Cairn is more than a remarkably gripping mountain-climbing game. It's also a deeply affecting narrative of anguish, loss, and the steep cost of obsession.
Taking cues from the likes of Hollow Knight and Ori, this punishing platforming and exploration game is well worth your time if you're up for a big challenge.
Hundred Heroes adheres a bit too closely to outdated design conventions, but the strength of its writing and characters makes up for its short-sightedness.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.
Princess Peach: Showtime could be a decent first game for young Peach fans, but longtime Nintendo players looking for the Princess’ equivalent of a quality Kirby platformer will likely be underwhelmed.
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.
