It's unfortunate, however, that the number of bugs infesting it make things so problematic and frustrating. The game's spooky ambiance and appealing nature are enjoyable, but not enough to overshadow the humdrum puzzle solving, nor to distract you from glitches.

Forgoing the sort of melon-twisting substance that has seen many code-cracking gamers pull their hair out in favor of a pick-up-and-play puzzler with plenty of Pixar-flavored appeal, MouseCraft is usually a fun little romp. Much like that block of Muenster in the back of your fridge, though, it's a game you'll likely forget about a week after you buy it.

Little by little, you learn the rules--and little by little, you wonder why there are so few games so willing to trust you to examine and explore. That it believes in you is Original Sin's greatest achievement, and given its many achievements, that's high praise indeed.

Jumping over a collapsing bridge in space looks cool once, but it gets silly if you see the exact same collapse twice more within minutes.

It's a shallow, crude pleasure, but the delightful disorder that's just around every corner is strong enough to overshadow an otherwise forgettable experience.

While the initial learning curve is daunting, this is one of those games that opens up dramatically the more that you play it, so the time commitment is worthwhile whether you're a laidback dogfighter or a hardcore simmer.

I'm disappointed by Cry Wolf, not because it suggests that Fabletown is destined to remain troubled, or that it doesn't overtly answer a vital nagging question, but because a few too many events are overtly manufactured to fit the plot's needs, rather than making each event feel like it progressed from those that came before.

There's some strong writing in Richard & Alice, and a little bit of intrigue in the way the story's various threads wind their way back together. But when the game fails to convince us of its own high stakes, its Cormac McCarthyism loses its gloomy appeal.

Of course, it's fun to see your characters become stronger over the course of the game, but what gives makes Child of Light meaningful is the way that Aurora grows emotionally stronger.

A unique concept needs a supporting cast of good ideas to flourish, and Spoiler Alert's lone conceit doesn't have the charms to carry the weight of an entire game on its shoulders.

Xenonauts is an unlikely success, a challenging clone of a beloved classic with enough tweaks to entice fans and newcomers alike.

The soaring bird that has long served as the metaphor for the Ace Combat pilot becomes a vulture fighting over highway carrion, looping away incautiously when the odd car passes a little too close, before returning again for a final few scraps of flesh.

The Transformers are a great property, one that seems like it should lend itself to the creation of great games, but Rise of the Dark Spark is so sloppy and incoherent that it feels more like a cheap knockoff than a proper Transformers game. Optimus Prime deserves better, and so do you.

Profuse scatterings of collectibles and items, each object labeled with an icon that urges you to interact with it, ensure you have lots of stuff to do, but it's undeniable busywork: interaction for the sake of interaction.

This is a technically competent add-on that feels like it was designed to latch onto a growing co-op trend and to plug a gap in the game's multiplayer repertoire because the market research said to, rather than something designed with some real heart and soul behind it.

Shovel Knight is a memorable re-imagining of what I grew up with, but doesn't have the longevity or inventiveness to be great in its own right.

Magical Beat, while cleverly designed and audiovisually charming, feels stripped down. The game lacks the sorts of options and modes that help elevate a standard puzzle game to the level of cherished time-killer and competitive classic.

The graphical foundation is in place, but there are too many flawed combat systems to call this a strong debut for what's sure to be an annualized series. EA Sports UFC manages to make only certain aspects of MMA both fun and functional, forcing most fights to play out in a familiar, brawling fashion.

With the fixes and gameplay mechanics, what remains is Blood of the Werewolf in its finest form: enjoyable, challenging, and, at long last, satisfying to the very end. Dreadful traps and Hollywood's most famous monsters stand in your way. How long will you last against the forces of darkness?

Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack was and still is an enjoyable platformer, regardless of the device on which you play it, but it's difficult to recommend this new release to anyone who already has access to the superior Vita rendition.

Autosport is a decent option, but when you go deep, the experience is soured by the finer details.

A visually beautiful game that deftly moves between moments of joy and moments of tragedy, and ultimately doesn't shy away from the fact that "great" is just about the last thing any war should be called.

Nether is noticeably unfinished, and has a lot of work ahead before it resembles a solid game. But it has a discernible spark of life. There is potential for it to become a game worthy of attention. The environment it presents is huge, and the grayed-out portions of the map serve to tease you with even more areas to explore, and stories to create, in its bleak, abysmal, yet interesting world. If only it can learn to stop tripping over its own feet.

Earlier Anomaly games proved that a little innovation can go a long way, but you just don't see as much of that approach in action here, which results in an underwhelming and familiar return to the norm.

Almost everything here is mediocre, and that's really a shame given the promise of Wars of Ancient Greece.

