Styx: Blades of Greed isn’t a bad game. Within its evident limitations, it has several strengths that could convince many players to give it a chance. However, the game’s ambitions clearly clash with an execution that doesn’t always live up to its ideas or intended goals, ultimately offering players a watered-down and somewhat messy experience.

Reanimal once again proves, if proof were even necessary, the strong authorial identity of a development studio finally unleashed, free to express itself without softening or diluting its vision. Reanimal is an auteur horror experience: deeply cryptic and not easy to decode, yet a bold and genuinely rare work within its genre.

Mario Tennis Fever hits its main goal by putting the pure arcade tennis experience front and center. Fast-paced, fun, and built on several smart ideas, above all is extremely solid in its core mechanics. While the single-player campaign is less engaging than in the previous entry, and the potential of motion controls is largely left unexplored, these shortcomings do little to overshadow what ultimately stands as the most mature and refined chapter in the Mario Tennis saga.

RIDE 6 is not a game that tries to impress through spectacle or radical reinvention. It speaks softly, but with confidence and clarity. Milestone chose to reflect on its own legacy and shape a more mature, balanced experience. The result is a game that values freedom, accessibility, and respect for the sport it represents.

Yakuza 3 + Dark Ties is much more than a mere commercial venture, as it might seem to the less attentive: it is a bold remake that refreshes a solid but flawed title and resolves nearly all of its issues. While some longtime fans might grumble over the recasting of a couple of characters and a few cuts here and there in the interactions, the vast majority of players will inevitably appreciate the changes in pacing.

My Hero Academia: All’s Justice lives in a fragile balance, much like its characters: caught between the ambition to be more than a flashy anime tie-in and the difficulty of fully escaping the limits of its genre. At its best, it captures the weight of its battles, the emotional scale of the Final War, and that sense of growth that has always defined Horikoshi’s work.

Nioh 3 is a game that breathes ambition, a title that dares and isn’t afraid to throw the player into chaos. It’s frenetic, brilliant in many moments, and incredibly rewarding when you master its complexities. The combat system is deep and layered, and the introduction of Samurai and Ninja styles adds a level of tactical choice never seen before.

Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is probably the boldest of the three remakes released by Square Enix over the past couple of years: not only because the original title had already received an excellent remaster on 3DS, but also because the changes introduced here are less trivial and arguably more targeted than those the Erdrick trilogy actually required.

We don't know if we properly define Eufloria HD like a video game, but it surely is a relaxing and pleasant experience.

Mio: Memories in Orbit is an elegant and rigorous metroidvania that puts all its focus on exploration and precision. Its world is fascinating to traverse, the movement system is solid, and the bosses provide a genuine challenge. The narrative, however, remains in the background, and the combat system lacks meaningful evolution over time, staying consistently minimal. This is a game that asks a lot from the player and doesn’t always return an equally strong emotional engagement, but it still manages to leave a mark thanks to its visual identity and the coherence of its design.

Code Vein 2 is the classic example of a sequel that refuses to settle. It doesn’t take shortcuts, nor does it simply refine what already worked; instead, it deliberately tries to expand its scope, even at the risk of overreaching. This choice inevitably creates imbalances, and the game makes no effort to hide them: ambition often exceeds the ability to control it, layering sometimes turns into redundancy, and some solutions struggle to take a fully realized form.

Trails Beyond the Horizon is a game that demands attention, memory, and patience, but in return offers a vast, layered, and coherent narrative, something few JRPGs manage today. The combat system is solid and rewarding, side quests and optional modes add depth, and those who have followed the series so far will find continuous satisfaction.

Code Violet is one of those games that is born convinced it has something to say and dies without ever really finding the right words. It leans on a powerful imagery, uses it as a crutch, and then lets it fall, unable to stand on its own. A spectacular failure, and this is its true problem: it is a timid, confused product, lacking the identity necessary to turn inspiration into vision. When you play with the ghosts of the past, you should know how to evoke fear, not nostalgia. Here, neither happens, and all that remains is the feeling of having witnessed a wasted opportunity.

Tiny Wings HD for iPad improves all we've seen last year in Tiny Wings, adding local multiplayer, a new competitive mode and new graphics for Retina Display.

