App Trigger

For 35 years, Aliens fans have experienced letdown after letdown with video game adaptations. Aliens: Fireteam Elite finally delivers an authentic experience true to the films that accurately captures that ultimate bada** feeling of suiting up as a Colonial Marine and mowing down swarms of Xenomorph.

If you’ve been looking for a game with the charm and slow world-building of Stardew Valley or My Time in Portia without the strict always time mechanic or a heavy focus on crafting, this is the game you’ve been waiting for. The combat and inventory could be improved upon, but overall this game is pretty grape… I mean great!

Some minor flaws aside, Neo: The World Ends with You greatly fixes the hot mess of a control scheme from its predecessor and delivers a worthy sequel with excellent art and storytelling. Constant changes to gameplay and twists in the story will keep you engaged throughout.

Streets of Rage 4: Mr. X Nightmare gives me everything I loved about old school games and have been missing for a long time — unlockables, secrets, and just so many reasons to get me playing over and over again and having a blast. While it’s disappointing that there is no additional story content, you’ll still have a blast with it.

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is more than a solid port of two Nintendo 3DS games, let alone, one that was localized for Western regions. Its enhanced visuals, twist-filled and exhilarating story, and orchestral score create a package that will definitely give fans of the franchise or the visual novel genre a bang for their buck. It’s a game that will test your wits, memory, and logic skills to solve the various cases at hand.

Pokemon Unite busts out the gate as a very solid, very easy to pick up and play MOBA game. Even as someone who does not like MOBAs, I found myself getting really into the rounds and figuring out the tools quickly. Cute visuals, fun unlockables and a fun variety of play styles keep matches fresh and a quick chat feature helps avoid the toxicity that normally sticks to MOBAs like glue.

Even if you forgive the nightmarish art style and the dated quest methods, as it is a remake of a decade-old game, it doesn’t forgive The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Swrord HD for having awful controls and a complete lack of quality of life features.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity – Pulse of the Ancients likely won’t entice back players who have already completed the main campaign with its lack of strong post-game content, but for players looking to get a few more hours of gameplay, it will more than provide an adequate experience.

Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin takes the various things that made the first Monster Hunter Stories game such a fun ride and improves upon it adding a bigger, more gorgeous world, new gameplay mechanics and an easier-to-access multiplayer. From finding new companion monsties, to the battle system, to exploration, to the story — everything the game does is done remarkably well.

I’m not a fan of the genre and despite my complaints, this game’s story kept me intrigued throughout. And the additional side stories in Doki Doki Literature Plus! help flesh out the characters and supplement the darker more disturbing moments of the game.

Mario Golf: Super Rush is a solid hit for the Mario Golf franchise. It’s probably as fluid as it has ever been. It plays very well and is really easy to pick up, even for people who have never touched a golfing video game. Unfortunately, it falls short in terms of content, which only really allows it to be enjoyed in bursts.

While the gameplay had its fun moments and it didn’t make me rage quit even once, the saving system (or lack thereof) really put a wrench in the overall experience. Green Hell is the best survival game I’ve played, but let’s be honest, the bar isn’t all that high and it’s like the best house on a bad block.

Wonder Boy returns except it’s actually Monster World and you’re a girl. This is the least confusing part of this mess of a remake featuring Dreamcast era graphics, poor translations, and lazy settings and textures that create a situation that is less of a history lesson on Wonder Boy and more an essay on why some things should just be left to history.

Approachable, but surprisingly deep, Knockout City is one of 2021’s biggest surprises and a refreshing take on the team-based competitive multiplayer genre.

From the music to the visuals, from the gameplay to the story, this game packs quite the punch. Scarlet Nexus is a game that has definitely had a lot of love put into it. It isn’t some kind of one-and-done, generic feeling hack and slash game that people vaguely remember six months after launch. It’s a game that deserves the attention from people who like anime games and those on the fence about it.

Great ideas, good connections, some decent customization, and large battles only get you so far. Every place Chivalry 2 seems to succeed, you quickly find a shortcoming. While not terrible, it’s a tough game to recommend to just any player.

Game Builder Garage is a very solid creation tool at its core, with very helpful tutorials to help creators make the most of what they have. This game is what you make of it. Whether you are a creative yourself or someone who likes to peruse the many creations of other players, there is definitely fun to be had.

Despite some delayed modes and some missing features, Guilty Gear Strive is still a masterful fighting game filled with brilliant moves, perfect controls and some of the greatest art I’ve ever seen in a fighting game. All it takes is watching one fight in this game and you’ll need to own it. That’s how it was with me.

Biomutant has some wiggle room for improvements but if you are looking for a bright and colorful adventure full of cutesy names, martial arts and weirdly dark undertones, then this game is for you.

I’ve played many difficult platformers in my time but this isn’t the way to go about. Ghosts ‘n Goblins Resurrection does everything you’d expect out of a game from this famous franchise but painful controls and lifeless graphics make me question why something as advanced as the RE2 Engine needed to be busted out when this game looks like it was done completely in Flash.

Despite the core gameplay being a remarkably basic RPG, Nintendo more than makes up for this by creating a world that makes fun of RPG tropes while giving you full ownership of every single character in the game. This allows for randomly generated funny moments and a feeling of ownership not found in many other titles.

With a story slightly better than Missing Heir, this episode of the Famicom Detective Club dives into a well-thought-out world of interesting characters and a surprisingly dark story. The world comes alive with gorgeously designed art, a fully orchestrated soundtrack, and fully-voiced characters. If you’re torn between the two Famicom Detective Club titles, I’d go with this one as it’s slightly better just because of the story alone.

Nintendo and Mages does an excellent job taking one of the first visual novels and one of the rarest Nintendo games and bringing it to a modern audience with fully revamped art, an orchestrated soundtrack, and fully recorded voicing. The mystery is a blast to solve and the characters are delightfully terrible at hiding things which gives the whole thing a classic Murder She Wrote vibe.

With only one true game mode, 4v4 Heist, and just a handful of maps, the game quickly becomes repetitive. Although the year-one content roadmap includes a new game mode and another character, Hood: Outlaws & Legends is going to need more than that hold your interest for longer than a week.

Subnautica: Below Zero feels like more of Subnautica, and that is only a good thing to a certain extent. Where it falls short by copying its predecessor is in the story and thematic department, making it feel like an uneventful and unimportant step in the series.