I would have given it four stars, except that the objectives become a little monotonous after a time.

The one snag for Drill Dozer is that it doesn't let you change the button configuration. It sounds petty to gripe about that, but for some players, the primary action of the game will be a bit awkward since drilling is neither the A nor the B button on the Gameboy.

This can get complicated. Fortunately, the game starts you out with just a bit of responsibility, then ratchets it up as you succeed. Helpful video tutorials appear with each new type of troop unit, and there are upgrades available.

With its mind-jumping mayhem, Psychonauts is definitely a breath of fresh air. It is crazy, though. Crazy good.

But my biggest overall complaint is that the game's camera can be jumpy and jittery, leaving you discombobulated. It distracts you from the very good story line and well-done video cut scenes.

While this title may have shortcomings in other areas, supervising your three squad mates is slick and simple, with more options than I'm used to seeing.

I did find it amusing to relive some of Conker's bawdy behavior, but I wish they would have come up with a new story rather than remaking the old one.

This isn't a game that requires a lot of skill. But if you can get past the gore, it's a rarity in the comic book world: a game that stays true to the original work and doesn't stink.

From a technical perspective, Darkwatch is a crisp, clean joy to play. Targeting and firing your weapons and using your abilities is easy and intuitive, and the controls feel so precise you'll forget at times you aren't playing on a PC.

One of the few games that is downright funny, and there were honest laugh-out-loud moments sprinkled throughout it that kept me playing.

A screaming, cursing, testosterone-soaked attack on your eyeballs and ears.

You should buy this game. It's a good one. But to me, the first "Unreal Championship" for the Xbox is in many ways a bigger -- as in larger -- hit.

The visuals have been greatly improved. Nice touches abound, from the shimmer of the water to the sway of the grass.

Could have been a four-star game, were it not for a couple of things that don't work well. You can press a button to give you an overhead view during missions. But instead of helping to advance the plot, the swirling, zooming view left me dizzy. And the enemy intelligence is set pretty low, meaning they don't pursue you with much cunning.

Unfortunately, the switch to turn-based play also means a severe reduction in how much fun it is to play cooperatively with friends. Basically each person trades off controlling one of the characters you're fighting with, which sounds like more fun than it is.

Goofy fun, and that makes up for a lot of its failings. But I couldn't quite forgive the occasional tedium and fairly short length enough to give it a better rating.

The city may not look entirely like home, but Joe's fist still looks pretty cool when you're blowing by at 100 m.p.h.

And, man, is this game difficult, even on the easy setting. I prefer games with unreal speed, power boosts and shortcuts. I just couldn't seem to get a grip on Forza until I played around with different cars, perusing the six classes, from standard production cars like your basic Honda Civic to race cars like the Audi R8.

The action is intense and the effects are splendid, though the un-reality applies also to the worlds in which you battle.

Beyond the somewhat painful controls, MotoGP 3 is the best motorcyle racing sim available, with enough Easter eggs and gameplay modes to keep racing fans happy for months.

I'll reserve a four-star rating for the next time this series takes big leaps. In this latest edition, there's nothing so new that you'll stop and say, "Whoa." But Chaos Theory is true to the things that make Splinter Cell games so good.

A little more successful as a PC title, just because the precision and depth of the controls is so much better on a keyboard. But the Xbox version is still tons of fun.

But with more than 30 playable characters from the movies and loads of goodies to unlock, Lego Star Wars is more than just kids' fodder. It's a great Star Wars game.

It is a delight to play and a refreshing change from the usual stack of first-person shooters. The challenges and objectives are reasonable but not so challenging that you'll want to throw the controller.

Unfortunately, very little effort was made to expand upon the original games when they were ported to the Xbox. Online play for battling buddies, for instance, would have provided hours of riotous fun.

The story line is reasonably weak, the puzzles are fairly random and the role-playing elements very watered down. But the fighting is good enough to make the overall game a surprising amount of fun.

