Like the best revivals, Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound feels like it could've come from a different era. Crafted by Blasphemous developer The Game Kitchen, Ragebound is a deliberately old-school action game that captures the essence of the classic Ninja Gaiden series, with sharp gameplay, challenging levels, and gloriously retro visuals and music that would feel right at home on the Super NES. It also builds upon this foundation with some smart new mechanics, making it more than a mere imitation of earlier games.

Rather than putting you in control of series mainstay Ryu, Ragebound follows two new protagonists: Kenji Mozu, an untested trainee of the Hayabusa Clan; and Kumori, a mysterious kunoichi from the rival Black Spider Clan. When Kenji steps in to save Hayabusa Village from a sudden demon onslaught, the pair's destinies become entwined and they form an uneasy alliance, using their combined abilities to stand against the demonic forces threatening the world.

Like so many other aspects of the game, Ragebound's plot is pure Ninja Gaiden: scattershot, nonsensical, and ultimately inconsequential. In their quest to stop the Demon Lord from being unleashed, Kenji and Kumori travel to various sites throughout Japan, battling grotesque monsters, commandeering the occasional vehicle, and eventually becoming entangled in the CIA's affairs. It's knowingly silly stuff, and it affords the developers plenty of opportunities to whisk players through a range of memorable set pieces, from ancient Japanese villages and castles to busy construction sites, flooded pirate coves, and secret military facilities.

Dead Take feels more like an artist's point of view of the unsaid traumas and private despair that plague the lives of actors than a horror adventure game. It is still very much a video game driven by rewarding puzzle mechanics, but the meat of the experience is the insight it gives of what it can feel like to be an actor. It's altogether more disturbing than spooky, and although certain supernatural elements do dampen the puzzle box nature and horror of the overall game, Dead Take is still a powerful, emotion-driven descent into one man's psyche.

Experienced entirely in first-person, Dead Take has you play as an actor named Chase who breaks into and explores the seemingly abandoned mansion of Cain, a famous Hollywood producer. There are signs of a party, but all the lights are off and an eerie stillness hangs over the darkened hallways and strangely shaped rooms. Chase is looking for his friend, Vinny, another actor, who successfully landed the role of Willie in an upcoming movie--a role that Chase had also been gunning for. As you guide Chase through the mansion, you'll slowly uncover what transpired behind the scenes during the movie's pre-production, learning how so many people's lives were destroyed in service to the damaged and traumatized ego of one man.

It's a haunting tale brought to life by full-motion video (FMV) recordings of powerhouse actors in the industry. Neil Newbon gives Chase an almost psychopathic desperation to his need to land the role of Willie, while Ben Starr hides Vinny's nepotism behind charismatic suave and charm to produce a completely different type of creepiness. The unnerving and disgusting battle behind the scenes to determine the leading lady opposite Willie and cover up a "problematic" woman for a more "agreeable" one is explored through the fantastic (and subsequently, deeply uncomfortable to watch) performances of Alanah Pearce and Laura Bailey. And at one point, Jane Perry delivers a performance of Cain's wife so powerful and deeply chilling, I doubt I'll ever forget it.

Assessing Grounded 2 in a world in which the original exists is tricky. Grounded went 1.0 in 2022 and enjoyed many updates both before and after that milestone. Because of the sequel's changes to some of the game's foundational elements, I won't be at all surprised if Grounded 2 is eventually a much better game. Some of those changes already make it difficult to return to the first game. However, the sequel is also without some of the original's essential features for now, too, meaning this game about shrunken heroes needs more time to grow bigger and better than the original.

Grounded 2 wastes no time getting its band of adolescent heroes shrunk back down to the size of insects, opening with a hurried, "Oops, I did it again" kind of story beat. Max, Willow, Hoops, and Pete are slightly older and a little more vulgar in their teen years, but once more find themselves fighting to survive in the wilderness of a world where bugs don't just sting or bite; they aim to kill.

Though Grounded 2 does occasionally play like a horror game, such as when you're traveling at night without a torch and the glowing eyes of a scorpion or wolf spider suddenly stalk your path ahead, its best trait is one it naturally carries over from the first game: its childlike spirit. Whereas so many survival-crafting games are bleak, sometimes grueling affairs telling thematically dark tales with muted color palettes, Grounded's world is vibrant and silly, colorful and whimsical, and that's a difference I truly adore. The sun-soaked Brookhaven Park gives you a whole new world to explore, decorated with a familiar sense of exploration.

When I first played Tales of the Shire back in September 2024, I left the experience disappointed yet hopeful. It had a lot of issues, yes, but it also had a lot of potential. There was a clear reverence for both Lord of the Rings and the life-sim genre on display, and considering the game had been delayed until the following year, it felt like both the developers and I were on the same page when it came to the game being undercooked. Imagine my surprise, then, when I booted up the launch version of Tales of the Shire and found the experience more or less unchanged.

Wētā Workshop's Tales of the Shire feels incomplete. Gameplay is limited and monotonous, its story and characters are forgettable, performance is very rough, and while there's some charm to the game's clunky-looking world and the hobbits who inhabit it, more often than not, the visuals come across as low-quality and dated rather than whimsical. Despite playing it on two different consoles--Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck--both experiences suffered from numerous bugs and visual hiccups. While its mechanics are fine enough and there are some cute ideas nestled within, Tales of the Shire is regrettably unpolished and unengaging--and considering how populated the cozy game genre is, you'd be hard pressed to find a reason to play it in its current state.

Set in the village of Bywater (though it should be noted that the "village" part is hotly contested by its residents and serves as the crux of the game), Tales of the Shire sees you take on the role of a hobbit leaving the town of Bree to start a new life somewhere peaceful and pastoral. Though the game's character creator is not particularly robust, it's also not egregiously limited, and allowed me to create a charmingly plump hobbit with a mess of dark, curly hair, thick lashes, and two minimally hair-covered feet. Using the game's suggested hobbit names, I named my maiden fair Jessamine--a clever play on my own name– and climbed aboard the carriage of a lanky, bearded wizard who was definitely not Gandalf--wink wink. From there, we rode in what would be the first of the game's many awkward quiets to Bywater.

For my money, Pac-Man: Circle is the standout episode of Amazon's anthology series, Secret Level. While the other 14 episodes felt like elongated commercials for the games they were based on, Pac-Man: Circle put an unexpected spin on Namco's iconic character, completely reimagining the pellet-gobbling yellow ball by introducing some harrowing violence and body horror to the equation. It was bold and imaginative, and as it turns out, still an extended commercial for an upcoming game.

Bandai Namco announced Shadow Labyrinth just a few days after Secret Level's release, and like that episode, this 2D Metroidvania maintains the darker take on the classic character. Unfortunately, it fumbles the execution with a dull, opaque, and ultimately forgettable story, while frustrating, one-note combat and egregious checkpointing are further blemishes on what is a disappointing reinvention of the 45-year-old character.

If you haven't seen Pac-Man: Circle beforehand, fear not. The 12-minute episode helps establish Shadow Labyrinth's basic premise, but it isn't required viewing. Either way, you're probably going to feel lost, as Shadow Labyrinth's story quickly devolves into a confluence of cryptic dialogue layered with tropes, sci-fi jargon, technobabble, and bloated self-seriousness.