Unfortunately, it's tough to center a game's progression around cosmetics when the skater that's being customized looks so bland. Add to that a limited availability of game modes at launch and Roller Champions gets off to a rough start at the track. Fortunately, the core experience is enjoyable enough that it could feasibly pick up some momentum and score some goals down the road.

Dolmen is a solid sci-fi spin on the Soulslike formula, even if there are some places where it falls short. Not being able to jump is a simple but detrimental design flaw, and the mediocre cinematics bog down what could have been a very cinematic experience. Despite that, Dolmen still features challenging combat, as well as a variety of ways to play to your own unique style. I look forward to seeing if and how Massive Work Studio will build upon this foundation in the future.

Rifftrax: The Game still gives players a fun way to engage with the style that the Rifftrax crew has built. It doesn’t always hit in the way it should, but there’s still plenty of fun to be had.

I’m not fond of collecting berries for my healing flask and I feel it can get unfair when mages team up on me. However, getting stronger and coming back with enough might that not even multiple mages could stop me made Salt and Sacrifice’s 2D Soulsborne exploration and mage fights an intoxicating quest to wield the very power I was hunting.

Trek to Yomi is presented like a very different type of video game experience and that's largely attributed to its presentation. Flying Wild Hog went into this project with the goal of making a playable samurai film and they've capably accomplished that objective.

Essentially, no matter what you’re looking to get out of Dorfromantik, you should be able to find it thanks to the assorted game modes on offer. The approachability of its tile placement and point system mixed with relaxing visuals pull you in and invite you to kick up your feet and rest for a while.

Calling it a game may be a bit of a stretch on account of its loose structure, but you can’t argue with the fun.

If you loved the first Rogue Legacy, then Rogue Legacy 2 is very likely to capture your heart as well. If you’re jumping into this series for the first time at Rogue Legacy 2, you’re in for one of the most fleshed out, fun, and varied rogue-lite action-platformers that the genre has to offer.

As an offline package, Nintendo Switch Sports is a hoot just for Bowling and Chambara alone. The other games are worth trying at least once. Volleyball might even grow on some people. Unfortunately, Badminton, Tennis, and Soccer lost steam with me after a while, but half a package that I'll return to again and again is certainly nothing to sneeze at. I hope this is a collection that will continue to grow, because I had forgotten what a crowd-pleaser the Wii Sports era was. It's good to have that spirit back.

A game with a dedicated ‘pull your dick out’ keybinding in 2022 should be way more clever than this. No amount of John St. John voice-over work or copyright-dodging music jingles can cover up the odor emanating from this pile. 4/10 BBQ’d dead dogs.

This is still the best professional sports sim you can get on any hardware and if you are a baseball fan that hasn’t played The Show in recent years, this is an experience to look out for. For others who have been waiting years for something new, this one sadly isn’t it. As a PC version of this game eludes us once anew, I will again be hoping that next year is when SIE San Diego opts to redefine video game baseball for the next generation.

Throughout my time with Cosmonious High, I was regularly delighted by the colorful visuals, fun cast, interesting classes, and overall variety of activities in the game. Not only is this a solidly expanded adventure from the delightful experiences Owlchemy Labs has shown us in the past, but I think it’s the first time I’d ever specifically recommend a VR game to younger players. [Quest 2]

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is the definitive LEGO Star Wars experience. Although the game can feel a bit cluttered with its overload of collectibles and shiny things to look at, it’s an impressive collection of the full saga. With a staggering amount of characters to play as and worlds to explore, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga puts a beautiful bow on LEGO’s premier franchise.

While I have issues with a few parts of the game, mainly the lower-quality skill tree stuff and gripes related to rogue-lites and old shooters in general, the total package on offer is really strong. At the time of release, the game is only available for PC, which I think could be the biggest negative here. It’s clearly capable of running on less-capable hardware, but I worry that it may go unnoticed unless the team at Blazing Bit Games can find a way to make console ports work financially. If you are already smitten with boomer shooters or rogue-lites, this one is an easy recommendation. I suspect many others will find fun in the myriad easter eggs and tributes to other games (the main menu UI is a Game Boy Advance SP) quite delightful if they aren’t too scared to keep sleeping.

This action RPG follows the quests of five different individuals in an American West full of zombies, werewolves, and dark magic, and while its functionality sometimes leaves something to be desired, its choices, progression, and aesthetic are quite solid.

A Memoir Blue is over before you know it, so it doesn't quite earn a gold medal. However, for a debut effort, this is a solid outing for Cloisters Interactive, one worth dipping your toes in.

If you're curious about what Final Fantasy would look like as a Souls or Nioh-style action game, Stranger of Paradise is a solid effort. It's just a shame that it's bogged down by its oddball narrative choices and its cumbersome loot system, which makes the total package such a mixed bag. I suppose it's the nature of this chaotic beast.

Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is a thoroughly enjoyable spin on the Borderlands formula, but it’s still very much a Borderlands game. Fans of the series will surely enjoy the new spin-off, but don’t expect to be the one that finally grabs you if you haven’t been a fan of the franchise up until this point. Either way, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands does enough to solidify its place among the better entries in the Borderlands franchise.

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.

It’s a little bogged down in video game chores in the open world. However, when you’re on the trail of the main quest or any given side story, Ghostwire: Tokyo is a compelling adventure worth seeing through to the final spiritual release.

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.

WWE 2K22 is the definition of a mixed bag. There are clearly areas where the team at Visual Concepts made positive progress with the franchise, particularly in wrestler AI and animations. Many of the marquee talents look fantastic and there is a lot to do within the game. Sadly, most of the modes are half-baked and the series is still suffering from bugs or problems it has carried for far too long. With WWE 2K22 seemingly refusing to make use of the power afforded to it by the new consoles or PCs, what do the fans who buy the game every year have to look forward to? Visual Concepts achieved its goal of surpassing WWE 2K20. The problem is that being better than awful isn’t gonna cut the mustard any longer.

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.

Babylon’s Fall feels like a game that came out a decade ago, both visually and in its gameplay. Combat is clunky and boring most of the time, outside of a few highlights here and there. There’s nothing that encourages players to engage with the live-service elements, despite it being a core tenet of the experience. It’s like someone fed a computer a bunch of information and had it generate an action RPG. Babylon's Fall’s biggest credit is that it’s technically competent; the game isn’t broken or held back by major bugs or issues. It’s a shame, because PlatinumGames has proven itself to be an impressive talented studio. Unfortunately, Babylon's Fall manages to disappoint on just about every front.

If nothing else, Triangle Strategy shows that Square Enix has some fire in its turn-based tactical engine. It just needs to balance its scales between exposition and gameplay a little better.

Aztech Forgotten Gods tries and that's probably the best thing I can say about it. Lienzo journeyed forward with lofty ambitions and, like Mulaka before it, has laid down a foundation that makes me excited for their future projects.

Lost Ark is the gold standard of Modern MMOs. Smilegate and Tripod deliver an incredibly polished experience that gives players dozens of dishes to choose from, all equally delicious. It hits on all those classic MMO beats, while injecting a fresh style and approach to all of it. Lost Ark has already proven to have some strong staying power in the east, and is now set up for a long and fruitful lifespan in the west.

The concept of What Lies in the Multiverse has a familiar feel to it, yet as you progress through its beautiful world and challenging assortment of puzzles, you'll find that the game manages to inject something surprisingly new and fresh into the mix.