it all by committing fully to the bit. It serves up exactly what the fans wanted, exactly what it would be like to play as Cate Blanchett for one sixty hour mission, blowing up aliens and weirdos alike, ascending and descending from spacecraft.

Cronos is a strong reminder of how important the survival element of the genre can be, and how so many games have seemingly lost that half. I absolutely adore the decrepit little world that Bloober has built here, and just wish the game could have stuck the landing better in support of it. Cronos comes within a razor’s edge of being a new horror classic, but even with its missteps, its world and panic-inducing combat is something well worth experiencing. A snafu in the review process meant I had access to the wrong build of the game for a while, but it’s proof of how much I enjoyed Cronos that I was willing to play through it another whole time in the review process...More than anything, it feels like post-Silent Hill 2 Bloober Team has really found its footing. Cronos is absolutely a step in the right direction, and I can’t wait to see what the studio does next to keep on building from here.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Star-Crossed World may not transform what was already in the game, but it never needed to. Three years after its release, Kirby and the Forgotten Land is still an excellent platformer, made just a bit better by the new edition’s visual improvements. But the new levels added in Star-Crossed World are the real reason to pay attention to the new release, as some of the best games of an already great game. Between the Star-Crossed World update and the upcoming Kirby Air Riders, this is as good a time as there’s ever been to pay attention to Nintendo’s strangest mascot, and a good sign that the Kirby series has still more to offer.

Every element of Shinobi works in concert to make for a relentlessly gripping experience, and I think it’s legitimately fascinating how the game takes elements from so many different places to make something new. It’s like if you took Metroid, Ninja Gaiden, Hollowknight, and Street Fighter and threw them all into a blender, but the mixture actually turns out delicious...It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a Shinobi game, but by all accounts, this feels like it could be the start of a new franchise for Sega. That mix of platforming and fighting elements is intoxicating, and it feels like it’d be an actual crime to not see more of it.

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is a game in an odd place. I get the reverence to the original, especially with series creator Hideo Kojima no longer involved, and the bad blood that ensued between him and Konami. I get the hesitancy to retouch a game considered as one of the greatest ever made. But then, I question what the point of remaking Snake Eater is at all, if you’re going to try and keep everything exactly the same.

Drag x Drive feels like its developers managed to create a fun and innovative basketball experience using the Switch 2’s coolest new feature, then stopped short of finishing the game. It can be a blast, but the lack of even the most basic single-player modes is sorely felt.

Ninja Gaiden Ragebound is one of those games you finish and it feels like it’s gone by in the blink of an eye. While there can be some frustration in difficulty spikes, by and large it feels like a perfectly-paced experience that manages to find that sweet spot: not too short, but not too long. But nearly every minute of its six-ish hours is sublime...I can see myself going back to Ragebound for years to come — popping in for a replay every now and again, because it simply feels that good to play. While Ninja Gaiden 4 is still on the way, Ragebound makes a bold statement that the series side scrolling legacy still holds plenty of promise. Ninja Gaiden is back, and hopefully it’s here to stay.

Every time I’d get to a new layer, I’d immediately ignore the story objective and spend a half dozen hours just smashing things around like a toddler in a sandbox.

There’s untold satisfaction found in fine-tuning your economy and constructing the perfect siege defense — seeing the whole thing basically run itself at a certain point.

As an old school fan who remembers these originals so fondly, it pains me to say this isn’t the perfect, definitive remaster I’ve been praying for since 2020.

Death Stranding 2: On The Beach may not be for everyone. But if it is for you, it's one of the most enjoyable games of 2025, a must-see follow-up that is more cohesive, refined, and fully developed than the first.

The follow-up to Mario Kart 8 was always going to have a tough time trying to fill its predecessor's shoes. But Mario Kart World does just enough to establish itself as its own distinct and still fun entry in the series. From its joyous presentation to the new depth of its accessible racing, Mario Kart World succeeds in living up to the Mario Kart name despite remaining firmly in the shadow of what came before it.