Divinity: Dragon Commander came out of nowhere to become one of my favorite games of the year. Swift, brutal dragon combat paired with large RTS battles works way better than I ever expected it to.

This may be one of the most memorable handheld titles you’ll play this year. And what a special year it is.

Its world is bland and uninviting, its free-to-play systems annoying and restrictive, and its gameplay shallow and repetitive.

Ibb and Obb is not the most creative or visually striking platformer, but it’s one of the more satisfying and challenging cooperative experiences you’ll find.

Smashing baddies, exploring dungeons, and scrounging for as much money and items as you can find is a satisfying departure from many strategy-heavy games coming out these days. Dragon’s Crown is a nostalgic return to classic side-scrolling brawlers found in arcades in the early ’90s, complete with flashing “go” arrows and food that falls out of villains and chests.

Shadowrun Returns stumbles a bit in its effort to re-create on the PC the isometric RPG world gamers fell in love with on classic consoles, but it redeems itself by providing players with a seemingly infinite toolbox to craft their own adventures.

It’s hard to recommend Breach & Clear in its current state for anyone but the most devoted of tactical players or military fanboys. Maybe the upcoming modes and maps will add some variety, but as it stands now, it’s a pretty empty and shallow experience.

I’m shocked. The Fall works. Bringing an experience as complicated as Deus Ex’s to a touchscreen should have been a mess, but I was easily sneaking, hacking, and headshotting my way through the short campaign. I don’t know if I’m ready to call myself a mobile gaming convert, but this is definitely one of the deeper experiences I’ve had on an iOS platform.

I do not regret the possible hundreds of hours I am going to continue to lose to Shin Megami Tensei IV, and I hope it has the power to win over newcomers to the franchise. I like quirky, demon-summoning high schoolers as much as the next Persona fan, but you haven’t truly experienced a Megaten game until you’ve tried to wrap your mind around the infamous conversation system.

This year, NCAA’s lack of novelty is more evident. Yeah, it now has Infinity Engine physics — which Madden NFL got last year — and Ultimate Team — which FIFA has had for a while. It does play a better game of college football, however, and that’s important. But ultimately, NCAA Football 14 is like your friend who showed up to the first class of the fall semester with the same haircut, shirt, and summer story to tell. Maybe he lost a few pounds, and you’re happy to see him, but he hasn’t really changed.

Sometimes Civ V feels like it’s on autopilot, which isn’t the hallmark of a strategy game worth your time.

Although you’ll need at least Episode One to play 400 Days, this is a good standalone title that expands The Walking Dead universe and pushes the story forward. The situation it sets up for Season Two is intriguing.

Company of Heroes 2 builds on the formula and adds new mechanics with interesting gameplay ramifications. Unfortunately, Relic does a poor job of easing new players into the rules systems.

Deadpool won’t win any awards for innovation, and it won’t really stick with you, but you’ll have a hard time not enjoying its self-aware humor and action. Fans of Deadpool the character will have a great time with Deadpool the game. As far as super hero games go, this is definitely one of the better ones.

I admire Game and Wario’s charm and creativity. After playing it, I can definitely say I’m more sold on the Wii U’s tablet controller than I was before. I just want to see these features implemented in meatier experiences.

It may have its flaws, but Neverwinter is highly enjoyable and accessible to veteran, beginner, and casual players alike.

I’ll keep going back for more punishment because Kingdom Rush: Frontiers is just that damn good. It’s not only worthy of carrying the title of “sequel to Kingdom Rush,” it’s one of the finest tower-defense games you’ll find anywhere, regardless of platform.

The pacing becomes somewhat sluggish right before you hit the final act, but from there it moves at a 100 miles an hour. I didn’t leave my couch until well after the credits rolled.

New Leaf is a delightful way to spend a lazy afternoon. It does have stagnation issues — this is basically the same thing we played on GameCube, Nintendo DS, and Wii — but the magic is still real.

