“Twitch” puzzle games have really been getting better over the years, and one series in particular that has managed to flourish is MumboJumbo’s Luxor franchise.  What started as just another marble shooting game has since grown into a staple for the publisher, thanks to addictive gameplay, ever-changing stages and new gimmicks to keep players drawn in.  And now the team may have stumbled upon its most brilliant entry to date with the retro-powered Luxor Evolved HD.

Ronimo Games dodged quite a bullet with the release of Awesomenauts, as the game’s publisher, DTG, was just about ready to file for bankruptcy, throwing its release into question.  But things got worked out, and now players everywhere will be able to experience the MOBA – multiplayer online battle arena – action that awaits within.  While there are things that are hard to overlook, the situations you can get into with friends really put the “Awesome” into the game’s name.

We’re all for trying something new in a long-running series, but the problem is when an idea is introduced that doesn’t pan out like the development team expected it to.  Sadly, this is looking like the case for Lionhead Studios’ Fable.  After three entertaining adventure outings, the series is drastically moving into Kinect territory later this year with Fable: The Journey, which, honestly, doesn’t look so hot right now.  To make matters worse, things don’t really fare much better with Lionhead’s recent XBLA release, Fable Heroes.

Once you see one Dynasty Warriors game, you’ve pretty much seen them all, right?  Let’s be honest, over the years, the countless Warriors games that Tecmo Koei has released haven’t diverted much, save for the Gundam games, which wraps the familiar beat-em-up gameplay around the popular anime universe.  And even there, repetitiveness is starting to kick in.  Thankfully, it’s believed that the development team has listened to the fans and is throwing in some new elements to keep things interesting.  While Warriors Orochi 3 can’t shake the same old “diabolically kill hundreds” formula that’s been in the series for years, some new elements keep it from feeling like the same old game.

There are some genres where the Xbox 360 doesn’t quite match the PlayStation 3.  In this particular case, it’s brutal action.  Sure, it’s got Gears of War 3, but the console is sorely lacking a competitor that can keep up with Sony’s own God of War franchise.  Sure, Dante’s Inferno came pretty damn close, but the religious overtones stopped hardcore gamers from fully enjoying that one.  Now Climax Studios gives the genre a try with a digital downloadable title called Bloodforge, and while there’s plenty to hack and slash, there’s very little purpose to keep you from doing it for hours on end.

If you look at it a certain way, Radical Entertainment’s Prototype is sort of an evolution from what they were trying to do with The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction.  You’ve got a character that can destroy pretty much everything with superhuman powers, run up buildings and let loose with an uncontrollable sense of rage.  That said, the story was quite interesting, and the game did pretty well on its own merits.  Fast forward to two years later to the release of Prototype 2, and though some elements will feel familiar, there are a number of improvements that really make this feel like a huge step forward for the team.  You know, what a sequel needs to be.

A long time ago, before Rockstar Games got heavily involved with its Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption franchises, there was Max Payne, an Xbox/PC release that really shook things up both emotionally and with its action.  The story, focusing on a cop who loses his family and goes all out to destroy enemies that get in his way, is one of the better ones in the last decade of gaming, really digging deep on the rage boiling inside him – to the point he needs painkillers just to get through each battle.  After a decade, Rockstar has opted to bring the game to the iOS front, for both newer iPad and iPhone devices.  And while it’s quite the technical achievement, clumsy controls will leave you raging in a slightly different way.