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If you had asked me my favorite Kirby game a few weeks ago, it would have been a toss-up between Epic Yarn and Planet Robobot. However, I can honestly say Kirby and the Forgotten Land is the best the series has ever been. Developer HAL Laboratory has put so much care and effort into this game, offering a compelling entry with so much to see and do. It took me more than 10 hours to complete the game's main campaign, but I only found myself at about 62% completion at that point. Length isn't important if there's no incentive to stick with the game, but Forgotten Land is so charming that players will want to spend more time finding every hidden secret. With lush graphics, fun gameplay, and a ton to see and do, Kirby and the Forgotten Land is a must-play for fans of the series, or anyone that has ever wanted to try a Kirby game. This year marks Kirby's 30th anniversary, and the future for the series has never looked brighter.
Ghostwire: Tokyo is by no means a perfect video game. Ultimately, I was less interested in the story than the city it takes place in. I never quite found myself with skill points left unused, but the benefit of using them didn't scale particularly well as somewhere after level 20 it became increasingly incremental at best. And while it took much longer than it has for me historically, the game's open-world nature did eventually wear on me and I found myself skipping more optional content than at the start. It is, however, a perfectly fine video game, and an excellent example of what the PlayStation 5 can do in the right hands.
Rune Factory 5 may have one of the franchise's most involved storylines, but its overly ambitious graphics overshadow that effort with ease. By giving the game a 3D makeover, the franchise's customary charms are harder to make out in this new release. Still, at its core, Rune Factory 5 excels at the everyday tasks it asks characters to complete. From farming to fighting, everything is much the same here as it was in previous games. This time, though, Rune Factory's stale mechanics are easier to notice thanks to its flimsy visuals. Fans new and old will be left wondering where the series' allure snuck off to.
Once you tally up the new and the old, there's really not that much "new" about Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, or at least not new in terms of innovation. Cascading loot and relentless humor check the Borderlands boxes, but instead of coming up with totally revolutionary elements, all it had to do was shift things around and finally let us create a character. Future Borderlands experiences may not be set in fantasy settings of this kind, but they should at least look to adopt in some ways the fanciful and varied nature of Tiny Tina's Wonderlands.
The Xbox Series X|S and PS5 versions of Grand Theft Auto V and GTA Online are good, this isn't a bad game, it's just not as impressive as one may hope. It has some flashy new graphical effects, a menu redesign, and the 60FPS mode is remarkable, but it's all marginal. For newcomers with little to no experience with the game, this is going to be an absolute treat. For veterans, this may ring a bit hollow. It's worth picking up if you want to keep up with GTA Online and have the best possible version, but otherwise, there are no enhancements that demand you replay the story once more.
It can be challenging to wrap one's head around Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin. On the one hand, it is utterly steeped in Final Fantasy mythology. And yet, it's a far cry from a traditional Final Fantasy game. In a way, it feels like an attempt to apply the Final Fantasy VII Remake approach to a game much less suited to such treatment, with fascinating, if not entirely successful, results. Fans of heavily customizable action games will find a lot to love but might be divorced from the nods and homages to Final Fantasy history. It'll be the players who have a foot in both worlds that will most enjoy Stranger of Paradise, but despite some narrative pacing issues and a bit of bloat, most players will find it an enjoyable, action-packed fantasy adventure.
Phantom Breaker: Omnia is a long-awaited release of a dormant niche fighting game franchise that many players will be jumping into for the very first time. It's the best first impression you'll get for this fighter, but it's also one that can be overwhelming and hard to sift through for those not completely ready for it.
WWE 2K22 has a lot riding on it, and it shows. 2K22 has made video game wrestling fun again while retaining the wealth of creative options to make your experience more unique and personalized. My GM is pure gold, even with its unfortunate limits in place, and it should only get better from here. Meanwhile, 2K Showcase and My Rise offer their own distinctive ways to immerse yourself in the world of wrestling, and coupled with the impressive graphics, give you more than enough reason to keep jumping back in. Online play did have its issues early on and My Rise isn't as refined as I'd hoped, but despite those flaws, 2K22 will continue to be in my console's heavy rotation because of everything else it brings to the party, and I would definitely call that a success.
Triangle Strategy is a very solid tactical game that rewards smart decisions. The conviction system that drives the story reminds me of the older Ultima games, and I appreciate that positioning is as important as a character's abilities during combat. While Triangle Strategy suffers from some of the same issues as Octopath Traveler in terms of its slow pace, the game is still a worthy successor to the likes of Final Fantasy Tactics. This is a game that you'll want to pour hours into, even if some of those hours are eaten up by cutscenes and monologues.
