Instead of saving anywhere, you’ll have to – that’s right – use a spell to teleport to the inn, where Tao can record his progress. In most DS games this isn’t a problem, since closing the DS will pause play. But not here – the game just keeps running even with the system closed.

Lost Magic for the Nintendo DS combines all the fun of drawing letters, trying to remember arcane symbols, dying repeatedly, cursing like a sailor at having died repeatedly, and getting carpal tunnel syndrome repeatedly tapping a stylus against a touch screen in order to fast-forward through a series of conversations that manage to be simultaneously inane and overlong.

And this is one mythical, three-headed dog that could possibly have some bite in it, if only the damn thing would only, for one second, consider ceasing its infernal barking.

Multiplayer action adds as a bit more life to this bare bones game. Coming from a series that understands character progression and massive battles so well, Circle of Doom seems more like a quick way to put out a title instead of a fully developed idea.

It seems like the slightly retarded love child of Meteos and Tetris DS – a clunky excuse to use the stylus more than a fun experience. Both of those games – despite their own flaws – are miles better than Pokemon Trozei!

The major control issues are a hurdle many gamers won’t want to overcome. They ruin what would be an otherwise fun game.

The ability to make your own dance patterns is not a dumb idea per se. Dance Factory would be an interesting gimmick if it was attached to an otherwise good DDR clone.

Mana and magic system aside, the game’s primary selling point is the same as so many other RPGs: a couple dozen hours of content. And if merely killing time is the goal, then it could fill the bill.

Everything about the presentation has a rushed, sloppy feel that belies the game’s lengthy development cycle and preexisting source material.

Warpath isn’t horrible, but it is incredibly uninspired. The design is, on every level, lackluster, as if the developers were so sick of the genre that they didn’t even try this time.

It’s not a terrible game, just a terribly underwhelming one.

From the thin level design to the promising but ultimately limited combo system, Sidetracked seems more like a proof of concept than a final product. It does break out into some very cool moves once in a while, but most of them can be had for free, simply by tuning into "Adult Swim."

What starts out as a fantastic concept -- even though you have to slog through endless diaries to figure out what the heck is going on – never gathers steam.

Despite being a good pool game, the fact that you have to live with the horribly conceived setting and sloppy controls makes The Hustle: Detroit Streets a play out like a missed opportunity.

There’s a good game in here somewhere, but it’s buried beneath a layer of unpolished graphics, clumsy controls, and boring missions.

For the second time in under a year, EA fails to impress with a next-gen football game. 2006 FIFA World Cup comes off as a quick cash-in to make a fast buck before the big event in Germany this June.

I was looking forward to it, but left very disappointed. It’s completely playable. Being about 7 hours long helps but I spent the entire game waiting for it to get good, to make sense, to make a case for all the incongruous elements of design, gameplay and story, and then it ended.

I was looking forward to it, but left very disappointed. It’s completely playable. Being about 7 hours long helps but I spent the entire game waiting for it to get good, to make sense, to make a case for all the incongruous elements of design, gameplay and story, and then it ended.

The rest of the Grand Theft Auto series is dirt cheap now, and offers better gameplay in a far more massive world, with vastly superior graphics. So, unless you have absolutely maxed out on all things GTA, it’s unlikely that Liberty City Stories will be anything but a minor curiosity.

To be breezily blunt, it’s possible to be Over G Fighters after a few hours’ worth of play.

Mind-numbing button mashing with unremarkable stages can only be used to help you forget about the six hundred dollars that you blew on a system to play a game no better than its PSP cousin.

If effort counts, then Red Orchestra is not a bad game, and it might even be a very good one. But playing games is about having experiences, and the experience of playing Red Orchestra will leave 95% of the gaming community out in the cold. That other 5% will have the time of their lives though.

Emergency 3 isn’t so much a bad game as it is a disappointing one. It’s a title that has lots of promise and potential, but steadfastly refuses to deliver. You’d think by the third game, they’d get it right.

There’s a multiplayer mode to be had, but it’s hard to recommend Juarez solely based on the fact that you can share the misery with friends.

The stop-and-go gameplay here seems catered to those with Ritalin prescriptions than those yearning for Mario Kart-style action.

