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.

Nidhogg is a simple and enjoyable package, only marred by an unstable netcode, a limited stage selection, and all-too-simple options.

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.

Despite the growing pains, Darktide is a solid co-operative action game that’s great for a group of friends to play in spurts. At launch, the experience is limited in progression and variety, but the gameplay is challenging and viscerally satisfying enough to keep your attention. It doesn’t hurt that the soundtrack slaps and, performance issues aside, the graphics pack a punch. Since Fatshark is known for updating the Vermintide series over time with frequent content updates, Darktide is expected to improve as well. It may even deserve a higher score within the next six months, but I can only review what’s available now. So if you’re considering a purchase of the game, think of it as an investment that will likely pay off in a few years. It’s more than understandable, though, if you would rather wait for Darktide to meet your standards for a full release.

State of Decay 2 is repetitive, but fun when it works. When it doesn’t, you'd be forgiven for a few rage quits. In a game where any misstep can result in losing an important survivor for good, to have this happen not due to my own mistakes, but a bug or glitch, is frustrating.

The team at Saibot Studios have made exactly what they promised to their Kickstarter backers, but I was left wanting more. This doesn't make Hellbound a bad game, but it certainly feels like there were a few things left on the cutting room floor as I finished the game. After a somewhat slow start in the campaign, I was happy to finish the fight, and any fan of 1990s FPS fans could do worse than slaying demons in Hellbound.

In a world of overcrowded shooters, I've grown to enjoy Evolve and the uniqueness it brings to the table. One item that should be noted, though, is the shakiness of the game's shooting mechanics. While I mostly embraced the Assault class for a chunk of the review, that only made the iffy physics surrounding aiming and firing that much more apparent. Aiming doesn't get much easier with the monsters and when Goliath's arsenal contains a "rock throw" ability, not being able to reliably aim is a killer.

Whether it was because of the shorter format or because the developer was tied to comic canon, The Walking Dead: Michonne doesn't quite hold the same emotional resonance as Telltale's own original take on the series. But as a Michonne story, it does a great job of providing a window into this character's fractured soul.

Much like its namesake, Wildfire takes a while to kick off, but once the perfect conditions are met, it can be chaos. The unique abilities make for interesting moments, which is needed thanks to the often monotonous stealth systems that plague the game. For those looking for a neat game to play co-op, you’ll find it in Wildfire.

It’s good to see Skunkape get to continue its revisitation of classic Telltale history, instead of riding off into the sunset after finishing the Sam and Max trilogy. It’s also neat to see this little oddity in particular not only come back, but do so with tweaks and even keeping the Team Fortress 2 interactivity intact. I hope this team gets to continue working on stuff, keeping that era of adventure games alive for as long as possible. In the meantime though, I’m feeling like I could get pretty good at poker.

I do think the overall shallowness is a shame, and a game that looks this interesting was begging for a photo mode. It is also great to see Sony release this title on PC and Nintendo Switch on day one, even if the console war gods still demand that Xbox be sacrificed on the altar of platform partisanship. Ultimately, Lego Horizon Adventures is a solid title for kids, or to play with kids, but it’s hard to escape the idea that those same kids are likely a little bit smarter than the challenges that are on offer here.

Just when Tactica’s combat feels like it steps into its own, the game ends. Atlus definitely played it safe by easing players into the basics and gradually giving them more freedom to use all of Tactica’s tools, but the moment where everything clicks and all the systems work together happens a little too late. There's a lot of potential here, though, and I hope this isn't the last time Atlus brings tactics to the shadow world.

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.

The game is undeniably gorgeous and clever, and easy to drop in and out of. The stories and characters are fun to experiment with as well, and Storyteller ultimately does a great job at establishing itself as something wholly unique within the puzzle game space. It’s worth experiencing for the chance to get to see everything that could ever happen in a story — from what goes right, to what goes terribly, terribly wrong.

Hatoful Boyfriend is very much a mixed bag, in terms of story quality, but also proves to be a quaint curiosity. If nothing else, the anime art style is a pleasure to behold, with some bright and engaging set pieces on display.

A Way Out is full of heart and soul: you'll grow to love the characters, and you'll become invested in Leo's charm and curious about Vincent's problems, but it’s light and it could leave you unsatisfied.

