The play is fantastic, and there's a lot of fun to be had, but even with the improvements made from FIFA 08, it feels underfeatured and overpriced when you hold the two titles side by side.

Samurai Warriors 4 is probably the most fleshed-out realization of a portable Musou game yet.

Kid Icarus: Uprising is close to being one of Nintendo's best. It is exciting, funny, and packed to the brim with content and style. Unfortunately, it is held back by an awkward control scheme. In order to enjoy Kid Icarus: Uprising, you have to give the game the benefit of the doubt and work with its flaws and foibles until you are comfortable with them.

The graphics really do serve to enhance the overall feel of the game, almost working to white-out the flaws that are present.

Skies of Fury DX is a very simple but very enjoyable arcade shooter. The campaign is long, but the missions are short enough that they can be enjoyed in bursts, while the progression system gives you enough reason to keep coming back. Controls and presentation are good, and despite the issues in some areas, the core is enough to provide an overall fun experience. Skies of Fury DX is a pleasant surprise that's well worth checking out.

Assassin's Creed Shadows is a solid entry for Nintendo fans who have always wanted to play in this world. The game does a good job of making each character's play style feel distinct, while also keeping the experience fun in the process. The missions can start to feel very similar after a while, but the amount of content means that there's plenty to do before you'll see the end credits roll. The presentation remains impressive overall, and unless you're completely burned out on open-world adventure games, Shadows is a good one to get stuck on.

Aside from the short play time, it's rather engaging, and while it is way too early to say whether The Detail ends up being a great adventure, the first episode will certainly whet the appetites of those who love a good police procedural.

Bubble Bobble 4 Friends is a solid, enjoyable and well-made entry in the Bubble Bobble franchise. At its core, it's still a simple pick-up-and-play arcade game, but 4 Friends does a good job of expanding and improving on the core mechanics. There's something bizarrely addictive about chaining together bubbles for huge point strings, and the simple nature of the game makes it excellent for parties or get-togethers. It might not be a huge narrative-driven experience like some modern titles, but there's something comforting about returning to the days when all you needed was a dinosaur-shaped blob of pixels, some bubbles, and a whole lot of quarters.

SaGa: Emerald Beyond is easily one of the most accessible and easy-to-play SaGa games ever released, making it a solid evolution over SaGa: Scarlet Graces with an improved combat system and more focused area design. At heart, it's still a SaGa game, and that means it is frequently obscure, often confusing, and is unashamed of making you miss content without explaining why. Combine that with the low-budget visuals, and it seems like it's destined to be a love-it-or-hate-it game. Despite that, if you're curious about SaGa, Emerald Beyond is probably the best place to start to see if the eccentric series is right for you.

Altogether, I think it's a pretty good value for $20, and while it's a budget title intended for kids, I think it would be a pretty solid game for any casual gamer.

Akka Arrh won't click with most people right away. It takes a while to understand how to effectively use the bombs and bullets while wrangling a free-aiming cursor. The inclusion of another level to travel to briefly when things get hectic can be a bit too much to handle all at once. When it does click, it becomes a beautiful destructive symphony that pushes a psychedelic landscape for a signature Jeff Minter title. This is well worth the trip if you want a shooter that moves away from the genre norms.

In the end, Overwatch works well as a port. It's almost boring to talk about, as it aims to be as faithful to the existing versions as possible. It's not a technical marvel, and that may rightfully turn you off, but it's a feature-complete and portable version that is best for quick drop-in matches when you just want a casual match in Overwatch.

While it's impossible to fairly compare NHL Slapshot to triple-A HD console hockey titles, this Wii game is a state-of-the-art effort in sports gaming for Nintendo's console, a system that is too often overlooked for proper treatment when it comes to pro-league licensed titles.

Battlefield: Hardline might not help the series evolve, but it is a solid game.

A cute, charming RPG that feels as a great gateway game for people who are interested in the genre.

I'm hesitant to call this the best PSP game yet because it still carries so many of the flaws of previous games – mostly in terms of control – as well as having fairly trite single-player moments.

In a year that's already had a few really solid racers and is expecting a couple more, Apocalypse stands out as a game that should be played by racing fans.

Fans who have a better understanding of the George R. R. Martin world will likely be able to cope with how it concluded. Everyone else will be shocked or dismayed. No matter which group you belong to, this series is worth checking out, even if the longer-than-usual wait made it painful to bear.

Even with the advancements done to the formula over the years, the LEGO Harry Potter Collection remains a solid game for fans. Gameplay remains simple enough for kids to enjoy, but the amount of content packed into each title ensures they'll still be working on it long after the campaigns have been finished. The enhancements due to the platform jump aren't truly significant, but they help make an already clean-looking game shine just a tiny bit more. Unless you've played these to death on previous consoles, this is certainly a game that deserves to be checked out by those who still adore the LEGO games without question.

TTT2 is a great game on its own merits, but the jury's out on how well it bodes for the state of fighting games.

It doesn't provide anything new for fighting veterans, and it doesn't have characters that will immediately draw in players. It does provide a good fighting experience with an assortment of modes that provide familiarity - but nothing new.

Pac-Man Party is quite a surprising party game. The minigames are as good as, if not better, than some of the Mario Party games offered recently, while the board game elements are more engaging than most of the current party games.

Black Hole is absolutely fun. The concept is simple, and the upgrade system is nice, but the core shooting really drives the title. The difficulty level is balanced enough to make you feel like you're making progress, but it isn't so generous that you can easily beat the game in one sitting. It may not be on many people's lists for best shoot-'em-up on the Switch, but it certainly belongs in a tier close to that level.

Hallowseed is still a great playthrough that was uninterrupted by bugs or annoying mechanics, and the jump-scares and rapidly unfolding story will have you sitting on the edge of your seat in anticipation. There's a very real sense that you are the good guy and that you can defeat the demon on your tail, despite being the comparative underdog. Who doesn't love a story about the underdog saving the day? Lovers of horror games will recognize Horror Story: Hallowseed as a great example of their favorite genre. Costing less than $20 USD on Steam, Hallowseed won't disappoint.

Overall, the gameplay of Rooms: The Main Building trumps the presentation issues. It's fun, and it's easy to pick up and let go at a whim, making it a great portable title.

South of the Circle is the equivalent of a good book. It's fun to sit down, experience, relax, and have the story drift over you. It isn't particularly interactive, and the ending feels a little unsatisfying, but beyond that, it's well told and well executed. You shouldn't pick it up if you're looking to decide who lives or who dies. You get to experience the story as it is told, with a few button prompts for flavor. If that sounds good to you, then you'll enjoy South of the Circle.

Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions delivers a good Spider-Man experience for the current generation of consoles. The combat is done well, even in the first-person battles, and the feeling of being Spider-Man translates well, despite the lack of an open-world setting.

Though imperfect, Assassin's Creed Nexus VR is a solid game for fans of VR and fans of the series. The smaller scope in terms of level size is offset by the fact that each environment remains dense with people and activities. The stories are fine, but the ability to play as three well-known assassins makes up for that. More importantly, it hits all of the hallmark moments of the series and does immersion well if you can forgive the weightless combat. It'll be interesting to see if Ubisoft tries to port this to other VR platforms, but as it stands now, the game is worth checking out if you are a current or prospective owner of any of the more recent Meta headsets.