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Those happy little bouncing Vita icons hold a deep, dark secret.

The PlayStation Vita is a fine gaming machine – one that I have enjoyed playing for the past couple of weeks since its release. It's sturdily constructed, has a beautiful OLED display, some great launch games, and a very nifty user interface that's both attractive and easy to use. Despite all it has going for it, it houses one of the worst design decisions I've ever encountered in a gaming console.

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Cramming every idea into one game does not make it the greatest game.

Dr. Lautrec, a renowned Parisian puzzle-solver, is thrust into the center of a giant mystery that promises to tax your noggin as you seek the rightful heir to the French throne. At least that’s the way the game starts out.  As you work to recover enchanted treasures guarded by cops and secretive knights, you end up doing lots of other things that have nothing to do with solving puzzles. Each segment of the game drags in another popular game component and tries to create the perfect combo-game that will appeal to everyone.  Problem is, no single piece of Dr. Lautrec and the Forgotten Knights is particularly enjoyable, so the end product feels like a mix of bland, sequential minigames with a repetitive structure.

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The Shank developer is developing this new ninja title.

Klei Entertainment released Shank 2 early this month but the developer is already preparing for their next title, Mark of the Ninja. The Xbox Live Arcade title has a release window of this summer as confirmed by G4TV. The website features an interactive text adventure that if completed shows how the game looks.

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EA's basketball series returning after a three year hiatus.

Kyrie Irving, the NBA's No.1 overall draft pick for 2011, appears to have leaked EA Sports' intention to bring back the NBA Live name after a three year absence. Kotaku confirmed with EA Sports the name and the game's release this fall. "This fall we'll launch an all-new experience that captures the future of basketball with NBA Live 13," a spokesman said. "More to come soon."

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When five of ten puzzles are borrowed from past episodes, we have a problem.

After playing through the past three Carmen Sandiego Adventures in Math games, I’ve built up a memory bank full of the puzzles that have been featured in each one. It’s pretty easy, as each game only contains ten puzzles and each feature repeat puzzles from prior installments. The Great Gateway Grab stays true to the series’ roots, as it has a total of three repeat puzzles with two that are extremely similar, though not identical, to past puzzles. When half of the puzzles in the game are repeats, it becomes very hard to suggest anyone buy it if they’ve been following along with the series.

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