Although rage-inducing difficulty spikes exist, The Bridge generally offers a middle path that should appeal both to newcomers and to expert puzzle solvers.

Cold Winter isn't the best in its class, but it's definitely worth playing if you're looking for a solid single-player shooter with a decent online component to back it up.

The tactical battles definitely capture the spirit of X-COM, but the whole package doesn't come together in quite the same way.

It's designed exclusively for Final Fantasy XI's most dedicated players, and probably should have been a downloadable update for those players.

All of this left me lukewarm on To A T, and wanting to like it more than I did. It's a cute and charming visual metaphor, with some insightful and funny writing, and it's a lovely parable about the struggles of growing up and feeling different. It's a very gentle, likable story about a topic that games don't often explore. But the story doesn't have quite enough heft to last through even the relatively short playtime, and the act of playing it often feels tedious. There are individual things to like about To A T, but like its protagonist, it has some room to grow.

It's a shame Black Bird is so shallow, because the core action is so appealing. The lighthearted atmosphere and sharp controls make it a joy to wreak havoc on the unprepared people and the difficulty hits a nice sweet spot where it provides a good challenge without ever being frustrating. I would have gladly spent more time in this sepia-toned world if there were more stages and more strategy, but with such meager offerings, I'd fly right by Black Bird.

After an ambitious start and far too much repetition, the magic is drained from Reveria and, in the end, all you’re left with is the mundane.

The classic gameplay remains largely the same, and although certain elements haven't weathered the years all that well, fans of the series and dedicated RPG junkies will get good mileage out of this one.

It's got some flaws and it's not very long or replayable--you'll probably finish it in 12 to 15 hours, without much incentive to go back to the beginning--but it's fun while it lasts.

HarmoKnight is the friendliest rhythm platformer around, but its simplicity does not always work to the game's benefit.

Once you get the hang of the complex controls and slight camera issues, you're in for a breathless, exhilarating time staring down giant robots, outmaneuvering your rivals, and rescuing your betters.

While Ashes of Ariandel is ultimately a safe addition to Dark Souls III, it's convincingly satisfying; the risk of death at any moment is as likely as finding a new piece of practical gear or the discovery of an unexplored path. Just don't expect any areas as memorable as those in the main game or revelatory moments that substantially expands the lore.

What is present in this collection ends up feeling like a disjointed ride through the latter half of Mega Man's history, an area with plenty of lessons to learn, but not always ones you're meant to enjoy. Seen as half of a whole, with the first Mega Man Legacy Collection, however, and you do have something resembling a fascinating compendium of games, albeit with a lot more to skip out on in its second half.

It's ultimately your duty to provide the fun because the included puzzles rarely test your skills, and though the extreme flexibility means it's inherently fun just to mess around, that does grow tiresome too quickly.

Cloudpunk is a game with a single core strength so powerful it alone is sufficient to make it an easy game to recommend. Thanks to the rare beauty and rich atmosphere of its voxel-driven cityscape, Cloudpunk is a constant joy to explore. Whether soaring through the neon-plastered clouds or darting across vertiginous walkways dangling a hundred storeys in the air, the desire remains to keep pushing forward because the next view might be even better. And it usually is. It's not a straightforward case of style over substance, because in Rania and in much of the story there's no lack of substance, but it can feel that way when the style is so disproportionately stellar.

Novel time-manipulation mechanics are crippled by clumsy platforming in this downloadable puzzle game.

Guncraft doesn't get high marks for originality--it's a pretty obvious mash-up and one that has been done before, albeit not as successfully--but the developers do layer lots of cool ideas onto the core ingredients they borrow from other popular games.

This straight-ahead arcade action game hits its mark with a good deal of enthusiasm.

Badge of Carnage Episode 2 offers another rowdy good trek through the vile streets of Clappers Wreake.

If staring at a brainteaser for lengthy periods of time is your idea of excitement, or if the idea of creating puzzles and sharing them with like-minded friends is intriguing to you, then you'll find enough enjoyable mind-benders to make this worth a purchase.

Even serious strategy fans will find it to be a nice diversion... It's short and sweet--just not very deep.

While the innovative game mechanics are challenging and fun at first, they quickly become frustrating where precise or fast control is needed.

A solid re-creation of the sport that delivers fast and responsive gameplay. While the graphics aren't on the same level as EA Sports' other PS2 titles, such as Madden and FIFA, the gameplay makes up for it.

The visual style may seem kid-friendly, but the level of challenge I-Ninja has to offer keeps the game interesting for a wider audience.

