Genres

007 Legends was released on Wii U at the end of last year, and if it had been the only first person shooter available on the system, it might have been enough to kill the genre entirely. It's not that it's actively bad - not when compared with the likes of Ride to Hell: Retribution - but it might be the very definition of generic shooter. The Bond licence has had some stinkers attached to it, but this one is something else.

If you haven’t played any of the Mario & Luigi series, I strongly urge you to do so, as they are some of the most thought out, inspired and creative titles Nintendo has ever developed. From exploring the Beanbean Kingdom in Superstar Saga to Mario & Luigi trying to communicate with baby versions of themselves in Partners in Time, the series stays true to its tried and tested gameplay, with the addition of a few new features in Dream Team.

Ride to Hell: Retribution is a gritty tale of revenge, set in a world where every woman will have sex with you if you beat up their partner (unless they're prostitutes); where police officers and miners carry vast amounts of drugs on their person; where cowboy hats protect your brain from bullets and in which walls, floors and doors are mere suggestions. That the credits contained almost ten minutes of names is perhaps the biggest surprise to be found in Ride to Hell: Retribution. The only other that even approaches it might be that it's actually possible ...

The words "console quality" get thrown around way too often in the mobile game-o-sphere. I've been guilty of it, too: desperately clamoring for a bar-raising iOS game, we've been all too-willing to slap a AAA-tag on whatever good-looking and somewhat entertaining title and laud it as redefining what a mobile game is. Deus Ex: The Fall is the latest game to enter this conversation, a recently-announced FPS with RPG elements that acts as a prequel to the Deus Ex: Icarus novel. Don't get me wrong: this is not some shoddily-constructed mobile cash-in: it's a ...

Ethan Meteor Hunter is a puzzle platform game by Seaven Studio. You play as Ethan, a mouse given the power to stop time because he was hit by a meteor. The reason for this isn't explained in the alpha, but perhaps it will be revealed in the full game. Ethan's mission is to collect bits of meteorites as he makes his way through 50 levels. There is a counter at the top of the screen to let you know how many meteorites are in a given level and how many you have collected. It's definitely an original idea, at least from what I’ve seen.

At the heart of every Walking Dead story is the disintegration of humanity and the ultimate loss of innocence: when civilization is stripped away, the world turns into a cruel, dark place where death becomes the only place to be safe. With their single-handed resurrection (and revolution) of the point-and-click adventure genre, Telltale Games' Walking Dead: Season 1 delivered one of the most harrowing, emotional gaming experiences in recent memory - showing the TV show (and reminding the comic) how to tell a heart-wrenching (but satisfying) narrative in the ...

The combat in Dark sucks. By extension, this means almost all of Dark sucks, as it's built, by and large, around this idea of combat. You see, it's a little known fact that vampires can only clumsily walk up to enemies, bash them over the head or suck their blood, making loud slurping noises like granny at Christmas and alert everybody within a five mile radius.

One of the most well-received games of 2010, Limbo was one of the signature XBLA releases that established it as a legitimate digital platform. Quiet and haunting, Limbo's puzzles and ethereal setting challenged gamers to find their own way, devoid of traditional storytelling devices and control tutorials. The game's experience was about dark wonder and discovery: and this week, Playdead's first title found its way onto the iPad.

Every spoiled little rich kid has wanted to grab a slingshot and destroy his house while shooting at all the members of his family, right? Okay, so I guess I have no idea. The creators of Naughty Boy decided that this seemed like a decent premise for an iOS game, and they went for it. It's completely ridiculous, but who doesn't want to destroy a mansion armed with only a slingshot?

Pester is a top-scrolling shoot 'em up where you fly your ship against tons of enemy fighters, dodging an occasionally absurd amount of enemy fire, grabbing power-ups and wiping out as much alien scum as you can before you lose all your lives. It's as simple a concept as it ever was, with the arrow buttons controlling your movement.