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Super Mario Party Jamboree’s core board game is still as fun as ever, and made even better thanks to some clever new maps. Its signature minigames, though, are a little more inconsistent as some of Nintendo’s best ideas are almost exclusively saved for hit-and-miss side modes. It’s a multiplayer package that spreads itself thin, but there’s enough fun content here to keep the dice rolling for another turn.
Neva may not be the most complex 2D platformer, but it still might make you cry.
In many ways, Metaphor: ReFantazio feels like the next mainline entry in the Persona series in all but name. In others, it carves out an identity all its own. The strategic turn-based combat system is just as satisfying as ever, while Archetypes and globe-trotting put a new perspective on an otherwise familiar experience. I could see the plot twists coming a mile away, but the endearing cast of characters made the journey worthwhile. It’s not perfect, but Atlus has earned my vote of confidence. Consider me a follower.
Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero delivers thrilling fights, but its disjointed story mode doesn't hold up its end of the bargain.
Silent Hill 2's remake is a faithful tribute to a horror classic that hardly holds anything back.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom only feels like the beginning for what could become a great Zelda saga.
Ara: History Untold brings city-building to Civilization with strategic success.
Frostpunk 2 scales up the drama with a bigger, more strategic sequel that's easy to get lost in.
Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster proves that Capcom's experimental zombie classic still holds up today.
The Plucky Squire wants players to understand the impact art has on us, and it succeeds with flying colors.
UFO 50 will remind you why you fell in love with video games in the first place.
I hope that Yars Rising serves as a blueprint for Atari moving forward. Heck, I hope any publisher struggling to keep a series as old as Yars fresh is paying attention. Yars Rising is a loving ode to the past that reveres its source material enough to confidently expand on it rather than give it an easy refresh. It takes the original franchise’s worldbuilding seriously and finds a way to twist every morsel of it into a larger adventure that’s worthy of the Yars name. Sometimes the best way to keep the past alive is to let it evolve into something new. Precious nostalgia is an anchor, and Yars Rising flies free without that tying it down.
Even with some needed tweaking, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 still presents an unrivaled experience; it’s easy enough to consider it as one of the best Warhammer games around. From cinematic backdrops of an onrushing tide of death and jaw-dropping sequences that left me in awe, to the brutal carnage and “we few against all odds” mantra that befits the setting, it’s an exciting shooter that any fan of Games Workshop’s universe would be a heretic not to try. We just need to see a few tweaks for Operations and Eternal War so that this bad boy can finally cross the Rubicon to go from a great game to a Primaris masterpiece that’s worthy of the Emperor’s grace.
The expertly designed PS5 exclusive plays like an intervention with its own publisher. It brings the PlayStation platform on an intergalactic journey through its history to rediscover its long lost sense of wonder. It’s not just a very effective ad for Sony; it’s an exuberant adventure that remembers that there’s power in play.
The Casting of Frank Stone works when Supermassive Games is focused on crafting an original horror story built from the same bones as Until Dawn. Its multigenerational slasher premise gets complicated by its duties as a spinoff, throwing its titular killer and grander themes to the wayside to retroactively build lore for a separate multiplayer game. It makes for a disjointed tale that only claws at a larger point about the intersection of horror and the media about it.
Despite thin detective gameplay that may be light on actual deduction, Emio — The Smiling Man makes up for that with a slow-burn visual novel story that goes in completely unexpected directions. Its grisly tone and M-rating may feel surprising for a Nintendo game, but Emio meets young players at a level Nintendo is uniquely positioned to reach them at.
Visions of Mana is like a snack that you eat in between your big meals. There’s enough here to satiate your hunger, like the fun combat and entertaining cast of characters, if you’re looking for another RPG to play in the meantime. It feels safe and familiar, so don’t come in expecting a novel experience.
I could see a great Star Wars game in the stellar world design and emergent moments that truly put me in the shoes of a smuggler. Anytime Star Wars Outlaws allowed me to live that fantasy, I was happy to be in its orbit. But so often, it left me hanging in the airlock.
Concord isn’t a poor multiplayer offering by any means. It has fun hero-shooter bones, an eclectic cast of characters with distinct strategies, and rich world-building that’s set to dribble out consistently over time. It’s just that Firewalk Studios’ debut lacks original ideas that elevate that promising foundation. The result is a perfectly fine, though imbalanced, live service shooter that doesn’t feel long for this universe.
Black Myth: Wukong is only a Soulslike in the way Stellar Blade is, and that’s to its credit. It lightly borrows elements from the subgenre but carves out a niche for itself by focusing on its key differences. Despite some performance issues and frustrating difficulty spikes, Black Myth: Wukong’s frenetic combat and emphasis on fluid movement make it feel unlike any of its other contemporaries.