It was maddening to nearly finish a mission, then die and have to start over. There are no checkpoints, but that's part of this game's challenge.

The action this time out is much more run-and-gun, something that's very likely to turn off many of the series' fans. On the flip side, the new scheme is much more inviting to new players of the series.

Really isn't a leap above "Winning Eleven 7." Though the variety of play modes is huge, the well-animated visuals could use some polish, the audio sounds rather bland and the number of licensed teams and players is a bit wimpy.

While it lasts, Bond fans should fall head over heels for From Russia With Love.

The graphics are pretty, the score divine, the story-driven single-player game is actually cinematic and engaging and the lag, while annoying at times online, has been greatly reduced from the original.

While this year's model shows improvement, it could still be better. The graphics are a bit ragged and online play is still limited to four players in a race. But, as NASCAR gaming goes, it doesn't get any better.

EA Sports is best known for its other monster football game, "Madden NFL." But where "Madden" lets you control real-life players and plays on the field, "Head Coach" takes you behind the action, putting you in the Gatorade-scented shoes of a coach you create from scratch.

You'll spend plenty of time cracking anagrams and other codes, and they aren't child's play, either. There's some combat, too, which, while feeling a little out of place, does provide for variation in the game.

And though it could be better with online co-op play, there's no escaping the grasp that cute Lego Vader has on gamers.

You can make people happy without cleaning all the time. Truthfully, though, this game makes even that dirty work seem like good clean fun.

The constant scanning slows down the game, and the generic soundtrack does little to create any drama. But Metroid fans just want to play as Samus. And what's thrilling for those folks is the multiplayer action.

I liked this game for its intensity, its strategy and the superpowers that the good guys you control -- the X-Men -- use to defeat the evil Brotherhood and save the world.

I like this game simply for its twists on an old genre. I enjoy many shooter games, but the ability to change characters gives this one a real personality.

The storyline is lame. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the unusual blend of gaming challenges pulled together in this other-worldly adventure.

The battles are turn-based, with a number of different physical and magical attacks available depending on the abilities of the fighter and what tricks you've picked up. Impress the crowd and you draw more spectators and rewards.

It can be cool but sometimes is overdone.

There is also constant, driving techno music that isn't overwhelming and meshes pretty well with all the craziness.

But the bongos are, indeed, special. They mean the difference between a predictable game and one that marches to a different drummer.

My biggest nit with Odama is that it is very difficult to win. But you can keep trying. And victory will sometime be yours. The other guys don't even have a giant ball on their side.

It was maddening to nearly finish a mission, then die and have to start over. There are no checkpoints, but that's part of this game's challenge.

The things I liked about the game overwhelmed what I didn't like. If you want a high score, you can't be a stiff. You have to get into the groove and use your whole body.

Mario's powered-up version of baseball is the best virtual diamond on the GameCube, and while baseball purists may cringe at the characters' cutesy antics, no one will dispute the game is fun.

Best of all, this fun game hides the fact that it's packed with exercise activities (the game, like others in the series, even has a workout mode that counts calories burned). My kids played through a good chunk of the game in their first outing and constantly asked to play again.

The combat system is solid, allowing you some pretty awesome moves without hours of memorizing button taps.

It would be an improvement to allow your monster to tear through the Las Vegas strip, then head for Hoover Dam to cause some real havoc. But taking down cities one block at a time will have to suffice for now.

Unfortunately, the switch to turn-based play also means a severe reduction in how much fun it is to play cooperatively with friends. Basically each person trades off controlling one of the characters you're fighting with, which sounds like more fun than it is.

Not since the movie "Rambo 3" have we seen such cheesy dialogue and a storyline so over the top that it can be comical. That's fitting because the plot also borrows heavily from "Rambo 3," or at least the worst parts of it.

Sure, EQ II has its share of great quests, including one that requires helping a crew to rebuild a ship that you then sail on, defending it against bad guys. But the run-of-the-mill quests never had that crackle of humor or drama that "World of Warcraft" captured so well.

