Reckoning surprised me with its energetic combat, rich story, and dazzling visual style. The weight of all its parts threatens to pull it down, but the rigid skeleton holds strong.

Overall the game is a pleasure to play, a breezy RPG packed with beauty and charm that will bring older players back to the series’ beginning while recruiting a new generation that will ensure Pokemon’s future. So much of my favorite childhood media just doesn’t hold up to my modern tastes and I have no real interest in using some form of emulator to relive the original Pokemon Red/Blue’s archaic gameplay. Let’s Go brings back the warm memories and blends them with a satisfying new experience.

With plenty of missions, new enemies, new weapons, minor enhancements and lost of things that go boom, Crackdown 2 offers hours of satisfying, brainless fun for those who enjoy that sort of thing. Newcomers to the series and die-hard fans alike will find plenty to obsess over.

If you happen to be the one person in the world who has never played Bejeweled, this is a great place to start. If you've already had your fill of the series, there's nothing here that will bring you into the fold.

Add in some surprisingly good plot twists and emotional arcs and SteamWorld Quest is a game that storied RPG developers like Atlus and Square Enix could be proud of. The fact that this is Image & Form’s first outing in the genre begs the question of what exciting adventure the developers will rush headlong into next.

The most memorable episode since the season premier, Amid The Ruins fleshes out the supporting cast, provides some nasty scenarios, and takes Kenny's personal arc to some very haunting places.

Despite its quirks, Darksiders II really delivers on the breadth of its content, making for a sweeping experience that fans of multiple genres should be happy to explore if willing to look past a couple of hiccups along the way.

Once the characters grow up and band together, the plot finds its Focus, and the gameplay takes the training wheels off to let gamers make the most of the stellar combat system, it's an excellent JRPG, just one with severe pacing issues.

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is a clever concoction that will stretch your brain in pleasantly unusual ways. It strikes just the right balance between whimsy and challenge, always just the right amount of difficult and bizarre.

Fans of the series will find more to love in the third installment. For newcomers, this is the most accessible and fun skateboarding game there is.

Black Ops 2 is conflicted. It wants to move in bold new directions, but it falls back on safe, but aging, mechanics.

I picked up Michael Jackson The Experience as a skeptic, but I had a lot of fun dancing with my sequined glove despite myself. There's not much of a game beyond mastering the choreography, but it's worth it if you ever wanted to dance with a legend.

It's a great way to reincentivize the most enjoyable Warriors game since DW3, and it looks suitably pretty to boot.

While the action can wear the player out, and the campaign itself isn't particularly lengthy or deep, fans will get their money's worth from this concentrated blast of Ratchet & Clank action.

Kirby Triple Deluxe is a light and breezy trip to the spherical slurper's roots. While those looking for a challenge will find this installment as frustrating as previous entries, fans are in for another undeniably charming treat.

Doom manages to challenge the conventions of the first-person shooter genre by going back to its roots. It will have you breathing heavily, cursing in frustration, and screaming in triumph. The multiplayer is a bit of a letdown, but the campaign is absolutely glorious.

Legion is more focused on the player's personal story than any other World of Warcraft expansion has ever been, and it does an absolutely fantastic job at telling it. The Demon Hunter class isn't as fleshed-out as it could have been, but there is still a ton of new content for every kind of player.

The gameplay is refined and polished to a mirror shine, and traipsing through the lovingly rendered regions of Johto and Kanto brings with it a fond nostalgia that few other games manage to evoke.

Though there aren't that many new characters, they're a worthy addition to the lineup. Many of the new ideas and modes outside of the core gameplay fall flat - Tutorial is a great idea with some presentation issues - but the refinements to the combat ensure that BlazBlue is the slickest hyper-kinetic 2D fighter this side of Marvel vs. Capcom 3. And yes, the music is still awesome.

While it is incomplete by design, with the missing content being dolled out for free over the course of the year, Street Fighter 5 is the most accessible the franchise has ever been and remains mechanically brilliant.

Dead Rising 2 is at its best when you're goofing off, finding new combo weapons and exploring the Fortune City Strip - and that works so well that you're almost inclined to forgive it its faults, like irritating boss battles and a cumbersome save system.

Mortal Kombat finally gets over its overwrought heritage and laughs along with us. It's a great fighting game, stuffed with things to do.

It may not re-write the book on action games, but for licenses, it just might.

A refreshingly upbeat platformer that puts silliness and fun above all else. The gameplay is easy to grasp for platforming veterans, while the massive amount of content and alternate game modes ensure you'll be entertained for hours. You also may never look at your cat quite the same way again.

Heroes is perhaps the most accessible MOBA ever created - which can either be a good or bad thing for you. Regardless, you're getting Blizzard-level production values - at Blizzard prices, if you choose to spend money. For what it is, Heroes is a great game with some room for improvement. Whether "what it is" appeals to you or not is a matter of personal preference.

Echoes of Aetheria weaves narrative, combat, and exploration together wonderfully, with no one aspect of the game overshadowing another. However, dialogue is occasionally cheesy and design flaws cast a shadow on what is meant to be a tactical combat experience.

Over three years after the Wii hit store shelves, Red Steel 2 finally delivers the motion-controlled swordplay we expected from the original Red Steel, and it more than makes up for any niggling flaws in the level design.

Joe Danger 2: The Movie has so much more content than its predecessor it almost doesn't feel like a sequel, and almost all of it is great. With tons of challenges to complete, multiplayer, and community content, you'll have plenty to do even after the credits roll.