Ubisoft Toronto's flexible approach succeeds in catering to both fans new and old. A strong co-op mode and the addition of both classic and a fully modernized Spies vs. Mercs makes Blacklist worthy of holding the Splinter Cell name.

While a little rough around the edges in some ways, I had a blast with Don’t Stop, Girlypop! all the way through. It was nice and refreshing to play a shooter that wasn’t about ripping and tearing or doing weird military propaganda with bizarre concoctions of hyperrealism and Fortnite seeping out of monied crevices like bleeding gums. Instead, I bedazzled my shotgun like a true Y2K sicko without being asked for a single dollar. Some mechanics were a little funky, and the absurd (complimentary) flip phone dialogue segments were plagued with wooden acting, but the moment to moment chaos was a hearty dose of arcade-style energy disguised as an arena shooter.

When mixed with the camera’s specific framing the low-res polygonal visual design and clear progression delineation, Virginia is a marvel of sight and sound.

The Witness is an intentionally simple game to grasp, but enjoyment almost feels proportional to patience. These puzzles are absolute brain-breakers, so anyone that doesn't have the patience for them will get no enjoyment out of The Witness. I was certainly on the verge of being one of those people, but exploring the sheer beauty of the island and learning more about its central mystery turned out to make returning worthwhile.

Between the middling voice acting undermining the story, the barely-there puzzles, and the sterility of the visuals, it feels like the magic of adventure games on Nintendo’s older, gimmicky hardware hasn’t been recaptured. But I still had a great time taking it all in. Weird, huh? That’s what being a history nerd feels like.

Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris feels like a run-of-the-mill JRPG, done in the style of SAO. Not ever did I think the game was downright bad or poorly made, but rarely was I taken or impressed by anything going on from a story or gameplay perspective. The game would have benefited greatly from leaning more into the online/MMO universe that it’s based on. However, fans of the anime and manga will surely still find some enjoyment with the latest adaptation of Sword Art Online.

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.

I really like the overall style of Gundam Evolution. The maps are neat and the mobile suits are a decent starting lineup, even if I don’t like some of the omissions from throughout the franchise in both the roster and cosmetic options. There’s also the fact that some of these mobile suits just feel straight-up overpowered compared to certain other niche options in team comp. That said, as a live-service free-to-play game, I’ve never had an issue finding a match in Gundam Evolution and it looks like the groundwork is here for some good improvements, additions, and balancing over time. I also really enjoyed matches where my team worked together well, win or lose. If you like Gundam and you like Overwatch, there’s no reason to pass Gundam Evolution by. Just be mindful that you might get demolished in the early running as Bandai Namco balances and adds to the game.

The smarter sims, sleek customization system, and emotions truly brings The Sims 4 to life. However, even with those impressive features, the game ultimately feels like a incremental step up from The Sims 3.

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.

It’ll take a specific kind of person to get the most out of Turok 3. Shadows of Oblivion is an impressive remaster of an interesting retro game, but even when it came out it wasn’t blowing any minds. Did you grow up on games like the Turok series, those chunky, 90s shooters made for consoles before Halo? Are you interested in fascinating, specific corners of gaming history, and what kinds of restorative efforts can be applied thereof? Players just looking for a new shooter to play probably won’t have a great time. For me, I feel like I just slingshot time-traveled inside my own brain. I don’t know what that means, either.

While the single-player content feels phoned in, Infinite's multiplayer is enough to make it feel worthwhile. The Infinity Stone mechanic also helps it stand out, with enough variety to keep it from feeling like a tacked-on gimmick. It certainly has its shortcomings, but if Capcom can keep the roster growing, Infinite stands to have a good, long shelf life ahead of it.

Rage of the Dragons NEO is a niche within a niche, an odd game with an odd history that appeals to an extremely specific kind of audience. That’s tough for any game, but especially a fighting game that has to compete with the likes of Street Fighter and Guilty Gear. Not having cross-platform play is an additional barrier that seems to already be making online an actual ghost town. That’s unfortunate. But if you’re interested in gaming history, fighting games, and the weird intersections thereof, Rage of the Dragons NEO is really cool. I can see it coming out in-between sets of the bigger titles, a fun side game at local tournaments, or just a cool thing for enthusiasts to satisfy their own curiosity with. The Bleem! IP is also involved somehow, making perhaps even this new version a novel relic of its own.

