A Link Between Worlds is a sentimental game that skates off its predecessor's successes, but is so good at doing so one hardly minds. A few neat new tricks and a beautiful visual style help make up for the game's more frustrating hurdles.

As a world-building exercise, The Witcher 2 succeeds masterfully but there are deep flaws in its game design.

There are games that deserve to be relegated to the bargain bin, or played when there's simply nothing else on the shelf. This is one of them. It's not broken, it's just bad.

A beautiful, charming, humbling, and difficult experience that's a good fit for shoot 'em up fans, but perhaps strange and unwelcoming to newcomers.

The combat in Devil May Cry gets to be repetitive when you play for too long in one sitting, but the missions are well designed for playing in short bursts and picking it back up later.

Steamworld Heist is an absorbing world wrapped around a decent game whose technical bits take away from a stellar personality.

What Ni no Kuni lacks in finesse it more than makes up for in quantity and packaging - there's tons to do and every single moment in the game is a visual delight. It can be extremely frustrating and makes some choices that don't quite work, but offers enough charm to ultimately win you over.

A fun action platformer that remains incredibly frustrating by taking a few too many cues from Castlevania's jerkiest moments, Shovel Knight is satisfying and infuriating in equal measure. It's also a damn fine callback to the days of yore in a world where callbacks are a dime a dozen, and rarely this well done.

Tomb Raider is a terrific game, and the Definitive Edition is a gorgeous looking version of it. It's the same game it was in 2013, though, with no further improvements justifying its "definitive" status.

Enter the Gungeon is an exhilarating experience, but the difficulty often comes from the game refusing to provide you the necessary tools, which offers its own unique challenges.

Absolutely bonkers, but untangling its many secrets is an addictive enterprise. There's tons of plot to discover, and the many storylines cross and reference each other in subtle ways that reward the diligent player.

Sine Mora puts a cool twist on the shoot 'em up genre with its application of time and interesting storyline.

Sometimes frustrating in terms of both gameplay and narrative, Transistor manages to be a redolent title with a ton of imagination. While not quite as clever as its presentation suggests, it's a pretty little title that ends on a beautifully bittersweet note.

Despite a few control hiccups, Gravity Rush succeeds on the strength of its excellent movement system and endearing protagonist.

As the game goes on, more and more quests are required to be completed to move on and frankly, I’ve found it exhausting. It’s hard to shake the feeling that Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is a game obsessed with making the player eat their vegetables.

Though it climbs to impressive heights, it fails to stick the landing.

A modest revision from last year's game, NCAA Football 12 brings adequate football gameplay with robust multiplayer dynasty features, for a price.

Mortal Kombat 11 is a very good game that could have been great.

For anyone exhausted by endless upgrade systems, infinite unlockables, new skins and every other contrivance meant to ensnare the contemporary player, Spyro’s uncynical good time is a worthy escape. This is one that shouldn’t be put away.

Dragon's Crown is gorgeous, and though at times its flavor may be of questionable taste, ultimately it does still manage to strike a lot of the right nostalgia chords.

A good little story with a bleak atmosphere that nonetheless provides some relaxing puzzle solving.

Nidhogg is a strange, unholy pastiche of lo-fi aesthetics and surprisingly deep, albeit minimal play; taking cues from decades of arcade-style 1v1 fighting games and modern indie darlings.

Sunless Sea is a dark game combining Lovecraft-themed exploration with Victorian Gothic visual novels in exciting (and chilling) ways. The end result isn't perfect, but its sense of terror and wonder makes it a worthy follow-up to Failbetter's Fallen London.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare upholds the status quo and aims no higher than that. Its sci-fi trappings are but shallow appeals to progress, and while the multiplayer is still able to provide some entertainment, the CoD formula feels anything but "advanced" these days.

The Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy isn't worth rebuying if you already have the iOS versions or still have your DS copies in rotation. However, all three games are as great now as they were upon release, and it's hard to complain about getting more of a good thing.

An episode full of setup, A House Divided trades in its intensity for a bit more action, and a touch of intrigue.

Open letter to the designers of Just Cause 2: Thank you for making me drive 2 kilometers each time I die. It really makes me appreciate your big open world.

Spirit of Justice, the sixth game in the Ace Attorney series, is really starting to show some franchise fatigue. The puzzles and the technical systems behind it have improved, but the writing has begun to suffer.

