It's fair to say that Terraria wears a strong Minecraft influence on its sleeve. As a silent hero in an uncharted world, you'll dig for materials beneath the surface and craft all sorts of weapons and items to help you explore and survive.

+ Compelling 2D tweak on a familiar formula; + Bosses and amusing items give it a fun tone

- Can be a tedious solo start; cumbersome menus, ? Will it be regularly updated the way

Terraria is a fantastic game of exploration and survival. You can occasionally feel lost in its open-world that lacks any real signposting, but the simple joy of digging and crafting means you'll keep playing to discover the naturally-occurring progress.

Laura digs into the newest PC-to-console craze with Terraria. Find out how it translates to a controller in our full review.

+ So much fun; + Massive amounts to do and see

Takes a while to get used to the controls

Terraria recently released for PlayStation Network and Xbox LIVE Arcade following hot in the footsteps of the highly successful Minecraft on Xbox LIVE Arcade that the game is so often compared with.

I'll begin by stating the obvious: Yes, Terraria looks similar to Minecraft, Mojang's runaway best-seller. However, that comparison fails to adequately describe the unique and nuanced nature of developer Re-Logic's Terraria , a title that easily lays claim to 2013's most addictive and innovative...

Parents need to know that Terraria is a sandbox-style mining, crafting, and building game similar to Minecraft . There is a bit of mild monster combat that involves slaying one-eyed flyers, slimes, and shuffling zombies, but the focus here is on exploration, discovery, and creation.

Another indie classic makes the successful leap from PC to console, in this masterful mix of Minecraft and Metroid.

Huge and fully interactive world, with hundreds of objects to craft and raw materials to mine; Mountains of content and hours of gameplay; Fun multiplayer options

The combat itself is pretty weak and the inventory system worked a lot better on the PC; Opening hours still lack direction and explanation

The game is sort of broken down into how you need to go about it you'll start of searching and mining and just being an adventurer then you'll get more confident and start going for bosses THEN when you want even more of a challenge you'll start hard mode!

Gaming is a strange beast. As time goes by, everything my experience tells me that I think I know about gaming is gradually being shown to be wrong. I am continually surprised again and again by the innovation of game studios and how they manage to use an already-established idea and evolve it into...

Terraria is oftentimes referred to as the "2D Minecraft", and left at that. While this is true, it's also...so much more, and I feel this was why Minecraft radically changed it's game.