It's far from the best-looking game on the market, but it's also far from the worst, and the gameplay makes up for it anyway.

Ultimately, this is the type of title that will live in my handheld for months, like Honeycomb Beat and Planet Puzzle League before it – a simple, wildly addictive puzzler with great presentation and a boatload of content. It brings a nice twist to a classic game, looks great in 3D, and totally distracted me from the massive release field this October – not bad for a "little port" from Japan.

Battlefield 3's multiplayer earns top marks because it is almost exactly what any fan of that series would want-a new edition of a classic game that brings forward its best assets while introducing meaningful new elements. If the single player game were at least competent, this would easily be a no-brainer solid "A" game and one that I would recommend to any shooter fan.

Still, even with these marks against it, Aliens: Infestation is worth playing and is an example of a game that really, truly cares about your lives-even if it cares about your deaths just a teensy bit more.

Those looking for big changes to the series won't find them here, but the music is great, the choreography is well designed and appropriately silly, and there are enough extra modes to keep things interesting.

Arkham City, on the other hand, is a game about saving a city, Gotham City, and the experience is all the better for it.

I have to stress that this is not a "pick and up and play" game if you're new to rugby. There's a lot of learning involved as rugby, turns out, is a pretty complicated sport. Still, Jonah Lomu Rugby Challenge, from the perspective of a novice rugby fan, is a great starter game.

Sure, each faction has a special unit but nothing stands out to make this game feel like a game based on Martin's works and that's something that , more than anything else, many fans will have a hard time accepting.

Uncertain futures aside, Rocksmith is a breakthrough title not just for the music genre, but for gaming as a whole. It's the first time a developer has been able to deliver a game that makes learning fun and deliver something meaningful in the process.

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon turned out to be quite a nice surprise considering that I didn't have very high expectations for it and it wasn't exactly on my radar this jam-packed Fall release season.

A decent core game despite its stripped down status.

Sideway comes across feeling more like one of the me-too Mario clones of the NES era despite its unique, singular look and perspective-shifting style. The platforming is nowhere near as tight or as taxing as in Super Meat Boy and it lacks the dynamism and genre synthesis of Outland. It's not even as compelling or innovative as IOS examples such as Mos Speedrun or League of Evil

Once you get past the inevitable Pokémon comparisons and let Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 serve up its own brand of monster hunting mayhem, there's an enjoyable combat model and monster synthesis system to be had here.

Forza Motorsport 4 may not be perfect and there are still some things that last year's Gran Turismo 5 either does better or that Forza doesn't do at all. But for the core driving experience, technical achievement, and level of accessibility, Turn 10's effort is nothing short of superb.

I don't know who decided to come up with another Spider-Man game so soon after Shattered Dimensions but that person should get a tongue lashing because the year it took to make this game resulted in nothing but a waste of time and money for all involved.

Rotastic is a good game that through a couple of poor choices limited its own potential. Its premise is simple but engaging and developer Dancing Dots builds effectively upon that premise throughout the first half of the game. Unfortunately, past that point, unforgiving level design combined with unwieldy controls make for a gaming experience that's ultimately So-So-tastic.

Dead Rising 2: Off the Record is in the weird limbo land between update and full release. There's plenty of content here, but most of it isn't new.

Treasure hasn't tampered with the overall mechanics of Radiant Silvergun, and doing so would have been a mistake.

This is a charming, incredibly well designed title with a truckload of replayability (still a rarity for smaller downloadable games). Don't miss out on this in the glut of "holiday" releases.

NBA Jam: On Fire Edition's online, downloadable release and lessened price point will make it an easier pill to swallow for budget gamers and make it a no-brainer for fans of the series. It's the defininitive version of NBA Jam.

Between the medals, the tasks, the mini-games and the levels themselves, there's more than ten Kirby's worth of content here, all wrapped up in the charming and creative wrapper that the Kirby franchise become known for. Kirby may never reach the same level of gaming fame as some of Nintendo's other properties, but if the pink puffball's status as a second tier character allows him to show up in such innovative, out there titles, I'm all for him staying out of the spotlight.

In Orcs Must Die! a split-second of inattention can mean the difference between victory and defeat-but that's part of why it's such an exciting game.

For any oomph it delivers, Rage relies on the same familiar gunshot sound effects and the same ridiculous ragdoll fatalities and the same silly enemies rolling left and right. Rage is a reminder how thin the line is between old school and old hat.

That's Dark Souls in a nutshell. The stakes being as high as they are adds a level of excitement all too rare in the hold your hand games of this generation. Without the punishment, there's no real fear, and without the fear there's no thrill. And in Dark Souls, much like Demon's Souls before it, you will most definitely fear.

Hector: Badge of Carnage is without question, one of the best new adventures-in fact, one of the best game properties-to come out in recent memory. With its likeably slobbish anti-hero and the possibility for endless story setups, we adventure fans would do well to cross our fingers that the collaboration between Telltale and Straandlooper continues well beyond the current trilogy.

X-Men: Destiny fails as a game and as an X-Men property and there isn't an X-Gene in the world that can fix it.

FIFA 12 isn't perfect; the franchise still has some work to do in the AI department and the new physics model, which is a significant leap forward, needs its kinks worked out. However, this is the future of the series and you can see how it's taking shape. Despite its shortcomings it's absolutely worth the upgrade if you are coming in from FIFA 11.

The handheld format suits the Bit.Trip beats well, and although these games are available elsewhere the 3DS package is definitely one of the better and most concise ways to experience them regardless of a couple of omissions.