The gameplay is so far removed from the legends, and the story is so bare-bones, that the setting rarely feels meaningful. Thanks in large part to its more frustrating puzzles, Munin ends up feeling too long. It has its moments of brilliance, but ultimately it doesn't have the legs (or wings) to let it reach the heights of similar games in the genre.

You need to understand and revel in a bonus level that involves nothing more than destroying a car in order to fully grasp why this DLC is special.

While the modest selection of maps are sufficiently large and multileveled, the uninspired deathmatch and conquest modes offer nothing that you can't find in other shooters.

Enemy Front lands in that unfortunate middle area where its faults aren't bad enough to leave a painfully lasting negative impression, but its key moments are too generic to be memorable.

The camera's viewpoint, an otherwise awkward mash-up of overhead and axonometric shots, reveals all the pixelated squalor, all the detritus and homelessness and violence that so often goes ignored by the upper crust. The RPG feels at home here, among the dregs of society, like it did back in the Midgar slums of Final Fantasy VII. The genre's old mainstays--fetching, bartering, and grinding--are much more suited to a blue collar than they are to plate armor.

This is a lovely, gossamer experience that lifts you into the clouds and then quietly brings you back to earth, happy for the time spent, and your mind free of the detritus that originally cluttered it.

1001 Spikes is best for the kind of person who can take punishment and enjoy it. It can be soul crushing for the same reason it's inspiring.

Space Run shines from the depths of space, from the challenging gameplay to the deep strategy mechanics. I looked forward to every cutscene with glee, whether it featured Buck Mann talking terms with an employer, or had me trading fightin' words with pirates.

Audio and video in Borderlands 2 seem to push the limits of what the Vita can handle, but the system merely strains and does not break (though the game did crash once or twice in my dozen or so hours with it).

Even with these flaws, this is a diverting, innovative puzzler with more than enough charm to make staging loony-tunes murders look like an appealing pastime.

There are so many hilarious and curiously bizarre moments to be found along the way that even if the journey to fully fledged family life is a short one before the repetition sets in, it's well worth the trip.

Like The Asylum's film oeuvre, Mind Zero is capable, at times, of at least holding your attention, but it's rarely entertaining, and when you're done, you'll be wondering why you didn't invest your time in a superior alternative instead.

Murdered: Soul Suspect is as troubled as its protagonist. There are so many problems--from the presentation to the story and even technical hiccups--that I was continually pulled out of the experience. And yet, I continued on, and I'm glad that I wasn't overwhelmed by those missteps.

Pushmo World isn't quite the revelation on Wii U that Pushmo was on the 3DS. But the logic of these colorful puzzles is still as satisfying as ever.

Nearly every aspect of the game has received some sort of enhancement or upgrade, and the result is an expansion that makes a great game even better.

Without the constant glitches, the game would be a mediocre six-hour distraction allowing you to toy with an enjoyable time-bending mechanic. The shallow story and the general awkwardness of its delivery, not to mention Project Temporality's inability to lead the protagonist without a leash, however, prevent the game from being worth the time.

Among the Sleep is a distinctive and promising first game from new Norwegian studio Krillbite, and though the dreams it conjures might be scary, it ultimately leaves you with the feeling that you're strong enough to face your fears, in dreams or otherwise.

There are moments when it's more frustrating than fun--being lost, after all, is rarely a pleasant experience--but even then it's hard not to appreciate how far the developers have taken such a simple idea. If these monsters want heart, this game is full of it.

It is stellar in spite of a few big missteps and the fact that, with the exception of the world itself, none of the experience feels cohesive.

A broken scam masquerading as a computer game.

I love that the game portrays its female characters as assertive beings that desire and need sex on their own terms, instead of as sexual material doled out in-game as "rewards" for player performance.

I left the third episode of The Wolf Among Us with my heart in my stomach; I left the fourth with burning curiosity, which is not as striking of a feeling. But given what other fables tell me of the Crooked Man, I suspect that it will not just be my curiosity that burns in the final chapter of this episodic tale. I want closure, I crave closure, but The Wolf Among Us has taught me that conclusions aren't always neat and tidy, and that you must suffer pain before you can earn relief.

Decryption mode, in which two teams of four are confined to a portion of the city and seek to nab and hold on to sensitive data, is anarchy in its most captivating form.

A lushly produced and riotous game with an uncanny ability to push you from one task to the next, each of which is just as fun as the last.

Monochroma is a game that I wanted to enjoy, and I thought it would be worthwhile even halfway through the adventure. But things really go off the rails as you push onward, with most of the later puzzles demanding precision that's just not possible.

