While Ace Attorney has had its ups and downs since the original trilogy came to a close, Spirit of Justice amounts to the fresh start Phoenix Wright needed to break away from his past. A great setting, fantastic mysteries, memorable characters, and a consistent, thoughtful theme make this a must-play for anyone interested in Ace Attorney's anime-infused take on Law & Order.
Yo-kai Watch has a great degree of potential, so it's tragic to see Level-5 squander it over fears of upsetting their massive cash cow. (In Japan, anyway.) This sequel carries the same sense of spooky whimsy as the first game, but unfortunately doesn't lose the underlying tedium. If you're looking for an alternative to Pokemon, you might want to see if the next game fixes Yo-kai Watch's woes—if it gets localized, that is.
PlayStation VR Worlds does a great job of showing off Sony's tech, but the experiences contained in this collection are far too slight to be anything more than sideshow attractions. If you're looking to make the most of PSVR, you're better off buying full games than a modest collection of tech demos.
You can't come up with a more intriguing VR premise than "Batman simulator," and developer Rocksteady has done their best to make it work. But despite how cool it is to simply exist in Gotham, the limited interactions and dumbed-down puzzles make the experience feel much less confident than it should be.
While the brilliance of its director's past games occasionally surface in Cold Case Investigations, this thoughtlessly designed and incredibly brief adventure will do nothing but disappoint fans of the defunct developer Cing.
Monster Hunter has been in need of a big change for years, and this reboot-of-sorts could have easily gone wrong. Instead, Capcom took a careful look at Monster Hunter's design and cut all the fat while leaving the series trademark dense gameplay completely intact. All the changes, from the broad, sweeping ones to the granular alterations, only serve to improve an already winning formula. The next generation of Monster Hunter has finally begun, and, with Monster Hunter World, it's off to an incredibly good start.
While it comes in the form of a no-frills port, Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate exists as the most thorough exploration of Monster Hunter to date. If you can get over its 3DS-era visuals, you're in for a seemingly endless experience you can easily devote a lifetime to—and one worth devoting a lifetime to. Whether you're new to the series, someone who started with Monster Hunter World, or just a fan of the previous 3DS games, you're bound to get addicted once MHGU gets its hooks into you. Just don't be afraid to ask for help.