Will I come back to LEGO Party! over time? In this case, it’s not up to me, it’s up to the folks I played with. I will say that’s part because these are the people I play party games with, and part because I probably won’t suggest it myself. LEGO Party! is a fine enough virtual board game, and is a particular standout in the ways it uses that LEGO license to the fullest. From the look and feel of the experience to the themes and ideas in minigames, the developers thought of damn near every way you could possibly think to incorporate LEGO into a Mario Party competitor. What holds it back is both how closely it adheres to the Mario Party formula, and how rough and unfriendly the minigames can be from a gameplay perspective, especially for younger or less experienced players. It’s a cute romp, but not all the way there yet.

In Atsu, we have a haunted protagonist, someone trapped between two states of being. On one hand, the warrior who wishes only to feel the splash of blood upon her face as her blade finds its home in the heart of her enemies. On the other, the young girl who cannot help but wonder who she would get to be if the demons and the flames had never devoured her family on that faithful night. Perhaps, somewhere in the tale of the onryō, there is room for both.

I’ve come to really dig Atelier over the years after kind of avoiding them for a long time (time limits stress me out, I’ll be honest), so much so that I’ve imported the physical trilogy carts for Nintendo Switch and even pre-ordered the special edition for Ryza 2 back when I had the means to do so. I say that to emphasize the weight of my words when I state how much of a step backwards on the series’ evolutionary trajectory this experience feels like. Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian looks and feels cheap (I hate to go there, but it’s unavoidable) to play, and is full of what feel like kitbashed structural systems clumsily molded into a single player game that suffers from its connection to a failed gacha joint. It bums me out to say it, but that’s the vibe.

Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles feels like a massive ship that's undergone a bizarre restoration process, comprising half reasonable repair work and half gaudy attempts to make improvements where they weren’t needed, and sometimes end up making things worse. And there’s a lack of control over the whole thing that feels frustrating compared to simpler, cheaper projects from competitors. It’s not a remaster, a port, or a remake. Instead, it’s the classic video game version of (one of my favorite books) John Dies at the End’s opening. This is the triumphant return of a life-changing experience many young nerds experienced on the PlayStation circa 1997. Is that true? Maybe, maybe not. But Final Fantasy Tactics is brilliant anyway, I reckon.

What we have at the end of the day is a strange, silly game that is a little too sure of itself to stick its landing effectively. It stretches itself too thin to be consistently funny and its story is clumsily told despite its put-on air of poignance. It has its moments though, and for as grumpy as I was by the end I still look back at its early hours with some fondness. Watching a dumpy nerd slide down a muddy hill is pretty funny the first few times; it just doesn’t stay funny as long as Baby Steps wants it to.

Was it worth it after eight long years of waiting? Yes, I think so. Hollow Knight: Silksong is beautiful and feels great to play. It’s filled with content and challenges that are fun to overcome. Its characters are delightfully expressive, and despite that charm, there’s a deeply complex and morbid air that compels one to want to save all these bugs from a terrible fate. I could have done without the numerous hours I spent on farming and other padded elements, but Silksong is still an enormously packed journey, and a tremendous payoff on a nearly decade-long wait. Just mind the challenge and don’t rush it. True endings won’t come easy, but that’s part of what makes victory feel beautiful in Hollow Knight: Silksong.

Silent Hill f enjoys getting under your skin. It’s a game that gives you objectives like “go on ahead” and “escape.” Every jump that the game elicited from me was usually followed by a wide grin. I loved the unique challenges that combat posed as I made my way from puzzle to puzzle, and the story’s overarching mystery is one worthy of the Silent Hill name.

If Cladun X3 was tuned just a little differently, it could have been a perfect time-killing grindfest for me. Being able to pick some characters, customize them to my tastes, then take them into little bite-sized dungeons for some numbers-driven dopamine has “good time” written all over it. But having to sit and tinker with the Magic Circles for gains that feel disproportionately small compared to the time I put in, while being quickly outpaced by how fast the dungeons scale up makes the pace feel arduous. I like grinding to a reasonable extent, but what Cladun X3 seems to be asking is a bit too much. I respect the wild level of creativity its customization tools have to offer, but the ways in which this game demands time in exchange for flimsy rewards make it struggle to actually capture my attention.

A lot of the fun you can have with Dying Light: The Beast is what you make of it yourself. Exploring the world, unlocking the safe houses, finding cool new weapon modifications and crafting recipes, and generally getting lost. Nothing about the experience was groundbreaking, nor was it as enthralling or immersive as other open-world games. Instead, it was good fun you can enjoy in short or long bursts, whether you want to sink your teeth into zombie hunting or chilling as you wander the wilds and urban spaces of Castor Hills.

Given some of the recent marketing and with the way release windows worked out, CrossWorlds is inevitably going to draw comparisons to Mario Kart World. After spending time with both games, it feels like an apples and oranges (or F1 and NASCAR, if you prefer) comparison. CrossWorlds is good enough to stand on its own and even above previous Sonic racing games. Just put the car in gear and enjoy the ride.

It’s short and sweet, sticking around just as long as it needs to tell its cute, little story and give a pair of buds a nice afternoon of game time together. It’s a kind of experience not unlike taking the time to put a real Lego set together with a friend.

Reviews aren’t the place to weigh in on how to fix things, so I won’t do that here. Deep down I hope the developers who are making this are kicking down Electronic Arts CEO, Andrew Wilson's, door asking for more time, budget, or anything really. Developers tend to be super fans who love making amazing games. I believe that about EA Vancouver, but this is not good enough and hasn’t been good enough for years. The players who return year after year deserve better.

