Also available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Linux, and Windows

Amnesia: Rebirth is both a sequel and a reboot of sorts of the series.  It's a sequel in that it directly follows The Dark Descent and A Machine for Pigs chronologically, and it directly references some of the characters and events mentioned in The Dark Descent; but it's also a reboot in that it requires no knowledge of the previous games to enjoy and understand, and looks and plays significantly more like a modern game.  That makes sense considering it was released in 2020 whereas The Dark Descent was released in 2010.

Each of the Amnesia games seem to have a different focus.  With The Dark Descent, the focus was very much on mood, ambiance, and an atmosphere of horror.  With Justine, it was on moral choice.  With A Machine for Pigs, it was on the overall narrative and the message of that narrative.  With Rebirth, it seems to be on characters, although there's sort of a blend of the others, as well.  Some parts of the game don't feel like a horror game at all, like wandering through the desert, but other parts feel just as scary as The Dark Descent if not more so.  Like Justine, what determines your ending is a key moral choice in the game.  Like A Machine for Pigs, the story - in this case, the characters specifically - are given supreme importance.  As far as storytelling goes, I think Rebirth is hands down the best of the four.  As far as horror goes, it still falls short of The Dark Descent, but it's a solid #2.

Amnesia: Rebirth is a solid follow-up to The Dark Descent and A Machine for Pigs, and it's definitely worth playing for fans of the series.  I, personally, don't care for the desert setting for the most part, but some of the interior environments you explore - a French fort, for example - are EXCELLENT and supremely creepy.  Enemies play a much larger role in the horror than they did in A Machine for Pigs, and I honestly think the use of enemies to enhance the horror experience is executed better in Rebirth than it was in The Dark Descent.  Overall, the Dark Descent is a scarier game, but Rebirth is still a fantastic experience, and given that it's a decade newer, it looks and sounds significantly better, and those are both improvements and enhance the player's fear.  The price point is fair considering that it's the longest game in the series, at least based on my playtime, and it's on Game Pass as of the time of writing, so definitely check it out there if you've got a horror itch that needs scratching.

Also available on PlayStation 4, Switch, Linux, OSX, and Windows

Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs is the direct sequel to Amnesia: The Dark Descent and takes place a few decades after.  The tone and focus of this game are a bit different than the first one, and while I personally think that's to the game's detriment, by no means does that mean that this is a bad game or a bad sequel.  Rather than focusing on the supernatural as the first game did, Machine for Pigs focuses more on man-made horrors, and while it makes a very salient point, I'm personally more partial to supernatural horror (same reason that slasher flicks aren't as enjoyable for me as a good demonic possession film).

The game takes place in London, and as the title hints, is focused around a massive and complex machine in a meat packing facility.  I won't say more than that so as not to spoil the story - a story which is actually really interesting as you progress through the game and unravel its mysteries - but that machine is the root of the horror here.  Machine for Pigs is much more focused on making a point than Dark Descent was, and as a result, the emphasis is put on revealing its horrors to you more than making you hide from them.  There is no sanity meter to degrade from looking at enemies, so feel free to gaze at the game's monstrosities to your heart's content.  There are also significantly fewer enemies than in Dark Descent.  You'll still have to run and hide from some, but it's much common in Machine for Pigs.  There's also no static health status here, either, so if you're injured, just hide for a few à la Call of Duty.

That all makes it sound like the game isn't particularly scary, but that's definitely not true.  The setting and atmosphere of the game is still extremely disconcerting, and while the enemy encounters are much less frequent than in Dark Descent, there's no indication when an enemy might appear, so you're pretty much always on guard.  It seems like as soon as I got into the swing of things with puzzle solving, it would turn out to be a false sense of security soon the be shattered by the discovery of an enemy.  Still, though, exploration and puzzle-solving are the name of the game here more than enemy and darkness avoidance.  You have a lantern that doesn't run out of fuel, and there are no finite tinderboxes to light candles; if you see a lamp, simply turn it on.  That, admittedly, does detract a bit from the horror, but again, the focus this time seems much more on unraveling the mystery of the story than on sprinting from light source to light source.

To be clear at the start of this conclusion, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs is a good horror game and absolutely worth playing.  That said, it falls short of the original.  Its story-telling and enemy AI are rock solid, but there just isn't enough danger to the player or fear-inducing environments to provide the degree of horror that the first game did.  Fans of the original game will likely be disappointed with this one but not to the extent that they should skip it.  As I said, it's a good game, and I thoroughly enjoyed unraveling the story and the message the game is trying to convey.  It's definitely worth a play; just don't expect it to be more of the same.  It's definitely its own beast that doesn't allow itself to be confined by the structure or design of the original game.  It may not be "as good" as the original, but by no means does that make it "not good."

Also available on PlayStation 4, Switch, Android, Linux, OSX, and Windows

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is the fourth chapter of the "Xenoblade Chronicles" sub-set of the Xeno series (which includes the completely unrelated Xenogears and the three Xenosaga games), and it's the end of the Xenoblade trilogy since Xenoblade Chronicles X isn't related at all despite sharing the title.  Up until this game, Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 weren't related to one another, either, but this game bridges the two and ties them together into a (mostly) cohesive trilogy.

I wasn't sure exactly how this would connect XC1 and XC2, and the fact that I haven't played either of those games since their launch years didn't help that.  You notice pretty much right off the bat, though, that one of the two factions in the game - Keves - has races seen in Xenoblade Chronicles whereas the other faction - Agnus - has races seen in Xenoblade Chronicles 2.  Still, though, that doesn't necessarily mean they're connected; Final Fantasy games have a lot of references to one another (Cid, anyone?) without being directly related via narrative.  Throughout the game, though, there are numerous other relatively minor nods to the other two games.  I won't spoil it, but in the latter half of the game, the whole picture starts to take shape, and the curtain is slowly lifted on the overarching narrative and exactly how Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 tie together in Xenoblade Chronicles 3.  If you haven't played the other two games recently (or just have a terrible memory like me), you may be grasping at straws to remember all of the details being referenced, but even then, there are some parts that you'll definitely recognize unless you straight up have Alzheimer's.

XC3 makes a lot of improvements over the previous two games and continues some of the quality of life improvements that XC2 started.  The music here is the best of the series yet (although I have a soft spot for the bizarre soundtrack in XCX), and the characters are right up there with XC2's character.  Rex annoyed me a bit in 2, but Noah is a significantly better protagonist, and the supporting characters in 3 are every bit as fantastic as they were in 2.  Especially Mio.  Gotta love a girl with cat ears.  The quests, while still a bit monotonous after a while, are a massive improvement over the previous two games.  They're significantly easier to track and not nearly as tedious as in the first game.  The strongest point of XC3 in my opinion, however, is the cast of supporting characters.  They are all compelling with interesting backstories and are fully voice acted.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is definitely one of the best JRPGs on the Switch if not the best.  It has pretty much everything you want in a JRPG - interesting characters, a fun world to explore, epic monsters to fight, and MORE than enough content to get your money's worth.  My biggest complaint is that it's a little *too* massive in my opinion.  I also think - and this goes for all series, not just Xenoblade - that they need a recap at the beginning of the of the series so far so I'm not depending on either having replayed the series recently or having a significantly better memory than I do.  Either way, though, the game is absolutely phenomenal.  It looks astounding for the Switch, and aside from a few performance hiccups, it runs extremely well, too, although the loading times are a bit excessive at times.  If you have a Switch, this game deserves as spot on your shelf (or your SD card).

