Introduction

Game On! 2013

November 2013

2013 has been a great year for video gamers. Imagine seeing an Oscar worthy film every time you visited the local googleplex and you'll get an idea of how great a year it has been for the industry. Certainly there have been some disasters (the less said about Aliens: Colonial Marines the better), but the vast majority of releases this year have been well above average. I wish I could have included every game that deserved mention on this list, but it was hard enough finding the time to sample the 25 items you'll find below.

Recommended Games

Rated E for Everyone

Animal Crossing: New Leaf
Animal Crossing is a game that makes doing nothing fun. You move into a town, buy a house, become mayor, and that’s pretty much it. So what do you do with your time? Well, you can decorate your house, visit your neighbors, dig for fossils (which you can sell or donate to the local museum), fish, get a haircut, design a new outfit, pick fruit, or visit a friend’s town through the internet. Or you can do nothing at all, it’s all up to you. (Available on 3DS)
Just Dance Kids 2014
The best selling dance party game is back with a new set of hit songs from today’s hottest artists including Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez, One Direction and Yo Gabba Gabba! (Available on PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, Wii U)
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon
ISBN: 0045496742157
Poor Luigi, always living in the shadow of his older, more popular brother Mario. No one ever wants to pick Luigi, but ends up with him when all the other good characters are taken. Well, Luigi finally has his own game and it is so good that you are left wondering why Nintendo doesn’t let Luigi be the star more often. Dark Moon finds Luigi wandering through a series of haunted mansions in searching for purple fragments that have caused the local friendly ghosts (Boos) to become much less friendly. To protect himself, Luigi has a vacuum cleaner strapped to his back (ala Ghost Busters) that he uses to capture the troublesome ghosts that are causing so much trouble. (Available on 3DS)

Pokemon finally steps into the 3rd dimension with this new set of adventures set in a fictional country, Kalos, that, with its cafes, boutiques, and pastoral countrysides, feels very French. The typical Pokemon formula hasn’t been changed (get a starter Pokemon, go on a journey, battle some gym leaders, and defeat an evil Pokemon organization that wants to do something or another), but new online features allow gamers to trade, battle, and take part in competitions anywhere in the world. With 718 Pokemon to catch, either of these titles should keep gamers busy for hundreds of hours. (Available on 3DS)

