Still madder than a box of frogs, but its magical Disney charms make it worth the long wait.

The Pathless switches effortlessly between relaxing exploration and exhilarating story moments, and it's altogether incredible.

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.

By going real with the songs, next-gen with the graphics and online with the gameplay, it leaves the wishlist relatively barren. At the same time, it's not delivering us much new on the gameplay front, and in fact lags a bit in terms of smart strumming mechanics.

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.

The War Within continues World of Warcraft's comeback trajectory with a war worth fighting for Horde and Alliance alike. While this expansion isn't groundbreaking, it does do a great job of setting the stage for the Worldsoul Saga.

The expansion also adds Tinkering, which allows you to make new items, and Transmuting, which allows you to add additional features to existing items.

In spite of nagging camera problems and an intimidatingly complicated battle system, Dissidia is an outstanding fighter that does a fantastic job of giving Final Fantasy fans exactly what they want.

A great departure from the core Forza Motorsport titles. If you're blindly walking into the game without knowing that it's less sim-driven and far more of a fun arcade racer with many of Forza's trademark trappings--rewinds, color-coded tracking, and customization--you're likely in for a rude awakening. It's got its bumpy patches, but if you're interested in playing a long, deep, and rewarding racer, Forza Horizon is a game worth putting in the mileage on.

Hardcore golfers will be disappointed that Tiger Woods PGA Tour isn't making revolutionary improvements, and everyone else will wonder why EA can't seem to make fields of green look prettier, but it's still the best golf game you can buy on any platform.

It was risky for the NHL 13 dev team to reach under the hood and modify the core gameplay to the degree they did. It takes time to learn, and the smarter defenders and goaltenders will make scoring extremely difficult at the start. As we've recently seen with other stalwart franchises like FIFA Soccer and Madden NFL, though, getting the fundamentals oh-so-right can make something that's already good spectacular.

With a fun battle system, great graphics and character design, no loading times, and plenty of charm and wit to boot, Brave Story is an easy recommendation for any RPG fan. This is one of the best RPGs (if not the best) for the PSP yet.

In spite of all these shortcomings, this is still Guitar Hero and the formula still works - this remains one of the best games ever for anyone who has ever thought even for one second that it would be cool to be a rock star (i.e.: everyone). Just be sure to check out the song list if you weren't around to hear this stuff the first time.

A great package overall and especially for long time MMA fans. There are some minor sticking points in the controls and some will miss their favorite UFC fighters, but if you want a fuller experience of what mixed martial arts is coupled with superior online modes, you can't do better than EA MMA.

Once you understand enemy attack patterns and the game’s slightly slower than you’d expect timing, the level of challenge decreases dramatically. This, combined with the fact that Elika literally won’t let you die, could make things feel too easy and auto-piloted for some die-hard hardcore players.

As we weaved through wave after wave of enemies, downing them wholesale, we couldn't help but wish there had been a replay feature included with the game. Still, for the raw, explosive fury of aerial battle, you can accept no substitute for Blazing Angels.

It’s our favorite baseball game of the season, even if it’s really just an action game dressed up in pinstripes.

A challenging, gorgeous rhythm game that marks a joyous reunion with characters you adore. It's a new way to enjoy Persona 4’s outstanding soundtrack.

Bomberman’s always been about party-style multiplayer, anyway. And as such, Bomberman Live delivers where it counts.

If you’ve already bought into the Zero Escape series’ charming kind of malice, there’s simply no question that you’ll enjoy this, too. If you find yourself curious about rescuing people from certain doom by solving puzzles, I strongly encourage you to at least start with Virtue’s Last Reward, and preferably go back to 999 and enjoy the entire blood-soaked journey.

With solidly rebuilt controls only a little marred by a still-fussy camera, LEGO Star Wars II is even better than last years prequel trilogy-based offering. And, as the first LEGO Star Wars was an amazingly entertaining homage to Lucas's genius, this sequel stands atop the original's shoulders as the pinnacle of LEGO Star Wars fun.

A classy, clean implementation of an old favorite that feels instantly comfortable - and, amazingly enough, at 400 points ($5), it costs about three clams less than a real deck of Unocards.

A great package overall and especially for long time MMA fans. There are some minor sticking points in the controls and some will miss their favorite UFC fighters, but if you want a fuller experience of what mixed martial arts is coupled with superior online modes, you can't do better than EA MMA.

Your enjoyment of Mortal Kombat on Vita will depend on whether or not you've already played the identical console version, and how much you like tapping the touch screen to make people's heads explode. Mortal Kombat remains faithful to its console counterpart, and is an equally entertaining, albeit sometimes uglier, addition to the family.

A few outdated features aside, eFootball PES 2020 marks an exciting new era for the long-running series.