Also available on 3DS

Also available on 3DS

Also available on 3DS

When Pokemon Red and Blue first released in the United States, it was like a spell was cast on America's children.  I remember being in first grade and hearing kids on the playground talk about this amazing new Game Boy game.  I didn't have a Game Boy yet - I grew up pretty poor - but my best friend was fairly wealthy, and he did have one.  As soon as he got Blue Version, I knew that I absolutely HAD to get a Game Boy and Red Version.  I spent months begging and begging my mom to get me one (since I didn't understand poverty or scarcity in general), and eventually, she - with the help of my grandmother - managed to get me a Game Boy and Pokemon Red for my birthday the following year when I was in second grade.  That's when Pokemon Fever really took off, anyway, after a year of advertising and playground jealousy.

Pokemon Red and Blue have you taking the role as a ten year old kid (canonically named Red) as you set off on your Pokemon journey across the Kanto region.  Because apparently giving ten year old children horrifically dangerous monsters and setting them loose on the world to fend for themselves is seen as a good idea.  Anyway, you get to choose one of three Pokemon as your starter - either the fire type Charmander, the water type Squirtle, or the grass type Bulbasaur.  If you don't choose Charmander, you're wrong.  As you set off on your journey, you have two tasks - gather all eight gym badges so that you can challenge the Elite Four and become the Kanto Pokemon League champion, and catch all 150 (pssst it's technically 151) Pokemon in the Kanto region to complete the Pokedex created by Professor Oak, the guy who gave you your first Pokemon.  Literally every single person who will ever read this knows all of that already, but I said it for the sake of thoroughness.

The reason that there are two versions of what is, for all intents and purposes, exactly the same game is to facilitate trading.  Also to take more of your money.  It's mostly to take more of your money.  Some Pokemon only appear in either Red Version or Blue Version, so if you want to "catch 'em all," you'll have to either find someone with the other version who's willing to trade with you, or you'll have to buy both versions and another Game Boy.  There's also the issue of the starter Pokemon; you can ONLY find those three Pokemon by choosing them at the start of the game, so that means that if you make the correct choice and choose Charmander, you can never get a Bulbasaur or a Squirtle...unless you trade.  It's an absolutely brilliant scheme, and a quarter of a century later, we still fall for it with smiles on our faces.

Pokemon is really just a JRPG with a capture mechanic.  You find monsters, you enslave said monsters, and then you cosplay as Michael Vick and make them fight to the death.  Okay, so they technically "faint," but whatever, close enough.  Being the first game in the series on an extraordinarily weak piece of hardware, it's a simple game with a number of flaws.  Box management - where you store your Pokemon once you have six - is an absolute pain.  There are glitches galore, although most of these are the player's benefit rather than detriment.  Parts of the game just outright don't function like they're supposed to.  Worst of all (at least from one perspective) is that the psychic type is absolutely broken and overpowered.  Pretty much all of these issues would be corrected in future games, but going back in 2022 and replaying the 1998 games really highlights these shortcomings.

It might sound like I'm not the biggest fan of Pokemon Red and Blue.  This, while a reasonable conclusion given my mention of its various flaws, would be an extremely inaccurate assessment.  On the contrary, I absolutely ADORE Red and Blue.  I have Pokemon Legends Arceus, the newest game in the series, sitting in my Switch right now, but I still spent 48 hours replaying this on the 3DS Virtual Console.  It's one of my top gaming comfort foods.  I'm just able to admit that it's extremely rough around the edges.  This may have gotten damn near every millennial in the world into Pokemon, but this is definitely not where Gen Z or Gen Alpha are going to want to start.  The games are just too primitive on Game Boy unless you've got my nostalgia glasses or are already a fan of Pokemon and want to experience the game that started it all.  Still, though, Red and Blue (or, in Japan, Red and Green) spawned the world's biggest multimedia franchise, and what started with 151 pocket monsters is now 905 and will break 1000 in a month and a half.  Red and Blue may not have aged as well as JRPGs on the Super Nintendo did, but it's still an extremely nostalgic game that I can replay seemingly endlessly and never stop enjoying.

Also available on NES, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Switch

I'm extremely familiar with the NES port of the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game - it was one of my favorite NES games as a kid - but I've never seen an actual coin-op arcade machine of it, and I suspect most gamers younger than I haven't, either.  Fortunately, both the NES port and the original arcade version were included in the recent Cowabunga Collection, and best of all, that version included online co-op and the ability to force feed more credits like cough syrup to a sick kid.  Screenshots were captured on the Cowabunga Collection on Switch.

For the most part, when you consider that it's an 8-bit port of an arcade game, the NES version that most of us are more familiar with sticks pretty closely to the arcade version, but the arcade original is, obviously, significantly better.  There are some differences in the levels and enemies, and while most are relatively minor in the grand scheme of things, some definitely stand out.  The little laser whip robots at the end of the first level, for example, are small and numerous on NES whereas in the arcade original, there are fewer of them, but they're significantly larger.  That's how the majority of the differences beyond music and visuals that I noticed are - enough to make the games feel distinct and worth playing both but small enough that you're not really "missing out," per se, if you've only played one or the other.

As you progress through the game, you'll face a variety of types of Foot Clan soldiers as well as a variety of iconic villains from the comics as you pursue Shredder to save April.  If you've somehow never played this game before, it's a pretty standard arcade beat 'em up, and like arcade beat 'em ups, it's designed to punish you in a multitude of unfair ways.  I don't think anyone has ever 1CC'd this game, and if you have, you're a liar.  Still, though, it's a great challenge (even if there are some boss attacks that I genuinely think are impossible to dodge), and the ability to just increase your credits with a button press if you're playing on the Cowabunga Collection keeps it from getting too frustrating.  Unless you like being frustrated; I'm not here to kink shame.

While it's not as good as the later arcade game, Turtles in Time, in my opinion, I do think that this first TMNT arcade game is one of the truly great beat 'em ups of the 1980s.  The NES original is fantastic, but the arcade original really is the best way to play regardless of if that's on a legit machine, in the Cowabunga Collection, or on 1Up's TMNT cabinet.

Silver Falls is a series I've become a huge fan of over the past year.  It's an indie horror series made Sungrand, a one-man studio based in Australia, that focuses around the quaint little town of Silver Falls.  This quaint little town isn't quite as normal as it looks, though; strange things keep happening, and strange creatures keep appearing.  Each game in the series has a very distinct feel and style that matches the time period when the game takes place, and the fact that everything about the games from the visuals to the coding to the audio is all done by one person gives each entry a real labor-of-love feel that big studio AAA games just can't replicate.

