From the beautiful presentation to the fun coming-of-age story, Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story is easily one of Tequila Works’ best. Fans of League of Legends have had their hands full with Riot Forge’s other releases and they can have another helpful serving of a fantastic adventure game.

Syberia: The World Before is a remarkable adventure game that keeps its legacy adventure charm and is a worthy continuation of Ms. Walker’s story. It is a game that all of Microids and B. Sokal can, and should be, proud of.

The good news is that you can enjoy the hell out of this game without spending a penny, but if you’re either prone to MTX-it is or really care about PVP it wildly throws off the endgame balance.

LEGO Voyagers is a gorgeous, surprisingly emotional adventure about friendship, the joy of pure play and supporting one another. Even the smallest of us can achieve great things.

Toy Tactics is deceptively simple yet a lot of fun. It’s got the charm of toys clashing about as environments, spells, and the right tactics change the course of the game. And all the while offering varied objectives, great level design, and quite a number of modes for play. If you’re in the market for a unique real-time strategy game, look no further than Kraken Empire’s latest hotness.

Yearly sports titles tend to be small upgrades. College Football 26 is different, as CF25 set the groundwork after over a decade away. ’26 takes a more-is-better approach and smashes it. This is one of the best-playing and most realistic-feeling college sports titles I have ever played.

For any fan of Alan Wake 2 and especially those that are invested in the greater Remedy storylines this expansion is a no-brainer. It’s $20 for this and the second release, Lake House, which should hit around October 2024. Do yourself a favor and play this ASAP and with as little info going in as possible. It looks and runs great and adds exciting new branches to the ever-expanding storyline of Remedy’s future titles.

This is easily Gust’s best Atelier game. Offering a fun and relaxing experience for those that want to craft and battle away, this is the best final chapter Ryza could ask for.

If you can find a way to break through the difficulty barrier, there’s a fantastic brawler on offer here that I definitely think is the template going forward to bring the 2D scrolling beat ’em ups into the 3D world. Where previous efforts like Die Hard Arcade didn’t quite stick the landing, SIFU definitely takes home the gold.

Bang-On Balls: Chronicles is this simple yet ultimate combination of the right elements of sandbox platforming. It’s loads of fun, be it solo or cooperatively, and there’s plenty of unique objectives and challenges to tackle as well as solidly crafted boss fights. It’s a beautiful and large-scale sandbox that offers a banger of a time for everyone.

Dead Island 2 is fantastic. It knows what it is, and that’s a ton of sneakily smart dumb fun. The FLESH system is horrific and awful and the best. Smashing, chopping, burning, and exploding humans has never been so fun. At $70 some may want to wait as it isn’t the longest campaign. I’m already doing a second playthrough though, and this is a game I’ll be coming back to for a long time.

There isn’t a ton new about PowerWash Simulator 2, and that is exactly what I wanted. What is improved, from the graphics to the streamlined cleaning processes, makes what was already a serene experience into one of the most chill vibes you can find in gaming.

Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is experimental Capcom at its best. While some of the fights can teeter on feeling unfair the majority of the game is a glorious mix of hack-and-slash action with a heavy dose of tower defense. It’s launching directly into Game Pass and is well worth checking out for anyone looking for 14+ hours of a damned good time.

Chaos Zero Nightmare shouldn’t be this addicting, but I spent a lot of time crawling through the Chaos over the last month. There’s a fair bit of content to trawl through and the bleakness of the world contrasted with the colour anime aesthetics is very interesting, which has kept me engaged with the story thus far. It’s not easy to wrest me away from my other actively played gacha games, but CZN has done it and I can recommend it to anyone who enjoys sauntering through gloomy deckbuilding dungeon crawlers.

Fans of the genre are unlikely to find a better game this year than this. Now I’m off to have a good cry and hug my kids.

For those wanting a more modern fighting game with a focus on story based single player content, you’ll need to look elsewhere. For fighting game fans who want the simpler more quaint arcade and competitive experience then look no further, Virtua Fighter is back!

South of Midnight is a stunningly beautiful and moving experience. While the gameplay doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel, it combines excellent writing and music to move your soul in ways only the best games can. This title is an enormous step-up for Compulsion Games, and I hope this isn’t the last we see from Hazel Flood.

With big boss fights, fun combat systems, and a charming story featuring justice and righteousness, ASTLIBRA Revision is a great 2D action RPG and well worth the time investment.

SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake is the best SpongeBob game ever. There’s a lot of love that went into this project and you really feel it as you jump, swing, and kick about. A solid pick up for platforming and SpongeBob fans alike, this game is an example of what game software for children (and licensed property) should strive to be.

Horizon Chase 2 is a brilliant sequel to an already fun retro-themed racer. Gorgeous visuals, much-improved track designs, better handling, a more interesting progression and even a brand new online mode with cross-play to boot. It may lack the cinematic story presentation of the first game’s Senna Forever DLC, but other than that, this sequel is the best the series has ever been, and it’s a pretty much essential buy for fans of old school racers.

Need For Speed Unbound, even at its launch, is certainly rather packed with content. The story sees the player throughout 4 weeks of days and nights throughout many events, some mandatory and most optional, with players always being able to decide how many seen-before events they wanna rush through again for some extra cash. With tons of unlockable and upgradable cars, a robust if uninspired multiplayer and an open world with plenty of things to do, Unbound’s unlikely to last you less than a couple dozen hours, unless you get bored before the end credits of course. But boredom isn’t what I’d associate with the latest installment in this everlasting franchise: Need For Speed has found its identity, and while a few concepts require some finetuning, it’s the best episode in a long while and one of the most stylish and generally finest racers of the generation thus far.

After a tumultuous dev cycle, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 shines despite some rough edges.

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii brings about solid 3D brawling combat back to the series alongside tonnes of minigames, fun pirating sections, and intense set piece battles the series is known for. It's more Yakuza---are you going to say no to that?

Shin-chan: Shiro and the Coal Town is a fantastic adventure game in that it is laid back, funny, and easy enough to be enjoyed by just about everyone be they child or senior. You might not know who Shin-chan is, but don’t let that stop you from taking it easy and looking up once in a while.

Team Ladybug’s latest release is a grand one—the slower-paced nature of the action feels good to play especially as you get a better grasp of Shin and his companion’s move sets. The downtrodden Osaka city landscape has plenty of exploration potential and baddies to encounter, meaning that I can wholeheartedly recommend Blade Chimera to the 2D Metroidvania aficionado and novice alike.

Tchia is the latest, and one of my favorite, late ports to Xbox that’s arriving thanks to Game Pass. It’s a beautiful game, with an incredible soundtrack, fun gameplay, and an emotional story full of loss and love.

Atomic Heart is an excellent game, and it’s an incredible debut title from Mundfish. Clever storytelling, massive set pieces, fun combat, and more make this one easy to recommend.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is an epic ass-kicking time. Featuring ridiculously cool characters, stunning music, and a deeply engaging combat system, this one is an easy recommendation for purchase or downloading on Game Pass.