What was once a glorious name in JRPG is slowly dismantled by Square Enix and inscrutable design decisions. The sad bit about it is that conceptually this could have been a decent comeback for Lightning.

It works well on consoles. Unfortunately it suffers from mediocre visuals, complicated UI and little content at this point – especially when you compare it to the PC version.

With Strider Double Helix walks the tightrope between vintage mechanics and modern visuals – without making concessions to either side. Difficulty could be higher, though.

Fun is what counts in the end. And just like its brother on Xbox One is a fun romp – regardless of the countless shortcomings that just prove that the line between polished trash and plain garbage can be very thin.

On Xbox One Raymans platforming adventure is as legendary as ever.

This is cool stuff. With Tropical Freeze Nintendo proves once again that the cult monkey still belongs to the platforming elite.

You can leave this high school either as a murderer or as a corpse. The line between friendship and rivalry is blurred. You look into the soul of the characters where hope gets replaced by despair in an instant. This is an excellent morbid surreal whodunit.

Dustforce works well on a variety of levels. Unfortunately storytelling and accurate controls are not among them.

The battle system is catastrophic. Otherwise the 4X-system works. Which makes the ugly and confusing military confrontations even more annoying.

What a rush! The assault on your retinas has to be seen to be believed. If you liked Tempest, you certainly don’t want to miss this.

For some games the transition from mobile devices to the PC works well. Here this is not the case.

Mythic said they want to treat the source with respect. They said, that the ultimate rpg series returns. But is is a slap in the face at the latest when you are invited to watch a trailer for FIFA. The paywall come later and are not as evident as in Dungeon Keeper, but nonetheless this is fantasy fastfood that result in aversion instead of immersion.

While the concept feels as fresh as anything and thanks to Unreal technology Albion looks better than ever, you’ll notice the age of the source material. Nonetheless it is a nice stroll down memory lane.

Technically this excellent terror tale is not quite on the same level as the PC version and the constant light show of the controller takes away atmosphere instead of adding to it. But nonetheless this is an intensive survival course in a world reigned by horror and violence.

The beginning is interesting, the storytelling experiment works well. But technical and design flaws make this tale terrifying for the wrong reasons.

A challenging and funny retro adventure in classic MetroidVania style.

The mixture of dungeon crawler, hunt for loot and dualstick action works surprisingly well, eventually you don’t think about the mobile roots anymore. But towards the end the weak balancing takes a lot of the fun away.

The direction is so intense that you get lost in this dark New York fairy tale with its surreal characters, excellent dialogue and morbid thriller flair. For the long wait it is rather short though.

At first it looks like a silly experiment, but once you sink your tentacles into the game, you’ll encounter challenging and manic arcade fun.

There is software trash that halfway tries to camouflage its flaws with visual appeal or an interesting concept. And then there is Guise of the Wolf…

Fast, good looking and mean: Strike Vector offers challenging dogfights and extensive modification. But the modes are just standard, while the number of maps simply is too low.

How dare you to soil a classic like that. This is the epitome of in-app-pestilence. The paid content gets a grip on the gaming experience way too quickly. What once was one of Bullfrog's finest masterpieces now is nothing more than a soulless marketing product.

It looks sharper, runs more smoothly and looks better overall. But certain gameplay and design shortcomings are still there.

I can’t remember when I cursed that much while playing a multiplayer shooter. It is tactically challenging, but suffers from dreary maps and lack of modes.

It can’t keep up with Legend of Grimrock or the group tactics of Etrian Odyssey. But nonetheless this is a labour of love that will keep fans of retro dungeon crawler happy.

In the end it feels more like a map pack than a sequel. But nonetheless with a full group of four people you’ll get quite some fun out of sniping a few zombie heads.

Humans Must Answer wants to celebrate old school action, but too often it just feels old, especially when it comes to level design. More fresh air like the interesting turret system is needed.

The concept is timeless, but more variety and a little progress would have gone a long way.

This adventure shows some conceptually interesting ideas, but the lack of detail and atmosphere saps the motivation right out of you.

This is almost like real skateboarding: You’ll kiss the ground – a lot. But you will stay motivated enough to get up again and keep trying.

The setting aside KickBeat is as conventional as a rhythm game as the songwriting of Jon Bon Jovi. You know what you get but don’t expect any surprises.

This is a solid rendition of the well known formula, catered to the needs of the handheld generation, but without an online mode the fun is limited.

This is pure turn-based mediocrity. It is conservative in every aspect and takes no risks whatsoever. On the other hand, it doesn’t do anything particularly bad.

It could have been an alternative to Mario Kart. But without online play and balancing issues this one decent fun racer becomes a frustrating racer.

