For as “action packed” and “feature laden” as it is, Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge suffers from a lack of balance and will no doubt be a source of frustration for those who try to go against its painful grain.

The concept of an open world zombie survival game is still good on paper, but somehow Techland has failed for a second time to make sure it works in execution.

The heart that went into developing Guacamelee! is evident in its execution and reverence to other works.

The visuals are universally great with detailed character models featuring natty costumes and appropriate attention to detail. The storyline really should appeal to DC Comics experts and novices alike for its tale of superhero battles.

A pitiful remake of a classic game and a damn shame for gamers. Double Dragon II on the NES deserves a better remake than this. Broken gameplay, boring combat, and no replay value make this one of the worst games I’ve played.

While Trion has to be held accountable for the severe problems at launch, the truth is that the game’s experience is strong enough to shine through them. Unless you need an artificial goal like a level cap to work towards in an MMO, Defiance offers some of the best fun you can have online.

With so many different gameplay options, and the ability to make your own levels to put your friends through your own custom hell, BattleBlock Theater was worth the wait.

Black Forest Games revitalized its series by staying true to the game’s origins while still moving past its blatant clone gimmicks.

Monster Hunter takes for granted a lot of extracurricular effort on behalf of its players. How much extra research are you willing to do on a game’s systems before you expect to have fun with it? How many nonsensical, anachronistic hoops are you willing to jump through just for a slight taste of what this game will hopefully become in ten years’ time?

The presentation is wonderful and the attention to detail creates a game that has a charm and feel all its own. The controls are a little confusing at times but if you can get over them you’ll discover a fun game.

With the release of BioShock Infinite, developer Irrational has delivered a bigger story, more polished experience, and created two similar-yet-separate games that can co-exist and remain equal in quality. When the history of videogames is written, not one, but two BioShocks will be remembered for pushing gameplay, story, and subject matter to new levels.

Capcom has given us two excellent titles in Darkstalkers Resurrection that fighting game fans will absolutely love.

SimCity as a game is thoroughly entertaining, if flawed in several areas, and now at least we can experience it fully, and hopefully put the disaster of launch in our rear view mirror.

With a surprisingly long campaign, infinitely replayable multiplayer, improved spectating and community tools, and access to hundreds of user-made game modes, Heart of the Swarm is an absurd value and a complete necessity for anyone that enjoyed any aspect of StarCraft II. Unless you just hate using your mouse in video games, buy Heart of the Swarm.

It’s pretty darn respectable package. The difficult-but-fair single-player was very satisfying and well-paced, with extremely well implemented co-op, something rare in games these days. Overrun is a welcome addition to the Gears multiplayer suite, even if there’s little variety among the modes.

Disappointing. On its own the game is mediocre with a missed opportunity in character variety, short time to completion, and only a small amount of enemies. Compared to past games this is a downright disaster.

I’m having a hard time remembering the last time I had this much pure, unmitigated fun just playing, period.

With dozens of hours of gameplay, plenty of replayability with multiple class types, and a difficulty that is balanced with the right amount of reward, Etrian Odyssey IV is far and above the best dungeon crawler I’ve played.

The roster of Sega stars and tracks is commendable. When the game hits its strides it can even be as entertaining as genre king Mario. But more often than not the game’s suite of issues holds it back from greatness.

The HD treatment, online multiplayer, casual mode for newbies, and extra goodies to unlock ensure plenty of playtime for each of the various titles.

While many find the God of War series to be repetitive in its formula, it continues to deliver a refreshing take that satisfies the core fan base. And though the campaign is shorter and the number of epic boss fights leaves you wanting more, this is the most human we have ever seen Kratos and the story compels you to him unlike ever before.

There are very few games I’d recommend to anyone regardless of gaming experience or preference, but Runner 2 is one of them. It’s a fantastic reminder that sometimes games are most effective when they don’t try to emulate explosion-riddled Hollywood blockbusters and instead embrace solid gameplay mechanics and unfettered creativity.

It’s really hard to be excited about the future of Tomb Raider after this game. It fails where more successful films and games of its kind succeed: in its characters. The way in which Lara goes from inexperienced to full-on action movie hero survivalist is so jarring that it’s near impossible as a player to remain on the same emotional wavelength as the story. Because of this the rest of the game falters.

The openness of the levels and the variety of skills at Prophet’s disposal makes each chapter a joy to play and replay.

While the story is subpar, the stealth mechanics are weak, and the lack of a dodge ability does hinder a solid combat system, this short game–clocking in at around seven to eight hours–is certainly entertaining to play.