Pokemon X
ISBN: 0045496742485
Pokemon Y
ISBN: 0045496742508

Rated E 10+ for Everyone Ages 10 and Up

Just Dance 2014
The best selling dance party game is back with a new set of hit songs from today’s hottest artists including Lady Gaga, Christina Aguilera, PSY, and One Direction. (Available on PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, WiiU)
Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX
Kingdom Hearts ReMix is a remake of the original (and direct sequel) game that began the story of Sora and his adventures with Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy. 11 years later, the game is just as fun as the day it was first released. (Available on PS3)
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD
What do you do when a giant bird carries your sister away on your birthday? You join a crew of cartoon pirates and sail after her, of course. Set in a cartoon world of vast oceans broken up with the occasional island, Wind Waker gives the player a boat and lets them go wherever they like. There are monsters to slay, dungeons to explore, and adventures to be had in this classic game remade for the HD generation. (Available on WiiU)
Lego City Undercover
If you took the misogyny and violence out of Grand Theft Auto and added in Legos, you would end up with Lego City Undercover; the most ambitious Lego game to date. In LCU you play as undercover detective Chase McCain as he attempts to track down super criminal Rex Fury who’s escaped from prison on a tractor mower. When you aren’t busy infiltrating a Chinese gang or stealing dinosaur bones from a museum, you have an entire world to explore as a farmer (catching lost pigs), astronaut (hunting down aliens), fireman (putting out unattended BBQ grills), or master criminal (cracking safes). (Available on WiiU)
Lego Marvel Super Heroes
Lego Marvel Superheroes is not only a great Lego game, but it is one of the best superhero games ever made. Players can choose to play just about any Marvel hero from fan favorite Spider-man to the relatively unknown Moonknight (but sadly, no Man-Thing) as they take on the most insidious super villains ever assembled in one game. (Available on PS3, Xbox 360, 3DS, WiiU)
Mario and Luigi: Dream Team
While on vacation, Mario and Luigi join forces to free the people of Pi’illo Island from their stone pillow prisons. To do this, Luigi sleeps on the stone pillow opening a gate into the Dream World where Mario and Dreamy Luigi hunt down the nightmare chunks that contain the captured Pi’illo. Yes, the game sounds insane, but it is insanely fun too. Players get to control both Mario and Luigi at the same time and the resulting chaos would be frustrating, if it weren’t so enjoyable. (Available on 3DS)
Minecraft
Minecraft is the indie game that made the world sit up and notice that great things were being dreamed up in basements and garages around the world. What started as the work of a single programmer back in 2009, has blossomed into a gaming juggernaut that includes toys, coffee mugs, a clothing line, and Lego sets. Set on an island in the middle of nowhere, the player is tasked with chopping wood and digging minerals to gather the resources required to build a house and tools. The possibilities of the game are endless and a quick search of YouTube will find that Minecrafters have created scale reproductions of the Staship Enterprise, Westeros from Game of Thrones, and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater. (Available on Xbox 360)
Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch
Ever wonder what would happen if Studio Ghibli (Ponyo, Spirited Away, and My Neighbor Totoro) created a video game? Well, wonder no longer because Studio Ghibli and Level 5 joined forces and created a beautiful game that looks ready for a theatrical release. Wrath of the White Witch is an RPG (think the old Dungeons and Dragons game with dice and no game board) flavored with a dash of monster collecting (think Pokemon) and tells the story of a 13 year old boy who travels to a fantasy world in order to save his dead mother. Hollywood has a terrible track record with making video games into movies (Mortal Kombat, Doom, Super Mario Bros.), but this is one game that begs to be moved to the silver screen. (Available on PS3)
Pikmin 3
Nintendo is well known for creating unique gaming experiences, and Pikmin 3 is unusual even by Nintendo’s high standard of strangeness. Pikmin 3 gives the player control of a trio of space explorers stuck on a planet where they inhabit the lower rungs of the food chain. To survive, the player must collect and grow an army of adorable insect/vegetable/animal things called Pikmin that will help them survive the hostile landscape as they collect bottle caps, fruits, and other alien artifacts to take back to their home planet. (Available on WiiU)
Puppeteer
ISBN: 0711719982272
Puppeteer is a fairy tale brought to life in a video game. Set in a magical puppet theater, the game tells the story of a little boy named Kutaro who’s been turned into a puppet and had his head torn off. During the game Kutaro, with the help of a cat, discovers an assortment of new heads which give him new abilities and a pair of magic scissors that allow him to alter his environment which is made out of paper and fabric. (Available on PS3)
Rayman Legends
The armless and legless cult hero of platforming is back with another insane adventure that will push your running and jumping skills to the limit. While I’m pretty sure there is a story, I’m mostly sure that I couldn’t possibly describe it (something to do with dragons, wizards, and a magic circus tent), but I’m completely sure it doesn’t matter since this game is so much fun to play. Rayman and up to 4 other players run, jump, fly, and swim through a series of insane levels collecting yellow lums so they can, you guessed it, open up a series of more insane levels. (Available on PS3, Xbox 360, and WiiU)
Sonic Lost World
The speedy blue hedgehog returns in a new adventure which finds Sonic and his arch nemesis, Dr. Eggman, joining forces to stop six monsters from sucking the life out of the world. Lost world features a variety of 2D and 3D cartoon environments chock full of hidden passages and secrets to find. Lost World is an absolute blast to play and is easily the best Sonic game since 2010's Sonic Colors. (Available on WiiU)

Rated T for Teen

Batman: Arkham Origins
This prequel to the insanely popular Arkham Asylum and Arkham City takes the player back to the early days of Batman’s career as he tries to track down the insidious Black Mask who has escaped from Blackgate Penitentiary on Christmas Eve. Complicating the task is a $50 million bounty on Batman’s head which has attracted eight trained assassins to Gotham city. (Available on Xbox 360, PS3, WiiU, 3DS)
Injustice: Gods Among Us
Batman, Joker, and Wonder Woman find themselves transported to an alternate Earth in which Superman has become evil after a nuclear bomb destroys Metropolis. While the story is fantastic, the true draw of the game is its brawling combat that features insane special moves like the Harley Bomb Cake and the Superman Punch to the Stratosphere. (Available on PS3, Xbox 360, 3DS, and WiiU)
The Wonderful 101
If you chugged an entire case of Red Bulls and sat down to design a video game, chances are you would create something very much like The Wonderful 101. The W101 features 100 super heroes (+1 you) that must stop an alien invasion from demolishing the earth. While the plot isn’t very original, the frenetic game play that tasks the player to control up to 100 heroes at the same time while fighting back hordes of robots, aliens, and flying death machines is. (Available on WiiU)