Up to now the franchise stood for uncompromising arcade fun. But with this iteration there is another element: micro-transactions, in-app-purchases. But whatever you may call it hinders the fun, even though you can get through the game without...

A charming first act that gives you an outlook into interesting storylines. But since puzzles are too easy and it is rather short all the hopes lie on the conclusion.

King Art and Nordic Games wasted their second opportunity, to release a technically sound adventure. If you can see behind the framerate issues, aliasing, tearing and clumsy controls, you’ll find a rather interesting thriller.

An interesting indie cocktail that blends elements of Left 4 Dead, Metal Slug and Tower Defense. With better partner AI, more stages and less technical issues this could be a sleeper hit.

Once you start, it is almost impossible to get away from this dynamic cell conquering. Inspired by classic board games like Go, Pathogen builds a new experience by adding modern elements like chain reactions or moving arenas. Brilliant.

With human competition Nidhogg stages captivating sword fighting duels. But the surprisingly deep fighting system suffers from lack of content and a weak campaign.

All the visual improvement and added content can’t camouflage the handheld origins, which in return means that all the design and content shortcomings of the Vita version are still there.

The ecological system as well as the crafting are cool, but the need for useless repetition gets on your nerves after a while. Nonetheless you can expect a merciless fight for survival with a captivating art design.

Conservative, but entertaining roleplaying adventure.

It bites off a little more than it can chew. Starting out with the premise of being a full political simulator in the end it is little more than an turn-based interaction with a population. But on this level you’ll get the high complexity that you’ll miss in macro management.

Even with the support of potent hardware, some of the technical problems remain. But nonetheless this is a fast paced action game that you don’t see too often on the PC – and it is surprisingly well implemented in the Metal Gear universe.

The concept is interesting, the execution is frustrating. The journey through the pixelated limbo for videogame heroes sparks your curiosity, but what remains is a lukewarm collection of quiz- and minigames.

If Legend of Grimrock is the mysterious and deadly dungeon crawler counterpart to Dark Souls, then Might & Magic X is closely related to Diablo 3: colorful, entertaining and full of loot- but almost without any sense of danger.

It is silly, it is challenging and it is highly motivating. Even with its flaws it is hard to resist Rayman.

Four years after its initial release Flower didn’t lose one iota of its fascination and still captures you from the very beginning.

More tactical variation, more individual character development, more challenge, more fun: Enemy within makes XCOM better than ever.

After it became a sleeper hit in Nintendo's eShop for the 3DS, this entertaining platformer found a new home on the PC.

Some elements like microtransaction feel inept, but most of the time the symbiosis of random battles, turn based tactics and time manipulation works surprisingly well. If you cherish old rpg virtues this is definitely for you.

While EAs next gen basketball is embarrassing, 2K shows them how it’s done. It plays authentic, it looks fantastic, which makes watching the games a lot of fun. If you like Basketball you’ll be entertained for months – even if the online games are a little bumpy and you don’t get all the modes you are used to.

Playing this digging puzzler made me almost fall asleep. But as soon as you get a few players to help you, you’ll uncover some fun buried under all that rubble.

The charming puzzle concept still is there, but without the touch surfaces of the Vita it loses some of its appeal.

Three years after its initial release, the fight against Brainiac still is entertaining and probably the best hack&slay of some sort until the arrival of Diablo 3. Since it is free-to-play the only thing you would waste is hard drive space, so give it a try.

I don’t know if this is the road that EA should follow when it comes to Need for Speed. An interesting concept suffers from technical faults like bad AI or abysmal online features. And of course the fact that other games like Forza Horizon or NfS Most Wanted are plain and simple more fun to play.

What chaos! This is by far the weirdest jump-and-run I have played in a while. Unfortunately it is not as fascinating as it sounds, since the novelty factor soon becomes stale and uninspired.

This is the game I wanted to have a few years ago: The party dynamics of Rock Band combined with the real guitar playing of Rocksmith. The recognition technique is simply flawless.

So much potential. So many wasted chances. As a sci-fi satire it works astonishingly well, but repetitive tasks and redundant space missions stop Redshirt from becoming even remotely stellar.

Beautiful design, clever mechanics that challenge the tactician. If you like war games, then you shouldn’t miss out on this gem.

Conceptually an interesting golf game, but it stays too superficial to be either a real challenge or to be more than short term entertainment.

This old-fashioned platformer draws its motivation mainly from the steep learning curve and the high difficulty level.

There is no additional content, no added touch-controls but the magic of this charming role-playing game is still there.