Despite the early promise brought by its measured sense of style, interest in intellectual concepts, and distinct combat system, Varlet falls flat in almost every way. It’s still an eye-pleasing RPG experience with fun combat, but all of its surface elements are just that: surface elements. The whole game is dressed up as something it isn’t, which is a shame. I’d love to play the game Varlet presents itself as, rather than the sterile, conveyor belt production line version of a Persona-inspired RPG it feels like.

NBA 2K26 is a good basketball game. It’s got a great on-court experience, and some of the rough edges have been sanded down. Still, issues that have existed for years still persist. Philosophically, not a lot has changed. I’ve enjoyed my time with it more than I did 2K25 and 2K24, but I still yearn for a more well-rounded and fulfilling basketball experience.

Borderlands 4 is bloody chaotic and pure mayhem. Vault Hunters with dozens of perks across multiple skill trees. Guns raining from the sky with wildly unique perk combinations. Enhancements, Class Mods, set bonuses, and more dramatically feeding into your builds, making numbers go higher and enemy health bars go lower. Each system links arms with the other and grabs hold of you as you dash, grapple, sprint, and shoot your way through battlefields of screaming, rambling psychos that will test your build to its limits. Borderlands 4 is the best the series has been in decades and a testament to Gearbox’s ability to absolutely cook. Are you ready to taste the chaos?

Back to the Dawn is a fascinating game at first glance, due to its uncanny mix of prison, animals, and laid back music. But as you dive into its systems and figure out what your goals are, you run into a sort of identity issue. Does this game want to be open-ended or not? It’s hard to tell, and the rush to complete goals within a strict time limit betrays the offerings of things to do and people to meet. This confusion between what this experience does or doesn’t want to be, and a surprising lack of personality beneath the surface, both made my time with this adventure feel laborious.

The Rogue Prince of Persia has all the style and flair that's expected of this series. The art is spectacular, the combat is fluid, and the parkour is as captivating as any of the other games in the Prince's long history. The 2D roguelite approach is novel and works in some big ways, such as the Mind Map being used to push the story forward and unlock new stages. However, it does lead to static level layouts that inevitably feel stale after multiple runs. On top of that, the focus is often going to be on using any collected currencies to upgrade the Prince's weaponry and passive abilities, which means using that same currency for cosmetics seems like a sure-fire way to ensure I never see those outfits...Even with its faults, The Rogue Prince of Persia is another strong outing for Ubisoft's long-running franchise, still fresh off of last year's overlooked gem, The Lost Crown. Evil Empire continues to up its game and it'll be exciting to see what awaits the team beyond the Prince's Oasis.

When compared to the other golf juggernauts in the video game landscape, the physics are poorly executed. Swings, timing, impact, and reads are far too inconsistent and hinder the enjoyment of the realistic aspects of the game far too much. Combine this with annoying camera angles, bad textures, and grindy gameplay unlock mechanics, and the air gets completely sucked out of the room...The main saving grace for Everybody's Golf Hot Shots is that Wacky Golf is chaotic fun with friends, especially if you don't care about winning. If you're going into the game expecting this to be a next step in the evolution of the series, though, I hope you've got a pretty high handicap, as you're going to need it.

Bloober Team took what they learned from combat and survival design on Silent Hill 2, blended it with its expertise in environmental design, and told a story that sinks its hand-claws in and leaves you uncertain of your decisions at pivotal points. It’s not always ticking at a good pace, but Cronos is an intense time-hopping journey that adds frightful new flavor to the horror universe.

Hell is Us initially hooked me with its horror vibe and cool-looking action. After a fifty-hour playthrough, I’m happy to report that the combat is indeed cool and the vibes are indeed horror-adjacent, but Hell is Us is much more than that. It tells a story, rooted in realism, about the effects of war and how people become divided. It’s also a supernatural mystery with extremely elaborate lore and worldbuilding. One that you can spend hours diving into. Hell is Us trusts the player to investigate and uncover the mystery of Hadea without any guidance, and it’s a mystery worth solving.

Despite its loud style, Shuten Order doesn’t land with the same explosive impact as its predecessors. It has a more tame energy, and seems more interested in being a true mystery story at the expense of Too Kyo Games’ more absurdist tendencies. That stuff is still in there of course, but it’s almost like Shuten Order takes itself a bit more seriously. And there’s something to that train of thought, especially since the biggest boon from its anthology-like structure is a greater emphasis on character development compared to games like Hundred Line or Rain Code. Many of the gameplay gimmicks ring hollow, with generic puzzles and busywork interrupting the stuff you actually care about and threatening to drag the momentum down. I mostly appreciated the novelty of this approach, especially as a fan of short stories as a format. Let’s just do without the slider puzzles next time, please!

The Knightling offers a colorful world, fun characters, some interesting gameplay gimmicks, and a lot of Stuff to Do. The downside is an overall lack of “finish” that makes the more intense gameplay feel unrefined and inconsistent, and an open world structure that doesn’t do much to distinguish itself from peers. It’s a fun, cheerful platformer with plenty of personality and ideas, but perhaps doesn’t achieve all its goals as intended.

Being able to simply review a Super Robot Wars game is crazy, after several years of navigating fan translations, imports, and having the first opportunity thrown off by… Work Problems, we’ll say. It was hard not to gush just about how cool this opportunity is. So in a way, I’m thankful to Gundam Seed for being so egregiously mid that I could keep my critic sensors online. Super Robot Wars Y has a slow start with a story hook that misses the gas pedal, but the series’ tried and true foundations and showmanship steer the ship home at the end of the day. Mecha fans are eating good lately, and I hope SRW’s North American console debut is the first step of a new normal. In the meantime, I have to look up SSSS.Dynazenon and see what that crew of weirdos is all about. Walking away with a nugget of something new to look into and discover is the final piece of the SRW puzzle, and a crucial part of the magic.

