Broken Sword is an excellent proof of concept. Yes, classic point-and-click adventures work very well on DS. It is also a funny, engaging game with a wide variety of puzzles, locations and characters. But it also spotlights the gameplay elements that adventure games of the 1990s could get wrong.

To get the most out of a game like Tumbleseed, as with the brutal puzzle-platformers that inform it, you must do more than play. You must be willing to wrestle with it and, if not master it, at least develop some degree of proficiency. You must also accept that, despite your best efforts, you might not be able to. If you’re willing to devote some of your leisure energy into Tumbleseed, I imagine you’ll be rewarded. But I can’t guarantee it. I might just be the world’s worst Tumbleseed player.

Playing Pocket Planes is like driving a car that steers itself. All I want is a wheel, NimbleBit. Give me just one tool that can be wielded in interesting ways to make an impact on the outcome of my play. I want the ability to play your game well, or play it badly. As it currently stands, the only choice you give me is to play Pocket Planes or not play it at all, and I'm going to take option B.

A giant leap forward for Sega's mascot. It represents the first time in more than a decade that I have enjoyed a Sonic game.

It's better than almost anything else on the platform. But it's also a game produced by a Nintendo with its back against the wall, which seemed to want to get a side-scrolling Mario on shelves to sell 3DS hardware before the time was quite right.

Clever deduction sequences, likable characters, some of the best writing in videogames.

If you or your kid loves to play open-ended games like Minecraft or create inspired Lego creations without instructions, the Variety Kit is a great way to go.

What saves this radical concept from total disaster is the fact that the live-action segments are well-acted and tightly paced. They look and feel exactly like… well, like a mid-season replacement on the USA Network, if we’re being honest. But the action is just intriguing enough that you won’t mind being asked to watch a 20-minute cut scene before beginning the next level...Once you get over the novelty, Quantum Break shakes out as a mediocre shooter with a lavish budget. It will be remembered for blending game and live-action in a formula that actually kinda worked, not for its gameplay, which feels unambitious, half-baked.

Canabalt is my most-played iPad game by far. Its simple, fun concept distills platforming down to its bare essence of running and jumping.

$20 might seem like a bit much for a little over five hours of gameplay, although there's a lot of content packed into this first installment: Four largish 3-D environments, a dozen or so main characters, and reams of funny dialogue.

The translations are occasionally botched. In two instances, the cheat codes were incorrect. This, plus the fact that some of the challenges send you back over territory you've already covered, keeps the game from achieving true retro perfection. It's still awesome, and a must-play for fans of the NES era.

A novel and original concept, executed cleanly and with style - in short, the ideal to which videogames should aspire.

Infinite Warfare is not a bad Call of Duty. I’ve played nearly every game in the series, and as someone who sees the merits of the systems that make up the moment-to-moment experience of playing a shooter like it, I enjoyed myself, sometimes a good deal. But Infinite Warfare stalls out in the terrestrial shadow of itself and the political context it’s trying to run from. It wants to be a lot of things, but ultimately it’s a lesson: We can go as far into the cosmos as we want, but we can’t go alone. Our problems are stowed away in the cargo hold, and they’re coming with us.

To be clear, I’m not advocating real-life violence here. But I do suspect that games like this, tied up in gore and cruelty though they are, serve a social purpose. In creating an outlet to resist fascism in its most archetypal form, Sniper Elite 4—and the legacy of World War II media that informs it—reminds us that fascism is real, and needs to be resisted. The game’s power isn’t intelligence or insight, it’s the refusal to forget: By allowing players to fight and win against the ghosts of villains, it offers a quiet reminder that their villainy is real.

Well-balanced, fun turn-based strategy gameplay perfectly suited to mobile devices.

Coordination between teammates seems to be pretty important, but otherwise I felt like each match hinged on whether or not teams could get momentum early and shut buy upgrades quicker.

I wouldn't unhesitatingly recommend Ring of Fates to anyone who's not already a genre fan, but if you're like me, you need to play this one.

3D Dot Game Heroes might be a blatant rip-off of Zelda, but in cribbing from one of the most enduring games of the 8-bit era - and allowing us to populate a faux Hyrule in a new, tactile way - the game more than earns the right to swipe.

If the goal was indeed to create a game that could appeal even to the rawest Transformers newbies, then High Moon has succeeded.

Peggle Nights, like its predecessor, is extremely polished, challenging and fun.

Obduction succeeds as a follow-up to Myst not because it invokes nostalgia for 1993, but because it builds realities like Myst did. A new world, one that feels true, one that breathes.

$20 might seem like a bit much for a little over five hours of gameplay, although there's a lot of content packed into this first installment: Four largish 3-D environments, a dozen or so main characters, and reams of funny dialogue.

If you can bear the frustration of that early grind, there’s a reward waiting for you. The thrill of pushing your thrusters to full burn, looping around the asteroids near Karahdor Outpost, the Prince Ol in your sights, his fighter dancing in evasion. Vulcan cannons blazing. The stars watching, an entire universe built for for one exhilarating fight after another.

Far Cry Primal is best played through subtraction. First thing, go into the options menu and turn off the mini-map. Takkar certainly doesn’t have a map, and using one is distraction that detracts from the beauty and horror of Oros. Ignore the extraneous missions, the ones that rely on formula and filler by, say, having you kill the same two warriors to save the same kidnapped Wenja. Seek out the upgrades you find most useful and skip the rest. Ignore the completion percentages. Take it slow.

Trackmania DS is a great game. But racing time trials and designing tracks starts to lose its appeal when you don't have anyone to share the experience with. If you're having trouble convincing your friends to buy the DS game, remember that the PC version of Trackmania is incredibly popular -- and free.

A ballsy take on literature that worships at the altar of God of War.

Hitman, the franchise, has always been known for elaborate assassinations and long missions that flow beautifully from one moment to the next. And it’s wonderful to see the subtitle-free sequel keep to that tradition. This is only the first of several planned episodes, but one with an emotional rollercoaster with enough depth and challenge to last some time.

It’s a paranoid nightmare vision of my own cell phone, and I can’t look away.