It aims to be a chaotic, haphazard mess targeted toward kids, and it succeeds on that front in large part because Bowser Mode rewards them for being a complete jerk to everyone else.

A gorgeous-looking, very well designed game that offers five different racing styles to tackle - and a bevy of interesting cars to modify and make your own. Its story is a lot of fun, and it's set in an impressively large environment that is very enjoyable to drive around. A great arcade racer that's both challenging and addictive.

Level difficulty is a bit uneven at times and DRP can get repetitive, but there's still a lot of fun to be had here.

Featuring an impressive roster of bikes and tracks, and a broad spectrum of events to participate in, Ride 2 starts out being a bit of a grind, but eventually becomes a very entertaining racing game. Its action might be a little too hardcore to appeal to anyone other than a real motorcycle fan, but if that's you, definitely check it out.

The entire thing doesn't come together as a solid whole. The citizens you can recruit are interesting, but the rest of the game's story is only skin-deep. Combat is solid, but it can get tedious and boring at times.

An entertaining, challenging, and thoroughly psychedelic music rhythm game that has great audio-visuals. It's a little on the short side at only a couple of hours, but it's a fun game nevertheless.

Excellent albeit not terribly inspired. It keeps to traditional motifs, eschewing more grandiose ideas in favour of a more familiar flavor. Think comfort food except more cerebral.

It's still a far cry from the top-tier classic puzzlers, but Dr. Luigi manages to be fun enough... even if there is that nebulous whiff of tragedy about the whole affair. On the other hand, it doesn't leave the nasty taste in your mouth that you get from exploitatively designed free-to-play puzzlers like Candy Crush Saga, so that's something.

An exceptionally cute match-three puzzler whose completely off-the-wall (and comedically mis-translated) Story Mode packs a fun challenge that'll keep you entertained for a good few hours.

No, Yoshi's New Island may not be the game we fans of the original want, but it's definitely the game its creators set out to make. And a lot of fun, too. It's hard to be cynical about that.

There are times when Just Cause 4 is amazing, but the final result is a game that loses parts of what made Just Cause great in the first place. The new mission structure repetitive and causes the series' staple destruction to take a backseat. The tether customization is top notch and the new weapons are a winner, but things like throwable C4 are gone. And the extreme weather, which is exciting when it appears, doesn't make its presence felt during most of the game. I had fun with Just Cause 4, but it's a game I want to love more than I actually do. Temper your expectations.

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.

Federation Force has proven to be a pleasant surprise, and my feelings on playing the game quickly went from "reluctant dread" to "respectful delight."

Shadow of the Beast takes the original Commodore Amiga's platform-combat gameplay and brings it bang up to date with plenty of exploration, and a more sophisticated fighting system. The result is a thoroughly enjoyable platform game that features an interesting story, entertaining combat, and excellent audio-visuals. The main campaign doesn't take too long to beat, but the game packs enough secrets and unlockables to keep you coming back for more.

It's not a bad game, as I never felt like I was gritting my teeth to play it, but it lacks a strong hook to keep you playing. Without that hook, you spend your time noticing all the small ways that the experience lets you down.

I'm down with crazy. I've enjoyed things like Twin Peaks and Mawaru Penguindrum. Crazy is fine, but you need to give me a hook. Killer is Dead has no hook for me. A great story and characters could get me through boring gameplay. I've been there before. Great gameplay could get me through a crap story. But, Killer is Dead offers me neither. It's not even bad enough to hate.

Borderlands 2 for the Vita is a case study in how a great game can get lost in a really bad port. There's just no getting around this version's raft of technical issues, nor the fact that the Vita doesn't have enough buttons to make it really work. Given more time, Iron Galaxy might have made it work. But as it is, even hardcore fans of the series should stay far away.

Aside from its cute art direction, there's not much joy to be found in Game Freak's Little Town Hero. Its battle system has a glimmer of potential, but finds itself muddled in system after system, making what should be its standout boss battles a tedious affair. Even for a budget price, this is a town you probably won't want to visit for more than a day.

Nuka-World's fantastic new setting and cool new opportunities belies its overall lack of depth. There's a lot to do in this expansion, but not a lot of it is all that interesting. It could be worse, but it could also be a whole lot better.

Dead Kings brings back the challenge rooms from Assassin's Creed Brotherhood and Revelations. That means a dark, dank underground setting full of platforming and puzzles. If puzzles aren't your thing, Arno's latest tale may not be for you. For everyone else, it's a solid, but unspectacular addition to Unity.

With P.O.L.L.E.N, Mindfield Games goes beyond the basics of first-person adventures for a time-traveling journey full of things to tinker with. And if you have an Oculus Rift, you may find it even easier to fall in love with their well-crafted world.

For every cool "a-ha!" moment in Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey, there has been something that has me on the verge of rage quitting. There's a fascinating, novel concept in Ancestors, but with so many bugs and other tedious issues blocking it, the joy of this survival game feels like it's constantly kept millions of years and a bundle of evolutionary feats away.

A host of graphical improvements and some new missions can't hide the fact Assassin's Creed: Liberation HD needed to do more to bring the Vita game closer to the outstanding Black Flag. Ubisoft Sofia did what they could, but the resulting game is still an average, limited Assassin's Creed experience. If you haven't played it, try a demo. If you have, there's no reason to play it again.

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.

Party Hard is good clean fun, but that fun tends to devolve into waiting and tedium towards the end of any level. The core gameplay is an idea that can be expanded upon though, and the developer is already adding new content to the game to resolve the issue.

Not even striking art direction and sincere storytelling can save the unfortunate nature of Sea of Solitude. Marred by dull action and, at worst, frustrating sequences, Sea of Solitude ends up feeling like twice the length of its runtime. Those monsters and that world sure are gorgeous though.

Outside of combat, it suffers from poor design decisions, dated visuals, and a disjointed story. Its biggest shortcoming, though, is that doesn't live up to the promise and potential set by its superior predecessor.

For all its derivative nature, The Order: 1886 falls well short of classic status; yet the premise here could definitely serve as the groundwork for a more creative, more substantial series. It's one of the most convincing steampunk/alternate history worlds video games have offered up. Now Ready at Dawn just needs to bring the script and mechanics up to that same standard.