DRAGON BALL Sparking! ZERO is a great 3D arena fighter. It’s got a sizeable roster, huge maps, and a fun combat system that I quite a bit of mileage out of over the weekend. A clumsy user interface and only one splitscreen map does suck the life out of the party a bit, but there’s still a great game here for Dragon Ball fans and arena fighter enthusiasts.

The DioField Chronicle is a great real-time strategy game for consoles. It controls well, the stages aren’t too long, and there’s enough mechanical depth to make stage replays interesting. Although I couldn’t be bothered with the game’s story, the scenes themselves don’t last long and all of it can be skipped at any point. I would have liked some more quality-of-life features such as always-on enemy range marking, but what’s missing hardly impacts the gameplay. This is a game I can recommend to tactics and JRPG fans alike.

While there’s not really a meaningful structure, plot or anything to work towards, especially for solo players, the mere skill ceiling to climb towards is a satisfying enough loop to guarantee plenty of hours of parkour, with the game’s physics and mechanics properly keeping up with the expectations of such a precise formula. Hardly a revolutionary or particularly memorable game, but it aims to do satisfying parkour first and foremost and it succeeds there. And that’s perfectly fine.

Despite the lack of quality of life features, however, GRANDIA HD Collection serves as a great way for players to play a set of excellent RPGs on modern platforms. Either games can be played to your liking at anytime and are great fun thanks to a solid combat system and presentation.

Kao the Kangaroo is a well-meaning game, and despite some missteps, it is in my opinion one of the better 3D platformers of modern gaming.

Lost in Random: The Eternal Die is a short, fun experience. It takes all the classic elements of the roguelite genre and meshes them into this world seamlessly. It’s well worth checking out whether at full price or via Game Pass.

Arcadegeddon might just secretly become my go-to co-op shooter for some time.

Turnip Boy Robs A Bank is a damned good time, that is just as long as it needs to be. Whether you’ve played the first game or not it is well worth checking out on Game Pass. Good looks, fun gameplay, and excellent music make it another solid addition to the platform.

Pepper Grinder is short, fun, and nails what it’s going for. It’s fun solo but if you can convince a few curious friends the leaderboard system could give you way more than four hours of a good time.

Monster Energy Supercross 5 is certainly not a revolution, and if you’re still knee-deep into the high octane races of last year’s installment, there’s perhaps not many reasons to upgrade yet. However, a revised physics model and much improved riding assistances make the game a lot more accessible than before, making this the best episode so far for newcomers.

SOPA – Tale of the Stolen Potato is a lovely adventure title that shows just how creative storytelling you can be with the smallest of foods. It encapsulates a piece of Latin America within its gorgeous art, enchanting music, and engaging puzzles. Technical issues do eventually compound to make for a bit of a cumbersome experience, but I can look past that to recommend this adventure to all.

Despite my issues, I found Ink Reverie to be a relaxing and charming game. It blends a bit of idle mechanics with active city building and match three gameplay quite well and served as a lovely detox to everything else I have going on. No need to stress over the finer details, all you have to do is build and watch as your cities grow.

WRC Generations upgrades the general feel of Nacon’s yearly rally experience, tweaking the physics, handling, and smartly recreating the new challenges of the hybrid cars that are racing in the real-life series this season. The lower than usual price point is certainly very inviting, but it’s caused by the fact the game contains very little new content, with even the UIs, the career and practice tracks being virtually unchanged. There’s still a bit of “jank”, and the game is far from the best-looking racers out there, but WRC Generations offers a compelling middle ground between arcade and simulation rally, with a robust enough online and ranking system to push virtual drivers towards perfection for months to come. And now we wait for Codemasters’ first WRC game…

All in all, Headbangers: Rhythm Royale feels like the perfect online game for Game Pass, with hopefully a healthy population guaranteed by the many subscribers on the service, the presence of crossplay and even AI players to fill the gaps. The simple yet addictive gameplay loops feel like something worth revisiting from time to time, as hopefully the game’s so far limited variety will improve. Its got funny characters and hilarious competitive party game shenanigans, but it’s also a tad limited currently in terms of variety and depth for its asking price if bought separately.

LUNARK was a game I had never heard of a day before this review, and I loved my time with it. A beautifully realized throwback look is mixed with fun gameplay and an incredible soundtrack. For $20 if the premise sounds interesting to you then you should do yourself a favor and give this one a go.