Two years later, this doesn't look any better than Cavia's earlier efforts -- its visuals are marred by aliasing that's unforgivable at this stage, and the animation blending is so primitive that you can't even reload while moving -- while its design doesn't try very hard at much of anything.

It has moments of inspired violence, and the story it tells is engaging, but there is too much monotony to the gameplay to make it addictive.

Console-style role-playing badly needs to move forward, and games like this are just keeping it stuck in the last century.

But the game runs clean and looks nice enough in action. For a budget price, you could do worse. Yeah, it’s not a ringing endorsement, nor is it meant to be.

But this brief, easy, and repetitive experience never comes close to the games it’s emulating.

Without a sound tactical game, Desperados 2 is only fun so long as you enjoy trying to guess what the hell the developers were thinking.

The whole thing feels exactly like what it is: tacked-on product placement.

Cars skid for no reason. Frames slow down just as the action heats up. Full Auto 2: Battlelines spins its wheels keeping the same controls and not improving the over all experience.

Ace in Action is a mindless shooter that’s too short, too easy, and a poor fit with the source material.

Both the 360 and PS3 versions aren’t the greatest first-person shooters ever made, but they’re decent enough to satiate your apparently endless need to keep fighting the same war over and over and over again. Don’t bother with this game on the Wii, though.

Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam isn't a sell out on par with hawking Bagel Bites but it's close.

A beautiful but deeply flawed game whose mediocrity is all the more frustrating when you consider that gameplay could have been vastly improved with a few simple fixes. With a controllable camera or targeting system, the game would easily transition hateful to average.

Loose controls and repeating levels marred what could have been a break out hit for a series that desperately needed one.

While the counter-attacks and the beasts add something to the lacklustre gameplay, everything else from cameras to enemies makes it a chore to slog through one end of a level to another.

While the counter-attacks and the beasts add something to the lacklustre gameplay, everything else from cameras to enemies makes it a chore to slog through one end of a level to another.

There's just not enough to juggle in this low impact virtual theme park to keep sim junkies mesmerized. Roller coaster crafting is way too dumbed down to make the process feel like creation.

Perhaps the biggest news is that the game's language has been toned down.

The problem with Marvel Trading Card Game isn’t the gameplay. Once you’ve figured everything out, it does a decent job mimicking the real thing. But it requires a lot of patience to get comfortable with the game and you’ll be fighting the interface every step of the way.

Tag Force had a chance to reinvent itself and blew it by not adding in elements missing from the series and making room for extras that no one wanted in the first place.

Edward Carnby's return had the potential to be the next Silent Hill. What we ended up with is more reminiscent of Trespasser.

The dialogue frequently doesn’t make sense, then, and the plot often makes even less.

Even if you don’t find all the vulgar, absurd, and criminal stereotypes of Italian-Americans in the Sopranos offensive, the number of brain cells you’ll lose due to the idiotic gameplay, terrible graphics, and headache-inducing frame rate is enough to enrage anyone.

Perhaps the most puzzling element of Grand Adventure is the lack of a four-player mode, which is an essential ingredient for the fast-paced, item collecting, button-mashing style of fighting game.

The presentation is weak, the gameplay flawed, and the reliance on insanely in-depth customization will likely end up annoying most gamers.

But there's nothing in the game that you haven't already heard blabbed around the water cooler. Besides, if you play the modest mess that is Lost: Via Domus you'll never again wonder if the TV series has jumped the shark. It can't possibly get this muddled.

Break ‘Em All was released, rather smartly, as a budget game, and while it’s an amusing diversion with a nostalgic bent, it’s clear that this classic game style isn’t holding up to the test of time.

There’s better acting in a preschool production of Equus than in this game. As atrocious as the voice-acting is—and it is unbelievably godawful—the writing is worse.

A game needs more than good atmosphere. Monster House could have been a spiritual successor to the GameCube launch title, Luigi’s Mansion, and rips off plenty of elements from Nintendo’s haunted, vacuum cleaner-endowed game. It just doesn’t do it very well.

Quaint graphics, recognizable characters, easy gameplay, and many mini-games give Barnyard some staying power with its target audience. For older gamers, the game is entirely standard and boring.

