Blade & Soul has the PVP pedigree to stand at the top of the MMO heap, which is why the rather rote PVE stands out. You'll have to go through some soulless grinding before you get to the great PVP. If martial arts-laden PVP isn't your thing, there are better MMOs out there.

Elsinore is simple and focused, aimed squarely at avid readers who want to manipulate Hamlet with their own hands. It succeeds at this, building a wonderfully meta-textual world that's fascinating to unravel and earns a good few gasps, laughs, and tearful moments, but the long waiting periods and frustration between different events overlapping can grate on after a while. Elsinore is time-looping <em>Hamlet</em>, and that premise is what will likely hook you or not.

Wii Sports always felt more like a starting point than an endpoint, so it's kind of funny to be playing it again on the Wii U more than a decade later.

Hatoful Boyfriend is a straightforward dating simulator where all of your suitors just happen to be birds. If you're not drawn to your potential boyfriends, the early game can be a bit of a drag. While the second half of the game is worth the price of admission, many players will have a problem getting there. Proceed with caution.

Lightweight but inventive, Costume Quest 2 feels like a Pixar adventure masquerading as an RPG. It goes out of its way to keep things simple... perhaps too simple at times. But its simplicity is redeemed by its terrific art and wry sense of humor, and most importantly, the sheer fun of its premise.

A veritable education in the DC Universe, Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure doesn't quite live up to the potential presented. However, that doesn't stop it from being a saccharine, silly romp through licensed property, one that will occasionally pull a snicker of glee.

Rocket Arena is an enjoyable up-tempo experience with genuinely fun traversal abilities to keep you on your toes and moving to the high and lows of the arena. It's largely undefined characters and lack of meaningful customization options, however, hold it back from being truly memorable. It's a fun arena shooter in the moment, but it'll fade quickly from memory after you've walked away.

Oninaki is a likable RPG. Its story and setting are interesting, and the Daemons you collect to help you fight are cool. Unfortunately, bashing through uninteresting swarms of high-HP enemies puts a damper on the fun. Oninaki is still better than Tokyo RPG Factory's previous games; the studio seems to be moving in the right direction. If it can get past its extended growing pains, it'll be a contender someday.

Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment does its best to provide a comprehensive experience, featuring online-style combat and dating sim aspects. Unfortunately, while it does a decent job of presenting the Sword Art Online world, the game itself is only good, not great. Sword Art Online fans will probably have fun though.

With the remake of 1998's MediEvil, Other Ocean has done great work bringing the PlayStation title in 2019. Visually, this game is a winner. The problem is the decision to keep the gameplay largely the same. MediEvil's combat is muddy and its level design lacks any sense of exploration. This needed to be a more extensive remake. As it stands, it's only for those with heavy nostalgia for the property.

Right now, Rise of the Triad is a thrilling, fast-paced return to the sensibilities of '90s shooters, and is well worth dropping 15 bucks on; in the future, with new content, mod support and rebalanced online play patched in, it has the potential to be even better, and it bodes well for future remake projects Interceptor has its eye on.

Beyond the jank and titillation, though, Azure offers an action experience that speaks to a different era of gaming and plays like nothing else I've seen in years — regressive, perhaps, but in a good way. And the characters are ultimately strong enough, and developed enough, to be both likable and substantial as they navigate a minefield of boilerplate anime clichés and malfunctioning wardrobes. Not a game for everyone, but one that's better than you'd probably think.

If Marvel's Avengers was just the single-player story campaign, it would be amazing. There, Crystal Dynamics sells you on its version of the Avengers and introduces the charming and endearing Ms. Marvel to players everywhere. Combat has depth to it, and each hero truly feels distinct. Unfortunately, the endgame is where our heroes falter, with broken matchmaking, rough options in terms of progression, and endlessly reused environments and enemies. Surely, Marvel's Avengers will see improvements, but here at launch, the endgame needs a good deal of work.

Shenmue 3 suffers from hamfisted exposition, tedious repetition, monotonous grinding, and a heap of other fundamental flaws that are inexcusable in 2019. However, its environments are so confident in their sense of place that exploration is a capable redeemer, and the game is at times, on that ground alone, worth playing.