Particle Hearts is a puzzle game that plays primarily like a walking simulator. On the one hand, its puzzles are mostly rudimentary, and its narrative isn’t one that will move the needle. On the other hand, the game’s emotion-filled music and unique world of particles make exploring it a visual and audial pleasure that doesn’t overstay its welcome.

While I can't speak for this game in comparison to its 16-bit heyday, Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is a thrill that stands on its own. It's a total master class in combat depth, level design, and story moments that leave enough to the imagination without completely halting the action. It's good enough that it'll make people wonder what took so long for this franchise to come back in the first place. It'll also make people wonder, between this and Streets of Rage 4, if there's another classic franchise that could use the Lizardcube touch, because this developer is clearly very good at what it does.

Herdling is a fairly linear game that wraps up in about six hours. Despite its relatively short playtime, Herdling does a decent job at capturing the unspoken bond that forms between a herder and their animals, while showcasing the many facets that come with the role. Although Herdling could certainly stand to be longer, artificial length may not necessarily improve the game. As much as I would have liked more time with my loyal companions, the length is appropriate for the type of story Herdling is trying to tell, and its brevity doesn’t diminish the journey it offers. This is an adventure that will tug at your heartstrings, while leaving you with a handful of bittersweet memories and screenshots to hold on to. If you are willing to spend an afternoon opening yourself to a moving story told through guiding gestures and the steady rumble of hooves, it would behoove you to give Herdling a go.

Madden NFL 26 isn’t the game I’ve been dreaming of, but it’s a meaningful improvement over recent games and actually addresses some of the issues I’ve had with the series for years. I’ll actually come back to this one throughout the NFL season to screw around with rebuilds in Franchise mode, and the Switch 2 version will remain installed for the novelty of playing on the go.

Did everything here age well? Heck no. Is it still a long-winded exposition bomb at multiple points? Absolutely. But if you’re here because of the original, I want you to know that everything in the OG Snake Eater that might have made you happy, sad, and/or mad, are all still here. All of the action, all of the stealth, all of the cheesy one-liners… For those of you who are jumping in for the first time? Have some patience and try to enjoy the rollercoaster. This one is definitely for the fans.

Off isn’t just a classic. It’s a formative work from a time in which indie game development was taking on a new form, one that has continued to evolve and ripple and shape what the space is like today. Off is a small, strange, and gnarly RPG that may be simple in functionality, but remains special in the story it tells and how it tells it. This new release from Fangamer is a rare opportunity to not only revisit a core moment in history, but for many to experience it for the first time. I have some hang-ups about compromises that had to be made, but the methodology on display in drawing attention to and deliberately not replacing the original is a more than fair answer. If you like RPGs, you owe it to yourself to sit down with Off. The Batter needs your help. You monster.

Unfortunately, Drag x Drive just doesn’t deliver the joy and excitement that I expect from a game developed by Nintendo.

Is This Seat Taken? is a charming series of logic puzzles with a serene soundtrack and a fun story to follow. It's brilliantly designed for short sessions and adds just enough to keep the experience fresh through the end. It's not a long journey, but it's one that's worth sitting down to appreciate.

Confusion within the mechanics hold Ra Ra Boom back from being an excellent debut from developer Gylee Games, and an excellent example in its genre in its own right. From its punchy, wholehearted aesthetic to its ambitious combat, there was tons of potential here. Unfortunately, while I still had a fun time, that potential wasn't met as I ended up just sticking to the beat ‘em up basics to get through, ignoring the bells and whistles almost entirely after growing tired of wrestling with them.

There are often no right answers in life, no quick and easy way to tell what someone is really after or see the ripples from your choices until it’s too late to do anything about them. Static Dread understands that, and asks you to do the best you can in an impossible situation. My keeper was defiant and kind, and he didn’t always make the right calls, but he tried to. The story I experienced was the result of those choices. Static Dread isn’t a long game (my playthrough clocked in at about 10 hours), but it kept me compelled throughout its runtime and never overstayed its welcome. Its low-fi, contained horror isn’t going to scare the pants off of you, but it is unsettling, and it will keep you guessing until the end. Just… do yourself a favor: when the night rolls in, stay in the light.

If you’re coming in from the first game, and you liked that one, we have great news: Demon Slayer - The Hinokami Chronicles 2 is basically the same kind of experience, with some small but meaningful improvements. Plus, Training Paths is an excellent new mode that gives you something to do if you aren’t interested in multiplayer. The story mode still has a lot of padding that isn’t fun or interesting to engage with though, albeit operating at a brisker pace. Newcomers can expect an exciting adaptation of the anime relative to other games of its kind, and a shallow, but thrilling combat system that’s more interested in spectacle than challenge or raw skill. CyberConnect2 knows how to make an anime look rad and play well, and at the end of the day, that’s the assignment.

In theory, I understand why people like Patapon so much. It’s cute, there’s a primal satisfaction in staying on beat, and the shrill “Pata-Pata-Pata-Pon” chanting along with your commands is something I can see being infectious in a Tetris Effect sort of way. But every time I played, all I could think was, is this really it? This is the PSP’s premiere music game that everyone loves? Parappa was sent to cross the rainbow bridge for this? How can I be this bored playing a game about music? These questions may haunt me forever. Or at least until I go back to the local arcade for a few rounds of Pop‘n Music.

