It's better than last year's abysmal effort, that's for sure. But it's still not the supreme racer the biking scene deserves.

I'm worried that I'm making Lost In Shadow sound bad. It's not bad. It's actually rather good. It's just nothing terribly new.

Too many quirks and glitches still exist in the gameplay for me to fully immerse myself into the sport. 2K12 makes pitching more challenging and stands out as the most polished aspect of the gameplay. Very little has been added in the way of game modes this season, but the standards still play true to form.

Though a handful of lacking options ding the game's value, Fortune Street is still a blast to play. It marries the classic sensibilities of a board game while embracing the complexity afforded by video games. If you have a stack of board games in the closet, this game is made for you.

BloodRayne: Betrayal is on the line of a game I'd recommend and a game I wouldn't recommend. The visuals are wonderful and genuinely a pleasure to look at. But the gameplay is hindered entirely by overly difficult platforming and atrocious controls.

Tequila Works certainly understands the 2D space and there is some sense of satisfaction in navigating Randall Wayne through miles of hallowed out buildings, a treacherous underground, and zombie-infested roads.

By resembling both a shooter and real-time version of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, The Bureau: XCOM Declassified isn’t the easiest game to grasp. Yet, if you tough it out through the game’s initial hours, there’s a lot gratification to be found in AI team management.

I love EDF to death. It delivers a metric ton of stupid fun.

NFS: The Run is a fast, frantic, and thoroughly enjoyable racer. The idea of a movie-encased racing game is an excellent one, and despite the fact that EA's first attempt lacks due tact or sophistication, the over-the-top plot does add extra context and excitement to the basic premise of driving at ridiculous speeds.

The obtrusive HUD and messy atmospheric bits aren't bad enough to ruin this, but as with some of the questionable facets of this game, you can't help but wonder how much more fun it would be without them.

If you look at The Simpsons Arcade Game from today's standards then the game is pretty terrible, with overly simple controls, rough graphics, and a very short campaign. But looking at the game through the eyes of a fan of the original cabinet from 1991 the game fares much better. It has what you'd expect a game based on The Simpsons to have: similar animation, fun gameplay, and entertaining multiplayer.

Fans of the original rejoice; it’s everything you’d want in a resurrection. Newcomers should exercise more caution. ROTT is a fantastic game with unrestrained charm, but it comes with a little more fire than modern games will have prepared you to expect.

A unique blend of turn based and real time battles is squandered on bland battles and a pacing that is far too slow.

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.

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.

The convenience of modern games makes this Resident Evil Code: Veronica X feel dated.

Mahjong Cub3D is exactly what it needs to be - a collection of mahjong puzzles with a neat gimmick that works well with the 3DS's display.

It's a shame it was released in such a crowded downloadable game window, as it's an enjoyable diversion for the price.

I was disappointed with this game. Killing zombies with friends is a fun, if short, adventure, but highly repetitive gameplay makes the game stale. A great deal of backtracking and monotonous quests holds the game back even further. The nail in the coffin is no online multiplayer, because this game is just screaming to be played with friends over Xbox Live.

Even with all its flaws, and it has many, Resident Evil 6 is still an exhilarating action game. It's just not the return to form we were hoping for. It still has control issues, and isn't as scary or as puzzling as the series' high water marks Resident Evil 2 or 4.

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

Bad games happen all the time, and so do brand-extending cash-grabs. But when a game is this blatant in how it wants to take consumers' money-by mashing up long-standing franchises with mostly solid reputations-it's cause for disgust.

Double Dragon: Neon achieves everything it set out to: reinvigorate the Double Dragon franchise while adding new elements and retaining the core gameplay that made the original games popular.

Sonic Generations for the 3DS is by no means a bad game, it is just a disappointing one. Being able to play as both Modern Sonic and Classic Sonic in an assortment of old and new stages is a great idea, but everything is over very quickly.

The gravity fluctuating gameplay combined with simple platforming make for devilishly difficult levels that only hardcore puzzle fans need apply for.

It’s the third game in the thirteenth of a series dating back to 1987, yet it’s also one of the most successfully inventive games I’ve ever played. It puts you in control of everything, which is a total inverse of Final Fantasy’s traditional position.

It especially tickled my fancy with its irreverent, unrestrained humor that rivals Earthworm Jim. If you're expecting innovation or extremely tight gameplay, this isn't the place to find it. On the other hand, if you enjoy simple action games, quirky indie experiences, or senses of humor that we seem to have left in the 90s, don't let Double D slip by.

The updated visuals give the dated games a fresh look, but the exclusion of levels and options like the park editor are sorely missed.

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

A good dance game that uses solid gameplay mechanics. While the visuals are distinct, they're lacking on a technical level.

A good example of what a remake should be: an enhanced version of a previously non-released game incorporating the best elements from past games in the series.