The controls, while not awful, are a bit too slow. Aiming can be a pain at times, and that'll cost you lives. For an action game, that's a sin.

After 2002's "Suikoden III," with its excellent story told from three perspectives, I am disappointed with this incarnation's uninspired paint-by-numbers approach.

The musical selection features a nice mix of techno, rock and hip-hop.

Whether the controls were intentionally made sluggish to make the game feel more realistic or if shoddy programming is to blame, the result is just horrible.

And, despite the face of an excited, yelling teenager on the front cover of the box, we weren't screaming over this one.

Unfortunately, this gripping tale is marred by weird fighting and stealth sequences that don't seem to mesh with the rest of the lush narrative.

My biggest problem is the game doesn't feel finished. Smarter AI, better controls, more game-play variety and more voice acting would have made this a three-star game.

Seems that once you've done it all in one district, though, you'll end up doing the same things elsewhere. The only fundamental changes are the background and the inhabitants. There's no real final goal; you just keep playing until you get tired.

Most gamers don't want to play something out of a driver's-ed simulator, which is what Enthusia plays like.

But there's hardly anything new here. The plot is paper-thin, and lacks a driving sense of humor or drama to keep you interested. The game-play is just as basic as it's ever been, and frankly, if you've played any of its predecessors, you've slashed and spellcast just this way a million times before.

Lacks both substance and style when compared to other online world games like "World of Warcraft" and "Everquest II." Even the fan factor won't keep you coming back.

Worst of all, we found that picking a particularly potent crew of heroes virtually ensures victories, stealing even the element of suspense.

The underworld figures are colorful, and the language they use has a life of its own. But the game's design is bollocks.

This game is an intriguing look at the future, but it's not quite ready for today.

Potential players need to know that we cruised through the entire game -- without any cheats -- in about four hours.

Hard-core Resident Evil fans might consider renting "File #2." But for online thrills, I'd rather do "Halo," and for a real thrill, "Resident Evil 4" is much more worthwhile.

It's a shame that the kids themselves are such a headache. Picture every cliché from every teen movie you've ever seen and it's here -- the nerd, the jock, the stoner -- and without the charm that many teen actors bring to the table.

Playing Ape Escape: Pumped & Primed is like munching on a gob of bubble gum. For the first few hours of play, the action is oh, so sweet. But after a while, it gets stale, and you're ready to move on.

This is a fine game, just like the first version, which earned three stars from me. But the scant innovations in Street 2 make it optional for anyone who has the original.

This plot is hollow, and the missions you have to carry out in reclaiming your cars are lame. The graphics during the cinematic portion of the story mode look like something out of "Claymation."

Feels more like basic training than hard-core warfare.

Feels more like basic training than hard-core warfare.

Finny isn't my favorite title out there, but it is fresh. It's probably best a game for younger players. There's no real violence other than food chain stuff, and the story line is pretty gentle -- even when you're finding new ways to sleep with the fishes.

In the end, after hours of playing, Haunting Ground left me wanting to rent an old "Friday the 13th" movie: fewer headaches and just as scary.

The plot is unoriginal; the dialogue is OK, but not great; there isn't anything memorable about the music; and the backgrounds within the ship are dull and redundant.

The game breakers you work so hard to earn really don't turn the tide. All you get is a slow-motion, high-powered shot that's likely -- but not guaranteed -- to net you a goal.

Putting a tiny map down there is a bad idea. It takes your eyes too far from the action on the top screen and caused me to lose control of my car.

Compromised because you've pretty much seen and played the game before. Fans will see the adventure through, but many players will find their attention wandering.

This isn't quite an awful game; stick around long enough and the story picks up. But it's too bland to be worth more than a rental unless you're a hard-core fan.

While the visuals are detailed, they're dark and bland. The generic backgrounds make it hard to distinguish rooms, making navigating the game's enormous world aggravating.

