Speaking as a fellow who’s spent far too much money on plastic bricks for his kid – and more time than he cares to admit building and disassembling them with her – I haven’t been as enthralled with or enchanted by a Lego game since the original Lego Star Wars.

Chambara is a fantastic idea in need of elaboration.

A blissfully easy recommendation for anyone looking for more than just another run-of-the-mill shoot ’em up set in space.

It’s not perfect, but No Man’s Sky is as much – and probably a lot more – than we had any right expect from such an ambitious game made by such a tiny team.

This is a rare case of a game better played on phone than tablet, since the smaller screen lets one alter the beam line much more quickly.

So while I can’t really recommend Minecraft: Story Mode to adults casually acquainted with Mojang’s hit game (like me), or even those who generally tend to enjoy most Telltale adventures (also me), I suspect just about any tween with a passion for Minecraft will have a fine time (like my kid).

Forty bucks might seem kind of spendy for something like this, but each of its three modes could have easily been released as a $10 or $15 game on its own. The value is there.

The Cave is a game worth experiencing at least once. Truly funny games are rare, much less funny games that cover themes as diverse as sin, murder, redemption and desire. The fact that it covers these topics with a sense of style and ease (and without feeling like you’re being bludgeoned with a philosophy textbook) is praiseworthy.

Despite being won over by its personality – a catchy minimalist electronic score and simple but endearing aesthetic give it a feel all its own – I just never found my groove in Dustforce.

Ronin is fun, innovative, and worth a go – especially if your tastes lean toward both strategy and cool ninja high jinks – but there is untapped potential here that could have resulted in a serious Steam standout.

Avid Halo fans who already have a Windows 8 device may want to give it a try, but Halo: Spartan Assault isn’t likely to draw many iOS or Android gamers into the Microsoft fold.

If some strangely-specific apocalyptic event wiped both Warcraft and Dungeon Keeper off the face of the earth, those brave souls with the will to continue might find something to cling to in Dungeons 2. Until that happens, the probably just best to stick with the real deal.

Planetbase is unforgiving with your citizens only steps away from the void. A solar flare can irradiate your workers, a stray meteor can suck the oxygen out of your habitation pods, and your crops can fail leaving your people to starve.

After a tantalizing serving of polygonal freshness in its predecessor, it’s disappointing to see Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars not just tread water but actually move the series backward.

Of course, the ultimate factor likely to determine whether you keep jiggling your buns beyond the first night will likely be whether you enjoy the music or not, and unfortunately I found this year’s batch of songs a bit disappointing. The vast bulk of them are, at least to my taste, flavourless pop fluff.

EA Sports UFC gives them solid bones to begin with, but the series is going to figure something out how to win over casual sports fans if it wants to be a Madden-like success.

Despite being a deep, generally entertaining, and visually luscious tower defence experience, Anomaly Defenders doesn’t quite rank among the best in its category.

Taken on its own merits, Beyond: Two Souls is a triumph of interactive storytelling, betrayed only perhaps by not quite living up to its lofty narrative ambitions in its latter third.

And I have to admit, Telltale has finally made me feel like I’m a member of team Forrester.

The Sims 4 provides an intimate and varied experience; being as a god over sprites, to then adopt the perspective within creation, and to, with empathy, become another person, to observe a whole family, or any number of people, as frequent and as seriously as one chooses. For what it is, a simulation game of life, relationships and interior design, I give it an [80].

And if you happen to enjoy your strategy mixed with a little absurdity – like a scarecrow armed with a pumpkin launcher specially tuned to stun alien brains – then all the better.

This short series ought to be all about its mesmerizing heroine and her struggle to harness her regrets. Instead, it seems to be shaping up as a short-form version of a story we’ve already seen plenty of times over.

It’s an early, serious, and unexpected contender for my list of the top 10 games of 2014.

Star Fox Zero is a frustrating experience because it has the potential to be a great game – a fantastic game, actually – but fundamental flaws not only hold the game back, they make it downright unplayable at times despite relatively easy fixes.

Sea of Thieves is wholly dedicated to keeping players on equal footing. Someone who’s been playing for a day can crew up with someone who’s been playing for months, and neither will have an inherent advantage — save, of course, the latter’s experience with the game. It’s a bold move meant to keep the entire community playing together, and early indications suggest it works.

Even a remastered version of a more or less forgettable prequel from the franchise’s heyday is infinitely preferable to what Capcom gave us in Resident Evil 6. It’s got its fair share of issues and isn’t the nostalgic walk down memory lane that was Resident Evil HD Remaster, but at least it’s a bit more of what this Resident Evil fan really wants.

It’s more pain than pleasure.

While most modern Lego games follow a similar formula – basically, exploiting and parodying some of the biggest pop culture culture properties around – the latest Lego game, Lego Worlds, completely eschews Batman, Star Wars, Marvel, Harry Potter, and the rest of the franchises that helped make Lego games so popular in the first place. Instead, it focuses on facilitating the joy of pure creative freedom.