Because its gameplay is already dramatically simplified compared to that of the Arkham series, Gotham Knights fails to fill the cowl.

This game never makes the leap from smaller-scale locales to more epic-sized ones, meaning that the notion of laying waste to a city block as Mr. Stay-Puft or some similarly silly, over-the-top paranormal leviathan against the Ghostbusters remains only a fantasy. Like the film that preceded it, Spirits Unleashed is stuck sending us down memory lane at the expense of stepping forward into new terrain. For many, this nostalgia will be enough, but even with updates it seems unlikely that Spirits Unleashed’s core gameplay will sustain it for long.

Sparks of Hope is more colorful, more fluid, and just all-around more fun than its predecessor.

For a beginner guitarist, Rocksmith+ is a godsend.

It feels strange to complain about simply getting more of a good thing, but Splatoon is still a young and creatively fertile series that can do even more, and should.

The game’s reign in blood is short, but unique and brutal enough to make it one of the most refreshing FPS titles in recent memory.

Throughout, going through the same motions hardly dulls the sheen of Cosmo D’s latest clever and wholly invigorating gaming experiment.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 just cannot get out of its own way. This is, after all, a game that provides a tutorial on how to complete tutorials, and it keeps piling on slight mechanics well into the 20-hour range.

Immortality is an impressively layered work, filled with conflicted thoughts on the concept of the auteur, the collaborative process of art, and the prospect of going too deep in the service of expression.

The new Saints’ big ideas boil down to Instagram influencer nonsense but with a drop of extra murder involved, punctuated by reams of dialogue that feel like an experimental A.I. at Meta trying to imitate a 20-year-old.

The cutesy art style of Cursed to Golf obscures just how punishing the game can be.

Massive Monster’s Cult of the Lamb plays like an inventory of half-understood mechanics from other games.

While its aesthetic showcases no small amount of innovation, the game’s biggest triumph is in accomplishing so much with the most basic of dramatic tools.

Stray is most fun when you allow yourself to, well, stray from its narrative path.

The story, too, is left a bit wanting, though not for lack of ambition. Mothmen 1996 includes many character and conceptual threads that allow for the game to be engaging from moment to moment, but then the end suddenly arrives and it can feel as if a bow hasn’t been tied on everything. In particular, we never get a complete picture of everyone’s interpersonal relationships and insecurities. Mothmen 1966 is a compelling introduction to “pixel pulp,” though it’s something of a mixed success for the degree to which it leaves us wanting more.

The game isn’t just a nostalgia-driven throwback, as it also marks the evolution of a genre.

Where the similarly ambitious Until Dawn felt relatively seamless, The Quarry often feels as if it’s bitten off more than it can chew.

Neon White’s setting thrillingly liberates it from the pesky rules of gravity and the boring old architecture of humans.

In terms of the game’s narrative, shipbreaking is a predatory lie: It promises steady income alongside food and shelter, an apparent escape from earthly concerns that instead presents the player with an enormous bill. In terms of its very status as a video game, however, Hardspace: Shipbreaker can’t help but still be a fanciful escape.

When you’re not performing exactly as instructed, the game’s narrow and inconsistent margin of error is just frustrating.

The game’s faithfulness to its brutal and campy source material isn’t enough to make up for a litany of bugs and problems.

Elden Ring is FromSoftware taming the monster they created, not by filing down its teeth and claws, but by giving players the weapons and armor to endure it.

It’s a pseudo-sequel in the guise of a console port with some nice new accessibility options that cannot stop riffing on the fact that the original game was pretty much already a masterpiece.

Citizen Sleeper works very hard to ensure that it remains a story of perseverance rather than failure.

The line between a leisurely atmosphere and an aimless one is quite thin, and Sephonie often drifts across it.

This isn’t the first game to offer a dense, incredibly detailed rendering of Tokyo, but maybe it’s the first to make you feel like all of that work isn’t window dressing.

In this bursting-at-the-seams collection of over 350 handcrafted puzzles, you’ll need to think both inside and outside the box.

The Forgotten Land may not nail the world-building or plotting, but it’s not snoozing when it comes to Kirby’s transformations.