Card Thief

Arnold Rauers

This is not a game where you actually steal cards. It’s actually something much more interesting: A strategy-stealth title where you must take as much treasure as you can from a castle without being caught by the guards. Everything is represented by a card on a board, though, and the order in which you play, move or remove cards from that board means the difference between escaping a wealthy person or spending your last days in the clink.

Get Card Thief on Google Play

80 Days

Inkle

Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days is a classic adventure novel that inspired quite a few real life trips to circumnavigate the globe. As you’re probably never going to get the opportunity to follow in Phileas Fogg and Passepartout’s footsteps, this interactive fiction version from Inkle is the next best thing. You can try to replicate their journey exactly or forge your own path across a globe populated with steampunk wonders. Each route you take has its own unique story content, meaning you can play this again and again and never have the same adventure twice.

Get 80 Days on Google Play

Forgotton Anne

Hitcents

Lots of games use an anime style in their art, but Forgotton Anne is one of the few that really captures the feel of playing through one. The setting, a place populated by sentient lost objects, is charming and quirky, and the gameplay varies between puzzler and platformer. The controls have been simplified for mobile and, while the puzzles start out very easy, a lack of complexity feels a lot less like a negative when you’re playing on a smaller screen in your spare moments. 

Get Forgotton Anne on Google Play

The Gardens Between

The Voxel Agents

Two best friends find themselves stranded on a series of mysterious, magical islands littered with objects from home. To find their way back to where they came from, they must light a beacon at the top of each isle. To solve the puzzles it’s not space you must manipulate, but time: When you interact with objects on the island, you can rewind back to a point where they would be more useful. On mobile the game has been specifically designed for a vertical orientation, making this a game you can casually play with just your thumb on the screen.

Get The Gardens Between on Google Play

Holedown

grapefrukt games

Take Puzzle Bobble and cross it with Breakout and you’ll only scratch the surface of describing Holedown. This puzzle game takes you to various asteroids and planetoids, asking you to dig deeper and deeper by bouncing balls off various blocks that stand in your way. Each block has a number on it indicating how many times it needs to be hit before it disappears, and you have a limited amount of shots, so you’ll need to employ some strategy and physics to get down to the core. There is also a ghost. It is very cute. 

Get Holedown on Google Play

Lichtspeer

Noodlecake Studios

If you enjoyed the retro ‘80s glam rock aesthetic of Thor: Ragnarok and you also like chucking spears at things, Lichtspeer is the game for you. You’re a future warrior tasked with killing zombies, giants and sorcerers for your god, who is always lurking just above and will judge you hard in pseudo-German when you miss. The synth music is bombastic and the graphics wouldn’t look out of place on the front of a Trapper Keeper, so if you were the kind of kid who adored the laser background on school picture day, this is definitely up your alley.

Get Lichtspeer on Google Play

Mini Metro

Dinosaur Polo Club

If you’ve ever dreamed of designing and running your own subway system, Mini Metro can scratch that itch. Part train simulation and part puzzle game, you’re presented with busy stations that you must connect with train lines across various world cities like London, Hong Kong and Barcelona. All you need to do is keep stations from overcrowding — a goal complicated by limits on how many lines you can run, trains you own and tunnels you can build. 

Get Mini Metro on Google Play

Reigns: Her Majesty

Devolver

It’s tough to be a king — or in this case, queen. Reigns: Her Majesty places you on a throne constantly being visited by various supplicants asking for more money, resources and time. Each decision you make has an effect on your finances as well as favor with the peasants, nobility and clergy. Keep them all in balance and you might have a long, fruitful reign. If you don’t, well, there’s always the guillotine. But you’ll be back on the throne in no time, thanks to the game’s quick card swipe-based gameplay and a story that wants you to die to be resurrected again and again.

Get Reigns: Her Majesty on Google Play

7 Days

Buff Studio Co.

This visual novel takes advantage of the fact that it is on a mobile device, presenting all of its dialogue and images in a chat format. But the people you’re chatting with aren’t your friends, not yet anyway — they can be your allies, but they may also end up as your victims, as the currently dead protagonist is promised a new chance at life only at the expense of someone else’s. It’s ultimately up to you to decide, but only after getting to know each and every one of them, making the decision a lot harder.

Get 7 Days on Google Play

Stardew Valley

Chucklefish Ltd

This farming/village life simulator may have started life as a PC title, but it’s on mobile devices where it’s really hit its stride, especially thanks to refined controls designed for your phone. You inherit a farm from your grandfather and are tasked with cultivating the land, raising animals, expanding your home and befriending (and romancing) villagers. Combat can be a little frustrating with touch controls, but overall it’s as peaceful — or stressful — as you make it. The perfect game for passing time on a long commute or fiddling with during your latest Netflix binge.

Get Stardew Valley on Google Play

Admittedly, releases have slowed a little in 2020, so we haven’t made a lot of changes this time around. We did, however, cover a puzzle game blindspot.

Assemble With Care

Cassette players. Film cameras. Slide projectors. In Assemble with Care, antique restorer Maria must repair objects and, in the process, help each owner ‘fix’ a fractured relationship. It’s wonderfully satisfying to take apart an old gadget and figure out how all of its components — which often include dinky cogs, wires and screws — fit together and affect each other. The whimsical puzzles slowly scale in difficulty but are, thankfully, always simpler and quicker to complete than the real-life objects they’re inspired by. The story is a brisk and heart-warming affair about reconnecting with loved ones. If you need a feel-good pick-me-up to play at home or on the go, the latest from Monument Valley developer UsTwo Games is a great place to start. NS

Get Assemble With Care on Apple Arcade

Inmost

Inmost loads up with an emotional warning, juxtaposed against the cute, if moody, pixelated look. Chunks of the game are intentionally slow and labored while other parts will find you dashing and attacking mysterious shadows and beasts. You swap between three characters with different abilities and control systems, making for a rich adventure that attempts to deal with mature themes without excessive signposting. The game is a little buggy at times, and I’d advise playing cautiously to ensure autosaves help more than hinder. Despite those frustrations, Inmost is a game worth your time. MS

Get Inmost on Apple Arcade

Lifelike

This weird-game-as-meditation proves that Apple Arcade isn’t just a home for the kind of games you’ve already played on your phone. With a committed source of income from the service, the hope is that game makers can take more risks and create experiences that might not have otherwise made it in the cutthroat world of mobile gaming.