As I expected, your mileage will Killing Floor 3 will likely depend on the friends you bring to the party. Fortunately, crossplay between PC and consoles makes that easier than ever. Unfortunately, if you don’t have some buds on hand, the content here might not keep you hooked in for more than a few hours. The difficulties remain a way to bring the greatest chaos to this fight, where Normal can be handled solo, Hard is good for groups, and Hell on Earth is absurdly hard, but it’s still a limited array of content that feels tough to grind in the later stages by yourself. I’m happy with this starting course. I’m going to play Killing Floor 3 for dozens of hours with my friends. And I look forward to seeing how this game grows as Tripwire adds more to what I consider a very nice start.

Despite my shaky feelings on some of the core modes, College Football 26 is a marked improvement over College Football 25. I got a lot out of the smaller changes, like the new Dynamic Substitutions and supplementary Dynasty features. It’s yet to be seen if this franchise will fall into the cynical rinse and repeat pattern that Madden has been on for several years now, but for the time being, it’s more CFB goodness.

As it is, Wheel World delivers what its premise suggests and that's a relaxing bike ride — nothing more, nothing less.

Mado Monogatari: Fia and the Wondrous Academy isn’t going to light the world on fire and turn millions of gamers on to a lost RPG franchise of gold, but it is neat that it exists and hasn’t gone through any weird legal filters. Sega heads finally don’t have to be a savvy enough person to be aware of niche-within-a-niche fan translations to get a little slice of history of their favorite puzzle game. Mystery Dungeon sickos may be disappointed with a game that looks like one of those but thoroughly isn’t, but the combat mechanics feel distinct and fun to play with even if their busyness doesn’t always translate to a challenge. Sometimes a dungeon-crawler can just be cute, and that’s okay.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is a souls-like game that takes us to a fictional ancient China based on folklore and mythology, but it also puts some spins on the formula that make this an interesting action-RPG in its own right.

One of the best parts of running into a game like Shadow Labyrinth is there’s no telling what kind of audience it has. It’s weird, difficult, janky, ambitious, and did I say weird? Let’s go with bizarre. Absurd. Deranged, even. The announcement was met with confusion, and I think the end product will be met with even more confusion than anticipated. But there’s also some gas here, with an experience that almost never slows down, never lets you rest or breathe, but is always wrenching your brain and making you think. This is an utterly fascinating experience, and a wonderful exercise in a team taking something mundane and being relentlessly creative. Tons of people will probably hate it. But folks who gel with this particular brand of crazy have a potential new cult classic in their libraries.

With the arrival of Donkey Kong: Bananza, Nintendo’s legendary gorilla is finally back in the spotlight for a new 3D platformer. This sprawling journey is rich with challenging platforming sequences, a plethora of unique enemies, and features that will alter the DNA of this franchise moving forward. Top it all off with a story full of heart, and you’ve got an excellent addition to the Switch 2’s young library.

Death Stranding 2 will probably be divisive to players, partially because of the length of its journey (I clocked 100+ hours at an exploratory pace), and partially because it doesn’t solve every issue that speckled the shine of the first. Travel and delivery can still feel awkward and frustrating, but you have so many options for everything that the only thing really holding you back is not exploring them. Meanwhile, Kojima’s writing is still long-winded, and sometimes inappropriately paced, but the overall message, the compelling forces that drive it, and the ultimate conclusion left me breathless by the time the credits rolled. If you care enough to start the journey, I implore you to finish it. It truly is worth the trip.

Everdeep Aurora intrigued me. It moved me. It made me explore. Guided me often without me knowing it. It forced me to learn where things were (there is a map, but it does not mark everything), to backtrack, to explore, to remember, to find what was asked of me and solve what wasn’t, to carve my path in a way that acknowledged I would be back here, wherever that was, again. It took me through a world that felt old and lived in and like it could have been made twenty years ago but is probably only possible today. It introduced me to Shell, who reminded me of the value of being kind and helping others.

MindsEye isn’t a “so bad it’s good” situation. It’s just bad in a mundane, uninteresting way. It’s a half-baked idea built out with shallow writing, vapid gameplay, and bland everything else. Even the bugs aren’t funny enough to be memorable. The most entertaining part of all this is the vague allusion to sabotage the leadership at Build a Rocket Boy seems to be leaning on. Will we eventually learn exactly who sabotaged what part of this pile of decaying, raw beef of a video game to the extent of holding it back from greatness? Or were we simply seeing desperate executives throwing darts at the Wheel of Avoiding Accountability? Who can say? By the time an answer may emerge we’ll probably all forget MindsEye existed. We don’t really have bargain bins anymore, after all.

THPS 3 is a perfect game in my eyes, and while some design choices made in bringing THPS 4 to this combined remake package didn’t hit me in the nostalgia feelings the same way I can appreciate the overall result. Welcome back to the 9 Club, Tony!

Multiplayer, to its credit, does offer more variety. You can play modes like tag or capture the flag, for example, in addition to the sandbox play. These are fun, but feel more like side attractions to the main way to play. And without more built-in motivation to keep engaging with the game, multiplayer doesn’t magically patch that breach in the hull.

I wish Rematch had more modes, and I’d kick a soccer ball at somebody’s head for some bots and crossplay, which is bafflingly absent, though all that and more is allegedly coming down the line. I can’t deny that when I’m playing Rematch, I’m having a blast, and when I’m not, I’m thinking about playing Rematch, even if that means risking the solo queue. Sloclap is onto something here, and I even found myself sneaking a couple matches when I got stuck writing this review. That’s a hell of an accomplishment. Now all I need to do is find a regular team. Anybody looking to kick a ball around?

