As a general rule, I try to steer clear of mobile games. I was never into Candy Crush, and Tsum Tsum fails to hold my interest for longer than half a level. I’m not a big fan of puzzle games as a whole, but I get particularly frustrated with the freemium model most of these titles utilize.

Kirby has always moved at a slower pace compared to the platforming members of his extended Nintendo family, like Donkey Kong and Mario.

I don’t mean the absurd, self-aware kind like Hatoful Boyfriend (which we talked about back in July). I mean the real kind, the ones that send women on the Internet into paroxysms of rapture.

“Metal Gear” is a member of video gaming’s old guard. It has been consistently popular since its inception in the ’80s, which is a rare distinction it shares with revered names like “Mario” and “Zelda.” Unlike its peers, “Metal Gear” has been telling a continuous story the whole time — a major strength and a strange weakness all at once.

This past weekend, Hitman: Agent 47 bombed spectacularly in theaters, to the surprise of absolutely no one. (I saw American Ultra last weekend and thoroughly enjoyed it, so I’d recommend that instead.)

Football is the perfect mix of brain and brawn. Split-second smarts are needed to read and execute a play correctly, but superior physical skills determine what ultimately happens. However, in “Madden 16,” despite the myriad controls and required stick skills, to me playing offense used to be mainly about calling the right plays and recognizing defenses.

Your behavior in a game reflects, to a certain degree, your character outside of it. This isn’t true all of the time, but it is more true than we would like to think.

Gamers were dumbfounded when PopCap announced it was transplanting the “Plants vs. Zombies” series from the back yard to the battlefield.

There are certain franchises that automatically get preordered and purchased, no matter what — anything with the words Final Fantasy in the title, for instance. Or it might just be that the game’s pedigree is very good, or that the trailer was particularly compelling.

“Sorcerer King” plays very similar to classic role-playing/strategy game hybrids like “Might & Magic Heroes.” There are some key differences, but the basics are there. You have heroes that must be outfitted with gear and a small army in order to adventure through the world. Furthermore, there are city building and management aspects, like in Civilization, along with a small smattering of diplomacy options.