In Lifelike, you play as a tiny ball of light, interacting and making melodies with the particles (organisms?) around you. The game is broken down into levels which also act as a track listing, with each one offering a different audio experience and interaction dynamic. There is no built-in tutorial, it’s up to you to figure out what to do and where to go. Discovery is half the joy of Lifelike. MS

Get Lifelike on Apple Arcade

Grindstone

When Apple Arcade launched, there were so many games that something was bound to fall through the cracks when we first composed our list of the best games out there. I missed Grindstone, and I was an idiot. This addictive puzzler from Capy Games (which made Sword & Sworcery and Super Time Force) puts you in control of a miner that cuts up all kinds of little beasts and monsters attacking his village.

He collects up, well, the gemstone remains of them to upgrade equipment and heal himself, and marches deeper into the mountainside. Dragging a path for your character to cut through and combining different colored monsters in a single attack is incredibly satisfying, while layers of strategy build up as you increase your arsenal of weapons and shields. There over 100 levels to fight through, each one offering three extra challenges for completionist types. It might sound like the free-to-play puzzle game, but Grindstone is slicker, gorier (that part can be adjusted in settings) and more enjoyable than any fruit or candy-based timesink.  MS

Get Grindstone on Apple Arcade

Steven Universe: Unleash the Light

Unleash the Light is a turn-based RPG that centers on the intergalactic adventures of Steven and his warrior friends, the Crystal Gems. This third game follows on from the Cartoon Network series and two earlier games but is set before the events of Steven Universe: The Movie. While you can plan your attacks without having to rush, there is a Paper Mario-esque timing system for both delivering critical hits and defending your six protagonists. With a polished aesthetic, slick animations and the same voice actors as the cartoon, the game feels like part of the well-regarded series. As for the game itself, the easy-to-understand battle system gradually unfolds and gets more elaborate without ever getting too heavy. It’s a cute, endearing game and ideal for any RPG fans with a daily commute to fill, and I may have already completed it. MS

Get Steven Universe: Unleash the Light on Apple Arcade

Sayonara Wild Hearts

One of the banner titles at Apple Arcade’s launch isn’t even an exclusive. But that makes sense: It’s almost too good to be a mobile game. You dodge obstacles or battle your enemies in Sayonara Wild Hearts with swipes and taps, all in time to arguably one of the best game soundtracks of 2019.

It’s not a long game, but it’s a satisfying one that demands repeated playthroughs. At times, it feel like Rez, while at other times it’s like you’re driving around an open-world game like the GTA series — albeit on a single road. And if you ever find parts of a level too difficult, the game-over menu will occasionally offer to skip ahead. You can always replay the level once you’ve completed it. I’m all for forgiving games, and it means everyone has a chance to complete Sayonara Wild Hearts, regardless of skill level. MS

Get Sayonara Wild Hearts on Apple Arcade

Shinsekai: Into the Depths

Capcom’s Apple Arcade exclusive will scratch any Metroidvania itch you may have. Shinsekai: Into the Depths is a bit slower-paced than you might be used to, since the game’s unnamed protagonist is slogging through the ocean’s depths in a pressure suit. But it’s a classic exploration adventure in which finding new abilities allow you to search deeper and deeper into the sea. The game adds more capabilities and keeps tweaking the formula of what you’re trying to accomplish, so things stay fresh despite a somewhat slow beginning. The underwater world is beautifully rendered and quite mysterious, and it looks like it takes place in a world where rising oceans have engulfed civilization. Most importantly, it plays well regardless of what device you’re using and whether you’re steering the character with a controller or a touchscreen. NI

Get Shinsekai on Apple Arcade

What The Golf?

You don’t need to like golf to play this. In fact, it’s probably even better if you’re not a purest. What The Golf? starts out as a fairly basic spin on the sport, but it quickly evolves into a sort of punk remix using the basic mechanics of mobile golf swings. Soon you’re throwing yourself, animals and even houses down the green. And just when you think you’ve figured out the game’s gimmick, it starts recreating some classic games in golf form. (We won’t spoil exactly which titles it emulates here, but rest assured, you’ll be surprised.) What The Golf? is practically a meditation on gaming, simplifying complex concepts into a single mechanic: Just pull back with your thumb and swing. DH

Get What The Golf? on Apple Arcade

Mini Motorways

Mini Motorways is the follow-up to the indie smash hit Mini Metro. Like that game, Motorways strips away the complicated trappings of full-blown traffic sims in favor of simplicity. While Metro begins with a pair of subway stations, Motorways starts with a building and a home. You have to draw a road to connect the two, so the car belonging to the home’s residents can reach the building. Over time, more buildings and homes are added, increasing the complexity of your road network.

You’ll get extra tools to improve your road system along the way, namely traffic lights, which I haven’t made sense of yet, and the titular motorways, which are absolutely essential to bypass traffic black spots and keep things flowing. Where it differs from Metro is in its free-form nature: While trains follow a set route, cars will always take the shortest path to their destination and you’ll end up routing them in seemingly nonsensical ways. Not doing so inevitably leads to traffic jams, which will eventually be your downfall — while the game is quite lenient, if too many cars take too long to reach a building, it’s game over. AS

Get Mini Motorways on Apple Arcade

Tangle Tower

Tangle Tower is a point-and-click adventure game that lands somewhere between Professor Layton, Monkey Island and Clue. Tasked with solving a Poirot-esque crime (a locked-room murder), you’ll explore the tower the game is named for, speaking with witnesses and potential suspects to uncover the truth.

