Guacamelee 

Developed by Drinkbox Studios, Guacamelee is a side-scrolling action platformer that puts you in the shoes of a wrestler who must become the man of the hour and embark on an epic adventure to save the president’s daughter. The game takes a lot of inspiration from Mexican culture, which makes the world look and feel rich with details oozing out of every frame. As for the gameplay, Guacamelee employs a simple but enjoyable combat system, but what makes it so special is the excellent understanding of when to dish out new obstacles and enemies – which is the true mark of a great platformer.

Minecraft: PS Vita Edition 

Minecraft might just be one of the most popular games of the last couple of decades, and you can enjoy this sandbox on almost every modern computing platform – which obviously includes the PS Vita as well. Minecraft on PS Vita looks and works about as well as you would expect it to, and it’s a perfect game to be played in short bursts. Minecraft is one of those games that puts player creativity at the forefront of its gameplay mechanics, which makes it a highly replayable and endlessly enjoyable experience. 

Mortal Kombat 

Mortal Kombat is one of the most prestigious fighting franchises of all time, and the long-running series has been through multiple timeline resets as of late. Mortal Kombat on PS Vita is the 2011 reboot of the series that was released in 2012, and it’s one of the best options if you are looking for a fighting game on the console. And that can be credited to the excellent mixture of a compelling setting, a diverse cast of fleshed out characters, and a combat loop that features immense depth in terms of its mechanics. 

Telltale’s: The Walking Dead: Season 1

Telltale is a developer that has proven itself more than capable of delivering compelling narratives that twist and turn depending on player choices, and Telltale’s The Walking Dead is strongly emblematic of those strengths. If you’re new to the series, Season 1 is obviously the perfect starting point – but it’s also one of the more emotionally charged and universally acclaimed narrative games on the PS Vita. The writing, character development, and choice and consequence mechanics are all top-notch – which makes it a consistently enjoyable experience through and through. It’s the perfect game to sit back and enjoy without having to be attentive to enemy attack patterns and the like, and it’s also highly replayable since you could do multiple playthroughs and reach quite different endings every time.

Hotline Miami 

Hotline Miami is all about embarking on a huge murder spree across a wide variety of labyrinthian levels, and it’s one of those games that have a very strong grasp on game design. Developed by Dennaton Games, Hotline Miami presents its world with a simple yet beautiful pixel art style and neon colors that really capture the spirit of Miami and its flamboyant party culture. The gameplay in a similar vein relies heavily on proper audio and visual feedback to make it look appealing, and it all works excellently in conjunction with one another. Hotline Miami can be a brutally violent game at times, but the satisfying gunplay and appealing visual presentation give enough reasons to make that sadistic pleasure of murdering dozens upon dozens of people justifiable.

Axiom Verge

Axiom Verge is yet another Metroidvania that thrusts you into an alien world where you must blast through hordes of aliens as you try to uncover the planet’s deepest and darkest secrets. The Metroid influences are pretty clear here, and the developer doesn’t shy away from revealing those inspirations. Axiom Verge is essentially the developer’s take on Metroid 2, and it’s a really amazing game that nails the sense of flow without compromising on the sense of mystery that comes from exploring an alien world. The visuals hearken back to the NES and SNES days, and it all feels like a rose-tinted nostalgia trip to the past.

Lumines: Electronic Symphony

Lumines: Electronic Symphony might look like yet another Tetris game at first glance, but what makes it so special is the sheer attention to detail in terms of visual and audio presentation. Each stage in Lumines has been crafted with the utmost care, and that results in a breathtaking experience for what is essentially a simple gameplay loop of matching the same colour blocks. In a similar vein, the audio also consistently impresses with the variety of tracks and its ability to match the tempo and themes of the currently playing stage. Of course, it’s a game that’s designed to be played in short bursts – which makes it a match made in heaven for a console like PS Vita.

OlliOlli 2

Roll7’s OlliOlli series features some slick skateboarding action that rarely gets any stale, and OlliOlli 2 is a great choice for lovers of this adventure sport. But even if you are not super involved with skateboarding, OlliOlli 2 will be able to impress you with its creative suite of levels that consistently introduce new kinds of obstacles for you to overcome. Add to that a gorgeous art style, and you have a formula ripe for success.

Fez

Fez was developed by Phil Fish, and it’s a game that’s all about seeing the world from a bunch of different perspectives. These themes are beautifully reflected in Fez’s core gameplay loop that revolves around shifting the level and the perspective to reveal new things and ultimately find the solution to the obstacle. The levels look absolutely gorgeous, and a lot of that can be attributed to the excellent art direction on display. It’s definitely one of the best puzzlers that you can play on the platform, and if you haven’t tried it out – you owe yourself to give this one a shot.

Undertale

Undertale is a game that puts players in the teeny tiny shoes of a child by the name of Frisk who ends up being transported to a magical underground realm inhabited by monsters and talking plants. The story is pretty charming for the most part, but what makes Undertale different from its peers is how the combat is structured. Instead of having to whittle down an enemy’s health bar, players have to participate in a wide variety of minigames and use the power of love to turn the tables in your favor. It’s a fresh spin on the tried and tested formula, and it doesn’t really waste much time with meaningless exposition and dialogue dumps. It knows what it wants to say, and says that in a very brief timespan.

