A lighthearted dungeon crawler with an original hook, Picdun 2: Witch's Curse is as intuitive an introduction as you could hope for to the genre.

The 3DS version of Rise of the Guardians: The Video Game manages the admittedly impressive feat of being even worse than its brainless console sibling. Essentially the same game made uglier, more cumbersome and laggy, there's absolutely nothing defensible about this one. If you absolutely must own a copy of this game, the Wii U version is the way to go. Don't put your 3DS through the shame of running this garbage.

Moke Moke is a great example of DSiWare done right. It's simple, fun to play, looks and sounds great, and costs about the same as a cup of coffee. The intentionally floaty control will turn some people off - and anyone who finds Balloon Fight clunky should steer well clear - but if that's not an issue for you, Moke Moke is a blast. It's especially worth checking out if you've got a few furry friends to battle it out with, but the gameplay variety and extensive customization options give solitary players more than enough reason to Whack-a-Moke.

Rise of the Guardians: The Video Game is simply not very good. The action becomes repetitive almost immediately and it only gets worse from there, with collectibles almost impossible to see against the environment, glitches preventing important things from spawning, and a complete and total lack of challenge. Done right, a mindless button-masher can be a lot of fun; this game seems to exist only to remind us how easy it is to do them wrong.

Ah! Heaven isn’t a bad game, but its simplicity tends to hinder the overall quality. It’s very short, easy – save for a few dicey jumps – and holds little replay value. If it were a longer game or if there was a bit more variety in the provided gameplay, then this one would definitely be worth playing. As it is though, it’s difficult to recommend a game that is this far from heavenly.

After thirty years of fame, the Fist of the North Star series deserves a much better celebration of its history than this sorry piece of software. Hardcore fans of the series may find that their love of the source material helps paper over the gaping cracks — the same goes for dedicated followers of the Dynasty Warriors lineage — but if you don’t fall into either of those two camps then you should leave this well alone, and simply track down a copy of the 1986 anime movie instead. It will provide more enjoyment during its 110 minute running time than Ken’s Rage 2 can muster during several days of gameplay.

Wreck-It Ralph could have been so much more. Disney clearly spent a lot of time injecting the film’s world with strong gaming influences and tons of variety, and it’s baffling that the developers didn't build upon this. Instead, it feels like nothing more a half-hearted attempt to cash-in. It looks and feels like a retro game in some ways, but it’s simply far too shallow and devoid of fun to draw you in. As a result, you should probably save your quarters for a more worthwhile effort on 3DS.

For players of a certain persuasion there's plenty of love to go around for EnjoyUp's latest: costing about the same as a few plays at your local arcade, 99Moves offers a rock-hard retro challenge. But just the same as the coin-munchers of yore, one person's challenge is another's cheap trick. 99Moves doesn't do a great job at differentiating the two.

Brain Age: Concentration Training takes Nintendo's cerebellum-enhancing series onto the 3DS in style. It boasts a wealth of content, smart presentation, and loads more charm than you'd expect from a brain-training game.

Transformers Prime is aimed squarely at the younger/casual Transformers crowd and anyone that falls under that umbrella will likely get a kick out of making Optimus punch Megatron in his stupid face, although the further you stray outside of that demographic the less there is here for you. The game largely accomplishes what it sets out to do and pulls off some generally impressive presentation, but with its sights set on rudimentary mechanics it struggles to satisfy beyond being a semi-adequate tie-in to the show.

Bloody Vampire is a bit rough around the edges, and it's far from original, but it combines its sleeve-borne influences into a stylised package that's a lot of fun. Fans of Metroidvania-style games looking for an eShop fix will get well more than their $5 worth of fun here, and newcomers up for designated save spots and the absence of a map should definitely look into spending a vampire weekend with Latis.

Though it's good to see a fighter that anybody can play, Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth takes simplification just a few steps too far. The core gameplay is fun in short sessions, and there's a decent amount of content and care taken, but after a while the battles become overly-similar and begin to grate. With more variety this could have been a super power, but in its present form the concept lacks a certain punch.

