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.

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 enjoyed WWE 2K24 and WWE 2K25, especially the Bloodline-driven Showcase mode in last year’s entry. But WWE 2K26 stands tall over them. Even though some elements are recycled from last year’s (and the year before that, and the year before that), 2K26’s fun Showcase mode, compelling MyRise story, and strong presentation and gameplay systems make this my new favorite installment.

I’m sad CiNG isn’t around anymore, but I’m glad Arc System Works makes more than just fighting games, and is willing to take risks and greenlight projects like this. The spirit of visual novels that find beauty in the mundane CiNG captured in titles like Hotel Dusk is very much alive in Dear Me, I Was… and I’m grateful for that. In many ways, this experience has made me feel kind of uncomfortable, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. A lot happens during a life, and when it’s my turn to look back like this, I hope the colors are just as vibrant.

The Scott Pilgrim universe has a naturally good vibe that captures the urban brawling and traversal of a River City brawler better than most of them. It’s a nonstop gauntlet of funny little refrerences and in-jokes, but it’s carried by such a solid cast, fun moves, and ridiculous fights that it’s easy to appreciate whether you know much about Scott Pilgrim or just want to punch goons.

Crisol: Theater of Idols shoots for the moon (or the Sun, considering the narrative) with some bold ideas. The blood curse is a cool concept and opens some doors, both mechanically and narratively. Not everything hits, unfortunately, and that brings the whole experience back down to Earth. It's unique enough that I won't forget it anytime soon, but not quite good enough to make me a Sun worshipper.

If you haven’t played the original version, Tales of Berseria Remastered is a must-play. It tackles revenge in a way you don’t see often, especially in games that look like this. Violet is an all-timer of an anti-hero protagonist, and the supporting crew of misfits are great to spend time with as well. The combat system is fun too, although it’s not as strict or expressive as others in the series. If you already know Berseria well, there isn’t really a great reason to show up outside of convenience and a new set of trophies if you’re not already hankering for a replay. I’d love to see older Tales games get the re-release treatment instead, but I can’t deny Berseria’s banger status, either. An enthusiastic but slightly confused thumbs up from me, then.

Resident Evil Requiem is a crown jewel in Capcom’s survival horror crown. Its characters develop realistically, its rhythm between action and horror should more than satisfy fans of both styles, and its story gripped me from beginning to end. This is Resident Evil at its finest, and I can’t wait to see where Capcom takes the series next.

There’s nothing out there in video games quite like multiplayer Bomberman. And with the Super Bomberman Collection, we’ve righted a historical wrong, with over half this series previously unavailable in North America without importing carts that wouldn’t fit in a Super Nintendo without taking a pair of pliers to the poor thing. This is a respectable collection that includes multiple new localizations, high quality museum assets, and a dope, new unboxing feature. It doesn’t have the same production value as Konami’s other collections, and it’s a bummer the big sign of that is no online play. But if you can get your friends together in a room, I guarantee you’ll have a megaton blast.

If you’re someone who finds themselves complaining about the state of modern games, you owe it to yourself to play Love Eternal. Even if platformers aren’t your go-to genre, the story is a strong enough motivator to see it through. If you do like platformers, well, you’re in for a treat. There are some major swings here, and while they’re not all home runs, I know one thing for sure: I won’t be able to shake Love Eternal for a long time.

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.

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.

Mario Tennis Fever is a strong rebound from an era of Mario Sports games that left plenty to be desired, even if there are still some glaring shortcomings. The actual on-court gameplay, wide character roster, and abundance of Fever Rackets were enough to keep me experimenting every time I fired the game up. I’m itching to jump into Ranked and see what I’ve really got once the rest of the world can join in on the fun.

Yakuza Kiwami 3 isn’t a well-reasoned, but flawed remake of an old PS2 game not easily playable anymore. It’s a meddled-with version of a PS3 game that already has an accessible PS4/PC remaster, which is being removed from sale for this. Major features are missing from the original. The story seems to have been changed in ways returning fans will take issue with, continuing a trend that’s upsetting more and more people. And to top it all off, this game (perhaps accidentally) is the tip of the spear of an effort to culturally rehabilitate a sex offender who is on the public record as going beyond “allegations.” Feels bad.

Between a vast open world and new combat styles, Nioh 3 is the series' most ambitious title yet, even if the changes don't always strike true.

Perhaps it’s okay that Dragon Quest 7 is a bit of an odd duck. It’s because of that struggle that Dragon Quest found itself more in later entries, and became a series that could thrive and stand out as more than the funny, old school RPG with the goofy monsters. Perhaps this is a case of trying to cram a square peg into a round hole, making Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined feel “forced” in some ways. While it’s a gorgeous and fun adventure that feels quite good to play in a mechanical sense, it’s not one that’s leaving an impact on my soul the same way other entries have. It’s been nice to see these characters again in such a fascinating visual style, and some of the new additions are cool, but there’s a palpable Cliff Notes energy to the scenario that I can’t see resonating well with newcomers. I can’t speak for what actually happens when people play it of course, but my curiosity to see how that plays out is stronger than my actual emotional response to playing it myself.

