Azure Striker Gunvolt looked like a second coming of Mega Man Zero. It's not, and that's no bad thing; it works on its own terms. However, between a lack of variety and some wild variances in difficulty, you get the impression that IntiCreates needed considerably more time and budget to invest in Gunvolt.

What could've been a simple cash-grab is a great mash-up of two great franchises. Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright does its best to bring both sides together in a brand-new setting. More importantly, the game feels like it stays true to the core of both series while also setting a new high bar in presentation. The game favors Wright more than Layton, but fans of both will find something fun here.

If you're on board for another round of Dark Souls DLC, you know what you're in for: A few interesting twists here and there, and a revival of certain elements from the last game, but nothing revolutionary. If you simply want more Dark Souls 2, Old Iron King delivers just that, and with all the thoughtfulness you'd expect from its developers.

It focuses the best power set from the previous game and cuts out all the extras. The Neon-powered Fetch is a charismatic character, but her story is a standard tale of loss and revenge. If you really want more Second Son, it's worth a go; if not, you can skip it.

Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment does its best to provide a comprehensive experience, featuring online-style combat and dating sim aspects. Unfortunately, while it does a decent job of presenting the Sword Art Online world, the game itself is only good, not great. Sword Art Online fans will probably have fun though.

Madden NFL 15 is an enjoyable football game on the surface, but its dragged down by a thousand little issues, including a poor interface, odd glitches, the inability to skip certain cutscenes, and more. As nice as it is to see it take a step forward in terms of accessibility, it still has a ways to go before catching up with the likes of FIFA and NBA 2K.

It's a 20-hour game in a 50-hour package, bloated to hell and back by a design engineered to recycle content. If you're interested in playing an installment of the Tales series, you deserve much better than this.

Hohokum is a different kind of game that prizes aimless interaction and exploration above completing specific objectives. It's a title that brings together a cute, minimal art style and a great soundtrack to create a zen experience. It's worth a play, but not everyone will appreciate its strengths.

Disgaea 4: A Promise Revisited crams one of the best Disgaea games ever into a tiny package. The entire PlayStation 3 game comes along for the ride, with all of the levels, all of the graphics, and all of the content. There's some framerate issues here and there, but nothing that completely ruins the experience. A must-have for Disgaea fans who own a Vita.

Perhaps the definitive version of Diablo 3, Reaper of Souls Ultimate Evil Edition is streamlined, buttoned-down and an absolute joy to play - especially so when you start adding friends.

Metrico is beautiful puzzle-platformer with a great minimal, infographic-inspired aesthetic complemented by an awesome soundtrack. Unfortunately, the game gets in its own way by focusing on gimmicky Vita controls. It has moments of greatness, but ends up just being "good".

If you need to know why gamers collectively turned up their noses at adventure games in the late '90s, look no further than AR-K: It contains every design flaw we washed our hands of 15 years ago. It's hard to tell if Gato Salvaje has played an adventure game since this fabled era, but if they want to save Episode 2 of AR-K, they'd better start.

Instead of a heavy narrative, the game is more of a resource management sim, with the resource being the other characters. When taken like that, it's a solid puzzle game with some rough, repetitive edges.

Wondering what this whole "roguelike" thing is all about? Then Abyss Odyssey could be the game for you: It's a fine introduction to the rules of the genre, with some helpful training wheels to prevent newcomers from being discouraged. If you've suffered the scars of past roguelikes, though, you'll find Abyss Odyssey's lack of challenge a significant downside.

Fun but flawed, Rogue Legacy falls somewhat short of its lofty aspirations. But you can't fault the developers for aiming high.

Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty is what the original game always wanted to be: a truly cinematic platformer. It looks fantastic, sounds brilliant and is great fun to play, despite its occasionally clumsy controls.

Wii Sports always felt more like a starting point than an endpoint, so it's kind of funny to be playing it again on the Wii U more than a decade later.

There's not really enough distance between the PS3 version of The Last of Us and this new Remaster to make it worth double-dipping, unless you're simply that fixated on counting lines of resolution. If you missed out the first time around, though, you really shouldn't let it slip past again.

From Software went above and beyond with their Crown of the Sunken King DLC: invest in its tiny asking price, and you may find yourself getting just as much time out of it as you would a $60 game.

It's slow to start, but when WildStar finally kicks into high gear it throws a ton of content at you.

It's tough to recommend Civilization: Revolution 2 in its current state. It makes few meaningful improvements to the original game, and in some ways its even takes a step back. Depending on your taste for 2D art, I would actually recommend the original Civilization: Revolution over this version. This sequel that feels like a missed opportunity to improve on a good idea.

You probably know what you're getting into if you're picking up Dynasty Warriors Gundam Reborn. Any resemblance it might have to depth is purely superficial.

XBlaze would be thoroughly unremarkable if not for its utter—and possibly record-breaking—contempt for the player. If you're interested in visual novels as a genre, the Vita has a handful of titles significantly better than this one. And if you're somehow compelled to explore the rich back story of the BlazBlue universe, there's always fan fiction.

BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma is a great package if you love the series. New characters, streamlined mechanics, and the same animated fighting action you've been playing since 2008. DLC brings things down a bit, but if you want to play a console fighting game on the go, BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma is a perfect candidate.

As fun in this beefed-up incarnation as in its original release, Guacamelee Super Turbo Champion Edition offers one of the best-designed and most original takes on the well-worn metroidvania phenomenon you'll ever find.

GRID Autosport combines interesting cars, entertaining tracks, excellent AI, and a quality handling engine to deliver a terrific racing experience. Unfortunately its career mode lacks depth and isn't particularly engaging.

Shovel Knight is a loving homage to an era we left behind long ago. The graphics, gameplay, and soundtrack are all pitch-perfect for an NES game... all you're missing is the original cartridge. Yacht Club Games has crafted an amazing experience from beginning to end.

Valiant Hearts works from a novel concept, and is loaded with brilliant ideas — hell, it's great just to see a war from the perspective of a country other than America—but Ubisoft's lack of self-control ultimately makes it less impactful than it should have been. It's still a worthwhile experience, though it could have been so much better if Valiant Hearts left us wanting more.