Fondly remembering The Simpsons Arcade is the caveat, though, as nostalgia is a key component to enjoyment. Objectively, by today's standards, The Simpsons Arcade is not very good. It's a brainless button-masher that is beaten through sheer attrition, and is so numbingly repetitive that one's thumb will feel arthritic despite the incredibly short length. To anybody playing this game for the first time, it's not going to be looked upon favorably in the least. However, Konami didn't release it for people new to the game.

SoulCalibur V does as much right as it does wrong when it comes to delivering the perfect fighting game package. While the single-player portion is riddled with the absence of modes that made the series what it is today, its most important aspect -- well balanced gameplay -- far exceeds my expectations.

Dead Souls sits in a strange middle zone, stuck somewhere between the past Yakuza series games and the tired zombie sandbox genre. While fans will surely enjoy seeing series stars in this zombie apocalypse setting, they could miss some of the classic Yakuza pacing and gameplay.

None of the activities are particularly inventive, but I also wouldn't go so far to say they're boring, either. Enough of them are interesting that you probably won't regret buying Happy Action Theater for yourself. On the other hand, it should prove to be sufficiently engaging for kids (and kid-like adults, particularly when alcohol is in the room).

Zack Zero feels like it was made by going down a checklist. Lava level? Check. Rudimentary puzzles? Check. Arbitrary baubles and hidden treasures to collect? Check. Boss fights at the end of levels? Check. There's no charm, save for the enemy designs and certain environments, and no sense of identity. The game alternates between being an unexciting, stale, middling affair, and being a somewhat broken game that hits some remarkably low lows. I don't know which is worse.

It's no accident that Defender's Quest is incredibly fun to play. The team behind it clearly had an appreciation for the genre and knew how to offer something familiar yet fresh. The promise of free content updates has me excited to continue playing. You should strongly consider joining me.

What really made Final Fantasy XIII-2 an enjoyable game was that Square Enix brought the fun back. They brought back some the inventiveness, creativity, humor and uniqueness that we sorely missed in Final Fantasy XIII. Maybe this game tries to do a bit too much, and it's probably too late to dig this story out of the hole that it's in, but it was made with a heaping dollop of that undeniable charm that we loved in the older series games, and that goes a long way towards making it enjoyable.

NFL Blitz's online co-op offerings are similarly robust. You can simply jump into a co-op game with up to three different friends, including a guest on the couch with you.

What could have been a messy title merely created to showcase the Unigine Engine has turned out to be a surprisingly polished and deep strategy game. Oil Rush isn't just a joy to behold in action, but manages to make an old genre feel fresh while looking the part.

Mutant Mudds is platforming distilled to its essence. It cuts the fat in order to deliver a pure, satisfying experience. More than anything, it demonstrates that "retro" should not just be pixel graphics and chiptunes but rather a thorough understanding of the basics that made a genre popular in the first place.

Shinobi is a great game with tons to do. Some of the old-school elements are sure to turn many players off, but if you can surmount the steep difficulty curve, there is a substantial amount of satisfying gameplay to be found. Those who want a cohesive narrative or who can't afford to endure a few hours of frustration should look elsewhere, but those who can make it past the hump can wring out a lot of fun.

As a game, Jurassic Park is pretty bad. Both the action and puzzle sequences are uninteresting at best and obnoxious at worst.

I have played a lot of challenging games in my time, but Dustforce is one that has asked more of me as a gamer than any other in recent memory. It asked me to refine my skills like no other, to sharpen my reflexes and timing until they were absolutely perfect.

Curio might be a half decent game underneath all the window dressings, but those dressings are precisely what make it such a frustration to play. When you can't even see what you're doing the majority of the time, no one is going to enjoy whatever style or atmosphere it's hoping to convey.

Unstoppable Gorg is a challenging, loveable, and interesting take on the tower-defense formula. It may have a somewhat limited appeal for anyone but the genre enthusiast who is tired of building mazes out of turrets, but once you switch your micromanagement mindset from passive to active, you'll find yourself coming back time and time again.

Q.U.B.E. may not be the most original game. It has problems and leaves plenty of room for improvement. Regardless, it's a genuinely enjoyable experience that fans of first-person puzzlers should not miss out on.

Regular Show: Nightmare-athon is what it is -- a quick little distraction cobbled together to promote the show and make a quick buck. With that in mind, it does its job well enough, and certainly isn't badly made. It's just rather flat, soulless, and incredibly repetitive.

A disgusting joke of a videogame...There is no justification for releasing a game this unapologetically loathsome.

Fortune Street is so dense, complicated, and time consuming that it's hard to imagine that your average mini-game fan will be able to get into it, especially if they were expecting a short and shallow series of 30-second competitions.

If you are no stranger to the type of punishment you remember from playing arcade games in the '80s, Choplifter HD is definitely worth checking out. This is game that doesn't mess around, and doesn't allow you to mess around either. I only wish it would have allowed you to mess around just a little bit more without mutilating your psyche in the process.

In the end, Sonic Generations is not the worst Sonic game I've played, but it's far from the best either. I'm glad that I was forced to play through the whole thing, as there are definitely some clever design choices and cool moments in later levels. It's just a shame that I had to wade through so many cheap speed-blocking hits and uneventful levels to get to them.

There is a lot to love with All Zombies Must Die, from its more humorous writing to its charming visuals, but ultimately the game fails to deliver the in-depth multiplayer experience it set out to. There's a solid experience to be had from start to finish, but unless you've been in a coma, or underneath a rock for the last few years, you've probably already played this game.

It takes the series' much-loved gameplay, storytelling and presentation, and adds on innovative touch and tilt features to make a game that fits perfectly alongside its predecessors. Prepare to be amazed by a portable videogame.

Pushmo is not remarkable enough to justify a 3DS purchase on its own, but it is certainly another in a growing group to chip away at apathetic feelings toward the system.

The game's design is immaculate, playing a bit like a cross between Metroid and Super Meat Boy. It works hard to be as non-linear as possible, and it never relies on the same ideas for too long, which keeps the excitement coming at a steady pace.

Mighty Switch Force is the best Mighty installment yet, even if it still feels like a tease. It's a game of cops and robbers, the sexy future edition, that blends light running-and-gunning with crazy platform manipulation. Once again, WayForward proves that it knows what its doing when it comes to downloadable titles on a Nintendo service.

Aksys Games nailed the localization with Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and they've done it again with the excellent writing in Fate/EXTRA. Unfortunately, a sea of monotony and repetitiveness plagues the game's potential for being one of the PSP's elite RPG's.

If you fancy embarking on a roller coaster ride of ups and downs in the emotion department, this is certainly worth the asking price. It's a definite purchase for fans of horror games and/or visual novels, but I think that should you have a PSP and aren't against buying one of the top games I've had the pleasure of playing this year, you really should try it out.