Battletoads is an interesting property in that while there hasn’t been a main series game in some 26 years, it still has a fairly loyal following. Being hailed as one of the most difficult games ever made, not to mention a property initially designed to compete with the popularity of the TMNT; Rash, Pimple, and Zitz haven’t exactly been given their due. While much of this new game works extremely well, its focus on providing too many types of gameplay novelties wears thin and is the poster child for tonal whiplash.

Mortal Shell, despite being a pretty shameless Dark Souls clone, shouldn’t be overlooked. The dozen or so hours you’ll invest into the game across its gorgeous but few areas are teaming with weighted combat, fierce encounters, and an unforgiving lust for your demise. For a game developed by a small team of just 15 people, it certainly has the promise to be considered one of the better takes on the Souls formula.

While the game is set in the biggest environments the series has seen thus far, the game feels drastically too ambitious for its own good, as this large scale adventure is plagued by incredibly poor texturing, constant pop-up, and significant framerate drops. These issues and more are everywhere, and while the game has seen a patch or two since release, the game at its core suffers from an over-written narrative, inconsistent pacing, and some bizarre choices that have several of its advertised features locked behind a dozen hours of progress. While there is a good game buried deep in here, it’s one that sometimes isn’t worth pursuing.

When Fast and Furious: Crossroads was first shown off at the Video Game Awards last fall, the game looked awful, featuring extremely bad visuals and gameplay that didn’t look inspiring in the slightest. Cut to release and it’s exactly how you think it was going to be. Was Bandai Namco aware of this? Well, think about how well this game was advertised and you’ll have your answer.

While the JRPG genre has seen a wide range of franchises spawning several decades, it’s rare for them to tell a connected story from game to game, often reinventing themselves with each iteration, rarely ever returning to them. The Trails series can then be looked as something of an oddity as it spans almost a dozen games, all connected and often intertwining with one another.

Fall Guys is incredibly fun and joyful around almost every colorful corner, and with the inclusion of seasons that will update the game with new costumes and new maps, this is certainly a fun platform for improvement. The pudgy and yet agile characters are bursting with charm and seeing a mass rush of 60 of them trying to cram themselves through a tiny opening is downright hysterical.

Going into Ghost of Tsushima, I wasn’t sure what to expect from it. Given the titles that Sucker Punch has worked on before, and the much smaller team size when compared to other Sony first-party studios, I was a bit hesitant if they would be able to pull it off. After wrapping credits on Ghost of Tsushima, I can firmly say not only did they pull it off, but it’s easily one of my favorite first-party games for the console.

Destroy All Humans! joins a growing list of remakes and remasters that are set on capitalizing on your nostalgia, and given the properties that THQ Nordic bought up upon its resurrection, we’re likely not going to see a stop to them anytime soon. Nearly every publisher across the industry is keen on revamping and applying a new coat of paint to an old classic.

The roughly three-hour experience features a wealth of interesting characters, gorgeous storybook visuals, and some entertaining boss encounters as you attempt to track down your girlfriend Wren after you’ve awakened from a coma. While the game is largely an engaging experience, a floaty jump does give way to a few bouts of frustration.

Maneater sees you, as a rampaging bull shark, ripping through boats, flopping up on shore to gobble up those unfortunate enough to get in the way, as well as contending with an obsessive shark hunter who will stop at nothing to gut you open. It’s chaotic, often buggy, filled with repetitive open-world busywork, but still grants an overally enjoyable experience nonetheless.

With a slick presentation and solid use of its antagonist, The Coma 2 is a solid horror game at a budget price. Its roughly 10-hour journey entertains with an interesting story, characters, and a richly detailed world. While I received a code to try out this game, it led me to immediately purchase the original game to dive more into the backstory of what happened before.

Depending on what you want from a remake may determine how well you get on with SpongeBob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated. It packs all the charm and gameplay of the original, but other than some fantastic new visuals, the game feels a bit dated in its gameplay and doesn’t really pack much challenge.

The Last of Us: Part II is certainly a game that was designed to stir emotion from its player, regardless if that is one that has you enjoy the experience or downright hate it. While much of the game is certainly enjoyable and features some of the best visuals ever to grace videogames, there are parts that I could not enjoy, despite feeling that the overall game is rather fantastic.

Developed by Mimimi Games, the team behind Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, has brought the series back as a prequel, showing how many of the series’ original characters met. For those that have played Shadow Tactics, the gameplay will feel very familiar, with a few quality of life updates and some new interesting ideas to back them up.

Ys: Memories of Celceta certainly has more history to it than likely any of the previous games in the series. The game, which is canonically set between the events of the second and third, is a remake of sorts to both Ys: IV Mask of the Sun, and Ys: IV: The Dawn of Ys to say nothing of Mask of the Sun having its own reboot on the PS2 with Ys: IV Mask of the Sun - A New Theory.

When the term “Definitive Edition” is tossed around, it most likely means the collected works of any particular game and its additional add-on content. Sometimes; however, we get a remastered title spruced up with all new visuals or some quality of life updates that can breathe new life into an old classic. I was excited to see what Monolith Soft and Nintendo would do to not just bring the game to the Switch, but the advancements the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 engine could provide.

Developers Mojang and Double Eleven have now taken the aesthetic charm of Minecraft and have fused it with the isometric flavor of Diablo, making a family-friendly dungeon crawler in the process, equipped with an engaging loot progression system and enjoyable hack and slash gameplay, but lacks the creative nature of what made the franchise so beloved.

Fury Unleashed, an indie game by Awesome Games Studio, brings the comic book aesthetic of jumping from panel to panel, blasting aliens and monsters, as it mimics the feel of a real comic book, all while telling a very engaging story about creative burnout and self-doubt.

Deliver us the Moon, which is not to be confused with the Lovecraftian horror title, Moons of Madness, has recently seen a release on Xbox One via Game Pass. The title, which is a story-driven adventure game baked in the ingredients of a walking simulator, tells a story about the survival of mankind, one literally on the brink of extinction as Earth is all but depleted of its resources.

The title, starring a group of six birds, sees you flapping through various environmental death traps, dodging arrows and magical spells, and racing against a trio of mystical dragons. While the game certainly has charm, it’s unclear who this game is for as while it packs all the visual punch of a game for children, it certainly can offer a considerable challenge for even skilled players.