Ghoul Busters takes place in the early 1990s and, as such, has an aesthetic intentionally reminiscent of the original Game Boy (that's also why the game's initials are "GB").  It follows two young best friends forever, Starlin Allerdyce and Atticus Longdraw, on their adventure-turned-nightmare in the woods.  The two boys had gone to the woods one night to play Ghoul Busters, pretending to be the heroes from their favorite television cartoon, but they quickly stumble upon real monsters lurking in the woods as well as adults from the town who seem to know more about the strange goings-on than they're willing to admit.  Now their playtime has turned into a very literal fight for survival.

The game is a 2D platformer although one that makes heavy (and excellent) use of the 3DS's stereoscopic 3D effect.  It's totally playable in 2D, but like Super Mario 3D Land, there are obstacles - like blades swinging between the close foreground and the background - that the 3D effect makes easier to see and dodge.  Each of the two characters - Starlin and Atticus - plays somewhat differently.  Starlin is a bit slower in jumps, attacks with a hockey stick, and seems to deal a little more damage with more knockback.  Atticus, on the other hand, moves much faster in the air, attacks with a slingshot, and trades some of that damage and knockback for attack range.  Personally, I preferred playing as Atticus, although Starlin felt more useful to me in the last few levels.  The action takes place on the top screen while the touch screen holds items in your inventory that can be used by tapping as well as a pocket pet toy that emits a sound that causes a particular spinning spike enemy to retract its spines for a brief period of time.

The game isn't very long, but what it lacks in length it makes up for in quality.  There are nine levels and three bosses (one at the end of each three-level stage), and they are, as one might hope, increasingly challenging.  On level 1-1, for example, I only died once; by level 3-3, you'd have thought I was playing Super Meat Boy.  By the time I had cleared the final boss, I had died 421 times during my playthrough, and it would have been a lot more if I hadn't had items to use.  Between levels, you get the chance to spend the bottle caps you collected thus far to buy items for use later, and fortunately, you're able to go back and replay levels to grind more bottle caps if you find that you're in need of items but out of funds.  There are box tops hidden throughout the levels, as well, and each level that you end with three box tops gives you a special item that you can't normally buy.

The coolest thing, in my opinion, about the Silver Falls series as a whole is the connectivity between games courtesy of the Code Linker system.  Jerrel, the developer, really went out of his way to make sure that his games connect with each other in some way.  The way it works is that one Silver Falls game - let's say Episode Prelude on Switch - gives you a blue code in its Code Linker menu.  You then plug that blue code into the Code Linker menu in Ghoul Busters on 3DS, and it spits out a yellow key code.  Plug that yellow code back into Episode Prelude, and a character from Ghoul Busters is now playable in Episode Prelude.  That's just an example - I'm not sure if that particular example is actually viable - but that's the gist of how it works.  Jerrel designed it to be like amiibo but without the need for an additional purchase and as a sort of bonus for buying the other games, although he's stressed multiple times that he actively encourages folks' sharing codes with friends who may not have all of the Silver Falls games; he just wants people to play and enjoy what he's made.

Silver Falls: Ghoul Busters is really an extraordinary platformer.  It's short and extremely challenging at parts, but at no point does it ever stop being fun.  It's got its moments where you can tell you're being directly trolled by obstacle and enemy placements, but it's never to the point where you rage quit; it's always just reasonable enough to make you say "One more try."  There's also just this unexplainable magic that comes from a game made entirely by one guy who's genuinely super passionate about gaming and making games that people want to play.  It's made in Unity for 3DS, so it's got some random and impossible-to-replicate-on-command bugs and crashes here and there, but the game's got a good auto-save system, so I've never lost any progress from crashes, and it doesn't take long to load back into the game.  The music is absolutely phenomenal, and while you'll hear the low-fi voice saying "Bummer!" every time you die in your nightmares, it's a wholly satisfying, enjoyable, and charming platformer from start to finish.  I enjoyed this game more than any other indie platformer I've ever played and for reasons I can't quite put my finger on, but regardless of why, I honestly can't recommend this game highly enough.  Releasing at the very end of the 3DS's life span puts a quickly ticking timer on its availability, so make sure you don't sleep on this one.

Also available on DS

Also available on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3

Muv-Luv is, without a doubt, my all-time favorite series.  I've played every visual novel released in English, seen all three anime translated into English, and have read the entire 400-500 page codex.  I'm obsessed.  One of the anime translated into English was an adaptation of Total Eclipse, and I've got that anime on Bluray and have seen it multiple times.  When the visual novel of Total Eclipse FINALLY got released in English last month, I IMMEDIATELY bought it.  Like, literally; it released at 2 am in the eastern US, and I was downloading it at 2:01 am.

Muv-Luv, since the original trilogy, has always been about two things - waifus and a hopeless but determined struggle against the unspeakable horrors of an apocalyptic alien invasion.  Muv-Luv Extra capitalized on the former, Muv-Luv Alternative capitalized on the latter, but by and large, the series blends the two wonderfully, and Total Eclipse is no exception.  Of my top five Muv-Luv waifus, three of them are from Total Eclipse.  It also has, in a manner of speaking, the most epic battle against the BETA of the series.  The English language fandom seems split on whether Alternative or Total Eclipse is better, and while I'm in the Alternative camp, it's definitely close; they're both masterpieces.

The protagonist of Total Eclipse is Yuuya Bridges, a Japanese-American test pilot who is arguably the United States's best surface pilot.  At the game's opening, he's participating in the test flights and development of the F-22A Raptor, America's third generation stealth TSF and the undisputed king of anti-human TSF capabilities.  He ends up getting reassigned, though, and sent to the UN Forces Yukon base in Alaska, positioned right between American-controlled territory in southeast Alaska and the northwestern part of Alaska that the United States leased to the Soviet Union after the BETA overran most of their territory.  The reason an American army surface pilot gets reassigned to a United Nations base is because he's sent on secondment to participate in the XFJ program, a collaboration between the Japanese Empire and American TSF manufacturer Boening to improve Japan's third generation TSF, the Shiranui.  He's assigned to Argust Test Flight, the test flight attached to the XFJ program.  What makes this test flight unique among other test flights stationed at Yukon is that it's truly international; 2nd Lieutenant Yuuya Bridges is an American, 2nd Lieutenant Valerio Giacosa is Italian, 2nd Lieutenant Stella Bremer is Swedish, 2nd Lieutenant Tarisa Manandal is Nepalese, 1st Lieutenant Yui Takamura (Western name order used) is Japanese, and Captian Ibrahim Dogulu is Turkish.  This all becomes relevant to the story and the characters' interactions as the game progresses.

