The duo of Platinum-developed titles in the Bayonetta and Vanquish 10th Anniversary Bundle are at the zenith of their respective genres because of their undying commitment to responsive controls and deep, rewarding gameplay mechanics.

An enjoyable substitute for H2O worshippers on those days when you just can't make it to the beach. High speed and high flying stunts through creative locations beats watching the rocks grow any day of the week.

I am simply amazed at how cowardly these creatures become when close to death.

Without the revamped control, some of you might even forget which version of GP you're playing. MotoGP 3 is all about refinement, which is swell, but how about something a little spicier next time?

The music is the best I've ever heard in a game. I'd buy the soundtrack even if the game never existed.

While all of the weapons are fun, the best part of the combat is the enemies. There have got to be well over 100 different kinds of enemies to fight against. Each one is beautifully designed and animated, from saber toothed tigers and cavemen to robots and alien cyborgs.

I simply cannot wait to see the conclusion, and am already hoping Season Two comes along sometime next year.

The City That Dares Not Sleep even makes fun of the ridiculous difficulty of old-school adventure games at one point. Sure, some of the newer crop of the genre have been labeled as a little too easy, but Telltale's efforts is perfectly suitable for veterans and newcomers alike.

A rental only (though it sells for a very affordable 20 bucks), not so much to play as to watch for its pure craziness.

It isn’t a perfect game by any stretch due to some glaring issues with the rebounding and control, but ESPN College Hoops is still the best NCAA game out there right now. It looks better than "March Madness" and the great Legacy mode is unrivaled.

I love the gooey center of every cyborg PMC out there, but Revengeance fights the player every step of the way. What's more, reducing the difficulty ultimately boils down the combat to a button masher, leaving the experience hollow and draining all the same. Fans and masochists alike might find a lot to love, but even I can't stand the crunchy outside of a bug for the sweet gooey insides.

Unpolished and unsure – too long for an epilogue, too short for a stand-alone title. Still, an enjoyable romp with an intriguing story can be found somewhere between the two, and you won’t have to be wide awake to see it.

Despite the disappointing Gauntlet mode and its insulting lack of story and patronizing tutorials, Broken Destiny is a great addition to the series because the core gameplay is as solid as ever, which is especially impressive on the small screen.

Its online play is unique to the genre on the Xbox and the gameplay itself is decent. But the lack of compelling game modes, the underwhelming Career and the somewhat bland delivery make this old classic just look old.

It boils down to this: Either you're so hardcore into "Mahhval, baby!" that you simply must 'take it for a ride' everywhere you go, or you've dabbled in either prior console version of the game and want something deep with online play to give that shiny new Vita something to do. If you don't fall into either of these camps, then Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 on the Vita is probably not going to be worth your time, because you either prefer the console experience, have been worn out by the game already, or simply never cared for it to begin with.

Hopefully, the next expansion will bring some changes to the table that round out the game a little more, and strike a new balance. I’m tired of stalemates.

Wasteland 2: Director's Cut is a fantastic retro-styled CRPG with many modern upgrades. Sure, it has a few bugs and takes a while before it becomes truly interesting and fun, but that's par for the course for games with 50+ hours of gameplay.

Pokemon Let’s Go is best approached exactly like Nintendo described it. It’s an experimental side game and in no way a substitute for a main series title. Luckily, we should get a chance to experience a new core title for the Switch next year. As it stands, Pokemon Let’s Go is a decent morsel which will help pass the time until then.

The goal of any superhero game is to make you feel like the hero, and by that standard, Spider-Man 2 is unrivaled. That it also happens to be a fantastic action game is icing on the cake, a true treat for both fans of the webslinger and general gamers alike.

This game is the product of a true master.

If you're a puzzle fan, you must get BOXBOY! Even if you're not the biggest puzzle fan, but you're a fan of a good challenge, BOXBOY! is for you.

Streamlines and updates the franchise at the cost of some stiff features and aging presentation.

Despite the sheer volume of collecting in front of players, Lego City Undercover's genuine humor, open and expanded gameplay, and lovable characters immediately engage the player and never let go. Even after Rex Fury is behind bars, rebuilding LEGO City (and tearing it down again in your car) will never get old.