Dungeon Antiqua’s mixture of Wizardry mechanics with Final Fantasy visuals and combat is a novel concept, and one that clearly has enough appeal to develop a new series in the indie RPG space. Dungeon Antiqua 2 was something I’ve been looking forward to for months, especially because adding a Final Fantasy 5-style emphasis on a job system sounds like a perfect way to add a new twist for a sequel. As fun as the experience is overall, though, there’s a bit too much overcorrection on the Wizardry side, one that I’m not sure was asked for by anyone who enjoyed the first game. Without the friction the game feels a little more generic, losing a piece of its strong identity. It’s still a great time, however, especially for fans of games like Bravely Default or Etrian Odyssey. Here’s to part 3 getting another chance to nail that sweet spot part 2 is clearly aiming for.

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.

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.

Code Vein 2 is here, and it carries on much of the goodness from the original, while expanding into an open world design that becomes even more complex with the layering of time travel and eras set on the same map. It doesn’t hit on every level, but Code Vein 2 is still a solid sequel with a story that pulled me in and made me care, just like the first.

MIO: Memories in Orbit takes place in a fascinating world, and its story is often beautiful. If there was no combat, it would be a substantially better game. But there is, and it is not. Like all Metroidvanias, MIO: Memories in Orbit asks you to imagine the Vessel as a place that was once wondrous. But I could not imagine a world where I was happy to play in its ruins, no matter how beautiful what’s left of it was.

Long story short, Phila Fantasy is cute. It’s a neat, simple action-RPG that sets out to do a few things, and accomplishes them well enough to offer a dozen or so hours of fluffy entertainment. If you like to run around a new world, bonk some monsters, and make some numbers go up, you can do worse. You can probably do a lot better as well, though. If you’re concerned about the limited time you have left on this planet, you might come away from this adventure a little frustrated. But if you’re the type of digital adventurer who likes to dip their toes into everything possible, there’s a nice little chunk of video game to enjoy here. Just don’t expect to find your new favorite this time.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon feels like a stress test. Turns out when you introduce a dozen different plot threads across several sets of stories set in different geographical locations, bringing them all together is a massive, unwieldy task. There’s fun stuff in here between the annoying parts, like really cool special attack animations, interesting character developments, crazy monster designs, and world-shattering twists. But I wish so much time wasn’t wasted on achingly boring expository setup, non-optional side content with next to no substance, and a combat system that’s in the middle of an identity crisis. Falcom has done a lot more with a lot less in the past, and all this excess is wearing me down.

Mario Kart World features the most detailed gameplay mechanics ever featured in series history. The game embraces Mario’s platforming roots with a new moveset for racers to reach new heights in tracks by jumping, grinding, barrel rolling, and wall riding to multiple pathways and shortcuts.

Routine stands out. It targets a specific aesthetic, a specific vibe, and a specific cadence, and it pulls out every stop to land on those targets. It does so with striking accuracy, making technology that feels real and of this world despite its fiction, simply due to the ways in which you interact with it and use it to solve problems and progress the story. It runs at a slow pace that won’t gel with everyone, and its lack of interest in guiding players is an observable filter as well. But those interested in the hardest of hard sci-fi, the challenge of powerlessness against ever-present threats, and the patience for environmental deduction have six or so hours jam-packed with all that stuff ready for them here. Routine has a niche appeal, but wears it like a badge of honor.

There is a shocking amount of things to do in Where Winds Meet. If you’re into gacha or are just okay with trying something for free that is pretty rough around the edges, Where Winds Meet does have a lot of content that can be fun to engage in, especially with friends. If you’re just looking for a solo adventure with a good story to digest and cool combat, you’ll probably be let down, as Where Winds Meet doesn’t quite hit the highs that plenty of other games do in the action RPG genre.

Studio Folly and Toot Games have dealt players a good hand with Dogpile. Tetris dreaming is one thing, but it's another to see falling dogs in your sleep. It's a good problem to have, especially since they're all such good boys.

Ultimately, what do I score a game like Unbeatable that has such observable problems but some of the most heart-pumping emotional resonance I’ve experienced in games throughout this entire year? What cute, little video game review cliche can I lean on to help me out of this predicament? D-Cell itself offered a cheeky, little take at how review scores can be perceived, and I figure why not send that ball back over the net? I was thinking a seven at first, but Sonic Adventure 2’s problems are way more frustrating than Unbeatable’s. And I am a little shy as a person. So let’s go with that.