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Enhance has been making games for many years, but the team cemented its place on the gaming map with its mixture of puzzle games and stirring musical accompaniment. Tetris Effect remains a generation-defining reinvention of a classic franchise and, with that success in its pocket, now Enhance has given the same treatment to Lumines. Lumines Arise follows much of the same formula that made Tetris Effect so memorable, making it both a captivating puzzle game and a sublime musical journey.
Mortal Kombat has been around for so long, it's easy to take it for granted. NetherRealm's newer fighting games have hit so consistently, setting the standard for what fighting games could be in terms of competitive contests and single-player stories. Older generations may have forgotten the series' humble beginnings, while younger players may not even be aware of them at all. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection, from Atari and Digital Eclipse, tells the story of the franchise's earliest days and does so in a way that's informative, honest, and fun. The games may not be what they once were, but they're still a blast to revisit, some of them made better by a few slight quality-of-life tweaks.
Storybook fables that teach grander lessons about life can come in many different forms. They can be stories about humans. They can be stories about animals with human qualities. They can be tales of friendship, maybe between humans or talking animals. It's not often that there's a poignant yarn about a lighthouse and a bird. The premise of Keeper, the latest puzzle-filled adventure game from Double Fine, suggests an oddball, almost wacky, kind of friendship story. It ends up being a grander tale of life, time, and nature, one that harbors a surprising amount of emotional depth for a story about a lighthouse.
Supergiant Games put itself in an unenviable position when Hades 2 was announced. To that point, this was an indie studio that always had a new story to tell. It had never put out a sequel to any of its previous games. Imagine the pressure on this developer when it decided to buck that trend to craft a sequel to one of the best games of the modern era, one that helped define what it means to be a roguelite. With all of that said, Supergiant Games has not only crafted one of modern gaming's best roguelites, it has now crafted one of modern gaming's best sequels. It'd be cliché to say Hades 2 is everything Hades was and more, but it'd also be accurate. This sequel isn't just good, it's godlike.
Sonic the Hedgehog and Mario have had a good-natured rivalry for over three decades. While Mario Kart is the household name when it comes to mascot racing games, Sonic has carved his own place in the genre over the years. Sega's latest racer brings the Sonic crew back together for Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds where the key component is track variety. While this game won't reinvent the racing wheel, it's a solid effort in its own right.
At the end of 2023, Sega announced its intention to revive a handful of dormant franchises from its heyday. Some of them came from the Sega Genesis era, including the action-focused ninja franchise Shinobi. I grew up as a Super Nintendo kid, so I didn't have any particular attachment to Shinobi or Joe Musashi, so I walked into Shinobi: Art of Vengeance fairly cold, not really knowing what to expect. Fortunately, one doesn't have to be seasoned in the world of Shinobi to understand what an incredible masterpiece Art of Vengeance is.
I may not be a teacher like some members of my own family, but I recognize the importance of organized seating charts. Seating charts represent order in a society that has rapidly become overwhelmed by anarchy. They aren't just there for the chart maker's benefit. They're there to benefit everybody and that's the idea behind Is This Seat Taken? This debut puzzle game from developer Poti Poti Studio is all about getting everyone to their seats and its execution deserves a standing ovation.
Sometimes, you just want to get on your bike and ride. That's the general idea behind Wheel World, a new open-world biking adventure from Annapurna Interactive and Nidhogg developer Messhof. While the game does feature a story, things are mostly kept simple and the result is an enjoyably relaxing ride.
Main characters in video games come in all sorts of different forms. They range from big burly warriors to captivating underdogs. The lead in To a T falls in the latter category, but this specific one serves as someone whose unique qualities make him an inspiration. Annapurna Interactive and Uvula (the new studio founded by Keita Takahashi, the maker of Katamari Damacy) tell the story of someone who is born into an unlikely scenario, but one whose situation helps teach players of all ages about some of the greater lessons of life.
There's joy to be found in the basic idea of package delivery. There's the basic task of getting a package to its intended recipient with video games opening the door to take that idea to absurd levels. Deliver At All Costs, from Konami and Swedish developer Far Out Games, is package delivery at its most absurd extreme. A game like this should be a layup, and in many ways it is, but the game's story carries a tone that almost flies in the whole face of the wacky premise and it's a mixture that goes about as well as peanut butter and salmon.