Whether you have an intimate knowledge of the series like I do, or you’re part of a new generation of fans perplexed by which Tales title to begin with, you’d be doing yourself a great disservice if you didn’t pick this one up.

Rayman Legends is a sprawling masterpiece of a platforming game that’s just plain better than any recent Mario game, the gold standard for 2D platformers on Nintendo consoles.

I feel bad for saying this, but Mercenary makes me excited for Sony's recently announced PS Vita TV peripheral, which will allow many Vita games to be played on your big screen TV using a standard PlayStation 3 DualShock controller.

Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix is full of beautifully animated worlds and nostalgic throwbacks to classic Disney movies. Unfortunately, it brings virtually nothing new or fresh to this aging series.

Dream Team follows the same basic formula found in the past three games in the series, but molds all of the different mechanics together into a title that just gets better with every passing hour.

With a deluge of big-budget, high-profile games on the horizon, it might be easy to overlook a quiet, unusual game like Papers, Please. But don't do that, comrade. The consequences would be dire.

By setting most of the game inside a virtual Steelport, developer Volition had free rein to come up with new and ridiculous gameplay mechanics, and the addition of superpowers lends Saints Row IV a distinct Crackdown vibe. Who needs to jack a car when you can run faster than anything on wheels?

Sure, this ‘puzzle’ may sound really basic, but it exists to help familiarize you with the game’s mechanics, and rest assured, complexity and challenge soon go up several notches.

It often works, but there are points in the game where taking the stealthy route is so difficult or tedious that success feels like a punishment rather than a reward, as well as moments when players are forced to put the guns away and rely on trial and error to suss out the proper path through an environment, no matter how itchy their trigger fingers may be...Still, Blacklist is a polished, confident and frequently thrilling shot in the arm for a franchise that was in danger of being left behind with gamers’ shifting tastes.

But it's entertaining and engaging throughout, and lovingly faithful to the source material. And that, chummer, is good enough for me.

Gamers who love a good challenge are bound to be satisfied with this collection of levels. Anyone else - whether they're as casual as it comes or even longtime fans of the series - may not be so enamoured with the spike in difficulty and lack of originality.

And that’s where New Leaf really sinks its fuzzy claws into you: it offers the constant carrot of a bigger house, a new town project, a fresh gameplay mechanic or simply a cooler collectible that you didn’t even know existed before that day.

State of Decay is so much more than the sum of its parts: it’s a fun, challenging game of survival that will demand more of you than just twitch reflexes. It’s another feather in the Xbox Live Arcade’s cap, and an essential purchase for gamers looking for a fresh take on a familiar theme.

Despite the occasional jarring juxtaposition between its story and its gameplay, The Last of Us is a landmark piece of interactive entertainment, proving that even action games can tell mature, thoughtful tales, with characters who don’t feel like an assortment of tropes and clichés.

Let’s call it a game of great breadth, if not depth.

Then I scanned the mental checklist of requirements for a 5 out of 5 score: high quality game without serious flaw? Check. One of the very best games available for the 3DS? Check. Does it use 3D to the game’s benefit? In general yes and at times, hell yes. Can a player turn off the 3D and still get a complete experience? Yup. Do I stay awake too late, miss busses, and burn food in the toaster oven because I’m so absorbed by it, and can’t put it down? Yes, yes and yes.

Possibly the best thing about Gunslinger, though, is how little it costs. At just $15, it’s one of the best bang-for-the-buck games I’ve seen so far this year, and has a slickness and confidence that belies its budget price.

For its art style, deceptively dark vibe and experimental approach, Don’t Starve is certainly worth a look. But for every playthrough that leads to eye-opening adventure, there will be another that’s a bit of a tedious slog. It won’t leave you hungry, but it may not fill you up.

The Chase Begins might have too many imperfections to be the standout masterwork its console big brother was, and given the choice, you should play that one rather than this one. But it’s still worth picking up and playing, especially if you love Lego, have younger children who need something to keep them busy in the car, or generally lean towards cute rather than blood-soaked.

It’s rare to see a compelling hack-and-slash dungeon crawler work as well as Pandora’s Tower, but this game needs to wear its accomplishments proudly. You very well may never go back to your Wii after this transition between console generations.

It’s bizarre and funny and quite unlike anything that’s been done before by a major video game studio. And for the most part, it works.

But aside from the solid and deep fighting game mechanics, my biggest kick came simply from taking control of these familiar heroes and villains and seeing how their unique and iconic abilities had been translated into game form.

As with food, video games are all about the freshness of the ingredients and the care taken in preparation and presentation. And when everything is just right, the result can be something like Guacamelee!

Don’t be deceived by the simplistic 2D presentation – Terraria is one of the deepest games currently available on PSN or Xbox Live Arcade.

The Army of Two games have always been overshadowed by Call of Duty and Gears of War and the other shooter juggernauts, but they had unique co-op gameplay elements and a goofy charm that set them apart. Both of these things are mostly missing in The Devil’s Cartel, and that’s a damn shame.

Luigi may be a little bit clumsy, and sucking up a ghost with a glorified vacuum may not be quite as satisfying as unloading a clip of bullets into an expletive-screaming terrorist, but the newest adventure starring Nintendo’s second-most-popular brother is still a heck of a lot of fun. It’s even head-and-shoulders above Mario’s latest handheld title, New Super Mario Bros. 2.

It’s the kind of game you’ll immediately want to replay again from the beginning, not just to experiment with new vigors and weapons and tactics, or to find the backstory-expanding Voxophones and Kinetoscopes you missed on the first run-through, but to see the little bits of foreshadowing, the subtle design choices, the dropped hints that build up to the game’s brain-bending denouement.

The eighth instalment of The Show series pulls no squeeze plays on quality and realism when it comes to the game of baseball.