At the end of the day, Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara packs together two splendid side-scrolling brawlers that have withstood the test of time.

Marvel Heroes is a good game that would probably get more praise if it worked out some of its most fundamental issues out the gate. Lean character selection in a game as huge as this is to be expected this early in its life, but it isn’t something that had to be such a standout issue either.

It feels like an important evolutionary step in presentation and tone, presenting a believable narrative populated with realistic characters, structured in a way that remains captivating until the last word is spoken. Multiplayer is disposable and combat can feel a bit rudimentary at times complete with balance issues, but being perpetually enveloped in the stunning world Naughty Dog created makes it easy to forget any flaws.

The Swapper is a wonderfully clever game that’s as smart as it is atmospheric.

As a whole, Wargame: Airland Battle is a bizarre mix of exciting, engaging multiplayer and an abysmal solo campaign that feels like an afterthought.

It’s a bit pricey, but if this is a genre that’s interesting to you, the time and perseverance needed to attain the title’s full enjoyment is well worth it.

Rush Bros. came out of nowhere, but is a very polished game worthy of any gamer’s time.

Bad Bots is a great idea for a game brought down by a lack of variety or legitimate innovative challenge.

With tons of cars, multiple events and a fantastic multiplayer mode, Grid 2 is proof that the series deserves to rank among the upper echelon of racing franchises.

A great game that is persistently close to being a spectacular one. It has a bigger story to tell than a 10-15 hour third-person action title can accommodate, but still manages to be surprisingly emotional and touching by the time the credits roll.

Element4l is a terrific game that is perfectly balanced in everything that it sets out to accomplish.

Super Puzzle Platformer Deluxe packs a ton of great run/jump/shoot/puzzle action in its arcade shell, and is easily one of the best Tetris-style games to show up in a very long time.

It’s Angry Birds meets tower defense meets beat ‘em up meets crack cocaine levels of addictiveness in a hodgepodge amalgamation of stuff that absolutely should not work as well as it does.

The Adventures of Van Helsing is an excellent game that deserves to be played by those looking for an extremely well written experience and for fans of old school RPGs everywhere. With a game length that puts many AAA developers to shame, NeoCore Games punched well above their weight and succeeded where so many indie games have failed in the past.

It breaks my heart to even talk about The Night of the Rabbit in a negative manner because, while it has its issues, it’s still an imaginative experience.

On the whole, Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D offers up one of the most challenging and rewarding platforming adventures in recent memory. Take note, developers, this is how a port should be done.

There may be a few spots where combat feels repetitive and the stealth elements are half-baked, but the sheer audacity on display here deserves commendation.

The PC version is also an excellent port, offering a steady framerate, crisp visuals and well-established controls. If you missed out on this grand adventure when it was on the Xbox 360, here’s the perfect opportunity to fix that.

While the final explanation shows that, predictably enough, there’s more going on than meets the eye, it’s more short story than novel. In terms of both story and gameplay it’s hard to find much to recommend about The Starship Damrey, but there’s nothing really wrong with it either. It’s a curiosity, interesting enough while being played, and then it’s over.

With all of its issues, and in its current state, DUST 514 is a title that has lofty ambitions, but also far too many problems and contingencies to deal with right now. Only the hardcore EVE enthusiasts need apply.

Gunslinger is one of the best downloadable shooters on consoles and easily the best entry in the series.

Those with even a shred of self-respect should head to a seedy truck stop, bowling alley or other similar establishment and use the forty dollars this retails for to instead play the vastly superior The Fast and the Furious arcade game.

Strike Suit Infinity is not a game that is terrible by any means. It’s just a game that had some really high hopes for itself but failed to deliver those things in a way that was organic and a little bit more fun.

Thunder Wolves is a game that knows what it wants to be, and cuts through any of the other filler to give an experience that is as pure as possible.

All in all, it’s hard to recommend Tiny Token Empires for the PS3. Even though the puzzle portions are a lot of fun, they’re not so much better than other games on the market that the frustrations caused by the strategy portion are worth putting up with them for.

A more intimate affair rather than a blockbuster, it recalls terrific classic elements that have been sorely missed, easily besting the latest main-series entry.

Reus is a game of giants walking the earth, and an epic contraption whose pleasantly rewarding output wrests a world teeming with life from a dead planet’s skin.

Here Anomaly 2 is trying to reinvent its own wheel with little tiny incremental upgrades instead of taking the same drastic approach that gained it such praise in the first place. The result isn’t something groundbreaking; the result is a confused and missed opportunity that has more in common with RTS games in every wrong way possible.