Los Perdidos certainly has its flaws – and so do some game design decisions that make this Zombie adventure feel more like Dynasty Warriors at times. But nonetheless it delivers undead splattering fun.

This is a big disappointment. Fighter Within fails not only as a game for motion recognition but also as an alternative for the likes of Tekken.

A game is doing something exceptionally well if you get blown to bits and still sit there with a big smile on your face. Resogun is as fast, elegant and explosive as a shoot em up needs to be.

While undoubtedly the lightnight fast combo-orgy-brawling shows potential, the price politics and technical glitches make sure that this is little more than a beat-em-up snack.

A clean port of a solid brawler with an interesting, albeit short story campaign. If you were battling Superman on another system already there is not much here to convince you of purchasing it again, though.

Visually simply the best Killzone yet and mechanically more varied then before, Guerilla Games delivers an entertaining shooter for the PS4 launch. Unfortunately the AI didn’t yet reach the next generation.

Finally: 64 players with 60 frames per second. While the visuals are not yet at the level of high-end PCs, at least the size of the maps and subsequently the fun associated with it arrives on the next console generation.

When it comes to driving physics and the core elements of simulation this is the game to beat. But in terms of content, the dysfunctional AI-revolution and microtransactions right from the start I rather go back to Forza 4 or wait for Gran Turismo 6.

Tricky puzzle fast food that will keep fans of randomly generated dungeon action busy.

Generic level design, a world without magic, technically weak: This is an exclusive disappointment for the new system.

This is a commendable little puzzler. But unfortunately the PS4-version suffers from constant framerate issues.

LocoCycle is pure honest trash. And the best thing: Twisted Pixel is fully aware of it, takes its game very seriously and feeds it with humour. And the result is mindless fun.

With six people in front of the sensor, the core ingredient of Just Dance, the fun, is more emphasized than ever before.

The base quality is there – just like in the current gen versions. And there are lots of small additions, some of them more useful than others. But overall it is not the significant progress I was hoping for.

Yes, it is playable. And some dribbling looks decent. But if you're looking for the next generation of basketball, this is not it.

Somewhere in this mess is an X as you know and like it: Smaller, but prettier and with a solid foundation. But with problems like game-stopping bugs and bad design decisions all the ambition goes down the drain.

On the surface everything seems to work, but the deeper you look, you’ll find that there is just nothing there. But the trip into the Adventure Park was good for something: It made me install Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 again.

A solid railshooter in a fascinating fantasy world. But it can’t compete with the likes of Panzer Dragoon Orta, Rez or Child of Eden.

If you didn’t dive into the world of Skylanders yet, this is the version to get with its crisp and detailed visuals. Unfortunately SwapForce is not part of the upgrade program.

No-frills horror action for up to four players.

Where would I rather play Madden this year? On Xbox 360 or Xbox One? Even though I like some of the visual enhancements I’d have to choose the current gen console.

Be ashamed, Frontier! Where is the depth and the fun of Rollercoaster Tycoon? Even on the DS Zoo Tycoon was more entertaining than here. Yes: The animals all look great and you can interact with them – but this ain’t Kinectimals 2!

A creative adventure in an imaginative world of paper and cardboard, that utilises almost all the Vita’s control options.

Charming, varied and almost perfectly balanced: This is pure platforming fun.

The good impressions from the beta prove true: World of Warplanes celebrates arcade dogfights full of intensive arcade action. With a little more depth and a more detailed damage system this could be a sure hit.

It is a pity that you cannot fight together with others players against the zombie hordes. Because behind the sometimes ugly façade hides an interesting living (or dead) world in which you truly have to fight to survive.

When it comes to artdesign, setting and music this is the best Fighting Fantasy you can get for your tablet. The storytelling is not as good though.

If you ignore the slight framerate problems, this is the first impressive showing of the visual capabilities, an interesting taste of what is to expect in the new generation. Unfortunately the mechanics suffer – up to the point where the game gets plain boring.

This is absolutely no competition for Uncharted. The fights are boring and bugs ruin the remaining fun. Which is a pity, because the vistas and solid puzzles give a glimpse of what this game could have been.

This is exactly what you expect: Loads of super heroes and villains, millions of Lego studs to collect and an all-around entertaining experience without surprises. If Traveller’s Tales knows one thing, it is their Lego formula, to which they stick like glue.

A charming farewell of the puzzle sleuth.

Tricky dungeon design, intense boss battles and more open than expected: You have to fall in love with Link’s latest adventure.

An interesting mix of retro graphics, medieval battles and fortress builder.

Insomniac does it again. While it is rather short, the latest adventure of this duo is a well executed epilogue to a trilogy that shaped action platforming in this console generation.