I knew Star Ocean: The Second Story R would be able to rope me back in with little effort, but I was nonetheless amazed by just how much it improves on the original game. Every angle I looked at seemed reformed with care and consideration to make the visuals and sound more beautiful, the combat more tactically refined, and the side jobs rewarding.

Total War: Warhammer 3 represents a giant bow on a gift Creative Assembly has been working on for years and is sure to be a can’t miss for Total War and Warhammer buffs alike. Will it change minds for those who bounced off the series in the past? Not really, but this one is for the fans, and I’d wager most folks would be delighted to receive this kind of attention for their favorite IP.

Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! needed a few tweaks to make the jump from 3DS to newer platforms, but the final result is a strong thoroughbred of a game. The move to Switch gave Game Freak a chance to update some of Pocket Card Jockey's presentation, updating character models to 3D versions of their original counterparts. Outside of that and the aforementioned changes to the game's visual component, Ride On! is the same Pocket Card Jockey fun offered by the original game. Unique prize-winning ponies like this game don't come along every day, so it's nice to see a new generation on Switch get a chance to take a ride.

Sonic Mania is at once a blast from the past and a wormhole to Sonic's future, bypassing everything between it and the early '90s. Come for the callbacks, stay to get a firsthand look at what Sonic's custodians have in store for his future.

Unfortunately, Sons of the Forest doesn’t quite manage to bring all of its elements together in a tidy package. While the building, crafting, and survival elements are neat, they’re not intertwined with the story, with both feeling like they’re completely separate ideas. Even the story seems unsure of what it wants to be, with odd pacing and poor audio design. I feel that fans of the original Forest game will relish the experience on offer here, but for everyone else, there are far better survival games out there.

Mimimi Games puts their pedigree to work in Desperados 3 in fantastic ways. It’s not easy, and sometimes it’s downright cruel, but when a plan comes together in Desperados 3’s vast and varied Wild West, it’s supremely satisfying.

I dig how Monster Hunter Stories’ monster collecting spinoff has evolved over the years. Twisted Reflection has enough juice to be a good RPG for most players between its charming story, interesting characters, and engaging combat. And then when you get to the monster management, it opens up like never before with a wide variety of improvements, discoveries, and stat swapping to make your party as cracked as you want them to be. This game’s hairiest encounters put your party management and pattern recognition to the test in big ways. I wish more of the weapon classes had made it over, and that monster collection didn’t feel so tedious once you’re deep in it, but Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection is a fine benchmark for how far these spinoffs have come, and whether you’re returning from previous games or cracking a Stories game for the first time, there’s a lot to love here for stat-loving RPG fans.

If you have any interest in America’s favorite pastime, you owe it to yourself to step up to the plate with MLB The Show 19. 9/10 gratuitous bat flips.

Resident Evil was in dire need of fresh characters, ideas and mechanics to ensure we’d see additional numbered entries in the future, and this was one of the best ways to breathe new life into a franchise that’s been mistreated a bit in the past. From top to bottom it’s clear this was a project that was handled with great care, with excellent voice acting, gruesome surprises, and scenes you’ll be scratching your head about for days to come. To all Resident Evil fans out there, I say welcome home. You’re going to enjoy your stay with the Bakers.

While the 2013 reboot was growth for the sake of survival, Rise is more about growth on a more personal scale. Between a fantastic story that introduces some fascinating characters, its vast open world filled with hidden elements and wild game, and a greater emphasis on solving problems with brains as much as bullets, Rise of the Tomb Raider proves to be a remarkable follow-up to Lara's origin tale.

Forza Horizon set out to give racing fans the opportunity to enjoy the Forza series in an open-world environment, and with the addition of a vast and beautiful locale, multiplayer options, both online and in single-player mode, and all of its activities, Forza Horizon 2 is yet another sequel that vastly improves on its original.

The Last Campfire sets out what it promises to do, tell a heart-warming and tear-jerking story about life, death, and the emotions one feels when all hope seems lost. While the narrative does take a few beats to get started, the real problem lies in the overly simple puzzles that the game is built on. It’s a lovely experience that is quickly forgotten.

