Doki-Doki Universe uses creation instead of destruction to progress through a rewarding, off-beat story. Some sticky challenges, load times, and other issues mess up its open-ended flow, but they can't keep a good robot down.

If you're interested in losing weight, Wii Fit U is definitely worth your time. Fans of the original Wii Fit will definitely notice some overlapping content, but it brings enough new to the table to, if nothing else, get you active and moving in your living room.

Zoos are special and Zoo Tycoon captures that nicely. The sometimes disappointing limitations and even the dreadful menus don’t take away enough from the overall package to prevent it from earning a recommendation, particularly for animal lovers and families.

Super Motherload's premise of digging for richs on a lonely planet sounds about as boring as actually digging for richs on a lonely planet. But stick with it long enough, and you'll find an eerily soothing adventure with addictive strategy elements that make for a wholly enjoyable next-gen gaming experience.

Peggle 2's visual overhaul makes for a cleaner, fancier Peggle experience, but the lack of leaderboards assures your addiction will be relatively short-lived.

Gran Turismo 6 rights almost all of the wrongs of its predecessor to deliver one of the most expansive, beautiful and enjoyable racing simulations ever seen. If only the AI and damage modelling were better, this would be the perfect racing game.

Looking for a worthwhile on-the-couch multiplayer game? Tiny Brains delivers with its fun puzzle-based story mode and score-driven challenge modes.

The imprecise combat of Fighter Within does an awful job of showcasing the new and improved Kinect 2.0 tech. This is easily one of the weakest Xbox One launch window titles yet.

WayForward’s second Adventure Time game fails to marry the imagination of the Cartoon Network series with a top-down dungeon crawler, resulting in a lifeless quest that does neither the cartoon nor the genre any justice.

BandFuse: Rock Legends is a game with the technology to back up its great premise, but its flawed execution makes it a tough sell in light of its direct competition, Rocksmith 2014.

Ditching the lengthy matches of Mario Party's past in favor of shorter options makes sense, and it makes for more manageable experiences. But it's still saddening that the longest game of Island Tour that you'll ever play should wrap up in under an hour.

Powerstar Golf blends time-tested mechanics with a unique style, rewarding your hard work with a pleasant sense of accomplishment. As long as you don't let the microtransactions ruin it for you, you're all but guaranteed to have a good time.

An incredibly pretty game with some impressive ideas, and it's going to surprise you with its engaging story and weighty combat. The short campaign and repetitive battles hold it back from greatness, but it's a journey through Rome absolutely worth experiencing, if just to see exactly what the console is capable of.

SoulCalibur 2 HD Online is everything the original was and more. Stunning full-screen, 1080p visuals and the inclusion of the full-fat single-player mission mode make this an essential download at $19.99/£15.99

With Forza 5, it chose to compromise in certain areas in an attempt to create something unique and fresh. It’s not entirely successful, as the sometimes-negligible improvements to the gameplay can’t quite make up for the sting of losing so many fan-favorite cars and tracks. But what is included is still terrific, and in some cases better than ever.

Tearaway really is the game Vita has been crying out for. It feels like a bridge between indie and traditional, super-polished AAA game design, something reinforced by both the length of the story and the price. There’s genuine charm and ingenuity here, and my only real criticism is that I want more of it.

The on-court gameplay doesn't look very next-gen-like, especially when compared to its NBA 2K14 counterpart.

3D World sees the plumber at the top of his game, and it’s finally as fun to play with friends as it is solo. It doesn’t redefine the franchise like previous entries have, but when the total package is as fun as 3D World, that’s hardly a complaint.

Excellent mechanics and incredible playability make up for Killer Instinct's shortage of single-player content.

Its pretty world and detailed monsters are slightly offset by a lack of variety, and its free flying segments feel kind of pointless when they don't let you do anything you otherwise couldn't on-rails. But its score-based, arcade core and digestible levels will keep you coming back for more until you're sittin' pretty on top of the leaderboards.

