Distinctive characters, detailed maps and a lively sense of chaos all add up to one of the finest family-friendly multiplayer experiences on PS4. There’s also solo play this time around, and while that suffers a bit from balancing issues, it’s nice to be able to squeeze in a little experience-building and item-collecting in between rounds of online action. Overall, though, it’s the childlike qualities at the center of GW2 that are the most important — a seemingly limitless energy, a fearlessly goofy aesthetic and a commitment to making playing fun above all else.

As of the time of this review, Street Fighter V is a showcase of potential, but little else.

What Layers of Fear lacks in complexity, it more than makes up for with atmosphere. It’s a bizarre and thrilling ride that doesn’t even considering letting up as you traverse a truly broken mind. The concept is incredibly novel and well portrayed, the wellbeing of your limping vessel never coming into debate as he works on his masterpiece. It’s just a shame that, even with all the literary influences, the phenomenal and thought-provoking ambiance isn’t backed up by the writing or voice work that can both feel flat and uninspired more often than not.

Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: Russia is the best entry in this mini-series.

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 should feel like a love letter to longtime fans, who will adore the enormous roster of 61 characters and breathtakingly beautiful visuals. On the other hand, the game shouldn’t be counted out for newcomers, either; while they might not enjoy the hackneyed shonen story elements or lack of tutorials, they’ll almost assuredly get a kick out of the hyperactive and highly variable fighting style.

Arslan: The Warriors of Legend is an exceptional crossover with the Warriors series, standing just behind last year’s Dragon Quest Heroes as the best the franchise has to offer.

This is a rare game that tackles strong morals and emotions under the guise of a beautiful walk through the wilderness that always manages to keep you on your toes, a walk you’ll be hard pressed to ever forget.

From the moment that little ball of red yarn tumbled down the old woman’s steps to the last bit of yarn that I strung from place to place in the old woman’s memories, I enjoyed almost every step, swing, and catapult. The emotive little Yarny had me feeling for him as I traversed the dangerous terrain with his ever unraveling figure. Though the gameplay falls victim to ebbs and flows of being too frustrating at times and too easy at others, it was still an overall enjoyable experience.

Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth isn’t a perfect video game interpretation of Bandai Namco’s long-running franchise, but it’s a huge step in the right direction for fans who have been waiting to see the series get on Pokémon’s level. The core gameplay is simple but addictive, making this a perfectly accessible jumping-on point for both casual and hardcore fans of RPGs and Digimon.

What we have here is a deceptively challenging game wrapped in a slightly sarcastic package, with a few rough edges.

Megadimension Neptunia VII is a mixed bag, with great combat elements and parody sadly shuffled together with overly padded plot, repetitive boss fights, and boring story presentation.

An admirable effort, bringing together characters from a number of visual novels and gaming franchises and pitting them against each other in a solid, energetic brawler. It’s a shame that there aren’t more interesting modes in which to test your fighting mettle, particularly when the two story modes offered are so dull and impenetrable, but at least there’s some good multiplayer fun to be had — just don’t get too interested in completely even-handed competition, as I highly suspect there are serious balancing issues at play here.

Not A Hero is a thumping good shooter experience made all the more exiting through an intriguing art style; unrelenting gore and a relatively non-linear composition to pleasantly fleshed out levels.

It’s the most real feeling simulator of war out there and that in itself makes This War of Mine: The Little Ones quite terrifying and truly memorable.

A competent twin-stick shooter that lacks true depth. Local cooperative play is always appreciated, however, and the inclusion of such a rare feature is something that newly-minted developer Blazing Badger absolutely deserves commendation for. But with only one level layout, gameplay can become repetitive fairly quickly.

For now, there are a few things to be ironed out, but with constant updates and support, this is a game that will be worth coming back to as it evolves and changes in the future.

The story is straight from the movies, and is enjoyable for kids of any age – indeed, fans of the Marvel universe will likely have fun here too. Some technical hiccups and the occasional unclear objective can hamper your progress, but these can all be overcome in a game that exudes a fun-loving attitude throughout.

It’s hard to pinpoint why it suffers with fatigue quite so badly but, irrespective, it’s fully worth having in your library, albeit just for that one night in with your friends you’ll all remember for a long time to come.

Though some elements feel like relics of its portable past, like comic-book-style cutscenes and a lack of voice acting, there’s no denying it’s still a hell of an aesthetic accomplishment.

It’s a brilliant, beautiful, masterfully crafted work, and the more you discover, the more apparent it is.

Klaus is a subversive, ingenious little puzzle platformer that shouldn’t be missed by anyone who claims to be a fan of video games.

While this one can unfortunately get bogged down in repetitive busywork, and lacks the fun sense of exploration that comes with better map design, there’s still plenty to enjoy: the stylized characters and environments look excellent on Vita, the score is impressively eclectic and the gameplay offers a highly satisfying challenge for completionists.

Fans of cult sci-fi films and/or Mystery Science Theater 3000 will get quite the kick out of The Deadly Tower of Monsters.

Exploring the title’s creepy, masterfully detailed environments is nothing short of a joy, and sorting out the harrowing tasks of inventory management and limited resources is tense in just the right way.

If you’re a big fan of Assassin’s Creed, or enjoyed ACC: China, then you can pick this up without hesitation. It’s more of the same gameplay-wise, but completely different story and setting-wise.

There’s a lot to do in Rebel Galaxy, it’s just a shame that it’s all too often the same things to do. That’s the selling point for this genre, yes, but there’s so much repetition that I never felt particularly engaged.

The combat, while a little uneven difficulty-wise across the game’s campaign, nevertheless manages to hit the sweet spot between simple accessibility and strategic depth.

It’s colorful and quite ridiculous; it’s simple, accessible and well populated. Hardware: Rivals has most of the ingredients present to cook up a fantastic arcade experience, but it’s missing a vital ingredient: fun. The sluggish pace that permeates everything from movement and destruction to respawning and leveling up constantly holds it back.