Nioh 3's consistently rewarding approach to open-world design, combined with its entertaining Ninja gameplay style, cements it as the best entry in the franchise.
High on Life 2 is the kind of game that you can put on, laugh at for a while, and forget what's troubling you, even though reminders might slip in through the pointed social commentary.
Reanimal is a simple game with a challenging subject matter, and neither great as a shared experience nor fun. But, it is thought-provoking and stimulating, and if you can stomach it, Tarsier Studios has created something worth wrestling with.
Though the combat, which falls between serviceable and irritating, threatened my enjoyment, I still found delight in the currents of Another Crab's Treasure.
I may not have had strong connections with most of the cast and was annoyed with a number of specific sections, but I liked spending time in Sand Land (and beyond) and seeing my garage upgrade and grow.
Hundred Heroes adheres a bit too closely to outdated design conventions, but the strength of its writing and characters makes up for its short-sightedness.
Children of the Sun is a prime example of an experience born from a straightforward premise and then iterated for the right amount of time before it loses its charm.
While far from a one-to-one remake, Contra: Operation Galuga effectively captures the spirit of the original game while modernizing just enough to make for an exciting, albeit short, adventure.
For all the inspirations the game wears on its sleeve, it never rises above them, and thus feels like a title in search of an identity and desperate for a specific kind of player.
2K's yearly WWE offering may not bowl over diehard players in the broad sense, but its incremental updates and continued polish make it the strongest contender since the franchise's comeback.
Skull and Bones impresses with the breadth of its world, opportunities for illicit trade, and explosive naval battles, but several features wear thin over time.
Helldivers 2 swaps the top-down perspective for third-person while maintaining the frenetic, ballistic loop of crash-landing on hostile planets, completing difficult missions, and extracting against all odds.
Granblue Fantasy: Relink should be lauded for getting most of the way to being a memorable title, but it needed a little more ambition and unique content to reach that goal.