You’ll find some great ideas here, and players who prefer Diablo 2 to its sequel will certainly love Helsing’s emphasis on character customization. But the story fails to elevate the familiar action to anything special. Mechanically, this is a great action RPG, but it lacks heart.

It’s sometimes frustrating and sometimes monotonous, but it also transports you to an amazing world with striking designs, a deep culture, and interesting characters.

It’s only when I fought with a corporation that I truly feel like a part of the Dust 514 narrative. I fear that many players may never even get that far due to how overwhelming the menu-heavy interface can seem.

A funny, entertaining, and deeply satisfying experience well worth the $10 price. Zen Studios has proved that it has more to offer than pinball, and gamers who enjoy building and destroying in equal measure owe it to themselves to check it out.

It brings real innovation to a genre that’s seen little significant deviation from 1989’s Populous.

Making a group of enemies disappear in a chain of miniature black holes with your Warp Rifle is ridiculous. More important, it’s ridiculously entertaining.

It’s been so long since I could say, without any second guessing or qualifiers, that I like a Resident Evil game. I don’t just like Revelations — I adore it. Slower mechanics, scrounging for items, and marching headlong into the unknown are features not entirely lost in new RE games, but they’re rarely expressed as well as they were in pre-RE4 titles.

As strong as the writing is for the background conversations, the main story is confusing, and, at the end, predictable.

It’s not the system’s best puzzle game — that’s still probably Crashmo — but it is its most varied.

An unoriginal example of an archaic form of entertainment.

Monaco is an amazing co-op game. It works both as an arcade-style romp and as strategic game that rewards deep thinkers...If you don’t want to play with others, however, I would skip it.

Injustice’s greatest strength is that it makes you feel powerful regardless of your skill level. Even when you are struggling to overcome a series of grueling attacks, breaking through that with a well-placed combo or ridiculous supermove brings out the wonder in controlling an iconic hero or villain.

While Dead Island: Riptide serves the zombie genre well, it doesn’t do anything new with it. You’ve killed a million enemies like this before, and the only real differences this time around are aesthetic. The developers at Techland are adamant that Riptide is more of a spin-off than a true sequel, so maybe next time they’ll find some brains for this undead series.

While its story and graphics are uninspired, its sci-fi setting and skill-based combat are a refreshing change from its pointy-eared, min-maxing, level-grinding brethren.

Cut the Rope: Time Travel is the type of time-wasting game that mobile devices excel at.

It’s nice to get back to basics with ShootMania Storm and recall a time when we played for the joy of playing...And while the creation tools offer a potential for unlimited greatness, the truth is that ShootMania is fun today.

Infinite’s biggest issue is that the stiff nonplayer characters really dampen the impact of the social themes. Irrational worked so hard building this world filled with terrible racial imagery, but it’s difficult to feel the effects of that when I can’t relate to the mechanical mannequins that populate Columbia...It’s actually a minor complaint, but it’s very noticeable in a product that is otherwise so exquisitely put together.

Survival Instinct left me feeling empty. It’s less of a story arc and more of a montage of “Here’s what Daryl and Merle did before Season One.” Unfortunately, technical problems and frustrating design decisions prevent its one redeeming feature — the survival gameplay — from reaching its potential.

Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon is a puzzle-rich wonderland full of irreverent humor and clever level design, but it cannot overcome the 3DS’s limitations. Tilt controls and the lack of a second analog stick really tarnishes an otherwise amazing game.

No one expected the single-player campaign to be a milestone in video game literature, so I can excuse its meandering tone and appreciate it as a window into StarCraft’s development.

Judgment just might be the game that drops Gears of War out of the triple-A tier. It is competently done and no more. The rock-solid gameplay returns intact — virtually identical, in fact — and the Declassified options bump the entertainment value up a few notches, but the epic scope and precision level designs that elevated the franchise beyond its mechanics simply aren’t here.

Children deserve massive, explorable worlds just as much as adults. It’s wonderful that TT Fusion took that concept and made a fully functioning and largely non-violent world without sacrificing action. You won’t miss firing guns or swinging lightsabers in Lego City — not when you’re scouring the landscape for super builds and smashing everything in sight.

