On one hand, Dandara is a perfectly serviceable romp through a series of well-designed and attractive environments; on the other, it's a deliberate yet confusing sidestep of well-established gameplay conventions.

NBA 2K21 suffers from the same issues that have held the series down for years. A poor MyCareer story, reused assets, shoddy servers, and an over-importance of VC/microtransactions. The one redeeming quality that NBA 2K21 can boast is its high-level gameplay. Luckily, that’s what you want most from a basketball sim.

Bud is adorable, the world is visually stunning, and the game itself enticingly oozes whimsy. But those pure moments of bliss are undercut by Bud’s frustrating controls in a world filled with moments requiring his best precision.

Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway isn’t the worst kart racer I’ve ever played, but again, it’s also not the best especially when compared to previous entries in the series. As previously mentioned, Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway is a middle of the road racer in almost every aspect save for its character roster, graphics, and elements like picking three characters to be part of your pit crew.

Gargoyles Remastered is an interesting and pretty walk down memory lane, but you’d better be ready to have any rose-colored glasses shattered by its unforgiving gameplay if you take that walk.

It's a shame, because Forspoken's terrible story and its unlikable main character largely bog down what's otherwise a competent action RPG. There's a foundation for something good here, but it sadly doesn't realize that potential.

Like many sports franchises that release yearly iterations, EA Sports FC 25 is going to be much like the game you remember from last year. While FC IQ and roles do a good job of making tactics feel varied and exciting, there are many adjustments and improvements that need to be made to AI before things feel balanced. When slide comes to tackle, not too much has changed this year.

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.

In terms of couch co-op games, Capsule Force has a uniquely colorful look and can be entertaining with enough people in the living room. As far as a solo experience, there isn't much beyond the time trial challenges and a two-player game just doesn't bring the same intensity.

Romeo is a Deadman is an exceptionally strange game. Not only is it the strangeness players have come to love from Suda51 (a good thing), it’s strange in a way where nothing really quite comes together in a cohesive package despite offering some neat ideas. It’s almost as if, in a bid to be weird and whacky, Grasshopper Manufacture ran out of time to let it cook properly. For the cult followers, there’s plenty of zaniness here to sustain you with acceptable hack ‘n’ slash gameplay. For anyone else, it’s just a bizarre and hollow experience with shortcomings that are too hard to ignore.

If you’re a bigtime Marvel head and your goal is to maximize your collection of Marvel video games, then look no further than the Marvel MaXimum Collection as a hefty step forward in that endeavor. Pun intended. For a low price you get a fat stack of games, and if you ignore the fact that several of them are probably bargain bin occupiers in retro game stores right now, that’s not a bad deal from a collector’s point of view. You can hop online and have fun with X-Men, check out the other games out of varying degrees of curiosity, then admire the thing on your shelf once you’re done. That’s fine! Also, it’s easier than ever to hit your unsuspecting friends with Silver Surfer, and that’s always a hoot. Just don’t expect to set this bad boy up next to… any other reputable retro compilation.

I think Bomberman is cool and cute, but this title is not the launch that the Nintendo Switch deserved. By either offering more new content or pricing the game reasonably, Konami could have jump started the Bomberman franchise, which has been MIA for years. Instead, Super Bomberman R just doesn't give the value or the fun that the price commands. Instead, you're better off saving up an extra $10 and buying The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. If you already have a copy, you might want to think about just buying a second one instead of this title. As least then you'd get your money's worth.

While Dual Destinies may initially appear like a fresh take on the series, it ultimately doesn't take a lot of chances. Still, Capcom continues to do what it does best: creating a compelling courtroom drama with fun, campy, off-the-wall characters. It may be more of the same, but for fans, that's really all they need.

There are enough different ideas at work to make it stand out from other anime and fighting games. It's a novel effort, but nothing else beyond that.

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

The short Story Mode and the repetitive nature of the mini games available make for a game that you probably won’t come back to after you’ve exhausted what it has to offer.

Call of Duty: Ghosts is yet another serviceable entry to Activision's long-running franchise. The franchise's staleness increasingly leaves something to be desired, but at its core, Call of Duty is still reliably fun. New additions like Extinction and Squads will likely suffice for series fans, who don't mind the franchise playing it safe.

If Quantum Break is a game fractured between two worlds, the one reality set for us as players is the one in which it's a shooter that often isn't a shooter, and a story that doesn't fully explore its narrative potential. It has intriguing ideas regarding both, but in this case, two halves don't really make a whole.

Developer ClockStone gave this a good effort, but there wasn't enough in LEGO Bricktales to keep me feeling interested. Even the story, which is typically a franchise strong suit felt underwhelming with half-hearted humor and nothing really memorable. That's not to say there isn't a foundation for something better in the future. The concept of using LEGO building to progress and doing it in your own way is a strong one, but without better tools, like blueprints and the like, the novelty wears off quickly. For now, LEGO Bricktales is a fun curiosity and little more than that.

Tacoma lays the foundation for a truly great story, but a short length and some unexplored ideas leave it feeling lacking. I loved the characters I met over the course of the story and there are some standouts. ODIN, voiced by Justice League Unlimited alum Carl Lumbly, is particularly a treat. But by the end, I was hoping for just a little more from them, as well as more from the whole concept as a whole.

Ultimately, Black Myth: Wukong is what I like to call “Peak Fine.” It’s great when it finally opens up and lets you play it, and has a number of memorable bosses to fight. There’s a lot to explore and see and do, and I imagine most players will miss a good chunk of the game’s optional content on their first playthrough. But even at its best, Wukong never reaches the highs of the genre’s greats, and never completely comes together in the way the best action games do. It’s not bad, but it’s not special. It’ll take you to the dance and it has a few killer moves, but how much you enjoy it will depend on how much you’re willing to put up with when you get there, and how much you don’t mind if it steps on your toes now and again. Me? I prefer an Action Jackson that lets me lead now and again, and that can hit the high notes.

It's fast, frantic, and quite fun overall, but the surprisingly steep challenge and general lack of variety might have players moving on after only a matter of hours.

I hope this doesn’t read too negatively, but the build I played had all the makings of a great game but was held back by small technical issues here and there that just kept piling up. If you’re intro Metroidvanias with tight combat, there is a lot to love here but unless you can forgive some jank, I recommend at least waiting for a couple more patches before you dive into this one.

How you enjoy R.B.I. Baseball 14 depends on your love for the original game. This remake does play just like it, and its modes are good fun as long as you bring a fellow player along for the ride. However, modern gamers expect more from their games, even if its an homage to a classic. With no online support and no adjustable difficulty options, R.B.I. could have benefited from more of an update.

While the best fitness games are designed for people who play video games, Fitness Boxing 3 feels like it was made for non-gamers who may happen to have a Switch in their home. Sure, it gets you moving, but there’s not much there to make the idea of exercising first thing in the morning remotely appealing.

Only those who are really into realistic driving simulators may flock towards Project Cars, although they might get bored easily considering there really aren’t any unique game modes either. It carries a sense of realism in spades, but there isn't much under the hood.

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.

Mario Tennis' transition to the Wii U feels like one step forward and two steps back. The addition of Mega Mushrooms is clever enough, but the game doesn't commit to the idea of power-ups enough to sustain it. Meanwhile the no-frills package feels so anemic that I was burned out on the experience after only a few hours. If you want a great Mario Tennis game, stick with the better, cheaper, and more complete 3DS version.