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.

The fact that I want to go back and grind some missions to level up my less developed characters speaks to SteamWorld Heist's longevity and satisfying appeal. Image & Form has another retro-inspired gem here, and has further established that like its denizens, SteamWorld stands for piecing together something great from a box of spare parts.

Equal parts frustration and elation, XCOM: Enemy Within is a bonafide fist-pump producer, taking players through the same emotional peaks and valleys of the original. Like most expansion packs, Enemy Within is targeted towards the experienced. But Firaxis once again manages to balance XCOM's disparate elements, resulting in a challenging and satisfying experience.

If you’re a fan of the Luigi’s Mansion series, then Luigi’s Mansion 3 is exactly what you’d expect out of a new game in the series. While it adds some new mechanics and modes, Next Level Games never does anything drastic to shake things up, but this isn’t a bad thing.

I’ve played a lot of good mech games, but few have ever given me the sheer depth of customization in both cosmetics and functionality that we have here. It’s like a dream come true.

If you’re a fan of the JRPG genre, especially classics Final Fantasy 6, Chrono Trigger, or any of the original Dragon Quests I would heavily encourage you to check out Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age.

I think the biggest praise I can give to the game is that I cannot wait to dig into it with a few friends over the coming weeks. It's the kind of game you can slowly chip away at over several evenings and the hardcore mode even offers some replayability down the line. While it doesn’t reinvent the wheels of its genre, Pugstorm’s Core Keeper emerges confidently out of early access and I’m looking forward to revisiting it over and over again in the coming years.

Heroes of the Storm is the least intimidating of the major MOBAs and that's a good part of what makes it so easy to keep coming back. It's easy to pick up and learn, while the option to turn Allied Chat off makes the game a pressure-free environment.

Housemarque reminds audiences that it’s got the chops to be one of the premier-tier game developers with Returnal. The game is wholly difficult with a roster of powerful enemies and bosses to overcome, but also gives the player everything they need in order to succeed. The game just gets better and better as you go on, as recognizing patterns and learning to adapt is endlessly rewarding. Despite some issues with RNG, it’s hard to knock this creepy sci-fi adventure. Returnal is a must-play PS5 exclusive for any roguelike fan itching for their latest challenge.

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!

In its current state, Cyberpunk 2077 has a strong story and world, but those strengths are weighed down by bad design decisions and bugs aplenty.

Cairn is a phenomenal climbing game. There were times where I wanted to throw in the towel because of some minor animation hiccup, but, like Aava, I couldn’t stop. There’s this intriguing parallel at play here, one that I found myself thinking about in those moments where I needed to rest my sweaty palms and Aava needed to recharge her stamina. Neither of us could stop. We had to see it through to the end, in whatever form that took. By the time the credits rolled, I knew that Cairn would stick with me for a long time. This is a game you absolutely have to experience.

On the whole, these improvements make Twilight Princess HD the best version of the worst modern Zelda game. That said, even a mediocre Zelda game is still pretty fun. If you can get past its tonal oddities and paint-by-numbers structure, it's a good game, but not a great one. I enjoyed it as a cultural artifact, but replaying it made me appreciate that this direction for the series was temporary.

Dark Souls Remastered manages to capture the essence of the Dark Souls experience, primarily because this is exactly the same game that debuted way back in 2011, just this time everything is in gorgeous 4K, and everything runs at 60fps – even Blighttown.

The package is a refinement of the strong showing from last year’s game with a better visual presentation thanks to the stronger hardware afforded by the newest generation of consoles. The new Braking Point story mode is put front and center, but it drives clumsily over the same awful speed bumps that made similar story modes like Madden’s Longshot a forgettable diversion.

Cadence of Hyrule is a brilliant but short adventure that expertly blends the Legend of Zelda series with the intensity of a rhythm-based game. The characters are great, drawing off iconic people from the Zelda series, while also feeling refreshing in the minds of the players.