"King's Field" was a slow, clumsy, fairly-boring-to-look-at first-person hack-and-slasher with a legendarily lousy framerate. Deep Labyrinth is all of those too, except that its framerate isn't bad enough to pass into legend.

Between the dull kill-and-rob action, dopey wanna-be movie plot and the sheer fact that this game is recycled from a game that pretty much everybody hates there's not much to recommend this game – apart from the price tag.

But in the end, it’s just freaking sudoku. And the inclusion of one MILF-ish brit doesn’t go a long way towards making the whole package more attractive.

Far Cry Vengeance is the game that will make you think twice about coming within 100 yards of a first-person shooter on the Wii.

There's nothing remotely compelling enough in the online modes good enough to take the focus away from the disappointing single-player mode.

Each positive aspect is saddled with a few misfires, from the limited customization options to the frequent, boring cut-scenes to the rather basic play modes.

The game itself is average. The controls don’t do enough to make the game stand out. The extras and bonus features are pointless.

Gamers looking for a cool action-RPG with some anime style will be let down. The only way we can absolutely recommend this game is if you love Avatar: The Last Airbender as much as you do breathing.

The stuff that fills the holes between the normally brief – albeit mostly fun – combat takes up way too much time, and feels so banal and lifeless, it manages to overpower the good bits and drag down the whole experience.

Playing through 18 holes takes way too long. Because you have to wait while everyone takes a turn, you’ll spend too much time doing absolutely nothing during these multiplayer rounds.

This game has no personality because it is filled with predictable, relentlessly average design. Sadly, even the boring design actually manages to struggle, thanks to a few key flaws.

The best thing about Fuzion Frenzy 2 is that it’s an easy 1,000 achievement points (there are only 16 different tasks, and most of those are to play through a tournament with each player).

Enemies are downright dumb and it's pretty hard to tell what's solid and what isn't. Bullets breeze through some things but won't pass through the gap between the spokes of a wagon wheel.

The action and violence are satisfying enough to make the game marginally recommendable, but only barely. Add in the complete lack of any multiplayer options, a terrible ending, and Clive Barker’s Jericho feels like a game where the good parts are overwhelmed by the shortcomings.

The action and violence are satisfying enough to make the game marginally recommendable, but only barely. Add in the complete lack of any multiplayer options, a terrible ending, and Clive Barker’s Jericho feels like a game where the good parts are overwhelmed by the shortcomings.

The action and violence are satisfying enough to make the game marginally recommendable, but only barely. Add in the complete lack of any multiplayer options, a terrible ending, and Clive Barker’s Jericho feels like a game where the good parts are overwhelmed by the shortcomings.

Dragon battles break down to attack-block-repeat. Ships appear from nowhere. Boss fights are more “follow the leader” than actual epic battles. Lair is not a broken game, just one that overcompensates to hide all its flaws rather than fix them.

The game isn’t fun at all (including the pathetically limited multiplayer options which aren’t worth going into)...It’s just frustrating that Dark Sector, with all the trappings of a good game, could squander nearly every single one of them with bad level design, poor logic, repetitive combat, and no attention to what made its inspiration so…inspiring.

The game isn’t fun at all (including the pathetically limited multiplayer options which aren’t worth going into)...It’s just frustrating that Dark Sector, with all the trappings of a good game could squander nearly every single one of them with bad level design, poor logic, repetitive combat, and no attention to what made its inspiration so…inspiring.

Deserves kudos for being such a meticulous translation of the card game. Unfortunately, there is little else to attract anyone other than the hard core fan base.

There’s a ton of unlockable mini-games, items, explosions, and levels. It’s hard to find shooters aimed at kids, so on that level, Bionicle is an ok choice. Older gamers, however, will want to pass this one by.

The real problem is the bland graphics, micromanagement, and repetitive gameplay. Good RTS games know that and tend to create missions you can complete in a variety of ways. Not so here.

What could have been the modern equivalent to classic bizarre Japanese shooters like Parodius is instead a one-trick pony.

First on the menu is Big Bumpin’, a bumper-car romp through four different game modes that totally sucks if you’re playing with yourself, but loads of fun if you’re playing with a few friends. So Big Bumpin’ is pretty much a metaphor for life in general.