Rather than hunting for items or picking from baked dialogue options, the core mechanic of Tangle Tower is its interrogation system. You solve puzzles to collect items that you can use to prove someone is lying. You do this by linking item cards together in a minigame to make a Clue-like statement. For example, you could assert that a Gramophone was used to kill a Paint Palette because the victim had left it there. (You’d be really wrong, but you could.) It’s an engaging loop; the puzzles are just difficult enough to make you feel smart, and the interrogations are a real highlight.

The only downside of Tangle Tower is its length: It took me just four hours to complete. Given the production quality (the artwork is gorgeous, and the characters are all voiced), the game being short is understandable. And the fact I finished it wanting to play another four hours is surely the best endorsement there is. AS

Get Tangle Tower on Apple Arcade

Contributors: Devindra Hardawar (DH), Nathan Ingraham (NI), Mat Smith (MS), Aaron Souppouris (AS), Nick Summers (NS).

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Changes:
April 2020: ‘Pilgrims’ replaced by ‘Grindstone’

Outer Wilds

Devindra Hardawar
Senior Editor

You wake up by a campfire, staring at a night sky teeming with celestial activity. A green moon (or is it a planet?) is in the distance, a ship slowly disintegrates in space. The solar system seems vast, beautiful and dangerous all at the same time. That’s your introduction to Outer Wilds, Mobius Digital’s latest title that evokes the awe and terror of space exploration — it’s like 2001 meets Myst. You’re an astronaut who wakes up in a small village on an Earth-like planet. Everything seems peaceful as you explore the area, looking for your ship’s launch codes. Then, the sun goes supernova, every fiber of your being is reduced to space dust, and you wake up once more, right beside that campfire. 22 minutes later, it all happens again.

Turns out, you’re stuck in a time loop. And you’re the only person who can prevent the sun from exploding and wiping out your lovely little solar system. Luckily, you don’t lose your memories between sessions, so, like Groundhog Day and Edge of Tomorrow (with a dash of Majora’s Mask), your only choice is to die repeatedly until you solve the mystery.

While there’s been a resurgence of slower, narrative-based games lately, like Firewatch and Gone Home, Outer Wilds isn’t just a linear story. You can explore your solar system freely — the game just gives you a few location hints to get started. That’s its true magic: You pick a point in space, travel to it and hope it doesn’t kill you before you can gather some decent intel. Along the way, you’ll encounter some of the wildest celestial bodies you’ve ever seen: a planet smashed open with something impossible in its core, another with a massive ocean and huge cyclones that throw you back into space.

Outer Wilds is a game that demands patience and an adventurous spirit. It rarely holds your hand, and on many occasions, you’ll find yourself dying just as you’re on the cusp of a great discovery. But it promises adventure like nothing else this year. It’s practically the perfect game for Xbox Game Pass — it’s harder to sell players on unique new narrative experiences when they have to pay full price for them. But as part of a subscription service, there’s no reason not to give it a shot.

Gris

Marc DeAngelis
Contributing Writer

Editor’s note: Gris was released at the end of last year, but after our deadline for the best games of 2018, so we’re including it here.

Despite its promises of unrestrained creativity and artistry — as well as my penchant for DIY and independent media — the indie gaming scene never appealed to me, save for a few titles like Fez and Braid. But then came Gris, which combines relatively easy platforming, puzzle solving and startlingly beautiful visuals to form an experience that fluctuates between hypnotically relaxing and intensely dramatic. While it may not be much of a challenge, it’s an absolute pleasure to play.

Gris initially grabbed my attention because one of my favorite artists, Conrad Roset, was its art director. Roset is a Spanish painter and illustrator who specializes in watercolor and ink portraits. He makes frequent use of the stark contrast between black ink and light paper or wood panels, and his minimalist splashes of color and intense brush strokes add a signature touch to his work. Prior to Gris, his most well-known work was a long-standing series of portraits called Muses. Roset borrowed from that project’s style to design the game’s main character, who has a mesmerizing hair style and a dress that undulates with the wind. His impressionist leanings also inform the terrain in which the game takes place — deserts, oceans, forests and city ruins — as well as the creatures that inhabit it.

As the player, your task is to collect orbs of light that grant the main character shape-shifting abilities. As she acquires more powers, she’s able to reveal new pathways and progress through the game. But Gris isn’t just about double-jumping and collecting items; giant, inky birds serve as boss battles — or rather, chases — and a bit of nightmare fuel. You can complete the whole game in about three hours, and it’s easy enough for a non-gamer to play.

Gris makes me wish the video game industry featured more artists who have trained in and mastered traditional media. Games absolutely need skilled character designers and background artists. But they also need art direction that steps outside of stereotypes derived from cartoons and anime. Hopefully the success of Gris is an indication that there’s an appetite for such a thing.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Andrew Tarantola
Senior Editor

Star Wars video games have held a special place in my heart for decades. One of my first and fondest gaming memories involved running amok through a Jawa Sandcrawler as Chewbacca in Super Star Wars for the SNES. The same was true with Knights of the Old Republic for the original Xbox — I mean, it gave us HK47 and the “meatbag” reference. Heck, 2004’s Battlefront to this day remains among my favorite games from that era. But with the insidious intrusion of microtransactions, LEGO-branded tie-ins and online-only play in recent years, I feared that Fallen Order would similarly fall to the Dark Side. Happily, I was as wrong about EA’s latest Star Wars game as those pint-sized desert scavengers who, all those years ago, thought they could take on my 8-foot tall space Sasquatch armed with a plasma rifle.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is phenomenally fun. The story takes place after the Great Purge and you play as Cal Kestis, a former Jedi Padawan hiding out on a backwater planet, who is thrust into a life-or-death quest spanning the length and breadth of the entire galaxy. And while Cal himself has about as much charisma and gravitas as an MSE-6 droid at the start of the adventure, his growth throughout the story and eventual acceptance of his duty and fate as a Jedi is some top-notch space opera.