I was shaking my head and laughing during every cutscene, and some of the modes that get introduced are just abhorrently beautiful. They're so bad, they're actually good. Whether it’s flying through the air raining laser bullets down on battleships, or playing a Street Fighter reskin (complete with the same combos for I.R.I.S. as for Ryu), you'll never be bored while playing this tragically beautiful road trip.

Dead Rising 3 excels at what it does best, which is mainly killing zombies in deeper ways as your undead-slaying skills grow over the game. And it’s smoother than ever to maximize that quality time of chainsawing a zombie in half. Yet the lack of combat annoyances only amplify the flaws of the writing and the lack of mission variety. Dead Rising is closer than ever to realizing its full potential, but its many mistakes make it clear that it isn’t quite there yet.

The Guided Fate Paradox is tons of fun, especially when it comes to wish fulfillment, but it could have benefited from less hand-holding and more powerful angel companions.

Need for Speed: Rivals is a wholly enjoyable open-world racer. The driving is solid, its streets are a joy to explore, and its racing assignments--though a bit repetitive at times--are incentive enough to keep you coming back for more.

On court, this is probably the best-looking launch game on PS4, and a real step forward for the 2K series. The new story mode is novel, but far from perfect.

Zelda: A Link Between Worlds brings the outstanding gameplay of the SNES prequel to the 3DS in a well-crafted adventure that will give you a rush of nostalgia. With interesting new characters, atypical series gameplay elements, and fantastic 3D visuals, Link's next adventure is a must play.

Contrast has a lot of heart, but its protagonist and environments lack some soul. It's not the best puzzle platformer you'll ever play, but it's far from the worst.

Knack doesn't really do anything exceptionally well, and squanders your willingness to like it by constantly working against you.

Sure, its characters may not be all that convincing, and its multiplayer is more a well-crafted distraction than a long-term destination, but the game as a whole contains plenty of unexpected surprises that make it worth your time.

Resogun looks incredible and provides plenty of arcade fun. It's only held back by sudden difficulty spikes and some frustrating point-scoring mechanics.

Yeah, it’s pretty short, but those are some good five hours that’ll remind you of why you fell in love with Ratchet and Clank in the first place. Its $30 / £20 price tag makes it a great incentive to pick it up, and it delivers what you’d expect from the series.

While Enemy Within isn't a huge makeover, it's enough of a facelift to make the trauma of devastating loss worth enduring, be it for the first time or the fifth.

8-Bit Land fails to capture any of the greatness that is Regular Show. The concept has merit, but the execution makes this game entirely skippable.

Ghosts is a cookie cutter game with a little touch of alien frosting on top. However, the well-designed multiplayer maps, soldier customization, and polished gameplay is more than enough to sink your teeth into.

Mario and Sonic 2014 certainly has its issues, but it’s definitely a step above previous titles in terms of event design and overall enjoyment. It’s a more complex and engaging than the usual minigame menagerie, and the distinct franchise twists in the Dream Events are a welcome bit of fanservice. It’s not a gold medal winner just yet, but Mario and Sonic 2014 is a stronger contender than it’s ever been before.

An ambitious start for Assassin's Creed on next-gen. The vibrant Caribbean world and bloody piracy shine brightest, while the only sour notes come from contrived series story beats and repetitive missions--both need rethinking for AC5.

Multiplayer shooters don't get better than Battlefield 4. Incredible destruction, smart map design, and solid tech combine to produce a true showcase for PS4 and PC. While solo play still lags behind, it's a big step up from BF3.

WWE 2K14 is at its best celebrating WWE history, so it’s forgivable that the game wants to hang on to its recent past instead of blazing a trail to the future. In a transition year like this one, it works as a fitting capper to another gaming generation of wrasslin’. However, 2K hopefully has something more original in the pipeline.

Blackgate doesn't overstay its welcome, clocking in around a lean 6 hours; completionists can expect to take closer to 8 hours tracking down every last object. And while much of Blackgate feels like an attempt to emulate bigger and better Batman games, it's still quite enjoyable in its own right.