Aside from its robotic hostess, It's Quiz Time is as robust a trivia game as a person can find on the next-gen market. The rich variety of questions makes this a fun game to return to on a regular basis and some of the inventive round types makes this even more fun to play with groups of people. This has the potential to be every bit the fun party game that Buzz! once was, but just remember that the more, the merrier.

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.

XDefiant feels like a niche, that knows it’s a niche, and tries to sprinkle some broad appeal on top. Just enough to draw in more than the hardcores, without risking alienating them too much. At the same time, it’s a line in the sand moment for all the FPS hardcores who are sick and tired of SBMM. On top of all that, crossing over Tom Clancy series has the appeal of mixing a bowl of potato chips from different brands that are all the same flavor. And Watch Dogs? Anyway, there’s a solid foundation here with rock-solid arena shooter mechanics. If the matchmaking experiment works out and some key adjustments are made, I can see this game sticking around for a good while.

It’s basically the kind of greatest hits-style structure you’d expect from a quirky, arcade-style franchise game over a decade removed from its last major entry (unless you’re in the Apple Arcade mines). It’s got everything you’d expect to see but more of it, lots of unlockables, music DLC, self-referential content out the wahzoo, so on and so forth. It’s a lot of fun even if Katamari’s trademark weirdness isn’t so weird anymore, and it doesn’t really seem to have ambitions to redefine anything (not that it needs to). Aside from the whole crown thing putting me off, it’s been a blast picking away at the experience piece by piece. And listening to Lonely Rolling Star in the menu. On repeat. A lot.

Seeing it through the prism of the old Oregon Trail, I enjoyed Ashwalkers and its myriad of tough, meaningful choices. Its heavy material and its dreary art style doesn't make it a game that I plan to revisit very often. I can appreciate the variety of scenarios, especially the idea that players can select different starting points after multiple playthroughs. In that sense, it's unlike a lot of survival games out today and worth playing through at least once.

Madden NFL 17 is a quality Madden game. It does a lot of things right, and fixes most of the major shortcomings of previous editions. If you’ve lapsed in the series or just want to know if you should grab this year’s game, go forward knowing that you will get a lot of mileage from it. It’s good. At the same time, however, it is still absolutely a Madden game, and in the 12th year of EA’s exclusivity deal with the NFL it’s hard not to pine for a little competition. Sunrise, sunset.

Despite the roughness that comes with some of its systems, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is one of the best Dragon Ball Z games we’ve ever seen. CyberConnect 2 has really brought some of the most iconic bits of the Dragon Ball saga to life with its work on the cutscenes, and the game has plenty of offer fans looking to get lost in the world. You just have to be willing to look past some of the more shallow systems and repetitive combat to experience the good.

Fans of slower-paced story games will enjoy it, but others may very well lose their patience.

Aliens: Dark Descent does a decent job of creating an interesting mashup of tactical action and strategy that suitably translates the tension and aesthetics of the popular movie franchise. Needing to stealth around the xenomorphs is a nerve-wracking experience, and the firefights against the aliens can be intense when they work. However, the plot and dialogue are lackluster, the enemies aren't as terrifying as they could be, and the flow between stealth and boss fights is abrupt. There's just one too many ideas in Aliens: Dark Descent, but it's still nonetheless a worthwhile adventure.

Just like its impressively long and unwieldy title, Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land is a messy game. But it’s a messy game with lofty ambitions and a lot to like, even if which pieces you end up liking are not the pieces you expected or wanted to like, especially if you’re a returning Atelier fan. It’s also hard to recommend Yumia as a starting point despite its apparent interest in being one, when I can point to Ryza as a strong foundation that manages to justify itself as a three-part arc that never overstays its welcome. What we have here is an RPG that casts too wide a net for its own good, but has a lot of cool ideas and hits enough different notes in different ways that still make it worth playing. For folks willing to engage with a flawed experience in good faith and put up with some janky bloat, Atelier Yumia has a lot going for it. But those looking for a more realized vision that cleanly hits its targets will likely lose patience.

Unless you have a very good group of friends playing, it can be a game that's very easy to put down and step away from. Despite some these potential issues, Quiplash ends up being a fun little game that has the potential to liven up get-togethers and parties, but its enjoyment depends entirely on the players involved.

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.