Immediate reactions will register on the "what the hell" scale, but with a little time, gamers will have a fluid, evolving experience that's got them on the tips of their thumbs.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is a taste of what happens when a developer decides to contend with nearly every good fantasy RPG idea. It's an astoundingly extensive-and foolhardy-task for an original IP, whose largest mistake is not that it's unpolished in spots, but that it, of little fault of its own, comes only a few months after The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. Knowing this well ahead of time likely propelled 38 Studio and Big Huge Games toward a cel-shaded, casual, jack-of-all-trades design, but all things considered, Reckoning carries enough momentum to sustain its lengthy journey and sweeping world. It will not change the way you think about fantasy RPGs, but it certainly fits right in.

Catherine is a fascinating experiment, but it’s rather uneven and has not aged well.

The PSP-only CG cutscenes are gorgeous and dramatic. An ethereal soundtrack keeps the mythological mood in check, even though the voice-acting won’t win any awards.

If you’ve been following the franchise for years, you’ll love this title and if this is your first shot at Kirby’s brand of suck, don’t be scared.

One of the best air combat games ever.

The handicapped shooting elements, the inconsequential mini-games, and the lack of connection between them will probably turn off diehard shooter fans. It’s not the biggest game, nor the most technical, but it is original—absurd and effective despite its faults.

Many people might be turned off to Rocksmith due to its lack of party game appeal, but that's not what it's about. It's about making a difficult instrument easy and fun to learn, and it accomplishes that.

Locomotion in an open-world game is oftentimes the most enjoyable part of the experience, but don’t expect Second Son to totally revolutionize the brand or the genre. I’d have liked melee combat to get a bit more involved with lifts and longer strings of attacks, but zipping around to recover health or blasting a helicopter out of the sky with an elemental missile feels perfectly entertaining for the early adopter set.

Though Guitar Hero Live is rough around the corners and may not convince casual Guitar Hero players to return to their guitar-shredding ways, it sets a new standard in technology for peripherals, presentation, and online connectivity.

Watch Dogs, Assassin’s Creed, and now The Division are all the kinds of worlds I love to lose myself in. But I think we’re at impasse. Entertainment is ever evolving, and that goes double for videogames.

While not without its flaws, Max Payne is a solid addition to any PS2 library, provided you didn't play the PC version, you don't have an Xbox and you aren't just itching to see Max on your big screen TV.

Good graphics, fun gameplay, crafty AI, a random mission generator and more bursting heads than you'd find on a teenager's face will keep this one on my hard drive until the bitter end.

The list of flaws may not be long, but they are extenuating. Moreover, on Normal difficulty the game can be completed in about 10 hours, which is on the short side.

Abe, Munch and all their pals are hilarious, but the gameplay gets repetitive, what with all the Spooce collecting and somewhat uninspired puzzles.

The story concept and solid gameplay give it a definite edge. While it's not really the caR-PG it sets out to be, there's more than enough here to warrant a try.

Despite its flaws, The Oath in Felghana is the perfect game for the PSP. Enjoyable combat and dungeon crawling is its own reward.

Madden NFL 15 is a solid title that's actually one of the better editions to date.

In Dicey Dungeons, everything is already on the table. It’s a highly replayable game that you can pick up for short sessions whenever the moment strikes.

IG's immediate, pressing visual and audio effects can be a shock to the player's system. Immediate reactions will register on the "what the hell" scale, but with a little time, gamers will have a fluid, evolving experience that's got them on the tips of their thumbs.

Lunar: Silver Star Harmony is one of the best RPGs available on the PSP. The added content and reworked presentation are more than enough to warrant a playthrough or two for even the most dedicated fans.

The pacing is one of The Writer's biggest strengths but also the means to what some might consider its greatest weakness.

It's not a perfect game: the visuals are dated, the combat spikes wildly at the end of the game, and the character interactions can be total anime cheese. However, it's a game in which I cared more about the characters and story than most boilerplate save-the-world JRPG melodramas.

With a disaster scenario in hand, or perhaps one created with their easy-to-use scenario editor, you'll get more than enough enjoyment out of Cities: Skylines - Natural Disasters to both consider it a true expansion and make it worth its asking price.

The progression over the years for Pro Evolution Soccer is evident. Just a few years ago this was an arcade game that only collected dust in the corner and watched as many a kid gingerly thumbed through selections around it. Not saying fútbol fans haven’t enjoyed it, as there’s surprisingly quite a following to the title, but it has just taken time for growth and solid improvement. ’14 seems to be the year we’ll look back and say, “Yup, that’s where it turned the corner. Man, I miss that DeLorean.”

Dead or Alive 5+ succeeds with arresting visuals, expansive console-quality modes, unique touchscreen gameplay, and the reliable replayability of a fighter, all in your pocket. The opportunities for awkward sexual innuendo and self-incriminating details in this review abound, but play DoA5+ for yourself and find a capable, feature-complete fighter with great portable visuals and a few bells and whistles to improve upon the console release.