It’s a fun, efficient, and rewarding way to play baseball, and it’s the closest most of us will come to achieving our big league dreams.

Ascension isn’t a reinvention of God of War; it’s a refinement. It plays on its strengths – exciting combat, great visuals, and huge levels — even when those strengths might overshadow some of the new things it tries to accomplish (like adding emotional depth to its lead hero).

Dollar Dash isn’t great. It’s sometimes pretty OK but only after you get your head around the obtuse controls and are playing with real humans. It’s probably a bit better with people you know, but that would require your friends to all purchase the game as well.

Castlevania isn’t brutish — it is a test of your agility and your willingness to overcome nearly impossible odds. Mirror of Fate really wants to dazzle you with clever puzzles and name dropping fan-favorite characters, but it can’t emulate the soul of the series.

It’s a joy to see SimCity return in a better form than it has ever been. It is wonderfully complex, but very easy to play. The title is a massive undertaking and it has come together beautifully overall.

Did you miss the part where this is Star Wars Pinball? If you like both of those things, and you have a device capable of playing video games, you really have no excuse not to pick this up.

A number of minor gaffes, an uninspired multiplayer, and a severe drop in tension defuse Tomb Raider somewhat, but nothing stops it from living up to Lara’s legacy.

Crysis 3 is the strongest entry in the franchise. The puzzle-like combat scenarios have never been better with its suite of gameplay options and opportunities while the engaging narrative urges you to see Prophet’s journey through to the end. And if you’re a console owner, you can rest easy knowing that it still looks great on seven-year-old hardware.

A frenetically fun, albeit flawed, experience set in a beloved universe — a sexy, slash-soaked side story worth playing for franchise fans and newcomers alike.

The Gunstacker system offers an impressive variety of ways to throw bits of metal around at incredible speeds, and the enemy and level designs are (mostly) as creative as you’re going to see this year. It’s not too big on plot, but you’ll probably be too busy using ridiculous guns to mow down waves of grotesque enemies to care.

Colonial Marines comes off as too much fan service with few (if any) ideas of its own. It provides a tired narrative with an unsatisfactory conclusion that opens more questions than it attempts to answer.

Sly Cooper: Thieves is Time is a fantastic addition to the series and a great entry point for newcomers. Most of my gripes are minor, but the aggressive load times present the biggest detriment to the game, and the need for a PS Vita might irritate anyone who wants to collect everything these time periods have to offer. The rest is just a few hiccups in history, but they shouldn’t stop you from enjoying the latest chapter in the Cooper story.

Of the new additions, the weapon crafting feature makes it worthwhile to stick around. Even the cooperative mode injects some fresh blood (and sorely missed horror elements) back into the formula. The essential ingredients of what makes a Dead Space game great keeps changing from one iteration to the next, but at least Visceral Games always finds a way to make it enjoyable.

A video game that’s stunning to behold — one that can take players to unexpected emotional places and make them eager to push through the story to see the next brilliant cinematic. And we also get an experience that’s a bit too rooted in old Japanese role-playing traditions.

Antichamber is the film "Cube" sans horror, the threat of death, and poor acting. It's insanely hard and painfully simple, just like any expertly crafted puzzle. Bruce has created one of the finest and most challenging puzzle games I have ever experienced.

For all the great amount of detail put into the experience, the lack of real, permanent consequences and a fully simulated opponent is a huge letdown. Scripted missions just aren't enticing enough to warrant repeated plays.

It's hard and unfair in the campaign, but that keeps it challenging. Beyond the gameplay, it's just nice to look at. The battlefields are crisp, and the characters are interesting and colorful.

Fire Emblem: Awakening completely engaged me while I was playing it, whether I was connecting with its well-written characters or taxing my (limited) intellect as I tried to win a difficult battle while keeping everyone alive. It's hard to ask for much more from a strategy game, but Awakening goes beyond that by supporting its great mechanics with immersion and beautiful art.

