Spirit of Justice’s new setting and characters really are enough to make the game feel fresh, even if most of the gameplay is what we’ve seen before.

Miaou Moon is a unique and challenging game that has a surprisingly complex approach. Much of the play can feel haphazard, yet you’re still able to interact and guide the chaos towards an eventual goal. Hidden items, secret exits, and plenty more await those who take the time to really dive into this deep-space adventure.

The Final Station’s pairing of on-foot side-scrolling survival with time and resource management on board a train makes for an consistently fun, if not short experience.

Mother Russia Bleeds is a rose-tinted callback to the genre’s giants. Playing the game, you will be reminded of the time spent in youth playing Final Fight, and Streets of Rage. However, you will also be reminded of how one note those games truly were, and how it was more than just graphics that advanced as hardware did.

While its soundtrack does a very solid job of engrossing you in its established world, the aesthetically unpleasing presentation takes away from this emotional adventure.

One Way Trip was an extremely hard story to find any fun in. Its biggest asset, the strikingly accurately-written “California bro” dialogue, is offensively overused to the point of exhaustion.

As the final chapter of Fallout 4, Nuka-World does a stellar job in delivering an experience that fans are sure to enjoy clocking in around 20 hours if you complete the side quests.

Even with the horrid framerate, I couldn’t help but press on. Fighting a growing roster of more powerful beasts as I tested my skills against any Aragami that crossed my path is difficult to resist. The boss gauntlet that God Eater 2: Rage Burst eventually becomes is quite satisfying in ways that I wouldn’t have imagined.

Ultimately, Guards embraces a design so simplistic that it feels as though it’s falling short of itself. The gameplay can be fun and challenging, but it also falls into a rut pretty quickly. Unlocking and upgrading all of the available heroes takes a considerable amount of time, with most of your time spent retreading the same roads over and over.

Overcooked is a fun and colorful game that shouldn’t be overlooked if you have some friends to join you in the adventure. With some of the best level design of any indie game, Overcooked will constantly batter you with new challenges. However, with a lack of any online functionality that clearly handicaps solo players, this dish comes out lukewarm.

Worms W.M.D. is a return to the classic recipe and it never tasted so sweet, but you can’t help but feel as though it wouldn’t be as effective had the series not been messed around with as much as it has.

The Turing Test is an absolute marvel of intelligent puzzle design that makes you feel amazing for conquering it. You can feel an intense love for the specific brand of room-by-room puzzling at every corner here...And with a fascinating narrative that explores themes few games have ever touched, you’ll be constantly enthralled by the philosophical debates between a human and an AI just as often as you’ll be frustrated by a puzzle for designing around the simple solution you had in your head.

Without the expectations of its title holding it back, I think it would have been a clear and easy win for Nintendo, and the fresh perspective on the setting, while divisive, still gives something new and entertaining.

Japanese and Korean rhythm games are a very niche genre in the western market, and it’s obvious that Project DIVA X won’t be for everyone. Still, if you can find simple joy in assembling a three-piece idol girl group (you can include the boys too, but magical girl groups are just fabulous), and perfecting their outfit coordination so they look absolutely gorgeous onstage, you’re going to get a lot of enjoyment out of this game.

Omega Force has created something really special here. Between the presentation that perfectly captures the soul of the Attack on Titan anime and the action that immerses players into every scene, this is a definite home run.

In the end, it’s hard to deny that KOF XIV is just simply fun to play, however if you’re looking for a fighter that’s easy to get into and learn, you’re probably better off looking elsewhere.

Meridian: Squad 22 is a worthy effort by Elder Games and a good choice for anyone who is new to the genre and wants to experience a real-time strategy game for the first time without having to burn a hole in their pocket.

Bugs, choppy frame rate, and some finicky controls make exploring the drab and sterile environments a clunky chore. There is something here, though.

The best sequels improve from its predecessors in every important way, and this is sometimes true in Grow Up, but it’s mostly more of the same in a bigger space. That isn’t a bad thing, because it’s a ton of fun, but I was left with a sense of finality for B.U.D. and friends. It’s a wonderful thing that we live in a world in which Grow Home gets its big sequel, and we have one more great game because of it.

It’s one of the most fun and frantic local multiplayer experiences in recent memory.

Aside from a few crashes at startup with the PC version, Mankind Divided is very much an enjoyable role-playing experience. The game’s characters aren’t all that memorable, and chances are, you won’t even remember their names after you’re done with your journey, but hey, at least playing around with the augmentations is cool.

F1 2016 is the game that fans have been waiting for. Its Career Mode gives fans a reason to invest time into the game for quite a while, and also gives players a taste of the goings-on when you’re off the track. Despite visual shortcomings in its surroundings, and mechancis that yield few rewards, F1 2016 has put many of the wrongs from the past, right. If you’ve been waiting for an in-depth F1 experience, now would be a good time to jump in.

Putting it simply, if you enjoyed Layers of Fear and wanted more, Inheritance is exactly what you’re hoping for.

Madden NFL 17 is all about not fixing what isn’t broken. Unlike last year, not a whole lot is radically different for better or for worse. If there was something that bothered you about Madden in your last go around, you might find that those problems still exist. With each passing year though, Madden continues (albeit slowly) to be more authentic and immersive.

When looking at #KillAllZombies as nothing but a time waster, the game stands up as “ok.” If you have 10 or 15 minutes to spare and want to play a video game but don’t have time to really become immersed into a game’s world, there are worse choices out there. The problem is, the complete lack of story and lack of maps makes this title feel pretty shallow.

There’s plenty of good here that’s sadly held back by a variety of issues that don’t necessarily lie with its developers, but most likely within finding the ideal balance between the genres it embraces.

No Man’s Sky is no doubt a magnificent feat in game development. I am left humbled by all that I have seen and intend on continuing my journey in an attempt to see as much as possible, well aware I will never see it all. Space has its hooks in me and I don’t think I’ll ever want them to relinquish their hold.

Despite the punishing difficulty, Road to Ballhalla just has that special something that can keep players coming back.