The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is evocative, exhilarating, and a masterclass in open-world design.
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U is an amazing game with a deep roster and diverse modes to choose from.
Super Mario 3D World is marvelous and its fantastic co-op and variety will keep you entertained for hours.
Bayonetta 2 builds on everything that made the original great, and delivers one of the best action games of the year.
Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest is a rewarding and deep turn-based tactical game with a grand story and characters I liked enough that losing them in combat really stings. The intense difficulty is squarely aimed at veteran Fire Emblem players, and its satisfying campaign is full of variety and challenge. And even though a win or loss can down to sheer luck, I walked away either satisfied or eager to give it another shot.
Rayman Legends is bursting with creative platforming and fresh ideas.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is an amazing game for all the same reasons I mentioned in our original review. It's still a gorgeous kart racer and every bit as addictive as it was in 2014. This is the best entry in the series so far, and it has all the content you'll need. Returning players have seen a lot of this game before, but the overhauled Battle mode and its five additional ways to play are a great reason to pick it up. Nintendo didn't do enough to make the online experience better, but the rest of this game holds up well.
Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze is a fun and challenging platformer that isn't afraid to make you work hard.
Mario Kart 8 is a fun kart racer that uses gravity-defying tracks and better item balance to build a better game.
Destiny: The Taken King is an awesome upgrade with many quests to keep me busy long after the campaign has ended.
The perpetual joke at the end of every 10 Mario Challenge run informing you that the Princess is in yet another castle hints at Super Mario Maker's bigger promise: There will always be more levels to play thanks to the online creation community, and a virtually endless pool of challenges to overcome.
Just when you think the fight is over in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, the next challenger steps in and ups the level of competition for another satisfying round of combat and loot. Very few games can hook me in for 100 hours, but this installment adds enough new creatures, weapons, locations, and fighting moves to expand and reinvigorate my lust for the hunt.
Game Freak has really outdone itself this time, and Pokemon X and Y will be remembered as great transition point for the series’ transformation into an even more social, beautiful, and strategic game. Building on five generations of games, a digital menagerie of captivating creatures, and a wide range of diverse regions to explore, Pokemon X and Y proves this formulaic portable role-playing series can still deliver an innovative experience.
The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+ adds more of what we loved about the original and keeps the formula fresh. It's a tough game, but one that balances challenge with a refreshing feeling of the unexpected. The unpredictable items and varied enemies make it one of the most wacky and replayable games I've ever experienced.
DmC Devil May Cry: Definitive Edition brings the same great game to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Towerfall's fun multiplayer sets up hilarious face-offs with your friends.
Smash 3DS is impressive and, for the most part, feels right at home on 3DS. The multitude of ways to play and awesome customization gave me many reasons to keep fighting - and I've been at it for more than 45 hours already. It all produces a fun feedback loop of engaging in matches to unlock custom moves and trophies, then jumping into another match to try out the new stuff. Even the online modes feel carefully considered and focused on what the series does best, and what the 3DS can reasonably do. It's a little disappointing that the four-player antics that are the best part of the console games don't really work on a small screen, but there's still more than enough that does work to make Smash a great 3DS game.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3D shrinks an epic RPG into a nifty portable form. Even though the New 3DS' speedier hardware can't make it look quite as good as it does on the Wii, its scope and scale still make it an impressive and deep game that's well suited for play on the go.
Nintendo's take on the third-person shooter is refreshingly original, with lots of impressive tools, skillful mobility, and creative maps to play with. Matches are consistently fun and tense, and the mechanics feel simple and fair enough that almost anyone can contribute positively. Not having voice chat is a bummer, but the great modes and maps feel polished and kept me claiming turf for hours.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD holds plenty of memorable moments that've stood the test of time, and Nintendo's high-definition update does a lot to modernize its look and feel. This cleaner, fresher presentation is still noticeably and disappointingly flat in some ways, but just past that are some of the best puzzles and dungeons to be found anywhere in the series.