The environments are horribly boring, ranging from drab, deserted cities to drab, abandoned ruins to drab, defunct old bases. And the foes are pretty dumb, too, especially at the game's start.

Moves too quickly from one crisis to the next. It seems you're always on the verge of dying. I once went around the island picking all things edible.

To me, all these unlockables don't mean very much. My guy could be wearing shades, a Speedo and a hat made out of fruit for all I care. Just hit the ball, Spanky.

Great in concept but ends up being a slow-loading, profanity-laden action game with subpar graphics.

I just can't work up a sweat with Pump it Up -- my treadmill is easier to use and more fun. But hard-core dance game fanatics looking for a "DDR" alternative definitely should check it out.

If you're considering buying "Rise & Fall," think of it as strategy light. It's good for someone who's neither a strategy nor an action addict -- someone who just wants some lighthearted fun with ancient Egyptian and Roman heroes.

If there's a sequel, let's hope more attention is paid to the actual video game instead of the videos.

Instead of the epic battles I was looking forward to, I've spent much of my time with Nemesis playing one hero or another against a horde of pretty generic bad guys, most of which either don't pose any challenge (or variety) and a few of which seem fiendishly hard (but still don't offer any variety).

The controls are just too unpolished to make it worthwhile, though. Movements are flaky, and aiming is far too loose. Sometimes, I got into a tight firefight where I couldn't hit a terrorist a few feet in front of me. And the driving missions are worse.

Somewhere underneath the unfriendly interface, there's a worthwhile game for the hard-core strategy game fanatic. But as a newcomer, I found it too obscure and frustrating to be enjoyable.

No grenades or rocket launchers, not even a clever mission are to be found along Jack's path. Just guns, dead bodies and pools of blood we've seen before.

Though it's fine for killing time, only big "Pac-Man" fans will truly be engrossed with this game.

Me, I like Electroplankton, if simply because it took some guts to make it. I just wish there was more to do than peer at the screen and say, "Like wow, man. Heavy."

Even while I was driving, the frame rates slipped at times as the PSP chugged to keep up with the blistering action that "Midnight" is known for. That made things like the time-warp slowdown ability seem more sluggish than stimulating.

Even if the emphasis is less on the battles than what goes before them, they look terrific. The robots animate and move well.

It's just a shame so much of the extras that made the previous FIFA games great were sacrificed.

The game itself has decent game play, but is hurt because of the lack of attention given to the bells and whistles.

The game play isn't as fast-paced as you'd think. There isn't that much razzle-dazzle in the playbook, although the game's pass plays are adequate.

Even if I did whiff a time or two while familiarizing myself with the stylus, overall I found this game much easier than true golfing. It wasn't long before I was firing pars and birdies with relative ease.

History buffs and simulation junkies might find Blazing Angels uplifting for its period lessons. But give me the fantasy worlds of "Crimson Skies" instead, with its pirates and weird zeppelins, and I'll be a happier flying ace.

At least the presentation is top-notch: Both the graphics and music are fantastic. The large mythical creatures look stunning.

No one can refute that getting seven games for $30 is a good deal. But be warned some of these games are definitely better than others.

The road on Spy Hunter: Nowhere to Run is too rocky to be a keeper. It's a one-night rental -- tops.

The game does feel rushed, but with a scarcity of militaristic shooters, this Splinter Cell title, though flawed, isn't a horrible choice for PSP owners looking for a stealth-action fix.

This isn't a terribly complicated or in-depth game, and adults are likely to find it a little short and a little simplistic. But it captures some of the innocent fun of the books and is almost certainly in the style of the movie, incorporating some clips from the film.

But with fewer buttons on the PSP than on a standard console game pad and only one analog stick to play with, the game's hallmark -- its deep, precise controls -- feels a bit muted.

Is this trip down memory lane worth $35? The Rebirth Mode is the most justifiable reason, and even then, the case isn't that strong.