Risk of Rain 2 is a top-of-the-line roguelike. No matter how familiar you get with the controls, you’re never comfortable, as death is always one or two mistakes away. The vast number of enemies, items, and abilities make for an endlessly replayable experience. The extensive work done in the game’s more than a year in early access has paid off, as Risk of Rain 2 is one of the best roguelikes to hit the market in recent memory.

Between removing the movement grid, adding more strategic options, new characters, new abilities, and expanding and revising the roster in an enjoyable story, Sparks of Hope feels like another exceptionally good collaboration between Ubisoft and Nintendo.

Once you get a feel for the game, Cities: Skylines can be quite satisfying and fun to play. But getting there can feel like trying to build a house without blueprints and only a vague idea of how to use each tool.

My questions at the beginning were answered pretty clearly. Dragon Quest 1 is a game that’s hard to mess with too much, as its simplicity holds most of its lasting appeal. Adding too much makes it top-heavy, although it doesn’t help when what is added feels shallow and poorly balanced. Perhaps there’s another version of this project that’s simply better in my eyes that pulls the effort off more cleanly. In fact, I can see the vision in Dragon Quest 2, which is a more robust, thoughtful, and gracefully implemented set of updates to what is at heart a Famicom game from the earliest days of RPG history. The end result of this package is strangely funny; two sides of a coin I never would have expected. It’s the worst time I’ve ever had with Dragon Quest 1, and the best time I’ve ever had with Dragon Quest 2. If this is your first time with this pair of historically powerful journeys, I almost don’t know what to tell you. But if you enjoyed your time with DQ 3 last year, you owe it to yourself to see the story through to the end. These are classics in every sense of the word, warts and all.

Wasteland 3 is one of those games that I could go on and on about, but the truth is, you really need to experience it yourself. The vast amount of content on display here is admirable, and inXile has once again proven why the community surrounding its titles is so passionate about what they do.

Long-time Zelda players will be smiling from ear to ear when they roll credits. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is full of wonderful surprises, engaging gameplay, and tons of stuff to do in the biggest top-down iteration of Hyrule yet.

Square Enix may be taking its signature Final Fantasy series to new places, but Bravely Default shows that they still know what makes a good, traditional JRPG.

Starfield is more than a welcome addition to Bethesda’s family of RPG franchises, it feels like the start of a new era for the studio. Not only is it the developer’s most technically impressive game, but it also delivers a worthwhile narrative that takes some major swings and establishes a sprawling mythos. It has some blemishes here and there, but Starfield proves to be an awesome sci-fi adventure.

As far as soccer games go, Rocket League stands out as a fantastic alternative to the more serious sports outings out there. The quickened pace and numerous customization options make this game a more intriguing and unconventional multiplayer option, but one that's definitely worth taking onto the pitch.

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.

Every single decision you make in Frostpunk 2 is like taking a step out onto a frozen lake. You might shift your weight onto a foot, only to see a tiny crack race out ahead of you. Is this the decision that will lead to your downfall? Even something as benign as placing down buildings comes with the weight of resource management, societal impact, and just a little bit more strain on the delicate system you’ve tried to establish. It’s a brilliant sequel that will leave you frozen with indecision as the icy disposition of the factions rivals the chill from a whiteout.

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales will appeal to loads of gamers and I suspect it will be a hit for PlayStation owners this holiday season. While there isn’t as much to do this time around and what is included is mostly recycled, the asking price is lower than normal. Being Spider-Man is still as fun as it was in 2018 (and potentially more fun now at 60Hz) and Miles Morales is a character that is more compelling than Peter Parker. Should the few technical hiccups get sorted out, this will be a solid inclusion for any game library. Anyone grabbing a PS5 at launch would do well to grab a copy.

Batman: Arkham Shadow is the blueprint for how to do AAA VR. The game makes every effort to translate the franchise’s best features to virtual reality, with a level of detail that makes you feel like Batman himself. It’s all complemented by an original story that’s on the same level of quality as most games in the series.