There is a lot to enjoy on the sandy beaches of Tropico 5. Whether you're playing alone or with up to three others online, the game strikes a good balance between style and substance that is easy to digest for all types of strategy fans.

Because the focus is on such small groups, distinctive visual design helps reinforce the idea that each piece of your army is special. Ships, lords, and even foot soldiers are remarkably well designed.

Minecraft: PlayStation 3 Edition is a joyous adventure, despite being lighter on content than its other iterations.

Transistor is always a good-looking game, but in these instances, it demonstrates a rare knack for combining its visuals and music to powerfully convey both narrative information and tone, driving the story forward with Red's own unwavering resolve. So in the end, yes, Transistor is a fun action role-playing game with a neat combat system, but beautiful moments like these make it more than that. They make it a game with a soul.

There's a touch of magic, even of spirituality, to Transistor's story, a sense that there are things within the world of Cloudbank that transcend our understanding of what's possible.

There is enough variety in the combat spaces, and the enemy combinations within, that The New Order's levels feel well paced, and combat feels tense without being unmanageable or overwhelming.

The game is both a celebration of the Wolfenstein series and what feels like a fitting send-off for it. The New Order could be the last hurrah of William "BJ" Blazkowicz, an outing which, for all its excess and bombast, is far from mindless.

Taken as a tightly cropped slice of the action, Blade Symphony's arena duels showcase some stunning character designs, downright poetic combat maneuvers, and exciting combat mechanics. But that's only a small piece of an unfinished and rather sloppy whole. This multiplayer fighter looks, feels, and actually is incomplete in spots, which puts a real damper on the few bright elements that make it almost worth the fuss.

With a proactive and broader range of enemies and more distinct environments, along with a more balanced system that didn't penalize you for playing in the manner that appears to have been intended, Nutjitsu might have offered a simple but enjoyable time. Instead, it has settled for a tedious stroll from Rank 1 through 25, rather than the engaging romp that was called for. Nuts to that!

I do admit that my first impression of Mario Kart 8 was pretty close to a yawn. Mario Kart is one of my favorite franchises, but it's hard to get excited for the same old thing. But the more I played, the more I appreciated the many small changes, and grew to love my time in the Mushroom Kingdom. And now that yawn has changed to a shout of joy. It's more Mario Kart! I'm happy Nintendo still understands what makes this series so darn fun.

The essential elements of Sir, You Are Being Hunted--the conflicts between man and machine, between hunter and hunted--aren't getting their due. Here is a game that wants to tell a basic story, but that's left too much space between its opposing forces to make them duel.

Telltale Games' zombie extravaganza is continuing to prove that it is every bit the equal of the Robert Kirkman comics, and superior to the AMC TV show.

A really funny game that puts an innovative twist on the side-scrolling shooter.

Bound by Flame then proceeds to ruin its promising combat with a series of mind-boggling choices that suck out all the fun and turn battles into an aggravation.

Kentucky Route Zero is not, in any sense, a typical adventure game. It's an incredible one.

It's a shame there is no single-player or online content in Sportsfriends to keep you occupied when home alone, but it's the kind of game that takes full advantage of being exclusively local, and it's worth having friends over for.

The dungeons themselves are varied in that some incorporate puzzles, some require the designated tank of the party to take control while leading the boss away from more vulnerable players, and many are middle-of-the-road affairs you can conquer with little more than your best spells, buffs, and melee.

Once the glitz and glamour fade and you dive a little deeper into this game, the cracks begin to show. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle is packed with style, but simply lacks the substance to back it up.

The biggest failing of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is how familiar it feels. In fact, there have been other open-world games starring Spider-Man that walk a remarkably similar path.

Daylight makes for an interesting experiment in audience participation, but no crowd of online viewers can make the poor writing any better or the themes any less hackneyed. In creating a game designed for return visits, Zombie Studios ironically forgot to make a game worth playing in the first place.

Fract is overstuffed with platforms that need raising, sliders that need switching, and tumblers that need rotating. Without any mooring to the game's theme, they're left to sink or swim on the enjoyment they can provide in isolation.

Child of Light is a wonderfully realized, somber adventure, and I couldn't be happier that such a game exists.

Triple Deluxe is an absolute diamond of a game, and cements Kirby's place as nothing less than a bone fide platforming superstar.

There's a lot of fun to be had here, and with classic Nintendo characters backing up the action, World Tour is a thoroughly charming game too. What a shame, then, that it lacks the cohesion and refinement to make those sometimes-brilliant moments easier to digest and access.

Hopefully, The Elder Scrolls Online will one day get out of its own way, and stop trying to stifle the very fun it's trying to provide.

