With Metroid Dread, Mercury Steam brings a satisfying conclusion to 35 years of history. It's a particularly solid metroidvania, which will make you thrill at every revelation and sweat at every boss fight, while distilling a level-design mastered like never before. However, its main and only innovation, embodied by the E.M.M.I., prevents the title from reaching the pantheon of the genre, which is already full of quality titles: more frustrating than stressful, the mechanics and areas related to the robots of the galactic federation are far from convincing us.

Far Cry 6 is not a bad game, far from it. We have to admit that the scenery of the island of Yara is exotic and the story around Antón Castillo is rather interesting. However, the recipe is starting to run out of steam. The few new features are not enough to make up for a huge but cruelly empty map. As for the scenario, it quickly becomes a bit stale, with quests following one another without really managing to keep us in suspense. Nevertheless, if you want to dive into the heart of the guerrilla war with a friend, and not Chorizo, note that the game becomes much more fun with two players.

Rogue Lords will not suit everyone, that's for sure. Very (too?) difficult at times and what you will get during each of your runs, this game will at least have the merit of making you feel a strong sense of accomplishment at each boss you defeat. On our side, as rogue-lite fans, we were clearly won over. The art direction is a bit of a head-turner, like Darkest Dungeon for example, and should appeal to the same type of players.

TOEM is an exquisite expedition into a minimalist black and white world without being simplistic. With a ton of objects to collect and puzzles to solve with your camera, the small independent game offers a variety of charming activities, all in a relaxing atmosphere. Far too short, we would have liked to spend more time on it.

Ni No Kuni 2 offers a nice addictive adventure with varied and original features. However, its simplicity and its little scenario make it a nice title without being a monumental slap in the genre. Without a doubt, the porting to the Switch is successful and offers a portable version that is pleasant to take everywhere.

Two years later, the same assessment can be made for Phoenix Point, even if it is an interesting tactical game with potential, it is still not finished. Some of the bugs have been fixed, and the content has been greatly enriched by the DLC included in this edition, but shortcuts have been taken, which spoiled their potential, and no effort has been made to really integrate them into the whole. Balancing is still an issue, and progression can become frustrating if you increase the difficulty. As for the console port, it's satisfactory in terms of controller controls, but you'll need to have a lot of patience to tolerate the excessively long load times.

Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania is a good game on which you can have fun and spend good moments. Whether you are a new player or an old player of the license, you will find what you need. However, you will have to be patient to get through some stages. With this opus, Sega invites players to rediscover their first love of the series by offering levels from the first Super Monkey Ball. As a bonus, the addition of mini-games is a plus to have fun with your friends during parties even if some mini-games are not necessarily the most exciting. As for the small drawbacks, we regret the fact that you can't play all the characters in all the modes or the difficulty which is not always progressive.

It is obvious that players will ask for small adjustments and additions to be made on New World, but let's not forget that the game is making its premiere and that it is already very satisfactory for its debut. It has mechanics that will appeal to players who are tired of classic MMOs and they will find a variety of elements that are very relevant. Crafting is no longer useless: it is now necessary to have professions to have a viable game experience in late and end game. The world of Aeternum will be able to take players on a journey in a new MMO that should continue to grow in beauty over time.

With Hot Wheels Unleashed, the Mattel brand succeeds in its return to video games with a dynamic title, easy to handle, fluid and really fun. Everything breathes the Hot Wheels spirit and that's good. Despite a feeling of repetitiveness linked to the use of only 5 environments, it contains a lot of good ideas and often gives you a good feeling, especially during the boss races. We would have liked a less redundant soundtrack and a more advanced story mode, but it still manages to do well. As for the collectors, they will be delighted to chase the rare pearl, even if the surprise box option and its random dimension are highly debatable.

With a charming and nice adventure, Kena Bridge of Spirits invites us in a cute and dark world. The gameplay is rather simple but offers interesting mechanics that allow you to have a good time no matter what happens. With tons of resources to collect and an original scenario, Kena is clearly the kind of independent title that you want to finish. And this is perhaps its biggest strength: a relaxing game, with a challenge, that you want to finish at 100%. In the end, Kena doesn't invent much but offers a beautiful and memorable journey.

Diablo 2 Resurrected has a stunning graphical overhaul as well as satisfactory controller support, but it's really not a remaster for the masses: it's primarily aimed at fans of the original title. Nostalgia won't necessarily be enough to make you forget the lack of modernization of many interface or gameplay elements. So it struggles to compete with the many newer games in the same genre on many levels. Let's hope for more changes in the future. Even if it doesn't impose itself as a modern title, we still recommend it to players looking to discover this great classic in good conditions, knowing that it offers an almost unlimited life span to those who are hooked on its old formula.

Two years later, Death Stranding is still an atypical and compelling adventure that managed to transport us for more than fifty hours. No matter how much we might grumble about the weaknesses of its creator's writing, the fact remains that its unique concept still holds up well, while its panoramas are sublimated by the PS5's optimizations. So the verdict is pretty much the same as for other editions of this kind on Sony's machine: if you've never played the original game, go for it, but if you've already played it, the new content doesn't necessarily justify paying for it again.

With Eastward, Pixpil succeeds in extracting the essence of the Mother games and transposing it into a Zelda-like game that highlights the complementarity between Sam and John, a particularly endearing duo. A real success, absolutely beautiful and endowed with a unique, bewitching and carefully written universe, that we recommend you to explore urgently.

