Davidscj

Just a great casual experience bursting with fun and colour. Fantastic combination of the typical lego gameplay and the Marvel World. This is not a challenging game but that doesn't matter, this is an enjoyable experience for all ages.

Platinum have crafted a great throwback to the 80s with Transformers Devastation. The look, sound and feel of the game are spot on. The gameplay is tight and enjoyable, particularly in vehicles are incorporated into the mechanics. The main problems is the repetitive environments and for some the length. This is a refreshing experience for a licensed property and a great example of platinum delivering a product made with real passion.

This is a stunning entry into a fantastic series. Naughty dog have further refined their winning blend of adventure, dialogue and gameplay. In addition to this they have crafted a game unrivalled in its beauty. This is a fitting end to the story of Nate and is told with such style grace and nostalgia. Adventures don't come better than this in video games.

A fantastic example of how to create a single player FPS with substance. It starts slow but the story develops into a memorable experience backed up by excellent gameplay and a variety of weapons. This is all backed up with a powerful and atmospheric soundtrack that immerses you in the action. Whilst the enemy AI isn't fantastic the experience is a fantastic throwback to the origins of the genre. This is how you freshen up an IP.

Murasaki Baby is more interactive story book than game. And that is a great thing. You guide the baby through the game on a journey to find her mother, a common theme in children story books. Along the way you meet a host of characters who act as plot points and distractions along this well told story structure (see the Gruffalo for a similar modern structure). This is effective, albeit simplistic story telling. Where Murasaki Baby thrives is in its visual presentation and its characterisation. The characters you meet along your journey are so unique and memorable and that makes this game a real success. The game is gorgeous and dark. The world and character design is the thing of nightmares, Tim Burton-esque. Characters faces are upside down, yet their hair remains on top. It is unique, bold and extremely atmospheric. The world is dark and scary with colour primarily being limited to the various backgrounds which the player can change. This all in combination with the sound creates a sublime atmosphere. The gameplay is simple and effective. You physically guide the Baby through the adventure. This is done by physically holding her hand with the touch screen and pulling her along. Quite frankly a brilliant idea that is well executed. This creates a connection immediately between you and the Baby and the way she reacts to each pull is technically brilliant. You must guide Baby through the world and keep her purple balloon safe from harm, if your balloon bursts that is the end of you. The game throws obstacles and puzzles in the way to danger your balloon and it is your job to safely guide the Baby and Balloon to safety which is not always that easy. The main other element of gameplay is changing the environment of the world by swapping the worlds background, by use of the back touchscreen. This gives different effect to the world such as wind, ice rain, and many more crazy alterations. This is used primarily to solve the puzzles along the way in a typical 2d puzzle platform fashion. The puzzle solving is very basic but is effective visually and is varied. It its core this game is easy and that is not a bad thing is you see this game as effectively an interactive storybook, if you're looking for a challenging puzzler this is not it. This is a charming two hour story that is totally worth your time as long as your expectations are not unrealistic.

Grow home hits lots of high notes but is ultimately let down by its repetitive gameplay and frustrating controls. Grow Home is beautiful. The world is colourful and sounds amazing. It is a joy to gaze over the landscape and explore every nook and cranny. The real highlight of this game is in its visuals and sound. The gameplay struggles to match this standard. You control 'BUD' a robot who must grow a tree to produce a seed that will save your home planet. You grow this tree by climbing it and riding its branches to floating energy rocks that grow the tree. This in n interesting idea that never evolves and becomes a bit too repetitive. Controlling BUD is extra,ely frustrating. He is a robot, charmingly animated, who moves very comically as his limbs move precariously, seemingly struggling to carry his body. Whilst this creates a charming character who moves like a funny robot it also makes BUD incredibly difficult to control with any precision which is problematic in a platformer. BUD boasts an inventive climbing mechanic as you control his arms and clamp down onto surfaces using the trigger buttons. This is in theory a great idea except the arms sometimes struggle to move over certain surfaces and sometimes you fid yourself falling off the plant for no reason. Deaths in this game are frustrating and seem down to control difficulties rather than anything else. The game compensates for this with teleport checkpoints which are too infrequent and also items that led you glide to help you recover which are implemented well. Additionally the world is littered with crystals to collect which can upgrade BUD over time, such as getting a jet pack which is almost completely useless. The problem with the crystals is that movement is so annoying it doesn't feel worth the time searching for them. Overall Grow Home is a frustrating experience. The most annoying element is seeing the potential of what could have been. The whole experience lasts a few hours and as such is still worth your time.