The merits and flaws of Persona Q2 are exactly what you’d expect from the series. It’s delivering the same mechanics which are alternately tedious, punishing and strategically exciting and the chance to have a host of dysfunctional heroes tease, flirt and ultimately fight alongside each other. Like Endgame, Q2 is both a fitting finale but also a look forward. So long as people love watching larger than life figures pummeling each other on the big screen, there will be Marvel movies. So long as people love spending dozens of hours building parties and exploring dungeons, Atlus will keep making Nintendo handheld games. This era is over, but the genre lives on.

Anyone who’s invested time into playing the previous games in the Trails series will know exactly what they’re in for. Satisfying combat, impressive world-building, and deep characters are all part of the package. It does have pacing issues, and players may get lost if they didn’t experience the arcs in Liberl and Crossbell. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV is still a solid game though, despite the stumble in the second act, and is a viable option for those itching to play an epic, immersive JRPG.

An overall solid turn-based strategy game that suffers from information overload resulting in analysis paralysis for the player, Beyond Earth has a few really interesting systems but ultimately doesn't transcend those mechanics into something unique or awe-inspiring.

Regardless of which thief you prefer to use, or if you'd rather tackle the game solo or with other players, you're going to need a great deal of patience, luck and skill in order to handle Monaco's complex missions.

With Garden Warfare 2, PopCap builds upon the success of the original Garden Warfare by adding much needed meat to its bare bones in the form a new solo campaign and 6 new character classes, but fails to evolve the actual gameplay in any meaningful way.

Despite the addition of new towns and trainer gyms, you can't help but feel like you're following in your own footsteps if you've already played Pokemon Black and White.

The thrilling gameplay that attracts fans is still here, although it's a bit obscured by too many mini-games that are less fun than or relevant to the core experience. The story is finally ended but we're still left wondering what's next for Desmond. Multiplayer is, as expected, awesome.

At first impression, From Dust might look and play more like a tech demo than an actual game, but there is some enjoyment to be dug out of the experience. From Dust combines some fun mechanics, with great visuals and some satisfying puzzle inspired gameplay.

The Darkness II is fun while it lasts, but sadly doesn't last very long.

a perfectly serviceable adventure with some truly funny moments, but they're broken up by too many long, drawn-out segments that add little but minutes on the clock, and the finale is more of a sudden stop than an actual conclusion. The net result is an unfocused experience that feels more like just another chapter in an ongoing series rather than the final piece of a fast-paced comic trilogy.

There are times when Pokemon Black and White Version 2 feel a little too familiar, especially when you're exploring the same towns, roads, and caves from the previous game.

A nice experiment with some genuinely fun moments, and a great showcase for what Kinect can accomplish, but unless you have young kids or like to play with simple toys, Happy Action Theater won't do much for you.

The best in the series to date, inFAMOUS: Second Son tells an amazing story and gives players a ton of relishable power to play with. It's held back by some outdated and formulaic ideas, but overall it'll keep players happy.

The changes made to Guitar Hero: Live go a long way in giving the series its own unique identity, but at the cost of making the game less fun to play than its competitors. An innovative post release content delivery system of streaming music elevates what's otherwise an average and expensive rhythm game.

Lunar: Silver Star Harmony's core mechanics may be more than a decade old, but thanks to redone graphics, voice acting, and dialogue, this one still has plenty of spring in its step. And while frequent load times and some pacing issues mar the overall experience, it's still an enjoyable RPG that never takes itself too seriously.

The Division is a game that demands to be played with other people. It's biggest gameplay flaws are forgivable once you add a friend into the mix, but as a solo experience it can be an exhausting grind with little in the way of rewards or satisfaction.

It's quite possibly the best looking next-gen title. Hardcore fans will enjoy it to its full extent, but it's fairly forgiving to newcomers as well. There's just not a ton of middle ground, you'll either really love it or not be interested at all.

This latest entry into the beloved Wolfenstein series accomplishes pretty much what it sets out to do - deliver a fuss-free roller coaster of setpieces and guiltless butchery. It's not exactly the most impressive of goals, but it's not without merit!

It would be easy to write Metroid Other M off on the basis of the few things it gets wrong but the combat and exploration elements are strong enough to overcome these limitations. The combat is intense, if a bit uneven in terms of the overall challenge, and the exploration elements are enjoyable.

A pleasant surprise. I was just expecting a solid little platformer, but I was floored by Yoshi’s Crafted World’s sophisticated imagery, abundant heart, and charmingly fun level design.

Until Dawn struggles with clunky video game elements and rough pacing, but mitigates it with B-movie slasher mainstays and a willingness to embrace player failure.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 is beautiful and packed with tons of tiny details that will keep you interested even when you've run into your umpteenth random battle. It misses a few opportunities and at times bogs down with its story, but overall provides a satisfying adventure.

