Samba de Amigo: Party Central is a fun title that still has some faults. The use of motion controls is fine until the game misreads your movements, while the more traditional gamepad method works well because it does more in mimicking motions and being challenging in its own right. The lack of focus on more Latin-themed music is disappointing considering the nature of the maracas, but the variety of music ensures that it's trying to reach a wider audience that enjoys the likes of Just Dance. The modes are fun, but the grind in replaying certain songs multiple times to earn more currency for cosmetics can be bothersome, especially given the presence of two different currency types. Samba de Amigo remains a charming rhythm game experience that genre fans will enjoy if they can forgive those quirks.

Assuming you're willing to shell out the money for the experience, any Disney-loving kid will have fun with this title.

Overall, Stride feels more like a concept title than a real one, given its very limited available content that centers around its core mechanic. That doesn't matter too much because the controls and gameplay are superb, except for a few minor inconsistencies. It's not a must-have title yet, but since a story and multiplayer update are still to come, Stride may have what it takes to become a highly addictive and fun parkour simulator in VR. If you have a Quest at your disposal, Stride is certainly worth a look.

Summum Aeterna takes a difficult Metroidvania and converts the basic ideas and characters to a roguelike. The result is a lot of fun, somehow managing to capture the best parts of the original game in a more digestible chunk. It isn't necessarily going to win you over if you dislike roguelike titles, but if you were a fan of Noctis, you must try Summum, which has all the makings of a perfect gateway drug to roguelikes.

Doom VFR won't look as badass as the last main installment's version looked on regular televisions and gaming monitors, but such is the burden of enjoying it all in VR. Sure, you'll have to forfeit the complete run-and-gun tactic that was almost required, and you'll need to take more of a strategic approach until you're well versed in one of the three control schemes. It's easiest with the DualShock 4 controllers, miserable with motion controllers, and downright fun with the Aim controller, so the play style is up to you. It's not a masterpiece, but it's a pretty good start. It feels great that the game wasn't a quick money grab priced at the full $60, and it gets a pass due to the lack of VR titles, but any sequel that comes next will have to really step up to the plate. The motion controller difficulties can't persist, or it'll be a major downfall for the Doom franchise in the VR marketplace.

NHL 23 has a few nice additions, but they quickly wear thin. There's nothing of substance, except perhaps yet another year of the same grind in HUT to eventually get a team together that is worthy of competition by the time the next installment skates around. That doesn't seem appealing to me, and unless you've already skipped several years' worth of NHL entries, NHL 23 isn't worth the full asking price.

Overall, this review of Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town may sound a touch negative, and it is in some parts. I like how it deals with progression while keeping most of its addicting farming foundations intact. Most of what it adds feels nicked from other games and has often been implemented less convincingly. Combined with performance issues and a few other missed opportunities, Pioneers of Olive Town is a solid entry in the series, but it isn't the must-have experience that many had hoped for the series' 25th anniversary.

A slow starter, especially when enemies run away from your character like there's no tomorrow. Once you acquire charge attacks, the game gets a lot more fun.

Shadow Warrior 3 is a fun shooter that falls short of greatness. The combat is fast and frantic, and it is intense enough that I found myself getting lost in it. The short length, lack of variety, and inevitable comparisons to Doom Eternal don't do it any favors. I am glad that I played Shadow Warrior 3, and I imagine a lot of folks will feel the same way. It might be best to wait for a price drop, as $50 is slightly hefty for the amount of content you get.

LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues falls short because not only is it a game that no one asked for, but it's also a game that's mostly already been done.

The mechanics are smooth and the gameplay is fun, but The Amazing-Spider-Man is relentlessly average and destined to be forgotten in the annals of time. The game displays a bunch of promise that it never manages to fulfill.

A flawed gem. It’s a lot of fun to play, it looks and feels great, and it’s very reasonably priced, but a number of omissions (most notably multiplayer capability) give it a short life-span with very limited replayability.