For lovers of tough platforms, Kung Fu Rabbit is a worthwhile experience. The combination of short though levels and cute visuals world well and will keep you coming back. Kung Fu Rabbit provides good but not excellent gameplay. Unfortunately its ps plus release coincided with the release of Super Meat Boy and the games are very compatible in difficulty and presentation, Super Meat Boy however boasts impeccable precision that Kung Fu Rabbit just can't keep up with. This is most visible in sort movements which feel a bit slippy around edges leading to some frustrating deaths. Moreover the comparisons to Suer Meat Boy demonstrates how this game does little new and is not at the level of some of the greats preceding it. What this game does differently to meat boy is the number of enemies that you must overcome throughout levels. Each enemy has a highlighted weak point that you can kill them at. This is a good mechanic and alters the way you platform. There are also a number of power ups to aid your journey, most are pretty needless, however one is pretty game breaking as it allows you to install any enemy you touch instantly making the game much easier. It is naturally up to the player whether to use this or not but its inclusion appears needless and aimed more at the audience of the mobile version. Where this game succeeds is in providing short and increasingly very difficult levels that are perfect on a handheld platform for short play spells. This creates a really addictive and challenging experience that is worth the time investment. Visually the game is pretty great. You play a squareish (meatboyish) rabbit in a colourful and vibrant world that has a great oriental style. The game has real character. The colour pops on the vitas screen and really adds to the experience. Black sludge instantly kills you and the dark black colour effectively contracts to the world. This is sadly not matched by the quality of sound which is really just adequate. Overall Kung FU Rabbit is a worthwhile experience offering great visuals with good mechanics and strong short, challenging level design. As a Playstation Plus game it was a great surprise.

Shadow of Mordor is a sublime game that combines hard difficulty with fantastic gameplay along with a story that will please all Lord of the rings fans and gamers alike. The first thing that stands out about tis game is its difficulty at the beginning. It is perhaps too much and overwhelming. Thankfully this is quickly, if not quick enough, overcome through character progression. There are times when it seems unfairly hard out-with the progression mechanic, sometimes being surrounded by too many captains for no explicable reason (at one point I was surrounded by 4 captains just trying to free one slave). But at the end of the game success feel all the sweeter due to the games difficulty. My biggest problem with the game was the respond rate of enemies. At times it was ridiculous. At times I could see enemies responding around me in areas I had just cleared out, this a slow tactical approach for me at certain times. his was especially true at the beginning as you move through the world slower and more cautiously. The long term effect of this is that you don't feel like you are impacting the world, not even a small corner as all enemies will return so quickly. This is only natural due to the setting, Mordor, yet is unsatisfying mechanically. What it lacks is the taking over of areas, an expected mechanic of open world games. However implementation of tis could cause different issues. The world feels small and that is an issue. You lots of tasks in the same areas/strongholds and that c be tedious especially with refreshing enemies (Differs greatly to a game such as dragon age inquisition). On the topic of the world, the environment lacks variety. This naturally is the nature of being in the shadow of mordor and it is fixed slightly in second half but I still feel like more could have been done visually in the areas to differentiate each area of the map. The much hyped nemesis system is simply fantastic. It is true innovation. Enough people have talked about how it works that theres no need to cover this, the most surprising thing is that it just works so well. Through the nemesis system the world feels connected and living. This is where impact on the world comes in. It can become a fantastic distraction from the main plot that can devour whole evenings of your time. It is very exciting to see future applications of this system. Getting the ability to control enemies changes the game and the nemesis system completely at the right time. The game just gets better and better. The story is fantastic. The characters are fitted into the known lore nicely. And the lore is slightly altered to great effect. The story is paced superbly and truly gets to an epic peak fitting of the license. Old characters such as Gollum are fantastic and new characters, Torvin especially, are great. The game boasts some excellent side missions, particularly the weapon related missions. However freeing slaves becomes too repetitive. Added to this is a good range of collectibles scattered across the map. Unlike some games the volume of collectibles is perfect and not too overwhelming. They add story and aid progression nicely. However the pay off for 100% collection is pretty poor. At the core of the game is excellent gameplay. The combat is excellent. It is fluid and weighty and as mentioned difficult. There is great progression eventually from weak to strong. There are great abilities to unlock that add depth to combat and new ways to approach it and thankfully the AI is fairly strong. One issue is that climbing may be too powerful. Enemies lack anywhere near the same level of climbing or manoeuvrability. This makes escape easy and height a great advantage. They generally resort to trying to make you fall rather than follow Games like Assassins Creed have overcome this issue with mobile enemies and this is lacking here. Otherwise the combat is pretty flawless. This is simply a fantastic game once you get some progression and adjust to the difficulty. A must play.