Lumines Arise is a successful return of a formula that still works today, dressed in an aesthetic that unabashedly pays homage to the Japanese Experimental Wave to which it belongs by DNA. When everything clicks (music, effects, difficulty, grid readability), it’s exactly the kind of experience that makes you say 'just one more skin and I’ll stop,' only to realize an hour has passed.

High production values and care for details make this independent adventure really stand out.

Resident Evil: Survival Unit is an intriguing experiment, a title that tries to bring the soul of the horror saga to mobile without completely betraying its spirit, but inevitably pays the price for the compromises imposed by the free-to-play format. Between well-crafted real-time battles and a base management system that risks becoming repetitive, the game constantly swings between enjoyable moments and long periods of waiting or microtransactions.

Marvel Cosmic Invasion is a small but heartfelt tribute to fans of the Marvel universe. It’s an old-school experience that shows once again how the world of video games never gets tired of the arcade feel of the past. There’s a bit of disappointment about the lack of extra content, but Tribute Games’ effort is still something to admire.

Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song is a work that embraces its past and chooses not to hide it. It makes no effort to appear more modern than it is, and perhaps that is exactly what makes it so captivating. A complex journey, at times hostile, yet capable of offering a sense of freedom that few contemporary JRPGs can provide. And now that it finally speaks Italian as well, one can say that its world is, for the first time, truly open to everyone.

The Berlin Apartment is not an anthology. It is not a collection of stories. It is a single story told by those who remain. By those who silently observe every departure and every return. And that someone is us. The game doesn’t put us in the protagonists’ shoes. It puts us in the shoes of the home they inhabit, carrying the full weight of a century of history.

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero on Switch 2 delivers the same energetic, content-packed fighter as other platforms, capturing the magic of the franchise despite a few technical compromises. Its biggest strength is portability, which adds real value for fans. However, if you don’t care about playing on the go and own another platform, the superior experience can be found elsewhere.

Absolum is one of those roguelikes that tells not so much the story it contains, but the one it evokes through its beautiful aesthetic style. A story made of difficult choices, of ambitions that challenge caution, of an authentic desire to leave a mark, however small, however fragile. And in a world where everything seems to rush forward without ever looking back, a side-scrolling beat ’em up that chooses to slow down and force you to think is a small miracle.

Octopath Traveler 0 is, in every respect, a solid entry in the franchise, even if not the best of the three, and it introduces a series of good ideas that we may well see again in the next, inevitable instalments: from the inclusion of “cozy” mechanics, with the construction of a village, to the addition of a second line during battles, which significantly broadens the player’s range of strategic options.

Horses is the kind of experience that doesn’t look for compromises and has no interest in pleasing everyone. Santa Ragione plays with incendiary material and does so with a confidence that’s almost disarming. It’s a “small” title, one that inevitably divides, because it demands from the viewer the willingness to look exactly where we usually turn away. And that’s precisely where its value lies: in its ability to dig, provoke, unsettle and, above all, leave a mark.

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond delivers exactly what it needed to: a strong and worthy sequel to a trilogy that ended eighteen years ago. Its gameplay innovations and dungeon-level design shine, but the open-map sections and some late-game pacing issues hold it back. Retro Studios’ attempt to go beyond a ‘safe’ sequel leads to a game that’s excellent, yet unlikely to astonish modern players the way the original did in 2002.

Even on Xbox, Silent Hill 2 Remake is a product with a dual nature: on one hand, you notice every detail, every crack, and every bloodstain that previously went unnoticed; on the other, you miss that unsettling uncertainty, that sickly slow pace that kept you glued to your seat. It’s an ambitious, bold operation, sometimes successful, sometimes betraying the original. If you want pure nostalgia, be ready to be shaken; if you want modern horror that doesn’t forgive, be prepared for some compromises.

Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition for Switch 2 leaves a dual, almost suspended feeling. On one hand, there is the tangible pleasure of rediscovering a game that maintains a rare narrative solidity and an engaging quality. On the other hand, however, it is impossible to ignore how time has affected the formula, making certain moments more predictable, some mechanics more rigid, and some design choices less surprising than they were a decade ago.

Project Motor Racing is a title that takes a stand, and it does so without compromise. It doesn’t aim to please everyone, it doesn’t want to be yet another flashy racing game that confuses realism with visual spectacle, and it doesn’t intend to hand out easy wins or deliver a career that passes by without leaving any mark.