In the meantime, I can easily say that Star Wars Pinball is a must buy for Pinball Wizards, crazy old wizards, and even us pinhead mortals.

Ascension is not content to rest on past success, giving players new combat options, a fresh approach to magic and rage, an even larger sense of scale, and some small but meaningful mechanical changes that improve the overall polish to the game.

A triumph, MLB 13: The Show blasts the competition so far out of the park that the grazing cows out on the countryside get a souvenir. Every second of the game is exciting and enticing on different levels.

It isn’t for everyone, and it’s definitely not the game that will convince you to pick up a JRPG if you’ve been avoiding them for this long. Even so, I find myself entirely entranced by Ni no Kuni, and I’m willing to look past its flaws as I return to its magical, whimsical world.

As a shooter, Crysis 3 doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but the addition of the Predator Bow makes the stealth game take on new life. For me, the game’s true aim is bringing the adaptability of the Nanosuit to the player. If you’d like to play this game as a shooter, it’ll handle pretty much Crysis 2. If you’d like your games a little quieter, you’ll find the stealth aspects of Crysis 3 to be a vast improvement over the predecessor.

All in all, I enjoyed Drox Operative. It’s a niche game, certainly – graphically bland with some intriguing gameplay that situates itself somewhere between a realtime strategy game and a roguelike style RPG, offering a whole lot of replay value to those who end up getting into the game.

Pick this one up from Steam if you’re truly desperate for another attempt at playing the role of an evil dungeon overlord. If you’re waiting for a great game in that genre, however, pass this one by.

Overall, The Bridge manages to avoid crossing that fine line between challenging and frustrating, making you work to solve each puzzle without wanting to break your keyboard in the process. It’s an enjoyable experience that encourages you to think differently, and then rewards you for doing so.

It gets so difficult, and the progression is so odd, that I couldn’t even finish the game. You can only try to maneuver a dirt bike through pneumatic platforms that launch you from one to another, up a shaft, so many times before admitting defeat.

It’s a shame that Bientôt l’été is a game that is almost certain to be forgotten as the broken mess that it is. I really thought this game had some great concepts, but the unworkable controls and awful matchmaking destroy any chance it had. If you can find it on sale cheap—we’re talking under 5 bucks—and you really like the French New Wave, you might be interested. Otherwise, I’d definitely pass.

For true fans this title could be a no-brainer – it’s Metal Gear. More casual fans can rest easy that you really don’t have to know much about the series at all to enjoy this one. Both will have to weigh if that short of a run time warrants the cost.

Describing QuestLord as “Solid and straightforward” runs the risk of making the game sound dull, but I want to stress that that’s not the case. The graphics are well-crafted for what they are, though you have to appreciate pixel art to agree with that estimation, and even then you have to admire the throwback to the 1980s that QuestLord really seems to be going for.

If it were cheaper, if there were more to it, it would justify its $9.99 asking price. As it stands now, however, most people would probably be better off holding onto their money and looking elsewhere to satisfy their exploration fix.

Overall, I find that this game is enjoyable for what it is, and it’s fair to say that it doesn’t try to be anything else than what it is: essentially only a multiplayer game. It’s a fun one at that, so I do indeed recommend you play it if you’re into this type of gaming.

However, the $40 price tag is a bit steep, especially considering that the original Xbox 360 version sold for a budget price when it was released. Still, if you want a game that you can pick up, play for five minutes, and put back down again, there are much worse alternatives than Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable.

Corpse Party: Book of Shadows is definitely not for everyone. People who enjoy a heavy dose of Japanese in their horror stories and who don’t mind that they are playing a video game that doesn’t have much game in it will be able to enjoy Corpse Party: Book of Shadows. As for me I found the storyline to be entirely too juvenile and non-sensible.

Visceral dodged this bullet while taking serious risks that ultimately paid off. The new crafting engine is a triumph, but the cooperative multiplayer and the complete storyline that unfolds inside of it sets the bar for how cooperative play should be done. Balancing the horror between the single player experience and the multiplayer experience without damaging either is impressive.

The enemies in this game are just dumb as a damned rock.

The feeling of accomplishment in this game is one of the most gratifying I’ve ever felt, and the few hours I spent inside Antichamber’s world felt like interacting with someone’s bizarro art exhibit.

Despite the constant feeling of déjà vu, there’s a lot of gameplay here. The entire adventure will take around 10-15 hours to finish, never mind hunting down all of the hidden secrets and trying to chase after that ever-elusive Platinum trophy. And its hard not to fall back into Sly’s world – it’s familiar, safe, like an old blanket.

Launching for $35 USD, Brain Age is a bit pricy for what it delivers. But for that price you get a variety of different games that will truly challenge your mind, record your progress, and give you a serious sense of accomplishment if you actually manage to claw your way up in terms of performance.

Puddle is relatively brief and can be tackled within a lazy afternoon or two. There’s not much to the game once you’ve gotten through it – other than going back through to unlock in-game achievements and trying to get gold on each of the levels – but it’s fun while it lasts. It won’t set the world on fire, and it can be crushingly difficult at times, but it’s got a ton of nifty ideas and wrings every single drop out of them – and in that, Puddle greatly succeeds.

While the single-player has several issues, the multiplayer makes up for it. The $30 price tag helps as well. I wouldn’t recommend this to every fan of beat-em-ups, but if you can handle the unique Platinum flavor, then it’s worth trying out.

The proficient graphics, distinctive environments, and interesting story keep you playing in spite of the frustrating difficulty spikes and lack of polish. It’s a brave move to try and recreate a long-dead genre like Cadenza has done, and they’ve wound up with a solid game.

Any minor complaint is overshadowed by everything Strike Suit Zero does right. But the best part of it was reminding me how good these space sims were, and how good they can be. If my thirteen-year-old self had found this game, he would have had his eyes glued his computer monitor for days.

Ninja Theory has done a great job capturing the action of the Devil May Cry games, and you'll be hard pressed to find a better action game.

It has all the aspects of a Super Smash Bros., but the fact that only super attacks can kill off a character make the game feel less strategic. Still, it is a fun game to play with a few friends on the couch or online.

Those looking for a challenge need look no further than Fire Emblem: Awakening, and newcomers can enjoy a much more accessible experience via the casual mode. With steady innovations such as the improved sound, relationship system, and online functionality, fans can finally rejoice at the series' return to Nintendo's newest portable device.