Ubisoft's Just Dance franchise has been going on for years now, and for the most part, each iteration of the series has been an expansion of previous entries. For most players out there, picking up the latest entry will be their go-to purchase for this fantastic party game experience. However, as the newest entry in the franchise heavily focuses on a streaming service approach to its music library, some players may be better served by the Just Dance versions just preceding the 2023 release.
Brimming with an immense library of music, and designed to serve as a fantastic party game both in of gameplay itself and interface accessibility, Just Dance 2022 is a complete package for those players seeking a more classic, direct way to purchase and experience their music games. There are some caveats, in of its, at times, poorly executed movement controls that can't match up to the old days of DDR gamepads and Wii-mote accuracy, and as with characters in fighting games be prepared to shell out money for DLC in order to properly expand your music roster.

Like its direct competitor, Beat Saber, Synth Riders is an arcade-style music and rhythm game that uses VR headsets and motion controllers to send players down chaotic tracks of falling notes (as with most rhythm games) and tasks them with physically striking them to "play" each note. Arcade games and music games have been intertwined since long before games like Dance Dance Revolution, though that might be the most quintessential example in most peoples' minds.
Synth Riders follows in the footsteps of note-falling games such as Guitar Hero, and Rock Band, but puts the player's point-of-view right where the notes would usually be falling toward.
Riders' presentation pulses with a vaporwave aesthetic that just drips neon pseudo-80, cyberpunk-styled colors. The breathless, physically-engaging gameplay meshes well with the presentation to make it impossibly fun to jump around alone or with friends, swinging your arms to try and "catch" the notes as they go flying on by.

Cuphead is stunning to look at is about as unoriginal a statement as Cuphead is challenging.
Among the most unique takes on the classic side-scrolling shooter ever created, Cuphead is a game that revels in its influences. What immediately sets it apart is the art and graphical design, evocative of jazz-age rubber hose cartoons and the bonkers physicality of squash & stretch emphasized animations. It doesn't just emulate this style, but fully embodies it with some of the most brilliantly executed, smoothly animated characters ever seen in 2D gaming. The soundtrack also calls back to the cartoons of the early 1900s. Jazzy, upbeat tunes blast behind you as you navigate bullet hell segments that can challenge even veterans of this beloved, absurd subgenre.
The style is a major aspect, sure, but that never comes at a detriment to the actual substance of the game. Packed with unique assets, each one brought to life with wonderful art and animations, then armed to the teeth with deadly game mechanics to challenge the players, Cuphead never pulls its punches.

I have already gushed about Sayonara Wild Hearts in my writings, but hey, nothing is stopping me from doing it again.
Sayonara Wild Hearts is an experience that can only be had in the form of a video game. Yes, it's a dazzling multimedia dreamscape adventure, full of evocative music, wildly interesting visuals, and an effective narrative. All of these aspects are lovely in their own rights, but combined around the central pillar that is Wild Hearts' moment-to-moment gameplay? Well, then everything just coalesces into a wonderfully unique, singular experience.
It's a short runtime for a game, only a few hours long, but what it does with that seemingly truncated story mode is something special. Each level taps into a new song and a new gameplay gimmick or mechanic, keeping that rapidly-paced narrative feeling fresh and well. Sayonara Wild Hearts is a game that relishes the joy of playing video games, focused on creating an overall experience more than it is a traditional, Hollywood-emulating narrative adventure like the AAA games many of us are more commonly exposed to.

