One of the least appealing genres in North America is the Japanese RPG, because of the turn based battles systems and Japanese influenced art style. Final Fantasy XIII aims to bring more accessibility to the genre, still catering to the JRPG enthusiasts. Final Fantasy XIII succeeds in trying to be a modern RPG, but unfortunately its poor structure makes great moments a boring repetitive grind.

I haven’t played many Japanese RPG’s, so it has been a genre that I have been interested in but never knew where to start. After finally getting my feet wet in games like Last Remnant, Demon’s Souls, Eternal Sonata and Final Fantasy XIII (which is what I’m currently playing), I have created a general description for my experiences with these games.

The Tomb Raider name is attached to games that aren’t known for being solid experiences, so the name is viewed by many to be part of an underwhelming and dried out series. Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is an attempt to rejuvenate the Tomb Raider brand without having people write it off as another Tomb Raider game. With the camera now pulled overhead and twin-stick shooter mechanics implemented, it does enough to change how Tomb Raider games are played, but it doesn’t do enough to get you excited about playing it.

It’s easy to label Monday Night Combat as a Team Fortress 2 clone because of the similarities in the class based system, and its visual presentation. On the surface it might seem that way, but Monday Night Combat takes Team Fortress 2 elements and blends it together with the Tower Defense genre to provide fast-paced third-person action.

While most modern video games aim for a realistic appearance with intense detail and a wide colour pallet, LIMBO takes a simpler approach by using only black and white on a 2-D plain. While keeping the appearance simple, it still manages to deliver making this another great Summer of Arcade title. The most common complaint about LIMBO is that for 1200 Microsoft Points, 3-4 hours of gameplay is not enough. While this may be a problem for some, this seems to just be a cover up for the real fault in LIMBO