Survival Kids is an interesting take on a popular genre, one meant for a much younger audience. At the same time, kids have been growing up on Minecraft for over a decade, so Survival Kids may not be giving the gaming youth enough credit. There are some neat ideas here, but ultimately the experience is a little too shallow for exciting play, regardless of how old you are. And retro gaming enthusiasts who may have been excited for an actual, new Survival Kids are going to walk away immediately.

So while it’s rough around the edges in some ways, and a little confusing in others, the core of Popucom is a fun, creative, and thoughtful co-op challenge that combines a set of ideas you don’t see put together often. I mean, if I asked for an example of Puzzle Bobble as a shooter, I doubt I’d get many answers. Add the other gimmicks on top (I love that kitty UFO drone so much, folks), and you have a compelling set of challenges that ramps up intelligently and in ways that always feel surprising and fun to solve. I mostly just wish it was easier to pick up and play!

We often judge games for how intricate their systems are, marveling at how developers managed to cram everything into a package and make it all hum. There’s nothing wrong with that, but likewise there’s nothing wrong with celebrating a game that manages to deliver something that doesn’t feel the need to entertain every second of the experience. Fishing itself is relaxing, soothing, and at times exciting. It shouldn’t need to keep you engaged at all times like social media algorithms. Sometimes your line might sit in the water and nothing bites, and sometimes that’s the best part. Wombat Brawler gets this and delivers a thoughtful game where you Cast n Chill. That’s it, that’s the hook. Pun intended.

Dune: Awakening is a big game. Its wide array of content to explore makes the game a perfect one to boot up with a group, but it’s also entirely playable solo as long as you’re prepared for a slow grind. I’d argue taking it slow is what this game wants you to do, though. Dune: Awakening wants you to explore its many nooks and crannies, find the best location for your base of operations, and come into your own as you learn the ins and outs of Arrakis. Its survival systems and world mechanics did a lot to make me feel immersed in the desert planet. Some of those immersive mechanics might go a step too far if you’re not someone who wants to keep logging in consistently, but if you’re in for the long haul, Dune: Awakening has a lot here for pretty much any type of player.

While I wish that Splitgate 2 was a stronger, more confident evolution of the awesome concept presented in the first game, I can’t deny that I had some good fun just hopping in and shooting around for a few matches every night. Battle royale ultimately feels derivitave, but the modes I actually enjoed were able to scratch that FPS itch. I wish it was the kind of shooter that I could get completely lost in, but it’s not that. Still, it’s among the more interesting options in an arena shooter genre that’s pretty barren right now.

Bambas! has style and heart, but without clearer direction or refinement, it ends up walking in circles.

Survive the Fall is a fun game that does a lot right, but its rough edges, bugs, and optimization issues also mean it never reaches the heights it could. There are a lot of good ideas here, and patient fans of base management and survival games can find a lot to love. Sadly, that love is not unconditional, and your patience may be tested sometimes while playing.

There’s enough variety to the levels, both visual and otherwise, to keep things interesting, and Sandman Team does a good job of iterating on concepts in interesting ways while ensuring they don’t overstay their welcome. Through the Nightmares isn’t a long game — you can get through the whole thing in about five or six hours — but it is a good one with a unique concept, and it feels custom-made to be played in short bursts. It gives just as much back as you put in, and I appreciate that in a platformer like this. It probably won’t change your life, but it might just get you through a couple of sleepless nights. Sometimes, all you need is a little help from a friendly Sandman to make it to dawn.

Action-RPGs, especially ones that didn’t have “Devil May Cry” in the title back in the PS2 games, were an actively evolving genre back in the PS2 days. The rules were still being written, and many games didn’t have the depth or complexity we often take for granted these days. Raidou’s debut was one of those, a niche within a niche within a niche that had interesting ideas but only so much runway to explore them. Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army is an attempt to bring an old school, fan favorite character to the modern Megami Tensei fanbase, but one that’s afraid to present the original’s rough, experimental edge while simultaneously too risk-averse to swing with a full remake. So much like the Frankentitle, we have a Frankenupdate. Neither historically accurate nor boastfully made-over, what we have is… weird! Neat, but weird.

As it is now, Battle Train is a fun ride, but maybe not everyone should ride these rails just yet.

I like the Tron universe. I’ve been following it since the beginning and have played quite a few games within the IP throughout the decades. Tron: Catalyst’s biggest problem is that it just doesn’t do enough to stand out in the series. The combat and look of the game are boring. The atmosphere and music are detached and out of alignment with the story. The light cycle is fun, but you’re very restrained in where you can use it. And ultimately, while the time loop makes the story and progression more interesting, that arguably worthwhile story is attached to a fairly humdrum action game wearing all of the expected components of the Tron aesthetic.

FBC: Firebreak is an impressive multiplayer take on the Control universe. Each Job is cleverly designed to make the most of the game’s various playstyles, while also enjoying a steep amount of replayability thanks to Job customization. It’s a multiplayer game that can give you chill, casual vibes and intense, challenging gameplay; it’s all about what you want to get out of it.

I wish the writing was a bit less shallow, which feels like a side effect of trying to cram so much in a small space and doing so with a sandbox-style structure. Visual novels benefit from guardrails preventing them from catering too much to the player, and Date Everything abstains to its own detriment. But it’s still cute and fun, and there’s no denying the dopamine hits and humor from each new character reveal. Sassy Chap’s debut game is a commendable effort, and more like this can only benefit visual novels as a whole.

It can be very difficult to take these games that are focused on complex system management and add a nice layer of humanity to it all, offering a reason beyond simple efficiencies and problem-solving for people to engage, but 11 Bit Studios does it well and has once again succeeded with The Alters.