As a whole, Broken Age pulls off its duality motif wonderfully. Not only are Shay and Vella's stories interesting reflections of themselves, but Part 1 and Part 2 as a whole are practically reflections of themselves, as well. They're two parts of a tale that should be experienced together as a whole, especially since the game only offers the briefest of recaps when starting Part 2.

It's clear that Pikmin 3 was not designed with the GamePad in mind. Even in our review guide, Nintendo recommends playing with the Wii Remote and Nunchuck. Controlling the virtual cursor becomes much easier the Wii Remote, and alleviates many of the camera control issues you may face when playing with just the GamePad or Pro Controller.

Those who haven't experienced Donkey Kong Country Returns in the past owe it to themselves to try it out. It's a masterpiece with inspired level design, a beautiful art style, and fun that can be experienced alone or with a friend. However, those who have already taken this journey on Wii or 3DS won't really find anything new in this barrel of monkeys. It's safe to go back in your treehouse and wait for Donkey Kong to return again.

MXGP 19 is a solid PC port that doesn’t feel like an afterthought. With more time in the garage, I could see this series making a leap into something great in the future. 7/10 four-strokes.

Any person eager for the heyday of the pen & paper days of RPGs should find this a nice blast from the past.

It's easy to write Khazan off as just another Soulslike at a glance, and it would be refreshing to see Neople create its own style and structure instead of just imitating a popular convention. However, Neople went further than most Soulslikes and actually innovated with its take on the genre's combat. That's a big positive, seeing as there's not much else to Khazan outside of battle, but at least all the time spent in combat is enjoyable.

Mato Anomalies was a kind of game that pushed me away and pulled me in frequently. I found Doe’s investigative side to be boring outside of good story bits and the Mind-Hack card battle segments. Meanwhile, between the Gear system and skill cooldown system, exploring the Rifts and fighting the Bane Tide would be really fun, if not for the lack of enemy variety and non-stop one-liners. The story was good enough to help me look past some of the issues, but ultimately Mato Anomalies has a lot of repetitive annoyances that keep it from being better than many of the RPGs it borrows from.

Phantom Breaker: Omnia is a really interesting anime fighting game with an eclectic cast of characters, even if some of those characters’ art styles look strange and out of place. An interesting and easy-to-understand fighting system also means being able to specialize any given character with the game’s three systems and further boosting playstyle variety.

The game is one that can be hard to play and hard to return to, but it's also hard to put down once you do.

For a while there, things weren’t looking so great for Bomberman, one of the most underappreciated gaming mascots out there. But it feels like the weird, little guy’s alive and kicking now, with two retail games within a few years of each other and more. Super Bomberman R 2 isn’t the ultimate Bomberman experience, but it’s a cute, wholesome package of old school, multiplayer videogame glee. Which is weird to say about a game with Pyramid Head in it.

DEEER Simulator is freaking ridiculous, and I say that mostly in a good way. It’s not here to give you the flashiest graphics or the most cohesive gameplay experience. You should not expect to come into it and say, “ah, that makes sense” at pretty much any point. It’s a game of ridiculously over-the-top physics, antics, and freedom. I wouldn’t say it’s an incredibly long experience (I wish there was more), and its jank can sometimes be so much that it actually detriments the game. That said, if you want something that’s just plain silly - that lets you be a deer and do crimes - DEEER Simulator might be well worth the distraction.

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 feels more like a 1.5 or “definitive” version of the original game rather than a full sequel (voice acting and alternate costumes were added to the first game post-launch). It’s the game I expected to play when the first one was announced a couple of years ago. Fleshed-out single-player options actually give me a reason to log on, and the addition of voice acting and cinematics makes the game feel more alive. However, the removal of several fighters from the roster and lack of large-scale innovation makes it a fine, serviceable platform fighter.

Mortal Kombat 11 isn't the ideal MK package and may not even be the best MK package to come along in this console generation. Still, it's a strong package and one that still proves fun to play alone or with friends. It's not a flawless victory, but it's still a victory, nonetheless.

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.

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!