Pimp My Ride has that budget-game smell, with its lack of any Xbox Live support and flimsy content.

If you have a burning urge to spend $20 and have already gone through the other puzzlers on the PSP, Luxor the Wrath of Set isn’t the worst puzzle game out there. It’s just really uninspired.

Ancient Wars: Sparta just isn’t an enjoyable game. The only reason it’s not getting one star is because technically, the game is very proficient and quite polished.

The addition of character development is a nice touch, but was handled poorly, and the visuals are almost depressing.

Legend of Heroes needs more innovation in the areas that actually matter – scenario writing, game design, the tricky stuff like that – before it’ll spawn an installment worth playing.

If anything The Shield: The Game is true to the spirit of its source material. Much of the game may be poorly designed, cruelly difficult and obnoxiously unfair, but none of these flaws are necessarily show-stopping.

Fix the navigation system, ease back on the creature auto-leveling, patch the game, and you’d be closer to something that rated three or even four stars than this unfortunate mess of a "Diablo" wannabe.

Accepting Enchant Arms' genetic flaws as part of the JRPG package is like saying that all comic books are about superheros or that all manga is about ninja schoolgirls.

If you like big-eyed cartoon girls and master/servant fantasies, go right ahead and grab this. They’ll even chirp at you in squeaky Japanese if that happens to be to your taste. Otherwise, though, you can rest secure in the knowledge that you’re barely missing anything here at all.

TMNT's uninspired brand of ninjitsu-fueled platforming won't be blowing any minds.

Since the game’s storyline and restricted gameplay keeps you from ever just branching off and doing your own thing, what you’re left with here is basically a sub-par pirate-themed adventure game that offers some fun sea-based combat and some boring sword-to-sword stuff.

It takes a little effort, maybe, but you can make a game for kids that doesn’t bore a more experienced player.

Valhalla’s a well-meaning blend of old and new, but most of us have come to expect a little more from an RPG.

Somewhere buried beneath the game's bird-brained plot and overly-complicated controls are a pile of flying missions that are reasonably engaging. There's just a whole lot of unnecessary junk to wade through.

The concepts are solid, the story is excellent, and the characters sustain. Aesthetically it is a beautiful piece of work. It's just not all that much fun to play, especially when bugs have left parts of the game incomplete.

The concepts are solid, the story is excellent, and the characters sustain. Aesthetically it is a beautiful piece of work. It's just not all that much fun to play, especially when bugs have left parts of the game incomplete.

Game Arts still knows how to draw neat-looking spaceships. When it comes to making them interact in a real 3D space, though, that’s where they still have a whole lot to learn.

The one shining moment through all this is the decent online multiplayer mode included. It’s pretty vanilla, but it runs great. Plus it’s possible to turn into a nightwalker should you be a bit too slow on the draw. It’s a very cool feature.

This is more in the line of a free Flash game on the web, or something Namco could have pitched at DS download kiosks.

There might be a competent game hidden somewhere in Aedis Eclipse. But between the byzantine interface, frequent load times, dull battles, and boring story, why bother?

The lack of character customization is another issue, with fixed classes and no input allowed on individual skills, attributes, or spells other than purchasing armor, weapons, and accessories each time you visit town.

Tenchu’s been chugging along as a slightly-above-average series for quite a while now. And it’s disappointing that such a great concept has once again fallen victim to poor game design and crappy presentation. Even if the online co-op mode ran better, it doesn’t help the product feel any more fun.

As mentioned before, the grid-based battlefield is a big part of the problem.

The concept of this game is quite interesting and it’ll be enough to make some gamers more tolerant than they should be about this game’s faults. But, the execution here is unfortunately too poor to forgive.

For the hardcore action fans that really need a fix, I suppose Time Ace might be worth a look. There are multiple difficulty levels, plenty of planes and power-ups to collect, and multiplayer battles for you and all your friends who also bought a copy of the game. But really, your money is probably better spent on a game that’s at least trying to be fun.

Someday, the Wii may host its own quality 3D fighter. If it does, though, it’ll be something like Super Smash Brothers Brawl – something built from the ground up for this console. Otherwise, maybe you just can’t teach a new dog old tricks.

None of the quirks and flaws in the game would have been quite so damning if it weren’t for UbiSoft’s insane decision to release WarTech at the full $60 price tag.

