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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Cloudpunk reaches higher and achieves more than I thought it would, barely missing a spot among the giants of its genre.
Shenmue fans couldn't have hoped for a sequel more compatible with the previous entries. They will immediately feel right at home.
Without reinventing much, Dead Cells combines the best aspects of multiple genres seamlessly and effectively.
TERA may look past its prime on consoles, and maybe it is, but it's still a fun and relatively accessible Action-MMO Role-playing game that fits perfectly in the console space.
Some occasional technical issues and an unwillingness to truly burst out of the norms for the genre keep Darktide from reaching enormous heights, but within the confines it sets for itself, this is about as good as it gets.
If you don't mind the short campaign and the underwhelming story, Evil West's above average combat and cool graphics make the game a fun ride.
New Tales from the Borderlands is a safe, risk-averse sequel that gets more right than wrong.
This entry to the Valkyrie series makes a graceful shift into the action RPG genre while only stumbling in a few small ways.
While the characters and story don't do enough to push it over the top, Soulstice delivers a great action game that just about anybody can enjoy.
Despite dropping the ball in one of the most important categories for a modern fighting game, this is a fighting game that stands out from the pack, plays great, and honors its source material more than it needed to, and that certainly counts for something.
Midnight Fight Express is a surprisingly fun and rewarding beat-em-up that gives you more choices than you might expect.
Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series is an excellent remaster that more or less, manages to honor its source material.
DNF Duel’s approachable take on the genre might hold it back for some, but will likely hit the sweet spot for many newcomers and mid-level players.
MLB The Show 22 still has room to improve for the future, but makes more than enough changes to remain a great baseball experience at the end of the day.