Although Warside has many of the fundamentals of Advance Wars-style battles down, it’s still a work-in-progress. At present, it’s shaping up to develop into a reasonable facsimile of Intelligent Systems’ turn-based series, allowing its military units to charge onto non-Nintendo hardware.

Although The Lost Hero’s early exposition can meander, Marona and friends offset this imperfection with a thoroughly engaging and sporadically poignant second half. Best of all, the game’s multitude of different combat components melds into a system that allows for a near-unprecedented amount of flexibility.

Snow Bros. 2 Special’s inclusion of new character with distinct abilities is an improvement, while the smoothed-out visuals are more of a lateral shift. Less successful are the extensions to boss battles and modes that offer only a modicum of difference.

Fast and flashy, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves’ fights revive SNK’s long-dormant franchise. But outside of the main event, elements like a rudimentary story mode, gimmicky guest characters, and a makeshift user interface dampen the enjoyment.

Although the run-and-gun stages can grow tedious, Rendering Ranger: R² [Rewind] attempts to redeem itself with enjoyable shoot ‘em up sections. Unless you’re a devoted retro enthusiast, stick with back-to-back sessions of Contra and Gradius.

Fubuki: Zero in on Holoearth – Hololive Alternative is an above-average action-platformer elevated by feverish sword slashing, great looking pixel-art and an abundance of on-screen adversaries. Just be aware, it’s shorter than one of the Vtuber’s streams.

If you’re the type of player who’s easily seduced by a screenful of sprites, Kemono Heroes appears inviting. But a few errant design decisions restrain the enjoyment of this coop-accommodating platformer.

LUNAR Remastered Collection bundles two titles that raised the bar for interactive storytelling, incorporating everything from voice performances to full motion video cutscenes. Although both Silver Star and Eternal Blue provide absorbing adventures more than two decades on, it’s hard not to long for supplementals that document the development of these pivotal works.

Tiny Garden’s ambitions for a relaxed agronomy are undermined by repetition, the lack of controller support, and instability. If you’re lucky, you might be able to get one tranquil afternoon of distraction but not much more.

Like the Vegas strip, influences are pervasive in All in Abyss. From Texas Hold ‘em against CPU opponents, comical conversations, power-ups to earn, mysteries to uncover, and even some opponent fatalities, Judge the Fake’s mixture of mechanics is gratifying – at least when it’s not being too grindy.

Battlefield Waltz’s lead isn’t the stereotypical unremarkable heroine. Instead, Lan is burdened with responsibility and handles it all with strong-willed conscientiousness. As such, it’s easy to see why the visual novel’s bachelors would find her irresistible. Likely, you will, too.

Grit and Valor – 1949 pares the real-time strategy genre down to the fundamentals. The results are taut battles between your customized mechs and waves of enemies and bosses. But progression stems from the technical advantage of collected parts more than tactical insights.

From a unified visual style to maps that will test your mettle, Dark Deity 2’s improvements are plentiful. Sure, the dialog can come uncomfortably close to sounding like made-for-streaming filler. But when you’re using the carefully-cultivated abilities of your party members to trounce a dominant foe, these moments can be forgiven.

Undoubtedly, Choice Provisions has studied the Breakout clones, from Arkanoid to Shatter. Breakout Beyond bundles several of their modernization, resulting in a golden mean of brick-busting amusement.

Habitually, Virballs channels the playfulness of a PlayStation 2-era action shooter. Sure, environments get recycled and mixing ammo types in the heat of battle is clumsy, but there’s the persistent push to see what challenges the next planet brings.

Assault Suit Leynos 2 level of difficulty remains lofty, as you and a small squad of mechs confronts a vast army of enemies across seven side-scrolling stages. The Switch port offers a few ways to tame the original game’s near-impenetrability while English localization lets a new audience enjoy the battle-hardened banter of your fellow pilots.

With its lack of hand-holding and middling combat, Atomfall isn’t for everyone. But if you’re craving an adventure that supplies plenty of autonomy and challenges your sense of trust, Rebellion’s latest might be looking into.

Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land crafts another high point for Gust’s beloved series. From streamlined and speedy combat, a shift toward open-world exploration, and a thoroughly optimized engine, this is a role-playing adventure that shouldn’t be missed by fans of the genre.

Kamikaze Lassplanes' visual novel elements have you romancing a pair of plane-gals, while it’s shoot ‘em segments send you through bullet-filled skies. Neither element is faultless, but the combination of words and weapons is an entertaining niche.

With its satirical take on telenovels, Destino Indomable offers some outrageous laughs, as you ad-lib your way through five episodes in RCK Games and Megalixir Games’ visual novel. Let’s just hope that the lead character shows more expression if Indomable returns for another season.

At present, the PC version of Rise of the Ronin isn’t nearly as optimized as it should be, divulging a rather wobbly framerate even on beefier hardware. That’s a shame, because underneath those performance faults, there’s a lot to like about the game. Hopefully, additional post-launch patches allow the responsive combat, spirited storytelling, and sumptuous setting to shine.

Never 7 and Ever 17 aren’t just wonderfully pulpy novels that manage to successfully mix romance, science-fiction, and doomsday scenarios. They also plumb their character’s psyches, revealing realistic vulnerabilities. But sadly, the package is marred by one of the sloppiest localizations in recent memory that undermines each branching tale.

Dead Dragons has most of the fundamentals of a role-playing game but lacks the ambition that elevates the genre’s better efforts.

Recall: Empty Wishes’ exploration of grief might not bring jump scares. Instead, explores some of the recesses of the human mind, offering an engrossing examination of loss and occasionally dysfunction.

Accolade’s sports games strove to deliver television-style perspectives. While that innovation nudged the genre forward, gameplay in the Sports Collection often feels archaic. Given the minimal curation, this is for hardcore collectors only.

While many shooters deliver the sensation of being a formidable war machine, Resurfaced channels the tension of a being on a nerve-wracking bombing run. From the floating mines on the surface, regiments of fast-moving opponents that race through narrow passageways, to the army of cannons that line every surface, adversity is ever-present.

Pleasingly, METAL SUITS: Counter-attack absolutely shines on portable PCs like the Steam Deck or ROG Ally, extending solid sixty frame-per-second-performance even when there’s a chain reaction of screen-shaking explosions. Hopefully, Eggtart can temper the game’s sporadic difficulty spikes and prohibits clusters of enemies from bunching up.

Stories from Sol: The Gun-Dog is a largely triumphant tribute to last-century science fiction. Referencing everything from Gundam to Alien, expect to spend your time on the space vessel interacting with a colorful cast and delving into plotline that sets things up for subsequent follow-ups. In space, sequels are compulsory, it seems.