When Portal hit the market, it took gamers by storm. Never before had the world experienced such a game – the unique portal mechanic was tied to a first person perspective, complex puzzles, and a compelling story and antagonist. Quantum Conundrum, the latest work of Valve alum, Kim Swift, captures at least part of Portal’s essence, but comes up short in the character and story department. First person puzzle solving takes the center stage and the Inter-dimensional Shift Device (IDS) proves to be an interesting tool/concept to drive the complex dimension-shifting puzzles; however, the lack of an overarching concept and vision disallows Quantum Conundrum from reaching the cult stature of its influencing material. Despite this, the interesting mechanics and the well constructed “test chambers” make for a fantastic game that shouldn’t be missed.

Disney-Pixar’s Brave was a charming movie. It tells the story of a strong minded princess who would rather go on adventures than worry about her womanly duties. Tied into this story is one about family, bravery, and defining one’s own fate. The movie hit the marks it needed to, and for me at least, left no desire for expansion. That fact comes across pretty loudly when playing the movie tie-in game, also titled Brave. While it executes well as a (very) basic game, it ultimately comes off as a boring, and pointless adventure.

Black Pants aims to break out from the indie pack with Tiny and Big: Grandpa’s Leftovers, a puzzle/platform game based around slicing through pretty environments to cut a path to victory. While it has a quirky sense of humor and an interesting core game mechanic, it's nothing special.

One question frequently asked about the Monster World games is “Did Zelda influence the Wonder Boy franchise?” While there’s a well-documented commonality between these games and Nintendo’s Zelda franchise—particularly Link’s second NES adventure— there’s enough done here to make it feel unique from its rumored 8 bit Hyrulian influences. It is safe to say however, that if you enjoyed even the concept of Zelda 2, you can stop reading now and hit the marketplace to pick this up. If the mere mention of The Adventure of Link brings fear or loathing to your soul, read on, as the game may still be right for you.

Set in the same universe as the graphic novel of the same name, this episodic tale follows the story of Lee Everet, an ex-convict with a troubled past and his interactions with the characters he meets. Though zombies are the primary antagonists of The Walking Dead series, one theme that the series drives home is the fact that everyday people can be just as, if not more dangerous than the undead. Episode 2: Starved For Help continues this theme. 

In the beginning of the previous decade, the fighting genre saw a decline in popularity. The genre had become overpopulated and stale and much fewer titles were released. However, the original SoulCalibur stood out as one of the absolute best. The Sega Dreamcast's killer app has been ported to the XBLA and is still one of the best games of its genre and a title every fighting game fan should own.

The Virtua Fighter series is well known and applauded for its balance and its simple complexity. A fighting game played with only three buttons, Virtua Fighter features a simple control scheme but adds incredible depth with its refined gameplay systems. This may seem odd when compared to other fighters that use more buttons, but Virtua Fighter is arguably one of the most complex fighting games on the market. With this latest iteration—subtitled Final Showdown—the series emphasizes its strong points.

Sega is no stranger to porting its greatest games over to new consoles. They re-release their games more than Disney re-releases their animated movies. Luckily, Sega doesn't lock their classics up in a metaphorical vault and in fact are now bundling three of the company's older games into one collection. One of the first in this new approach is Alex Kidd & Co., which includes Alex Kidd in the Miracle World, The Revenge of Shinobi, and Super Hang-On. A slapped together group if there ever was one, but does such a variety of genres work in its favor?

Mad Riders is an ATV based racer that emphasizes high speed races and tricks. Players have a few options available when starting up the game, including Tournament mode, which is the mode that is based on progression in the form of star collecting. Players have a series of challenges to complete in a specific map, like winning a race, landing a certain amount of tricks, or beating the clock. Finishing in third place will earn one star, second place earns two stars and first earns three stars. After collecting a certain amount of stars, you gain the ability to progress.

When I was young, there was a pizza place near where I lived that had a bunch of arcade machines. Despite the presence of classics like Killer Instinct 2 and a 6-player X-Men cabinet, I always gravitated toward a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time cabinet. Flash forward to a few years ago and I found myself clocking hours with friends via a MAME emulator on my computer. Our first choice? None other than Turtles in Time. Needless to say, as far as beat-'em-ups go, it was always one of the best, standing shoulder to shoulder with both The Simpsons Arcade and X-Men.

The trend of retro style games the last several years is something I can normally support, at least when game makers actually figure out how to capture what made old games so great.  99Seconds tries to harness the magic that kept early gamers rolling quarters into cabinets, constantly vying to get their name in the top ten.  Although 99Seconds appears to be on to something at first, spending time with the game reveals that there is no real hook and it fails to instill the desire to wear your thumb raw for the sake of a high score.

Max Payne 2 was a game that did two things amazingly well: it provided a dark, deep, and gritty story that was accentuated by its film noir approach, and it offered unique third person shooting that was unlike anything else thanks to the bullet time system. Max Payne 3 brings both back, but neither is executed to the degree of excellence seen in the past iteration of the series.