For the most part, the art in the visual novel is exactly the same style and appearance in this allegedly remastered release of Total Eclipse as the other Muv-Luv visual novels, but there is one distinct difference - it incorporates scenes from the anime in a few places (mainly during battles against the BETA).  I'm kind of torn on this inclusion.  On the one hand, it's definitely nice to see genuinely animated scenes in addition to the usual scenes of a 2D art asset moving across a 2D art background that you usually see in visual novels.  On the other hand, these anime scenes look bizarrely low resolution and compressed.  There's noticeable pixilation and visible artifacts in the scenes that aren't present when watching the actual anime.  That really sort of puts a damper on the whole presentation of the included scenes.  Still, though, it IS nice to see actually animated battle scenes even those scenes do get repeated a lot and are of low quality simply because it's something no other visual novel in the series has done.

Like the rest of the visual novels, the dialog is all in Japanese with English text.  Given the...questionable...quality of the English dub in the Total Eclipse anime, this is probably a good thing all around.  Speaking of voice acting, though, even if I can't understand the voice lines, the actors do a fantastic job of expressing the characters' emotions and attitudes, especially Tarisa's voice actress.  I AM annoyed that they localized Tarisa's nickname as "Tiny" in the visual novel instead of the much-cuter "Chobi"  in the anime, but it's fine.  On the topic of audio design, the music is pretty solid here, as well.  It's not quite as memorable as the music from the Extra/Unlimited/Alternative trilogy, but the soundtrack is still a solid fit for the game's settings and events.

As far as length is concerned, Total Eclipse is pretty beefy.  l, admittedly, am very easily distracted by Discord and Twitter, so my playtime of nearly 80 hours is definitely a bit inflated, but from what other fans have told me, 50 hours seems a pretty solid average, although your mileage will obviously vary based on your reading speed and distractibility.  Still, though, I think that's a pretty damn solid bang for your buck especially with how good the story and characters are.  The last two chapters - especially chapter 17 - are substantial.  20% of the game is probably just chapters 17 and 18.  They're EXTREMELY epic, though, and the climax of the story,

Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse is a definite contender for my personal GOTY.  Sure, it helps that I'm completely and totally obsessed with the series, but it's a genuinely fantastic visual novel and one that I've been DYING to have translated to English for a few years now.  The setting, the characters, the story, the political intrigue, and - most importantly - the waifus are all absolutely fantastic and leave almost nothing to be desired.  There are no H-scenes in Total Eclipse, so prudes don't have to worry about that, and anti-censorship fanatics don't have to worry about the infamous Steam censors.  If you're a general visual novel fan, check this one out; if you're a Muv-Luv fan, you should have bought this two weeks ago.

Also available on Windows

Awakening the Nightmare is a DLC campaign for Halo Wars 2.  It's actually the second story DLC the game got, but this is the first full campaign as Operation: Spearbreaker was just two (admittedly really good) missions.  This, on the other hand, was a full five mission campaign.  It's $20, so heads up, it ain't cheap, but it's an extremely well-done campaign.

Awakening the Nightmare has you play as the Banished in a desperate fight against the Flood.  When a couple of idiot Jiralhanae commanders that Atriox sent to pillage the wreckage of High Charity, he does so with strict orders to scavenge outside the wrecked city and not to enter the city itself.  One of these two Brute commanders, being an idiot, ignores this order and leads his troops into the city.  Oops, you just unleashed the Flood upon the Ark.  Now it's a desperate struggle to contain the infestation.

This is an extremely well-made campaign with an entirely new faction and missions with a variety of objectives to keep it from ever feeling stale.  A couple of those missions are pretty damn challenging, too.  The Flood don't against you like the Banished do in the main campaign; the Flood will often slam into your defenses relentlessly and seemingly ceaselessly.  You know, as the Flood tend to do.  Fortunately, the Banished have a defensive advantage over the UNSC in one key aspect.  Unlike the UNSC turrets, Banished turrets don't have to choose a specialization; they can acquire anti-infantry, anti-vehicle, AND anti-air enhancements.  This alone won't keep your bases safe, but it definitely helps as the Flood enemies begin to diversify.

Aside from a relatively short length - five missions - and somewhat high price tag - $20 - Awakening the Banished is everything you could want from a campaign DLC.  You play as a different faction, you fight an entirely new faction, the story is great, the mission objectives have a lot of variety to keep things interesting, and the battles you'll fight are super epic.  You do get access to some new leaders and a new Firefight game mode, but honestly, the campaign is so good that I think it alone is worth it.  Remember, too, that if you've got Game Pass, you get 10% off the DLC.

Also available on Xbox One and Windows

If you read my reviews of Halo 4 and Halo 5, you'll recall that one of my biggest complaints with the games was the storytelling and the fact that there are a plethora of details that were seemingly skipped and never explained from one game to the other.  Spartan Ops was a series of ten five-mission episodes that follows the Spartan-IVs aboard the UNSC Infinity as they investigate the Forerunner planet of Requiem.  It takes place after the events of Halo 4, so it does serve to fill a little of the time between Halo 4 and Halo 5.  That said, don't expect this to pull the curtain back fully on the events before Halo 5.

You play as Spartans with Fireteam Crimson, one of the Spartan teams providing security and helping to investigate Requiem and fighting Covenant remnants and Promethean defenses.  As I said, there are ten episodes each consisting of five levels.  Each episode has a cutscene to introduce the episode.  These cutscenes are probably the most interesting aspect of Spartan Ops in my opinion; they're very well done regarding narrative, and the levels themselves, by and large, tend to feel pretty generic.  Kill Wave 1 of enemies, press Button 1, kill Waves 2 and 3 of enemies, press Button 2, kill Waves 4 and 5 of enemies, press Button 3, kill Wave 6 of enemies, reach designated position, mission over.  That's how most of them seem to play out.  To be sure, some are more varied and interesting than that, but that's the typical Spartan Ops mission.

If you're into achievement hunting, there's some reason to play here; you get an achievement for completion each of the ten episodes as well as one for completing all of them.  Not only that, but if you're playing on the Master Chief Collection, these missions help wrap up some of the Promethean kill achievements.  These missions are meant to be played co-op, so they're probably more fun that way than solo as I played them, but they're pretty average.  They do get pretty challenging, though; there was one mission that spawned a dozen and a half Hunters for me to kill by myself (thank goodness it lets you respawn).

As is the case with Halo 4 and Halo 5 in general, Spartan Ops is definitely worth playing if you're a big fan of Halo.  If you're not especially interested in the greater world, lore, and events immediately after Halo 4, then you can skip this without worry.  In a lot of ways, it feels like a super low budget sequel to Halo 4.  That said, I love what they tried to do here; it's just a shame that's the concept so outstripped the execution.  It's not nearly as offensive as Halo 5, but it's a pretty take-it-or-leave-it affair overall.

Also available on Windows

You're a kid out with mom.  "Mom, I want Halo!" you plead.  "We have Halo at home," your mom says.  Halo 5: Guardians is what y'all have at home.  With Halo 4, 343 kicked the series in the balls and knocked it down; with Halo 5, 343 curb stomped its skull.  Halo 5 more or less took everything I hated about Halo 4 and doubled down on it.  That's not to say that the game is 100% garbage or anything, and I'm going to give credit where it's due, but there's a LOT that 343 screwed up with this game, and their actions since its launch indicate that they'd agree with me to some extent.