Worse than the usual mediocre movie spinoffs, which is saying something. Youngsters might have the attention span to find completing the game entertaining, but everyone is better off playing Ultimate Alliance—a vastly superior game.

Worse than the usual mediocre movie spinoffs, which is saying something. Youngsters might have the attention span to find completing the game entertaining, but everyone is better off playing Ultimate Alliance—a vastly superior game.

This is a simply another lame attempt to attract young fans and unknowing parents to buy something based on the license. Rise of the Silver Surfer has all the gameplay value of a bad Streets of Rage clone.

But you know what? Big deal. We already know the Wii can do this. This console has been out long enough to warrant something that takes better advantage of its strengths. Frankly, these “Wii-makes” are really starting to wear thin.

The concept behind the battle system is solid but dragging it through uninspired dungeons and a tired story can make putting in that second disk a chore.

Carnival Games is ok in short bursts, but much like the real-world games they are based on, they really aren’t that much fun to play more than once or twice. Wii Sports has more depth.

The painfully simplistic controls and short nature of the mini-games aren't going to satisfy most players, even those who routinely fire up the Wii to play with friends.

Sadly, I don’t review games based on what they might eventually become. This is the game the developers put out (and already patched twice), and this is the game that was reviewed. It still feels unfinished, it has tons of technical problems, it takes forever to get into games, and given the number of high-profile titles coming out over the coming months, there just isn’t any room for eventual quality.

Ratatouille doesn’t do anything to avoid the curse of licensed games, and the Xbox 360 version feels especially unfinished thanks to the horrible hit detection issues.

Though on the surface Jackass looks like it has strong replay value, the content is as shallow as Steve-O’s take on world peace. Players will breeze through the story mode within a day, and the challenge mode simply offers the same events with slightly higher score requirements.

Dark Messiah is a frustrating title, since moments of fun are outweighed by long stretches of tedium.

One thing NFL Tour is great for is padding your Xbox gamerscore. Otherwise, don’t bother with this one.

NFL Tour has its fun moments, but the gameplay is just so damn shallow.

Though it has numerous pros, courts, and options - including a player creation section that would make World Of Warcraft jealous - and looks as good as Wimbledon on NBC, it is ultimately undone by the most obvious of gaming mistakes: bad controls.

Though it has numerous pros, courts, and options - including a player creation section that would make World Of Warcraft jealous - and looks as good as Wimbledon on NBC, it is ultimately undone by the most obvious of gaming mistakes: bad controls.

At best, Obscure is worth a rental solely for co-op play with a friend. The voice acting, dialogue, and silly looking enemies are surely good for some laughs on a weekend when there's nothing better to do.

The story is surprisingly lengthy and more compelling than most video game stories, but it overdoes things with far too many low-brow jokes, childish innuendos and absurd parodies. Chances are you’ll find yourself laughing harder at the deplorable number of technical issues that plague the game than the actual jokes.

But there's nothing in the game that you haven't already heard blabbed around the water cooler. Besides, if you play the modest mess that is Lost: Via Domus you'll never again wonder if the TV series has jumped the shark. It can't possibly get this muddled.

But there's nothing in the game that you haven't already heard blabbed around the water cooler. Besides, if you play the modest mess that is Lost: Via Domus you'll never again wonder if the TV series has jumped the shark. It can't possibly get this muddled.

Warriors Orochi is really only for the hardcore fans of the Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors franchises. We freely admit that we’re not one of those. You either like it or you don’t. You either care about the story or you don’t. Put Average Joe Gamer and this reviewer down in the “don’t” column.

Warriors Orochi is really only for the hardcore fans of the Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors franchises. We freely admit that we’re not one of those. You either like it or you don’t. You either care about the story or you don’t. Put Average Joe Gamer and this reviewer down in the “don’t” column.

NBA 08’s small improvements do not cater to the hardcore NBA fans that drop hefty amounts of cash every year for a great basketball sim. The game lacks a solid TV presentation and feels very rushed.

A sequel isn’t supposed to be softer, poorer, slower, weaker, but that sadly sums up FIFA Street 3's questionable content.