You’ll swing, climb, jump and clamor across the faces of five planets, battling myriad hostile fauna, Imperial Troopers and droids along the way. That Cal is essentially limited to short range melee attacks while his enemies can rain blaster bolts upon him from halfway across the map only adds to the challenging combat calculus. I especially enjoyed the Metroid-esque exploration mechanics wherein you routinely return to previous planets to uncover new secrets and raid hidden stashes as you gain new powers.

My favorite aspect is the game’s loot and character progression. None of the items are actually required in your first playthrough: crates, Force Echos, the whole shebang. You can play straight through the game, collect virtually nothing along the way and still arrive at the end with your stats maxed. There are no secret super weapons to acquire before facing the final boss, no grinding needed to unlock new powers and no nerf-herding pop-up screens demanding you fork over credits for stat boosts. There’s nothing to buy. Outside of the occasional Stim crate (which increases your health regen capability) none of the stuff you find in the crates will even help you in your quest. Namely because all you can find are skins — for customizing Cal’s outfit, lightsaber, ship and even his robotic companion BD-1.

Fallen Order isn’t just what I’ve been looking for in a Star Wars game, it’s what I’ve been looking for in a single-player adventure title since Horizon: Zero Dawn came out. Between the deeply developed universe the story is set in, the varied and challenging combat scenarios and the fact that EA wasn’t continually reaching for my wallet, Fallen Order is my 2019 Game of the Year.

Sayonara Wild Hearts

Kris Holt
Contributing Writer

Sayonara Wild Hearts won me over before I even finished the first stage. It’s a stunning, fast-paced adventure about a woman’s attempt to restore balance to herself (and the universe) after she suffers heartbreak.

Much of the joy I get from Sayonara Wild Hearts is in having to quickly adapt to the frequent gameplay shifts. One second, you’re dodging traffic and collecting hearts on a motorcycle; the next, you’re in a sword fight. You’ll be on your toes the entire time, but describing the mechanics too much would ruin a big chunk of the fun.

That said, it’s much more about the overall experience than any of the neat gameplay ideas on display. There’s an option to skip sections you find tricky (not that I did), and it feels like developer Simogo is determined to help you reach the emotional denouement.

And then there’s the soundtrack: Each of the mostly short stages has its own techno-pop tune I just can’t get enough of. SWH has only been out for a few months, and its songs dominated the list of my most-listened to tracks on Apple Music this year.

The care and creativity that Simogo infused into Sayonara Wild Hearts is palpable and infectious. It’s part rhythm game, part shooter, part arcade racer and a dozen other things in between. It’s a gorgeous, achingly cool ode to pop music and love that’s an utter delight to play — even if it is about repairing a broken heart.

Tetris 99

Ian Levenstein
Database Editor

When Nintendo announced the impending arrival of Nintendo Switch Online last year, it looked like its selection would be sparse. Outside of the ability to play your Switch games online and some classic Nintendo games like Super Mario Bros. 3, Legend of Zelda and Dr. Mario, the idea of Switch Online exclusive titles wasn’t broached at all. I wasn’t thrilled, as pretty much all of the classics had been available at least 10 times before in multiple forms and formats. Then, in February 2019, with almost no warning, Nintendo announced Tetris 99 would be available… today. I didn’t think a new version of Tetris (of all things) would make my $19.99 a year worth it. But boy was I wrong.

Tetris 99 is the most addictive game I have played in years. The basic concept is brilliant: turn Tetris, the single player puzzle title most of us have been playing since the Game Boy, into an online multiplayer battle royale against 98 other competitors. The first few times I played Tetris 99, I got hammered because I was too focused on my own game. I was clearing bricks line by line, forgetting the fact that there were other players playing alongside me. Once you start building up five or six rows at a time and then finishing them off with a perfectly placed piece is when the action gets good. But you also can’t focus too much on the rest of the pack, or you’ll manage to misplace a key block, and then it’s game over.

You start playing and, before you know it, at least an hour has passed by (and sometimes two or three). While I am far from a veteran Tetris player, I take pride in making it to the Top 5 at least a few times over the past few months, and I have bitten-down nails to prove it. When the game speeds up, it becomes very difficult to keep apace. The game also made me appreciate my purchase of an 8Bitdo N30 Pro early into the lifecycle of the Nintendo Switch, as Nintendo’s Pro Controller has a D-pad that is much more prone to slippage, and slippage means misplaced pieces.

Regular tournaments themed around new Switch releases, like Mario Maker or Pokémon Sword and Shield keep the look of the game interesting, and completing daily missions lets you collect tickets that you can use to unlock new themes, including one that looks just like Tetris on the Game Boy. There’s also Marathon Tetris, the Big Block DLC that adds multiple CPU modes and Local Arena for playing with up to eight of your friends. Whether you choose to buy these modes or not, I feel the standard online play and Team Battle are more than enough to keep you interested and occupied for a long time to come. I certainly haven’t stopped playing it yet, and don’t plan to anytime soon, even as other Switch games sit there calling my name. I’ll get to them soon, I swear, after I play five more rounds. Okay, ten more rounds. Maybe fifteen.

Judgment

Nick Summers
Senior Editor

I love the Yakuza franchise, but after seven mainline entries and a handful of excellent remasters, I needed a break. Evidently, Japanese developer Ryu ga Gotoku (RGG) Studio felt the same way, which is why it made the detective-themed Judgment (titled Judge Eyes in Japan) before moving on to Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Surprisingly, Judgment isn’t a huge departure from the proven and largely beloved Yakuza formula. The game is still set in Kamurocho and the murder-filled mystery features plenty of Japanese crime lords. The hero, though — a lawyer-turned-private detective called Takayuki Yagami — and his crime-solving techniques change the experience in small but welcome ways.

He will often tail suspects to find out who they’re working with or the location of a case-critical hideout. Some targets will also spot Yagami and flee, forcing the leather jacket-wearing hero to give chase in a simplistic, auto-runner-inspired pursuit. There are quieter moments, too, that shift the game into a first-person perspective and force you to scour the environment for clues. It’s not the most challenging task — move the camera enough and Yagami will highlight everything of interest — but it’s a welcome break from the bombastic fisticuffs combat.