Gunman Clive 2 is a fantastic game. As a sequel it improves on the original in almost every way whilst still boasting the same tight gameplay and impressive visuals. This is the platform or this game, the 3d really makes the presentation special. The added length is greatly appreciated yet still brief enough not to outstay its welcome. It works as a great portable game that can be completed in a few sessions or one big play session. The gameplay is tight and addictive, yet not Mario tight. It causes the right kind of frustrations, often I would close my 3DS only to open it up immediately to finish what I started. The only area the game perhaps struggles are the boss fights. The Boss fights are maybe inferior to the original offering frustration and not enough charm. Bosses just lack originality and rely more on persistence. The basic story of the original has been kicked up a gear as you are now chasing bandits across the globe. This adds great variety to the aesthetic and boosted by the level design matching the location theme. Gives the game the opportunity to get a bit more silly with added ninjas and more. Talking of silly there are still plenty of ducks. The gameplay has been notably expanded. A gravity element has introduced that is well executed but at this point gravity is becoming a bit overused in platforms. More successfully Gunman Clive 2 adds great mounted combat sections where it goes all Starfox. This gives a nice change of pace to the platforming. The same roster of characters are available from the original with the addition of a melee focussed spear wielding character. This adds an interesting new way to play through the game. Overall Gunman Clive 2 is a must play for all fans of the original or anyone looking for a short budget title for their 3DS. It offers great visuals, gameplay and improvements across the board from the original.

I have never played the original, meaning nostalgia was not a factor for me. Nostalgia i really needed to smooth over the problems this game has. It is a product of its time and inaccessible to new players. The gameplay is extremely frustrating. The controls lack the precision required to complete a stage without great difficulty. If the controls were tight the game would be fantastic and the addictiveness would go through the roof instead of the players frustration. Precision movement is needed for a game like this and it isn't there at all. Pardon the pun but it makes the game a real grind. To make it all worse you are constantly hounded by police forces knocking you over and draining your Heath. On the upside the music is fantastic. The DJ, professor K is marvellous and an effective narrater channeling the influence of the Warriors which is present throughout. The world is similarly well crafted and visualised presenting a cool future Tokyo full of life and colour. The cell shaded graphics suit the futuristic and weird Japan perfectly and really meshes with the soundtrack well. Only letdown is the clunky character design, again that comes with its age. Also more voice work would also have aided characterisation. The story is light, fun and very Japanese. You are a young 'rude' skater who forms a new gang, pitting you against the 3 rival gangs. The gangs are extremely well presented again inspired by the exaggerated style of The Warriors. All the gangs have different and distinct regions that represents different times of day. The levels are extremely well designed, making the gameplay even more frustrating. The performance overall on the Vita is good but not perfect. It is a bit choppy in areas and the music cuts in and out occasionally. Furthermore the menus are a bit slow and clunky. Overall its very manageable. Jet Set Radio is a pleasure for the eyes and ears but is really let down by its gameplay. It comes from a different age and it really shows.