I enjoyed my time with Welcome Tour. Just be aware of what you’re getting if you decide to buy yourself a ticket to this, Nintendo’s other museum. It’s not a bad game, it’s just not entirely a game; that, coupled with the higher cost if you want to experience all the program has to offer, results in a product that won’t be for everyone.

Kathy Rain 2 isn't bad. Its puzzle design is excellent, and Clifftop's artists made one of the best-looking pixel games around. It just doesn't live up to its full potential and plays more like a quick homage to classic genres than a well-considered mystery thriller in its own right.

Elden Ring Nightreign isn’t your dad’s Dark Souls game. It’s not a slow, methodical, and exploration-driven experience. It is high octane, caffeine into the veins, run until you drop. The game kept me up at night, well past my bedtime, as I tried to clear just one more Expedition – maybe this next run would be the one. I went to sleep with it on my mind and woke up ready to dive back in. Even after rolling credits, I wanted to get in and keep playing. FromSoftware has done it again.

To a T is just the sort of whimsy that one would expect out of a game with Keita Takahashi's name on it. It's wholesome, hilarious, and at times just plain bizarre. This game has all of that, but it's also wrapped in a story that's inspirational to kids and adults alike. The game may not be perfect, because there are some dialogue issues that point to some localization snafus and occasional bugs that forced me to start from a previous save point. With that said, it won't take much to have you singing the main character's praises. He is, after all, the perfect shape.

Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo could easily be mistaken for an action-adventure romp for the Game Boy Advance that was somehow lost to time, and resurfaced when some collector found a prototype cart and sold it to preservationists for a historic ROM dump. It perfectly captures the vibe, design sensibilities, and even the flaws of games from that era. It has a lot of neat and creative ideas all revolving around the yoyo gimmick, and sometimes (especially in combat and some platforming) gets a little too cute for its own good. But when it’s nailing its concept it really nails it, and making your way through the adventure feels like an endearing throwback to the time of WarioWare, Zelda: The Minish Cap, and Mother 3, without being bogged down by loud, boilerplate references. Plus, the 3D handheld thing rules.

There are things I respect about Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon. Its soundtrack, for one, is uniformly pretty good, and the game’s ambition is undeniable, but I can’t really say I enjoyed much of my time playing it, moment to moment. Occasional striking vistas and questlines can’t make up for a world that feels pretty inauthentic in its representation of a fictionalized version of Celtic culture, and the way you are forced to constantly wander it to complete straightforward missions makes it a space that is hard to enjoy exploring. And while there are interesting roleplaying narrative beats, that is rarely reflected in gameplay that railroads you into one of two playstyles.

It’s a rare Metroidvania that feels different, that knows what it wants to be and manages to pull it off without feeling overly indebted to the games that inspired it. I enjoyed it, but most importantly, I felt like I was playing something with its own identity. Like the Sandfox themself, it could not be here without what came before it. But like the Sandfox, it charts its own path forward.

Veterans of the series should only consider F1 25 if they're specifically interested in the expanded My Team mode or invested in the next chapter of Braking Point. Otherwise, if you're satisfied with F1 24, there's no pressing reason to upgrade this year.

It’s a bummer, because when Scar-Lead Salvation actually gets around to where it wants to be, this game can cook. The boss fights are awesome, the rooms that actually fill up with enemies really test your knowledge and reflexes, and again, the basic gunplay and combat mechanics feel great to engage with. It’s all the other structural stuff that really holds the experience back, and makes me wonder if this project really needed to be a roguelike at all in the first place. For a game that is clearly inspired by Returnal, we seem to have really missed the forest for the trees here. But points for trying, especially from a set of studios that haven't played in this space before. I’d love to see another shot, no pun intended.

By the end, Deliver At All Costs reminded me of the 2000s, where a good idea wouldn't realize its full potential, but it was still good for a few hours of entertainment. This is a game that would have fit in wonderfully in that era. In that sense, this game does offer a sense of nostalgia, just like its 1950s setting.

Short, sweet, and smart, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown took me by surprise. It’s not just about how much I enjoyed it, but how intelligently Strange Scaffold came up with a gimmick that sounds bizarre on paper, but absolutely nailed it in practice. I never could have guessed what a turn-based beat-em-up could possibly be, but now I perfectly understand the concept. As someone who’s more keen on brawlers than being a general on the battlefield, this is an approach to tactics that lit up all the best parts of my brain, and kept on cooking until the credits rolled. And then some, because the song that plays at the end is a banger.

Monster Train 2 capably builds on the original game and improves on it immensely. It leaves the station and only picks up more speed as it goes, so get on board or get out of the way.

Onimusha 2 is a strange but good action game. There aren’t many things like it, but I’m glad it’s back just the way it is. The swordplay and progression are great and the story is an oddity determined by a number of decisions you make at crucial points. As such, there’s plenty to explore across a number of runs. The QoL and visual upgrades also add nicely without getting in the way or cheapening the experience. This remaster doesn’t hit every bullseye, but it’s an upgraded version of Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny in most places that count and I’m happy to have it.

Blades of Fire is probably going to end up as one of those games people refer to as a PS2-ass video game (complimentary), and I feel that. It’s a kind of game that feels out of place in time, but benefits from its accidental time travel by doing things a PlayStation 2-era console simply can’t. And in turn, it benefits from not being beholden to several more decades of convention that burden so many games coming out today, in a much more risk-averse and audience-starved environment. In that respect, Blades of Fire is pretty cool and interesting. It also annoys the bejeezus out of me at every possible opportunity. But I’m glad I played it, which is way more than I can say about Samus Returns.

