Foamstars' core gameplay offers plenty of strategic fun, but you'll have to grit your teeth through some of its worst instincts to enjoy them.
Lysfanga: The Time Shift Warrior's time-bending combat hook is so smart, you'll want to show it to everyone you know.
Whether you love the high-octane spectacle of Final Fantasy XVI or the character collection of Genshin Impact, Granblue Fantasy: Relink has a little something for you. It’s a smart blend of ideas, even if it’s a bit torn between console and mobile gaming philosophies. More importantly, though, it does all that without sacrificing the playful energy the RPG genre was built on.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is the most emotionally impactful chapter in gaming’s best soap opera. It struggles to stay fully engaging from start to finish due to a supersized runtime filled with exhausting exposition dumps, but developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio delivers a deeply personal story that’s serious without sacrificing its heart. If any video game could leave you with a new lease on life, it’s this.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora can't put its human nature aside long enough to properly honor the Na'vi.
A Highland Song successfully brings the awe-inspiring freedom of Breath of the Wild to the Scottish Highlands.
Super Mario RPG isn't necessarily an improvement over the 1996 version, but it's at least a more approachable experience for kids.
American Arcadia turns The Truman Show into an interactive indie thriller you don't want to miss.
The Talos Principle 2 excels at giving players a suite of brain-busting puzzles built around strong eureka moments, even if it can feel as long-winded as a philosophy professor with its wandering existential monologues. Only the most determined genre experts may see the end of its super-sized story, but those who brave its gauntlet of mysterious islands are sure to walk away with newfound confidence in their ability to accomplish the impossible.
WarioWare: Move It! is a much-needed reset for a series that’s long struggled to hit the creative heights of its Nintendo Wii entry. A return to the physical fun of WarioWare: Smooth Moves is just what the doctor ordered, making for one last must-own Switch party game that’s not afraid to cut loose. Though it takes two steps forward, it's a step back from Get It Together’s most ingenious modes, leaving more space for Nintendo to perfect its wackiest series.
Like its hero, Thirsty Suitors is a charmingly messy game that juggles a little more than it can handle. Its multipronged gameplay loop wobbles between inventive and repetitive over the course of its eight-hour story. What it lacks in polish, though, it makes up for with a nuanced narrative about how the past isn’t always a haunting specter to hide from.
Save for a few odd gameplay quirks and frustrating tech issues at launch, Alan Wake 2 is Remedy Interactive’s most confident, fully realized creative vision to date. It fully pays off the long-simmering potential of the studio’s interconnected universe to create a densely detailed, cerebral experience about the nature of horror – both in the nightmares we face in everyday life and the scary stories we create to cope with them.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder is both a return to form and a delightful transformation of the classic 2D series.
The 7th Guest VR is haunted by clumsy motion controls, but satisfying puzzle design keeps this 90s PC remake alive.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 delivers a personal story about two busybodies struggling to find balance in their lives, while all webbed up in larger-than-life comic book arcs. That’s a perfect match for Insomniac’s winning action-adventure formula, which is improved in almost every conceivable way here. Its expansive narrative and open-world checklists may feel overwhelming at times, but that effectively drives home its ultimate point: Great power isn’t a cure for great responsibility.
Sonic Superstars nails the fundamentals of 2D Sonic design, but its new features don't add much to the retro formula.
Saltsea Chronicles is a poignant nautical adventure about the distances between us and what we gain from crossing them.
Detective Pikachu Returns works as a charming interactive cartoon, but its simplified deduction takes some of the mystery out of it.
Cocoon is a mesmerizing debut for Geometric Interactive that's filled with ingenious puzzles that will unlock your animal instincts.
Payday 3 doesn't shake up its predecessor's formula much, but a strong batch of initial heists sets the live service shooter up for success.