Yooka-Laylee is a fun throwback to a bygone era of gaming, with more than enough charm, variety, and engaging challenges to make up for its shortcomings.
Angels with Scaly Wings generally overcomes its goofy setup and simplistic presentation to deliver a character-driven plot with some good surprises, making for a decent little diversion of a game.
1-2-Switch contains minigames that are both fun diversions and promising examples of the technology at work within the system’s Joy-Cons, but several duds, a lack of substance or progression, and an expensive asking price make it feel like something that would have been better suited as a pack-in title.
As nice as it is to see a long-dormant retro series return, Super Bomberman R's lack of creativity and unbalance issues result in it not feeling like the proper comeback it could have been.
Simplistic, unpolished, and lacking any sense of inspiration or effort, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Mega Battle will neither entice any new fans nor satisfy the nostalgic hopes of those familiar with the TV franchise’s brand of goofy action.
Shantae: Half-Genie Hero provides the same great sidescrolling action and charm of previous entries, though it also retains the series' awkward progression mechanics and suffers from a short length.
While the idea of a throwback to classic 16-bit era platformers has merit, Orange Adventure mostly squanders it with clunky controls and frustrating, archaic game and level design.
Paper Mario: Color Splash makes some mistakes that prevent it from being one of the iconic plumber’s best role-playing outings, but its level of creativity, wit, and overall charm is irresistible, resulting in a very entertaining time.
Owlboy packs a fantastic amount of retro charm and genuine heart, with wonderful and creative gameplay to back it up. This long-awaited indie darling may be one of the year's best.
King’s Quest: Chapter 5 – The Good Knight makes some notable stumbles, but old-school adventure game lovers will find a lot to like, and the later portions provide a satisfying end to Graham's journey.
While Rock Band Rivals' new campaign offers little substance, its new persistent multiplayer component is an intriguing addition that genuinely enriches the core Rock Band 4 experience.
With an impressively novel and well-done approach to gameplay, as well as a great tracklist and campaign to back it up, The Metronomicon is one of the best rhythm games in recent memory.
King's Quest: Chapter 4 - Snow Place Like Home packs some of the best storytelling in the series so far, but a bizarre and repetitive structure for the majority of its length holds it back from greatness.
Though not without faults, and certainly not as impactful as the previous story arc's finale, A Journey's End is both a return to form and an enjoyable conclusion for Minecraft: Story Mode.
Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA X boasts a nice graphical upgrade, some good tracks, and the same solid gameplay as previous games, but some awkward changes in progression cause it to stumble in its overall execution.
Despite some iffy visuals and tedious backtracking, Hiiro's calm gameplay and atmosphere, combined with a low asking price, results in an accessible adventure for platformer fans.
Access Denied boasts some good writing and setpieces, with its only true crime being that it generally feels like familiar and somewhat shallow territory for Minecraft: Story Mode.
While FRU is guilty of both a very short length and several frustrating moments, it still ends up being one of the most clever and successful uses of the Kinect around.
While a brief running time results in less emotional investment than its developers probably intended, The Lion’s Song: Episode 1 – Silence is still a novel diversion for adventure game fans that costs nothing to try out.
With boring gameplay and motion controls that are more frustrating than fun, Kung-Fu for Kinect is a total waste of time.