In many ways, Arkham Origins is a lot like the Gotham that it's set in; weirdly empty, but so much fun that you're going to be able to overlook most of the flaws.

If you’re not already a fan, though, you have nothing to worry about. Dual Destinies is the series’ most user-friendly entry yet, offering conveniences such as a conversation log (so you can look for dialogue details you may have missed), a consultation feature (which offers optional hints if you make too many mistakes during trials), and a chapter select that allows you to easily replay completed scenes.

Wii Party U’s lackluster presentation and occasionally boring game modes are but hiccups in an otherwise decent party booster. Its impressive GamePad minigames are sure to keep your guests entertained, and will extend the life of the game even after all your friends have gone home.

If you think that repeating the same 10-second phrase of a song dozens of times until you master it is fun and rewarding on its own, then Rocksmith 2014 is an excellent way to enhance that experience; and its suite of tutorials, minigames, and other distractions will go a long way towards keeping you interested.

Lego Marvel Super Heroes couldn’t slay all of its technical villains, but there’s plenty of fun to be had despite those shortcomings. How often do you get to control legendary Marvel superheroes in an urban sandbox, flying around and destroying things as you please?

Nearly everything the game does well is sandwiched between horrific load times, tedious fetch quests, and a misogynistic mini-game. Sure, you can create a party of truly awesome characters--but it's hardly worth the grind.

The result is a game that’s passable in both sense of the word. Passable as in ‘it’s alright and not completely broken’ but also, ‘you’ll probably want to pass on this one’.

Sonic Lost World feels like a Sonic game, works like a Mario game, and feels totally at home on the Wii U as a result. With the most convincing 3D Sonic gameplay by some margin, it’ll no doubt be looked back on as the game that aimed for the Galaxy, missed by a small amount, but still landed in the stars.

Swap Force's simplistic but addictive gameplay is enjoyable for gamers of any skill level.

Sure, it plays things safe, but there's a surprising amount of fun to be had crafting items, taming monsters, and building relationships in between sometimes-bland dungeon runs.

Even though this game is rife with innovation, the narrative is still heavy-handed, and that ultimately means that you need to suspend disbelief and fully invest in the story to get the most out of the game. Forgive its flaws and Beyond offers a truly special story-telling experience that you’ll be hard pressed to find anywhere else.

Just Dance 2014 may not be the most innovative dance game currently available, but it’s definitely an improvement worth dancing to.

If anything, it feels as though the vast environments and detailed Pokémon are simply too much for the handheld. There are occasional framerate drops, and much of the game disables the 3D slider, which is a shame considering how many areas look as though they were designed specifically to take advantage of the added depth stereoscopic 3D delivers.

Though they don't reinvent the core concept of the franchise, they do a fantastic job of cleaning up the aging mechanics and creating a Pokémon world you'd be crazy not to explore.

Rain is packed full of interesting ideas and themes: the visual aesthetics, the characters, the metaphors being woven, the mechanics. All of these are pleasing in their own right and could have warranted their own small title, but ultimately their sheer number overwhelms and muddles the delicate nature of the story trying to be told.

In short, it's your prototypical Armored Core experience, which remains as flawed and fascinating a series as you're ever going to find.

The F1 2013 package is extremely slick, whichever mode you play, and all the classic content feels like a labour of love. It's a fitting way to conclude current-gen F1, polishing the contemporary and reflecting on the old before the next-gen version inevitably brings in the new in 2014. It’s a touching ode to an era when Formula One was truly magical.

It's exciting, guts-spilling fun in short bursts, but the campaign feels too long and dramatically self-indulgent for its own good. That said, if you want to sever limbs and cleave through torsos using bullets and a blade, you're bound to enjoy yourself. Just don't expect to get your brain or your heartstrings involved.

While it still exudes personality, style, and class, some of its key areas are in need of fresh ideas. NBA 2K14 is great, yes, but somehow feels like a missed opportunity.

