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It wasn’t my favorite video game so far this year and it won’t nearly be my least favorite, but it may end up being the most memorable. It has been a long time since I’ve played a new game that puts art at the forefront of its creation, and Project Songbird was a refreshing venture back into that sentiment.
Homura Hime is a fun game. At its best, it’s a unique and distinct blend of Ninja Gaiden and bullet hell systems that forces you to develop a rhythm and dance to it. At its worst, it tends to drag out it’s welcome and stutter under what is a fairly light load. But it has heart, and it loves a genre I love and doesn’t ask much up front.
Super Meat Boy 3D is a bold and largely successful evolution of a beloved formula. It takes the core elements that made the original so compelling — tight controls, punishing difficulty, and clever level design — and translates them into 3D with great confidence. Its greatest strength lies in its identity. It’s not for everyone, and that’s also its selling point.
In its current state, it’s a mostly smooth ride with a few bumps in the road. A fun game night with friends, for sure.
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is a very entertaining strategy game that is consistent, deep, and challenging. It is consistently fun while pushing you and introducing new elements and it dials up even more in the Aiko’s Choice expansion.
The excellent animation, amazing boss fights, and the solid combat can’t save the game from being a mediocre metroidvania with the skin of God of War.
If you are looking for a decent, new simulator, then Docked is an option on the table. However, the performance issues paired with odd mechanic choices and no sandbox/post-game do limit the experience for players.
Starsand Island is a nice experience. I am personally very excited to see how it grows, and am very hopeful that we start to see this shift towards 3D cozy life sim games more. It is addicting, fun, and most surprisingly to me, it makes players crave not only the game but the genre itself in indescribable ways.
Lost and Found Co. is a modern take on a historied genre that shows just how far you can take a “simple” genre when a studio understands game design and develops a game with love and care.
The horror and atmosphere are gripping and never let go, and the action is some of the best I have seen from the series since Resident Evil 5. Resident Evil Requiem is going to go down as one of the most impressive games this year and I am so excited for the other games that Capcom has cooking up.
Demon Tides’ unique, memorable style and its abundance of gameplay elements to explore and experiment with will bury itself in many hearts.
The game feels like you are experiencing a part of the show, and fans of the series will especially love it. While the game essentially has mazes for levels, it’s a great way to experience this style of game, making you do the investigating to solve the case and get to the next job.
Romeo Is A Dead Man feels like it’s out of sync with the rest of the industry. It’s a time capsule, a character action game with labyrinthian level design, a big weird story, and an expectation you play it by its rules and not the other way around.
Styx is good old fashioned stealth that doesn’t hold your hand and really makes you earn that mission accomplished. I really do applaud Cyanide with sticking to its guns and making a game that won’t appeal to everyone, but a game that stealth fans will end up loving no matter the jank.
Creature Kitchen is not a very long game, only lasting at most five hours, but I think it really is a quality time that has enough positives to make it worth the price of admission. The atmosphere is top notch and the amount of charm and personality coming from the creatures is very compelling.
Players, both new and used to soulslike games, should dive into the world of Nioh 3 if they are looking to experience some ARPG goodness to kick off 2026 the right way.
If you are looking to slay some zombies with friends or others, World War Z was already a top choice. However, the addition of The Walking Dead as a DLC makes it a top choice for me and something I highly recommend.
The climbing might be awkward, but there’s still so much to love in CAIRN besides. It felt like a true achievement to reach the summit of Mount Kami; not in spite of the janky controls but because of the stunning environments, satisfying survival-lite mechanics, and affecting story.
Is Dynasty Warriors: Origins the pinnacle of the Musou games? In a lot of ways, it is. However, I think it comes down to whether you prefer the crossover games, where emphasis is certainly on story (especially with the Zelda Musou games), or you want a super-charged Musou experience that maximises the core of what these games are.
Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is a superb redux of one of the longest and most overlooked games in the series. Reimagined breathes new life into Dragon Quest VII through its tighter pacing, incredible charm, sense of adventure, and some of the most polished turn-based gameplay in Dragon Quest history.