Roadcraft brilliantly evokes the feeling of being a kid in a giant sandbox - only with grown-up tools. Jumping between massive machines, loading materials, flattening asphalt, and restoring order to disaster zones is immensely satisfying. Once you get past some UI quirks and minor annoyances, Roadcraft offers hours of engaging, mud-slinging fun. Bring a few friends, and the experience becomes even more rewarding.

Capcom Fighting Collection 2 is easily my favorite of the Capcom bundles so far, and a big part of that is simply the game selection. This legitimately feels like there’s something for everyone and it all plays in solid form with a bevy of quality-of-life features. There are small things I wish weren’t changed in ways that can’t be adjusted, but it doesn’t keep the majority of this collection from being an absolute feast of Capcom’s most delightful arcade titles. Whether you’ve played these games before or are cracking them open for the first time, you’re in for a treat, especially if you bring some friends along.

Deedlee Doo! Carkour! is weird, charming, and delightful. Coming off of The Axis Unseen, it feels like an example of Purkeypile stretching his creative legs and doing something that is simply fun. Carkour! can certainly be frustrating. You will fail dozens of times and it will probably be because of wacky physics, but success feels delicious and its aesthetic is so silly it was hard for me to be mad at any of it for long. For those looking for a new physics challenge, it will be fascinating to see the different ways to get through Carkour!, but it’s the speedrunning methods I’m most excited to see.

After Doom Eternal proved somewhat divisive among fans, Doom: The Dark Ages should be a Doom game everyone can appreciate. It’s fast and hard hitting, featuring robust combat systems that make learning their ins and outs fun and empowering. I daresay it’s even better than Doom 2016, and is a must-play title for everyone interested in Doom, first-person shooters, and action games as a whole.

The Midnight Walk is an atmosphere-first claymation horror game. What the game lacks in gameplay, it makes up for with its distinct world and art style. Immersive visual and sound design makes it easy to get lost in MoonHood’s dark fantasy story. There are weirdos like me that find comfort in horror games, but The Midnight Walk strategically and intentionally walks the line between cozy game and horror game. Come for the vibes, stay for the vibes, as you tread along The Midnight Walk.

What’s truly awesome is that underneath all the new glitz and glamour, Oblivion Remastered is still Oblivion. Bethesda games are infamous for their bugs and quirks, and a lot of that goes back to the incredibly ambitious game that was The Elder Scrolls 4 in 2006. This time around, it’s a lot cleaner and more presentable, but still littered with awkward animations and full-on flubs that have been lovingly preserved as part of the game’s legacy. There’s a real charm to this world, its story, and characters. As a kid who grew up in the 2000s, I’ve got a lot of nostalgia wrapped up in Oblivion, and a bit of concern realizing that this game is approaching its 20th anniversary. The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered is undoubtedly the new definitive way to experience Bethesda’s flawed masterpiece, a game that continues to be a standard for western RPGs.

Calling Tempest Rising "familiar but fun" sounds damning, but it's the most accurate way to describe it. Most of what Tempest Rising does, it does very well. There's nothing particularly exciting about it, and it's all been done before.

It was a fun game about a bald man who shoots guns at the floor to do Mario Things while Satan says mean words at him from a distance. It is never more or less than exactly that. I had a great time for around three or four hours, and will probably never think about it again. But that’s okay, because I don’t think Shotgun Cop Man intended to reach beyond that outcome. Shotgun Cop Man simply is, and I respect that about him.

Skin Deep is a neat, little game that takes recognizable gameplay conventions from immersive sims and repackages them into something smaller and sillier. Rather than gathering garbage, crafting endlessly, listening to pretentious audio logs and grappling with awkward combat physics in dark corridors, you’re doing similar things but in a framework more like The Three Stooges in colorful boxes with weird, blocky cats everywhere. It’s familiar yet distinct, and legitimately funny despite repeating the same three or so jokes over and over again. Combat’s still fumbly, though, and the parts asking you to do more of that are a buzzkill.

The magic of Expedition 33 is that it never gets old. You’re always discovering something, meeting new characters, learning skills, finding secret areas, battling hidden bosses, or discovering remarkable places. Through it all, Expedition 33 tells an incredible story of defiance in the face of impossible odds, discovery, loss, love, death, and belief. It’s the kind of game that reminds you what games can be, the kind with characters you’ll remember long after the credits roll. Sometimes art comes into your life when you need it. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a story I needed in a world that feels like it’s falling apart. Things are not always what they seem, and there's always hope, no matter the odds. A better world is possible; you just need people willing to fight for it. When one falls, we continue.

To its credit, Steel Seed doesn’t overstay its welcome. You can clear the whole thing in about twelve hours, and nothing here (well, aside from the combat) is bad. It’s just dull. Storm in a Teacup clearly knows how to make games and knows what they’re doing here, but it’s such a mismatch of parts from so many other games that none of them really manage to come together in a coherent way. Steel Seed never finds its identity, which is a shame because Storm in a Teacup is clearly a talented developer who understands how to make games. But Moran was onto something when he said that technique wasn’t as important as conviction. Zoe may be the chosen one destined to save the world, but the game around her never really feels like it's convinced of it — or itself. And if you can’t persuade yourself of the story you’re telling, it’s damn hard to convince anyone else.