There’s biker and vehicle customization in the game, and a fair amount of it. With outfits, accessories, and bike upgrades to attain, enough reason exists to go out of your way to nab cash in-game and increase your star count.

My most concerning issue with Special Forces: Team X, though, is how lost it seems. It lacks personality even though its title and pre-launch trailers exude it; it seems to exist as just another multiplayer shooter with no innovation aside from its map system.

I haven’t been this disappointed in a game in a long, long time. Not only does the campaign welch on its opportunity to create interesting and additive content in the Aliens universe, but the multiplayer is languid, broken, and laughably frustrating. Colonial Marines plays it as safe as possible and still can’t manage to copy successfully proven ideas.

No doubt, Dead Space 3 stumbles—pretty hard—in some spots. But it also feels like this is Visceral honing its craft. The combat and pacing are the best they have ever been and some choices invest you in the experience, even if it’s a bummer the story doesn’t hold up.

The whole experience feels like an anachronism. Younger gamers might accept some of these problems more readily, and when the game is on, it’s a lot of fun. If you enjoy the simplicity of the gameplay or collecting lots and lots of shiny objects, you’ll get tons of that here, giving you more entertainment after you’ve completed the main story.

If you’re the type of gamer that likes talking about games as much as playing them, The Cave will give you plenty to talk about. Otherwise, if you’re just after a fun and well-crafted experience, there’s too much chaff in this package.

There aren't many strategy RPGs as approachable for newcomers and as deep for veterans as Fire Emblem: Awakening. Though the story feels like it's just going through the motions, an expansive cast of characters with a wide array of personalities to match means you'll find plenty to still love about the narrative.

It's a fine introduction to strategy games for those intimidated of the genre, even if it has its challenges along the way.

Make no mistake, this is a game for gamers: furious button mashing, intense competition, and destruction on a scale that only Platinum Games seems to understand.

Those of you looking for a more engaging, worthwhile, and ultimately enjoyable RPG should look past Unchained Blades and not look back.

EDF2017 has a particular magic that defies logic. If you've played the original to death, you may simply want an excuse to play the game again despite the disappointing renovations in Portable. Hell, I'm in that camp myself, so I won't talk you out of it. Just make sure you have some friends lined up for co-op ahead of time.

The four or five challenges that click are easily worth the DLC's reasonable price. However, this DLC feels similar to the time trials in Mirror's Edge. Even though it's quality content it simply may not be what you want or expect. However, at such a price, I encourage you to jump in and find out for yourself.

With a heart-warming protagonist, beautifully illustrated world, and addicting gameplay, Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is another masterpiece of which Level-5 and Studio Ghibli can be rightly proud.

Any gamer that cries for a new, classic Castlevania should put their money where their mouth is and buy this game immediately. Beyond that recommendations are harder to make.

Niggles aside, escapeVektor is a game in which everything included works perfectly and anything left on the cutting room floor isn't missed. It's a fantastic value in addition to being fantastically fun to play, and it belongs on every 3DS.

The familiarity of the controls in combat help in welcoming DmC's distinctive art direction and new look for Dante. The attention paid to the script and narrative manages to make these intermissions worth watching, and not because of over-the-top gunplay or sword work; that's for you to control in-game.

The core of the Horizon Rally DLC is solid; it recreates superbly the rally racing experience. Only in the additional features does this DLC fall short, which is less forgivable given its price point.

A greatly enjoyable game that fans of both series' will find a lot to love. Though it's short and strays away a bit from traditional Mega Man games, Street Fighter x Mega Man is a great play that you honestly have little reason not to experience.

The Crimson Shroud is a game that's completely comfortable to be exactly what it is: an extremely hard, dense celebration of what makes tabletop RPGs so fun. There are gameplay issues that will aggravate some, but any gamer who's spent a Friday night rolling dice will be more than willing to forgive them.

Even with the new bells and whistles the game is starting to show its age, and the complexity of gameplay will steer many gamers away. If you don't mind sifting through a lot of text, I highly recommend this game to anyone who calls themselves RPG lovers.

Crashmo is a really good game, but I didn't like it quite as much as Pushmo. I'm not sure if the reason for that lies within me, or the game itself, but I felt far less compelled to go back to each puzzle this time around...But Crashmo is still a hell of a puzzle game, and if you're more inspired than intimidated by a challenge, I can see no reason why you shouldn't snap this game up now.

By including areas and missions outside of the tournament, this Campaign of Carnage has room to breathe and deliver a narrative that retains the twisted charm of the Borderlands franchise.