Counterspy ia a pretty great way to spend a few hours. It is a witty take on the cold war placing you in the middle on neither side but working for a neutral force, C.O.U.N.T.E.R, aiming to keep the war cold. The setting is very interesting and not used in games enough. The game uses silly humour to effectively mock the situation. This is predominantly implemented through written dialogue between gameplay. The story is minimal but effective. The humour is utilised best in-between playing rather than in the levels which is a shame. The exception is the effective use of fun propaganda and some sparse tannoy announcements. CounterSpy is a 2d stealth espionage game with a twist. Once you get in cover it becomes a becomes a third person shooter a la time crisis. The Gameplay in both feels tight and the combination fresh. Thankfully it is not limiting as you can do the same actions in both such as shooting. Great overall simplicity to the gameplay and design that makes it such a pleasure to play. The cover perspective adds greater visual awareness and greater depth to the stages. The game offers a very light metroidvania experience but in smaller procedurally generated levels well suited to a portable platform. Exploration is encourages as there are collectibles such as weapon plans, upgrades and secret plans spread throughout the rooms and sometimes in hidden locations. The player gets the choice of choice of infiltrating either side of Cold War forces for differing rewards and differing deacon levels depending on past experience in levels. The Deacon meter is a great mechanic. It raises in accordance with players stealth throughout maps. This Gives consequence to actions. Going below 1 results in a one minute countdown to finish the level. It is hard to keep the bar down as being stealthy is not always easy and there is a lack of ways to lower the meter. This is made more frustrating as it can rise cheaply with only a few mistakes. The game almost gets this system right. A stand out of this game is the graphical style. CounterSpy nails the aesthetic through a heavily stylised cartoon style, graphic novel like. It Channels some of the best things of Bond, MGS and Archer. It utilises an effective palate focussing on blue and red, not the most subtle symbolism but pretty nonetheless and very fitting. Great sound design adds to the atmosphere, the jazz focussed sound encapsulates the coolness associated with espionage. As for some of the negatives: the load time for stages on the vita are extremely long. Otherwise the performance is good, however I had one experience of unbearably low frame rate. There are some tiresome tropes a swell such as conveniently placed exploding red boxes, a feature we have all seen a bit too much. The AI can be inconsistent: ranging from eagled eyed guards to the inconceivably unaware. Moreover there is not enough non lethal options for takedowns. The upgrades you can buy are annoyingly temporary and become an annoyance when it comes to spending your limited money. My final gripe would be the diversity of the enemies as they are all very predictable, perhaps bosses are missing. Stage bosses could offer the game more diversity, character and an opportunity to add more humour. Overall CounterSpy is a great game with some problems that are not too disruptive. It can be completed in a few hours and the combination of its gameplay and presentation make it a worthwhile investment. There is potential here for greatness, a CounterSpy 2 could be amazing.

The winner of the worst named video game is MouseCraft. Behind the awful pun MouseCraft is a technically strong puzzle game that sadly lacks sufficient charm to make it a great game. Where MouseCraft succeeds is in its well executed simple gameplay and 80 well varied levels. The levels are well designed and vary nicely in terms of challenge and design. The gameplay is simple and easy to pick up. The game plays as a blend of lemmings with tetris blocks, it plays nicely but it does not feel fresh. In a lab you must guide 3 suicidal mice safely to the cheese by creating a path across the stage using a set collection of tetris blocks. In this journey there are optional crystals to collect to unlock further levels. Levels can be completed in a multiple of ways, however usually only one way will result in collecting all the crystals. Fast restarts and the ability to freeze time solidifies the experience. The game is simple yet effective. As levels are short and can be beaten in a few minutes it can become an addictive experience blasting through multiple levels in a row. The difficult peaks at different points making the player really think about certain stages, offering the frustration you almost expect of a well designed puzzler. However the difficulty peaks appear to be random, around 3/4s of the game through, making the end appear too easy. The greatest downfall of this game is that it is forgettable. The formula is too familiar and there re no twists. While blocks change in nature,some break, some explode, these are expected mechanics and nut surprises. From playing a few levels you have a clear idea where the game will go. That is not the exciting journey a gamer expects in this era of creativity. MouseCraft lacks the required character and charm gamers have come to expect in this genre. The bar is high and the delivery is lacking. There was an attempt at a quirky story with the professor and the mice but it just falls flat and lacklustre. They should have cracked it up to 11 and played more on the ridiculous elements and given life to the lemming mice. Moreover the stage backgrounds are just cliche science lab scenery and lack any innovation. And with this the graphical style and music are forgettable. Overall not that memorable a game but definitely a technically proficient puzzle game that will appeal to the puzzler for a few days before ultimately being forgotten.