A fun little game at times, a frustrating little nightmare at others, OlliOlli is a relatively decent, if fairly forgettable, mobile game.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn has plenty of great spells, enjoyable environmental puzzles, and enemies whose heads desperately need caving in. The magical djinn are its only remarkable feature, but unfortunately turn the combat into child's play. Dark Dawn is a perfectly serviceable JRPG, and fans of the two previous Golden Sun titles will undoubtedly enjoy it. But it could be far, far better.

The missions are decent, but the multiplayer is the real reason to play this game.

I was grateful that Observation lets players take their time.

You fight lots of pallet-swapped enemies over and over again, rinse and repeat. Fun to play with a friend and a huge nostalgia rush, but not much to hold your interest for long.

Mafia: Definitive Edition is a curiosity. Newcomers to the game will find here a soft landing via a strong narrative and gameplay that will readily welcome them. Meanwhile, veterans will find enough changes to make another visit to Lost Heaven worth their while, though whether they will be pleased with the modernization is a separate question entirely. With one eye on the past and one on the present, Mafia: Definitive Edition is less dated than Destroy All Humans!, though it never feels as distinctive or necessary as Resident Evil 2. Whether that’s enough to coax you back will be up to you.

It's not bad, but compared to its predecessor, and to other Daedalic adventures in general, it's not really all that good, either.

Like inventing and describing a new color, That Dragon, Cancer tries to describe something indescribable, and does an admirable job of it.

It's brilliantly wacky and unique, with awesome basic gameplay, but The Wonderful 101 doesn't quite live up to its potential.

Don't Starve is a gorgeous, terrifying, often funny game, albeit one that can chew away at the player's morale with its constant demands and willingness to undo hard work. Provided you go in willing to work hard and take punches on the nose, there's plenty of reward to be had.

The enhancements aren't quite ready for prime-time, but Baldur's Gate II remains one of the greatest RPGs of all time and an unsurpassed D&D experience. The improvements to the interface are fantastic, and if the new content gets the final wax-and-polish it deserves, it will be too.

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon is solid fun for anyone wanting to experience cinematic dogfighting, though subsequent playthrough are going to reveal the smoke and mirrors behind the illusion.

Starhawk's an average shooter with an engaging multiplayer element and a unique sci-fi western theme, but the single player is forgettable.

You fight lots of pallet-swapped enemies over and over again, rinse and repeat. Fun to play with a friend and a huge nostalgia rush, but not much to hold your interest for long.

Orwell is a thought-provoking interactive debate about the politics of privacy and security. It's the kind of game that never actually feels like a game, and it manages to do it well.

A good, solid platformer with several fun quirks, but has an issue with reusing the same gameplay elements for some of the stages and a rollercoaster-style of difficulty level.

Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7 manages to turn dark material into something lighthearted and fun, but it never quite achieves the magical goofiness that its predecessor does.

A survival horror game that delivers tense exploration with more than a few drawbacks, ZombiU succeeds in making the Wii U's gamepad feel like an essential part of the experience and proving well-designed mature games can flourish regardless of what console it's played on.

TERA is a game caught between MMO past and MMO future. Its action-based combat is a breath of fresh air for the genre, and makes tackling its giant enemy monsters all the more thrilling, but its quests are formulaic and repetitious, serving no real purpose other than to move you through zones while anticipating the next giant boss fight.

It's a funny and charming little game, but it plays the retro card a little bit too much. A lot of the gameplay feels very dated in a modern game, and you can't make the same allowances for age that you can with an actual retro title.

With its banal universe and flavorless style, Destiny is packed with content, but just ... well ... content. There's a great PvP mode, and the leveling system can be rewarding, but nonetheless this is a pretty, rock-solid, ultimately pedestrian product.

The improved passing game is the real star here and the other small improvements help sell the overall experience. Heisman is an enjoyable addition, but creates balance problems.

Shadows of the Damned's slick visuals and offbeat sensibility is worth checking out, despite its ordinary gameplay. Besides, ordinary doesn't mean bad. Beheading demons with a shotgun that fires skulls has a certain amount of appeal, after all. It's pretty brainless, but it's a weekend's worth of stuff to shoot, and sometimes that's all you really need.

Crysis 3 is visually stunning, and it's still fun to jump around in a nanosuit, but the new additions to the gameplay and the lackluster story don't make it very memorable.

It was a probably a good idea to update Twisted Metal for the PS3, and the combat and ambience is intact, but there's nothing here to push the medium beyond the 1990s era that spawned the original.

