Game & Wario is a strange game that doesn’t offer a particularly cohesive experience, but that’s all part of the charm. It is a humorous and fun title that is perfect for showing off why the Wii U is special.

Put simply, this is an excellent mobile translation of a tabletop experience – but random design elements in the source material hold it back.

Moving between moments of greatness and moments of glaring ineptitude, State of Decay leaves me with mixed feelings. It has a great idea at its core, and I want to give the developers at Undead Labs credit for that. But lots of games begin with great ideas; executing those ideas well and letting the player experience them fully is the challenge. That’s where State of Decay falls apart.

Many of CastleStorm’s mechanics have been seen in other games, but Zen Studios blends them all together to create something fresh: a strategy title with a lot of real-time combat elements and a goofy charm.

Kingdom Rush: Frontiers is highly approachable, but don’t let its humorous comic veneer fool you. Turn up the difficulty, and Ironhide has tuned a remarkably balanced game that juggles punishment and reward in equal measure. Frontiers remains close to form to its predecessor, but recognizing where to make improvements on an already strong formula is an art form all its own.

Gunpoint is short, but it feels like the right length. You can get through the whole game in about three hours. The story is dense and the dialogue choices are varied, offering incentive to replay the game.

Prime World: Defenders had an exceptionally low bar to clear to get me on board, but the staid design and brutal grind managed to miss even that simple goal. Because the power differential between basic and improved cards is so great, the difficulty ticks over from impossible to trivial out of nowhere. Neither extreme is much fun, and unfortunately neither is Prime World: Defenders.

The Last of Us is a deeply felt, shockingly violent game that questions what we're willing to sacrifice and, more disturbingly, what we're willing to do so save the ones we love. The conclusion offers no easy answers. You won't forget it.

New Leaf is one of the most purely pleasant experiences in gaming, free of stressful boss fights, combative multiplayer experiences, or cynicism in any form. Instead, it focuses on clever humor and forming friendships with the residents of your town. Some may find it cheesy or without direction, but I enjoyed this endlessly charming outlier in the current gaming landscape.

Rymdkapsel fizzles out with no fanfare. Players must provide their own motivation to best wave counts, and work on new strategies with payoffs or drawbacks that can’t be known until another hour of playtime passes. Rymdkapsel is a creative concept, but needs far more building out and polish to become a great game.

The detailed world of Neo-Paris seems like it should be full of great stories, but the one Dontnod tells is uninspired. The environmental climbing sequences offer some simple fun, but the linear paths diminish any sense of exploration this otherwise would have achieved.

Combat is filled with fresh ideas, but that creativity inhibits your capability in combat. Hopefully Dontnod doesn’t forget any of the lessons it learned this time around, because a sequel could be truly memorable.

A highly atmospheric, gorgeous title with a variety of mind-bending puzzles. The ride is over quickly, but it will stick with me for quite some time.

Tetris Blitz is played two minutes at a time, but bypassing the pop-ups to get to the core game feels like it takes just as long. Not having to pay for the game up front sounds like a great bargain, but when you are bombarded the way you are in Blitz, it makes it feel like you’re getting ripped off, even if you haven’t spent a dime.

None of Legendary Heroes' rough spots keep it from being an excellent game that I recommend with no reservations. Stardock has finally delivered on the promise that Elemental once held, back in the halcyon days of 2009. You don't have to be any kind of strategy savant to appreciate what this exceptional release has to offer.

Grid 2's LiveRoutes system – where upcoming junctions are populated on the fly to avoid track repetition – helps alleviate the lack of drama, and is where this game shines.

I like that Grid 2's multiplayer carrot tastes slightly different than the single-player one, but ultimately the game – apart from the LiveRoutes system – isn't the revelation that I was hoping for. Codemasters has proven that it can deliver a compelling racing experience on the track, but we'll have to keep on waiting for the next big leap forward.

Grid 2 retains much of what made the first alluring, but falls short of pushing racing games forward like the original.

If chaotic, over-the-top shootouts are your thing, there’s plenty to like in Fuse amongst the frustrations. Just be sure to bring some friends along for the ride.

I was bothered by the cutscene situation, the basic AI (both friendly and enemy), a couple of glitches that forced restarts, and the dramatic change in fun factor when playing solo. That said, I can’t deny that I spent a lot of time laughing while playing with three others.

While I can’t help but point out some notable missteps, I also can’t deny Star Command’s irresistibility, and I happily recommend it to fellow sci-fi enthusiasts.

Blasting through the game's varied environments with a pistol in each hand never got old, and I always looked forward to the end-level duel with a legend of the Wild West. After the dreadful Call of Juarez: The Cartel, I was skeptical going into this downloadable offering. To my surprise, Techland has bounced back with a very enjoyable tribute to the tall tales of the Wild West.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Gunslinger's shootouts. The game certainly doesn't turn any FPS conventions on their ears, but it still presents tense and entertaining shootouts frequently.

The Wii U version cleans up the HUD by putting menu and map information on the GamePad's screen. I like having constant access to a map without shuffling through menus.

This former 3DS game doesn’t stand toe-to-toe with the best console shooters, but it’s a faithful port. Revelations has a lot to offer fans of the series and players looking for a more evenly paced, thoughtful shooter.

The new content, including an entertaining challenge-based two-player co-op mode, along with dual-analog stick control make this the definitive version of Resident Evil: Revelations.

While I enjoyed the extreme challenge of collecting all the letters and conquering the Golden Temple in the original game, I feel that these items make the game more enjoyable without taking away too much of the difficulty.

Cut the Rope: Time Travel is a great follow-up to one of the most successful games on iOS, and proves to be well worth the asking price.