Far Cry 4 is a great game as it truly is pure fun. Where Far Cry 4 fails is where 3 succeeded: in its surprise. While 3's level of quality came out of nowhere, 4 just feels more of the same. That is not to say it is bad, in fact it is probably a better game than 3 as it creates a bigger, more interesting and beautiful world. The beauty of the world is extraordinary and more than ever the world feels alive with pop up Karma events and the sheer volume of animals roaming the land. The draw distance and processing power of the PS4 really make a big difference and the mountains in this game look outstanding. Key to this world is traversal and the game nails this. From buzzer helicopters to wingsuits and simply grappling up mountains, travelling across the map is an enjoyable experience and often a thrilling way to take in the scenery. The auto drive system introduced into the vehicles is a stroke of simple genius. Fast travel is also there when needing to get across the map quickly. The characters of Far Cry 4 are very hit and miss. The playable character is very forgettable and perhaps would have been better silent or radical different. Your allies within the Golden Path are very run of the mill characters. The show is stolen by the wonderful work of Troy Baker as Pagan Min, one of the most memorable villains in recent video game history. Far Cry 4 faced the almost impossible job of living up to the iconic Vaas of Far Cry 3 and some how they did it. The only downside of Pagan Min is that he could have been utilised more. The story is interesting but not extraordinary, it fails to reach the heights of the world and the villain but does have its moments. Where it success most is in its meaningful decisions which can shape the story and the future of Kyrat. I found myself agonising ver decisions and regretting choices which is a great sign that the choices are implemented effectively. The game is filled with additional activities. The variety of side quests are great and often challenging and interesting, especially the Kyrat Fashion Week activities and the racing challenges. some activities get a bit repetitive however such as the hostage scenarios. Perhaps less would have been more in ths=is case and with some other areas such as towers. Its not a Ubisoft game seemingly unless you have to climb a tower to unlock the map and 17 towers is simply too many as after 5 its just not that interesting. Furtherore the amount of drug infused 'trippy' missions ruined the effect, they were impressive stylistically through sound and vision but that effect wore off after a few times. Moreover the Shangri-La activities seemed to fill the same goal of these missions of changing up the style and gameplay. By having these activities too there was simply an over saturation of visions and trips. On a performance level the game is pretty faultless. the only annoyance was se failed respawns and often respawnng far away from where the death took part back to the last camp. This is a great and extremely fun game that just didn't really surprise or raise the bar enough from the previous entry.

Entwined is a beautiful brief game. The game deservedly in production values draws many comparisons to a Thatgamecopany work like flower or flow, however it never truly reaches those heights. The gameplay is simple and effective: you control two animals, each with opposite analog sticks (think brothers) and it plays like a rhythm game as you must position them to go through the correctly coloured gates within a ring. You must collect coloured gems and build up your bar to complete a stage (lifetimes), doing so combines your characters into a dragon. The game tries to be a symbolic and meaningful experience but dissent quite get there. The visuals are beautiful. Certain stages outshine the others but all are cheated brilliantly. This is matched with an excellent soundtrack that paces the gameplay exquisitely. Hitting the right gates creates noises which blend into the music wonderfully. The gameplay is very simple but is explored well. The game is rightfully short and bot padded out. There are no extra gimmicks, only a few hours at most of solid gameplay. Performance wise the vita version runs extremely well and controls perfectly with the twin analog sticks. The difficulty of the game is perhaps problematic as the story made is very easy. The difficulty is found in the challenge mode where you are given three lives and aim to get as far in levels as possible. On the whole this is a great short game full of colour, sound and great gameplay. It just might not have the depth or longevity to stand out.

Dokuro is a sadly overlooked puzzle game for the vita. It offers an interesting charcoal pale which when colour is introduced makes for a fantastic spectacle. The levels are varied offering great design and introduces new mechanics at a perfect pace always keeping the levels interesting. The game is challenging but fair, often I would put the game down in frustration only to pick it up a few seconds later to learn from my mistakes. The game may be a tad too long and the repetition of boss battles seems needless, the game is already meaty and requires no further padding. The fear many may have of this game is that it is one large companion quest, thankfully the princess you are leading through levels proves to be, in the most part, a smart companion trying her best to avoid danger. A great game for a great price