As an RPG, it's hard to recommend South Park: The Stick of Truth, given that there are a number of more polished titles that offer deeper battle systems and much larger worlds. As a South Park game, however, this is easily at the head of the class, nailing the show's humor at just about every turn.

Kunitsu-Gami isn’t particularly deep. However, it makes the most of all its many concepts, and outside the few dull moments of downtime, it’s always pushing you to think carefully and take in every part of its richly realized world. There’s genuinely nothing else like it, and I hope there’s more to come in the future.

To dismiss Tunic as a Zelda clone upon first glance would be doing it a huge disservice. Developer Finji has put together something special with this game, a game that lures players in with its adorable mascot character and delivers a deceptively difficult adventure. Tunic can be outright intimidating at points. However, the game does such a good job in helping bring players along, whether it's through stat upgrades or new pages of the instruction manual, that the difficulty never feels debilitating or inaccessible in any way.

It goes a long way towards catering to both long-time fans of the series and casual newcomers with mechanics that are simple to grasp, while also adding some welcome new degrees of complexity.

Shovel Knight is an amazingly fun romp, offering precision platforming at its finest. Only at the end did I feel the game began to falter a tad, as it delved into some unwelcome cliches. But aside from that, this game brought back memories in the best way possible, all supplemented by a soundtrack that will ring through your head for a long time.

The Jackbox Party Pack 7 isn't the best of the bunch, but it's still a solid game night for anybody looking to pass the time with friends and family that they don't get to see as much these days.

Frontier Developments’ Planet Coaster: Console Edition brings a celebrated PC title to both modern and next-gen consoles. New content makes the game feel a refreshed experience, rather than just an old game ported to run on new hardware. I ran into some tech hiccups while playing on console, but it didn’t rain on my parade hard enough to make me wanna close down the park.

Jusant gets the most it can out of a simple formula. It tells a memorable tale, one that goes to some unexpected places by the final chapter. The game uses a central gameplay mechanic that anybody can grasp. Plus, it's beautiful to behold, taking that idea of climbing a picturesque tower and using it to craft some awe-inspiring landscapes...The climb to the top of Jusant isn't a long one, but it makes the most of every moment. If this is an example of what happens when Don't Nod decides to get experimental, I can't wait to see how much bolder the team can go.

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.

Though it does sag with some questionable hitboxes and a glut of menus, mastering the interlacing combat systems in Nioh 2 is deeply rewarding. The developers at Team Ninja have crafted a deviously challenging experience that is bound to test even the best of players.

I give Square Enix and ACQUIRE Corp props for ambition, but there's still a ways to go before the Octopath Traveler lives up to its potential and reaches its final form.

It’s always easy to recommend The Show, and even easier on its best years. While there are still a few rough spots, it’s hard to look at this year’s edition and not come away impressed by the sheer amount of content and modes, as well as the polished gameplay and player experience improvements. This is a gigantic care package of baseball, with countless ways to play the game for both hardcore and fair weather fans alike. I’ll be spending lots of time with this game all year, even when my Tigers inevitably hit a brick wall in August (prove me wrong, boys – prove me wrong). MLB: The Show ’17 is a love letter to baseball and its fans, and one of the secret best reasons to own a PS4.

Death’s Door combines excellent story and lore with challenging and rewarding combat. As an action game, there’s a lot to love about the enemies faced and customization available. Story can easily take the backseat in a game like this, but the sheer concept of it all and the lore dumped on top makes the story in Death’s Door equally intriguing. Acid Nerve delivers one of the more well-rounded titles I’ve played this year with Death’s Door.

Destiny 2 proves that the journey is more rewarding than the destination. Sure, I'll pick up duplicate or useless loot, but at least I had a good time along the way. And honestly, it's the kind of good time I could see myself having for a long time.