My biggest complaint with Halo 4 was the story, and that's my biggest complaint here, too.  Basic synopsis is that Master Chief ignores orders from his UNSC superiors to go look for Cortana who briefly contacted him through means that honestly never get adequately explained, and his Spartan team goes with him.  The UNSC then sends a team of Spartan-IVs to apprehend Master Chief and his now-AWOL team.  That set-up is my first issue; Master Chief isn't truly the antagonist of the game, but he's not the main protagonist, either.  He sort of floats somewhere between the two.  Beyond that, I think the game's story is just plain bad in general, but the way they tell it makes it even worse.  A Halo game doesn't have to have Master Chief to be good - Reach and ODST proved that - but to have Master Chief be the playable character in only like 15% or 20% of the game just feels off especially when he's positioned as an almost "bad" guy for part of the game.  Swing and a miss, my dude.  But at least Nathan Fillion's character from ODST makes a comeback, and he makes everything better.

Now, to be fair, the game looks phenomenal on Xbox One.  However, the performance leaves some to be desired.  It seems like 343 went with a "graphical fidelity over performance" approach early on with Halo.  To some extent, Halo 4 showed the same thing, but the performance issues are a lot more noticeable with Halo 5.  There are a lot of frame rate drops throughout the game, and most annoyingly, enemy models will drop to half the target frame rate when observed at a distance, and it doesn't even have to be that great a distance before the model's frame rate drops.  It's extremely jarring once you notice it.  I played on Series X, and there were still a plethora of performance issues.  Speaking of, Halo 5 never got a Series X optimization patch.  That's noteworthy because the Master Chief Collection did get an optimization patch, and it's a year older than Halo 5.  To me, that indicates that 343 knows that Halo 5 is the weakest entry in the series because it's literally the only main series game not optimized for Series X.

Another similarity that Halo 5 has with Halo 4 that I personally found to be a negative aspect but in a completely subjective way is that it's clear that 343 prioritized the multiplayer over the single player.  The multiplayer was excellent in Halo 5, although it didn't have the staying power that the Master Chief Collection had once the newness of it wore off and 343 fixed the numerous issues with which the Master Chief Collection launched.  To Halo 5's credit, it definitely did a lot to energize Halo's eSports standing, but it's a shame that Halo 5 seemingly traded lower quality in the single player for higher quality in the multiplayer.  Even with the strong multiplayer, though, Halo 5 is an all-around disappointing experience to long-time fans.

Halo 5 is the Godfather Part III of the Halo series.  The campaign's story is bad in theory and worse in execution, and worst of all, it ends on a cliffhanger that never gets resolved; 343 completely abandons this story thread about Cortana and shifts over to the Banished in Halo Infinite.  The multiplayer, while good, is pretty much dead; Master Chief Collection quickly passed it in quality, and when Halo Infinite came out, that was the final nail in the coffin.  If you're big into Halo lore, Halo 5 is definitely a game that you need to play through once, and if you're not into Halo at all and don't know anything about the lore, you'll probably enjoy it since you've got no investment in the lore or characters, but honestly, while it's an okay sci-fi shooter, it's a terrible Halo game.  That said, it is a pretty game, and the gunplay mechanics are smooth and well-done.  Just don't expect a worthy successor to Bungie's Halo games.

To most millennials, Space Jam: A New Legacy is heresy.  Space Jam needs no legacy beyond what it already had, and replacing a living basketball god like Michael Jordan with an admittedly talented but no #23 god like LeBron James?  Blasphemy.  I do love me a good video game, though, and since I already had Game Pass Ultimate, I figured why not?  I'll give it a shot.

Space Jam: A New Legacy - The Game is a pretty basic beat 'em up.  You get to play as either Bugs Bunny, Lola Bunny (who I'm convinced is why so many milennials are furries), or LeBron James.  They all feel pretty much the same, but while I'm pretty sure this was just the placebo effect, it did feel like LeBron was a little stronger than Bugs or Lola.  The game looks okay.  It's a pixel art game that mimics a 16-bit art style, and while I'm beyond sick of pixel art games since they're a dime a dozen in the indie scene, but it looks fine.  In addition to your player character, you get to choose another character as a card to determine your especial ability.  Tweetie gives you extra strength, Taz gives you the Rampage ability, the old granny whose name I always forget makes food drop to restore health, etc.  Each level you beat unlocks a new character card.

Speaking of those levels, there are only four.  Each level is capped off by a boss, but none of these bosses are particularly difficult.  I completed the entire game start to finish in 32 minutes.  That's way too short.  Granted, the game is free and just a marketing gimmick, so you can only expect so much, but still, it's pretty disappointing that you can start and beat this game faster than you can watch an episode of Star Trek without commercials.  It wouldn't be so bad if the game were really good, but it's not.  It's the most painful mediocre beat 'em up I've ever played.  It's perfectly functional, and it supports three player co-op, but there are a TON of co-op beat 'em ups.  Outside of "OMG I LOVE SPACE JAM," there's absolutely no reason to pick this one.

For a product given away for free, Space Jam: A New Legacy - The Game is fine.  I mean, my personal rule is that you've got to really try to make something free pan out to outright "bad."  As a game judged on its own merits aside from the $0.00 price tag, though, this game is bad.  It controls okay, it supports co-op, and you can play as everyone's favorite rabbit waifu, but honestly, it's kind of boring.  If you want to play a beat 'em up, play TMNT.  Play Sailor Moon.  Play River City Girls.  Play Double Dragon.  They're all better than Space Jam.

Also available on Xbox 360, Windows phone, iOS, and Windows

Like Halo Wars, Halo: Spartan Assault marks another genre shift for the series.  This is a twin stick shooter; think Robotron but significantly more advanced.  While this is definitely a side game and one that most Halo fans probably haven't even played, it does fit canon and fit neatly into the timeline and the lore.

Halo: Spartan Assault takes place between the events of Halo 3 and Halo 4.  It follows a couple of Spartan-IVs - Spartan Palmer and Spartan Davis - who end up being the spearhead of the defense against a surprise attack by Covenant remnant forces on the UNSC colony of Draetheus V and its moon, X50.  Technically, the player assumes the role of UNSC marine cadets who are reviewing combat simulations of this battle, but as far as the actual gameplay goes, you're either Spartan Palmer or Davis.  The story is fairly forgettable, and the "plot twist" at the end is honestly kind of dumb in my opinion, but despite all that, the story is well told for what it is.  The gameplay, as well, is also a lot of fun.  It feels almost like it could have been made into an actual Halo arcade game with a little more effort and funding.

My biggest complaint with the game is how the story is told; it's mostly done through a short intro video before each of the campaigns and through a couple of paragraphs of text that precede each level.  It's not ideal - I'd have much preferred actual cut scenes to deliver the story - but that's a fairly minor complaint.  For a relatively cheap game - it's only $5 - it looks surprisingly good.  Granted, the far zoomed out camera makes the kind of fine details that are easy to nitpick in textures hard to see, but still, regardless of why, the game is quite pleasing to the eye.  Controls are very smooth and intuitive, and while aiming can be a little tough to do precisely due to the nature of twin stick shooters, it's not a big hindrance at all to one's enjoyment.