What makes Ty 3 unique and ultimately satisfying are the many instances within the game in which players get to step out of Ty's shoes and instead take the reins of a giant robot, helicopter, or fighter plane.

Despite some strategic elements, it really is a pure action game at heart, filled with plenty of targets to shoot at, plenty of power-ups to collect, and a good variety of tough missions to accomplish.

Conflict: Desert Storm II isn't without problems, but it's not the worst squad-based game you'll ever play, and it's decidedly improved over the original game.

Illusion Island has a lot going for it: It looks great, controls wonderfully, is packed with charm and character, offers enjoyable exploration, and features a memorable multiplayer experience. If you're a big fan of the genre, you'll get a kick seeing little references to other all-time classics, too. However, the slow start and the blase boss battles put a bit of a damper on the whole thing, especially if you plan on going on this trip solo. It's well worth playing provided you can get over the initial hump, and even better if you've got a younger family member to share the journey with. It may fall short of being an all-time gem, but Illusion Island's still earned its place in the Disney Vault of Gaming Goodness.

In Andamiro's Pump It Up: Exceed, the first US home edition of a popular Korean dancing series, we're finally presented with a good alternative to DDR.

Once you get over the whole rewriting-the-end-of-the-movie thing, Scarface: The World Is Yours is a competent but usually uninteresting action game.

Star Allies is yet another Kirby game, but it's up there with some of the best. It's an artistic showcase, and a great opportunity for co-op platforming. The one real complaint you can levy at it is that it gates off its more challenging aspects, but the fact that they are present to begin with will please anyone who's grown weary of the series' painless platforming.

The Victorian era's greatest fictional sleuth takes on its most infamous real-life villain in an adventure that alternates between generic and gripping.

NHL 2K7 for the PlayStation 2 lacks much of the forward progress of its Xbox 360 counterpart and instead provides an enjoyable hockey game that you've pretty much played before.

It's derivative and occasionally buggy, but solid action and over-the-top gore make X-Men Origins: Wolverine a cut above other movie tie-ins.

Imagine sitting on the floor in front of your TV watching the pilot episode for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the 1990s, and that's how it feels to play TMNT: Tactical Takedown. All the elements are there, you had a great time while it lasted, but you can sense it's really the rock-solid foundation for something much grander. The game itself is a great distillation of some radical concepts, but it also feels like it's straining against its own limitations. Nonetheless, this is a great start to what I can only hope becomes another way to spend time with the turtles.

So while Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 may not take the series in a big and bold new direction, or benefit from the kind of refinement you would look for in a sequel, it does deliver the button-mashing, power-flinging, over-the-top action fans of the original would expect.

This mild-mannered adventure neatly captures the whimsical charm of Wallace & Gromit.

Eufloria offers a unique real-time strategy experience that stumbles just shy of greatness.

War Front: Turning Point is a decidedly different take on the WWII real-time strategy game, complete with jetpack Nazis and freeze rays.

While Ashes of Ariandel is ultimately a safe addition to Dark Souls III, it's convincingly satisfying; the risk of death at any moment is as likely as finding a new piece of practical gear or the discovery of an unexplored path. Just don't expect any areas as memorable as those in the main game or revelatory moments that substantially expands the lore.

Oxenfree II is a strong sequel to the original game. A particular secondary character and antagonist drag the experience down a bit but the overall storyline is a satisfying foray into an adult woman's tenuous grasp on reality and her ultimate decision to cut through the static and strive for something better with the help of the friendships forged whilst speaking over a simple walkie-talkie.

When you get down to it, if you enjoyed Sacred, then you'll no doubt enjoy Underworld; it pretty much offers more of the same, but at a ramped-up level.

Mark of Chaos captures the fantasy combat of the popular Warhammer franchise in a beautiful way, but it's marred by some technical issues and a basic strategic campaign.

Mysteries of Westgate finally debuts for Neverwinter Nights 2, with decidedly mixed results.

Episode Three is easily the best episode of Revelations 2 yet.

Project X Zone 2 is at first promising, but not even its fan-service can save it from continually faltering in the face of its drudgery.

The crazy sense of humor remains intact, but hackneyed and rudimentary motion controls have lost almost all of their luster.

A game made by game developers, for game developers, featuring humour that only game developers are likely to fully appreciate.

But like its story of fashion and surface appeal, there’s not much depth here, and the facade fades with time. Tri Force Heroes offers us the means to work together, but not enough reason to do so.