I once again have to point to Minishoot’ Adventures succeeding where it matters most: execution. Genre mashups are plentiful these days, and sometimes the math is off, or there’s something incongruous the developers struggle to overcome. I think of games like TMNT: Tactical Takedown or Pac-Man World 2’s bizarre Sonic DLC as recent examples of mashups going hard in the paint and nailing premises that sound odd on paper. Minishoot’ Adventures definitely stands among them as a new stellar example of presenting a strange-sounding concept and nailing it at a base level.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection has a handful of quirks and legacy issues, but those don't diminish the achievement. It's a stellar collection of some of the best games of the last few generations, with options galore and clever ideas like Playlists to breathe new life into old content.

Skate Story is an insane love letter to the sport of skateboarding and the many cultures surrounding it. The game feels like an interactive street skating music video from the 1990s with a camera that creates epic and cinematic moments on every level, and a soundtrack from Blood Cultures that perfectly fits every moment from ambient chill spots to chaotic rhythms for boss battles. The visuals are accentuated by truly unique character models, wild art styles, a beautiful contrast of light and dark, and stunning set pieces.

Even with some of the controls catered to novices, the game ultimately rewards patience and dedication. The result is one of the deeper fighting games I've come across, bolstered by an engaging presentation. Learning can be time-consuming, but for some of the keen-looking moves you can dish out, it's worth the effort.

Pikmin 3 feels like the strategy game for people who aren't really into strategy games, sort of like how Hades is the roguelike for people who don't dig roguelikes. After a while, you forget that you're playing a strategy game and you become enraptured by the beautiful environments, the adorable Pikmin creatures, and the chaos that gradually descends on you as the day goes on. That's the Pikmin 3 Deluxe experience and it's one worth checking out if you haven't already.

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.

Yakuza Kiwami 2 is such a fun, wild, and weird creature that it feels almost like fanservice.

You might have to take notes outside the game to keep up, but it’s worth putting up with the annoyance. Rise of the Golden Idol is one of the most captivating mystery games around, one that makes clever use of every tool available to it and expands the possibilities of what a logical deduction game can achieve.

Return to Monkey Island is an enjoyable game that I will definitely be telling my nephews and niece to play. It left me wanting more and now that the introduction is over, the next installment should provide the story progression that I was hoping for with this one. If nothing else this game will serve as a reminder to never say never. Ordinarily when a small company is bought out by a multibillion dollar conglomerate it usually goes quietly into the night never to be heard from again. The fact that this game was made at all is a truly remarkable accomplishment. Terrible Toybox and Devolver Digital have overcome the impossible and opened the door for more. Until then might I suggest playing through the entire original series as well as befriending the three headed monkey that’s behind you.

Most of these additions and tweaks are bonuses or minor quality-of-life improvements learned from later games. The core is intact, unchanged, and still spectacularly fun. As the saying goes, they don't make them like they used to. Ratchet & Clank argues that maybe they should.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land is one of, if not the best, Kirby games ever made. It combines everything that makes modern Kirby games wonderful, fun, and charming and mixes them all together into a delicious dessert blend that you can’t help but love and want more of. While the game won’t take you too long to beat, there’s more than enough on offer to make Kirby and the Forgotten Land well worth replaying.

While I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve never been a big fan of the series, I found a lot to like in Three Kingdoms.

Although the stealth missions can be annoying--as is the fact that cut scenes can't be skipped and how there's only one save slot for the campaign--I can see myself returning to Kyrat despite its faults. There's so much to explore, and the world has so much detail that it's hard not to be drawn back.

Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew takes the character-driven stealth tactics I loved in Desperados and applies a ghost pirate theme to it in ways that are nearly always fun to play and beautiful to look at.

Tetris Forever tells a complete story, from the origins to the current Tetris Company, 40 years later. The new interview footage, filmic editing, curated game placement, and supplemental materials are arranged with tremendous skill and care. I can’t gush enough about how Tetris Forever takes the concept and structure of Gold Master and nails it, showing that weaving the “museum” content and gameplay together to tell a singular story leads to something that’s fun and intellectually gratifying at the same time.

Moss is a fantastic game with a story that will draw players into its world and it has some great visuals to back it up. While there is some death and darkness to the title, I would still consider it a family friendly title, but maybe not something for the young, young kiddies.