Super Exploding Zoo fails to truly deliver the experience that perhaps it could have. It is however still a game worth your time, just perhaps not too much of it. The bet way of describing the game is that it is a Pikmin like puzzle arcade game, as jumbled as that sounds it is fairly accurate. The game uses a Pikmin like gameplay mechanic and speaks it across 80 varied puzzle levels. You start as one animal and you must collect sleeping animals to form a large herd to defeat aliens before they reach an egg. This zany idea is propped up by a very colourful art pallet, good animal design and effective sound design. Each animal has a different strength value for defeating the enemies and special abilities that effectively correspond loosely to the real world, such as lions roaring to slow enemies and monkeys climbing. This all works and is effective any engaging gameplay. The animals explode into enemies and obstacles very comically and surprisingly gory. There is a tactical mode which freezes gameplay and gives you much more precision in controlling the animals, adding much needed depth to the gameplay. On the most part the levels are well designed and some offer a challenge but most are rather easy. One of the biggest problems with this game is that it is very easy. You can breeze through the game in a few sittings. It becomes a bit boring sadly and at the end I was not craving more. The enemy variety is also very low and doesn't match he variety of friendly animals at your disposal. There is a multiplayer vs mode which is a bit unnecessary for this kind of game and not too enjoyable. What holds this game back there most is performance issues. On the Vita, not so much on the ps4, the load times are excruciatingly long. Furthermore the game loves to crash consistently making cloud saves a must to secure your progress. Patching so far has yet to address this fully. On my game run there was also an unobtainable trophy but thankfully this has now been fixed. The games easiness at least makes this a very easy platinum, you don't even have to complete the game. Super Exploding Zoo is a good game hampered by some performance issues and simplicity issues. As a short experience it is a good laugh still worth playing and you might even come out with a platinum trophy.

OlliOlli 2 is a truly exceptional 2d side scrolling skateboarding game, an albeit niche genre. It excels in providing extremely tight and logical controls. This gives the game a great feel and sense of speed and flair, it is very much the Super Meat Boy of skateboard games. It is simple to learn but exceptionally difficult to master. Thankfully the game is very effective in teaching all the basics. Again like Super meat Boy the game is extremely challenging but rewarding. Realistically you will hit a wall with this game as the difficulty keeps ramping up. The player has to keep on going and learning and the reward will come. There are no unfair deaths just skill and with that there is a real sense of joy when you nail that level long combo with a perfect landing. Not everyone will appreciate the challenge and quite frankly not everyone will be able to handle it. However the different difficulty modes make the game more accessible. The aesthetic is unique and brilliantly varied throughout the different exceptionally well designed levels. The levels have great replayability in trying to complete all the challenges and high score chasing. Added to this are additional daily activities. The only real downside of this game is the unrelenting difficulty. It is truly a must have and fills the gap in the market for a quality skateboarding game that pro skater 5 probably won't

MonsterBag is a game perhaps guilty of being a bit too much style over substance. The game is excellently animated akin to Adventure Time and runs very smoothly. One of the big surprises of the game is its substantial gore that effectively works contrastingly with the animation style. The story is interesting as you, a monster named V, strive to get to your friend Nia. The story is interesting and improves throughout the game getting more outlandish and wild. The cutscenes in particular are very impressive. The gameplay is very simple however can be initially frustration as there is a lack of explanation. After a few deaths it becomes pretty clear as the gameplay is logical, handholding is not required. This is essentially a side scrolling stealth game, the character has to remain out of eye sight and hence move when characters look away and learn the eye patterns. It never gets much more complicated that this. Speeding up this formula adds difficulty but makes it feel more like a rhythm game. Late game adds more elements such as screens to change patterns which is much needed but not game changing Overall the game is easy aside from side cheap deaths due to respond issues and also some frustrating deaths when the character appeared to be moving at a safe time. The game is very short and a good one sitting game that never reaches great nights. The gameplay doesn't match the aesthetic but what you do get is a visual delight with an intriguing story and adequate gameplay, very much worth the free PS+ download.

I expected to pick up Race the Sun play it for an hour or so, put it down and give it a bad review. I was not openminded as what I saw was a simplistic endless runner better placed on the free page of the app store akin to cube runner and temple run. However I spent a few addicted days and was left with a pleasurable albeit still short experience. The game effectively blends minimalist graphics and fast additive gameplay. The controls are excellent and precise running very smooth on the vita. The whole package is very addictive. The challenges and levelling system are extremely well designed and engaging making it hard to put down and making the player approach the level in various unique ways such as only turning right. The levels are interestingly changed every day making the game feel fresh. It was exciting quickly learning new maps and having to start all over again. On the downside the game is very simplistic and lacks longevity. In the age of smart phones this game lacks true innovation and the sun element feels needless. Games like this often are elevated by the music, look at super hexagon for example, but in Race the Sun the music is far too pedestrian not matching the speed of the gameplay. On the whole as a PS plus custom,er this is a totally worthwhile experience. Outside of which it is hard to recommend paying any large sum for this title as it feels at times like a free mobile game, albeit a good one. The game is an addictive and aesthetically impressive experience worth playing for a few days.