For the most part, the DLC's structure has you alternating between brawls, stealth encounters, crime scene analysis, and environmental traversal in a way that keeps the pace moving. It doesn't finish strong, but Cold, Cold Heart is still a satisfying sliver of Arkham storytelling.

Broken Sword 5's second part is noticeably shorter, coming in at fewer than five hours when compared to the first part's six, and its linear nature diminishes the joy of exploration. Nevertheless, Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse is a solid installment in the nearly 20-year-old franchise, delivering a captivating story with great characters and loads of good-natured humor.

Demon Gaze is not a game for those looking for fast, easy rewards; you need a great deal of patience to find success, and sometimes it feels like the game's narrative is actively working against your desire to progress to new places. But when you are narrowly clutching victory from the jaws of defeat, laying waste to a challenging foe through party synergy and clever planning, or finding an incredibly rare piece of loot that completely changes how you use a party member, you feel like your efforts have yielded delicious fruit.

Nothing here works as a replacement for the original material, but this is still a delightful experience whether you remember blowing the dust out of 8-bit cartridges or not.

Sir Hammerlock vs. the Son of Crawmerax is a short but entertaining episode that ends on a high note, with things finally looking brighter for the battle-weary vault hunters. Perhaps now they can start on that well-earned break.

If you're violently allergic to puzzle games, Life Goes On won't miraculously cure you. But as long as you're open to the idea of having your mind engaged more than your trigger finger, this melon-twister's wicked personality alone might be enough to pull you into its death grip.

This is another expertly designed entry in the enthralling series. Though the core action remains largely unchanged, it's as exciting as it has ever been, thanks in part to the gorgeous visual design that brings each location to life.

Trials Fusion is a great game that not only tests your skill and patience, but keeps you laughing at the ridiculous scenarios.

It's best to consider 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil as a less serious, more accessible accompaniment to the main FIFA series. Focused more on giving you a good time than on advancing the quest for realism in sports games, this is a football game that's perfect for fans who are looking for a way to pass the hours between World Cup matches this summer.

It's best to consider 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil as a less serious, more accessible accompaniment to the main FIFA series. Focused more on giving you a good time than on advancing the quest for realism in sports games, this is a football game that's perfect for fans who are looking for a way to pass the hours between World Cup matches this summer.

It's competent, certainly, but it's hard to shake the feeling that the stork could have left us something a little more interesting.

Moebius: Empire Rising starts with an interesting idea, but the plot never takes off. Some moments may briefly grab your interest, but disappointing puzzles, shallow characters, and tedious methods behind investigations keep the game feeling lethargic all the way to its uninspiring climax. Instantly forgettable, this game is better off lost to time.

Lego The Hobbit proves that having plenty of variety in terms of objectives and gameplay mechanics doesn't make much difference if none of those objectives and mechanics are much fun, and that capturing the look of an epic quest isn't the same as capturing the feel of one.

Sometimes, simple is better. Maintaining focus on frantic space battles that move quickly and wrap up before you have time to regret what you're playing would have made Strike Suit Zero: Director's Cut more energetic and compelling.

Piling on enemies and tossing in the Transformers-inspired ship just clogs up what could have been a charming, if deeply predictable, space shooter.

The Second Coming is a delight to play. While the lack of gameplay variety compared to what came before is a definite disappointment, the game is just so outright fun that it's easy to forgive.

Charming art design, an infectious soundtrack, and compelling weapon crafting supplement the standard action, but too much recycled content, irritating technical issues, and occasionally confounding design prevent the project from ever surpassing its inspiration. The result appeals to an old-school sensibility, but you'll need to overcome some unfortunate obstacles to see the appeal.

What I can say is that playing A Crooked Mile was exhausting. Each line of dialogue pulsed with meaning, and at every turn, I feared that Bigby and I might tumble over the edge we kept peering over. Episode two made me wonder; episode three made me ache.

Given its cookie-cutter narrative, polarizing leveling system, and late-game repetition, ACE doesn't address all the issues that plagued players the first time around. If it didn't satisfy your monster-fighting fix back in 2012, there's probably not enough here to draw you back to the battlefield. However, if you're a Ragnarok vet ready for more, or a new recruit looking to hunt some big game of the not-of-this-realm variety, then you'll want to start sharpening that oversize sword.

Kinect Sports Rivals is an inconsistent collection that will get you up off the couch and moving around for a bit of mild fun, but that's about the best you can say for it.

A fantastic representation of baseball, capturing the thrill and grand scale of the national pastime.

This PC port fails to take advantage of the PC's increased technical power and greater control fidelity to adequately smooth over the game's prior tablet limitations.

A lot of riddles are solved by the end of the game, yet even as the final curtain falls, many more questions are left unanswered.