If wandering through endless hallways and engaging in unsatisfying, three-move combat for countless hours with no indication as to your progress or your objectives is your idea of a good time, then Baroque will satisfy you to no end. If you find yourself tearing your hair out just reading that description, stay away…far away.

If you absolutely need to have every single collection of mini-games for your Wii, at least the content in Ninja Reflex is entertaining. There just needs to be a lot more of it to justify the price.

Insecticide warrants some praise for its offbeat theme and oddball characters, but there's not enough game here to recommend. All 18 levels are short, combat is clunky, and there's only one game mode.

The games not terrible, but it's not great. The most important element in a boxing sim, the tactics, combos, and impact, are watered down to a button mashing spit bucket.

If you don’t care too much about precise game play, Chosen One is a good, brainless time. Otherwise, the game just becomes infuriating.

If you don’t care too much about precise game play, Chosen One is a good, brainless time. Otherwise, the game just becomes infuriating.

Dynasty Warriors has a rabid fan base, and so it stands to reason that Koei doesn’t want to mess with the formula too much. It’s disappointing that seven years and endless games later, this latest iteration feels like such a miniscule step forward in the series.

Dynasty Warriors has a rabid fan base, and so it stands to reason that Koei doesn’t want to mess with the formula too much. It’s disappointing that seven years and endless games later, this latest iteration feels like such a miniscule step forward in the series.

Seems like it is just trying to be a fancy 3-D version of an early-90’s platformer and that just doesn’t cut it today. Too many traps and too much repetitive combat with not enough challenge and fun in the mix do not make a great game.

Unfortunately, some good monsters and a decent multiplayer mode don’t really save the game from being mired down in its own mediocrity.

Soon enough, Dawn of a New World settles down to standard fantasy-quest plot starring standard fantasy characters.

Those who enjoyed World Heroes in the arcades, all twenty of you, will adore this collection from SNK. The conversions are as close as you'll get without owning a Neo Geo and several hundred dollars worth of cartridges. Yet the titles here are far from classics, especially considering SNK's extensive library of 2D fighting games.

Great War Nations might appeal to those new to the genre, but strategy vets will want to "erase this memory of Sparta from the histories."

Battle of the Bands simply has no legs. Once you’ve learned the basics of the game, there’s nowhere else to go.

Oh Sonic, you’ve raced so far to only find yourself where you started. While Sega inches ever closer to finding that magical combination to create their Sonic empire once again, the rest of the game drags down whatever hope gamers had for reliving the better parts of their childhood instead of the parts where they were sorely disappointed.

Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars is easily one of the most original games to come along in a while. It has tons of style, a unique vision and all the makings of a wildly entertaining little franchise. Sadly, its first effort on the Wii isn't disappointing thanks to sloppy platforming, poor camera controls, and lack of any real innovation in terms of gameplay.

If every mission is going to take place around the same five blocks, try giving the different areas a bit of character instead of exploding walls. Make bosses that are fun to beat up and not just another thing you throw cars at until they stop moving. Just getting rid of the multitude of minor glitches could have easily raised the score.

If every mission is going to take place around the same five blocks, try giving the different areas a bit of character instead of exploding walls. Make bosses that are fun to beat up and not just another thing you throw cars at until they stop moving. Just getting rid of the multitude of minor glitches could have easily raised the score.

If every mission is going to take place around the same five blocks, try giving the different areas a bit of character instead of exploding walls. Make bosses that are fun to beat up and not just another thing you throw cars at until they stop moving. Just getting rid of the multitude of minor glitches could have easily raised the score.

The most puzzling omission, however, is Garou: Mark of the Wolves (1999), which makes the Fatal Fury saga painfully incomplete.

It's the kind of game that pads itself out with random fights. And, worst of all, it's type of game that tries to pass tired techno-babble off as story. This crime is all the more heinous considering the fact that Mega Man Star Force 2 is aimed squarely at young gamers.

Just an all-around disappointment. It has its moments of giving you the thrill of hurtling your body through the air at dizzying heights and performing ridiculous sets of over-the-top tricks, but for every one of those moments, there are dozens more that will leave you in a speechless rage.

