This year’s outing has plenty of incremental improvements that deliver a superior experience to what you would’ve played twelve months ago. Allow your level of fandom to dictate if this purchase is right for you. Ultimately, regardless of where you land, you won’t be disappointed.

Ever the more lighthearted tennis game than its competitors, the arcade feel of Virtua Tennis 4 is a welcome addition to the Vita lineup. It handles well, looks nice and has a style that lends itself very well to portability. Of tennis.

This is an above average title for what Strider does do – provide action and wall climbing.

Ys Origin isn’t a great game, even with the various modes, difficulty settings, and characters that unlock for replayability, simply because it’s straight dungeon crawl with little variety. However, these issues prevent Ys Origin from being as good as it could be, and they certainly make it difficult to recommend the title to newcomers of Ys.

Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 earns its Turbocharged subtitle as it builds on the original’s base to deliver a more polished and enjoyable sequel. The new mobility mechanics add a lot to the racing, giving Milestone and users more freedom in designing tracks. This is quickly becoming one of the studio’s most enjoyable series and a breath of fresh air in the arcade racing space.

If you’ve already got the season pass, you’ll enjoy your run through of Judgement. If you haven’t been convinced to play any episodes by this point, then you may want to wait until the retail disc release.

It’s adequate, and it’s overpriced especially given the fact that the exact same game is selling for half the cost on PCs.

At a budget price and launching with a last minute ad bumrush, Remnant: From the Ashes is the kind of title you’d expect to come out and vanish quickly. But for fans of tough RPGs, action shooters, or post-apocalyptic fiction, passing up on Remnant would be a devastating mistake. It easily joins the ranks of games like Vampyr, that stubbornly outgrow their financial constraints to truly innovate and elevate a genre that has long since needed new ideas.

Players looking for an in-depth simulation of F1 racing have just found their porn.

[There are] so many ways to take on this single mission, part of the fun will be seeing other players’ creative ways that they assassinate the targets. If you’ve ever wanted to play the part of a super agent in a large sandbox, this is as good as it gets. With a fairly robust content creation engine, and future missions promised throughout the coming year, it looks like Hitman will be the weapon of choice of stealth gamers for the foreseeable future.

Headlander is a tease — a conglomerate of great ideas that tapered at the halfway point in favor of very basic “find the right color robot body” mechanics, lack of continued humor, and a middling story at best.

Toukiden 2 is a huge step up from its predecessor, and is a smart evolution of the gameplay that Monster Hunter fans have come to know. By opting for a more story-focused experience, it manages to forego feeling like a grind, and the open-world aspect allows players to really take in their surroundings.

Telltale has not only managed to make one of the most interesting incarnations of the Harlequin of Hate, but the slow build has paid off wonderfully over two seasons.

The Vita-specific features aren't enough for me to recommend a purchase if you already have Plants Vs. Zombies on another platform. Unless you simply must have the expanded trophy set (including a Platinum) and you're already a big fan (like me). But if somehow, some way, you've missed this game before, the PlayStation Vita version is still one of the better versions out there.

I can’t imagine how painstaking it was for this team to perfectly balance the growing difficulty with the puzzles, building upon each puzzle learned and amping it up just a smidge. No room was above and beyond more difficult than the one prior; it was slow and steady growth, and one that will keep you glued to your controller until you finish it.

Immortals Fenyx Rising is a surprising break from the traditional Ubisoft open-world fare, perhaps hinting at some newfound creative freedoms that we’ll hopefully see play out in the future. Cribbing Breath of the Wild is a strength even as Immortals iterates and takes its own twist. And the deep dive into Greek mythology ends up being a fascinating foundation upon whose shoulders the entire premise rests. From the first magnificent glide onto the Golden Isle, Immortals Fenyx Rising is an unforgettable treat that surprised me more than I thought it would.

A well-made JRPG that never strays too far from its series roots.

Furi is an action packed, violent game that does a great job of marrying two genres together.

Sniper Elite 5 makes small attempts at innovation but not enough to stop it from being a fairly safe entrant into the Sniper Elite franchise. The enhanced killcam, extensive weapon customization, and better skill trees help to improve the experience over Sniper Elite 4. Players will undoubtedly have fun roaming the large battlefields of France as long as they can get over the minor bugs, although we could do without those that can stop a playthrough in its tracks. While the standard multiplayer modes and Survival mode will keep players occupied for a while, Invasion mode is what will keep players coming back for more.

GNOG is a curious beast; an odd monster, or series of monsters rather. It’s a visual and auditory treat, with bright colors and rich soundscapes highlighting a bizarre game that doesn’t seem to really have much direction or purpose. The puzzles are fun to poke, prod, and figure out, particularly in VR where each puzzle diorama head really has a chance to come to life in front of you, but the sense of wonder GNOG tries to invoke fades too quickly, leaving me with the feeling that this is more a sensory artifice than it is a digital Rubik’s Cube.

Darksiders Genesis is not Darksiders 4, but it’s still a worthwhile addition to the Darksiders saga.

Once again, I have been pleasantly surprised by Omega Force.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel is a godsend for Vita fans. At a time when support for the little handheld seems to be rapidly dwindling, here comes a role-playing masterpiece with all the right stuff: XSeed’s superior localization, which bypasses anime cliches in favor of real depth; an addictive set of life-sim mechanics, from bonding with the lovable cast to cooking a bevy of dishes; and a combat system that rewards customization and cooperation between party members.

After playing Transformers: Fall of Cybertron only one word comes to mind: functional. It's sad that a game with as many narrative hooks and the look of the generation one Transformers is so prone to technical issues and some bizarre design choices.

The game doesn't blow you away with its story or characters, but instead with its charm that shines through with every "dot".

Overall, NCAA Football 14 delivers in pretty much every way imaginable, with a few issues that arise from the Infinity Engine 2 and some issues with the no huddle offense. The improvements that it brings with this year’s installment are what fans have been asking for.

The story is worth-while, the balance of tower types, upgrades, and aliens gives you a lot to test your skills against. I thoroughly enjoyed this game because it took what all of us are familiar with in tower defense and made each aspect smarter, higher quality, and better than the usual fare.

Screamer is a refreshing racing game from an incredibly reliable studio. Milestone has taken a chance to do something different, and it has paid off as the anime-influenced story mode is a blast and the game looks fantastic. Playing just as impressively as its visuals, racing fans looking for something new will want to check this out.