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.

The Death Stranding Director’s Cut adds enough new tools and toys for players to utilize to make the experience worth replaying for those diehard fans. And for those that were unsure about getting in, the shuffling and redistribution of tools ensures that the early game is more approachable, while still retaining the sense of scale and progression offered at launch. The other features, like the firing range, racing track, and new location elevate an already rich experience. So collect your order and tie up your laces, because you’ll want to walk another 500 miles or more to experience what’s on offer here.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown shows that this long-running franchise still has plenty of life left in it. The main narrative is sharp, with interesting twists and reveals about the universe at large. It’s only surpassed by the combat, which challenged me in all the right ways. The future of Prince of Persia may be uncertain, but Ubisoft just gave itself one hell of a blueprint with The Lost Crown.

That a first-person shooter like Doom exists in 2016 is shocking. Its levels are vast and intricately designed, its gameplay diverse and joyful, its toolset robust. Multiplayer is its weak link, but the adaptability of SnapMap is more than enough to offset that.

In spite of some growing pains, Marvel Snap is fantastic and a marvelous first effort from the folks at Second Dinner. Like Marvel itself, it should be fun to see how it grows going forward.

Everything about Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time feels perfect. Yeah, the game can be frustrating, and there are a few hiccups here and there, but for the most part the formula is still solid. The addition of new mechanics helps to bring the old-school design forward, and the overall design of the game – from levels to characters and beyond – is splendid.

Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom intensifies the action in its JRPG foundation, mirroring some of Level-5’s best work instead of leaning more heavily on the charm of Studio Ghibli. It’s resulted in a game I continue to enjoy a great deal and a desire for Level-5 to distance itself even further from the animation giant to get a peek at what the developer can do, again, when completely uninhibited in any way.

Perhaps more importantly, it packs a surprising amount of historical heft, making it just as much a must-have for those interested in a broad and distinct look at the medium itself.

Two Point Museum is, for me, the best amalgam of Two Point Studios' business management and mechanics yet. The road to five-star museums is paved with fun challenges and customization that will likely have empty spaces looking like your personal dream attraction hours in. Even when I reached one-star at Wailon Lodge, I was so proud of the haunted house maze of supernatural fascinations that I couldn’t help but stare at my work for a while before moving to the next thing. This game may have a few frustrations in waiting and free design, but it’s also full of warm moments to be proud of what you put together as the visitors enjoy your assembly, and that’s exactly what I want out of a Two Point game.

Shadow of Mordor is influenced by other games, but not defined by them. Instead it takes pieces from some of the best games of the last few years, augments them with RPG mechanics and the new Nemesis system, and integrates them all so well together that it's sometimes hard to tell where one system begins and another ends. It's a remarkable achievement.

While I can't rightly say they're everything that a die-hard Pokemon fan wants, they're very clearly games that rank among the most-polished and most-appealing titles available on the Nintendo 3DS hardware. The attention to detail is so thorough that it's easy to forget these are products designed by a team.

The Shin Megami Tensei games have often been some of the most mechanically inventive and unique, and that remains the case with SMT5. Combat is challenging and dynamic, and the party-building options are limitless. My only issues with the game boiled down to JRPG tropes that likely won’t bother hardcore fans. It’s not only an excellent JRPG, but a wonderful new entry in one of the genre’s most influential games.

For those who yearn for the days of platforming yore, Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment is a dream come true. Some will be turned off by its lack of scope, especially when it seems like every major title that comes out is filled with lore and unbound exploration. However, sometimes it's just great to spend some time with a game that just has tight, precise gameplay that doesn't require you to deal with endless mechanics and crafting to get enjoyment. Specter of Torment is that game, a modernized version of the platforming games that we loved and loved to hate from childhood.

