Rush job releases are pretty commonplace for the launch of a system, but you don’t typically see first party games falling peril to this. ModNation Racers: Road Trip stands in stark contrast to the norm as it carries a wide variety of issues, ranging from slowdown during races, to hefty loading times, to unresponsive menus, and rubber-banding AI.

It's true; I'm in love with Drinkbox Studios' latest effort and PlayStation Vita launch title, Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack. I wish I could point to one individual aspect of the game and say, "that's it, that's why I love this game," but it's not that simple. The aggregation of varied and engaging gameplay, thoughtful puzzles, charm, humor, and even some well-placed Vita-specific features make this game a voyage that every Vita owner should not miss.

Imagine yourself as an alien, just captured and jammed into a testing facility deep under the sea with countless rooms dedicated to poking and prodding you in every way imaginable. Many others from your home world have been captured and are falling victim to the crew of scientists lining the facility's halls - but you have decided you won't succumb to their inhumane treatment. You rebel and break free from your shackles with the intent of escaping the facility altogether. Little do you know that the place is armed to the teeth – drones can be found in nearly every room, every door is locked, and there are a seemingly unlimited number of guards intent on ending you with a quickly fired bullet.

I’ve never been so deceived by a game before, as I was with Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom. It’s my own fault really, since I requested the title for review without knowing anything about it. Which is why, two hours in, I was confused as to why I was stuck reading a gratuitous amount of text. Impatient, I scoured the menus for anything that would clue me into the “gameplay” I was awaiting. Rather than control options I found nothing but text speed, romance animation, and other odd selections. Bewildered, I pressed on hoping for something to happen; finally it did. Suddenly, reading didn’t bother me as much, I didn’t care about controlling a character, and my impatient anticipation for gameplay dissipated. All that mattered was the winding storyline, the fascinating characters, and making choices to define my own in-game destiny.

Playing Twisted Metal is a lot like going to your ten year high school reunion.  Sure it’s great to hang out with old friends, bask in nostalgia and relive some of the good ole days but at the end of it all you go home and thank god that you aren’t in high school anymore; that you’re not wearing the same clothes, that you aren’t living with your parents and that you aren’t as stupid as you were back then. But then again there are those like Twisted Metal that peaked in high school and would give anything to go back.

Stunning animations and gorgeous art design make this 2D platformer a must see for all gamers. The visuals aren’t the only trick up up Ubisoft’s sleeve though. The game’s top-notch controls and level design will assure you that the flashy visuals are merely the icing on a gameplay-focused cake.

Tales of the Abyss tells the story of Luke fon Fabre, a boy who lives a sheltered life due to a kidnapping incident that he was the victim of as a child. After losing all of his childhood memories, he becomes a snobby and ignorant young adult. During a training exercise with his master, Van, a mysterious female attacker accidentally causes an event known as “Hyperresonance” which sends both Luke and his attacker to the other side of the country. Luke then learns about the conspiracies, wars and other events that were going on outside of the walls that he had been bound by. These events change Luke, and everyone that he travels with.

If asked to describe Rhythm Heaven Fever in one short phrase, I'd say it's “a horse of a different color!” Like Rhythm Heaven and the WarioWare games before, Rhythm Heaven Fever does an excellent job of painting itself as a game different from virtually any other. It's more unique, more quirky, and more inspired than a lot of what I've seen in the past. For a title budgeted for release at $30, there's certainly plenty of content to keep the original feeling going for some time.

Originally released in the arcades back in 1994, Cruis'n USA is the first game developed for Nintendo 64 hardware. With a pure arcade core, it forgoes realism to provide an emphasis on speed. Unfortunately, differences between the cabinet and final Nintendo 64 specs lead to a bit of a bumpy transition to the home system, adding to the issues it already had.

It is immediately clear that Little Deviants was designed to let you play with all of the Vita’s features. Within the first half hour you will use the touch screen, rear touch pad, motion controls, camera, and even the microphone. The ideas displayed are definitely interesting, but within that first half hour you will have seen everything the game has to offer. By the time I reached my first hour of gameplay I was already bored of all of the mini-games – even the good ones.

Mobile devices have put casual gaming at the frontlines of the handheld market, but Sony’s PlayStation Vita is a newly bred handheld beast with the power of current-gen gaming. It would be good to ask if Sony’s hardcore approach amongst the current casual gaming boom is a smart business move, but that can only be revealed in the near future. For now, we can only look at the Vita’s technical specs to judge the system. With that in mind, the Vita is a console with a lot of highs and only a few lows.

It’s hard not be struck by deja vu while playing Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, as it’s an amalgamation of every major Western RPG of the last five years. The art style and vibrant color palette are heavily inspired by World of Warcraft, the loot system rivals that of Borderlands, and the character development is an interesting Dragon Age: Origins/Fable hybrid. While Reckoning is quite liberal in its search for muses, it expands beyond many of them to forge a unique identity. Reckoning is to the games it borrows from, as baseball is to itself from 40 years ago; the concepts are basically the same, but everything is on steroids, making it far more enjoyable.