If you’ve never seen the 360 version, CTYD might entertain you for a little while, but that’ll only be because you won’t know what you’re missing out on by playing the stripped down version of the original game. And developers/publishers, please stop looking at the Wii as nothing more than a port machine. If you’re going to rerelease a game, make sure it’s been significantly retooled, reworked, redesigned, and upgraded enough to justify the game’s existence.

Its fundamental flaws and dearth of good music makes this also-ran even more pointless.

The series makes a blind leap into a new genre, only to fall flat on his face satisfying neither the fans of puzzle or action games.

No amount of clever quips and Master Chief parody characters is worth slogging through a shooter that makes Dark Sector look like an inspired stroke of genius. By the end of the game, no amount of clever enemy character names or profanity-laced outbursts by Neil Patrick Harris can distract you from the fact that you’re simply not having much fun.

No amount of clever quips and Master Chief parody characters is worth slogging through a shooter that makes Dark Sector look like an inspired stroke of genius. By the end of the game, no amount of clever enemy character names or profanity-laced outbursts by Neil Patrick Harris can distract you from the fact that you’re simply not having much fun.

Either Nintendo has decided to become the laziest publisher in the gaming industry or they have so many killer titles in the pipeline that they just couldn’t be bothered to put an ounce of effort into justifying the existence of Power Tennis. Adding sub-par Wii controls to a five-year-old GameCube game without adding anything new in terms of modes, gameplay or story is not acceptable.

Although games of this type don't need to be flashy to be enjoyable, Dungeon Dice Monsters takes an embarrassing, bare-bones approach to presentation that does little to bring the player into the game's world.

Dark Arena's graphics are average at best. Much of the architecture is plain-looking and the average enemy sports only a half-dozen character animations.

It's unfortunate that the gameplay of Mojo Jojo-A-Go-Go is unbalanced, the graphics are subpar, and the audio fails to impress. With a classic gameplay setup such as the side-scrolling shooter, this GBA title had potential to be an above-average cartoon tie-in.

Just simply on the jittery, crunchy, slow, and empty side.

Isn't a complete disaster, but it's undoubtedly the worst outing in the franchise's history. Its unresponsive controls and shallow gameplay are what holds it back from seeing its true potential.

The game is also short. It shouldn't take you more than a day to complete the 13 levels. Though after tediously walking through gray room after gray room it could feel more like a year.

With its anemic presentation, difficult jumps, and random and completely obscure puzzles, it's tough to enjoy everything else Buffy has to offer.

Daredevil had potential, but the result is merely an uninspired, generic movie tie-in that doesn't excel in any particular area and stumbles when it comes to meaningful gameplay.

Fans of the unjolly green giant will have some limited, isolated smash-bouts, but those who are gamers first and Hulk fans secondly will be better off investigating the console versions based on the film.

Various goodies you can unlock and a multiplayer option save the game from being a total washout, but this title is otherwise an uninspired take on a sport that ought to be played at the extreme.

While there are many characters to unlock and compete with, it takes a long time to see any of them thanks to the incredibly slow rate at which you acquire powerful cards.

The control setup here is undoubtedly unique, and works great for the most part. It's just not intuitive or interesting enough to build an entire adventure game around.

But anyone looking for a good brawler on the GBA needs to look somewhere other than Dragon Ball GT: Transformation.

If the colors were more vibrant, the tilting felt more responsive, and some of the stages weren't such an outright pain in the saddle, this game would easily get the X-Play stamp of approval. Not this time.

The Game Boy can be a surprisingly capable platform, but Revenge of the Sith just isn't ambitious enough to become a master in its class.

After spending a while with this game, you'll realize you're not actually playing Ace Combat. You're playing a quick-and-dirty flight game with the words Ace Combat slapped on the box, and entering eight-digit passwords whenever you want to pick up where you left off. This undercooked turkey barely earns its wings.

This is the eighth Yu-Gi-Oh GBA release in a little over two years. Not much has changed, and not much will. If you're not already firmly on this bandwagon, turn around and walk away.

While it's definitely the safest route for publishers looking to make a buck on the hottest movie of the month, it sure doesn't make for engaging gameplay.

This academy takes all the shortcuts it can afford in your educational experience, and treats you like a faceless student with no real incentive to get noticed.

Even if there are some design tricks here that all developers could learn from, the game's negatives outweigh the positives, leaving this Galleon to be forgotten at the bottom of the bargain bin.

