Without reinventing much, Dead Cells combines the best aspects of multiple genres seamlessly and effectively.
Shenmue fans couldn't have hoped for a sequel more compatible with the previous entries. They will immediately feel right at home.
Cloudpunk reaches higher and achieves more than I thought it would, barely missing a spot among the giants of its genre.
I appreciate the shots that NHL 21 takes at improving the formula, but at the end of the day, most of those shots are too little too late, and end up making the overall experience just barely better than mediocre.
Chronos doesn't totally shed it's VR veneer, but the simplicity of it's roots make it an inviting, uncomplicated option for fans of souls-likes and RPGs.
Twin Mirror's inconsistent presentation and short length contaminate its otherwise excellent story-telling and solid detective gameplay to a degree, but thankfully, it still manages to land on its feet as a respectable narrative-focused adventure.
Supercross 4 is as big of an improvement that we've gotten in the genre for a while, but that's not saying much. A good amount of content and some new ideas round things out nicely, though.
MotoGP 21 continues Milestone's slow crawl of tweaks and improvements, which will be fine for most enthusiasts, but still falls short of being universally recommendable to a broader audience.
Knockout City brings more to the table than you might expect, but still leaves a couple of much-needed ingredients at home. As a result, its fate as a multiplayer game is unclear.
Despite this port missing the mark with optimization, Green Hell still stands tall among its contemporaries as one of the better recent games of its sort while also pulling off a compelling story.
Samurai Warriors 5 makes the series stand out from Koei’s other games and updates the musou formula in smart ways, but unfortunately cuts too much of what worked in the past to make it universally recommendable to hardcore fans.
Ultra Age bets it all on its own style of conventional combat and mostly succeeds as a result.
New World keeps most of its concepts sweet and simple - mostly to its advantage.
Hell Let Loose does little to overcome the downsides of its realistic take on World War 2 and strategic gameplay, but manages to reap some rewards out of it as well.
What Riders Republic lacks in depth, it more than makes up for in variety.
While perhaps not as enticing as it could have been, the additions that this version of Skyrim offer keep it from feeling like a total cash grab.
Terminator Resistance’s expansion plays things a bit safer than it should have but still manages to sharpen the base game’s strength somewhat.
Despite not expanding on its gameplay ideas enough to avoid tedium, the ambience, atmosphere, and ease of play do make Submerged Hidden Depths a competent addition to its genre.
Stranger of Paradise does indeed feel like a stranger in the Final Fantasy series, but mostly succeeds because of it.
MotoGP 22 is better than several of its predecessors, but leaves most of its potential wasted.