The Alliance Alive is a good game that's held back by some unfortunate missteps. Its fantastic premise and strong narrative provide a storyline that feels surprisingly fresh compared to other JRPGs, while its combat provides some welcome depth to its turn-based gameplay. The title often feels too easy, even by JRPG standards, and several features could have been better fleshed out, but the overall product is a stark improvement over studio Cattle Call's previous effort.

Dead in Vinland is easily one of the best games I've played, and its addictiveness is real. Every time you die, you'll reach for that new game button, like every other addict before you. Fans of survival managment games should snag Dead in Vinland, which is a steal at $20. The most important thing to remember in Dead in Vinland is that it is designed to defeat you but not destroy you. As the Vikings would say, Fear not death, for the hour of your doom is set, and none may escape it.

The mixing of fighting game mechanics with a more modern beat-'em-up set of mechanics works well thanks to the fact that you're flooded with varied enemies. The leveling system and the inclusion of a good roster of characters adds replay value, while local co-op play makes up for the lack of online play, especially since the Switch has been touted as being big on local multiplayer. Overall, Battle Grounds Overdrive is another good choice for the console.

Despite the issues, I'm really enjoying BattleTech. Get past its learning curve and get a few missions under your belt, and you begin to feel like a capable commander. The company management gives a backbone to your progression, while the mission gameplay is an enjoyably tangled web of tactical options and trade-offs. It's far from a perfect game, but it's a solidly good title that's a welcome entry in a long-overlooked franchise.

All in all, Brakes Are For Losers is a fun retro-inspired arcade racer. It doesn't excel anywhere, but it doesn't have to. It's a decent enough experience at a very low price point in case you're craving an isometric racing frenzy.

Guns, Gore & Cannoli 2 is excellent. The classic side-scrolling shooting benefits greatly from the 360-degree aiming, giving you few to no limits in dealing carnage. The presentation is still solid, and the improved co-op mechanics make this a perfect game to play with friends. Shooting fans will have a blast with this one.

There's no real reason to go for Rise and Fall unless you're a huge Civ VI nut who needs more content. The line between expansion and DLC is thin, and Rise and Fall lands right on the line. It's worth buying if you want more Civilization, but casual players may want to wait for a price drop or a meatier expansion.

If you can stomach the rather high price, Steep: Road to the Olympics is a good addition to those who have yet to tire of the core game. The range of mountains in Japan is fun to go through, while the Olympic events in Korea are different enough from the rest of the title but fit in with the gameplay mechanics. Though the story mode is rather weak in presentation, it's a good refresher for those who have been out of the loop for a while.

Road to the Show remains the soul of The Show 18 to me, with everything else feeling like a fun distraction, like getting to step into the shoes of baseball's past greats or the tasting the 8-bit flavor of retro mode. As I progress more into my player's career, there's this unshakable knowledge that he's never going to be better at some things than he is now. He will be in a box — an enjoyable one, but a box nonetheless.

While not quite an unmitigated disaster, Dynasty Warriors 9 is pretty bad. Even if you can live with the subpar presentation, the game quickly gets boring due to a lack of important or interesting things that can be done in the world. The combat is fine, but with fewer opportunities to use it, the button-mashing joy inherent in the series is nowhere to be found.

Overall, Typoman had an intriguing premise and managed to tell a decent story with great atmosphere, good visual design, and interesting puzzle mechanics. In the end, however, the title doesn't on many of the gameplay mechanics, with good but inconsistent puzzles and often awkward and awful platforming. Coupled with its short runtime, Typoman isn't bad, but it's certainly a long way from being as good as the idea and visuals behind it.

Fear Effect Sedna is a case of improperly executed good intentions. It has an intriguing story at its core, but the bad script fails to make it shine. It has lots of different gameplay mechanics at work, but none of them feel good, let alone good enough to carry the weaker parts. It has a presentation that's less than stellar, even for fans who enjoyed the originals. There's still a chance that you can enjoy the game, but you'll have to forgive the various flaws to do so.

As a whole, Extinction is a game built around plenty of promising ideas, but the execution fails to live up to its promises on almost every single point. It's hard to shake the feeling that Iron Galaxy didn't provide the game with the resources it needed to come close to reaching the heights it was aiming for. That's a shame, since all we're left with is a massive skeleton of a game that could have held some real meat.