The peculiar marriage of Scribblenauts and your favorite comic book heroes makes for an entertaining weekend plaything, but it quickly falls victim to the pitfalls beleaguering the rest of the games in this imaginative yet flawed series.

Square Enix doesn’t offer much innovation with Final Fantasy XIV: this is a realm reborn, not the MMORPG genre. But the game is expertly prepared, and even if the systems are all familiar, they take place in one of the most enchanting MMORPG settings ever. So eat up. Get your fill. This one’s an enjoyable feast.

Etrian Odyssey Untold largely succeeds at marrying the series’ gameplay with a more narrative-driven adventure, creating a unique take on the traditional Etrian Odyssey formula, while the Classic mode ensures that longtime fans will not be alienated by the game’s new direction.

FIFA 14 requires more patience than most of its predecessors, and even when your patience is rewarded, it often feels like it's flattering to deceive. Slow and stodgy in midfield but dynamic and physical at either end of the pitch, it's possible that some might think this the best FIFA ever--but you'd be splitting hairs, not defences.

No game is perfect, but the HD redux inches Wind Waker ever closer to that ideal.

The moments of fluid football where you feel completely at one with the game are better than FIFA. But all the strides forward in ball control are undone by the game seemingly doing everything it can to take true control away from you, leaving you with the feeling that PES 2014 is more about simulating football than it is about you playing it.

The world is massive and detailed, the gameplay is damn near perfect, and though there are some lackluster side missions, the actual story is filled with memorable personalities that feel more fully-realized than even the best of GTA's previous characters.

A compulsive SRPG fan’s dream come true, perhaps to a greater extent than ever before. If you can accept lackluster narrative in exchange for a fresh excuse to lose hundreds of hours wandering the Netherworld, you won’t do better.

A Machine for Pigs gets rid of some of these scare tactics and leaves you with a diluted experience that’s neither frightening nor as memorable as the first. Since the darkness is never a problem anymore and your threats are almost non-existent, you might wonder if there’s anything to be afraid of at all.

With such a vibrant atmosphere and fundamentally fun gameplay, Puppeteer is a cut above most contemporary 2D sidescrollers.

It's a confident entry in the series that makes tweaks in all the right places, but you feel that they're holding back--that they're saving their 1st rounders for a next-gen debut.

The controls do need some work, but while Castle of Illusion is high on mechanical problems, it's even higher on whimsy. It's too charming to dislike.

It’s not so much that it tries to scare you with monsters, blood, or gore that makes the experience so powerful as it is how the game mentally plays with your senses and emotions. Even if you don’t think you’re easily scared, try playing Outlast alone in the dark with headphones on. This intense rollercoaster ride will keep you on the edge of your seat and make you jump out of it a few times too.

Rest assured, Diablo 3 on consoles is the same experience PC fans enjoyed, tweaked just enough to make the difference between the two meaningful.

It's a game that requires patience and immense commitment. If you know what you're getting into, or are at least patient enough to figure out everything on offer, Rome II is a worthy continuation of the franchise and an overdue update to one of the greatest strategy games of all time. It's every bit as vast and absorbing as you've come to expect.

Out of the Shadows, sadly, only flirts with these past triumphs. Heavy flirting, maybe, but it’s too badly built of a game to live up to its strong potential.

Killer Is Dead successfully separates itself from the pack, but it doesn’t live up to all its potential. It ends too soon, is padded with reused areas, and suffers from tech problems that should be defunct.

This third-person shooter is buried under an avalanche of repetitive encounters, endless backtracking, and a partially-thawed storyline.

Just one word will accurately describe the whole experience: "fantastic."

Madden’s detractors often, and incorrectly, refer to its annual release as a “roster update.” Madden NFL 25 is anything but; it’s better than last season’s solid effort, and when compared to releases from two and three years ago is light years ahead in terms of on-field quality and off-field activities.