Don't let the license fool you. Snoopy's game is loaded with intense air combat that players of any age can appreciate.

Improvements to the game's turn-based combat engine, graphics, and its still-captivating plot ensure that fans of story-driven role-playing games and the Xenosaga series itself will still find much to appreciate about Episode II.

It offers a solid new campaign, as well as some new units, textures, and AI upgrades, but it also neglects to address some old problems.

The Dark Pictures, as a broad project, feels like it's at a crossroads with Directive 8020. With plans to do several more installments, I feel like the inherent flaws are giving way to diminishing returns. I've said before that I'd take a new one of these games every year, forever, and I still feel that way, but I think I've hit my limit on forgiving some of the series' increasingly obvious hang-ups. The conscious rejection of Supermassive's past cinematic flair confuses me, while the shoddy voice work creates a barrier between the game's intent and its execution.

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl keep enough classic elements to feel like a comfy nostalgia trip, while smoothing over enough of the rough edges that they feel relatively contemporary with other recent Pokemon games. It can't be easy for a storied franchise to pay homage to its legacy while also modernizing in this way, but Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl strike the right balance. It's the classic Pokemon you remember, without most of the little annoyances you've forgotten.

Anchored by a wonderful cast of characters, the very well-crafted sci-fi story in Dreamfall will leave you anxiously wanting more.

Solidly good without quite crossing over into great. It's an odd combination of high polish and rough edges.

City Folk offers more of the same Animal Crossing gameplay that you know and love, with the emphasis on "same."

While 2002 World Cup offers stadiums and an interface that are specific to the event, the game lacks many of the features found in FIFA 2002, making it difficult to recommend to anyone but World Cup fanatics.

A solid puzzler with an almost impeccable presentation.

It doesn't really go too far out of its way to distinguish itself.

Legends is a 15- to 20-hour long expansion that packs more of the same type of dungeon-crawling gameplay from the original--with an emphasis on the "crawling" part.

Ties That Bind makes few changes to the formula, stretches a thin story to somewhere near the breaking point, and delivers a bloody, curse-filled action game that might still please fans of the first game, though it's more likely that you'll feel like you played the same game last year.

Giant polygons go on the attack in this fun and inexpensive puzzle game.

Combines great gameplay with a fair amount of depth, ultimately making it a game that can be enjoyed by both novice and experienced gamers.

Many players will quickly fall in love with the line-drawn artwork that's used in the menus and backgrounds, as well as the barnyard sound clips that are the game's sound effects, but, beyond those aspects, It's Mr. Pants is merely an average puzzler with a limited array of features.

The game's biggest drawback is that it doesn't take much time to complete--perhaps two hours total for both characters.

A good third-person action game that's pretty straightforward but has a few nice twists.

If you're on the lookout for a solid platformer for a weekend rental, then Pitfall: The Lost Expedition is right up your alley.

It's sad but unsurprising that the game's look pretty much duplicates the original PC game. While texture-mapped scenery looks a little better, all monsters, items, and basically anything changeable in the environment are implemented as sprites - essentially, sets of still pictures that show the same character in different perspectives. It's not very vivid.

Despite some potentially off-putting thematic material, Arcana Heart 3 is a fun fighter with a lot to offer.

Sideway: New York is packed with lavish details that make it as fun to look at as it is to play.

Claptastic Voyage, much like our dear Claptrap himself, is an imperfect little thing. But it's still decent thanks to Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel's outstanding combat formula and some superb environments revealed as you delve further into the story.

This is another short episode (my first playthrough clocked in at less than 90 minutes), which makes Story Mode a little on the brief side compared to recent Telltale offerings. But that brevity is my biggest complaint, which, if you look at it from the most charitable view, means the game never outstayed its welcome. Story Mode remains a great experience--especially if you're playing with younger fans of Minecraft--and my anticipation for the next episode remains high.

With the miniseries now complete, the game’s biggest flaw is in its structure. At least a half hour shorter than the other two episodes, What We Deserve nails the story Telltale has been tiptoeing around since first minute, and it’s something that only begins to present itself towards the end of Episode 2 before taking off here.

Rive is demanding, but it pushes the kind of near-thoughtless play that shoot-em-ups strive to achieve. When faced with an onslaught of enemies and environmental hazards, you'll have to think fast or die. Rive also doesn't run all that long, but what's here is excellent, top-notch action, and the game delivers some of the most memorable moments in a shoot-em-up in years.

The greatest compliment to be paid to a game like Runner 3 is that after feeling the urge to toss a controller, it's hard to think of anything else except trying again. Runner 3’s greatest strength is in rewarding that perseverance.