BlazBlue Entropy Effect X is one of those “pure gameplay” roller coasters that offer you tons of value just in terms of how awesome it feels to press buttons and really dive into what you can do. If you like BlazBlue already, great! Pick your favorite (hopefully they’re here) and dive until you want to throw up from the excess. If you aren’t into BlazBlue, it doesn’t matter - if you just like dope combat systems in 2D action games, that’s what’s on the table here and in heaping piles. Even the roguelikey build-crafting stuff takes a backseat in terms of relevance once you get your first few upgrades. It’s really just all about Ragna the Bloodedge fighting ninjas with his demonic blood powers. And that’s plenty.

I haven’t felt as challenged or as impressed by a puzzle game like Humanity since Portal 2 and The Talos Principle. Sony likely saw something special about it too (and this time at least, I agree), as it is one of the few games that will be available with a PS Extra or Premium subscription on day one. While Humanity does become less of a puzzler near the endgame, that’s a minor quibble in light of the risks it takes, its inventive range of content, its thought-provoking story, and its curiously peculiar presentation. (The dog is cute too.)

The Sprint Vector experience serves the VR platform in a couple different ways. It fits into your home as a competitive romp among friends or online and as one of a growing number of virtual reality games that can be worked into a fitness program. It also supplies a combination of competition and match length that fits into VR arcades. Either way you slice it, Sprint Vector is a pretty great value that deserves a spot in the VR ecosystem's upper tier of games.

This is one of the best games to be released this year, without a doubt. While the campaign may have felt a bit short with its abrupt ending, it left me itching for a sequel.

Halo 5: Guardians isn't 343's first Halo game, but it's the first that really makes the series its own. This isn't a reflection of Bungie's efforts, or a remaster, or stage-setting. The studio has put its own identity on this Halo game with smart moves like a more identifiable story and a wider array of multiplayer options, along with increased polish like Guardians' incredible visual punch and impeccable multiplayer balance.

MLB The Show 23 is another solid addition in what is the best annual sports sim franchise. San Diego Studio continues to show a deep knowledge and understanding of baseball and the culture surrounding it. The addition of The Negro Leagues is a massive improvement to the overall product, and the ability to scan your face into Road to the Show is a fun new feature as well. Outside of some minor league woes, MLB The Show is another grand slam.

Skyrim on Switch is as good as I hoped it would be. I still find new areas to explore and new secrets to discover. Being able to take this awesome title on the go truly showcases why the Nintendo Switch is king. Sadly, Skyrim is a 2011 game, and at times it really shows. Because of this, it doesn’t stand up against a game like Breath of The Wild, though that comparison may not be fair. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim proudly stands as the second best RPG available on Switch. If by any chance you’re a Switch owner that’s never played Skyrim, I’d recommend picking it up.

Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon is an easy game to misjudge. It would be simple to dismiss it as a casual puzzle game. It is far from that. This game is as deceptively difficult as it is engaging. The difficulty level may even turn off those just looking for a relaxing romp. However, for those looking for more teeth to their puzzle games, Pocket Dungeon is going to offer that in spades... or shovels.

Darkest Dungeon takes the staples of roguelikes and adds the atmosphere and themes of Lovecraftian Horror and does so with incredible success. The game captures the feeling of battling an unending wave of nightmarish abominations with little to no chance of hope. But when you do succeed you feel like a million bucks. The difficulty may deter many people from trying this game out, but if you are brave enough you will be rewarded with a rich experience.

There’s a lot on offer here, and while it does lose itself in the grind sometimes, the sheer amount of content here more than makes up for the negatives that you’ll encounter, especially if you’re a fan of the games that inspired it.

Axiom Verge does a phenomenal job of not only paying homage to some of the greatest games of the past, but also of crafting its own identity in the process. It doesn't just pay respects to the greats. It deserves its own place alongside them.

I'm eager to see what new situations 11 Bit Studios adds to the Frostpunk in the future, as the concept has a ton of untapped potential.

Streets of Rage 4 might be one of the pinnacles of the beat’em-up genre, seamlessly mixing arcade and co-op fun with absolute depth of visuals, a good soundtrack, and fantastic overall fighting design.

I loved the previous titles in the series, and although this new one can miss the mark at times, it's a beautiful treasure hunting romp that brings back that same Uncharted feeling.