Giant Bomb

There’s a whole life to be lived in Valheim, with a variety of jobs that can satisfy combatants and cozy gamers alike. My friends have flocked into a Discord call every night the past week or so, all of us with our own goals but banding together to take on a poisonous goop monster in the swamp or a half-dead goblin god dragging itself across the plains. Valheim has quietly become one of the most successful and beloved games in its genre, and it deserves every flower for how it developed during early access and now finally into its 1.0 release.

I love Remedy's willingness to take swings at something, to be wrong rather than to be safe. Control Resonant feels like a confident step in a new direction from Remedy, one that is far from perfect but reminds me of the beauty of not knowing everything. Not needing to be the smartest person in the room or correct all of the time, but the beauty in knowing who you are and what you want to be, warts and all.

Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave is a gigantic game, and its vastness only steals a little bit of the spotlight from the tactics that I come to these games for. Thankfully, it finds its footing on that front and delivers some unforgettable battles. An excellent soundtrack, beautiful visuals, and a surprisingly strong gameplay loop that connects one fight to the next cements this as one of the best on Switch 2. All of that is weighed down slightly by a vacuous plot that you will struggle to care about. If you can ignore the writing, though, you’re in for dozens of hours of gaming in an entry that lives up to the Fire Emblem legacy.

Wolverine is a game with momentary sparks of fun, but its mostly-good combat getting constantly dragged down by mediocre storytelling, poor pacing, and an underwhelming amount of player agency left me very bored far too often.

I strongly believe that Marvel Tōkon is a near-ideal modern fighting game. Between meaningful layers of complexity, a solid amount of welcoming modes, and absolutely phenomenal presentation, Arc System Works has bent over backwards to make an accessible tag team fighter that could make anyone fall in love with the genre for the first time.

The important thing is that its runtime is a blast from start to end. You and your co-op partner are going to have a hard time putting Orbitals down and will always be excited to discover the next challenging puzzle and gorgeous destination. We used to dream about games looking this good. Even after beating it, I still look at Orbitals with wonder.

Onimusha: Way of the Sword cuts open a new direction for the series. The combination of engaging and satisfying combat, rich and lush visuals, and entertaining characters kept me sucked in for the entire ride.

Cold Symmetry has built a game that is extraordinarily close to a perfect center of difficulty for me with a clear north star of “make it fun, first.”

I ended up enjoying Beast of Reincarnation more than I thought I would from the game’s initial slow, basic impression, but it never truly sunk its claws into me. This feels like the result of Game Freak’s designers having something to say (or at least wishing they did), but constantly struggling to find the right words. It eventually becomes a very fun action RPG to play, but stumbles many, many times on the path of getting there.

I just don’t feel much of a drive to play more of Splatoon Raiders. I had fun drowning all of those salmonids in ink. But just like them, I’ve had my fill.