By and large, Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet are fun. It's telling that I had a lot of fun with them despite the absolutely unforgivable performance problems. The basis for an extremely strong and engaging Pokémon game is here, but it's out in the wild without the extra months of development that it still needed to improve performance issues. If you're willing to forgive some jank for an otherwise great Pokémon experience, then you'll have a great time. Otherwise, it's probably worth skipping until it gets some patches. Even die-hard Pokéfans might have trouble getting past seeing their favorite Pokémon crawling along at five fps.

Total Overdose doesn't do much that's new or innovative, but what it does drips with so much style that you can't stay away.

It's very easy for a developer to use nostalgia as an excuse to put out a half-baked product, but Double Dragon Neon is a well-crafted love letter to the beat-'em-up genre. It may not be a long game, but it is a complete delight while it lasts.

It is by no means a masterpiece, but Attack of the Earthlings provides a fun and a solid strategy experience for those who aren't looking for something extremely deep. The levels have a good layout, and there's a wide variety of smart and dumb enemies to keep you invested. Your offensive abilities, from setting up traps to body disposal, are fun, and the humor keeps things lively. It is a short experience that doesn't have much replayability due to the lack of variable difficulty, but you'll still enjoy your time with Attack of the Earthlings.

Even as a party game, KR Country doesn't have the staying power of Party, the single genre restriction being more suffocating than it would appear to be at first.

There’s a lot of waiting and wandering and enjoying the view, followed by a moment of excitement that I’d found a big beast and then panic that I would lose him. Later on in the game, as I got better and could edge closer, I found out that you can add terror to that list too.

Even as an open-world RPG, Dead Island had a great deal more to offer on the drawing board than it delivered in the final game. The game masquerades as a unique marriage of several genres and gameplay types. Rather, it's a box of dusty old spare parts tacked together into an experience unsatisfying on every level.

Boulder Dash-XL does a good job of convincing its audience that the original idea can still hold up today. The core gameplay is simple but addicting, and the multitude of levels with varying difficulty make it tough to put down once you pick up the controller.

Even with all the promotion we're seeing now, Days Gone still carries the aura of a title that could be miscast and possibly overlooked at a glance, like it was for me a few years ago. You don't know until you play, and this stands as one the more pleasant and satisfying surprises of the year for me. It's been a long road to this game, but the ride is worth it.

While it may be quite a simple adventure at that, it should definitely be checked out by any fan of the movie, as Madagascar will undoubtedly prove to be a humorous game to help you relax and pass the time.

That is about all there is to Nioh 2: The First Samurai: a few new missions, a few new skills, and endgame content geared almost exclusively for the top 1% of players. The Season Pass of the game is worth it for the first two DLCs, but the third DLC is so incredibly limited that you have to be a Nioh die-hard. If you are a Nioh die-hard, The First Samurai gives you more things to test your skills on and more ways to optimize your builds, and it's good at that. If you just want to put your Nioh 2 skills to the ultimate test, there is a lot here to potentially kill the heck out of you.

Asterigos: Curse of the Stars is just plain fun. It's a solid, enjoyable and well put-together action-adventure game where my biggest complaints are largely nitpicks and a few qualms about the exploration. Sure, you can point to various things it was inspired by, but it manages to stand out on its own merits, and it's an enjoyable experience. The distinct art style and combat help it define itself, and the story is engaging enough to keep you interested. It's well worth a look if the concept remotely interests you.

The tutorials are well worth the investment and the gameplay is solid, although it can still be tightened. The engine might be dated in look, but it runs smoothly, and a great deal of effort has gone into the code to model physics of the egg-shaped rugby ball.

I enjoyed it, and you might too, but your mileage may vary, depending on your tolerance for repetitiveness and a steep difficulty curve.

For fans who already own SvR 2009, Legends of WrestleMania makes for a great companion piece — or perhaps a replacement.

There’s nothing wrong with Demon Stone that couldn’t be fixed by better AI, camera controls, a multiplayer mode, and, while I’m thinking of it, better collision detection on Zhai’s jumps.