When a dozen Romulan ships attack, you would expect the medical ships to pause long enough for the warships to clear the way. Instead, they charge ahead to their doom. Multiplayer does not work unless a patch is downloaded and applied. "Star Trek" is a great franchise, but this is a flawed game.

The controls are frustrating on the PC because they were designed for a game controller, not a keyboard and mouse.

The game was great at first, but the pace slowed. Even with changes in difficulty and complexity as you went higher in the tower, the floors were basically the same.

Game play tends to become monotonous after a while, although the game itself is relatively short. Some required maneuvers were very difficult, which frustrated me.

The gameplay can get glitchy, with flaws like jumpy video and bad physics and a point-of-view camera that sometimes shows bad angles.

I also was frustrated by a sea of poorly designed and explained menus, repetitive dungeon hacks and temperamental controls.

The worst part of the game was combat. Slashing similar enemies over and over became boring, and I had to constantly adjust the camera and do several precise tasks with the PSP's annoying analog stick.

Characters encountered along the way are memorable and as charming as in the original. But the amount of text that must be plowed through makes it feel more like a modern rehash of the popular "Choose Your Own Adventure" book series than an adventure most will stick with for hours.

N3 is quite a looker, but there's not much under the surface.

"Tourist Trophy" remains my pick for digital motorcycle racing, but if you own an Xbox 360 and have been craving some cycling action, MotoGP is where it's at.

Unlike the original game, which offered the freedom to choose sides, this expansion pack forces players into the dark shoes of Sauron's henchman.

How well can you follow a big green line? The game shows you the shortest distance around the track -- a green line to follow. The line turns briefly red when you come to a turn, but don't ease up on the throttle, because the game slows your vehicle down for you. How boring is that?

The only knock on Bullet Witch is that the graphics are a bit choppy in some areas.

The character designs aren't on "Pokemon's" level, but the effort you devote to finding and raising these characters creates a level of attachment even Nintendo hasn't quite achieved.

A good step above the lame French adventure that preceded this one. We just wish that the game designers could steel their resolve to give us, perhaps in No. 16, another truly great installment in the Nancy Drew series.

A charming, refreshing change of pace for all PSP owners.

Frankly, there are no blockbuster offerings here. This collection of simple games is fun to play a few times, but as the package includes the Wii remote and the game for only $10 more than the price of the controller alone, it's well worth the retail price, especially given the scarcity of additional controllers for the system.

An enhanced port of a game from 3-D gaming's training-wheel days still is a port.

While Life Stories is a perfect introduction to the full Sims experience, veteran players will likely find the linear aspect of the plotlines too limiting.

Tetris Evolution should have been a $10 Xbox Live download.

Manages to unearth ample amounts of fun, scoring big with easy to pick up yet difficult to master gameplay that can be enjoyed for hours.

Works just fine, but it's all familiar. Why didn't someone think to let the chicken jump angrily onto someone's head after a race ends? Now that would have been something different.

But the control configuration is cumbersome to use. For the most part the graphics are solid, but some of the environment's background elements are shoddy.

In this game, there are more decisions to make, a stronger plot and the game is better for solo play.

So while the short, yet creative stages and their goals are clever, the tilt controls do little more than jumble the good stuff up.

I'd give these games a higher score if they were even more economically priced -- honestly, you can find the same quality of gameplay by downloading "Bejeweled" onto your cell phone for $7 -- but they're still worth a shot if puzzles are your thing.

I do have a dinosaur-size bone to pick with the combat scheme: The melee either involves mashing on the X button nonstop to plow through adversaries or picking them off with your ranged attack.

Diehard military combat fans might want to rent this one just to partake in the giant chaotic skirmishes.

The variety of traps is nice, and until the novelty of blowing your opponent up with an electrocuting doorknob wears off, the online game is a lot of fun. Once that's over, though, you realize that Spy vs. Spy just doesn't have the depth of bigger-budget titles.

While offering a well-scripted narrative, comes up with precious few reasons to play out these battles again. No surprises here -- just solid, albeit predictable, action that could have been better.