Though the path to boot-stomping nirvana is fraught with flaws, Divekick succeeds at simplifying high-level concepts into a bite-sized experience that only gets better with time.

Most of the pieces for an interesting, compelling experience are there, but they simply never come together to create a memorable affair.

But once you start to play, and once you stumble over the technical issues, and once you find that there are barriers around every turn, you’re bound to find that you’re in love with what you think Disney Infinity could be, and not what it actually is.

With Nintendo's Pikmin 3 having just demonstrated such mastery of both game design and the Wii U hardware, it’s disappointing to see such a superficially similar yet confused and messy game following it mere weeks later.

Despite being a very short experience, the mundane acts of walking through hallways, opening doors, or reading pieces of paper become a poignant adventure dealing with personal issues that are handled brilliantly and provide a strong basis for a great game. For that, Gone Home is as much an introspective journey into human life as it is a game so very worthy of your time.

It struggles to find its footing here and there, but it manages to straighten up thanks to the help of genuinely likeable dialogue snippets, addictive battles, and a slick character augmentation system.

Blacklist is a well-designed game from top to bottom, one that is both accessible and flexible. It doesn't force you into playing a specific way, and it provides all the tools necessary to accommodate your playstyle, retaining the agility of its predecessor without its restrictions.

Cubetractor was apparently developed by only two people, and it's a prime example of less being more--the audiovisual presentation is delightful in ways that transcend technology, and its uncomplicated control scheme masks unprecedented depth and often alarming intensity.

Unsurprisingly goofy--but it also just happens to be one of the greatest superhero games ever made.

Even with DOA single-player, Payday 2 offers a lot of bang for a below-average asking price. Debuting at $30 on Steam, its co-op action is gangbusters with the right crew of like-minded individuals. Better AI and a few more clever gameplay flourishes could have pushed it into must-play territory.

Though DuckTales Remastered might not live up to its esteemed precursor in every single regard, it surpasses it in others, and ends up incredibly fun on the whole.

It’s the rare game that gets better the more you play. The three or four hours it will likely take you to run through it from beginning to end will pass almost before you know it and, as the credits roll, one of your first thoughts will probably be that it’s not too soon to experience it all again, if only a couple of times more.

Every individual component works so well that you might even wish the game would have focused more on a specific area or genre. This doesn’t hurt the game, but like its aerial controls, it leaves you wanting more. Still, Dragon Commander manages to combine all of its different gameplay elements and delivers one cohesive experience that's highly worth playing.

Dragon's Crown may start slow, but opens into a truly rewarding experience with each additional hour you put in. Despite some initial barriers to entry, it's still one of Vanillaware's most accessible games, catering to the hardcore while inviting in newcomers with its familiar gameplay and beautiful art.

Stages quickly become repetitive thanks to the reused scenery and restrictions.

Rise of the Triad delivers on over-the-top weapons, goofy power-ups, and one of the most sincere deathmatch modes in quite some time, and it's undeniably a retro experience from top to bottom.

It may not last long and it may have issues with its save feature, but the time spent adventuring in this futuristic vision of Seattle will be well worth any frustrations you may encounter.

Dynasty Warriors 8 isn't a bad game--it just feels like a ridiculously deep well of merely average content.

Pikmin 3 is a game about nature, just as it always has been. But on Wii U it’s so believable it often feels like you’re sitting in a real garden, playing with ants and beetles in dappled sunlight. Despite the macabre undertones of the cruelty of nature, the game is charming, funny, and utterly captivating. It is without doubt yet another Miyamoto masterpiece, and one that the Wii U desperately needs.

Compared to Imageepoch's decent track record of niche RPGs, Time and Eternity is a resounding disappointment. And that's compounded by the game’s promising 2D visual concept falling short. As there is nothing especially remarkable with the game's world exploration, battles, or anything else for that matter, the only audience that would appreciate Time and Eternity is the one that buys anything publisher NIS America releases. Even then, this one's a hard sale.