The best part of Judgment, though, is its story. Yagami’s quest to find “the mole,” an apparent assassin that claws at its enemies and then burrows back into the darkness, is a captivating journey filled with twists that are surprising, logical and satisfying. It’s broken into 13 chapters that feel like episodes of a prestige series on HBO or Netflix. There’s even an opening sequence that feels like a mashup of Naruto and True Detective. I’ve never had a problem with Yakuza’s writing — some of the games have brilliant stories, actually — but Judgment takes RGG Studio’s narrative chops to a new high.

If you fancy a break from the central mystery, Kamurocho has plenty of optional side-missions to tackle. Like the Yakuza series, they’re often zany and surprisingly heart-warming — a subtle reminder that Yagami’s story, while thrilling, is only one of many taking place across the city. There’s also a slew of stores and restaurants to explore, as well as various mini-games to master including shogi (Japanese chess), drone racing and a VR-powered board game. I won’t claim that Judgment is the undeniable Game of 2019, but it’s the one I’ve had the most fun with this year. If you own a PS4, it’s well worth delving into over the holiday.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Mariella Moon
Associate Editor

I knew from the moment Fire Emblem: Three Houses was announced that I was going to buy a Switch for it. I’ve played almost every DS and 3DS game in the franchise, and there was no way I’d miss its latest entry. However, while I loved and enjoyed each and every one of them, a big part of why I play Fire Emblem games is to fill the Suikoden-shaped hole in my heart — and Three Houses came the closest to patching it up.

Suikoden, a Japanese RPG series by Konami, features turn-based and strategy combat that’s very similar to Fire Emblem’s. Suikoden 2 was the first game I played in the series, and I fell in love with its complex characters, rich lore and plot, which made me ponder the atrocities of war and morality of “the end justifies the means” as a young teen. Unfortunately, with Konami’s decision to focus on mobile and pachinko games, we’ll likely never see another entry: Suikoden V, the last game in the series, was released way back in 2006.

That brings us back to Fire Emblem. While I enjoyed the new mechanics introduced in Awakening and spent 300 hours playing Fates — half of which I genuinely enjoyed and half of which I spent mindlessly grinding — neither was truly able to scratch that Suikoden itch. Three Houses did, however, probably because it features more traditional RPG elements than its predecessors.

It has more specific similarities, as well. Like in Suikoden, you can explore your base and recruit characters outside the battlefield by fulfilling certain conditions. The Battalions in the game, a new feature introduced in Three Houses, also use attacks and formations similar to Suikoden’s war units for its strategy battles.

Don’t get me wrong: I’d still pick Three Houses as my favorite game for 2019 even if I wasn’t a desperate Suikoden fan. It has an engaging storyline and what I find to be the most memorable cast of characters in Fire Emblem. While things tend to get repetitive in the first half, it still has good replay value, especially considering that it’s sold and packaged as a single game. Fates, if you’ll recall, was sold as three separate games. The fact that it brings back memories of a series I grew up playing, however, gave me an instant emotional connection to it and amped up my enjoyment.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Igor Bonifacic
Contributing Writer

There’s a moment in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice that comes at a different point for everyone who plays it. It’s the instant where the game’s combat mechanics finally click. You forget whatever you may have learned in the FromSoftware’s past titles like Dark Souls and Bloodborne, and approach Sekiro on its own terms.

For me, that moment came when I finally beat one of Sekiro’s early bosses, a fearsome samurai lord named Genichiro Ashina. It took me the better part of two days to take him down, but when I did, I felt like I had climbed a mountain.

A lot of games set out and accomplish the same things as Sekiro. But not as easily or confidently. That sense of accomplishment you get when you master a game’s systems is something FromSoftware has built its reputation on. It’s one of the reasons so many people love the studio’s games. And yet how Sekiro delivers that moment feels different than any other From game in the past decade.

Not only is the gameplay different, but the narrative stakes are also plainly laid out. You’re attempting to save the ward and adoptive son of the game’s protagonist. It feels personal and human. It’s a small thing, but it’s the humanity of Sekiro that resonated with me and made it one of the most enjoyable games I have played this year.

Untitled Goose Game

Kris Naudus
Buyer’s Guide Editor

Okay, let’s get this out of the way: HONK. HONK HONK HONK. :flaps wings, steals your glasses:

Untitled Goose Game is more than just a game, it’s a genuine phenomenon. Even if you haven’t played it, you’ve probably encountered one of the many memes and think pieces that have been posted in the wake of its release. It’s the breakout hit of 2019. But is it a good game?

HONK. (Yes.)

The graphics aren’t flashy, the music is just Debussy and the goose handles like a dump truck. But all of these things combine into a package exceedingly charming and joyful. Maliciously joyful, anyway. One of the appeals of the game is how absolutely simple and universal the concept is: Geese are assholes. We’ve all been terrorized by this large waterfowl at some point or another, so there’s a catharsis in assuming the role of one. “I am the goose now. HONK.”

And it’s actually challenging. Who would have thought that a goose would be the star of a stealth game, but here we are. It’s also achingly self-aware of what type of game it is, which is why at one point you will need to hide in a box. HONK.

Then there’s the ending. Bet you didn’t think you could be surprised by a game where your objective is to do things like steal slippers and dress up statues, but anything that gets me slapping my forehead and exclaiming “of course” will stick in my memory and my heart for years.

HONK.

Astral Chain

Aaron Souppouris
Executive Editor

Fire Emblem: Three Houses is the best game of the year. But a colleague has already written about that, so I’m going to pick another favorite: PlatinumGames’ Astral Chain. I was on the fence about it from the day the first trailer came out until a few hours into my playthrough. It all felt a little too obvious, almost a paint-by-numbers rendition of a PlatinumGames title. I needn’t have been so worried: It’s mechanically one of the more original games to come from the developer in recent years.