While Chocobo GP feels very much like a Mario Kart clone, it would do the Nintendo game a major disservice to call these titles equal. Square Enix has a polished game here that races rather well, and its surprising difficulty will challenge racing veterans. However, it is just too cluttered with junk to enjoy. Its lacking story mode can be overlooked easily enough by most, but its limited local co-op will make it a no-go for plenty. But if you're strictly in this for moogles and magic, well – Chocobo GP might not be so bad.
Gran Turismo 7 is the game that longtime fans of the series have been requesting for years. Although what's here isn't drastically different in format when compared to some of the earlier installments, the overall experience that Gran Turismo 7 provides is incredibly comprehensive and feels like a love letter to both car culture and the 25-year history of the Gran Turismo franchise. If you're someone who has been playing these games since the days of the original PlayStation, Gran Turismo 7 is definitely one of the high points of the series and is worth picking up immediately.
Similarities to past games and references to Dark Souls 4 aside, it's difficult to directly compare Elden Ring to other FromSoftware games in the way that it's difficult to compare Demon's Souls to Bloodborne or Dark Souls to Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. It certainly feels like FromSoftware's most ambitious and thoughtful game to date, however, and with all the considerations to different audiences, it stands to be a familiar return and a welcome jumping-on point for any Tarnished who hope to become the Elden Lord.
Monark is not a perfect game, but it's a really solid RPG. The battle system is good, the storyline is interesting once it gets going, and there's some great music, too. Graphically, the game is one of the uglier releases I've come across over the last few years, and I think the game could do a better job explaining elements of its battle system. However, if players can ignore these imperfections, there really is a lot to love, and I can see fans of the genre falling in love with it. The RPG genre has plenty of great options to pick from at the moment, but Monark's blend of JRPG, strategy, and horror elements make it a compelling option.
The King of Fighters XV is the return of a long running franchise, yet feels like it was just invented yesterday. A perfect blend of older and newer elements that make it the most pleasing overall package that fans haven't gotten from this franchise since the 2D pixel art days. The king has returned, and it's going to rule for a while.
Horizon Forbidden West, by most counts, is another strong release for Guerrilla Games and PlayStation. This is very much a sequel that just looks to go bigger and better than its predecessor, and in that regard, it very much achieves what it sets out to accomplish. Although I wanted more from the story and the game's general structure is very much the same when compared to Zero Dawn, fans who loved the last title should still love the adventure that this follow-up takes you on.
Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires is a niche version of an already divisive game and provides very little innovation to the musou formula. It honestly feels like a half-baked game, as if developer Koei Temco felt the need to keep the Empires spinoff line of games going simply because it has done it in the past. There are better musou games out there and better strategy games out there, and I honestly can't recommend this game to fans of either type of game. Ultimately, Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires won't hold your interest for any extended period of time unless you're already a fan of the franchise.
Dying Light 2 gets off to a slow start, and some might even see it as a slog, but if you see it through just a bit longer, you'll discover a tension-filled journey through the zombie apocalypse that rewards players who are fearless and leap into danger. Soon you'll be gliding, leaping, and zip-lining through the world and cleaving the most deadly of Infected with precision and utter brutality. This is not an easy world to live in, and at times the darkness can almost overwhelm you, but more often than not the rich characters, compelling narrative, and thrill ride combat create a mixture that just can't be resisted, and it's a world I look forward to returning to.
While the story itself will never be enough to compel you forward, there is a sense of connection in watching your character get older while figuring out the intricacies of how Sifu plays. That's ultimately what makes its punchy and punishing gameplay all the more satisfying.
But anyone would be justified in deciding to continue honing their skate skills in OlliOlli World. It's a fun game with practically infinite replay value thanks to asynchronous online multiplayer and the ability to generate new levels randomly. And despite realizing that I may never be the king of the halfpipe, I still find myself loading the game up to spend an hour attempting to master a new track with a single-combo run. OlliOlli World is all about the journey, that state of flow that washes over when you've committed to a challenging run, and testing your limits that way never goes out of style.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus is easily the strongest Pokemon game made in recent memory and should provide unforgettable memories that rival the first time a player first encountered a favorite Pokemon or conquered their first Pokemon Champion fight. It's a must-buy Pokemon game destined to land on many "top games of the year" lists and should bring countless new and lapsed fans to the franchise.