Whether or not you dig its new look, KOF 14 offers everything you could want in a fighting game: refined gameplay, a bevy of appealing characters, and accessibility that gives way to complex depth.

Pokemon Pokopia is like a brilliantly bizarre blend of Pokemon, Animal Crossing, Dragon Quest Builders, and Viva Piñata, and despite its many influences, manages to be a unique spin-off for the Pokemon series that's also an accomplished life sim.

If you're after a challenging and engaging game that'll reward you with a huge well of gameplay with polished style, and - we'll just say it - you're not afraid to nerd out, Persona 3 FES is an all around quality title that it'd be a shame to miss.

Even if the end destination of this final chapter isn't quite as magnificent as we hoped for, we'll never regret the hundred-hour, three-game journey we took across the galaxy to get there. Mass Effect 3 is an incredible experience that rewards you for those years of investment and devotion to its stratospheric tale.

BattleBlock Theater is filled with absurdity, fart jokes, and curious characters that will easily suck you into a colorful world. Its stages are creative and get more complex as you get used to its mechanics and controls and offer enough challenge and funny dialogue to keep you amused. Play it alone and you’ll laugh; play it with a friend (and push him off a ledge) and you’ll laugh even more.

The battle system is still addictively fun, the multifaceted story is riveting, and the graphics are amazing... we couldn't ask for much more.

More sparkle than a wand dipped in fairy dust.

Few games attempt as much and succeed as completely.

The controls work surprisingly well, the action doesn't feel like a pared-down console game and even the loading goes quickly. Add familiar characters, sweet visuals, some excellent voice acting and animated cutscenes by comic artist Ashley Wood, and this should keep fans happy until "MGS4" hits.

Despite its repetitive replay structure, 999 is a thrilling, thoughtful, and fascinating visual novel that represents some of the best the genre has to offer.

Take all this finesse and arcade action online, and MLB '06 gets even better, with tournaments and leader boards to boot. Overall, it's one of the best baseball games ever, on any platform.

The only thing to really rag on Portrait for is its length. Seven-ish hours is pretty short, no matter how you slice it. But, as with all the other Castlevania games, there are so many bizarre things to do once Drac's down that they totally make up for the main quest's length.

OlliOlli World expands the series' formula with great success, effortlessly generating competition with a relentless sense of forward momentum.

Buy it, finish it, love it, because if this takes off we’re going to see a renaissance of new-old games. And if that happens, a whole new batch of gamers will grow up learning why rock-solid gameplay, not tera-flipping flop-bib shaders, make games truly exceptional.

It's a joy and a relief to realise that Sabotage hasn't merely mimicked classic '90s JRPG, but committed to understanding what makes them tick. Its nostalgia is neither gratuitous nor cynical, instead working disparate references together with original ideas into a coherent whole. While it's a little disappointing to discover that there's isn't great depth to the turn-based battles and other systems, the immense quality and detail in the pixel art, soundtrack, location design, characters and plot ensure that Sea of Stars remains a stunning achievement to the end.

Three outstanding games (two of which are vastly enhanced with dead-on motion controls) available for the price of one. We can’t imagine a better deal on Wii this year.

It's a shame that the multiplayer options don't include a cop pursuit mode, but that's a minor omission in a one-game-fits-all package.

The Outer Worlds 2 is bigger and better than the first game in every respect, with deep, rich role-playing and plenty of freedom to tailor your experience. Every world feels curated, and exploration is always purposeful and rewarding. Topped off with a vast range of weapons, brilliant writing, and a story and character that's yours to shape, this is Obsidian doing what it does best to deliver an engrossing RPG you'll want to replay again and again.

Improvements largely concern presentation over play, but they're crucial in making you feel closer to the game than ever.

Injustice 2 isn't the most original fighting game on the block, but it might be the most balanced and thoroughly entertaining one - gear system notwithstanding.

Capcom has delivered a great remake of a classic game, one that captures everything that made it so special to begin with. Resident Evil 4 Remake is full of action and variety that's as exhilarating now as it ever was.

A breathtakingly expansive and authentic recreation of the core Star Wars universe in LEGO. Its gameplay is predictably simplistic at times, but literally everything else is stellar. At last, THIS is the droid you are looking for.

Though hard to grasp for the uninitiated, Telltale's Game of Thrones is a truly meaty addition to the established tale, creating a gut-twisting fantasy drama that will leave you feeling absolutely awful, just like Game of Thrones should.

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.

Bully's still a captivating, cartoonish adventure that packs a ton of activity into its deceptively small world, and it's still a lot of fun to run around dodging prefects and thwacking preppies with a slingshot.

If you're a fan of avant-garde games like the aforementioned duo by thatgamecompany, then $10 is a small price to pay for the great experience that Cipher Prime has unleashed on console gamers.

Without a doubt, Red Dead Redemption has been worth the wait. The finesse of the final delivery and the richness of the world is awe-inspiring and will keep you thrilled from start to finish.

While we’ve got a small list of complaints – you get no instant replays, pitches are tough to pick up in Home Run pinball, and the commentary gets repetitive really quickly – they don’t really impact the overall awesomeness that is The BIGS 2. In fact, it’s our favorite baseball game of the season, even if it’s really just an action game dressed up in pinstripes.