LocoRoco 2 is a truly imaginative title and one worth revisiting on the vita if missed on the psp. The aesthetic is extremely vibrant and gorgeous. The whole game exudes colour and this is matched with the equally colourful and infectious soundtrack. The soundtrack and visual style are used effectively to contrast the good in the game with the evil. With a game with limited narrative, the occasional text box, the story is effectively told through the animation and music. The characters are perhaps one dimensional but act as simple and lovable balls of colour and sound. Having the choice between characters is nice but I found myself sticking with the default LocoRoco. The gameplay is very innovative and engaging but quick movement and changes of direction can make certain scenarios frustrating and make some deaths feel cheap. It is however a pleasure to explore the well designed and varied levels that truly encourage exploration for secrets and offer incentives for replaying by introducing new gameplay mechanics that can open up previously closed areas. The level of difficulty is low allowing the player to enjoy the visuals, level design and music. LocoRoco 2 is padded with some mini games which are a bit unnecessary and not too engaging, adding to the length of the game to its detriment. Overall LocoRoco 2 is a pleasure to play through its visuals sound and gameplay and is definitely recommended.

A Link Between worlds is undoubtedly an excellent **** game plays heavily on nostalgia but at no point feels outdated or held back by conventional limitations. The item renting system, actually works and gives the player freedom in deciding what items to unlocked which is paired effectively with the freedom in deciding what dungeon to tackle. The visual style, particularly the painted style, is beautiful and the 3d is utilised effectively and never forced. The dungeons offer a great variety and often a good level of challenge. The bosses in each dungeon are well designed yet slightly on the easy side. The game play is classic zelda, as such is pretty much perfect. The new element is the ability to merge into walls and become 2d, this mechanic adds so much to world exploration (in particular secret finding) and also as a vital combat mechanic, it truly adds to an already amazing formula. It is the creativity that stands out in this game and how it feels modern and refreshing yet nostalgic at the same time. This game should act as a template going forward in the series and act as a role model for keeping classic IPs relevant.

A great racer and the best kart experience on the vita. There is a true feeling of speed matched by strong visuals and framerate. The game provides a strong variety of characters and tracks. However the real problem for this game is that it is not Mario Kart. Comparing it to Mario Kart 7 shows that the tracks are just not as well designed and it lacks a sense of charm that nintendo has perfected over the years. That does not meant the game is bad, Mario Kart is the benchmark and this game just falls a bit short but is still a very enjoyable and accessible title worth your time as a vita owner, just don't expect the level of quality of Mario Kart.

A fantastic example of how beautiful and relevant 2d platforms can be. Great detailed graphics paired with tight control and excellent level design. The Ubiart engine truly beings Rayman to new heights.

Proteus is a beautiful experience. I use the word experience purposefully as its hard to say if its actually a game. The graphical style is beautifully quaint and matches well with all the noises of flowers and creatures. The experience is rightfully short and sweet and does not outstay its welcome. Moreover it creates a calming atmosphere which is hard to disagree with. If you're looking for an experimental game like journey, unfinished swan or even flower you may be disappointed but what you do get is a unique experience that may disappoint some players.

A fantastic short, cheap and visually striking platformer that really is a must buy for any 3ds owner. Gunman Clive is packed full of charm and tight gameplay and offers one of the most interesting graphical styles seen in recent years. A true gem of a bargain that slightly lacks in length.

Depth of character and gameplay make Dragon Age: Inquisition an unforgettable experience. Bioware once again craft an engaging story with excellent choices that truly make you think. The world itself is expansive, beautiful and filled with a great range of enemies that effectively test your tactical ability. Undoubtedly the best gaming experience of 2014.

Escape Plan effectively blends a beautiful arts style with some excellent, albeit not, particularly challenging puzzles. At times it is let down by some control features: particularly elements involving the back touch screen. All in all the experience is short charming experience that is easy to pick up and hard to put down.