Brawlers. Beat-‘em-ups. Side-scrolling action games. Double Dragon clones. Growing up with video games in the ‘80s meant that genres weren’t all that well defined as we raced to try and contextualize this new and exciting hobby. Whatever label you choose to give Golden Axe, it can’t be denied that it was one of the progenitors of the genre that would go on to spawn the likes of Final Fight and Streets of Rage. Sega has trotted their fantasy beat-‘em-up (my personal favorite label) many times over the years, but with Sega Vintage Collection: Golden Axe the company has put together what is supposed to be the definitive collection of the series. While it falls just short of that, this is the best way to experience Golden Axe 1-3. Unless you can travel back in time, but if you could do that I would hope you have a bigger plan than playing a classic Sega arcade game.

The hype train for Hitman: Absolution has officially left the station, and to get fans amped up for the return of Agent 47 IO Interactive and Square Enix have put together a rather unique pre-order bonus for the game in Hitman: Sniper Challenge. It’s an interesting bit of fun to tide players over with until the release of the full game, but I can’t help wishing that this was a more robust offering. Given a few tweaks, this could be one of the most addicting games on XBLA and PSN.

Playing Jam Live Music Arcade distinctly reminded me of my time with the DS title, KORG-DS 10 Plus. While the two aren’t exactly the same, Jam Live Music Arcade provides the ability to play with song arrangements using a variety of samples, encouraging players to creatively jam out. However, Jam Live Music Arcade makes the mistake of cramming in an uninspired arcade mode that needlessly mimics the popular rhythm games of this generation, like Guitar Hero and Rock Band.

Having had no experience with Minecraft on the PC, Minecraft: 360 Edition seemed like the perfect place for me to dig in and see what all the hubbub was about.  After spending hours with the game, I find myself struggling with how to feel about the experience.  At times, the genius of its world, its intricate interacting components, and the potential to do whatever you can dream of kept dragging me back to play some more.  Other times, I was overwhelmed with the required monotonous labor necessary to put your ideas into practice and felt like I was playing a glorified version of Farmville where I had signed myself up for a series of simulated chores that I would rather not be doing.  And so, I have a divided opinion on the experience – which I think won’t be unusual among the masses discovering Minecraft for the first time.

In Paul’s Shooting Adventure 2, there are large bees that throw dog piles at you. Yes, the kind of dog piles you are thinking of: poop. It’s an appropriate weapon for a game that could double as lawn fertilizer.

Batman: Arkham City was arguably one of last year's best games. Not only did it provide a ton of fan-service for Batman fanatics, but it also was a fantastic game, providing a great story, addictive combat, and brilliant production values. One of the most memorable parts of the game, for better or worse is how it ended. Harley Quinn's Revenge deals with the shocking conclusion to Arkham City, and its effect on not only Harley, but the Caped Crusader himself.

This review contains some spoilers of the ending to Batman: Arkham City. You have been warned!

It’s much easier to consider Mario Tennis Open the latest home console iteration of the Mario Tennis series rather than the latest handheld title. Lacking the handheld games’ iconic RPG mode, the experience is more like a follow-up to the GameCube’s (and Wii’s) Mario Power Tennis. In and of itself, this isn’t a bad thing; however, Mario Tennis Open is thin on content and new gameplay enhancements don’t do much to vary up the experience from past iterations.

When Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I was released in 2010, it was meant to be a return to form for the blue blur, taking inspiration from the original Genesis titles. The results were mixed. So Sega went back to the drawing board for the next episode and fixed a few of the problems plaguing the first game. Although Ep. II evokes some of Sonic's previous glory, Sega still hasn't been able to fully capture the magic of the Genesis games, apparently content with yet another platformer that is only slightly above average in nearly every respect.

Click. Click. Click. It’s hard to believe that a game that’s entirely based around mouse clicking can be as entertaining, addictive, and all-consuming as Diablo III is. Blizzard took twelve years to deliver the third release of their dungeon-exploring, monster-slaying, loot-hoarding series, and it was entirely possible that this game wouldn’t deliver on over a decade of anticipation. I’m here to tell you that Blizzard did indeed deliver and as soon as I’m done telling you exactly how amazing this game is you can count on me going back in for more clicking, carnage, and loot. Often imitated but never duplicated, Blizzard has given a powerful reminder of who the king of the click really is.

Two hours. That’s how long it took me to finish Spirit Camera: The Lost Memoir. But to be fair, at least thirty of those minutes were spent trying to get the AR working properly, so I’ll amend my original statement. Ninety minutes is the actual time it took me to complete Spirit Camera, and I’d really like each one of them back.

Confession time: My hands sweat.  They sweat a lot.  You may not think it matters, but it can lead to some awkward situations when passing around a controller in a fighting game tournament with friends. Naturally, when I found the original Nyko Air Flo controller for the original Xbox, my friends and I breathed a collective sigh of relief. 

The cornerstone of the Fable series, starting with the very first game, was to bring some degree of innovation to the RPG formula. This puts Fable Heroes in an odd position, as it merely exists to capitalize on the merits of Fable III by borrowing its characters and locales for a mindless beat-'em-up. Puppetized versions of the cast make their way through the bright and cheery fabric version of Albion, killing a variety of equally colorful enemies. However, devoid of any challenge or strategy, Fable Heroes serves very little purpose and offers almost nothing to appreciate.

With a fantastic 3DS entry now under his belt, the star of Kid Icarus, Pit, is now back in the limelight after many years of being stuck in limbo following a 1991 Game Boy game. As a celebration of Pit’s return, Nintendo saw fit to release a 3D Classics revision of Pit’s first adventure on the 3DS eShop. Out of all the 3D Classics it contains the most changes, and makes a frustrating platformer more accessible to new players.