Thief will almost certainly frustrate fans of the older trilogy, but it suffers shortcomings on a more objective level as well. Though solidly made, it never challenges the well-worn conventions of stealth action. In short, it lacks a certain spark of inspiration. It's good, yet it falls short of "future classic" status.

I missed Travis Touchdown. I missed Suda51's punk verve. Travis Strikes Again is stylish in all the right ways. It looks cool, the music sounds great, and the game consistently zigs when I fully expected it to zag. At the same time there's not a lot here for players who aren't already devoted to the world of No More Heroes or even the larger Grasshopper Manufacture universe. But if you're tired of hacky attempts at too cool for school meta commentary, Travis Touchdown is here to take gaming post-post-modern.

Miitopia, by its end, is too redundant, too bland, and saves its best parts for far too late in the game—in the post-game, assuming its players have stuck around that long to begin with.

Star Wars Battlefront 2 is one of the most enjoyable multiplayer games of 2017, especially if you like Star Wars. It's also more flawed than it should be. Battlefront 2 doesn't deserve to be wholly defined by loot boxes, but it's inescapable given the impact they have on some of the core modes. This is why you don't tie gameplay to microtransactions.

It's not about challenge or winning or competition, but rather about playing interior designer to a host of creatures. While it's mostly very good at what it does, the specifics of what it does won't appeal to most gamers, or even most Animal Crossing fans. Taken on its own terms, however, the only area in which Happy Home Designer falls short of its rather relaxed mission statement is in its social and sharing features, which feel rather anemic.

I'd be hard-pressed to think of a game that tackles class, race, politics, and Capitalism so effectively with a light touch. Unfortunately, their attempts to replicate the drudgery of blue-collar labor might have been a bit too effective—certain sections of Sunset had me feeling absolutely listless.

It's tough to recommend Civilization: Revolution 2 in its current state. It makes few meaningful improvements to the original game, and in some ways its even takes a step back. Depending on your taste for 2D art, I would actually recommend the original Civilization: Revolution over this version. This sequel that feels like a missed opportunity to improve on a good idea.

The Bureau isn’t nearly as good as Enemy Unknown. Muddle through that initial disappointment though, and you’ll discover a fun third-person shooter/strategy hybrid that, while flawed, refreshingly taxes the brain cells and trigger finger in equal measure.

Innocent and whimsical, Doki-Doki Universe was made for your inner child. The adorable cast, the kid-like doodles, the heartfelt stories and its unabashed fondness of the off-kilter might make it a bit too twee for some but for those who want a change of pace from hard-hitting action games, Doki-Doki Universe works. Just be advised that it isn't the most technically perfect game in the PS Vita's stable.

Manual Samuel is a good-looking, genuinely funny button-pressing test of dexterity that starts out well, but unfortunately becomes increasingly complicated and frustrating as the game wears on. It's a nice idea, but one that will probably only appeal to those who enjoy games like QWOP.

Ultra Street Fighter II is an admirable effort; a pitch-perfect version of Street Fighter II on the Nintendo Switch. Capcom has re-balanced the game from its Super Turbo release, thrown in the Super Turbo HD Remix art, and added some additional Switch-only modes. Unfortunately, the whole package just feels adequate. Ultra Street Fighter II doesn't feel like it goes above and beyond for the series' 30th anniversary and the asking price is steep for what's there.

This spiritual successor to Tourist Trophy delivers exciting and challenging racing action that's thoroughly enjoyable. However, graphics that feel more last generation than this, rather weak sound, and very slow loading times take the edge off the overall experience.

For all its weirdness it actually is a pretty compelling adventure. Excellent combat mechanics and the pairing of an open world with a harsh time limit help the game overcome its technical shortcomings and impenetrable story.

If you can deal with a healthy dose of bugs, State of Decay 2 is an extremely satisfying and unpredictable management sim with a solid action-survival game laid on top. The sequel's improved UI, new multiplayer component, and additional maps help it stand out from its predecessor, even if the moment-to-moment is largely the same.