Enter the Gungeon is a fantastic game that continues to offer surprises after hours and hours into the experience. The game feels satisfying to play, and gives you the tools to succeed, and it is up to you to master the skills. The crazy weapons, enemies, and bosses all lead to an experience that is worth playing, even if you aren’t a fan of the genre.

Severed sports a solid story and a great combat system.

The Shantae series and its characters are always bursting with so much personality. These games are carefree, self-aware, and silly – in many ways an adventure with Shantae feels sort of like an old Saturday morning cartoon. Whenever I jump into a new Shantae game, I’m confident that I’m going to have a good time and that continues to be true with Half-Genie Hero.

So if you are looking for good music/rhythm game with a wide range of songs and a bit of challenge, check out Superbeat: Xonic.

There’s a linear story being told, but i never felt like I was being funneled down a straight path. I never felt restraints from where I could go or what I could explore. Even the world barriers are disguised in such a way, thanks to the map design, that it all feels natural.

Disgaea 5 is the best game in the series to date. I might prefer the story/characters in other games sure, but the game mechanics have never been more refined and fun to break.

Overall, the segments in the games are lengthy besides for in Runner and it’s a pain to restart from the beginning if you die.

Dariusburst is perfect for short play sessions and the crazy amount of content in the game means it’ll probably take me months to see everything.

Whether intentional or not Prison Architect isn’t just a creative outlet to ‘build stuff’, but it’s also made me stop and think about the kinds of things that are needed to run a facility such as this. I suppose that’s why I ensured my inmates had the ability to work and learn during their time in prison so that one day they might have a better shot in the real world. No matter how you run your prison Introversion Software has provided everyone with complete freedom to handle things in any number of ways. More importantly the campaign and a number of other quality-of-life features help to ensure that the game itself is fun and rarely overwhelming.

Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams surprised me. It’s a mechanically sound platformer that, considering the origins of the franchise, has managed to differentiate itself in a pretty big way. Simply put Giana Sisters now feels like one of the most unique platformers on the market.

At first it’s a bit off-putting realizing that your tried and true strat doesn’t work 100% of the time. It’s also the sign of a solid tactical game that won’t grow stale too soon.

It may not have a ton of content for players looking for variation, but if you embrace what Score Rush Extended offers, you shouldn’t have any trouble finding enjoyment.

Everything strips out what typically drives us towards the types of games we play. There’s no objective, rules, or scores; there’s just Everything. It presents a toy-box that’s there to simply be fun to play with and, potentially, something that’ll get you thinking about your own life and how you fit into this bizarre universe that we’ve all found ourselves in. It’s not without faults, some parts of the tutorial segments can be unclear or a bit slow for my liking, but none of that detracts from the wild journey I went on. Everything is odd, thought provoking, and quite unlike anything else I’ve ever played.

It’s a story that’s very much worth experiencing for yourself. I just wish playing the game was just as interesting.

The Fall is positioned as the first in a three part story. Without mentioning specifics I’ll just say that the game is really well written, intriguing from start to finish, and it features some great voice acting. While it’s certainly the start of a larger story I think The Fall does a fantastic job of setting up a really interesting world and ending on a crazy/satisfying conclusion.

Overall, The Banner Saga is a welcome addition to the burgeoning PlayStation Network library.

Each adventure through Hand of Fate has allowed me to imagine myself journeying through many far off places, meeting different people, and overcoming any number of obstacles. Even in the face of many technical issues I’m so hooked that I can’t help but continue to come back for more with each passing day.

The Dragon’s Trap is an accurate recreation of the original game which, for the most part, is really great. Your journey in Wonder Boy is all about exploring Monster World in each of the various cursed forms. The lizard form is able to breath fire, as a mouse, you can climb certain walls, the piranha form gives you the ability to swim, the lion is essentially a tank, and as a hawk you’ll soar through the sky. These forms break up the game well and ensures that you’ll periodically be traveling through the world in a slightly different way. They’re also great about opening up new secrets in earlier areas in the game that were previously unreachable. Things never get old and exploring is always rewarded. However, the actual movement in Wonder Boy is quite slippery and can lead to a good deal of frustration. This, combined with the continuous knock-back that can happen in certain boss fights, leads to some aggravating situations that tend to be a small blemish on an otherwise enjoyable game.

The pacing is perfect, introducing new recipes and level obstacles in a way that consistently keeps the player engaged and wondering what could possibly come next. After having three friends over to play the game, all three of them went home, separately purchased it, and played it to completion either solo or with a significant other. I’m not sure any game I’ve shown my friends before this has had the same effect.

Overall, LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a genuinely faithful recreation of the Star Wars universe, while being brilliantly entertaining, charming and as good as any LEGO Star Wars game which has came before it, therefore it is not only a highly recommended game if you are a fan of LEGO games, but also if you are a fan of the Star Wars universe.

ABZÛ should be played with as few story details known as possible. The story and your journey are made great by the surprises that happen along the way, so take your time and explore everything that ABZÛ offers to you, it is absolutely worth it.

The Chinese Room have created a compelling cast of characters with interesting stories that come together in some really cool ways throughout the game. The powerful soundtrack and beautiful landscape of Yaughton only help to make the whole experience even better.

Teslagrad gets a lot of mileage out of its mechanics, whether it’s through puzzles or boss fights.

Mutant Mudds Super Challenge is designed specifically for anyone that’s itching for more, and Renegade Kid is successful in providing just that. This isn’t a full on sequel, and that’s okay, but rather a refined and far more difficult Mutant Mudds challenge. New bosses and 20 unlockable characters from popular indie games just serve to make Super Challenge that much more enticing.

Flywrench is far more than the simplistic graphics might let on, these colored lines create diabolically difficult obstacle courses that will take the utmost skill to complete. Capitalizing off short levels and instant respawns, Flywrench follows in Super Meat Boy’s footsteps by presenting a challenge that’s harder to put down than it is to finish.

Life Goes On: Done to Death came as a pleasant surprise to me. It’s a genuinely funny and unique puzzle game that left me thoroughly entertained from start to finish and all throughout the credits. I simply can’t recommend this enough.

As long as the servers hold up and there isn’t lag during netplay, it should wind up being one of the top PSN titles of all time.

In general, the game is pretty good about introducing new characters/abilities at a steady pace to keep things interesting. That said, the moments where it’s just Shu can get pretty dull once you’ve had new abilities given and taken away in each world. What’s here is enjoyable enough, though, and the collectibles and time trials make for a decent incentive to spend just a bit more time with Shu, even after the credits.