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The good ideas are there, the tactics can be complex, but the overall design of Warbanners is completely broken to the point of souring the entire experience.
Tower 57 is a gorgeous game with an old-school heart and absurd sensibilities, but it fails to put its best foot forward when you go in blind and alone.
There's certainly something in Sonic Forces for fans of the franchise and there are some steps in the right direction. However, the story, world, and characters never come together into a cohesive whole.
Now that Battlerite is out of Early Access, most of its potential has been made reality. It still needs some fleshing out content-wise but the very enjoyable core gameplay make it a worthy play nonetheless.
Need for Speed Payback is a grind to play both figuratively and literally. Even if you like the arcade racing on offer, it's not worth slogging through the amateur presentation, repetitive missions and microtransaction hooks.
The worst episode in a struggling season by far, Don't Stop Believin' proved that I should have just stopped believing in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series long ago.
It's painfully obvious that the game was initially a mobile game, and the PC port doesn't do much to accommodate for the new platform. The quick-time events that pervade the combat turn the game into a chore, and there isn't really any part that makes the grind worth it.
A good port of a fun game, AuroraBound Deluxe is light on challenge but makes up for it with a fun and colorful design and an open-ended amount of puzzles, with the only major drawback being a lack of replaying or seeing previous puzzles.
Assassin's Creed Origins is exactly what the series needed. Changing up just enough elements to feel like a major difference in formula without ripping out the heart of the series, this is easily the best entry into the series in a long time.
Overgrowth might be a good game if it weren't under a layer of glitches, vacant characters, and ancient mechanics. It would be a good indie game if it traveled back in time to 2005. Unfortunately, it's just a glorified tech demo instead.
Fire Emblem Warriors feels just as fresh as Hyrule Warriors did in some ways, though it never quite reaches the same highs. That doesn't mean it's not a great game, as the title is still a great addition to any Switch owner's library.
Zen Studios haven't faltered yet, and their Pinball FX series continues to be a bright spot in the digital pinball landscape. Outside of licensing troubles and new tables featuring less than accurate presentation, there's a great game of skill to be had here.
Hand of Fate 2 manages to take everything praiseworthy about the previous installment and make it even better. The challenges players face never look alike and the improved combat system manages to elevate the weakest parts of the original.
X-Morph: Defense is what happens when you design and implement a modern arcade twin-stick shooter mixed with a tower defense from the ground up. The cheesy style of dialogue and story is mixed with a feeling of masterful power as you navigate a beautifully constructed game world. This is a highly recommended experience.
When Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back is at its best, the words I would use to describe it include "soulless", "mediocre", and "annoying". Somehow the game is rarely at its best, leading to a total disaster.
Super Mario Odyssey will easily rank as one of the best Mario games ever made. It's pure fun, plain and simple.
Wolfenstein II's combat is as intense as ever, and MachineGames can craft FPS story beats like few others, but something just feels askew about this sequel. Like a follow-up to a Hollywood blockbuster, everything is a little looser and the game suffers for it.
Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection might not be amazing like some other Falcom games I've played, but it's still more than worth checking out.
A solid vision is spoiled by shaky implementation. The visual and art team deserves awards, but the confusing interface, bad translations, missing parts, and bad bugs make this feel like an early access game. Fun weapons, few enemies, and a huge number of "side mission" style quests make the otherwise beautiful world feel like empty filler.
The Evil Within 2 combines a great open world with some fun gameplay and smart design to really improve upon the original game.