It suffers from several obvious shortcomings, but accomplishes what only a week ago seemed impossible by providing console gamers with the full Battlefield experience.

If you play a lot at home go with the Wii since the graphics are better than the DS, and you’ll have the option of taking a basic version on the go. If most of your gameplay is done in the streets, grab a DS copy. Either way there’s hours of old-school arcade fun to be had.

Wii Fit is the Cliffs Notes version of exercise, and as anyone who’s ever tried a fad exercise program knows, there are no shortcuts to fitness. Nintendo obviously means well, but the balance board will soon enough end up in the same place where every other piece of home fitness equipment does: the garage sale.

With the exception of the backgrounds being occasionally distracting from the strings of buttons on the occasional track, there really isn’t anything negative here.

Core fits into the series quite well and makes me curious as to what other old arcade game will be tackled in the inevitable third Bit.Trip game.

A very solid game. What it isn't is a very innovative game. It does everything it has to and does it well, but it doesn't do anything new.

Since it's fairly easy to find all the necessary objects, and you can safely talk to every character about almost every object, it's not much of a challenge to finish the game. There's only one storyline, one ending, and one mode of play (i.e. easy), so you're not likely to play the game through more than once.

Despite its obviously derivative mechanics and gameplay, Dark Cloud offers a solid, fun experience and at least tries something interesting with its village building system.

Unfortunately, Def Jam drops the mic again by not providing any sort of Character Creator.

Even though Capcom vs. SNK 2: EO for the Xbox is about as fresh as a two-day old bagel, the online capabilities of the Xbox revive this tired title.

Small tweaks like the Floor General and Freestyle Air make it a smoother all-around product than March Madness 2004, but the margin is so slight that owners of last year’s game shouldn’t feel compelled to buy this one, too. The bubble is starting to break.

What the developers are doing with a remaster is not simply to squeeze more money out of the consumer; Gravity Rush: Remastered is giving people the opportunity to experience what is genuinely an interesting and entertaining game, one that they might have missed because of the platform on which it was released.

Ambivalence aside, this is definitely an engaging and challenging story worth imbibing.

Perhaps it’s best to think of it this way: If the occasional AI glitch or incoming onslaught of paid DLC gives you unbearable or unwanted flashbacks to Rome II, then you may want to avoid Attila altogether. But for everyone else, you’d be remiss to deprive yourself of a rich, captivating experience that, though not quite perfect now, will likely achieve true greatness via updates well before its successor arrives.

While not a hefty time investment, any player will experience a narrative that reasonably mixes fantasy with common storytelling tropes. I just felt that there could’ve been much more to absorb and more game to play.

If you’re into the anime series and have coped with some of the more lackluster titles in the franchise, you may want to consider giving this one a shot, and like me, even if you don’t like Naruto, you may want to check it out.

What you have here is a solid game and an excellent purchase for anyone owning a portable system.

If you're a fan of the series who missed the 3DS game, this is must-play as it captures a lot of what's made RE so beloved over the years. If you have a 3DS available to you (an XL would be ideal), try to play it, even without a second Circle Pad. Something about having to stand still while you shoot still scares the crap out of me, and at least on 3DS there was an excuse to maintain that legacy of "bad" controls.

The key word in the Thomas Was Alone for me is "was." I really hope more people find and download this gem, because it's totally worth the effort. In many ways it's a lot like a good book, where when you're done, you feel slightly alone having experienced it.

I'm having a great time playing World of Tanks, and that's not solely due to my affinity for the era. I truly appreciate playing a game that not only encourages strategy and teamwork, but also requires it for victory.

Pushmo World is an eShop gem that might wind up with the same fate as other missed jewels like The Cave or Kung-Fu Rabbit, but for those that spend the coin on it, it's a title that revels in its challenge without shame, and will not hesitate to push others away.

With Skate 2 released just a little over a year ago, it’s clear that Skate 3 was pumped out too quickly. The ideas are great, but the lack of polish is evident with every flip, flop, and flub.

The simple, albeit underdeveloped, combination of gameplay styles is brisk enough to carry the inspiration behind its characters, setting, and story.

The graphics are mediocre in this next-gen world. The environments are nice enough, but the framerate is still a little choppy when compared with the slick polish of PGR 4 or Forza.

A mediocre port of what can already be considered an old Dreamcast game. But on the other hand, it's a port of a good fun game, with the ever-important gameplay still intact. Crazy Taxi on PS2 is still a gut blow of fun.