Halo: Spartan Assault is a lot of fun for a $5 budget spin-off.  That said, it's still an obviously budget game.  It's six campaigns are each five levels long, and each level averages somewhere between five and ten minutes assuming you don't die.  This makes for a pretty fair length game for $5, but it's still a fairly short experience, and while the story is enjoyable, the method with which it's delivered makes it feel less engaging than what you'd get in a core Halo game's dialogue and cut scenes.  As a total package, it definitely feels like a side game that wasn't given a big budget or a big team, but despite that, it's definitely a worthwhile play for Halo fans.

Also available on Xbox One and Windows

Halo 4 marked the end of the Bungie-developed Halo games and the beginning of the 343 Industries-developed Halo games.  In other words, this is where Halo starts is decline in quality.  The Covenant saga is over (although the Covenant are still here in a sense), and the "Reclaimer" saga has begun.  You know how, after Goa'uld were defeated in Stargate SG-1, they tried to introduce a new antagonist and story arc to keep it going, but it just kind of sucked?  Yeah, that's Halo under 343 prior to Infinite.

Halo 4 was the first game in the series that I was able to play on release because it was the first game that came out when I had an Xbox.  To say I was disappointed in the game is an understatement.  The game starts with Master Chief being brought out of cryosleep after an accident left him and Cortana adrift in space far from Earth for over four years.  He finds himself on Requiem, a Forerunner shield world.  Unfortunately, he's not alone; what he awakens to find is an attack by Covenant remnants.  This opening part of the game feels right at home - you're Master Chief, kicking Covenant ass like old times.  Unfortunately, that's where things get weird.  The Covenant remnants aren't your main antagonists here; the Prometheans are, Forerunner-created military AIs (sort of) that are led by Ur-Didact, a Forerunner.  Or a Promethean.  Or some mix of the two, I don't know; the game isn't super clear on that point.

That's my biggest gripe with the game - the Forerunners.  343 went and retconned established lore; Halo had strongly hinted at it since the original game, but in Halo 3, 343-Guilty Spark outright confirms to Master Chief that the Forerunners were ancient human.  In comes Halo 4, and suddenly, nevermind, they were weird flat nosed Odo-looking aliens that hated humans.  It's not that Forerunners being separate bothers me on its own; it's that it contradicts established lore.  Aside from that, the game is okay.  The storytelling is pretty bad - there are multiple instances where something happens and the game doesn't explain it well at all - but the gameplay itself it fun enough.  The story and storytelling is its biggest flaw; as my buddy Patt put it, "I shouldn't have to read three tie-in books just to understand the story of a video game."  To the game's credit, it looks amazing.  Like, when this game first came out, I couldn't believe I was looking at an Xbox 360 game.  After seven years of the Xbox One and two years of the Xbox Series X, it's not quite so mind blowing these days, but still, for a game on  a console that launched in 2005, this game these visuals are incredible.

Halo 4 makes me sad because it's the harbinger of Halo's decline in a lot of ways.  It had great multiplayer, and it looked incredible, but the single player was just disappointing.  It was fine - certainly not as bad as what came next - but it just utterly fails to live up to the incredible foundation that Bungie laid for them.  It's not a bad game, per se, and I did enjoy playing it, but as someone who plays Halo for the world and the story more than anything else, it was just frustrating and disappointing.

Also available on Xbox One and Windows

Halo 3 was the series's first foray into HD.  As the conclusion to Bungie's Covenant war arc, the slogan for the game was "Finish the fight;" hell, the Master Chief's last line in Halo 2 when asked what he was doing upon getting back to Earth was, "Finishing this fight."  This was the Xbox 360's killer app and the reason most of the people I knew growing up bought a 360.  I grew up poor and made sure the few consoles my mom was able to afford for me were always Nintendo's latest console, so I never owned Halo 3 until college, but when hanging out with others, I remember being blown away  with all of my friends by the game's graphics.

When the game came out in 2007, the graphics absolutely blew my mind.  When replaying in 2022, even with the Series X upscaleing the Master Chief Collection version to 2160p, I kept thinking, "...this game kind of shows its age..."  That said, graphics don't make or break a game, and while the game's textures may show its age a bit, the gameplay itself is absolutely phenomenal.  The Covenant have launched a renewed and much larger invasion of Earth.  Unfortunately, due to some of the events of Halo 2, Earth now has not only a Covenant invasion but also a new threat to contend with, one that could result in the glassing of Earth even if the Covenant are defeated.

In a lot of ways, Halo 3's gameplay is "more of the same but now in HD."  There aren't a lot of new gameplay mechanics or weapons, but the "Bungie's Halo" foruma has been pretty much perfected by this point.  The story is pretty well told and wraps up the war with the Covenant pretty well, and the environments in which you fight are pretty varied from jungle to Forerunner structure to Covenant structure.  You get to see some of the awkwardness of the human-Sangheli relations after they split off from the Covenant.  World-building is something I always wanted more of in Halo, but Halo 3 does a pretty decent job of it.

Halo 3 doesn't quite live up to Halo 2 in my opinion, but damn is it a good game nonetheless.  It was the first game in the series to be made in HD, and while Halo 3 is your typical first entry in HD - it looks way better than the previous entries, but the textures leave a little bit to be desired.  It's something we saw a lot with PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U, and Switch.  Still, though, that's not to say the game looks bad, just that it hasn't aged as well as some games on the platform.  Almost all Halo fans will have played this game by now, but Halo 3 was really the peak of Halo's popularity, so if by chance you've just gotten into Halo in the last 15 years, make sure you give this one a play (but only after you play Halo and Halo 2 first).

Also available one Xbox One and Windows

When I first played ODST, I remember being extremely disappointed.  I wrote it off as a generic space marine game.  "It's not Halo if there's not Master Chief," I said.  For well over a decade, I always disparaged the game whenever it came up in conversation.  When starting my replay of the Halo series, though, I decided that I'd go into my replay of ODST with an open mind.  I've changed a lot as a gamer in the past ten years, I definitely had some anti-Xbox fanboy bias during my first go around.  I'm glad I did, too, because lo and behold, I had a great time with the game this time.

Despite having "Halo 3" in the title, ODST takes place during the events of Halo 2.  When Master Chief follows the Prophet of Truth into a slipstream jump, there's a battle with the Covenant still being waged on Earth in the African city of Mombasa.  That's the setting here; you play as an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (ODST) deployed to Mombasa to combat the Covenant invaders.  You play primarily as a rookie ODST piecing together what happened to your team after your drop goes wrong and you all get scattered, but as you find clues during your investigation, you play through as the other members of your team, revealing details into what the rest of your team did during the six hours the rookie was unconscious.

