Sonic x Shadow Generations is a love letter to the fans and the definitive Sonic title. It combines an already beloved title and builds upon its foundations to create a fluid, fast, and fun experience that can only be described as the best Sonic game to date. All we need now is a new Chao Garden.

Even without a museum to sate that historian interest, Capcom Arcade Stadium is a fantastic compilation. The game list has a nice mix of familiar classics and hidden gems, with the usual quality of life touches, rotating special challenges to keep things fresh, and charming, nostalgic presentation. It’s also the collection that finally brought the bullet hell masterpiece Progear to console, and that alone is worth the price of admission.

Otomate has a rare gift for weaving together enchanting, sexy romance and thoughtful, often challenging themes. Olympia Soiree is as fine an example of that as any, using its romantic themes to go down some dark, confronting roads—but roads that need to be travelled, to say things that need to be said, and ultimately ending up in a hopeful place. And with the studio’s penchant for sublime artwork, sharp writing, and absolutely gorgeous character designs, it’s an enthralling journey from start to finish.

Scarlet Nexus reminds me a little of The Caligula Effect, in a way. Not in theme or style, but in tone, in energy, and the way it uses the JRPG format to go down some fascinating, thought-provoking paths. But where such games are not unusual from smaller developers, it’s a rare joy to see a publisher like Bandai Namco take the same risks, and to see those experimental ideas get the budget they need to truly shine. In a world where the “punk” suffix is often just a shallow aesthetic choice, Scarlet Nexus truly lives up to its “brainpunk” vision.

One aspect of Ghostrunner that is consistently impressive is the presentation.

An exciting shoot-’em-up with plenty of depth, dressed up in a bright, colourful art style. In its story mode, Natsuki Chronicles cleverly balances the challenge inherent in the genre with a sense of constant progression, as it pointedly explores questions around authority and use of force. With arcade mode, you’ve got the pure fun of trying to perfect your runs and post the highest scores you can. In both, you’ve got a rock-solid shooting game that’s a whole lot of fun.

De Tres al Cuarto is just the right note to close Essays on Empathy with, because it so perfectly encapsulates everything that the collection aims to achieve. This is so much more than an anthology of games; it’s a journey through Deconstructeam’s history, their game design philosophy, their struggles and motivations. It’s a peek behind the curtain at the groundwork that was laid for The Red Strings Club (and beyond), but more than that, a candid look into the lives, creative process, and growth of a team of developers telling some of the most emotive and thought-provoking stories you’ll find.

At its heart, Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival is just more Taiko—the foundational rhythm game hasn’t changed a whole lot since Drum ‘n’ Fun. But that’s only because it doesn’t need to: the taiko drumming core, and the only thing a new entry really needs is new songs to play with. That’s what Rhythm Festival delivers, with a strong base tracklist and huge additional selection with the Taiko Drum Pass. Fun minigames help round out the package, but it’s that rock solid rhythm foundation and endless charm that make Rhythm Festival a must for music game fans.

Voice of Cards: The Forsaken Maiden continues what The Isle Dragon Roars so brilliantly started: a riff on JRPG foundations delivered in tabletop style, cleverly marrying two closely-related but different sources of inspiration. Its unique spin on the religious pilgrimage theme makes for a compelling, thought-provoking tale that channels classic RPG storytelling style without feeling constrained by it. But more than anything, The Forsaken Maiden proves Voice of Cards’ value as an RPG framework that can play host to all sorts of adventures, and I can’t wait to see what else comes out of it.

The most impressive thing about Terra Nil is how it manages to effortlessly balance all these different goals. It’s both a relaxing city-unbuilder and a brain-bending strategy puzzler, because the underlying mechanics lend themselves to both styles of play. It’s a satisfying, extremely enjoyable game to just sit down and play, but also a powerful environmental message—and rather than being at odds with each other, those aspects feed off each other, build upon each other, and the whole game benefits. Sometimes I want to play a game with a statement to make and a cause to uphold; sometimes I want to challenge myself; sometimes I want to just turn my brain off and relax. Terra Nil is the rare game that lets me do all of the above at once.

Kirby’s Return to Dream Land is a good game, and by extension, so is Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe. But it’s also a remaster of a game that’s now more than a decade old, which was itself a deliberate effort to return to the series’ roots, and it comes hot on the heels of one of the best—and most creative—games in Kirby’s history. Nostalgia and the series’ innate sense of joy go a long way, but Return to Dream Land Deluxe struggles to step out of the shadow of Kirby’s more recent adventures.

G-Darius HD does an impressive job of what matters the most: keeping a classic arcade game alive and readily available for old hats to revisit and new generations to discover. And for something as groundbreaking as G-Darius—something that can still make an impression today, almost 25 years since it first hit arcades—that history is an important thing to hold on to.

New Pokemon Snap is, well, a new Pokemon Snap—nothing more and nothing less, but that’s exactly what it should be. It captures everything that made the original such a beloved game two decades ago, building on that with some new features and a bigger pool of Pokemon to snap, but not messing too much with a formula that works well. The arcade fun of a rail shooter, the joy of photography, and all the personality of these adorable pocket monsters is a combination that never gets old.

Ocean’s Heart is a game that clearly comes from a place of deep affection for the classic Legend of Zelda games, and it does a fine job of channeling those. But with its gorgeous setting and endearing hero, it also finds its own place within the space of “Zelda-likes”.

More casual audiences may find less appeal, with little in the way of different game modes or novelty features—these are, after all, emulated ports of decades-old arcade games. But for the historically-curious who want a dive into a slice of Capcom’s more esoteric history, or competitive fighters wanting a more convenient way of playing some games that still hold up, Capcom Fighting Collection hits the mark. And even if nothing else, the first-ever home release of Red Earth makes it worth the price of admission.