The visuals hold up fairly well, and the controls are solid, if simplistic. What's here is the underlying base of a game. They just forgot to include meaningful gameplay or a storyline.

Single-handedly manages to be one of the most derivative fighting games ever created -- to the point where it really doesn't seem to have a single original thought in its design or execution.

The same players who found relentless, party-balancing corridor fighting ultimately frustrating in a cute, cartoony game like "Evolution Worlds" won't find it any more refreshing here just because it's wearing a darker, spookier "Aliens" costume.

While it does supplement the story exceptionally well, Enter the Matrix lacks anything that would make it stand out as a great or even good game.

Despite lots of shooting action, the unresponsive controls and below-average mission design lead to a distinctly dull experience.

Capcom may have moved to true 3-D environments, but its design philosophy is still stuck in the old pre-rendered graphics days of the PS. This is a good series. Its third installment deserves a whole lot better.

While being well-coded, it just doesn't offer the excitement which should come with the Race of Champions.

Successfully taking down a fleeing opponent is almost enough to make you forget how many times you wanted to chuck the controller straight at the TV.

The story could easily have been told in a third of the time, leaving room for more substantial narrative and perhaps even more inventive level and game design.

The humdrum gameplay won't convert anyone. Clumsy combat with fists or firearms makes up the majority, and the rest of the game is usually a glorified switch and key hunt... and not a particularly complicated one, either.

Even for an arcade action game, Maximum Chase is short and easy. You'll blow through the entire game in less than an afternoon. There are special objectives to beat in order to unlock things such as new cars and camera filters, but there isn't much incentive to replay this game once you've beaten it.

Even though this is a budget title at about 20 bucks, there's no way the graphics and the frustrating gameplay justify the expense. You're better off saving up for something with more lasting appeal and more, well, fun.

It's a good premise but the game proves to be boring over the long haul... it's just too simplistic and easy to hold your attention for more than a couple days.

It's just a shame that more care wasn't taken to make his life seem less repetitive and more diverse.

Between the dull punchfests, the insanely accurate enemies, and the extra difficulty created by forcing the player to rely on autotargeting, completing Dead to Rights quickly becomes an act of will.

The game doesn't look bad, but it doesn't look good enough for an action game whose major draw is its audiovisual presentation.

The mix of mission and circuit racing along with the interesting ranking system are offset by the poor mechanics and sloppy design.

The theory of evolution may not apply to Tork as a character, but it should darn well apply to video games.

Remarkably lacking.

The fighters look great... until they move, anyway. But they've looked pretty good for years now and the lack of innovation combined with the gimme-some-Viagra blahness is disheartening to say the least.

Gamers looking for a long involving experience will be disappointed that the story is not nearly as voluptuous as the female characters; at around 20 hours some will consider it too thin a quest.

A good-looking but brain-dead, thumb-numbing game.

The Infinitrax track generation system is interesting. By making use of six user-defined inputs such as curvature, hilliness, and track width, Infinitrax generates new courses on the fly.

What ultimately makes or breaks NBA Jam is its computer AI, which is every bit as nasty and unfair as previous games.

Squarely intent on holding the middle ground in every sense of the phrase, this isn't a terrible game, but it isn't especially good, either.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment is the way Reservoir Dogs mangles the movie's complex story.

It's the most graphically inferior Xbox title yet, and while the controls and combat are entertaining, the bland level design and shortage of puzzles make the gameplay repetitive and boring.

Unfortunately, the rather simple controls lack any sort of considerable depth that would keep the game interesting. In fact, most of the time, just hitting random buttons will pull off some pretty impressive punches, kicks, and flips.

Amusing enough for an Old West-themed shooter, but the so-called new features are either gimmicks, or, as in the case of the auto-aiming, outright annoying. The game is decent for the most part, but doesn't do the great subject matter justice.

More like an expansion team than a Stanley Cup contender. With a sharper focus on either realism or arcade play combined with more standout graphics, next year's version could be bumped up to the first line.

Everything about the game feels clumsy. The graphics are mediocre, the gameplay is middling and repetitive, and the completely shallow glorification of drug use is either appalling or just plain stupid.