A game that not even die hard Family Guy fans will appreciate. The jokes and crude humor are taken too far, even for the show's standards. Couple that with drab gameplay and poor controls and you've got a game that should be avoided by most accounts.

I am really impressed with GOME, AI issues notwithstanding. As a gateway to MOBAs, this game hooked me in a way I did not expect. It's got that immediate gratification spirit to it, where I finish a match and immediately want to jump into another.

While the Wii U version doesn't do anything that's detrimental to the overall experience it also does little to improve it in any meaningful way.

I won't say that the framerate issue is a deal-breaker, but it's definitely keeping me from wholeheartedly recommending Armored Edition.

Black Ops 2 on Wii U lives up to its Xbox counterpart (that being slightly superior to the PS3 version) in almost every way. The lack of CoD Elite support and live video streaming is irrelevant to your enjoyment of the actual game, and additionally insignificant next to the lack of players at the moment – a limitation that will subside as the user base grows.

If Disney lore and collectible culture is your thing, Epic Mickey 2 delivers. If co-op puzzle-solving is your thing, Epic Mickey 2 delivers. If revealing the character and talents of Oswald is intriguing then Epic Mickey 2 delivers...But there are so many options, so many details, collectibles, characters to appease that progress doesn't flow efficiently, and retreading areas becomes tiresome.

All in all, Omega feels like a dumb action movie within the Mass Effect universe - gorgeous and exciting, but empty and implausible at the same time.

If you frequently entertain guests, Nintendo Land is an invaluable party staple. If you're a solo gamer, it's a much harder sell.

Proven gameplay mechanics and the wacky sense of humor that is Adventure Time make the game a blast to play from start to finish. Just don't expect to be playing it all that long.

Despite how interesting the gamepad is used to play the game, the ten-plus hour campaign itself just isn't fun. The multiplayer is a better experience, but that's not saying much. ZombiU is for those gamers that truly want difficult survival horror with no end purpose, and that's fine for those that don't need complexity to their zombie apocalypse.

Character drama has rarely been better in the gaming medium, and it most definitely deserves a spot on your hard drive.

F1 Race Stars is simple, charming, looks great (particularly thanks to a silky smooth frame rate) and has some clever nods to the real life sport without getting technical. Its simplicity makes it better suited to families or more inexperienced players, and it could be great fun in local multiplayer.

There are curmudgeons out there who will skip this game because of the liberal Mario throwbacks, but they're missing the forest for the trees. Inventive level design, loads of content, and the shockingly profound boost mode make this one of the best 2D platformers out there.

For as large as Far Cry 3′s setting is, there's an elegant conciseness to the game's story mode. It'll still take tens of hours for completionists to get through, but the fast travel and dense map ensures you always have something meaningful to do within minutes.

The Career mode is deep and involving, with a rewarding sense of progression as you earn new sponsors and bolt on better car parts...On the other hand, the multiplayer, which only offers single races online or in split-screen, is lacking more engaging features (and players, sadly).

The game feels a tad lacking in content. Single player for each character takes less than 30 minutes to beat, multiplayer and versus aren't customizable by more than a few basic attributes – and unless you count the bonus challenges for each character, All-Stars will have you punching, kicking, shooting and supering your opponents for every moment you spend with it. More gameplay variety would have been nice.

Okami HD is a great example of what games can accomplish outside the realm of guns and gore, and I love it for that.

A game with an identity crisis trying to be too many things to too many people. It's more successful than it should be but ultimately the entire package is brought down by being pulled in these two polarizing directions.

The excellent story hooked me in from the opening minutes and I didn't want to let go. With branching paths, multiple endings, and truly mysterious characters to interact with, Virtue's Last Reward will keep you thrilled for hours on end.

With Kurt's character design, the smoothness in his movements, and the challenges he faces, I couldn't help but compare Pid to the award-winning Limbo. That said, Pid's exceedingly inviting visual style is a marked contrast to the overbearing sense of dread and isolation in Playdead's 2010 platformer.

Persona 4 Golden is a fantastic modernized expansion of a brilliant RPG that many will have missed simply because it released out of sync with its original console generation.

Black Ops 2 is a very impressive achievement both from the audacity of its slightly flawed single-player narrative to the massive construction of its multiplayer offerings, and so, Black Ops 2 scores.

It's nothing that I want to particularly spend much time with, since it's just generally lackluster in modes and variety. It's a pretty game, that's for sure, but there was nothing in Ravaged that really drew me in, nothing that made me want to turn it later once I'd shut it down.

The biggest change the series has seen so far. Layton fanatics may cry foul at the series' change of 2D to 3D visuals, but upon playing the game you'll see the game is hands down the best looking of the series.