The essence of Team Sonic Racing is good; its handling feels tight and smooth, drifting has a good flow to it, and the items are fun to use, as are the tracks to race on. It doesn’t bring much new to the genre, but it delivers where it counts. The racing is fast and fun, and the team aspects offer enough of a change to the formula to make Team Sonic Racing the endearing arcade racer it is.

It is, however, still Outriders. Worldslayer improves a strong shooter that already had some cool and weird ideas, enhancing its challenge and bringing a lot of small improvements that make it more enjoyable to play overall. But the expansion doesn't add any especially new ideas, it just cleans up and adds to what's already there. These are a series of incremental improvements and additions that make a weird, chaotic shooter worth revisiting a year after its release--just don't expect anything world-shaking.

Nintendo World Championship: NES Edition feels more like a platform than a game in itself. It's a set of tools to gently introduce players to speedrunning, and to encourage some light competitive hooks. Even the "NES Edition" part of the name suggests this is envisioned as an ongoing project with room for further exploration in the future. I hope it does, because this could serve as a great introduction to invite newcomers into the speedrunning community.

Shadowkeep represents a shift in the fundamentals of Destiny 2, and that has only improved the game. Returning to the moon is full of spooky fun, and while Shadowkeep might not be as huge as Forsaken, it still provides some impressive additions to the world that will take time to fully explore. More meaningful choices in Shadowkeep are pushing me to think beyond just packing my most powerful guns and shooting everything in my path. These are improvements that represent a giant leap forward for Destiny 2.

Twin Age offers a cozy and pleasantly familiar dungeon-crawling experience.

Savage Moon offers a decent challenge for tower-defense fans, but some off-kilter AI and its trial-and-error nature won't make converts out of nonbelievers.

Alien Invasion adds what seems like a lot of intriguing new content, but in practice, it's mostly for advanced players.

Unbound is unlikely to emerge from the shadows of the genre's most popular games.

That the story it tells is so engaging and believable, with wonderfully well-rounded characters, only elevates its exploration of the realities of war, and it manages to successfully elicit a genuine human connection.

While no Call of Duty game has matched the comprehensive excellence of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the exploits of Reyes and Ethan are at least as memorable and moving as any deeds from “Soap” MacTavish and John Price during from the series' heyday.

Secrets of the Ark is a little too in love with itself, but this is still a first-rate traditional adventure with a great story and mostly commonsense puzzles.

Penumbra is loaded with creepy psychological horror that really gets under your skin.

An engaging and often hilarious joyride.

Of course, these other activities aren't all enormous fun, but if you're a Marvel nut or a completionist (or both), then this game's basic cheerful gameplay and demeanour will make all of those extra pursuits worthwhile. Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 is reverential to its source material, even if the game that surrounds that adoration is starting to sag somewhat. After all these years, the Lego formula is still a winner--but only barely.

Atomfall isn't Fallout. Sometimes, that's because Fallout is understandably a much bigger, better game. But Atomfall also structures its story and world so unlike typical open-world games, Fallout or otherwise, that the distinction isn't merely meant as a slight on Rebellion's latest effort. Its fresh, mystery-laden open-world design overcomes a bundle of world-building cliches and a few gameplay hindrances to feel novel and worthwhile the entire time. Often, a new video game IP takes until its sequel to truly establish its identity. The theoretical Atomfall 2 feels like it could be a much greater game someday, so long as it's built on this game's intriguing quest framework. Here and now, Atomfall is a good game that sometimes gets in its own way, but it's the process of finding your unique path through its story that will stick with you after the dust settles.

Virtua Tennis is too easy and inconsistent to entertain you for long.

There's a substantive quality to the game's core combat and visuals, even if the rest remains somewhat clumsy.

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.

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.

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot's modern, semi-open approach to telling the saga of DBZ--despite some minor issues--is a good one. Zooming around the environments and seeing the world up close is a blast, and it's great being able to interact with so many fun DBZ characters and see stories that usually get passed over for game adaptations. And even though combat can be a bit lacking, when the big battles happen, they feel suitably epic and engaging. If you're looking for an enjoyable way to see the life and times of adult Goku through a new perspective, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot will grant your wish.

Thanks to significantly improved gameplay, NBA Live 08 is a good, solid basketball game.

It feels timid. It feels safe. It feels like the last remaining breath before the possible sequel, as if Destiny is standing still and waiting for inspiration to arrive, rather than going out to find it.