Sonic Frontiers from Sonic Team has all the right moves with controls, level design, looks, feel, and structure. What it needs to work on is making the game more pointed in its narrative and flowing without interruption. This game has a great skeleton, now all it requires is some solid content to fill some of that narrative disconnect. It contains some great elements, but it’s far from perfect.
Terrible Toybox and Devolver Digital’s Return to Monkey Island hit all the right notes that proper homage to the original. It brought classic humor, a great story, and a new way to play the game to make it faster. It’s one of the brighter spots of a skimpy game release year.
Old Moon’s Ghost Song has all the markings of a good metroidvania game, literally giving a tip-of-the-hat to the Metroid series, and works to make the experience deeper than a replicated version of a Nintendo classic.
iLLOGIKA Studios’ Atari Mania tugs at the heartstrings of old gamers in a good attempt to reignite interest in Atari 2600 games. The way that the game uses older titles to create mini-games is genius, if not straight from the pages of Wario World. The only caveat is that you get some of that 1980s unforgiving difficulty with it, which at times can make the game a bit unfun. It’s still a solid attempt at creating something new with the Atari brand, and certainly one you should check out.
SIGNALIS from Humble Games is a horror fan’s dream. It’s simple and deep, contains a hefty amount of horror in its atmosphere, narrative, and design, and will keep you entertained from beginning to end.
Century: Age of Ashes from Playwing is a good free-to-play game. It is gorgeous, easy to pick up and go, and has some competitive charm to it. The microtransactions and the thin amount of variety in the game might detour some from extending their time with dragon battling, but I think it’s certainly worth a look.
Mario+Rabbids: Sparks of Hope from Ubisoft Milan and Ubisoft Paris is a fantastic and better follow-up to its original 2017 experiment. The characters are better, the addition of Sparks changes how the gameplay works, and the overall tactical strategy options the game provides the player in a huge world make for a consistently fun adventure. Beware of the difficulty, though, as it can get infuriating at times.
Deathloop’s debut on the Xbox Series X is equally as good as it was on the PlayStation 5. You get the same great story and the same perfect gameplay experience. Choose one and enjoy.
Outriders Worldslayer is a considerable upgrade from the original release. The introduction of a new tier, tree, and a more balanced gameplay design helps to make the case for more content down the road. It certainly feels like it’s on the right path to perfection, but still struggling in some minor areas.
Frozenheim meets the status quo for what you would expect from an RTS game. Where it excels is in its gameplay balance and how much control it gives you to create your gameplay path. It falls short in story cohesiveness and the occasional buggy controls.
Moo Lander is a fun game that can be played in short stints. It has a whacky and creative story that supports a side-scrolling shooter/puzzle/RPG backbone. It does more right than not and makes for an engaging and entertaining journey to hunt down alien cows.
The Jackbox Party Starter is a great way to dive into the Jackbox series if you have never explored it.
The Capcom Fighting Collection brings some unique titles that most U.S. gamers haven’t laid eyes on before. While not all the games in the collection are worthy to be in it, the Darkstalkers-centric theme makes it worth a look.
Harlow is a spectacular experience that brings everything you would want and maybe didn’t expect in a puzzle-driven game. It has great gameplay design, clever levels, and a presentation that will keep a smile on your face.
Pinball FX3 has scored another pinball hit with Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure. While it isn't perfect, it still brings a good pinball experience to the Pinball FX3 family.
Kathy Rain 2: Soothsayer from developer Clifftop Games brings to life a classic point-and-click construct featuring a difficult mystery, minor puzzle solving, and superb presentation to complete the adventure.
Cygnus Enterprises is a fun experience that will hook you and keep you wanting to play the game. Team Miaozi did one helluva job of balancing each purposeful gameplay element into its design and it has worked very well. Keep an eye on this one and take a chance if you want something fun and that has the longevity to it for the holiday season. I’m sure it will get bigger and better.
Digital Eclipse and publisher Nighthawk Interactive did a fantastic job with bringing three Disney 16-bit classics back to the current generation of gaming and offered up additional content to justify the reasonable price tag. One can only hope that they can get ahold of more Disney-owned gaming content *cough cough* LUCASARTS *ahem* and bring it back to life. Until such a time, they did a heckuva job with the Disney Classic Games Collection. While not perfect, it’s still a worthwhile trip down memory lane.
HOWL from developer Mi’pu’mi Games GmbH is a narrative-driven puzzle-strategy game that brings a simple concept but a complicated gameplay design. The inclusion of a deep goal system that plays into how a player can progress in the game makes for a fun experience, while the offensive and defensive nature of its card system pleasantly complicates and compliments the gameplay. While not everything is perfect, it’s still better than expected.
God of War is still one of the most entertaining, engaging, and impactful games to come out of Santa Monica Studio. The story is meaningful and emotional, the mechanics are thoughtful and entertaining, and the presentation on the PC is simply unrivaled. This is still a treat after nearly four years.