Polygon

Little things like that really add up throughout Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time. The bad pacing in level design, the overwhelming mix of things to do without any sense of how to piece them together into a strong experience, the production values that veer back and forth between fantastic and non-existent it feels like, well, a PlayStation 2 game. Sly's in exactly the same spot he was nearly a decade ago, while other games and franchises have spent that time improving AI and level design. The rest of the industry has moved on, and now so have I.

Strike Suit Zero is a collection of excellent mechanics and ideas marred by unfriendly level design and bad pacing. Born Ready has promised additional patches for Strike Suit Zero to tweak the difficulty and add support for things like the Oculus Rift headset. It's promising that the developer understands that it might have more work to do to make Strike Suit Zero the game it should be.

Antichamber is all about the harmless subversion of rules you don't realize you're being taught. Often, it isn't until after you recall one of Antichamber's lessons that you realize you've been taught it in the first place. For several hours, Antichamber is teaching you without your realizing it. It is constantly, deftly picking your pocket; only, in reverse.

Despite its considerable barrier to entry, Skulls of the Shogun proves worth the effort. It places victory squarely in the players' hands and rewards time invested in learning its systems. I was often outnumbered, outgunned and confused, but I could always hunker down and work the strategies I learned early on. Knowing that it's all up to you not cheap shots, not a roll of the dice justifies the grinding struggle that occasionally slows the journey from disrespected general to shogun of the afterworld.

Unlike the many games it borrows from, I don't see myself returning to Theftropolis. Nostalgia is the driving force of most of its fun, but I can't be nostalgic for nostalgia. Retro City Rampage is like a trifle, one sugary layer upon layer upon layer. It's incredibly sweet and delicious, but the longer time you spend with the thing, the more the sugary goodness mashes into one consistent and familiar flavor -- not as great as any one of its individual parts.

LittleBigPlanet Karting includes a toolset which players can use to build visually and mechanically imaginative creations; which I suppose is the most important thing to nail when creating a LittleBigPlanet game. United Front has done that swimmingly, actually producing tools that are more inviting than those of the LittleBigPlanet platformers. It's just puzzling that, when it came time to utilize those tools, the developer came up short.

Ni no Kuni's combat, side quests and puzzles never come close to matching the imagination on display in its visuals. I was charmed, but always by stuff surrounding the gameplay — never by the gameplay itself. Level-5 hasn't created a bad game but an inconsistent one that doesn't seem to understand its own strengths and weaknesses. The flashy look and cheerful tone will pull some people through, but at its core, Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is missing a chunk of its heart that's hard to ignore.

It may surprise you then, that I’d still recommend a trip through The Cave. It’s so refreshing to find a game that’s trying to say something, even if that something is one of history’s oldest cautionary tales. There’s plenty of lush production here, and enough charm that you’re certainly going to at least enjoy your first time through.

The setting of Limbo is Ninja Theory's only major innovation for the Devil May Cry franchise, but it's enough to make this reboot worth it. The game's tone falls apart as it fluctuates between deadpan and dopey, but the action never falters. Fights are fast, intense and fun, and they're aided by a world where nothing is what it seems and nothing stays the same for long. I just wish Ninja Theory had matched the mesmerizing level design with a character who I actually want to spend time around.

The promise of a true, faithful Call of Duty game on a portable platform still carries a lot of weight with people. They want that same addictive experience that they've had for years on their couch carried over to their commute. Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified fails to achieve that goal on every single level. It should be avoided at all costs.