As far as core gameplay goes, ODST is pretty similar to the rest of the Halo series.  Controls are pretty much the same, and the visuals look about on par with Halo 3.  There are some key differences, though.  Since you're not a Spartan, you can't quite take the beating that the Master Chief can.  You're still pretty tanky, but it definitely takes less to kill you in this game than when you're actually playing as Master Chief.  The biggest gameplay difference is that you've got a lot more freedom to explore than in most Halo games.  You have a map of Mombasa, and you've got an objective marker, but you've got a decent bit of leeway to explore on your way and take a few different routes.  It's still pretty funneled, but if nothing else, it feels freer.

Halo 3: ODST is not the disappointment that I had made it out to be in my youth.  Honestly, it's right up there with Reach and Halo 3 in my book.  The story is great, and it's awesome that we finally get a view of non-Spartan humans and their struggle against the Covenant.  Also, Nathan Fillion plays your team captain, and that alone is a reason to play.  It may not be as amazing as Halo 2 or Combat Evolved, but ODST is absolutely an experience that earns the Halo name.

Also available on Xbox One and Windows

Halo: Reach is the second prequel in the series with its release the year after Halo Wars.  This, however, is a prequel much closer to the 2001 original that all Halo fans know and love.  Whereas Halo Wars took place 21 years before the events of Combat Evolve, Reach takes place immediately before.  Immediate as in the final cut scene of Halo: Reach is literally the start of the first cut scene in Halo: Combat Evolved.  It also told a story that a lot of Halo fans wanted to know - how did the human colony on planet Reach fall to the Covenant?

If you're read the Halo novels, then you may know what happened to Reach even before playing this game.  Or at least, you used to.  Halo: Fall of Reach is a novel that told the story of the destruction of humanity's colony on planet Reach.  Published in 2001, nine years before the release of Halo: Reach, this was an established story....until the game retconned the whole thing.  The major parts of the story remain the same - the Covenant launch an unexpected attack on Reach and destroy the planet, leaving Master Chief John-117 as the sole surviving member of the Spartan-II super soldier program as he and the crew of the UNSC Pillar of Autumn narrowly escape the carnage of Reach.  The specifics, especially where Master Chief is involved, is what change.  I won't spoil that in case you haven't played Reach but may want to, but what you get is the story of six other Spartans as they discover the Covenant incursion and fight tooth and nail to try to save the capital world of the UNSC inner colonies.

Halo Reach, visually, is a little bit better than Halo 3 but largely on par.  That said, the system you play on does make a difference; the original Xbox 360 release runs at 720p at 30 frames per second, but if you play on Xbox One through the Master Chief Collection, that gets bumped to 1080p at 60 frames per second.  It's not a full remaster like the first two games got with their anniversary remasters, but it's definitely a nice bit of polish.  As with all of the older Halo games, the controls are quite different from what you'd expect from an FPS game.  Left trigger throws grenades, right bumper reloads, and clicking the left stick zooms in for aiming, for example.  Halo Infinite may have adopted pretty standard FPS controls, but don't expect that going into Reach.  Still, though, once you get a feel for the controls, they feel perfectly functional.

Halo: Reach is an exceptional game, but I do have a couple of gripes with it.  From a lore perspective, I can't help but be a bit bugged by the fact that we already had a book explaining what happened to Reach that was outright retconned.  In the book, Master Chief was deployed on a mission in orbit while most of the Spartans were fighting on the surface; this game was a perfect opportunity to tell the story of those Spartans on Reach while still keeping the book canon.  The characters also weren't fleshed out as well as they could have been; Jorge and Emile are somewhat memorable, but for the most part, the Spartans of Noble Team just didn't impact me the way that Cortana, Captain Keyes, or Sergeant Johnson did.  Still, though, those are subjective complaints, and there are lots of Halo fans who disagree with me on those points.  The story overall is fantastic as is the gameplay.  If you're a fan of Halo, Reach should be considered just as integral a part of the series' story as the original trilogy.

​Also available on Xbox and Windows

Halo 2 was the much-anticipated sequel to Bungie's 2001 near-masterpiece, Halo: Combat Evolved.  Releasing in 2004, three years after the first Halo game, it follows the exploits of Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 and the United Nations Space Command's two-decade war against the theocratic Covenant following the events of the first game and the clash on the Alpha Halo ring world.  Like the Xbox 360 got in 2011, 2014 saw the release of a remastered version of Halo 2 for the Xbox One bundled in with the Master Chief Collection.  It's this remaster that I played for this review.

Halo 2 takes place about a month after the previous game.  Master Chief and - somehow (probably cause he's a bad ass) - Sergeant Johnson have returned to Earth to be decorated for their valorous actions in battle against the Covenant and the Flood on the Halo.  During the ceremony, the unexpected and unthinkable happens - a Covenant fleet appears from slipspace and attacks Earth.  As the UNSC struggles to repel the attack on Earth, Master Chief is given a new mission - kidnap the Prophet of Regret, one of the three hierarchs ruling the Covenant.

As impressive as the Xbox 360 remaster of the original Halo game was, the Xbox One remaster of Halo 2 is even more incredible an upgrade.  As with the Halo CE remaster, pressing the cheese slice button will switch between the original assets and the new anniversary assets.  Unlike the Halo CE, however, you can always do this asset swap with the cut scenes; in the Halo CE remaster, all cut scenes used the new assets.  Admittedly, switching the asset sets in the cut scenes isn't exactly smooth as the cut scenes have been remade and thus aren't totally in sync with one another, but still, you can get a decent comparison.  The character models for Sgt. Johnson and Cmdr. Miranda Keyes especially show off just how incredible the remaster's visual upgrade is.

Almost as impressive as the visual upgrade the remaster got is the auditory upgrade.  When switching to the original assets, it also switches to the original sounds, and that shows just how much more impressive the audio technology in the Xbox One is than the original Xbox - an aspect of the multimedia experience that a lot of people (myself included) often overlook.  Sound effect balancing is different and sounds more natural in the remaster, and music especially feels significantly deeper and higher quality.  Being able to compare the sound like that side-by-side drives home not just how important sound design is to a game's experience but also just how much care 343 put into making this remaster as amazing as it could be while staying totally faithful to the original game.

Halo 2 is, without a doubt, my favorite game in the series until Infinite (and it's pretty much tied with Infinite), and the 10th anniversary remaster takes what was already a masterpiece and makes it ten times better.  This is peak sci-fi shooter action, and it both starts and ends high octane.  It also ends on a massive cliffhanger that just begs the player to dive straight into Halo 3.  All in all, I can't think of much I'd improve.  You've got two protagonists - a Sangheli known as the Arbiter as well as the Master Chief - and some of the transitions between sections you play as the Arbiter and the sections you play as Master Chief aren't as smooth as they could be and can be a little confusing, but other than that, I really can't complain about much.  This is an absolute must-play for any Xbox player.

