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.