Rated M for Mature

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
If you’ve ever dreamed about living the life of a Pirate, then Black Flag is the game you’ve been waiting for. When a naval battle goes wrong, you find yourself shipwrecked on a Caribbean island fighting for your life against a mysterious assassin whose mission threatens the future of all mankind. Naval battles, treasure maps, and adventure await in the harbors of Havana and the dangerous Caribbean waters. (Available on Xbox 360, PS3, and WiiU)

The Coke and Pepsi of the military shooter genre, Call of Duty and Battlefield have their share of admirers and detractors. While the single player experience can be finished in a blink-and-you-missed-it four hours, that doesn’t really matter since most gamers go straight for the online multi-player experience. Critical reaction to the new Battlefield and Call of Duty has been tepid at best, but these games are review proof and essential additions to any gaming collection. (Battlefield 4 is available on Xbox 360, PS3. Call of Duty: Ghosts is available on PS3, Xbox 360, and WiiU)

Battlefield 4
Call of Duty: Ghosts
Bioshock Infinite
ISBN: 0710425399473
Bioshock Infinte is a first-person shooter set in an alternate, steam-punk influenced history of the United States. The main character, Booker DeWitt, is sent to infiltrate the floating city of Columbus and rescue a young woman named Elizabeth who has the ability to manipulate rifts in the space time continuum. (Available on PS3 and Xbox 360)
Deus Ex Human Revolution: Director's Cut
Deus Ex Revolution is a cyber-punk first person shooter set in a near future society where biotech companies have grown larger than governments and use terrorist tactics to increase market share. Players take control of Adam Jensen, a newly hired security expert who is seriously wounded when one of Sarif Industries’ top researchers is kidnapped. When he awakens, Adam discovers that he has become more machine than man with the ability to upgrade combat, hacking, persuasion, and stealth skills. Deus Ex is notable for giving the player the ability to choose how the game is played. Do you prefer to walk into a situation with guns blazing, or would you rather lurk in the shadows? (Available on PS3, Xbox 360, WiiU)
Grand Theft Auto V
The series that everyone loves to hate is back in all its sexist, violent, nihilistic glory. It would be really easy to pass on this game, but that would be a big mistake since this is easily the biggest game of the year. Grand Theft Auto V may be offensive to some, but there is no denying that it is an amazing experience that creates an absolutely believable open world with an endless amount of things to do. Don’t want to play the story? That’s okay, you can become a real estate mogul, play the stock market, start a business, scuba dive, skydive, or drive around the countryside. The story itself is great too as it lets the player control three different characters who are working together to pull off a series of heists while their personal lives spin out of control. (Available on Xbox 360, PS3)
The Last of Us
Set in a post-apocalyptic United States in the year 2033, The Last of Us tells the story of Joel and his quest to protect a little girl who may be the key to creating a cure for the fungal infection that has turned most of the population into feral zombies. (Available on PS3)
Payday 2
Payday 2 is a co-operative game that requires players to work together to rob banks. (Available on PS3 and Xbox 360)
Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider is a perfect example of how you reboot a series and make it better than the original. A brilliant combination of movie and interactive action set-pieces (escaping from a burning monastery, caught in a rockslide, and a scary ride down a wild river), Tomb Raider is the video game equivalent of the best summer blockbuster movie ever filmed. What make Tomb Raider work so well is the characterization of Lara Croft as a normal person dumped into an abnormal situation. In the end, Lara becomes a hero, not because she is heroic, but because no one else is capable of doing what needs to be done, and what could be more heroic than that? (Available on PS3 and Xbox 360)

Coming Soon...

Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
ISBN: 0045496742539
Release date: 11/22/2013 Available on 3DS Rated E for Everyone (Fantasy violence)
Mario Party: Island Tour
ISBN: 0045496742553
Release date: 11/22/2013 Available for 3DS Rated E for Everyone (mild cartoon violence)
Super Mario 3D World
ISBN: 0045496903213
Release date: 11/22/2013 Available on WiiU Rated E for Everyone (mild cartoon violence)