Past Cure is many things: technically infuriating, a slog, and thematically inconsistent. While one can appreciate the effort of a small team trying to craft a game that does many things, it can't seem to do any of them well enough to warrant any attention. With a glut of better games that tackle similar elements on the platform, it's very difficult to recommend Past Cure to people, even as a quick diversion.

In summary, Bombslinger feels like a mix of several familiar concepts but manages to be greater than the sum of its parts. It's not perfect, with a steep difficulty setting and unfriendly amounts of grinding. The visuals are great, and the overall experience is fun, so you should pick up Bombslinger on the eShop for $12 — unless you hate roguelites.

Of all the iterations of Kratos I've seen over the lifetime of the God of War series, Old Man Kratos is probably my favorite. His newest adventure might not have quite the same wall-to-wall bombast as the ones that came before, but he's added a new dimension to his personality. He can only stay Old Testament-angry for so long, and the table is definitely set for more installments. There's more to explore now in this new corner of mythology, and it'll be compelling to see if he burns everything to the ground or finds an even higher place to go.

Pit People is absolutely solid, provided you can forgive its simple nature. The auto battling system does enough to get people in, while the ability to capture all sorts of enemies satisfies the veteran looking for some more depth. There's a ton of content here, and all of it is fun to explore, but the lack of an online community means that your army curation is only going to be useful against CPU opponents. In the end, Pit People is certainly a game worth checking out.

If you like CCGs, you'll have fun with Fable Fortune, but it'll be the same fun that you've already had elsewhere. If you've picked up Hearthstone at any time in the past four years, you won't miss anything by skipping this one. If you haven't picked up either, it's probably more worthwhile to pick up the one with a larger player base.

To say WRC 7 is a rally car simulation is a bit of a stretch, but it has nice simulation-like characteristics, such as vehicle damage, navigation call-outs, and car builds. I don't feel that it competes with the Dirt franchise very well, but it could be due to a lack of aesthetics in the menu and excitement in career mode. WRC 7 is still a quality choice, but it feels like the second option in a marketplace with a niche target audience.

The story may not be good enough to be considered a mainstream option, but for the JRPG community and SAO fans, there is an extreme amount of fun to be had here. If you've played the previous games, Fatal Bullet is an overall improvement and a step up.

If you have a regular crew to play with and you can get the game at a discount, Sea of Thieves offers some memorable experiences. If you're flying solo or thinking about paying full price, the rough edges should be enough to make you reconsider boarding this particular boat.

Essentially, A Case of Distrust is everything a narrative adventure game should be. It's engaging, humorous, and progressive. The characters are likeable and relatable, even though they're 95% silhouette and 5% deliciously vintage, and the story is entertaining. It's chic and fresh at the same time, and it's impossible to not love your character. Throw in a few quirky cab drivers, and the title becomes something special.

Taken at face value, Toki Tori 2+ is an incredibly well-designed platformer with a distinct Metroidvania vibe. However, it is let down by its visuals and sometimes frustratingly slow progression and backtracking due to certain puzzle sections.

As a whole product, Where The Water Tastes Like Wine can be a drag, but if you're in it for the story, bump up the score and have fun with a game that spins an excellent yarn.

If you have extremely fond memories of joyriding in Paradise City, there's nothing more you can ask for in Burnout Paradise Remastered. The improvements are generous, but after 10 years, the core that everyone loves is still structurally sound. It's good to see great games being revived and made available for today's platforms.

Hop into a match, lop off a few heads, gain experience and gear, and next time, lop off stouter heads while carrying a couple of grims. Vermintide 2 is exemplary of what the genre can become, and it's an especially great reason to grab some friends, sit down, and slay a few thousand foes.

Into the Breach presses all the right buttons to keep tactical strategy fans hooked, and many will come back over and over again despite any shortcomings they may perceive. I, for one, plan to waste away many more afternoons saving the world from an infestation of bugs. Then, once I finish spraying my house and yard, I plan to play some more Into the Breach.

If the rest of the series plays out like The Council: Episode 1 – The Mad Ones, then adventure game fans are in for quite a ride. The storylines and mysteries are intriguing thus far. While there is simplicity in the puzzles, the RPG elements and deeper conversation system make the game more appealing than some other adventure titles. There's currently no timetable for future episodes of The Council, but adventure fans will enjoy this title.