Genres

It feels so long ago that I went out and purchased a banana yellow Gameboy Pocket and copies of Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Country 2. As a kid, I always had to pay for my own games as my parents refused to purchase games for birthdays or Christmas. For that reason, these two games were played a lot. Many years later, Nintendo is still releasing titles in the Donkey Kong Country franchise; how thankful long-time fans must be, because Nintendo continues to release high quality, top tier games.

To say that Nintendo has released more of something is nothing new. More Mario Kart, more Yoshi's Island, and now more Kirby. I use these three specific examples for a reason. More Mario Kart has always been a good thing, while more Yoshi's Island wasn't. Another game in the Kirby franchise is not like another Mario Kart game, but is leaps and bounds ahead of Yoshi's Island.

If there was one complaint about Ground Zeroes, it was its size. Despite the fact that you could easily spend tens of hours exploring that little base off the coast of Cuba, it was quite samey and, ultimately, failed to hold all but the most dedicated of Metal Gear fans to its 100% completion.

Daylight is a survival horror game that is procedurally generated, creating a new experience each time you play, however, while rooms and location of items change, the experience doesn’t feel entirely “new.” Daylight has some concepts that were promising but failed to deliver in terms of content and variety.

So it's come to this. The Simpsons Tapped Out was a huge hit, and Fox have decided to double dip, bringing the idea to another of their hit animated shows. Family Guy The Quest for Stuff begins when Peter Griffin, hopeless sap and generally terrible person, accidentally burns down the city of Quahog while fighting with a giant chicken. It's up to you to rebuild it, but not without helping Bonnie dance on a stripper pole, Quagmire release a certain type of farmyard animal from a bottle and Chris masturbate. Get to it!

Mario and friends have been absent from the golf course since 2004. 10 years later, however, the gang is back at it. This time, your Mii is invited! Mario Golf World Tour takes everything that is good about the Mario Golf franchise and takes it to a new level.

If you've never played a third person RPG such as Diablo or Sacred, then perhaps Holy Avatar vs Maidens of the Dead is the game you ought to pick up. It's simple enough to grasp within a few minutes, but complicated enough to provide hours of fun. Don’t go in expecting a serious story with gripping plot changes. Instead, be ready to observe a very intelligent parody of what a traditional RPG really is.

Final Fantasy XIV was surprisingly announced in 2009, was released in 2010 to terrible reviews and was closed in 2012. There aren't many AAA titles that get to be classed as unmitigated disasters, but the latest Final Fantasy MMO fit the bill. Not content with writing it off, Square Enix began repairing things that fans had disliked, and in 2013 released Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn onto PlayStation 3 and PC. 2014 saw the re-release hit PlayStation 4, but does this particular rebirth find its place on Sony's latest?

The Wolf Among Us’ third episode, A Crooked Mile, represents a turning point for Telltale’s unique, fairy-tale based game series. Following the slowly paced second episode, Smoke and Mirrors, which acted as a filler entry more than anything, A Crooked Mile is much more tumultuous. Telltale was able to ensconce the series with the first two episodes, and has afforded itself the ability to offer up more engaging and exciting material that pushes the series forward dramatically.

Yoshi has appeared sporadically throughout the Mario universe, playing major roles in numerous games, and providing cameos in others. In 1995, Yoshi was deemed important enough to be given his own game, and little has changed in the spin-offs and sequels since. Yoshi's New Island, available now for the 3DS, is a familiar platform adventure on a new handheld. Although the core of the game is the same, a few new implementations are less than spectacular, making Yoshi's latest adventure feel like a broken version of the older titles.