If Flatout were only a $20 title, I'd heartily recommend it. But $50 is a lot of money to pay to turn yourself into road splatter over and over again. It's flawed, though fun.

But the difficulty of the mini-games makes your lines repetitive, and your humor wears thin.

A terrific rental title, a vastly overpriced game to buy, an entertaining romp for an afternoon and a sure disappointment for longtime fans of the series.

But even with its map maker, co-op mode and upgradeable weapons, "Pariah" is too flawed to seriously compete with the Xbox's big-name shooters.

Flawed gameplay that borders on monotonous is this game's menace. While the lightsaber fighting scheme is actually fairly deep, especially when you mix in grapple attacks, force tricks and counterattacks on top of counterattacks, I rarely used most of these goodies.

Only good for skyscraper mashing romps with buddies (you'll only play the single-player mode to unlock goodies), and even that grows tiresome quickly.

I flipped on the game expecting a world of champagne, roses and frequent wisps of steam. Instead, I got an immediate request that I construct an office on the mansion's upper floor. Zzzzzzzzz.

The profanity I can handle. But the other words just don't sit right with me.

But while freedom and revolution are the game's overarching themes, the gameplay in "Getting Up" falls well short of those lofty ideals.

This bizarre tale of time-sweeping cats battling a gang of greedy rival pigs for control of time and space -- topped off with ho-hum dialogue and freaky angelic entities -- is just weird.

While these digital vehicles look the part, the controls come nowhere close to simulating the feeling of being behind the wheel of a Ford.

Feels more like basic training than hard-core warfare.

It's a shame that the disc, which offers 4,500 recipes and meal plans also printable at the program's Web site, is so inflexible about allowing other workouts into its tracking system, and that what should be the central focus, the workouts themselves, is so lackluster.

Compromised because you've pretty much seen and played the game before. Fans will see the adventure through, but many players will find their attention wandering.

The action is respectable when you're on the road with your 18-wheeler, dodging UFO invaders, smacking sinister bikers with your trailer and outrunning the cops, but the bare-bones production value is clear when you visit towns. You go to stores and bars to buy upgrades, meet people and find your next load to haul.

Loads of mini-games, split-screen co-op play throughout the entire story mode and online game play, including deathmatches and a fiesty soccer skirmish, flesh out this budget-priced title.

A competent arcade racer, with a decent feel to the controls, powerslides and other fancy moves, and a reasonable amount of entertainment. It's not an A-list game by any means, but the price tag makes that perfectly clear.

The game itself has decent game play, but is hurt because of the lack of attention given to the bells and whistles.

Button-mashing is almost nonexistent. That's a big change from "Athens 2004," the last Olympics game I played, which required you to hit buttons frantically to make your athlete move.

The road on Spy Hunter: Nowhere to Run is too rocky to be a keeper. It's a one-night rental -- tops.

While hotfooting it around seems like a decent concept, nightmarish controls damper the action no matter which setting you select. They're far too wild and loose, and his Landmaster, a futuristic tank, feels like it's stuck in molasses, slow and clumsy.

Were it not for the bizarre control scheme, the whole game could be artwork.

Though the drums did have their allure, we found that we could take them only in small doses.

There's almost no variety in levels. Everything is squeezed onto one huge map.

Compromised because you've pretty much seen and played the game before. Fans will see the adventure through, but many players will find their attention wandering.

Whether it's the glaring lack of cinematics (the story is told mainly with endless screens of type to read) or the lack of exploration -- the adventure babies gamers, basically leading them by the hand from one area to the next -- "Gale of Darkness" is a low point for the Pokemon series, a sequel that doesn't offer updates or improvement.

Hello Kitty Roller Rescue can be summed up in four words: bright, pink, short, easy. This colorful GameCube adventure, clearly aimed at children and fans of the popular characters, delivers a cute fracas that should delight its intended audience.

The movie's a lot more fun than the game.

Associating this garbage with "Castlevania" is insulting to that game's fine legacy.