Witch's Cat isn't a particularly innovative game, and it suffers from maddening difficulty spikes, but it's still a lot of fun, with a good selection of levels, plenty of replay value, and addicting gameplay that invites "one more try" many times over.

If Zen Pinball 2 is the beginning of a new distribution model on the Wii U eShop, of free apps accompanied by paid DLC, then it's an extremely rough start. The infrastructure is clunky and, to be blunt, unacceptable, which could be enough to put off some that decide it's too confusing or clumsy to be worth the effort.

Picross e2 is yet another fun Picross game, but for the most part it simply feels like an expansion pack for the previous title. Of course, there's nothing wrong with that, especially when the core gameplay is so entertaining.

Fire Emblem: Awakening's masterful tightrope walk between luring in curious onlookers and appealing to the hardest of cores is a sight to behold.

Suffice it to say, if you're a Madden NFL fan and you own a Wii U, this is definitely a title you're going to want to at least consider adding to your game library.

As clunky and poorly considered as its title, Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade is awful. Relying entirely on the shallow and repetitive waggle that should have died along with Wii, there's absolutely no reason to recommend this obnoxious, screaming, clattering monstrosity at all.

Ikachan is not a bad game, but there's very little to recommend it apart from its pedigree and connection to Cave Story. There's not much to explore, no real challenge, and no reason whatsoever to come back. It introduces concepts that depart almost immediately, and does not provide optional objectives, and its lone boss fight is criminally easy. It may be worth taking a dip, but don't expect much depth.

Ultimately, The Cave represents a flawed attempt at a brilliant concept. The backtracking and item juggling can make the game's more esoteric puzzle solutions a chore to figure out, but the foreboding atmosphere, layered backstories and branching paths are all solid marks in its favour. The visuals and soundtrack are also great, as is the writing - but presentation isn't everything, and we wish it was actually more fun to play.

Rapala Pro Bass Fishing seems to wish to coast on its attention to detail, but the stiff, unresponsive gameplay, annoying intrusions, terribly long loading times and seemingly broken controls make it all but impossible to appreciate the smaller things.

Riding Stables 3D definitely has the best of intentions - the StreetPass features, the passively unfolding storyline, and the variety of mini-games - but ultimately it's just not that impressive. The graphics are underwhelming, the sound is aimless and dull, and the frequent load times break any connection you might have otherwise had to your horse. As it stands it feels like the foundation of a much better game, but unfortunately this is the one we got.

If you've already played Outdoors Unleashed: Africa 3D to its fullest extent and you're craving more on-rails hunting action, then Wild Adventures is the game for you. If instead you're a new player to the genre, then the former is definitely the right place to start.

Despite its problems, Tokyo Crash Mobs remains an entertaining and enjoyable romp, and there's more than enough of the classic Puzz Loop brilliance to make it a worthwhile download, especially if you're already a card-carrying fan of Mitchell Corporation's work. It's just a shame that it doesn't improve dramatically on the existing entries in the series, because this is one franchise that deserves to have a genuine renaissance.

As a tie-in game for a line of hunting gear, Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2013 is surprisingly capable. It's by no means a flawless experience, and we find it hard to recommend it very strongly, but anyone who does decide to give it a shot - so to speak - may find themselves pleasantly surprised.

It successfully recreates the experience of casting and reeling, but doesn't do much to hook players beyond that.

Galaxy Saver might not set the world on fire, but it's an interesting twist on the genre. And at only 200 Nintendo Points it's difficult to not recommend that shooter fans at least take a chance on a game that will offer a few hours of shooting fun, with some unique arcade twists that fans perhaps haven't seen. It's easy to wish for more, but from an inexpensive DSiWare title that is quite fun to play, it's difficult to be too critical.

101 DinoPets 3D isn't egregiously bad - one game-breaking glitch aside - but the experience it provides ranges from dull to muddled.