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

Linear gameplay and an incredibly short length means the game can be completed in a matter of hours, which is a problem considering the high price point. For those of you willing to pay the price of admission Yesterday is a fun nod to an earlier form of gaming with a story you won't soon forget.

It offers nothing profound, but improves incrementally over the last in the series (as the franchise is wont to do). Series regulars already know everything there is to know, and as such probably haven't bothered to read any reviews.

The lack of narrative hurts what could have been an awesome story.

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.

Yoshi’s New Island isn’t a bad game; it just doesn’t live up to the legacy set forth by its predecessors.

There's no emotional investment, little challenge, and nothing that shakes off happier memories of War of the Monsters.

Essentially a no-frills score attack game with base-capture, twin-analogue shooter and real-time strategy elements all rolled into one. Its lacking content and technical niggles give it a cheap, rushed feel, yet it still manages to provide a surprisingly carrot-on-a-stick, addictive experience with just the right level of complexity for its 10-minute missions.

If you're looking for a game that can be picked up, enjoyed, and promptly placed back down for another time, not to mention at a price that won't break the bank, Choplifter HD is a solid, recommendable purchase.

It won't blow your mind. It won't raise the FPS bar. And if you play the big FPS games on HD consoles, moving to this would be like dumping Jessica Alba for Snooki. You just wouldn't do it. But if Wii is your only console this is a refreshingly enjoyable romp arriving right in the middle of a worrying Wii games drought.

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.

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 average visuals, clunky animations, clumsy controls, and nonexistent lip-syncing represents a distinct lack of polish, but this doesn't ruin the otherwise solid game tucked within.

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.

Offers an adequately suspenseful adventure and expands the series' lore, just barely making it worthy of the Silent Hill name.

The core fighting system has been ported perfectly to the 3DS and the animation is very well done, but everything else has been stripped down to the bare essentials. Substantial lag makes most online matches unplayable, and just two single player modes doesn't give too many options for replayability.

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.

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

lilt line is an awesome little proof of concept that justifies its $5 cost with around an hour of bangin' beats. Jaded and retro gamers will enjoy the minimalist design, while dubstep fans will enjoy the fresh tracks and representation of one of electronica's up and coming genres.

Urban Trial Freestyle isn’t Trials HD, but it can have its moments: when you’re flying through the levels, landing after huge falls, and getting super fast times the game is quite fun.

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.

Virtually no changes have been made between this game and the last in the series. While not wholly bad, unfortunate omissions like online play and a revamped combat system will leave fans of the series (and of action RPGs in general), wanting more. DeathSpank has a penchant for the epic, but so far his games have been average.

Conceptually, the Yakuza series might appear to have "jumped the shark," but Sega has designed the game well enough and with such enthusiasm that you can't help but be impressed.

If you're a fan of the character somehow, that shows you like things that are "unique" and have a "dark" "personality," and are not at all manufactured in order to appeal to an overplayed "edgy" aesthetic. As such, this game is for you, because that means you have mediocre taste. Everyone else, save your valuable time and effort.

As MercurySteam deserves credit for keeping much of the combat consistent with the first Lords of Shadow, they’ve also earned recognition for being consistent with the series’ detailed and visually robust art direction.

This version of Bionic Commando feels more like Bipolar Commando in that it doesn't know what type of game it wants to be. Giant boss fights and grappling gameplay make Rearmed 2 relentlessly challenging and fun just like its predecessors. But it becomes a more generic $15 game as soon as you realize that jumping, traversing over objects, and a regenerating health system are more akin to Shadow Complex than its Bionic Commando legacy.

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.

But its hugely let down by this DLC idea of THQ's which, executed in the way it has been, has left the game lacking in any real content to justify laying down the initial $40.

Ultimately, it seems a bit unfair to give Continue? a score—it’s a game that can mean everything or nothing depending greatly on your worldly interpretation. Where games like Gone Home and Papers Please have a clear fundamental message tugging on your principles, Continue? is either answering life’s questions or presenting some you weren’t considering before—apparently while “late at night with a glass of wine or some weed.”

I do wish that the story had more meat, and did more to make me care about the four characters.

The story is decent at times but fails to compare to the magnitude of the original books' story. Leveling up and getting new gear is fun, but the combat becomes repetitive quickly.

Sacred Citadel is a fine hack n’ slash side-scroller, and it’s even better with friends. The online netcode could use an upgrade and I wish there was a bit more content to flesh out the package, but for the price, Sacred Citadel is a solid adventure to be had. And it doesn’t force you into piles of menus to manage your character – that’s a bonus in itself, am I right?

Qoga adheres to every JRPG trope you can imagine but manages to be disarmingly charming and original within that framework. Think of it as a low-budget Tales of Vesperia.

If you’re a fan of RTS and strategy games, you can get a few good evenings out of StarDrive, just don’t expect the endless addiction and spotless interface of Civilization.

