Quarrel! is one of those games that comes from out of nowhere but instantly will keep you playing through a whole day without warning. It doesn´t matter if you compete against the AI or other players, Quarrel! turns out to be an intelligent and highly motivating challenge.

The meager eight stages are fun, but leave you very abruptly stranded at the end-credits and wishing for more areas, Bossfights and especially many more weapons.

In the end Warp is still a nice game, which does not realize its own possibilities and completely stagnates in the second half.

Escape Plan is hardly a world-shattering nor an especially touching puzzler, if that's what you expected. But it still is an acceptable getaway to calmer waters, somewhere beyond Vitas flashy and action-heavy launch line-up.

It´s not a really an aggravating game, but one that could have used six months of extra development time, to make it an organic and natural extension to its PS3-counterpart. As it stands, Sony is leaving the ModNation Racers community hanging in the air – not a big surprise after the announcement of LittleBigPlanet Karting, though.

Little Deviants is the sort of inevitable minigame collection that seems to grace every new console with more exotic control options, but is forgotton rather quickly. (...) You have to wonder why Sony saw the necessity to make a game that says little more than "We can also do smartphone-gaming". As if we ever asked.

The Last Story combines the best we can expect from modern gaming-luxuries with elements we know and love from the 16-bit-days and Japanese RPGs. This includes likeable characters, a well thought-out combat-system and a story that will keep you at the edge of your seat hour after hour.

Clearly, for some this won't be enough – they might find the experience too familiar. Some might even take offense to the fact that Namco Bandai divided something by six, which was once truly unique. … I, too, had taken issue with the recycling factor of it all. But if you decide to give it a chance, the games' disarming charms will have you hooked halfway through the introduction. At that point you'll be able to laugh again at the balance between heart and insanity the developers so effortlessly strike.

As a follow-up, Alan Wakes´s American Nightmare surprises with a new, fresh feeling of horror in unfamiliar surroundings and with an idea for its storytelling that in the end barely graces the main tale, but still takes a lot of cues from it and even manages to give something back. So if you want to know what the hell is going on in Alan Wake, this is a new and very entertaining puzzle piece to a much larger and still quite hazy picture.

The mix between intriguing storytelling and near-perfect game design elevates Alan Wake to an extraordinarily finely crafted experience. Even if should you shelf it after its 10-15 hours and never take it out again: This one playthrough will be a lasting experience. Alan Wake is something special that enriches the world of gaming.

This great brawler captivates you with fine graphics, excellent playability and an awesome selection of fighters. (…) That´s just the way we want our portable titles to be. Well done, Capcom!

Unstoppable Gorg is a wise investment, if you´ve got a knack for the Tower-Defense-genre and prefer your sci-fi a little bit trashy.

Whoever picks up a Vita these days, should also get Rayman Origins along with it. Do it for yourself. Do it for Michel Ancel, who put his heart into this one. And most important of all: Do it for that strange sausage creature in world three.

I can look at Syndicate from any angle I want: In the end it stays a mediocre, though not entirely charmless Shooter, whose only real redeeming factor is the coop-mode, which also comes off a little bit half-hearted.

Most of all, Virtua Tennis 4 impresses because of the quality of this port, which might well be the final word when it comes to handheld conversions of home console titles. You're almost puzzled that the game doesn't support cross-platform play, so close is this version to last year's counterpart ... The quick-fire arcade style of gameplay with its focus on minigames and short match-ups seems like a much better fit for a handheld than it did for Xbox 360 and PS3.

Maybe the games' designers will clear up upcoming tracks from some of the visual ballast to take out some of the hecticness of some races and maybe even shorten the almost painfully long loading times. The basics are there, to be sure, to dub the astonishingly good looking WipEout 2048 as racing fans' first choice when the Vita launches on February 22nd.

Even if Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational doesn't necessarily feel completely new – this is a big fistful of uncomplicated yet highly engrossing golfing fun that is hard not to recommend. It's not as much of a showcase title as other games in the Vita's Launch-Line-Up but that is due to the fact that it focuses on long found strengths rather than trying desperately trying to come up with new ones for this particular new piece of hardware.

The shortcomings of the career are the main reason why my enthusiasm is a little bit dampened, but the rest of the game was improved in all its aspects. The new moves, attacks and the inclusion of the PRIDE-Modes make it a must-buy for fans. Even newcomers and people who so far just liked the UFC-Videos don´t need to be afraid of the steep learning curve they found in the earlier games.

Going back to Arulco may not be the vacation of your dreams, but it´s still a worthy adventure. One that leaves a lot of possibilities for improvement, nonetheless, but if you´re into tactics it´s still worth your attention.

Kingdoms of Amalur is simply fun. (...) When broken down to its features, Amalur is still outmatched by other RPGs, but it seems quite eager to learn. World and monsters are something to behold, it offers a lot of roaming space for its heroes and the story keeps you interested enough.

Trying to get the maximum out of the new hardware, Bend Studios has tampered with things that didn't need fixing and thusly don't do anything for the game. In fact, the opposite is the case. (...) The experience alone, having this astonishly good-looking and perfectly well playing Uncharted game on a handheld would have been enough to justify the Vita's 250 dollar price tag. Because as soon as you learn to disregard the bad touchscreen bits you immerse yourself in this adventure and forget that you're "only" playing a handheld game.

Everything there was minus the bugs. That has to be enough for one step up the score-ladder. Yes, but only because New Vegas doesn´t reduce itself to just more stuff, but also offers a high level of storytelling that even in RPGs can´t be found that often.

Gotham City Imposters is by no means a bad game. The few maps it offers are expertly balanced for its type of play. But after a short while, there is just not enough to keep you coming back and in everything it does, it gets outclassed by the likes of Team Fortress 2.

Some of the events simply are too basic, others seem tacked on and gimmicky. But even with its unexpected simplifications compared to the Wii edition, the 3DS-olympics can be fun, when played with some friends.

Catherine is a truly unique beast. Funny, dramatic and disarmingly honest – for anyone who has ever stood as a crossroads in his life it would be a huge mistake to miss out on this one. You yearn for more clever games? Vote with your wallet.

With its trimmed down roster of fighters, a laughably bad story mode and a general lack of options as well as gameplay-variations, Soul Calibur 5 could easily be called guilty of having jumped the gun. But then there's the beautiful visuals and the top-notch playability. Fighter animations are sublime, the characters very detailed and the controls are super-smooth. And in the end, that is what counts.

With its fresh setting Zerzura offers exactly the kind of more serious point & click adventure I´d like to see more often. An inspired, well crafted expedition into the underrepresented realm of the historically inspired adventures.

I wanted NeverDead to be this sleeper-trash-hit, some kind of Deadly Premonition. A game which by most objective standards is bad but you can still love with devotion. Too bad, that NeverDead completely misses that essential second part. (...) What good are one or two nice ideas for a bossfight or some almost good surroundings, when the mechanics are a constant annoyance? Or, even worse: when most of the time the game seems dead set on doing its best to bore you right out of your skull?