Also available on Xbox, Xbox One, and Windows

Halo: Combat Evolved turned the first person shooter scene on its head when it released in 2001 and was a system-seller for Microsoft's infant Xbox brand.  While it eventually got a PC release, Halo was known early on as the reason to own an Xbox.  It forever changed the FPS genre and, while borrowing quite a lot from Blizzard's Starcraft as far as narrative and the overall world goes, created a massive and incredible sci-fi franchise.  In 2011, 343 and Microsoft give the game an amazing remaster for its ten year anniversary.

Halo opens with the UNSC Pillar of Autumn exiting slipspace in a desparate flee from Covenant forces immediately following the destruction of the human colony on the planet Reach.  Unfortunately for the Captain Jacob Keyes and his crew, the Covenant were hot on their trail and immediately open fire on the human ship.  Master Chief John-117, the last surviving Spartan super soldier, is awoken from cryosleep to fight off Covenant boarders.  Eventually the ship is forced to make a hard crash landing on Halo, a mysterious ring-shaped world created by the ancient Forerunner race with the Covenant still in pursuit.

When it originally launched on Xbox in 2001, Halo was mind-blowing with its graphics and fluid controls.  A lot has changed since then, though, and while it's still charming and nostalgic, the original Halo shows its age.  The 2011 remaster utilizes the power of the Xbox 360 (and, with the Master Chief Collection, the Xbox One) to give the game the face lift that it deserves.  The difference is night and day, and fortunately, 343 gives players the perfect tool to see that; pressing the cheese slice button that should really be labeled Select (I'm using an Xbox One controller for reference), you can seamlessly switch between the original 2001 assets and the redone 2011 assets.  Naturally, the resolution is much higher than the original 480i even if you use the original assets - 720p on 360, 1080p on Xbox One, and 2160p on Series X - but still, it's cool to see how the original assets compare to the new assets.

Halo: Combat Evolved isn't a masterpiece - the level design can be a bit clunky, the narrative sometimes feels a little sloppy with its execution, and the level entitled The Library probably constitutes a crime against humanity - but the game is perfectly faithful to the original where so many games and movies end up breaking more than they fix when trying to remaster older classics.  With that said, the few problems I have with the game are there specifically because 343 stayed 100% faithful to the original game, and I'd rather have that than have them try to "fix" things and end up pulling a Star Wars with the remaster.  Since the remaster has itself been improved with the Master Chief Collection (especially if playing on Series X), this remains an absolute must-play for all fans of shooters and sci-fi.

Fire Emblem Warriors is one of my favorite musou games because it combines two of the things that I love most - Fire Emblem and a power trip that lets me slaughter thousands of digital enemies.  It never really felt like a true crossover, though, but rather just another Warriors game with a Fire Emblem skin.  It's the same problem that I had with the original Hyrule Warriors.  Three Hopes, however, does for Fire Emblem Warriors what Age of Calamity did for Hyrule Warriors.

As the name hints, Three Hopes is set in the world of Switch's core Fire Emblem game, Three Houses.  It doesn't follow Three House's story or take place before or after but is rather a different story in a parallel world of sorts.  Instead of playing as Byleth and becoming an instructor at the Gareg Mach Officers' Academy, you play Shez and end up becoming a student at the academy.  Byleth does appear in the game, but they're not the protagonist here.  I won't spoil any of the story, but suffice it to say that Shez briefly enrolls in the academy and then ends up thrust into the middle of a massive war that engulfs the entire continent.  The game is a nice upgrade over the original Fire Emblem Warriors.  It still doesn't blow anyone's mind with its visuals, but it definitely looks a step above the first game.  Likewise, the performance felt a good bit more stable.

The most important upgrade, though, is to the game's overall structure and mechanics.  The story feels more cohesive and core to the experience here rather than a story that was just created to have something to drape over the gameplay, and that's an important distinction; was the story written to be a core part of the game's package, or was it written as an afterthought just to tie the game's elements together?  Along those lines, the game includes paralogues, side quests that expand and further develop certain characters.  If you have the right characters in your army at the right part of the story, you'll be able to play these paralogues to get flesh out their story, get more experience, and get more money and items.  Rather than just being an extra battle to give you a chance to grind, these paralogues genuinely feel like worthwhile fights from a narrative perspective.

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is, in my opinion, the peak of Koei Tecmo's Warriors series.  The story is told far better than most of their spin-off games, and the characters are given genuine development that complements what Three Houses gave us.  With that said, I definitely recommend playing Three Houses first; the story and character interactions will be much more rewarding if you have.  This is also probably the Warriors games that gives you the most value as there are three distinct paths of the game, one for each of the three factions - the Empire, the Kingdom, and the Alliance.  This essentially turns the game from a roughly 60 hour game to a 180 to 200 hour game.  That's a lot of value for a $60 game.  Couple that with the fact that it's an extraordinarily fun game to play from the perspective of both hack-and-slash slaughter as well as a strategic perspective from ordering the deployed characters you aren't currently controlling, and you've got an absolute must-play for the Switch.

Also available on Xbox 360 and Windows

As far games go, Halo Wars is the earliest point in the Halo timeline.  If you've read the novels, it takes place a few years after first contact with the Covenant and the glassing of Harvest.  Unlike most of the Halo series, Halo Wars is a real time strategy game.  You control a group of UNSC marines and a base to create more units to achieve your objectives.  As such, the action may be very different from what Halo veterans are used to, but the story and characters feel very much at home in the Halo universe.  The last two images are pretty heavily compressed, so in-game visuals are better than what those screenshots suggest.

Five years into the Human-Covenant War, the UNSC Spirit of Fire is sent to Harvest to investigate Covenant activity on the surface.  Harvest had been retaken from the Covenant, but after the initial brutal assault on the planet, it's unclear what could possibly interest anyone.  What the UNSC forces discover, however, is that the Covenant have found something of great value, and a new battle on Harvest begins.  If you've only played the main series games, then this may leave you feeling a little out of place as this game takes place over 20 years before the destruction of Reach and the events of Halo: Combat Evolved.

Halo Wars was, in opinion, an impressive achievement when it initially released in 2009.  RTS games had never really worked super well on consoles outside of a few well-done instances, but Halo Wars absolutely nailed it.  It obviously feels more natural on PC, but no RTS had ever felt that natural and comfortable on a console with a traditional control up to that point.  For the most part, the Xbox One definitive edition is basically just a little more polish on the Xbox 360 original.  The levels are the same, the difficulty is the same; it just looks and runs a little better.  That visual polish is fantastic, though; the original game looked great already, but the definitive edition on Xbox One looks phenomenal.  

I understand that not all Halo fans are going to be intrigued by the idea of playing an RTS game, but if you're a Halo fan because of the games' stories and world-building (which is, in my opinion, the best part of the series), then you absolutely owe it to yourself to play Halo Wars.  Before this, we'd never gotten a view of the Human-Covenant War prior to the Battle of Reach, and by that point, the war - which lasted over twenty years - was already in its last months.  Halo Wars is a fantastic look at the UNSC in the early years of the war when there were still dozens of Spartans and precious few victories against the Covenant.  If Halo isn't your cup of tea but you like RTS games, then this is still worth taking for a spin as you'll be hard-pressed to find many better RTS games on console.