Tekken Hybrid is a triple-threat, with two games and a movie on one discount-priced disc. One of the games is a remastered, fully unlocked version of the original Tekken Tag Tournament—more on that in a moment. The other is a preview (called a prologue) of the upcoming sequel that will arrive in America later this year.

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Prologue is a stand-alone, four character fighting game that features two leggy young girls in schoolgirl uniforms (well, sort of) who can kick and punch with the best of them, and two towering, intricate demons with horns, wings and superpowers. It's the sort of juxtaposition—innocence and extravagance—that animates most anime cartoons.

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is an updated version of Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and it makes me wonder what the next version is going to be called. Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.5 perhaps? Or maybe, We're Totally Serious, This is the REALLY Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

What does "ultimate" mean? For starters, it means that players can select from all 48 of the game's characters from the beginning—no need to unlock them. Considering that most fighting games make me play the same basic fights for about a dozen hours before giving me access to the coolest characters, I'm willing to call this game "ultimate" just for saving my time.

This should be called Ratchet & Clank: Play With Your Kid Brother. The duo of cat-like critter and his mini robot sidekick are a natural fit for co-operative multiplayer gaming. In All 4 One, Ratchet and Clank are joined by Quark (a green, jutting-jawed cartoon space hero) and Dr. Nefarious (a green-brained evil robot). Instead of fighting each other as per usual R&C procedures, now they all get to be heroes in a new galaxy.

The new galaxy is clearly much cheaper. The graphics in this new galaxy are terrible. Giant monsters look like twisted balloon animals in a windstorm—over-inflated and over-animated. A small child character with a voice provide by a frightened child refugee from the casting department guides my adventure as I jump and blast my way through this low-rent digital world.

This is the seventh time that Mario has jumped into the go-kart circuit. At first, cartoonish races in zippy little vehicles were perfect for the not-too-complex Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64. Then Nintendo started developing gimmicks to make the formula feel fresh. Double Dash (with two-player cars) and Mario Kart Wii (with motion-sensitive steering) felt desperate. There have been some high points (most notably Mario Kart DS, which took advantage of the system's wireless networking), but for the most part, the Mario Kart circuit has been running downhill.

The bells and whistles this time around the track are provided by the Nintendo 3DS's glasses-free 3D display. Curves are easier to anticipate in 3D, and targeting my opponents with turtle shells and bombs is more intuitive now that I can see how far they are ahead of me. But these aren't major changes. Kart racing is so fast and frantic that there's rarely any reason to look too far ahead. I appreciate the better perspective the 3DS gives me, but I don't really need to see in 3D when I'm dealing with something right in front of me.

Every year around the holidays I need to escape. Maybe it's the relentless Christmas marketing. Maybe it's the way the cold wind makes my face sting. Maybe it's the long nights. But every year I find something that I need to get away from.

And so I open a videogame. I find a quiet corner and pull a DS out of my pocket. Or I sneak downstairs on a sleepless night and turn on the PlayStation. Within minutes, I've abandoned this artificially heated, oversold and crowded holiday season, and taken up residence in another world.

Videogames create imaginary worlds—worlds so real that we can walk through them. We can race around them firing weapons and driving cars. We can fly above them, or stay on the virtual ground examining every detail. And this season, no game creates as magical and detailed a world as Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Rated Mature; PS3, 360, Windows PC).