In a future where humanity is under threat from creatures called Chimera, you play as an officer in a special task force established to deal with other-worldly attacks. You’ll investigate disturbances and then enter the astral plane to fight various beasts. Through the course of the game, you’ll tame a number of special Chimera, and then be able to summon them to fight for you. Encounters play out with you simultaneously controlling both your character and the Legion to deal with waves of mobs and larger, more challenging enemies. You’re bound to your Legion by a leash (or an astral chain), which you can also use to bind enemies. You’ll also need to use your Legion(s) to solve crimes, traverse environments and work around obstacles, as each has a unique trait, such as the ability to move large objects, track scents or fire arrows.

I’ve heard a bunch of people say that Astral Chain looks generic, and while it does lean heavily into a specific anime-inspired 3D style we’ve seen from a lot of Japanese games over the past decade, the characters and environments felt unique to me. If anything, the “future cop” aesthetic brought to mind ’90s titles like Burning Rangers more than contemporary games. (I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize for incessantly pitching my colleagues on a Burning Rangers reboot for weeks after Astral Chain was released.)

Astral Chain sticks closely to a loop of detective work, platforming puzzles and combat — a little too closely if I’m being critical — with the game split into cases that serve as chapters. The story starts off well enough but quickly devolves into a mashup of various anime tropes, including several story beats ripped straight from Neon Genesis Evangelion. It’s the minute-to-minute gameplay that kept me coming back: The combat is engaging and dynamic enough to see you through the (20-hour or so) campaign and beyond. There’s also a ranking system and some challenging end-game content to keep you occupied.

Does Astral Chain reach the heights of Nier: Automata, the last PlatinumGames title I chose for game of the year? No, not at all, but its combat and environments often surpass that game, which is probably my favorite of this generation. I’m not sure it’ll go down in history as one of the greats, but even in a year with updates to my favorite series (Fire Emblem and Pokémon) and a remake of one of my most-loved games (Link’s Awakening), Astral Chain still stood out.

Assemble With Care

Cassette players. Film cameras. Slide projectors. In Assemble with Care, antique restorer Maria must repair objects and, in the process, help each owner ‘fix’ a fractured relationship. It’s wonderfully satisfying to take apart an old gadget and figure out how all of its components — which often include dinky cogs, wires and screws — fit together and affect each other. The whimsical puzzles slowly scale in difficulty but are, thankfully, always simpler and quicker to complete than the real-life objects they’re inspired by. The story is a brisk and heart-warming affair about reconnecting with loved ones. If you need a feel-good pick-me-up to play at home or on the go, the latest from Monument Valley developer UsTwo Games is a great place to start. NS

Get Assemble With Care on Apple Arcade

Inmost

Inmost loads up with an emotional warning, juxtaposed against the cute, if moody, pixelated look. Chunks of the game are intentionally slow and labored while other parts will find you dashing and attacking mysterious shadows and beasts. You swap between three characters with different abilities and control systems, making for a rich adventure that attempts to deal with mature themes without excessive signposting. The game is a little buggy at times, and I’d advise playing cautiously to ensure autosaves help more than hinder. Despite those frustrations, Inmost is a game worth your time. MS

Get Inmost on Apple Arcade

Lifelike

This weird-game-as-meditation proves that Apple Arcade isn’t just a home for the kind of games you’ve already played on your phone. With a committed source of income from the service, the hope is that game makers can take more risks and create experiences that might not have otherwise made it in the cutthroat world of mobile gaming.

In Lifelike, you play as a tiny ball of light, interacting and making melodies with the particles (organisms?) around you. The game is broken down into levels which also act as a track listing, with each one offering a different audio experience and interaction dynamic. There is no built-in tutorial, it’s up to you to figure out what to do and where to go. Discovery is half the joy of Lifelike. MS

Get Lifelike on Apple Arcade

Pilgrims

As you might have noticed from several games on this list, Apple Arcade is at its best when its games get weird. Pilgrims is part of that vanguard. The game kicks off with your character needing to board a riverboat. Unfortunately, the boatman’s pet songbird has flown away, and he’s going nowhere without it. So it’s up to your pilgrim to trade, experiment and explore this weird kingdom, and its dragons, bears, devils and water demons. There are flashes of Monkey Island and Grim Fandango, but instead of point-and-click, it’s more tap-and-drag. The gameplay involves you pairing items with characters, whether they’re in your gang or are innocent non-playable characters that populate this occasionally grim fairytale land. My advice would be to experiment and, well, be stupid. There are more than 40 interactions and vignettes to unlock, even if they aren’t needed to progress and complete the game — and they’re arguably the best parts. MS

Get Pilgrims on Apple Arcade

Steven Universe: Unleash the Light

Unleash the Light is a turn-based RPG that centers on the intergalactic adventures of Steven and his warrior friends, the Crystal Gems. This third game follows on from the Cartoon Network series and two earlier games but is set before the events of Steven Universe: The Movie. While you can plan your attacks without having to rush, there is a Paper Mario-esque timing system for both delivering critical hits and defending your six protagonists. With a polished aesthetic, slick animations and the same voice actors as the cartoon, the game feels like part of the well-regarded series. As for the game itself, the easy-to-understand battle system gradually unfolds and gets more elaborate without ever getting too heavy. It’s a cute, endearing game and ideal for any RPG fans with a daily commute to fill, and I may have already completed it. MS

Get Steven Universe: Unleash the Light on Apple Arcade

Sayonara Wild Hearts

One of the banner titles at Apple Arcade’s launch isn’t even an exclusive. But that makes sense: It’s almost too good to be a mobile game. You dodge obstacles or battle your enemies in Sayonara Wild Hearts with swipes and taps, all in time to arguably one of the best game soundtracks of 2019.