Playing for the humor and Deadpool’s banter with other Marvel characters are good enough reasons to give Deadpool (the game) a shot. The best jokes are evenly spread out and make the journey through generic levels more tolerable. Yet, if the likes of God of War and Ninja Gaiden have spoiled you with sublime and fluid framerates, Deadpool might be hard to swallow.

Everything about this game is fantastic except the parts where you have to actually play it. That's what makes recommending this game really tough. Devout Fable fans will enjoy the check-in with the world as well as promises of what's to come, and some children may be indiscriminate enough to not care about perfect accuracy in controls. Everyone else should avoid the heartache.

If you’re open-minded enough for that to justify your time, Game & Wario will satisfy you. I suspect that won’t be too many gamers though.

It's totally fine, and if you feel like devoting an afternoon to this game, you could certainly do a lot worse. But considering the robust, low-cost options that offer solid online multiplayer action on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace, why bother with a game that's content to be merely better than average?

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.

Anyone that is still actively playing (and enjoying) old beat 'em ups like Strider or Shinobi may have the temperance to enjoy Moon Diver. The controls are some of the tightest I've played in a platformer. Unfortunately, the crappy everything-else means that those who spend most of their time in modern games should stay there.

For fans of the comics and the character, I can't think of a good reason why you shouldn't pick this game up. But understand that you'll probably feel like it could have been so much more.

While the four re-released games are all good in their own right, there's really no need to play them again. On top of that, the two new games aren't enough to warrant a purchase on their own, with Pac-Man Tilt being the only one worth at least some of your time.

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

MicroBot does not do anything revolutionary within the twin-stick shooter genre, but manages to inject some creativity into an otherwise standard class of games.

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.

Dogfight 1942 isn't offensively bad outside of the racial issue, it's just completely forgettable. It doesn't do anything that other games haven't already done better, so why would you waste your time?

Somewhere, hidden within Gas Guzzlers: Combat Carnage, is a fun racer. Unfortunately, the fun is locked.

It's disappointing to see the quick and dirty license-based games reappear from days of yore. I'm sure Bleach fans will be all too willing to forgive this game's numerous shortcomings, but everyone else should stick to more intelligent fare.

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.

If you're tired of repackaged or remade franchise games for the Vita, do yourself a favor and go to hell. Army Corps of Hell is blasphenomenal.

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.

I'm glad that this game didn't focus on four different versions of Spider-Man, like Shattered Dimensions did, delivering a more focused gameplay experience overall. But it seems like that focus became too narrow, leaving out the rest of what makes the character great: crazy-awesome villains and Spidey doing "whatever a spider can."

But if you have more refined tastes, you will see through Dark of the Moon's rushed, clichéd flair and find yourself put off by repetitive, uninspired gameplay, cramped level design, and patchy physics.

Red Johnson's Chronicles: One Against All is for puzzle lifers. The puzzles are intense, complicated, and obtuse. To top it all off, you attack these puzzles back to back without much levity or downtime to let your brain recover making it even less friendly.

While the graphics are barely passable in many instances, the frame rate inexplicably drops to a total crawl with every other in-game cutscene.

That was the magic of Monkey Ball, and that's the magic that is completely and utterly absent here.

An overall completion time of around five hours doesn't help the game either.

This dungeon crawler is as long as it is generic, which is a terrible combination for a hack-and-slash game that appears to be a budget PS2 game selling on the PS3 at normal price.

The only 3DS game that rivals the AR integration in this game is the card collection that came with the handheld. It's just too bad Spirit Camera's play length is disappointingly short, even when you include the non-story modes.

By and large, Rush Bros. stumbles across the finish.

Professor Layton this is not, but imitation it tries. Doctor Lautrec and the Forgotten Knights fails to capture the magic that it is trying to emulate. Repetitive puzzles and a lack of player interaction during gameplay will leave you wanting much more.

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.

There is a good game somewhere in the hybrid FPS/arcade title Xotic, but it's buried beneath gameplay mechanics that don't go well together. Collecting points, going for high scores, and zipping through levels for the fastest time is both fun and challenging, but having to slow the pace down to hunt and kill every enemy in order to advance takes away from what could have been a great title. Overly complicated controls and confusing visuals don't help either.

As a downloadable title, Voltron offers a surprising amount to enjoy. I never thought I'd like this game as much as I do-but it's difficult to overlook the main flaws of unbalanced difficulty, a lack of levels (there are only about a dozen) and only three chances to play as Voltron.

Operation Raccoon City is not wanting for cool ideas and ambition, but cool ideas don't create a new game experience by themselves. It's a clunky, glitchy third-person shooter that just happens to have zombies in it. You can do better, so you might as well.

For all its faults, The Sims 3 on 3DS is a serviceable way of getting your pretend life fix on the go. As a launch title, it's frustrating that the game's 3DS features aren't better tuned.

Game of Thrones is satisfactory at best, and dreadfully slow and ugly at worst. But there is fun to be had here. Despite all the shortcomings, I had fun, and with video games that's the most important element for my enjoyment. It's not for everyone.