Yo-Kai Watch is a good variation on the monster collection genre of RPGs that will definitely please fans and earn a few new fans, but has just enough tiresome elements to keep it from being great.

Divinity: Dragon Commander has a unique setting and interesting characters, but its real time and turn based strategy elements don't hold up to its narrative aspects.

Creative set-pieces and an awesome concept can only hide a repetitious game structure for so long - and the stealth sections that mix it up are just frustrating.

A charming concept can only get a game so far, and Garden Warfare fails to capitalize. While there's fun to be hard, there's not much meat on the bones, and the repetitive combat ensures this will be nothing but a stopgap title until better shooters enter the market.

Telsagrad is a complex puzzle platformer that is enjoyable and fun despite its painstakingly difficult challenges. However, the lack of a conventional story and dialogue left you wondering if you had missed out on an untapped experience.

It's a true open-world RPG with an engaging combat system and neat pawn mechanic, but Dragon's Dogma has some flaws you have to overlook to enjoy.

Audacious is the word that best describes Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. It contains quality material, but it's little more than a preview of something better, and as such, simply should not be presenting itself - deceptively - as a game in its own right.

Perhaps Fear 3 is horror for the squeamish, but if you're looking for something to scare you enough to keep you up at nights, you best look elsewhere. However, if you are in the mood for a fun and solid shooter with a creepy aesthetic, Fear 3 delivers a viscera filled romp that's worth checking out.

The Evil Within is a noble attempt at bringing back classic survival horror, but it could have learned a thing or two from games that aren't almost ten years old. It has its moments of brilliance, scattered through periods of antagonizing design.

Not A Hero isn't a game for everyone. It's flawed, repetitive, but works so well when it works.

Still a very good game, but it's on the more pointless end of the rerelease spectrum, and they really should have fixed those bugs.

While the game is certainly not perfect, for the developers’ second attempt at an RTS, Iron Harvest has a lot of potential. Once the multiplayer, competitive, and co-op features are added, Iron Harvest is sure to become a staple of the RTS genre.

Prototype 2 is a decent action-adventure with fun combat, but gets a little too samey here and there.

EA's take on the modern shooter is good but not great. The combat is genuinely thrilling, but the heavy scripting and predictable plot points leave little room for surprises. Multiplayer is fun but not different from what we're already playing.

This is as close as I’ve ever come to the action Picard experience. The rush of breaking orbit, discovering ancient ruins; these are the surface pleasures of the sci-fi daydream. This game does not offer up the spiritual majesty of truly great science fiction, the full Picard diplomat uncovering new truths about life, but it doesn’t have to. It’s precisely what I’ve been searching for for a long, long time.

Ultimately, Outcasters mostly seems ready to settle into its niche that it’s created. It’s not designed to be the killer app that reels in a mass of new players, but it should attract some. Better yet, since it launched directly into Stadia Pro, it’s there on day one for the folks who are already the most committed. For a platform trying to find its footing in a crowded, competitive space, solidifying the publisher-player relationship is crucial. There will be bigger, flashier, and likely better games to come from Stadia Games and Entertainment in the years ahead, but for now, those already playing via Google’s tangerine-tinted cloud will find they have their first example of a fun, albeit flawed, multiplayer game they won’t find anywhere else.

Not as good as the original, Hotline Miami 2 delivers a flawed dose of the high speed ultra violence that's fun but not essential.

Binary Domain is definitely a very solid third-person shooter, and while it falls short in some areas, there's enough variety in the meat of the game to make it worth a playthrough.

Batman: Arkham Origins is a flawed, but enjoyable game that fails to improve on a winning formula. This is still great core gameplay, solid graphics, great voice acting, and a plot that's a good ride while it lasts. Just don't expect anything new.

Dying Light isn't a bad game, it's just one that feels like it goes on a bit too long, and was too invested in the trappings of an "open world" to make itself really stand out.

While some more star power in the soundtrack would have went a long way, and the way Harmonix artificially pads the game's length with its song unlock requirements is ridiculous, Amplitude remains an exciting blend of rhythm action and electronica that does well by its predecessors.

Syndicate is a decent albeit uninspired shooter. While there are a few highlights, it mostly feels bland and homogenized from other games and cyberpunk fiction.

Shadow Warrior isn't free of some design flaws that can take away from the experience, but as an action game, its combat is solidly put together. While not the easiest to use, the various weapons and sword fighting combos you have really make you feel like a badass warrior whenever you pull off a gruesome decapitation.