It’s not a long game, but it’s a satisfying one that demands repeated playthroughs. At times, it feel like Rez, while at other times it’s like you’re driving around an open-world game like the GTA series — albeit on a single road. And if you ever find parts of a level too difficult, the game-over menu will occasionally offer to skip ahead. You can always replay the level once you’ve completed it. I’m all for forgiving games, and it means everyone has a chance to complete Sayonara Wild Hearts, regardless of skill level. MS

Get Sayonara Wild Hearts on Apple Arcade

Shinsekai: Into the Depths

Capcom’s Apple Arcade exclusive will scratch any Metroidvania itch you may have. Shinsekai: Into the Depths is a bit slower-paced than you might be used to, since the game’s unnamed protagonist is slogging through the ocean’s depths in a pressure suit. But it’s a classic exploration adventure in which finding new abilities allow you to search deeper and deeper into the sea. The game adds more capabilities and keeps tweaking the formula of what you’re trying to accomplish, so things stay fresh despite a somewhat slow beginning. The underwater world is beautifully rendered and quite mysterious, and it looks like it takes place in a world where rising oceans have engulfed civilization. Most importantly, it plays well regardless of what device you’re using and whether you’re steering the character with a controller or a touchscreen. NI

Get Shinsekai on Apple Arcade

What The Golf? (Dev)

You don’t need to like golf to play this. In fact, it’s probably even better if you’re not a purest. What The Golf? starts out as a fairly basic spin on the sport, but it quickly evolves into a sort of punk remix using the basic mechanics of mobile golf swings. Soon you’re throwing yourself, animals and even houses down the green. And just when you think you’ve figured out the game’s gimmick, it starts recreating some classic games in golf form. (We won’t spoil exactly which titles it emulates here, but rest assured, you’ll be surprised.) What The Golf? is practically a meditation on gaming, simplifying complex concepts into a single mechanic: Just pull back with your thumb and swing. DH

Get What The Golf? on Apple Arcade

Mini Motorways

Mini Motorways is the follow-up to the indie smash hit Mini Metro. Like that game, Motorways strips away the complicated trappings of full-blown traffic sims in favor of simplicity. While Metro begins with a pair of subway stations, Motorways starts with a building and a home. You have to draw a road to connect the two, so the car belonging to the home’s residents can reach the building. Over time, more buildings and homes are added, increasing the complexity of your road network.

You’ll get extra tools to improve your road system along the way, namely traffic lights, which I haven’t made sense of yet, and the titular motorways, which are absolutely essential to bypass traffic black spots and keep things flowing. Where it differs from Metro is in its free-form nature: While trains follow a set route, cars will always take the shortest path to their destination and you’ll end up routing them in seemingly nonsensical ways. Not doing so inevitably leads to traffic jams, which will eventually be your downfall — while the game is quite lenient, if too many cars take too long to reach a building, it’s game over. AS

Get Mini Motorways on Apple Arcade

Tangle Tower

Tangle Tower is a point-and-click adventure game that lands somewhere between Professor Layton, Monkey Island and Clue. Tasked with solving a Poirot-esque crime (a locked-room murder), you’ll explore the tower the game is named for, speaking with witnesses and potential suspects to uncover the truth.

Rather than hunting for items or picking from baked dialogue options, the core mechanic of Tangle Tower is its interrogation system. You solve puzzles to collect items that you can use to prove someone is lying. You do this by linking item cards together in a minigame to make a Clue-like statement. For example, you could assert that a Gramophone was used to kill a Paint Palette because the victim had left it there. (You’d be really wrong, but you could.) It’s an engaging loop; the puzzles are just difficult enough to make you feel smart, and the interrogations are a real highlight.

The only downside of Tangle Tower is its length: It took me just four hours to complete. Given the production quality (the artwork is gorgeous, and the characters are all voiced), the game being short is understandable. And the fact I finished it wanting to play another four hours is surely the best endorsement there is. AS

Get Tangle Tower on Apple Arcade

Contributors: Devindra Hardawar (DH), Nathan Ingraham (NI), Mat Smith (MS), Aaron Souppouris (AS), Nick Summers (NS).

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However, the Switch’s online store isn’t the easiest to navigate, so this guide aims to help the uninitiated start their journey on the right foot. These are the games you should own — for now. We’ll be regularly revising our picks moving forward. Oh, and if you’ve just bought a Switch Lite, don’t worry: every game on the list is fully supported by the portable-only console.

Astral Chain

I was on the fence about Astral Chain from the day the first trailer came out until a good few hours into my playthrough. It all felt a little too generic, almost a paint-by-numbers rendition of an action game. I needn’t have been so worried, as it’s one of the more original titles to come from PlatinumGames, the developer behind the Bayonetta series, in recent years.

In a future where the world is under constant attack from creatures that exist on another plane of existence, you pay as an officer in a special force that deals with this threat. The game’s gimmick is that you can tame these creatures to become Legions that you use in combat. Encounters play out with you controlling both your character and the Legion simultaneously to deal with waves of mobs and larger, more challenging enemies. As well as for combat, you’ll use your Legion(s) to solve crimes and traverse environments.

Astral Chain sticks closely to a loop of detective work, platforming puzzles and combat — a little too closely, if I’m being critical — with the game split into cases that serve as chapters. The story starts off well enough but quickly devolves into a mashup of various anime tropes, including twists and arcs ripped straight from some very famous shows and films, but the minute-to-minute gameplay is enough to keep you engaged through the 20-hour or so main campaign and into the fairly significant end-game content.