The gameplay is unexciting, and the counterintuitive controls make it even worse. I had a hard time aiming because of the awful camera controls.

This street thug game lacks everything that would make it new, innovative or just plain fun. The graphics are really muddy and sub-par. The controls seem to be a bit confusing.

This series has not evolved a bit. Other stealth titles are more tense; this does nothing to get the adrenaline pumping. Fifty bucks is way too much for this halfhearted effort.

Lamer than a spring break movie.

You start out as Pikachu and race through various levels, moving the stylus up or down as fast as you can to the next checkpoint. This constant movement of the stylus was annoying.

Online world games should be many things... They should not subject you to hours upon hours of tediously repeating the same tasks with no hope for reward in proportion to that pain. Which is why I say to online world gamers everywhere: Stay away from "Ryl."

The last glaring negative of this game is the commentary by Duke Tango, which is about as soothing and smooth as listening to Gilbert Gottfried read an epic novel over and over and over again. Ouch.

While it's deep, it's one of the most confusing, user-unfriendly games I've ever experienced.

Sub-par. Throw in some excessive load times and a lame several-players-on-one handheld multiplayer mode and you have a barrel of frustration.

You level up your car in a fashion that's familiar to anyone who enjoys role-playing games, but the route to getting there -- racing the same kinds of contests, over and over again, against cars that are of very similar level to yours -- gets repetitive fast.

PQ doesn't fare well when compared with the likes of "Lumines," chess or crosswords -- or even Sudoku, the new grid in town. By those standards, PQ is a pretty poor relation in the family of cerebral games.

The graphics are old-school blocky, the puzzles are tired and many of the acrobatic moves are straight out of other games before it, most notably "Prince of Persia," but also even older "Indiana Jones" titles.

From the laughable briefing scenes to the flighty controls, this game is simply not fun. The design, from front to aft, is flawed and, frankly, not up to par with the Xbox 360's standards.

The songs, however, are mostly lame. No matter what genre you like, you'll be hard-pressed to find more than five songs you'll want to sing again and again.

This is supposed to be the evolution of the "Monster Rancher" franchise? The latest game in this series feels like a regression.

The game also settles into a rut: Clear an area of demons, advance, clear a room of demons, repeat. There's little strategy.

Throw in some horrendously long loading times, a muddy story line and dialogue that will make you laugh in agony, and you have a train wreck of a video game. Not even fans of Sonic's classic adventures will be able to look past the stench this game leaves in its speed wake.

While the Internet play is the frenzied, chaotic fun you've come to expect from a "Bomberman" title (though it has some loading issues), you're completely unable to blow up buddies sitting on the couch next to you.

Despite its huge weaknesses -- trust me, you don't want to shell out $40 for this thing -- it has two superb elements: dialogue and voice acting.

The sad news is that the game is filled with tons of bad gameplay.

From the bugs to the unimaginative feel of the adventures, this seems to be a game that was rushed to market too fast. At the end of an evening of play, there just weren't any great yarns of the sea that we had to rush off and describe to friends.

This game didn't need to be made: It wasn't fun, and I won't play it in my free time.

An intriguing idea on paper, but the shooter and RPG elements just don't mesh that well. If the shooter side had more exciting, thumb-blistering action, it would have compensated for the rest of this dull package.

I like games that involve strategy, but this game has none. You do what the game wants you to do with a just a bit of brain power involved, but no strategy.

The visuals are shoddy as well. The brawlers are essentially identical to previous incarnations, riddled with raggedy bitmapped sprites. And the forgettable guitar riffs and synthesizer garbage they're passing off as background music? Please.

The last glaring negative of this game is the commentary by Duke Tango, which is about as soothing and smooth as listening to Gilbert Gottfried read an epic novel over and over and over again. Ouch.

With this release, the "Final Fight" series has thrown in the towel.

While the concept sounds cool, the execution is poor. You can only laugh at your body crumpling from being flung into the side of a building for so long.