Although it's not as funny as past Ron Gilbert games, The Cave still manages to charm through its visuals and honey-tongued narrator, but it falls flat when it comes to storytelling.

Like Crashmo, I'd rather play Tokyo Crash Mobs than just about any smartphone game.

For the sequel to one of the most successful mobile games in recent memory, the developers of Temple Run 2 took a safe approach: more of the same. Sure, it has better graphics and a new power-up system, but at its core, it's a lot like the original.

It offers nothing outside of mindless shooting and gun-looting. But that's also why I admire it. It's a throwback to an era when technology limited storytelling and games were simpler. EDF 2017 is not a deep experience, but it's a very pure one.

The original Devil May Cry paved new roads in action gaming. As a remake, DmC: Devil May Cry largely repaves the same road, but a gleefully brutal combat system and the patented bad attitude bring the sexy back to mass demon extermination. Even better, the action endures throughout a lengthy campaign with few drops in the tempo - no small feat, that.

Anarchy Reigns tries to be many things, but what kills it is that it is too often the one thing it never should be: boring.

A good but safe debut from the three-man team at Boomlagoon. Aside from its cute premise and racing-inspired gameplay, everything else feels like something we've seen dozens of times before on the App Store. Hopefully, the team will flex their creative muscles a little more in future titles.

Seduce Me isn't the first erotic video game, but it is far from an inventive or adventurous one. Fragmented images acting as cutscenes and hardly any direct character interaction combined with a series of annoying and often unfair-feeling card battles turn a title selling itself as an erotic adventure into a barely tantalizing mess.

It's a good-looking game with a unique style that screams Goichi Suda's name, but the gameplay is rarely rewarding. So much is working against you that you feel like the only reason you're making any progress at all is because of pure luck rather than skill.

Middle Manager of Justice goes on and on and on. Playing feels like walking a treadmill on the slowest speed with the best option being to just buckle down and pay for gastrointestinal surgery. But then, what's the point? You're paying to not play the game.

While Omega has its good parts, it doesn't bring enough of that signature storytelling to the forefront. I love pulling the right trigger to shoot dudes, but I enjoy using the same button to interrupt a cutscene even more. This DLC doesn't understand that.

If you're looking for a fun distraction and you're a fan of the series, then Fight for Fortune will tickle your treasure-hunting fancy. Besides, it's not exactly a risky purchase at $5.

Guardians of Middle-earth sacrifices a lot of complexity to work as a console game. Hardcore MOBA fans will disapprove of the changes, but genre newbies looking for some team-based, Tolkien-inspired fun will happily take these heroes and villains to war.

Dragonborn is a creepy descent into madness set in a mini Morrowind that isn't quite as epic as Dawnguard, but it compensates for that with a wealth of new items, shouts, and spells.

Far Cry 3 executes beautifully on its promises, rolling together a massive open world, excellent stealth, smartly designed RPG elements, and tense gunfights into one smooth whole. The multiplayer fails to distinguish itself in any meaningful way, and a slightly smarter A.I. would've been nice, but those are the only things robbing Ubisoft of an uncontested victory.

Portal 2 In Motion offers some cool new tools and a few more hours playing around in the Aperture Science Test Facility. While it's occasionally sloppy and too isolated to hold its own against Valve's best, it does have solid motion controls and a lot of neat ideas that I would love to see more of in the future.

With an art style that easily won over this English major's heart and battles that keep you guessing until the end, it's certainly one of the most action-packed word games you'll find on your mobile device.

Crashmo is a fine example of what a talented developer can do with a solid gameplay mechanic. It's also a great argument for separating business from play.

Fun and endearing, and it advances a game long lost to thoughtless rereleases and troubled mechanics. But it doesn't quite know how to solve all of Zelda II's problems, and where it succeeds, it also struggles.

Thanks to Episode 5: No Time Left, I spent nearly three hours sitting at my computer with a knot in my stomach and a few unshed tears in my eyes. It's rare to play a game that moves you emotionally, makes you care about its characters, and causes you to gasp out loud as it shocks and disgusts you.