With this second episode, the Judgment series proves that it can perfectly complement the main Yakuza series, which has been turn-based since its seventh episode. Yagami's investigation in Seiryo High School is exciting and much better paced than the first episode, while the gameplay has been enriched enough to push us to comb all of Yokohama once again. However, street fights are still slow to start and some investigation sequences break the rhythm of the game on some occasions. However, if you want a dose of good humor with a dark and well-written detective story, you can go eyes closed.

NBA 2K22 remains a very good basketball game but it rely too much on its assets and doesn't evolve anymore. It's difficult to see the differences between the 2021 and 2022 versions in terms of technology, graphics and content available to players. However, we notice the efforts made on the gameplay, which is much closer to the reality of the courts and less frustrating, as well as the care given to the My NBA mode. As far as the career mode is concerned, we're clearly left wanting more, it's just a lot of filler, to the detriment of the narrative quality of the career. To conclude, NBA 2K22 remains solid on its feet, still offering the best for a fan of the orange ball, but it's cruelly lacking in creativity and struggling to renew itself.

Deathloop is a good experience that mixes genres and inspirations against the backdrop of an assassination-based time puzzle. The island and the characters are full of personality, which makes the exploration and discovery of secrets satisfying at first. But you quickly realize that the title doesn't have the means of its ambitions, it's not a very good FPS, nor a good puzzle game, and it doesn't reach the level of Hitman on infiltration and creativity of assassinations. Despite its limitations, you still have a good time on Blackreef Island, and it's fun to progress from loop to loop, getting faster and faster while killing your targets at lightning speed. The multiplayer invasions also add the edge of difficulty and challenge that the rest of the game struggles to offer.

Lost in Random is without any doubt the independent nugget of this end of the year. The creativity is at its peak and everything makes it a title not to be missed. Tim Burton-like art direction, an engaging story and above all an original and very addictive gameplay. Card game, chess game, board game, dice game... One could think that all this mix is a bit messy but everything is, on the contrary, well measured.

With its rich emotional proposal, Life is Strange: True Colors managed to arouse our empathy on many occasions. Even if it is not free of flaws (repetitions, invisible walls, long loading times...), it knows how to create the right atmosphere by relying on melancholic music and good acting. Its concept of auras works perfectly and allows for some very nice sequences. With its neat graphics, its excellent voice acting and its endearing characters, it is a great Life is Strange.

Dice Legacy has some very good ideas, as well as an innovative gameplay based on dices, without knocking you out with questions of probability and risk calculation. But without being too complex, this game turns out to be very demanding, and it will even challenge city builder regulars, since it requires to manage many tasks and problems in real time, leaving little room for error. Finally, the fact that its lifespan is based only on more difficult variants of the same story may quickly tire players, since it does not offer other maps, nor varied scenarios, nor easy access to the dices from previous games.

Arise is a good episode, which could have been excellent if it didn't get its feet wet in its last third. At the moment of concluding and confirming all the nice things put forward during the journey, the series falls back into its old ways with unbearable corridors, full of color swap enemies on 10 hours of gameplay that leave a bitter taste. It's a pity, especially since the combat system and the world building are the most solid we've seen on a Tales Of in quite some time.

Whether you just want to have a good time with fast and crazy mini-games, or you want to perform by completing it at 100% with the highest scores, Wario Ware Get It Together is undeniably the best opus in the series. While it's a shame to see no touchpad games on Switch, the new opus does offer some good new features and functionality.

F.I.S.T. is a very solid metroidvania, with a neat universe and fights that keep you glued to the pad. Rather difficult and rich enough in content, TiGames' soft only suffers from a few clumsinesses, such as regularly misplaced checkpoints or a few lunar collisions, but nothing that can really spoil the pleasure of playing.

Although rather conventional in content and form, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous is definitely the new role-playing game to put in the hands of all fans of the genre. By the richness of its gameplay, with a large number of builds, an alignment system for roleplay, crusade and kingdom management, as well as its dense content. Owlcat's new production is exciting in many ways, and even if it is not completely without flaws, it will keep you busy for a long time.

Finally, although Sonic Colors Ultimate is a very dynamic game and very pleasant to play, it still suffers too much from the flaws of the original game as well as from the various problems specific to Sonic 3D games. In spite of a handling that should certainly be reviewed, the game offers interesting gameplay elements as well as a particularly attractive artistic direction. But this new edition does not offer any real interesting novelties. Moreover, the game suffers from major technical problems on Switch.

With a PC port, we expected a little more from Murder Mystery Machine than a simple transposition of the mobile game to the computer. The interface is the same, none of the people are dubbed and the music track has not been improved (with only a few sounds and three songs). The story, while classic, is nevertheless well done enough to make you want to finish the eight episodes. Murder Mystery Machine is a nice entry point for people who want to discover investigation games.

King's Bounty 2 is an archaic game in many aspects, both in its RPG side and in its exploration. It tries to modernize itself by offering an open world progression, but it has only impoverished its former superb art direction and shown its technical limits. Nevertheless, its fun strategic aspect with a good difficulty and its addictive progression make it a pleasure to return to.

King's Bounty II is a remarkable installment within the genre of tactical RPGs, providing a simple battle system, but at the same time, with many layers of depth for those who want to get the most out of it. Accompanied by a medieval / fantastic setting, which offers extremely beautiful areas, and, even without standing out in its narrative plot, or in its open world, it delivers a lot of potential and, surely, it will be a trough of hours for many users.

The excellent atmosphere and the cinematographic ambitions of Twelve Minutes are not enough to make it an unforgettable experience. Underneath lies a sloppy point & click game, serving a disjointed plot with far from captivating stakes. As for its time loop concept, it induces too many inconsistencies and repetitions in the course of the adventure to be fully satisfying.