The developers at WayForward have proven themselves to be masters of expressive sidescroller design. From the quirky, cartoon vibes of their much loved action-platformer Shantae, to the puzzle-heavy worlds of Mighty Switch Force!, WayForward's knack for pleasantly fun games, brimming with personality has been on full display in recent years.
Enter River City Girls, and it's recently released, much lauded sequel. Spinning off from the long-running Kunio-kun games, typically localized as River City in the west, Girls takes the muscular macho boys who previously helmed the series and tosses them into the rolls of the damsels in distress. With the previous protagonists kidnapped, it falls to their girlfriends to stage a violent rescue over the course of six sidescrolling beat 'em up brawler levels. River City Girls evokes the chaotic action of the best '80s and '90s brawlers with ease, feeling as at home on modern consoles as it might have on an early 90s arcade cabinet.
What sets River City Girls apart from its predecessors is the immense character of the project. Retro-evocative pixel art combines seamlessly with WayForward's cartoony style to create a game that looks as good as it feels to play. Every character sprite and action animation is rendered with such a loving amount of detail and expressiveness that it ends up difficult to not be charmed by the whole thing.

Mortal Kombat may be infamous for its ridiculous violence, a marquee appeal to edgy 90s teens the world over, but what makes the series so long-lasting and beloved is the robustness of its actual gameplay.
Mortal Kombat 11, the latest release in the long-running franchise's history, comes about as one of the most robust, well-realized entries available to modern audiences. It's visceral, it's ridiculous, and it is as fun to play as ever before. Packed with options to customize experience, many of which were not possible at the outset of the series, 11 stakes itself as a versatile take on the AAA 1v1 fighting game genre. This breadth of options extends to the classic elements as well. Many fighting games have lived and died by their character rosters, and Mortal Kombat 11 provides such a fabulous set of options that is can be hard to deny its appeal (even to detractors of the hyper-violent presentation).
Every character is packed with personality that shines through each of their elements. The model design, animations, move sets, and character writing/acting bring each to life in a way that transcends their roles as different mechanical options to face off against friends, strangers, and computer AIs.

One of the older entries on this list, the Geometry Wars games are such a singular experience of pure, gamey fun. Packed with arcade classic elements such as simple, wire-framed, geometric graphics, an ever-rising score system, and just plain bonkers action gameplay, Geometry Wars is a game series that puts fun first and never looks back.
The Wars games have appeared on various systems, from the Nintendo DS to X-Box 30 Arcade, PC, and beyond. While not necessarily a throwback to the pre-2000s arcade games of yore, Geometry Wars is so built upon the design ethos of those earlier play experiences that it's hard not to think about it when considering modern arcade-style games.
From the outset, these games have been fun and visually appealing, but as the franchise has carried on to various systems, the gameplay has slowly but surely accrued more and more interesting small design updates, and more dynamic graphical quirks.

Guilty Gear Strive came about as an attempt to restructure and redesign many aspects of the beloved Guilty Gear fighting game series. Strive more than succeeded in this regard, and at the same time flung open the franchise's doors to entirely new players. The now classic 1v1 fighting game franchise saw a wild boost in interest from the outset with Strive, as even its early hype machine and beta saw an upsurge of potential players eager to play.
As ever, Arc System Works has created a game as stunningly gorgeous to look at as it is buttery smooth to play. The character models and animations are 3D, yet almost effortlessly channel the specific flair of old-school, 2D anime. Strive is balanced well and aims to deliver a well-rounded, perfectly solid experience for its fans. Each character moves with a pizazz and a finesse all their own, as inimitable tunes blast behind them. Just about every aspect of Guilty Gear Strive's presentation is immaculate.

With the recent spate of games looking to evoke the arcade-style play of yesteryear, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge burst onto the scene as if it were some long-lost sequel to the Konami TMNT games of yore. Not skipping a beat, Shredder's Revenge channels both stylistic and gameplay decisions from the classic arcade Turtles games, bridging a gap between the '90s and now as if no time had ed at all.
While its foundation is so heavily built from past titles in the arcade brawler subgenre, Shredder's Revenge is not afraid to take advantage of modern technology and design philosophies to deliver that indulgent retro gameplay with more finesse than ever before. Gone are the days of unintentionally flickering Nintendo screens and weird slowdowns as you battle and brawl your way through New York, this revitalized take on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles delivers an impressively smooth, effervescent gaming experience. It capitalizes on what made these games so exciting and addictive in the first place, without the hindering technical debt of days gone by.