I find it interesting how much The Isle of Bigsnax mimics the entirety of Bugsnax itself. On the surface, it's just another area of Snaktooth Island, the game's original setting, to explore--even if this one is technically not on Snaktooth itself. When I'd finished exploring and completed all of the new missions, my initial thought was "that's it?" However, much like Snaktooth itself there is more than meets the eye in this update, What seems like fast food quickly becomes a multi-course return trip to the world of Bugsnax, including a brief taste of future additions to the menu. The longer you eat, the better this meal gets, but you will need to have patience in order to get to the good parts.

The Isle of Bigsnax itself is called Broken Tooth, though calling it "the isle of big snax" is a perfect descriptor. The inhabitants of Broken Tooth are all massive Bugsnax, grown to mammoth proportions, and you're again trying to capture them all, although they're impossible to trap through the normal means employed in the base game. Two of the 11 unique Bugsnax to this island--the Bunger Royale and the Deviled Eggler--are retreads of previous 'snax; the rest are brand new to the Bugsnax ranks. There's Spaghider, a spaghetti spider with a meatball for an abdomen; Cheddorb, a rolling cheese ball with googly eyes; and Millimochi, a slithering set of mochi balls that follows you around as you try to complete tasks, among others.

To capture these new creatures you'll have to resort to other means: Shrink Spice. Canisters of this spice are scattered throughout the island, and picking one up starts a 30-second countdown. At the end of that countdown the canister explodes, and any Bugsnak in its vicinity shrinks, allowing players to use normal traps to catch it. I like the idea of an added obstacle, and I like the idea of Shrink Spice. It's only found in specific places around Broken Tooth, and you can only carry one jar at a time. This isn't something like, say, the sauces in the Sauce Slinger where you can carry 20 at a time and reload whenever you see a plant. Shrink Spice is more precious, more finite, and therefore more important. Limiting the resource like this was a good idea, as it makes the resource seem crucial to success, and finding it near a big Bugsnak you haven't caught before is much more impactful. If you were able to throw it around on demand like Ketchup or the other sauces that are used in the base game, this new biome would have been much too easy.

It's incredibly bold to hide away a sequel to a game in an expanded re-release of the original experience. But when it comes to something as enjoyably strange and hilariously obtuse as The Stanley Parable, it makes sense--in fact, my belief that The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe would be anything else seems fundamentally foolish in hindsight.

Ultra Deluxe is as intriguing to play as the original game, perhaps even more so today given that its message is directed toward the modern-day gaming landscape. Some of the nuances will be a bit lost on you if you weren't playing games or at least paying attention to the space back in 2013, as it relies on having a grasp of how the conversation surrounding games has evolved in the past decade. But, it's an entertaining experience regardless of if you have that context or not.

Though it's presented as a kind of director's cut of the original, Ultra Deluxe feels more like a sequel that exists within The Stanley Parable. You're still kicking things off by embodying the role of Stanley, an employee with the meaningless role of sitting in a drab office and staring at his computer screen all day, pushing the buttons on his keyboard that he's told to. And then one day his screen stops telling him what to do, gifting him with the freedom to listen to the overbearingly haughty narrator that oversees his every move or to do as he wishes instead.

For the past five years, there's been a Wii Sports-sized hole in the Nintendo Switch's library. A lot has changed since that game's monumental success 16 years ago, including the acute existential dread I felt of being 15 years old. Not only has my teenage angst fizzled out, but so has the trend of motion control in games. Some things should stay in the past, and one could make the case that motion-controlled sports games are among them.

Thankfully, that isn't the case and, if anything, Nintendo Switch Sports makes a strong case for why. Not because its motion controls are as revelatory as the original, but because the same sense of brazen fun that came from playing Wii Sports with a good group of friends or family is as potent as ever in its successor. On the court of modern day video games, Switch Sports definitely makes some perplexing missteps along the way, but ultimately puts on a worthy performance.

Nintendo Switch Sports is, at its core, the same as Wii Sports was all those years ago: a game in which you swing your arms around and reenact a sport. If you're a Wii Sports (and Wii Sports Resort) veteran, the feeling of tennis, bowling, or chambara (sword fighting) will be second nature. Even with the addition of new sports like volleyball and soccer, there's very little innovation in what Switch Sports attempts to do, and I think that's a good thing. The game doesn't feel like it's trying to revitalize a trend. Instead, it recaptures the simplicity of the original and, in doing so, rekindles the same magic. It's straightforward, unadulterated, and, above all, approachable.

Since Back 4 Blood debuted in October 2021, it's been players' best-looking and perhaps most extravagant Left 4 Dead successor since the original sequel in 2009, but it's also been a frustratingly inconsistent game to play. In one level, you may excitedly limp to the saferoom as a swarm scratches at your heels, the way any horde shooter should often feel, only for the next level to be a mess of enemy spam and poor objective design. Six months later, pacing and design issues still hinder the experience in the game's first expansion, Tunnels of Terror, but the moments of frustration are finally showing signs of waning alongside some fun additions to the game's core campaign.

The Tunnels of Terror expansion adds two characters, a slew of weapons, and seven new levels to Back 4 Blood in the form of Ridden Hives. Rather than offer up another underplayed side attraction to the main campaign, these Ridden Hives are smartly built right into the game's original, already lengthy story mode. Spawning at random, hives act as high-risk, high-reward optional dungeons into which a full team must agree to descend together.

Tauntingly, they often appear near safe rooms, giving squads of Cleaners a decision to make: head for the security of the bright orange door, or sink into the hellish hives for the game's best loot? For any high-level players, the decision should be an easy one. Legendary weapons can only be found in these hives, not to mention the game's new free currency, Skull Totems, which can unlock exclusive new cosmetics. Those factors should mean that the toughest roguelite runs demand at least one pit stop in a hive for better weapons. However, the game's legacy issues, like poorly balanced enemy swarms, continue to get in the way.

Petria, the fictional country at the center of Road 96, is in rough shape. Throughout 1996, the country is gripped by political turmoil--now, a moderate-leaning candidate is threatening the long-standing regime of a totalitarian dictator while a growing resistance threatens to send the country's youth boiling over and into a full-on revolution. Add to that a growing number of teenagers seeking life outside of the country's walled borders and you've got a recipe for potential disaster on election day. This is what each of Road 96's procedural journeys delicately build towards with some strong character writing and entertaining gameplay vignettes, even if the central conflict is too reductive with its overall messaging.

Each episode of Road 96 puts you in control of a faceless and nameless teenager--one of many looking to escape Petria by making the dangerous journey to its border and attempting to get over its oppressive wall. You're given the choice between three teens before a run, each with different starting attributes that dictate how much cash you initially have on hand, your overall energy, and your distance from the border. The first two are the most important to consider as cash can open numerous interactions throughout the run--such as purchasing food, bribing cops, or paying off smugglers--while energy governs whether you're able to continue a run at all or not. If your energy reaches zero, you pass out on the side of the road and await arrest, sending your teen to a labor camp and ending your run immediately. You replenish energy by resting or buying food, while completing small odd jobs or just scavenging for money, so finding a balance between the two is crucial to a successful run.