Astrologaster is a pure and utter delight. Between its creative interpretation of the strange real-life story of Simon Forman, its Blackadder-esque sense of humour, and writing and delivery that make every joke land perfectly, you’d have to have a face of stone to not at least crack the odd smile—me, I don’t think I went more than a few seconds at a time without bursting out laughing.

As a follow-up to Cotton Reboot and the first entirely new entry in a long time, Cotton Fantasy does everything it needs to. Play as Cotton, and you’ll get a new game that builds off Reboot’s revamped systems without reinventing the wheel—which, honestly, would have been enough. But Success and Studio Saizansen weren’t content with “enough”, and with a roster of such wildly different characters and their unique mechanics, Fantasy pushes the Cotton foundation in all sorts of new directions.

Tormented Souls is a true homage to the survival horror classics of the ‘90s. It’s sold as a modernisation of the genre, but really, it’s the opposite: a game that resists the allure of polish and convenience, and instead commits to the clunky, unwelcoming design—deliberately—that makes those classics tick. That approach won’t appeal to everyone, and the balance isn’t always spot on, but when it comes to dredging up some creepy atmosphere and instilling a constant sense of tension and unease in the player, Tormented Souls hits the mark.

It takes just a couple of hours to play through Adios, but it’s an experience that’ll sit with you for far longer. It’s a haunting story about redemption and finding meaning in life, but one that eschews the bombast with which videogames typically approach such themes in favour of something far more grounded—and far more impactful, as a result. Going through your daily routine one last time, when you know you’re not going to see the sun rise the next morning, can be a powerful source of reflection, and Adios does an impressive job of capturing that.

Samurai Warriors has long been a vessel for an exciting delve into the Sengoku era—one that, despite its extravagances, always puts authenticity at its core. That’s truer than ever in Samurai Warriors 5, with a new, more dramatic approach to storytelling and a singular focus on the legacy of Nobunaga Oda, and the way it balances an extremely divisive historical reputation is nothing short of remarkable. With some welcome refinements to the endlessly enjoyable action-strategy game at the Warriors series’ core to round out the package, this is a fantastic new direction for Samurai Warriors.

Online troubles notwithstanding, MLB The Show 21 is a fantastic game that keeps the series in place as the best baseball sim you can play. It’s not quite the visual jump you’d expect from a new console generation, but the revamped Road to the Show, fun new features like Stadium Creator, and plenty of little tweaks across the board make it a far more substantial step forward than last year’s outing, and something that belongs in every baseball fan’s collection.

In some ways, though, the lack of those sorts of nice-to-haves almost helps with that whole nostalgic arcade vibe that Andro Dunos II so flawlessly nails. If I didn’t know better, I’d have guessed that it was actually a forgotten relic from the ’90s, and a particularly timeless one at that. For a two-person indie studio licensing a sequel to a 30-year-old game, that’s one hell of an achievement.

Grief is a familiar theme in art, but in being both so universal and so personal, it’s something that will always resonate. Lost Words: Beyond the Page is an poignant, original approach to a common idea—both an abstract metaphor for grief in its fantasy world and a moving exploration of the creative catharsis behind it. Most of all, it’s a game about the power of words to make sense of a world turned upside town, and to cherish forever the memories of those we’ve lost.

That playful little side-story aside, the ideas at play in Finale are ones that Mary Skelter has been running with since the beginning: of hope and despair, of fate and free will, of fetishism and transgression. Finale doesn’t try to change that; rather, as the dramatic conclusion to the trilogy, takes those ideas to new extremes that enthrall and (deliberately) repulse in equal measure. I still wish it went further, and took the opportunity given by the earlier games’ endings to truly push the boundaries, but failing that, the more-is-more approach works just fine. And with the neat twists that the multi-party setup brings to the dungeon crawler formula to tie it all together, Mary Skelter Finale is a great send-off to one of thee most unique, memorable settings in recent videogame memory.

It’s that melancholy feeling that pervades every aspect of Olija that makes it so effective. This is a game about being lost, about being isolated, about being a stranger in a strange land where you looked down upon even when you’re not being outright attacked. It’s bleak, powerfully so. But it’s also a game about hope: a game about finding your own place even in such hostile and lonely world, and about how, sometimes, the most foreign land imaginable can end up being the place you call home.

The Caligula Effect 2 isn’t a sequel I ever saw coming: a follow-up to one of the most overlooked, underrated games of the last few years. It follows closely in its predecessor’s footsteps, and while it could never hope to be quite as groundbreaking, it still finds ways to bring a fresh perspective to the moral philosophy and psychological exploration at the heart of the series. It still won’t be for everyone, but nor is it trying to be—and anyone who likes JRPGs that break from the mold and leave them with something to think about is in for something special.

People like to joke about “the power of friendship” as a trope in JRPGs, but Blue Reflection: Second Light takes that notion and, as earnestly and sincerely as possible, makes it the heart of a truly wonderful adventure. Gust’s sense of atmosphere and aesthetic is second to none, and that’s never been more apparent than it is here. With themes of friendship, love, and support at its core, and every aspect of the game’s design serving those ideas, Second Light is one of the most genuinely uplifting, heartwarming, wholesome games I’ve played in a long time.

Heaven’s Vault is truly remarkable. A complex, satisfying, authentic system of translating a forgotten language and a truly open-ended narrative structure in which your every action affects how the story plays out make for an deeply enjoyable game, but it’s how Heaven’s Vault puts those things into context that’s truly impressive. This isn’t just a gamified take on archaeology, but a deep dive into the role it plays in understanding a world and its history, and what “uncovering the truth” really means.