USGamer

The game is beautifully presented. Deliberately low-resolution, low-detail and using few colors, the visuals nonetheless manage to be packed with character and plenty of endearing little details, especially in the animations. Likewise, the sound effects are all authentically "NES-ish" in nature; there are no sampled sound effects throughout, and the music is all synthesized.

Nintendo needed another great game to make the Wii U look as enticing as possible and Mario Kart 8 fits the bill. The anti-gravity gameplay slots in alongside classic kart racing, hang-gliding, and underwater action. All the tracks look amazing and Nintendo has a lot of fun making each track twist, turn, and soar into the sky. Robust online multiplayer, downloadable player ghosts, and Mario Kart TV add a bit of extra muscle. Mario Kart 8 is not the best in the series, but it does stand near the top.

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.

If I had any problem with Super TIME Force, it's that the game is rather short and needs more levels to let players really explore what you can do with time loops. Either a sequel or a level editor would go a long way to letting the concept live on for years and years to come. Yeah, my only real compliant is I want more. It's great game and when the mechanics, the levels, and your ideas come together, it's pretty damn amazing.

Croixleur Sigma is an enjoyable -- and cheap! -- game particularly suited to having in your Steam library for when you have a few minutes to spare and just want to hack a few things to pieces. Its quick play sessions and straightforward mechanics make it a simple game to pick up but, as the old saying goes, a hard one to master -- and there's enough depth there for hardcore score-chasers to while away hours at a time.

Bound By Flame is a number of good ideas poorly crafted into a final product. The story itself is rather generic, with poor dialog and voice acting preventing you from getting emotionally invested in the world. The core combat is good, but once it meets with the larger game, it begins to break down. Even an excellent crafting system can't save Bound By Flame from being a budget RPG. If you can find it for $15-20, it might be worth a go for action-RPG fanatics.

Beenox latest Spider-Man game is a swing and a miss. The developer has improved the web-swinging mechanic and getting around Spider-Man's Manhattan has never been better. Unfortunately, the rest of the game drags it down. A schizophrenic story, a lifeless New York, and boring villains are what you can expect for the price of entry. The game's Hero/Menace system even takes all the fun out of just randomly swinging around the city. Beenox can do better, so I'm hoping the developer's next outing results in something truly 'Amazing'.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is the ultimate fanservice fighting game for those who've followed Hirohiko Araki's 28-year manga. Developer CyberConnect2's focus was making each of the 32 characters resemble their comic counterpart, not providing a balanced roster. The game stumbles when you add in the micro-transactions found in the online-only Campaign Mode and the $2 price tag for each of the 14 DLC characters. Hardcore JoJo fans also need to watch out for the dodgy name localizations of the music-themed cast.

Even if you tend not to care much about Kirby games – understandably, given how toothless they can be – Triple Deluxe merits attention. Smart level design and a remarkable level of detail make this portable platformer one of Kirby's greatest adventures to date.

Mario Golf: World Tour's single-player experience challenges you to perfect your game. It's a dry process that moves slowly while committing impressive attention to detail, though the inclusion of RPG elements could have made it more interesting. Versus mode lets you cut loose a bit and offers good times with friends.