It's a masterfully constructed piece of tabletop theatre, whose spell is only broken once, as we were delayed for over an hour by some key loot that took over a dozen attempts to drop. Many won't make it past this preposterous roadblock, but those who persevere to the bitter end will be heartily glad they did.

Embracing and supporting a community project like this is still a commendable move, and one that Mega Man's passionate fans may see as encouraging. But only his most die-hard followers will be willing to overlook such unwelcome, avoidable flaws.

Where COD maintains a smooth 60fps, Warfighter gets a nosebleed trying to put out 30fps. Modern Warfare boasts near-instant restarts after death; here, lengthy loading times merely add to the frustration.

This is a whirlwind romance, a week-long fling rather than a lasting love, like Lumines or Tetris. But for those first few days, the sparks will fly fast and frequently; you won't be able to keep your hands off it.

A bold experiment, then, if not a perfectly balanced or successful one.

There's tactical depth, then, but it's squandered on a game that doesn't understand the importance of balance.

Being among the first of the console MOBAs, Guardians Of Middle-Earth could've been a gentle introduction to an intimidating genre, providing a welcoming hand for players new to the MOBA, but a split focus between accessibility and complexity means neither genre greenhorns nor greybeards will end up feeling truly satisfied.

As it stands, you can only cast your actors and dress your sets, so Unlimited doesn't quite live up to its name, but for those willing to span the game's structural deficiencies with their imagination, it's intensely rewarding.

Sluggish loading times tend to cause frame-rate hiccups at the outset of a multiplayer game, and such issues are exacerbated in the busier environments with a full complement of players.

It's a surprisingly tense juggling act, in other words, and while some will lack the patience required to climb its steep learning curve, the stress is worth it for the soaring sense of accomplishment you'll feel at the end of a hard day's work.

Where 999 gave you a more passive role in proceedings, Virtue's Last Reward makes you a key participant in its twisted tale – and that serves to make its mysteries that much more invigorating to unravel.

Yes, QatQi is a roguelike with words, and by the time it dawns, this ferociously smart game will have you hooked.

One day you sense Shin'en will make a game that plays as good as it looks. Until then, this is a polished and attractive shooter that you'll likely have a reasonably entertaining few hours with before forgetting it ever existed within a month. An ideal launch game, then.

Lego TLOTR is, despite its many flaws, still broadly enjoyable. It has charm, it has its moments and the series holds an undeniable attraction for kids both actual and inner. It's a Lego game, in other words. But it's bloated, too, full of half-formed, shoddily executed ideas and frustrating glitches.

There's enough charm here for Little Inferno to get by, but sometimes you might consider taking its advice and stop feeding the flames.

There are small gripes – having to use an undo button rather than pick tiles back off the grid irks in 'standard' scenarios, for instance – but they slowly melt away in the face of such eclectic gameplay. Seating arrangements have rarely felt so intelligent, knowing, or inventive.

There's an unexpected clarity to solo play that's lost amid the tumult of human competition, but what's never obscured – and what stands as its great accomplishment – is its fond and intricate celebration of all things PlayStation.

Intelligent Systems takes great care to shape its RPG for portable play. The world is divided into Super Mario Bros-style levels that each pack a tidy little narrative. Levelling is removed in order to keep these vignettes grind-free. And it's all wrapped up in Nintendo's typically hilarious localisation.

Far Cry 3's main missions are nothing special in and of themselves, and include one or two exhausting slogs and limp stealth sections, but the campaign does a better job than Far Cry 2's storyline when it comes to providing an alternative to the open emergence of the player-authored escapades.

As a package, it's generous and deep, but Sumo has fallen victim to its own success. While enjoyable in their own right, boats and planes simply can't match the moreish handling of the karts.

Contracts redeems Absolution, but it doesn't absolve it. The game has taken a unique formula and diluted it, allowing the fashionable trappings of other stealth titles to intrude upon a series that has always confidently eschewed convention.

A smart and engaging exploration of what Nintendo's strange new machine can muster. Historically, thirdparty releases on a console launch day have been chequered and timid affairs made by inexperienced teams fearful of losing their footing on unknown terrain. When Ubisoft Montpellier's ZombiU works in smart union with its host console, however, it frequently delights.

The Power Of Two may have fewer technical issues than its predecessor, but it's a less adventurous, less courageous, and overall less interesting game. It struggles to make you care about its world, and as a result its one big idea – that of the Wasteland reacting to your choices – feels decidedly flaccid.

Beyond the obvious aesthetic appeal of the jump to HD, New Super Mario Bros U doesn't make a particularly convincing case for Nintendo's new console, and there's very little here that couldn't have been done on Wii. But if it isn't a great showpiece for the console, it may have to settle for being a very good Mario game, perhaps the finest of the plumber's side-scrolling adventures since his 16bit heyday.

Could Nintendo have made similar cuts, sliced out singleplayer, and left us with the perfect party game? The shadow of missed opportunity occasionally looms over Nintendo Land, but as with any good theme park, there are moments where you'll yell, scream and laugh yourself silly. Just add friends.

The unspoken promise of Sony's portable is console quality on the move, but a thoroughly bloodless version of a massive franchise only feels like going back on that word. This wasn't what Jack Tretton had in mind when he talked about having "a triple-A shooter in the palm of your hands". Rather, Declassified is a single A: awful.

Fussy collision detection and what can only be deliberate slowdown are perhaps nods too far to the 48k era, yet the developer's ageing tools have sculpted something that feels surprisingly new. Not bad for what looks like the oldest game on Vita.

For tenacious players and those inclined towards the genre, Fallblox could prove an irresistible draw, with clearing its parade of cryptic conundrums a delicious prospect. For others, the game's difficulty, and its visual and thematic linearity, will prove tiresome, their enthusiasm for its self-evident ingenuity petering out before each of its challenges has fallen.