An incomparably innovative combination of hilarity and diabolical puzzles, Cloning Clyde is also a total bargain at 800 Microsoft points ($5).

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.

Rare Replay is an incredibly high-value retro compilation, which adds to its impressive (but sadly not exhaustive) line-up of classics with new ways to play and interesting bonus content.

It's a masterpiece, if not of technique, then of soul, story and heart.

Simultaneously a new Ghostbusters movie and an enjoyable videogame. Rough around the edges, but the superb scripting and unique humour make this a breath of fresh air.

Jumpship's debut is a fantastic sci-fi tale with an intense atmosphere and wonderfully touching narrative, even if there are a few puzzle and movement frustrations.

Gears 5 doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it changes enough to keep its signature style of cover-based shooting from feeling monotonous. Going into this review, I was convinced Gears of War needed to change drastically or risk obsolescence. But the Coalition has found a different way forward, using new mechanics to polish the old, making the whole game shine.

A few technical hiccups and minor quibbles aside, Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 tops off a great year for comic book properties with a fun, varied adventure.

NBA 2K8's got the best on-court basketball experience on the PS2 this year. That's enough for us to declare it the champ.

Suikoden is mainly all about the obsessive-compulsive scrabbling for all 108 "Stars of Destiny" - which means yes, there are literally 108 characters to meet and recruit to your cause.

Tell Me Why - Chapter One is brilliant if you think of it as the opening entry of a mini series, but only pretty good as a game. This is very much an exercise in sowing, but hopefully Chapters Two and Three can be more about reaping.

Lighter, more focused and ultimately more linear than its predecessors, Forgotten Sands never quite feels like a "real" Prince of Persia game, but its popcorn plot and slickly designed, trap-filled environments make it wildly enjoyable anyway.

Even if you’ve played N+ over Xbox Live, or the free PC version, $20 is a small price to pay to brandish this bundle of gaming bliss in the palm of your hands anywhere you damn well please.

A huge improvement over its flawed predecessor, InFamous 2 injects more variety, personality and explosive fun into the first game's promising formula, while removing or fine-tuning its most irritating problems.

The superhero powers and coop mode alone make Crackdown worth recommending. Next time, throw in some more structure - or at least some more gadgets and toys to wreak havoc with when there is no structure - and you'll have a classic must-buy franchise.

An incredibly rewarding game to play, and you can easily spend hours in training mode trying to master the tricky links and parries you'll need to win. It's been a long time coming, but 3rd Strike has finally gotten a console port worthy of its legacy.

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.

This is adventure done right.

Though certainly not a huge shift for the series, Dragon Quest IX has a near-perfect mix of classic JRPG style and grand (for the DS) visuals to make a great portable adventure.

Sable is downright beautiful in its execution and storytelling, and captures an innate desire for exploration like few other open-world games.

Simply put: you’d have to have a frigid, icy heart to not love this game on some level.

Building upon and refining its predecessor's commitment to historical realism, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is an absorbing RPG that fully immerses you in medieval life. If you have the patience to endure a wilfully slow progression system, you'll be richly rewarded with heaps to do in 15th century Bohemia.

We could still do with more Campus Legend mode and fewer ho-hum drills, but this is nonetheless an excellent sports game, with all the thrills and dynamics of real college football.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is a sublime RPG with a fantastic combat system, absorbing stories, and at-times fascinating story, if it wasn't let down by its drip-fed narrative nature and heavy nostalgic leanings.

There's a lot to do - and by "do", we mean, "explode" - and that's exactly what the Ratchet & Clank games are all about.

However you felt about Man of Medan, Little Hope surpasses it, promising a lot for The Dark Pictures' final act.

As with Rez and Lumines before it, Sound Shapes hybridizes a genre to put the focus on music over complex gameplay, and creates something entirely distinct from what we typically perceive as a "game."

If the name Hybrid means anything – other than some story point that obviously didn't grab us – it's the way the game has blended third-person shooting with tactical, almost turned-based combat. Moving from cover to cover on autopilot doesn't make for restrictive gunplay, it facilities furious flying combat and desperate mid-air maneuvers.

Though you can't take this version on the road, if you like puzzles, you won't be able to put Mercury Meltdown Remix down.

The gameplay feels more like an action game jammed into a horror story. It's a good action game, but it never quite feels like it belongs. Don't let the moments of monolithic combat or the lack of terror throw you off, though. The strengths of Alan Wake's narrative outweighs shortcomings that need to be mentioned, but can't ruin the experience.

Exceptional when it all works, but for the third year running launch-day gremlins prohibit an even greater score.

Despite the re-hashed ideas, there are more than enough unique tweaks to the formula to warrant giving Gyromancer a spin.