Declassified is brief, boring, and bland. It should have stayed locked up in the filing cabinet.

I'm a fan of more King's Bounty, yet the magic is missing with this latest expansion. The Viking faction isn't as fun to play as other groups. The tweaks to combat, though, give players more tactical options, something any player of a strategy-RPG can appreciate.

While Epic Mickey is a treat to look at and provides some delight - mostly in the visual nods to older, more forgotten Disney character and environmental design - it finally falls far short of the wondrous, creative, simply magical experience it promises.

A beautiful and content-rich bundle of joy for Vita owners looking to dust off their woefully undersupported handhelds. The subtle incorporation of new characters, scenarios, and even online connectivity takes full advantage of the new hardware without compromising content or story quality.

This game offers a potential for endless hours of fun...We all expected a knock-off, but this fighter has an identity that's completely unique.

Drifts too far from the franchise's sweet spot. A lengthy campaign offers plenty of opportunities for diabolical fun, but the stealth mechanics feel like a string of bad decisions, and a lack of pure assassination missions - exactly what the franchise built its fame on - doesn't help. Most telling, this isn't the Hitman I'll revisit for years to dig out all its secrets.

The seamless integration of the GamePad hardware with the atmospheric gameplay is nothing short of a triumph, and Ubisoft deserves full credit for not only seeing the possibilities but capitalizing on them.

Delivers huge value at a generous price: $40. If all you want is racing, you might be disappointed when you learn everything that awaits you, but it's easy to appreciate the wealth of multiplayer options, the smart gameplay and design, and how well it all comes together.

A delightful, engaging, and clever tribute to one of Mickey's greatest games. In many ways, it surpasses the original Castle of Illusion. In fact, this is the best title starring Mickey in years.

It's a cute, easy-to-play, innovative brawler presented with humor and a well-developed sense of fun. It's even more fun played through with a partner or two, and though the vs. multiplayer isn't to my taste, I'm sure many gamers will like it.

Nintendo Land epitomizes the minigame-compilation genre - occasional flashes of brilliance surrounded by things you just don't want to exist.

Carries the standard proudly, offering all the smart level design, split-second escapes, and tight gameplay that creates (and deserves) such devotion. But it's not a system seller, and it lacks inspiration. Mario U is comfort food … warm, filling, and delicious but not particularly remarkable. And Mario should be.

The common thread of all of the subgames is that they are very hard to master. Most of them are easy to pick up and start playing, with the exception of Strike Force. But you'll want to play them over and over again until you finally conquer a mission. Once you get that mastery, you'll feel great.

Angry Birds Star Wars is far from the most original game you'll play, but the addicting formula still works great, and fans of the classic movies will love seeing this silly take on Luke Skywalker's adventures.

United Front Games has done a phenomenal job of re-creating the look and feel of the Craftworld while applying its kart racing expertise with imaginative tracks and responsive controls. And the Create mode is nothing short of stunning, even if I don't have the patience for it. Depending on how the community of players respond, it might be the only kart racing game you'll ever need.

I can overlook a lot because of Paper Mario's charm. I really enjoyed a lot of it in spite of it committing the terrible sin of wasting my time.

The game's cast and gameplay are just as inventive as they were in the past, and I had trouble controlling that "one more match" urge while playing. The content available is comparable to most modern games, and this should be required playing for any fan of the genre.

It's unfortunate that 343 didn't stretch past the standard Halo playbook instead of falling back to so many recognizable gameplay beats (and I do wonder if that was a conscious decision meant to counter the "Will it be Halo?" doubters), but the gameplay itself offsets those issues. The level design is a precision instrument. Above and beyond that, Halo 4 expertly folds an intimate story into an epic scope, taking risks with iconic characters and sticking the landing every time.

Pid is just as atmospheric as Fez and as grueling as Braid, but it's the little details of its execution that keep it from flawlessness.