Sadly The Jackbox Party Pack 8 has more duds than hits this time around. Job Job and Weapons Drawn can be a lot of fun, while Pole Mine, The Wheel of Enormous Proportions, and Drawful Animate range from bad to decent.
Metroid Dread is yet another fantastic return to form for Samus. ZDR is an absolute blast to explore with secrets everywhere and satisfying bosses to fight. However, the game is held back by some strange design decisions, areas that blend together, and controls that are far too complicated.
Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania is just as fun and infuriating as I remember. It's a content-complete package that celebrates the series. It can feel a bit too limited, with no online play or unlockable characters in minigames, but it's still a unique experience you can't get anywhere else.
Death Standing: Director's Cut is the definitive version of the game. It's gorgeous and runs at 60 frames per second, while including everything from the PC version. The new missions are a bit too light on content, but they round out the experience nicely.
Sable is high on the list of game of the year contenders in one jam packed with them. It's a gorgeous, immersive coming of age story that happens organically and at your own pace - you can see as much or as little of the game as you like. While it certainly has its share of issues, Midden is just a place you have to visit.
If you can't play on PC, Divinity: Original Sin 2 on Switch is a perfectly fine way to play. It has its issues and quirks that make it more of a companion to the PC version, but being able to play wherever you want makes up for it.
Deathloop walks a bit of a fine line, but overall has enough fun ideas to keep things mostly fresh and fun for Colt and Julianna players alike.
Tales of Arise is a huge leap forward for the series. Combat is incredibly fun and fluid, the story is fantastic despite a lackluster finale, and the characters are as charming as ever. It's not only one of the best Tales games, but one of the best the PS5 has to offer.
Sonic Colors is still a great game, but Ultimate is lackluster at best. It's glitchy, visually inconsistent, and has some abysmal mixing that makes it impossible to hear the excellent soundtrack, let alone the new remixes.
Quake is a seminal shooter that helped define the genre, but it's definitely starting to show its age. It's well worth experiencing the campaign, but its design and enemy placement can occasionally feel unfair. Just as well, the multiplayer is difficult to get into if you're not already familiar with it.
Recompile brings a lot of great ideas to the table, but none of them work well together in their implementation. While it presents an interesting story, you'd have to wade through the immensely frustrating gameplay to get there.
Marvel's Avengers: War for Wakanda introduces fantastically designed new areas with a dash of puzzles and platforming to mix things up. While the combat still has a long way to go before it remains interesting, this expansion is worth checking out for Black Panther's skills.
The Heavensward Stone & Steel and The Scars of War art books are a must have for any Final Fantasy XIV fanatics. The art is gorgeous and detailed, and while the latter book doesn't have as much artist commentary as I would like, both give detail into each artist's process.
CrossCode: A New Home wraps up the story nicely while setting up for a possible sequel. The new content is largely fun, but a few massive difficulty spikes sour the experience. Still, it's well worth the time if you enjoyed the game's charming cast of characters.
The Siege of Paris is a very enjoyable step up from Wrath of the Druids and leaves you wanting more, in a good way. If this is indeed the final big expansion for Valhalla, it's a high note to end on. While I'm not a fan of the infinite content machines the developers seem intent on shoving into every game, the story content is excellent, Paris and the surrounding countryside are gorgeous, and the new gameplay additions mix things up enough to feel worthy of a paid DLC.
Song of Farca is a great adventure game with some neat, cyberpunk twists. Each case will leave you wondering if you made the right choices until the credits roll. Before you meet the game's well written cast of characters though, check if the game breaking glitches have been fixed.
NEO: The World Ends With You captures everything that made the original special and surpasses it in every way. With a great story and incredibly addicting combat, players joining the Reaper's Game will be hooked from start to finish and beyond.
Unbound: Worlds Apart is a pretty standard puzzle platformer with its difficulty firmly planted in repeated trial and error. Despite gorgeous visuals, there's not much interesting to see here.
Skyward Sword HD is definitely the best version of the game with vastly improved visuals and new control options, but I can't help but feel it's lacking as a Zelda rerelease. There's no new content, and I doubt the changes are enough to win over those who have problems with the game's overall design. It certainly didn't need to be a good game in its own right, but the lack of accessibility options and only somewhat reduced dialogue makes it difficult to justify the price.
World's End Club is an excellent story with some abysmal platforming tying it together. While story sections greatly outnumber gameplay sections, these stand out as a sore spot that may put off some players.