Dementium: The Ward is almost perfection, performing as a fantastic feat of first-person survival, and oozes with a truly, truly frightening aesthetic. Even if it's not the first in its genre, it's the most satisfyingly original game we've seen on the DS in some time.

It's easy to see how Monolith has made Middle-earth as accessible as it can be for first-time MOBA players without skimping too much on all the trimmings of what makes the genre so much fun on PC. The developers have also created a game that manages to capture the magic of the LotR universe without alienating those unfamiliar to the series. Truly a crowd-pleaser, Middle-earth is a great example of what a console MOBA should feel like and easily sets the bar for more games to come.

Warp strikes a good balance between stealth-focused sneakery and brain-teasing puzzles.

Skyward Sword HD gives one of the most misunderstood Legend of Zelda games a second chance. It's an under-appreciated gem, one that finds the space to really breathe with a more reliable and relaxing method of control embedded within it. Skyward Sword has its fair share of problems, but it makes up for many of them in moments of true brilliance and defiance against established series conventions. Say what you will about Skyward Sword, but it's good to be out on an authored adventure with Link again – saving Hyrule one inventive dungeon and challenging boss battle at a time.

Quite simply, there is a sh.t-ton to keep track of. But no matter, these worries fall away the more you play. And soundly beating the crap out of another guy will be a walk in the park.

We say it’s great fun. In fact, that applies both to the story and this game as a whole. Don’t let it slip by.

A brilliant slice of Bat action that lets you make the most of being the World’s Greatest Detective. Don the cowl. It’s worth every penny.

There are some annoyances--the physics engine feels like it's been overly tinkered, and the shortcomings of career mode's become apparent when you step out of Europe's top leagues. However, it succeeds at one key task that it sets out to do: render FIFA 12 obsolete. You can wear last year's jersey, but you won't want to play last year's game any longer.

I'll play more polished, bigger and more bombastic blockbuster games this year, but We Happy Few will stay with me long after its quests are over.

A patch or two will likely address most small issues, and if online isn't your thing then you're good to go out of the box.

Horrifically brilliant, Until Dawn: Rush of Blood is simultaneously what you want and don’t want VR horror to be. A blood-drenched fairground ride of cackling delight. Step right up.

Victorian London is the star of the show here, and although some old gameplay problems linger, it hasn’t been this much fun to wield the hidden blade in years.

If you’ve never played a Mario & Luigi game, this is the perfect on-boarding point. It’s got a hilarious script, near-flawless battling, and bucketfuls of charm.

Fun as any Rock Band game could be, but only if you're already invested in both brands.

In spite of lifting nearly every gameplay element from other, often better games, Darksiders still succeeds at bringing these disparate threads together into a brutally satisfying whole. It’s also a blast to explore even at its low points, and if the idea of a Zelda with a more “mature” bent and better combat catches your interest, you’ll want to check this out.

Spot-on Wolfenstein atmosphere combines with gleefully vicious weaponry to serve up a tasty smoothie of good old-fashioned Nazi-frying. It lacks in the new idea department, but it has fun aplenty.

An astounding technical achievement. It's one of the best-looking games ever, and it knows how to bring the spectacle. Its single-player provides a playground for the joyous nanosuit powers, although some buggy AI and generic aliens keep the campaign from soaring as high as it could have. The multiplayer, meanwhile, is a fantastic buffet of playstyles that rewards the creative player.

If the developer could have just tightened up a few minor technical issues and injected a little more soul into the proceedings, this might have been Spidey's best game yet. Instead, it’s just a satisfyingly entertaining experience and a big step back in the right direction.

A fulfilling experience. The improvements to gunplay and customization take it further than its predecessor. Its story gives you enough hooks and motivators to want to see it through to the end. Unfortunately, it may feel like a bit of a slog to get there, and you'll want to sort out exactly who's hosting that game between you and your online friends very early on. However, with a well-balanced squad, there are few more pleasing experiences than taking down a gigantic robot constructor through four unique skillsets.

We have to give respect to Hi-Rez Studios for taking a very daring, risky move by creating an action MMO unlike anything we've played before. Sure, it's different because it combines familiar tropes into something unusual, but it feels like a wholly new experience.

It’s a good conclusion for the series overall. Sure, it’s a little loose at the start, and tonally it tries hard to be so serious and grown up, but once it gets all that out of its system the Uncharted-ness comes through and we get to take Nate for one last spin, ‘Oh Craps’ and all.

Muramasa will stand out on Wii, shining as one more ray of inspiration to other developers who have passed on Wii for good.

