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Witness the original arcade Donkey Kong get beaten into the dirt.

Please note that this review will not cover 3DS Virtual Console or Super Game Boy features.

I have a confession to make: I hate the original arcade Donkey Kong. Yes, sneer at me all you want, but I have good reasons for disliking it so much. While I have been very spoiled by Mario platforming adventures, his first battle with Donkey Kong is not something I eagerly replay. Note that this is coming from someone who enjoys games like Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, and Dig Dug (notice a pattern here?); I will admit that the original DK arcade game has some sound elements that would set a benchmark for Mario’s debut, but with those awful jumping mechanics Donkey Kong isn’t a game I rate highly.

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Tower defense, mechs, television, and cigars. What else could a man want?

Ever picked up an enchanting book which starts off strong with a variety of colorful characters, an interesting plot, and a great setting, making for an engrossing experience that seems to be heading somewhere grand? Ever felt that sort of emptiness inside your gut when that same book just moves in circles, and no early plot elements are fleshed out, where the characters never express their true personality, and event after event feels the same? That's Double Fine's Trenched. An unbelievably well-shaped game with great characters, solid gameplay, and an original setting. Where does Trenched take it? Sadly, practically nowhere, leaving an emptiness inside that was expecting much, much more.

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A rundown of the multiplayer mode, plus footage!

Assassin's Creed was a brand new experience for me and a fun last game on my second day at E3. In the multiplayer mode I got to try, two sides faced off as either assassin or prey in a castle courtyard in Constantinople. The prey would run off and try to blend in among the inhabitants and the assassins would – can you guess? – that's right, they'd hunt them down and kill them. Boy, you're good at guessing.

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Find art, save Da Vinci, and meet his lov… errand boy!

Now that I’ve finally gotten around to playing the latest Assassin’s Creed title, I’ve also gotten the opportunity to play the related DLC, which functions well as a standalone extra after completing the quest, or as an integrated set of tasks into the rest of your objectives. The Da Vinci Disappearance is quite the hefty offering, clocking in at around two hours of gameplay in its single player exploits. The DLC also adds a couple of new modes to the multiplayer mode; your mileage with the new content may vary.

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Four iterations deep and the Virtua Tennis series is still going strong.

Virtua Tennis has been going strong at this point for over a decade. Having played every game in the series, it’s clear that the gameplay has not evolved much, but that’s because the fundamentals that were introduced in the first game were so solid they aren’t in need of much more than slight tweaks. Instead, Sega has continued to make the game more fully-featured to help draw in new players. Virtua Tennis 4 is impressive in scope, offering a huge variety of mini-games within the main quest, a solid selection of real life tennis superstars, and a motion control centric mode that works surprisingly well with the PlayStation Move controller.

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