Tekken 3D Prime Edition broke my heart. Over the past five or six days, I had the opportunity to really get to know Tekken and I've come to understand and enjoy its brand of fighting. Past efforts proved fruitless; but something clicked this time. At its core, Tekken 3D Prime Edition is really just a stripped down port of Tekken 6, complete with the full (enormous) roster unlocked from the get-go. Sounds great, no? Well, it was… until I took it online. Here the ugly monster within sprung free – just like Tekken 6, the online mode is broken; a shot through my love-struck heart.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 is the first game in the series to feature downloadable content, and the Lightning/Amodar battle is the very first piece of content to be released. While it’s great to see Square Enix taking steps into a new space, it’s clear that they need to do a little more research before the next DLC comes out.

Whenever a franchise switches hands to a new developer, it's never clear what you're going to get. Some adhere to the source material too closely, others don't manage to capture the essence of the original, but a select few manage to supersede the achievements of their predecessors. The Darkness II falls into the latter category – borrowing some of the concepts laid out by the original, but establishing a number of its own, creating a much faster-paced and memorable experience.

Jak & Daxter Collection has been a long time coming. Given Sony's track record for HD remasters and Naughty Dog's rise in popularity thanks to Uncharted, it was surprising that these PS2 heroes hadn't been given the HD treatment earlier. Even odder, the game has been an extremely low profile launch for Sony, as they have done very little to promote the title and its availability is still extremely limited. Being that the collection is completely devoid of bonuses, and next to no clean up work has been done on these aging classics, it's not entirely surprising that Sony is giving this one the silent treatment.

After playing through the past three Carmen Sandiego Adventures in Math games, I’ve built up a memory bank full of the puzzles that have been featured in each one. It’s pretty easy, as each game only contains ten puzzles and each feature repeat puzzles from prior installments. The Great Gateway Grab stays true to the series’ roots, as it has a total of three repeat puzzles with two that are extremely similar, though not identical, to past puzzles. When half of the puzzles in the game are repeats, it becomes very hard to suggest anyone buy it if they’ve been following along with the series.

Truly unique. A very memorable experience. When describing any other game, these phrases would likely be taken as a compliment. But Conker’s Bad Fur Day isn’t just any other game, it’s a twisted take on the generally cheerful worlds of the typical platformer. Chalk full of blood and gore, alcohol and drug use, and more curse words than an episode of South Park, it ranges from a clever parody to sickening immaturity. The gameplay itself contains some interesting ideas, but it ultimately falls short of reaching its full potential.

Not content to release a "dull and outright boring" 2012 Olympics mini-game collection just for the Wii, Sega was kind enough to spread its time-tested mediocrity to the 3DS. 

Like its predecessor, Shank 2 is a 2D linear action platformer. I’ll be honest, I didn’t play more than 30 minutes of the original. I was more than intrigued by Shank’s ultra-violent cartoon animations, but I didn’t enjoy the gameplay at all. The combat mechanics felt clumsy and seemed disconnected from what was happening on screen, and the dodging mechanics were also extremely tough to pull off -- making it a chore to play.

Since the release of Resident Evil 4, there has been a division of opinions amongst longtime fans of the series. Some preferred the isolated exploration of the first four titles – including Code Veronica – whereas others favored the open world, more shooter focused style established in 4 and 5. The newest title in the series, Resident Evil: Revelations, introduces an entirely new spin on both approaches, while making some great changes to the core formula as well.

Last year, I praised and criticized Double Fine's Trenched before it received a new name. My verdict? It played and worked well, but didn't offer enough variety and versatility to last as long as a proper tower defense game should. Fortunately, Rise of the Martian Bear provides a lot of content, weapons, and towers that resolve many of the issues the original Iron Brigade faced.

The King of Fighters series is one of the longest running franchises in the fighting genre. Initially released in yearly installments, battle systems have been introduced and removed, plotlines have started and ended, and characters have come and gone. Thirteen games later, King Of Fighters XIII is fun but predictable and does very little to distinguish itself from current titles in the genre.

Konami brought many great, well-known beat-'em-ups to the arcades in the late 80's and early 90's, and all of them but one have made a transition to home consoles. Yes, The Simpsons Arcade Game is the last and perhaps best classic Konami beat-'em-up to be brought back, and for those who've played all the other classic Konami titles to death, there's enough variance and originality here to keep players hooked.

Sakura Samurai: Art of the Sword is the latest game to take use of Japan's rich lore. Despite the setting, the game's tale is standard Nintendo fare - players are on a quest to rescue a kidnapped princess. As a young samurai, your quest is split into a number of levels that consist of nothing more than a variety of encounters with a handful of enemy types. The characters and setting imbue a definite degree of charm and personality, but it's squandered by the shallow, repetitive, and boring gameplay.