Microsoft has revealed at least some of the games that will be added to the Xbox Game Pass lineup come November. Among those, the big headliner is Sniper Elite 4, the fourth entry in Rebellion’s World War 2 era stealth-shooter franchise. Also being added to the lineup is OlliOlli 2, the fantastic follow up to the side scrolling skateboarding platformer, and GRIP, a new car combat game. Gotta say, between GRIP and OnRush, Game Pass is becoming a hotbed of great car combat titles.

Additional titles being added to the lineup are post apocalyptic survival game Sheltered, and a run and gun shooter, Rise and Shine.

If none of these games really do it much for you, you don’t need to worry—Microsoft has confirmed that more additions for Game Pass will be announced at X018, which is due to be held in Mexico City next month. We can probably expect a big name addition to the lineup then, if it is being saved for such a public event.

Super Meat Boy

As an early indy hit, Super Meat Boy had to earn all of the praise it got to show that smaller teams could be worth just as much attention. Super Meat Boy then had a lot of confidence in the mechanics surrounding the super tight platforming gameplay to not offer players a way to just cruise to the credits. Losing the idea of lives lives and allowing the player to restart the small stages roughly 12 times per second until the proverbial brick wall was beaten down allowed many to find their groove and not really even notice death.

The highly excellent OlliOlli2, which is the sequel to the great sidescrolling skatekboarding/platforming game that was released to rave acclaim last year, will be coming to PC soon- as a matter of fact, you can play it on your PC as early as next month. Previously, OlliOlli2 launched for PlayStation systems in March of this year.

OlliOlli2 will now be available on PCs running Windows, Mac, and Linux starting August 11. It will be available on Steam, Humble, and GoG, and it is going to set you back by $15- a fine price for what is considered by many at GamingBolt one of the best games of the year so far.

If you don’t game on PC and PlayStation, but still want a piece of some of that smooth skateboarding action, don’t despair! The original OlliOlli game also released on Xbox One, 3DS, and Wii U earlier this year around the same time as the sequel launched for PlayStation, so if you have an Xbox or a Wii, you can still head over to your digital store and see all the hype is about.

Since we first heard about the cloud significantly upping the power of the Xbox One, cloud gaming has been a rather mixed bag in several ways. While Sony is offering game streaming through its PlayStation Now service and Microsoft’s Azure service is used to augment games like Forza Motorsport 5, we’re yet to see any real harnessing of the power that cloud computing allegedly offers gaming.

That being said, it’s still an exciting concept. Roll 7 director Thomas Hegarty, who led OlliOlli 2’s development on the PS4 and PS Vita, believes in its potential. “Cloud gaming could be huge if done correctly – especially for PC gaming and design.”

“If you can build your game and get it working on the cloud, it means anyone with a stable Internet connection could have access to your game. It goes the other way too – we don’t have the most powerful computers around, but if we could access that data through the cloud, it would be incredibly kickass!”

In the past Microsoft have showcased demonstrations of cloud processing and how it can improve performance but it will be a while before such methodologies will be bought in practice given the current state of infrastructure.

What are your thoughts on this? Let us know in the comments below.

Sony have suddenly woken up and realized that they have a handheld on the market, so they’ve gone ahead and decided to highlight the upcoming games on the system this spring in this brand new video. It’s not pretty. First off, they show off games that are already out, which is a bad… sad, and screams of just trying to pad this video long (which is already just a minute long).

Then, they show absolutely nothing noteworthy, outside of Oreshika- while Hotline Miami 2 and Shovel Knight are amazing games, they are also available on other platforms. Finally, the last two thirds of the video almost seem like an open taunt for any remaining Vita fans, showing off a shovelware Spongebob Squarepants game, and then using PS Now and Remote Play for the PS Vita’s ‘lineup.’

It’s just sad. Probably more than even Sony’s damning assertion from last year that they would no longer support the Vita with any AAA games, this right here is proof that this handheld is well and truly dead, which is really sad.

During EGX 2014, Roll7 revealed that its side-scrolling skating game OlliOlli 2 will be heading to the PlayStation 4 and Vita in 2015. According to Eurogamer (who featured a teaser for the game above), OlliOlli 2 on Sony platforms will support Share Play. This means that even if a friend doesn’t own a copy of the game, they’ll still be able to join you for co-op play online.

Roll7 is also promising a “smoother and more colourful” visual styles with lots of curves. Interestingly, hills this time around will add some variety to the levels and you’ll find your rider crouching when it comes to launching from ramps. Local multiplayer mode Combo Rush and split-screen local co-op is also supported for those who actually prefer to play on the couch with their friends.

What are your thoughts on OlliOlli 2 for the PS4 and Vita? Will it motivate you to pick up either? Let us know in the comments below.