Simply steeped too deeply in old role-playing game conventions and standbys. Games like "Star Wars: KOTOR" have changed the landscape, while more similar titles like "Final Fantasy X" and "Xenosaga" have a better battle system and a more epic feel, respectively.

Best taken as what it is: an experience. It is a graphically beautiful, fully engrossing story that lets the player take the role of combatant and commander.

It might not improve on the original in any meaningful way or fix any of that game's glaring flaws, but it's still a deep, smart and entertaining PSP game. A rare card indeed.

Ain't half bad. Soccer Slam scores a goal for anyone looking for some lighthearted action

Otogi's somewhat repetitive action is not entirely compelling, but this one is really all about style and looking cool. It might not suck you in, but it should satiate your hunger for both fast-paced action and eye candy.

One disappointment here is the lame way that the tricks have been integrated...you never really need to do tricks. In fact, doing so often slows you down. You just don't get rewarded enough for pulling off the cool stuff.

PSOv2 really doesn't give fans enough to warrant the steep dip in the wallet. With the right online experience, PSO can be a really fun game, but between the original and Version 2, the scales just don¹t add up.

While Forza Motorsport 5 is a strong launch-day title for Xbox One, it has more style than substance and serves better as a foundation for future next-gen Forza Motorsport titles than the limited sampler that it really is.

You could do much worse than Dustforce. In the cold of winter, it's a good time to wrap yourself around a tightly balanced, stylishly presented, hardcore platformer with a ton of replay value. Dustforce fits the bill. It's the best game I've played this year (so far).

If you're new to the series, there's plenty of warm water here to sink into, but franchise stalwarts need not worry. Agent 47 is as cunning, deadly, and silent as you want him to be; it just so happens that purist players will also be the most rewarded. Regardless your level of experience, Hitman: Absolution scratches a very specific itch, one that involves a butterfly knife or possibly an accidental electrocution.

The fighting mechanics have been enhanced and edited to the point that any room for improvement is nearly all in the extras (and if TNA iMPACT! has anything to say, in the animations and the clipping). WWE Smackdown! vs. RAW 2009 is the strongest next-gen title in the franchise, no questions asked.

The strategic possibilities are limited only by the skill of the player. It’s likely too complex for some and isn’t without a few hiccups, but those with patience to burn will find this a bright candle indeed.

A shining example of how to revitalize an old-school franchise. Its alternate history of World War II with the Nazis coming out on top is both far-fetched and over-the-top, but it keeps it grounded by being an extremely fun shooter, having a compelling story with well-developed characters, and a main protagonist who you’ll truly care about to the end.

It provides an interesting locale, great story, and some fun new perks and equipment. It's also a bit lengthier than the first few DLCs, with a fairly larger map to explore, rewarding you each time you replay, checking every nook and cranny.

The presentation is really what makes Lost in Nightmares enjoyable and lends a reason to long for a full-blown old-school Resident Evil to come back. Alas, one can only dream.

Its old-school design may turn some people off, but the more open-minded among you are in for one hell of a ride. Besides, any game that can make running an orphanage seem fun has got to be doing something very right.

Kameo isn’t the deepest or most challenging game in the Xbox 360 launch window, but it looks awesome and offers solid, if fleeting, fun.

FIFA Soccer is a rare first-outing for a newly launched device that actually acts a strong addition to the library of any gamer. Much of the depth of the FIFA experience is wasted here, but the new touch controls and the production values more than make up for it. Even if you're not into soccer, you might learn a thing or two and have fun playing on the run. You might also start calling it football like the rest of the crazy world.

There’s no question that Rock Band is better with instruments, but on the handheld, given that the primary comparison is Guitar Hero: On Tour which comes with the multi-colored, pro-arthritis death vice, I’m glad there aren’t any here.

Other than a lack of choice with the controls and a little heavy-handedness in the presentation and direction, Metroid: Other M superbly creates a familiar-feeling Metroid experience that really isn't that familiar at all. And don't worry, your thumb will forgive you someday.

The simplistic nature of the game doesn't leave a ton of staying power, but with an MSRP of $29.99, it's a great way to go out.

Bookworm Adventures 2 is PopCap at the top of its (literal) game: Great presentation, quirky humor, loads of play and replay value... and God help us all, it's even educational. Do yourself a favor and play it anyway.

I really enjoy this game. It's just that too many things slow down what could have been a truly amazing experience.

It may not be a perfect experience, but it’s a real blast for anyone who likes these types of games.