7.5 out of 10 Review

Super. Hot. Two words that will be ingrained in your brain just moments into playing Superhot VR. The mantra is one of victory and success in beating another set of challenges in Superhot VR, and seeing and hearing those words repeated lifts a weight off your shoulders. Superhot VR is a little late to the party on PlayStation VR, but its summer arrival is as welcome as any game to the platform. It's just a shame PlayStation's headset isn't quite up to the task.

While Hide and Shriek is a jump-scare ridden game with a simple premise, there’s enough here to give it some depth beneath its holiday charm.

Pirate Pop Plus is a simple arcade-style action game with tight controls and a fully realized 8-bit aesthetic.

Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice has some bumps along the road, but there's a twisting and thrilling story worth the occasional struggle.

There isn't likely to be a game that captures the majestic beauty of the sea quite as well as Abzu. From the moment Giant Squid's first game debuted a few years ago, we've been in constant awe of the oceanic splendor it presents, and the vibrancy with which it captures the world beneath the waves. Beauty only gets you so far however. As spectacular as Abzu's ocean is, from the hundreds of species of marine life to the impressive seascapes, it ultimately feels a bit shallow.

Republique is immediately impressive, with its strong cast of A-list voice actors such as Jennifer Hale and David Hayter and its penchant for cinematic storytelling. The world oozes oppression, with posters reminding guards and passersby not to think too hard or too loudly, and to ignore contraband materials like books and video games. Hope, a "Pre-Cal" imprisoned by this totalitarian regime for experimental reasons, has been labeled "infected" due to coming into contact with such contraband materials. As both Hope and an unseen hacker, you'll slip past guards, collect information, hack everything, and use the regime's surveillance systems against it on Hope's quest to gain freedom for herself and the public.

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars is one of the best Super Nintendo games ever made, introducing Nintendo’s plucky plumber to the grand world of the Japanese role-playing game. Nintendo was so pleased with its performance that it has since created two separate branches of spin-offs in Paper Mario and Mario and Luigi that try to emulate that classic feel. Apparently the creative juices aren’t flowing quite as freely at Nintendo as they usually do, as the latest Mario RPG game Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam takes those two spin-offs and simply mashes them back together.

The wasteland is a dangerous place, filled to the brim with psychotic warmongers and vehicular violence on every road. Luckily our hero is well-suited for such a world, and Mad Max does a pretty good job of making the player feel as powerful as the titular hero throughout the adventure. There’s one enemy that even Max can’t overcome however, and it defines the entire Mad Max experience: repetition.

Getting a competent baseball simulation game on the Xbox platform since EA scuttled the MVP series has been a challenge. Though a few developers have tried their hands at bringing the excitement of America's pastime to life on Microsoft's consoles, there haven't been very many success stories. With Super Mega Baseball: Extra Innings, Metalhead Software is hoping to buck that trend, and become a true go-to baseball sim for fans thirsty for hardball on the Xbox One. The devs are successful in bringing quality baseball to the console for the most part, but Super Mega Baseball has a few shortcomings that keep it from becoming a truly standout experience.

Although match-3 puzzlers can be simplified to a fault, Puzzle & Dragons adds a subtle amount of breadth to the genre.