Does Astral Chain reach the heights of Nier: Automata? No, not at all, but its combat and environments can often surpass that game, which all-told is probably my favorite of this generation. Often available for under $50 these days, it’s well worth your time. AS

Buy Astral Chain from Amazon – $50

Celeste

Celeste is a lot of things. It’s a great platformer, but it’s also a puzzle game. It’s extremely punishing, but it’s also very accessible. It puts gameplay above everything, but it has a great story. It’s a beautiful, moving and memorable contradiction of a game, created by Matt Makes Games, the indie studio behind the excellent Towerfall. So, Celeste is worth picking up no matter what platform you own, but its room-based levels and clear 2D artwork make it a fantastic game to play on the Switch when on the go. AS

Buy Celeste from Nintendo – $20

Cuphead

Studio MDHR’s Cuphead has been a favorite of ours since its launch on Xbox One back in 2017. It’s as beautiful as it is challenging — and it’s very beautiful. Half bullet-hell shooter, half platformer, half classic boss rush… wait that’s too many halves. Either way, Cuphead pulled in basically everyone with its charming, hand-drawn visuals that look like they’re straight out of the 1930s. It then kept them around with tough-as-nails gameplay which somehow never feels unfair. It has some of the most memorable boss fights you’re ever likely to have — Cala Maria is our favorite — but what will stay with you the most is that feeling of finally beating the one you get stuck on, 273 deaths later. The Switch version simply takes everything that’s good about Cuphead and puts it on a system you can take anywhere. AS

Buy Cuphead from Nintendo – $15

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Fire Emblem: Three Houses is one hell of a game. Developer Intelligent Systems made a lot of tweaks to its formula for the series’ first outing on the Nintendo Switch, and the result of those changes is a game that marries Fire Emblem’s dual personalities in a meaningful and satisfying way. You’ll spend half your time as a master tactician, commanding troops around varied and enjoyable battlefields. The other half? You’ll be teaching students and building relationships as a professor at the finest school in the land. AS

Buy Fire Emblem: Three Houses from Amazon – $60

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

The Legend of Zelda: BOTW signals the biggest shift in the series since the Nintendo 64’s Ocarina of Time, and it might well be one of the best games of the past decade. It pulls the long-running series into modern gaming, with a perfectly pitched difficulty curve and an incredible open world to play with. There’s crafting, weapons that degrade, almost too much to collect and do and a gentle story hidden away for players to discover for themselves. Even without the entertaining DLC add-ons, there’s simply so much to do here and challenges for every level of gamer. MS

Buy Breath of the Wild from Amazon – $52

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

If Breath of the Wild shows The Legend of Zelda at its most ambitious and expansive, Link’s Awakening takes things back to the where the series started, in all its top-down glory. It’s a completely faithful remake of the 1993 Game Boy classic, but the graphics and sound have been brought into the present, and a few quality-of-life tweaks have been made to smooth things out.

The visual style is charming and unique to the series; the combination of small, toy-like characters and tilt-shift perspective makes the game look unlike any other Zelda. Despite its age, the puzzles can be challenging without making you tear your hair out. It’s perhaps the best game you could pick to introduce a kid to the Zelda series, but it’s also a nostalgic trip worth taking for those who played the original in all its monochrome glory. NI

Buy Link’s Awakening from Amazon – $56

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe‘s vibrancy and attention to detail prove it’s a valid upgrade to the Wii U original. Characters are animated and endearing as they race around, and Nintendo’s made bigger, wider tracks to accommodate up to 12 racers. This edition of Mario Kart included gravity-defying hover tires and automatic gliders for when you soar off ramps, making races even more visually thrilling, but at its core, it’s Mario Kart — simple, pure gaming fun. It’s also a great showcase for the multitude of playing modes that the Switch is capable of: Two-player split screen anywhere is possible, as are online races or Switch-on-Switch chaos. For now, this is the definitive edition. MS

Buy Mario Kart 8 Deluxe from Amazon – $50

Pokémon Sword and Shield

Pokémon Sword and Shield launched mired in controversy, as fans bemoaned the lack of monsters, the “recycled” character models and general performance issues. To a large portion of gamers, though, it appears that didn’t matter. It quickly became the fastest-selling game in the history of the Switch, and garnered largely positive reviews from media, including yours truly.

It’s true that Sword and Shield has issues, but the core loop of catching Pokémon, battling trainers and working your way towards becoming the best trainer in the land, is as compelling as ever. It might not represent the reset the series (in my opinion) needs, but the main campaign is still a damned good way to spend 30 hours or so, and its endgame and online content offerings will only improve with time. AS

Buy Pokémon Sword from Amazon – $60

Buy Pokémon Shield from Amazon – $60

Super Mario Odyssey

Super Mario Odyssey might not represent the major change that Breath of the Wild was for the Zelda series, Instead, we got a great Mario game that’s been refined across the last two decades. Yes, we got some important modern improvements, like maps and fast travel, and the power-stealing Cappy is a truly fun addition to Mario’s usual tricks. But that core joy of Mario, figuring out the puzzles, racing to collect items and exploring landmarks, is here in abundance. MS

Buy Super Mario Odyssey on Amazon – $50

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

This is the ultimate distillation of Nintendo’s multiplayer fighting game. The series’ debut on Switch brings even more characters from beyond Nintendo’s stable. If you’re sick of Mario, Pikachu and Metroid’s Samus, perhaps Final Fantasy VII‘s Cloud, Solid Snake or Bayonetta will be your new go-to character. There are over 60 characters to test out here.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate features a divisive new single-player mode where you augment characters with stickers, battling through special conditions to unlock more characters and, yes, more stickers. At its core, Smash Bros. games combine fast-paced, chaotic fights with an incredibly beginner-friendly learning curve. Yes, some items are confusing or over-powered, but your special moves are only a two-button combination away. Turning the tables is built into the DNA of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, ensuring thrilling battles (once you’ve sorted handicaps) for everyone involved. MS

Buy Super Smash Bros. Ultimate from Amazon – $60

Contributors: Jessica Conditt (JC), Nathan Ingraham (NI), Kris Naudus (KN), Mat Smith (MS), Aaron Souppouris (AS).

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Changes:
July 2019: ‘Fortnite’ replaced by ‘Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’
July 2019: ‘Splatoon 2’ replaced by ‘Cuphead’
September 2019: ‘Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle’ replaced by ‘Fire Emblem: Three Houses’
December 2019: ‘Rocket League’ replaced by ‘Pokémon’
December 2019: ‘Bayonetta 2’ replaced by ‘Astral Chain’
December 2019: ‘Stardew Valley’ replaced by ‘Link’s Awakening’