This sounds like a bunch of different parts stacked onto each other like Lego bricks, and that’s kind of true. In some ways that’s vibe with games like Danganronpa or Master Detective Archives. But there’s a sense of each piece working together in those games to form a fully realized whole. In The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy-, the visual novel and combat parts hit that target, but the social and resource-gathering elements don’t. And those parts happen to eat up a ton of extra time that grows increasingly obnoxious as you explore the narrative. That stuff is padding that loses more and more substance the longer you play and the more you do a thing I can't really talk about here. That’s a weird sentence, but you’ll have to trust me on that one, just like the kid being told by a cartoon ghost to stab himself in the chest with a magic knife to save the world.

I have been waiting most of my life for much of what this game brings to the table. It’s a solid-feeling fighting game in one of my favorite series with good offensive and defensive options, a great starting cast that promises even more in the years ahead, a mostly good variety of modes, solid music (and the availability of classic tracks), a fun comicbookish animation style, and an editor to adjust character looks to your liking. That said, it’s not like this is perfect by any stretch. I kind of wish the last two months of news for this game hadn’t happened, because one of the results is shoddy and problematic (not Ganacci. He can stay). That paired with a checklist story mode and a somewhat unintuitive online UI keep this from being my ultimate fighting dream come true. Even so, if you've been waiting on a good new Fatal Fury game, it's here, pure and simple, and if that's all you care about, then City of the Wolves delivers.

Sunderfolk proves to be an admirable debut from developer Secret Door. It features many of the best aspects of tabletop games, capably molded into a two-screen video gaming experience. Even the parts of the game that feel subpar, like the mundane story, can still be a net positive simply through the power of friendship. Whether folks come together through a weekly game night or through a short session on Discord, Sunderfolk's bold ideas shine through and will hopefully set the stage for more exciting campaigns down the road.

When a game like Lost Records: Bloom & Rage shows such potential, I feel a grander sense of disappointment when it doesn't stick the landing. The game's characters aren't going to be everybody's cup of tea, because they can be over-the-top at times, but their love and friendship made me fall for them despite their imperfections. The refinements in the formula that began with Life is Strange ten years ago make this story resonate more, because you gain a more intimate insight into everybody's mindset.

Lunar is a tremendous series, a crucial high point of RPG history that doesn’t get nearly enough love today. And the reasons for that are complicated enough that the Lunar Remastered Collection existing at all feels like a small miracle. For the most part it’s a success, opting for more of a restorative, hands-off approach meant to make it look like a literal widescreen conversion of a PlayStation game. There are some unfortunate pain points that keep a great re-release from being a total slam dunk, but the other side of that is a brand-new dub that makes up for the awkwardness with its high quality and reverence for the original. Overall, I commend GungHo for mostly letting these all-time classics speak for themselves. That’s all you really need to do with Lunar.

Rusty Rabbit is the kind of game that sticks out because you can tell it’s made by people who care about their craft and have ideas they want to dig deep to explore. It’s not just a toy made for empty, vague metrics like fun and enjoyment. There are plenty of those, and those things have their place and value of course. But capital-p Passion Projects like Rusty Rabbit are few and far between, and offer alternatives to the norm that ask the audience to use their brains to engage with media in ways they might not be accustomed to. And there’s still plenty of fun to be had, from exploring dungeons to taking in all the silly rabbit-themed, sci-fi lore and background details that make such an off-kilter premise appealing. At the same time, this game might make you think about what you find important in your own life, or what it might be like to grow up seeing the world differently than people older or younger. This one is gonna stick for a while.

For what it is, Disney Villains: Cursed Cafe is fine. It's a simple visual novel that gives some extra flair to some tried-and-true Disney baddies. I certainly had a good chat with more than a few of them, but it wasn't something that could hold my attention for very long and was made worse if I felt like I made a mistake and had to blow another 5-10 minutes to redo the day. Some people are made for the daily grind of potionista work, but maybe I'm just not one of them.

Putting aside the weird, tone-deaf childishness of the plot setup, Grit and Valor – 1949 is occasionally an exciting little strategy game. Some of its map designs and optional objectives force you to make the most of scant resources, and for all the challenge, it's refreshingly quick and easy to make up losses when you fail. It's just frustratingly shallow in its take on roguelike structures for longer than it should be.

Claymore Game Studios realized what made the original Commandos games so great, retained the heart and soul, and sanded off all the prickly edges. Commandos: Origins is a love letter to the originals in everything it does. The mechanic-heavy sandbox gameplay, the unique cast of commandos, the gorgeous environments, and the level design, all of it coalesces into an experience that is contemplative and intense. It’s a brilliant and challenging strategy game. And doesn’t it feel damn good to punch Nazis?

Blue Prince is a puzzle gaming experience like no other. It's a roguelike that tests the player's ability to progress in their own mind as much as through whatever's in the game itself. It's deliberate with its pacing, which isn't always a good thing. It'd be nice to be able to move at a faster speed than walking speed, but I guess there's no running inside the house (or outside the house, for that matter). Despite that and an ambient soundtrack that can feel dull, Blue Prince's formula and its abundance of secrets are undeniably engaging. Even if it takes over 100 days to get to the fortune in the 46th room, this is a game that will have players feeling rich regardless.

When everything came together and the journey(s) ended, I knew I’d remember SaGa Frontier 2: Remastered for its compelling and distinct storytelling. That’s on top of the usual dopamine-spewing systems and aggressive contempt for convention I expect and enjoy from SaGa. But the annoying gimmicks, especially the Duel system, had me immediately second-guessing the prospect of hitting that New Game+ button. The remaster does a wonderful job making changes to the original without breaking anything, and even makes a big problem easier to deal with without paving it over to make it unobservable. This might not crack the top of my SaGa list, but it’s still a worthy entry in my favorite cult RPG series. Frankly though, I’m glad I waited for the remaster to try it.