Super Mario 3D World takes a traditional, level-based structure for a platformer and pushes that to its absolute limits. It does that by expanding the definition of what a platformer level can be: sometimes that means jumping your way across moving platforms to the end, but sometimes it's about toppling a tower of Gombas, or racing the end-of-level flagpole. There are top down levels, levels about throwing baseballs, and levels where you cannot jump. This is a Mario game with no small amount of Mario Party's DNA, and it works perfectly.

That there's an entirely separate game in this package, and one that's as good and inventive as Bowser's Fury in its own right, almost feels unfair.

I suppose the only fair way to review this game is to set aside the fact that it contains the entirety of Hitman 2, one of my favorite games of all time.

Stood on their own, the missions of Hitman 3 are simultaneously more and less ambitious than the previous two games. They take some big swings in trying to shake up the usual mission formula, and some of those swings pay off, as is the case with Berlin. Other ideas falter, though, and on the whole there is a slightly smaller scope to these levels, as evidenced by reduced numbers of disguises, areas, and challenges. IO is independent and publishing the game on their own for the first time in the trilogy, and I think that shows through in places.

It's still Hitman, and it's still a ton of fun. This is a worthy conclusion to a great trilogy, even if it doesn't quite reach the same heights as its predecessor.

They got me to play a 65-hour JRPG, and that alone should be commended. The plot twists and turns and weaves back around on itself in some genuinely jaw dropping moments, and the combat manages to feel dynamic despite being turn based. Add on a clever class system and often absurd side content, and this really is an impressive video game.

The reason this is not a five-star review is that grinding for experience slows down the pace of the back half of the game, coinciding with some story beats that lean too heavily on the series' past. It's not unforgivable, but it is unfortunate.

Watch Dogs Legion is a game I've had a lot of fun playing, but it's also a game that frequently prompts me to wonder "what if?" What if the genuinely cool census and recruitment system had been taken just a little bit further, and your recruits felt like a team rather than just interchangeable parts? What if they didn't force you into shootouts at key points in the story, and instead leaned even further into solid stealth mechanics? What if they hadn't made a snarky AI the narrator of a story featuring slavery and a refugee camp?

I can't fault Watch Dogs Legion entirely for not being an even more ambitious game than it already is, especially given the rocky development it reportedly had. But there's a foundation here in its mechanics and systems for something groundbreaking, and it doesn't quite get all the way there.

If you just want to get to the end of a polished 3D platformer, you'll probably have a good time with Crash 4. As a newcomer to the series, I found the level design clever, the mechanics inventive, and the boss battles fun in a way that is rarely the case in platformers.

If you feel compelled to 100% games like this, it frankly seems like a nightmare. Beating the game can be a stiff enough challenge, but finding all of the obscurely-hidden crates while making it through these levels (and the alternate versions of the levels that play more or less the same) is a task for masochists.

Othercide for the first time feels like a game that has learned from the games that learned from XCOM. You can still make out the framework of mechanics that have defined the tactics genre in recent years, but they're better obscured here, and the formula feels genuinely different in ways that are mostly good.

Unfortunately, the innovative tactics in Othercide come alongside a roguelike structure that only serves to artificially lengthen the game by requiring players to grind for experience. There isn't enough variety between runs to justify the repetition; combat encounters are often identical, and I never felt like I was trying a new approach on a new run. There's a great 20 hour tactics game here stuck inside a 40-hour title that's merely good.

I went into this re-release wanting to like this game. Sunshine was my first 3D Mario title, and though I didn't love it as a kid, I've always had a hunch that its negative reputation was unfair.
Playing it now, 18 years later, I was pleasantly surprised by what I found. Mario's moveset is a joy to wield, and bouncing around Delfino Plaza is as fun as I'd remembered. Unlike some more recent titles, Sunshine challenges players to make the most out of Mario's abilities, and the platforming challenges are really delightful to get through. Some mechanics show their age, and a number of shines are tedious or just plain bad, but I think these things are outweighed by the fun.

Sunshine may not be a better game on the whole than Odyssey, but it serves as a great antidote to what I felt Odyssey was lacking in terms of a platforming focus.