Steve Watts

Perhaps because he’s so cute and marketable, Yoshi’s adventures have been designed for a younger and younger audience for the last several years. 2006’s Yoshi’s Island DS was not out-of-step with the difficulty of a mainline Mario game, but since then, the challenge of mainline Yoshi games has been slowly softened to target younger audiences....

Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight combines a nostalgia-rich story, hilarious writing, and Arkham Lite combat to bring licensed Lego games into the modern era.

Pragmata is an excellent shooter with a hacking twist that introduces strategic depth and variety, all in service of a heartfelt story.

Darwin's Paradox is a short but memorable cartoonish platformer starring a lovable, versatile little octopus.

Mario Wonder's Switch 2 upgrade adds neat single-player content, but the real draw is the massive array of multiplayer party games.

Scott Pilgrim EX doesn't reinvent the wheel for the brawler genre, but solid mechanics complemented by excellent art and music carry it for its short playtime.

God of War: Sons of Sparta is a middling metroidvania that offers compelling combat but is too rigid with its movement and exploration.

A cozy life sim makes for an unexpectedly excellent way to ring in 30 years of Pokemon, elegantly capturing what has made the series so enduring.

Mario Tennis Fever is the best Mario sports game in years thanks to the fun and flexible new Fever rackets that imbue the game with wild, game-changing effects.

Dragon Quest VII: Reimagined slims down and modernizes a notoriously bloated classic RPG, though its anthology structure still feels overlong.

Big Hops makes moving around the world an absolute delight, and then gives you flexible tools to make your own fun while exploring.

Halfbrick Studios' take on a Bluey video game is a gentle primer for younger kids that may not quite hold the attention of adults.

A stellar combat system and multitude of strategic wrinkles are the glue that holds this well-told, if disjointed, episodic story together.

High highs and middling lows make Metroid Prime 4's return uneven.

Plants Vs. Zombies: Replanted adds just a few bells and whistles to the classic strategy game, but it's still just as fun as ever.

The Outer Worlds 2 imbues Obsidian's spacefaring RPG series with its own identity, letting you bumble your way through corporate and cultish intrigue in space.

Keeper is Double Fine at its most confident, presenting a visual feast and a heartfelt tale in a detailed, complex natural world.

Infusing a classic beat-'em-up structure with a modern roguelike loop is a match made in heaven.

The Ivalice Chronicles provides the best way to play an all-time classic, even if it lacks some of the archival glow-up it deserves.

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is a well-crafted and remarkably flexible arcade racer with an almost overwhelming amount of customization and a whizbang portal-hopping mechanic.