BOXBOY! will surely find an audience among those who are deeply in love with the Game Boy's sensibilities, but this writer is finding it increasingly difficult to be nostalgic for a style that never goes away. What's left, then, is a polished puzzler with surprisingly dull tendencies.
Kirby and the Rainbow Curse is perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon: a pleasant roll through a gorgeous world, with some novel concepts, and one of the most beautiful games the Wii U has yet seen. However charming the game may be, Rainbow Curse is a few strokes from greatness: overly repetitive mechanics, underused ideas, and a failure to integrate its clay theme into gameplay in any meaningful way keep it from reaching the lofty heights to which it potentially could. Well crafted, but not a masterpiece.
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U is an expertly crafted, deep fighter that is a pure joy to play no matter your skill level.
This is a dull, drab, uninspired commercial of a game for a wreck of a film; as one of the most iconic pop-culture figures of the past 50+ years, Spidey deserves better.
Kirby Triple Deluxe is a pleasant package that doesn't push the envelope very far. The Story Mode is an elegant but conservative adventure that trades too greatly in familiarity and simplicity, the same type of neo-nostalgia that Nintendo has seen success with on the Mario side of things: it's sure to scratch that Kirby itch — or create one for new players — but fails to move the franchise forward in any meaningful direction. However, the rest of the package holds its own quite well: Kirby Fighters is a great time-sink sure to provoke new rivalries among friends, and the post-game content offers a second competitive wind to the adventure. Come for the cute platforming, stay for the battle royale.
Call of Duty: Ghosts will be remembered for many things, but few in the ways that it had hoped. It's a rare stumble for one of gaming's most consistently entertaining franchises, showing a lack of focus and confidence in itself.
Ubisoft takes a lot of really big swings with Just Dance 2014 — some, like Autodance and Just Dance TV, hit it out of the park, whereas others, like competing online and a rejiggered Just Sweat mode, are something of a whiff as they can feel lonely and undercooked. Still, if you want to boogie down in your living room, Just Dance 2014 has more than enough moves to keep that slide of yours electric.