Ultimately, Richman 11 boils down to being a very well-made videogame rendition of a solid, though not particularly original or unmissable virtual board game. With multiple game modes, tons of customization, large amounts of shenanigans happening in the match with cards, deities, and more, plus even a solid online mode, it’s hard to ask more from a videogame of this kind. But the board game itself, underneath it all, is a slightly more varied but also somewhat more monotonous Monopoly, one that I don’t consider to be endlessly replayable like certain classics. Still, with this much content and all sorts of local and online multiplayer options, Richman 11 is easily one of the better board game experiences on Xbox, especially for younger folks who’d prefer something a bit more accessible.

Steelrising is a mix of decent-to-damned-good parts that takes the Soulslike Action RPG and puts it into one of the most ridiculous and awesome settings I’ve seen in a while. Mediocre graphics are countered by a fantastic art style, fun combat, incredible music, and a story that I found myself deeply invested in.

Sports: Renovation is a cool take on the cleaning simulation genre. Its love for sports emanates in just about every corner of the game, across multiple levels. It can be clumsy at times, but it’ll eat up your time like no tomorrow. Put on some headphones, learn about sports, and scrub those venue floors clean.

Arcade Paradise is a delightful surprise. Full of wit, heart, and damned fun minigames it’s worth a purchase if the thought of an idle-style laundromat management sim full of fun as hell arcade games sounds enticing. It’s a relaxed, radical tubular time and I can’t wait to see what the devs come up with next.

The Precinct has been a pleasant surprise. Solid shooting and driving mechanics, surprisingly deep police-related activities and an enjoyable 80’s cop movie style presentation mostly make up for the small open world and uninspired plot. The end result is a fun little romp onto the streets of crime – but from a cop’s point of view, for once. It’s not gonna win awards for originality, the gameplay could have surely been more refined, and it’s unlikely to make most people’s GOTY lists come December. Yet, it’s been a fun ride that I enjoyed from start to finish, with the end credits rolling before the game’s limited scope could start hurting the experience. Fans of old school GTA should keep an eye out for this one.

Remnant II tickles greatness but falls short due to a few design choices. It is gorgeous, plays incredibly well, and should be one of the year’s best releases. I’m not sure if my issues with the game can be easily patched out, but I hope the devs at Gunfire Games give this one the same love the first game received over time.

Palia’s multiplayer-based life simulation experience is a unique one, something that sets it apart from other games in the genre. It’s got solid mechanics, an interesting lore, and a welcoming community. It’s a game best enjoyed in short bursts, but that can’t stop you from building the life of your dreams.

The Tale of Bistun left me feeling very impressed. Sure, there are bigger and better games out there and the gameplay mechanics are limited and slightly repetitive but for the price, this game is well worth checking out. This is a classic tale that is worth hearing and is presented in a way that does not outstay its welcome. It is rare for a piece of Persian culture to be celebrated using the medium of video games and this is a piece of work that Black Cube Games should be proud of.

As it is right now, Xbox is the only platform where you can play every single mainline Final Fantasy game, barring, of course, the sequel to this one: Rebirth. But that’ll come in due time, so the point still stands. What is that point, you ask? Pretty simple, really. Xbox is the premier place to play Final Fantasy on consoles, and Final Fantasy VII Remake is a JRPG worth purchasing for fans and non-fans of the genre alike.

RoboCop: Rogue City – Unfinished Business is an expandalone that outshines its original in almost every way. However, better pacing and bigger moments are marred by poor performance, at least at launch. If you can look past that and you already enjoy the first game, then this one is an easy recommendation at only $30.

I had a great time with High on Knife, and I do plan on going back in to clean up some undiscovered items, which thankfully, the game allows you to do, even after completing the main questline. If you loved the off-beat humour, gross body horror and Rick and Morty style humour of the original game, you’ll hardly be making a mistake picking this mini-expansion up. It’s Knifey’s time to shine (or stab everyone)…or both.

Really, this is purely a time capsule that plays really well on the go, perfect for anyone who owned a Lynx and folks who love retro games. The collection’s titles run accurately and bonus functions like rewind and save states along with digitised versions of their box arts and manuals make The Epyx Collection: Handheld worth a look.

Monsters Are Coming! Rock and Road is a solid addition to the never-ending bullet-heaven/rogue-lite/survivors-like (yeesh) genre. It looks nice, plays well, and has at least one bopping track to help carry it through a series of runs that are only let down by some punitive progression requirements.