At the end of the day, DNF Duel is one of the best new fighting game IPs of the last few years, and it's an easy recommendation. But, while the Switch port is still a lot of fun (and conveniently portable!), know that it is a step down from what you can get on other platforms. [Issue #66 – July/August 2023, p. 73]

Playing Loop8 left me feeling like everything I'd done meant nothing, and wishing that, like Nini, I could go back in time and play something else. [Issue #66 – July/August 2023, p. 72]

I wasn't sure how Nintendo would find a way to top their work in Breath of the Wild back when it came out, but I feel they have here – with years of more polish applied and refined exploration. [Issue #66 – July/August 2023, p. 71]

A Little to the Left is a puzzle game about recognizing patterns, not in abstract shapes, but in household furniture and knickknacks. It's a celebration of tidiness and perfection. [Issue #66 – July/August 2023, p. 26]

Future Redeemed provides an amazing balance of keeping what made XC3 so phenomenal and adding in just the right number of changes. Most of all, it serves as a beautiful love letter to fans who've been with the series for the long haul, as it features some callbacks to Xenogears and Xenosaga as well! [Issue #66 – July/August 2023, p. 25]

Over the course of about 10 hours, Paranormasight delivers what is undoubtedly one of the surprise gems of the year and represents a true triumph within the Japanese horror genre. Fans of both adventure games and visual novels should sink their teeth into this Western debut from a much-lauded visual novel dev team! [Issue #66 – July/August 2023, p. 23]

If you're looking for a game that will make you think and laugh at the same time, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better one than this! [Issue #66 – July/August 2023, p. 22]

While Cannon Dancer – Osman is a wild piece of gaming history, the casual and curious may want to wait for a sale before traveling back in time to '90s Kalamazoo. [Issue #66 – July/August 2023, p. 21]

Named after the developer's pet rabbit Murti and the Bartop style of arcade cabinet, Murtop feels a little different than your average retro '80s arcade throwback. And some of those differences might make things tough for it! [Issue #66 – July/August 2023, p. 21]

Not much about the game will stick with you, but if you played a lot of games in the '90s it will be a nice distraction – or at least a call to revisit the games it's trying to mimic. Moonrider would be mid-tier at best in the '90s, but will likely be lost to obscurity in the saturated retro market of today. [Issue #66 – July/August 2023, p. 20]

Criticizing this art piece based on the standard semantics of most video games doesn't do it justice. While there is a story and a goal, and you use a controller to make the character interact with the world, this isn't really a game to be judged alongside Mario and Zelda. If you like the art, you should get the game to experience just how far the artists take the medium. [Issue #66 – July/August 2023, p. 20]

Once again this is a port of a port. Or a slightly tweaked emulation of a port? It's journeyed from GameCube to Wii to Switch, and there's evidence of every one of those stops on the journey still in place here as it's reached its final destination. [Issue #66 – July/August 2023, p. 19]

Pikmin 1 is now playable on the Switch, and it has a natural HD facelift as a result of being on the newer hardware, but it doesn't offer anything extra or new beyond that. It's been pulled back out of the past and made available again, and that's it! And honestly, for a great game like this, that can be enough. [Issue #66 – July/August 2023, p. 18]

The grand finale of Wave 4 is a bold, brand-new Yoshi's Island! It's an incredible original track that is a complete homage to the 1995 SNES classic, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. It manages to fit references to dozens of iconic characters and locations from that 16-bit masterpiece into its loop, and it's honestly the best such track Nintendo has ever made! It's pure delight from end to end for anyone who's ever played that game. [Issue #65 – May/June 2023, p. 24]

I fretted about the severe lack of resolution in this intentionally overpixelated world, but that ended up not being much of a problem -- items and characters are difficult to discern when they're built with fewer pixels than Mario got back in 1985, but the vibe works overall. If my 41- year-old eyes can parse these pixels, surely yours could too. [Issue #65 – May/June 2023, p. 22]

Wunderling might look like a straightforward platformer in still screenshots, but it's instead a puzzling challenge: You have to have precise timing to jump at just the right instant, while also bumping your little baddie back and forth off of safe walls to get it redirected in the way you need it to go. [Issue #64 – March/April 2023, p. 76]

Dragon Quest Treasures is ultimately a fun and quirky adventure that, while not reaching the dizzying heights of the best of the series, is enough of a gem to warrant a recommendation to Dragon Quest fans in particular. [Issue #64 – March/April 2023, p. 75]

This game deserves to be the new high-water mark against which all other Nintendo re-releases will be compared for years to come. [Issue #64 – March/April 2023, p. 73]

Sonic Frontiers is a brave experiment that struggles to express its intentions while still committing many of its series' 3D sins. But if you're able to commit to learning its idiosyncrasies, you'll discover a fun, addictive journey unlike any in Sonic's past. [Issue #64 – March/April 2023, p. 71]

It may not have as hard a grip on my heart as Three Houses does, but Fire Emblem Engage is an essential title for tactical RPG fans. Veterans and newcomers alike will both find this title . . . engaging! [Issue #64 – March/April 2023, p. 69]

If you've never played an Atari game, there's no better place to start. No video game company could have possibly asked for a better celebration of their history. Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration is a masterpiece, and everyone who has any interest in the history of the video game industry owes it to themselves to give it a go. [Issue #64 – March/April 2023, p. 67]

Atari Mania doesn't get everything right, but it's so full of heart and reverence for these ancient properties that it's really hard not to love. [Issue #64 – March/April 2023, p. 34]

Super Kiwi 64 is a 3D platformer that, true to its name, looks and plays exactly like the games we got on the real Nintendo 64 back in the late '90s. Just know that you'll only be getting one afternoon's worth of enjoyment out of this one, rather than the whole childhood weekend or more you enjoyed with its inspiration, Banjo- Kazooie, back in the day. [Issue #64 – March/April 2023, p. 33]

Lunistice offers an awful lot of excellence for an awfully low price. It's an incredible value even if you were to zip through the whole thing in the span of a single weekend. [Issue #64 – March/April 2023, p. 32]

If you're unsure if you want to take the plunge, the less expensive prequel is a great way to test the waters. If you get through it and end up hungry for a much bigger burg to brawl in, and can stomach a few technical hiccups, you'll more than get your money's worth with this full-throated, knuckle-dusting follow-up. [Issue #64 – March/April 2023, p. 31]

This is a good, short game to be enjoyed after something intense. It has a cute plot, a satisfying end and plenty of entertaining characters. [Issue #64 – March/April 2023, p. 29]

Without the use of the Music Pass, the core setlist can, at first glance, feel like a shockingly slimmed-down Taiko entry, but if Namco continues to support the service with more and more tracks before releasing more full games, Rhythm Festival offers more reasons to come back again and again with just a single jam-packed entry. [Issue #63 – January/February 2023, p. 76]

Pokémon Scarlet & Violet definitely suffer from underdone development, and I hope the final behind-the-scenes reaction at Nintendo and Game Freak is to give the series' dev team more time to work on future sequels. We don't need new generations so often! But the adventure of these games, the wonderful new set of Pokémon, the winning cast of human characters and a sensational story all work to save the experience and make them worth playing and enjoying, warts and all. [Issue #63 – January/February 2023, p. 75]