Karateka is a perfect for for anyone that played the original as well as those that appreciate more daring and unique games.

The solo game in Banana Splitz is competent and enjoyably challenging. Every other component of this package is a challenge to enjoyment.

There's a little more depth to Primal Carnage than its premise might imply, but only a little. The interplay of the game's classes provide some intelligent play, but at the end of the day there's simply not enough game here to justify its cost.

Borderlands Legends is a standalone game that is neither a gimmicky socially connected tie-in with Borderlands 2, nor is it an ambitious attempt at a port of the console games. It does hit all the Borderlands notes from the art style to the weapon variety to the abilities, just with a stripped down design.

A fun, charming game that is befitting of the series' unique sense of gameplay. While an unfortunate amount of backtracking and a lackluster story halt the game from being flawless, these are just minor grievances in an otherwise fantastic game.

It's got its quirks; playing against the CPU can be a frustrating ordeal, and some of the autopilot weapons too often release you into tricky positions, sometimes even dropping you off the course completely. But the solid racing core laid out by ModNation Racers combined with the universe of creativity, variety and charm that the LBP franchise in known for makes for a karting game with near limitless potential and unrivaled multiplayer racing fun.

If you are an old school WWE fan longing to play with your favorite superstars of yesteryear, then this game is a must buy. Younger fans can learn a lot about the WWE's past by playing through the Attitude Era mode as well.

The visuals have been massively overhauled to make this the best looking Halo, if not the best looking 360 game to date.

Despite serious gameplay and production issues, Edna & Harvey: Harvey's New Eyes is still a memorable and enjoyable game.

Despite these problems, though, Liberation brings a hugely engaging and interesting gameplay mechanic to the series, one that's informed by the character herself. For that reason alone, it's impossible for me not to recommend this game.

The developers have masterfully adapted everything that made the original Painkiller so enjoyable to a new engine that looks fantastic and plays liquid smooth.

If you stick to the online mode, have a good group of friends to share the road with, and love fast, sexy cars, you'll probably enjoy the game. It's not incredibly deep, so look elsewhere to scratch that driving itch, but it works for a quick, pulse-pounding hit of action and adrenaline...It's a shame the poor design that plagues the offline mode is so ingrained into the fundamental fabric of the gameplay.

There's a certain amount of diminishing returns on the mechanical evolutions made but the fresh, authentic setting along with a brand new protagonist go along way in rekindling the fire.

Hotline Miami is one of the very few games that is a perfect union of gameplay mechanics and production values.

This DLC is a must-buy for anyone that played and enjoyed Serious Sam 3: BFE. While the Egyptian setting is worn threadbare at this point, content exhaustion is mitigated with clever map design. It would be nice to see new environments, but this is a great booster pack of content until that day comes.

With this shift to an open world style, and storyline-driven progression, Forza has drifted into an area that the franchise probably requires, but isn't expertly realized.

Now what is the reason to own Street Fighter X Tekken for PlayStation Vita if you already own it for the home consoles? This version is packed full of extras geared towards owners of the PlayStation 3 version of the game. With this you receive the extra 12 DLC characters and 38 alternate costumes for the core characters of the game.

With a brand new story, more game modes, extra levels to gain for your old and new toys, and enough content and replay value to keep you entertained for weeks, Giants is an easy recommendation to any gamer looking for a fun and approachable RPG.

007 Legends isn't completely terrible; Bond fans could even enjoy it. But for every step forward it takes two steps back.

Doom 3 has aged fantastically well. Provided you haven't already played the games in this collection, BFG Edition is also a solid value.

But if you're a glutton for punishment, itching to play more Trials Evolution and have a spare five bucks in your pocket, there's no reason to avoid experiencing the Origin of Pain.

In all, it's a solid start to what is to be a promising roll out of Borderlands 2 DLC and it's an especially manageable adventure if you're level 15 or higher in your current playthrough (not counting raid bosses).

It's got some nice simple puzzle sequences, some shootouts, and a truck full of drama. Let's just hope the final chapter doesn't take forever to come out.

Orcs is not a game for everyone, but you should absolutely give it a look if you're interested in ambitious design or interesting worlds.

Worms Revolution is more Worms, but it's more Worms with a few quirky twists. Though the water looks like jelly, it adds some never-before-possible mechanics into the world of Worms that make you ponder your plan of attack more thoughtfully.

At no point did the FPS component of Gaea Mission feel relevant, let alone necessary.

Though the variety of gameplay gives Retro City Rampage a broad scope, the redundancy of driving back and forth quickly becomes stale.