An astounding technical achievement. It's one of the best-looking games ever, and it knows how to bring the spectacle. Its single-player provides a playground for the joyous nanosuit powers, although some buggy AI and generic aliens keep the campaign from soaring as high as it could have. The multiplayer, meanwhile, is a fantastic buffet of playstyles that rewards the creative player.

If not for the ability to man the gas guns or anti-air cannons yourself, Toy Soldiers would merely be another enjoyable, but just satisfactory, addition to a stagnating genre we admittedly can’t get enough of. Because of its innovation, however, and because it works as well as most shooters with similar ideas, Toy Soldiers easily earns its worth.

Its handful of setbacks are just about evenly balanced with its improvements, so Galactrix still offers an addictive, puzzle-meets-RPG experience that won’t disappoint most fans of the original PQ, as well as anyone looking for an accessible game that still packs plenty of substance.

There's little doubt that The Division understands how to be a persistent MMO-shooter, but it perhaps lacks that understanding of why players continue to log-in to its competitors months and years after they start playing. Even the end-game, which is technically sound, lacks the variety or substance to entertain long-term.

Rift needs to prove it can offer far more beyond 50. Trion's baby already shows some promise of being the most successful MMO release since World of Warcraft, but the endgame currently stands as a looming question mark that overshadows everything else.

It's fair to say that Karaoke Revolution Presents American Idol is simply Karaoke Revolution with a layer of American Idol paint. That's not a bad thing at all. The karaoke gameplay is tried and true, while the popularity of the show will help the game reach a new audience.

Pragmata is nostalgia wrapped in a shiny new spacesuit with plenty of cool tricks up its pressurized sleeve. It's good to see Capcom returning to its quirky action beat, with an impressive host of weaponry, upgrades, combat hacks, and base-building as the sci-fi adventure moves through beautifully-conceptualized biomes. The visual and stylistic elements definitely give me deja-vu at times, and I could do without its heavy-handed themes battering me over the head, but beneath all that polished titanium sits a profound tale of humanity I'll not soon forget.

A thrilling, authentic recreation of Star Trek that brings out the team player in everyone. Just a shame it's such a pain to set-up.

It's a well-made game that you can try again and again with numerous heroes and their plethora of powers. If you're a comic-book fan, this is probably the most satisfying videogame ever made for you.

Evolving arcadey mechanics that have already been perfected is a tough challenge that Once Upon a Katamari rises to meet. Time travel and set pieces across Edo Japan, cowboy escapades, and more make this the most inventive evolution of the series yet. Katamari is on a roll.

Nailing its low-poly aesthetic, smart visual and audio choices combine to create luxurious moments of tension. While a lack of friction makes action a bit straightforward, the well-crafted vibes make for an experience you won’t forget anytime soon.

FIFA 13 on the Wii U is an exceptionally strong launch title for Nintendo's new console. Its smart and innovative use of the controls, silky smooth gameplay, and exquisite array of real-world football make it a winner.

MLB The Show 21 is strong in so many areas, yet also an opportunity missed – and not only in relation to Jackie Robinson.

There's also no denying that Liverpool has overextended itself just a bit with Wipeout 2048. At its best, it's incredibly fast and beautiful; breathless, even. The little compromises chip away at the experience though, from the framerate to the slightly chunkier handling. It's a tremendous racer as always; but as far as grand ambitions go, Liverpool has fallen a tiny bit short.

MercurySteam follow up the career high point of Metroid Dread with a dark fantasy soulslike full of neat ideas. Blades of Fire dares to make the case for weapon degradation being a good thing and succeeds. The fun characters, secret-stuffed level design, and terrific combat don’t hurt either. A really pleasant surprise.

The Outlast Trials is a diabolical parade of terrors, riffing off the cult series to provide a chilling online multiplayer PvE experience that doubles as a prequel. With new maps and missions added as it leaves Early Access, Red Barrels makes a strong opening case for its live service horror game – but has yet to prove how this nightmare will keep us coming back for more than a one-off dose of shock therapy.

The amount of content is staggering, the art direction is stunning for a PS2 game, the oddball cast is likable and this might be the first RPG we've ever played in which the gameplay was way more interesting than the story. The flat, formulaic plot and mostly monotone voice acting drag it down a little, but overall Rogue Galaxy is a stellar effort.

An astounding technical achievement. It's one of the best-looking games ever, and it knows how to bring the spectacle. Its single-player provides a playground for the joyous nanosuit powers, although some buggy AI and generic aliens keep the campaign from soaring as high as it could have. The multiplayer, meanwhile, is a fantastic buffet of playstyles that rewards the creative player.

But this is straightforward run-and-gun, and it's bloodless, one-player run-and-gun at that. It's worth playing for its grueling gunfights and beautiful, combustible environments; just don't expect anything earth-shattering.