Turn It Around just mixes too much frustration mixed in with the fun. Screw this. Wheel of Fortune's on.

Ultimately, Bomberman Land isn't bad, but there are certainly better minigame collections out there. Likewise, there are a myriad of alternative ways to play the classic Bomberman battle mode if that's what you desire.

There's also a distinct lack of motion-controlled gimmickry going on; granted, many games just needlessly tack on motion chores, but considering the nature of evidence-gathering, it would have suited this game perfectly.

Without addictive, refined gameplay in its short-lived play sessions or a worthwhile single-player experience, Puzzle de Harvest Moon comes across as a glorified minigame.

There are a ton of fine shooters hitting shelves this year that are good enough to go down in history. It would be a shame to waste your money paying full price for this heap, which instead takes history down with it.

There are a ton of fine shooters hitting shelves this year that are good enough to go down in history. It would be a shame to waste your money paying full price for this heap, which instead takes history down with it.

The lousy last-gen graphics murder what compelling plot there is.

At 30 bucks Winter Sports isn’t remotely worth the money. You could get a decent rental out of it - get some friends together, laugh at each other while doing the crap events once each, then play the skiing parts until Lost is on.

A game you'll mostly just play online (if you can find anyone) or with up to four players locally (since only one copy of the UMD is required). That's nice, but if everyone's in the same room already, why wouldn't you play the board game instead?

Zero Gravity sometimes feels like your racing skill doesn’t matter as much as your ability to spot new, cooler ways to get through the tracks; it’s still fun to do, but once you’ve mastered a track there’s little reason to go back to it.

But perhaps the worst part of it all is that the transplant to a home console has removed a good chunk of Tag Force’s initial appeal: the ability to play on-the-go card battles with friends who also have a PSP and the game.

Today, with so many able competitors on the market, we just can't recommend sparse, shallow collections with slow load times and GBA-level visuals. Whether you're looking to train your brain or just play some minigames, there are simply better options out there than Brain Assist.

Granted, Ultimate Band is cheaper than competing music games like Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero: World Tour, and that would normally be a big plus. But when one considers just how much more game you get with those titles, how much longer they’ll last you, the savings isn’t really worth it.

Such a half-hearted attempt.

Getting past the faulty controls will get you a decent story, but Iron Man has little to no replay value, no multiplayer, and is just another forgettable game-based-on-the-movie type.

The worst thing is, there was tremendous potential here. The art style is fantastic, and the campy, B-movie concept is golden. And the way you make new weapons out of garbage you find – sticks, needles, broken shards of glass – is really fun. But once you add the gameplay in there, ugggh. Mushrooms grow where living things have died – in this case, the underlying corpse belonged to fun.

The game’s levels lack any sort of checkpoint system, an annoying little flaw that becomes a real hassle as later levels take a massive difficulty spike and Hulk smash! becomes Hulk awkwardly dodge walls of randomly fired bullets and missiles.

The game’s characters look like poorly-drawn imitations of the classic cartoons, feeling like cheap flash games than any sort of licensed imagery.

It’s also definitely worth mentioning that this is the weaker of the two Zenses titles by a mile. Rainforest has better puzzles and a stronger style.

It's almost heartbreaking how much wasted potential there is here, and lonely RPG fans are better off playing Tales of Vesperia co-op until a better competitive option comes around.

It’s almost heartbreaking how much wasted potential there is here, and lonely RPG fans are better off playing Tales of Vesperia co-op until a better competitive option comes around.

But to finally give us a lightsaber game, even a crap one, and not enable us to take on the role of Luke Skywalker and battle Darth Vader? That’s just freaking cruel.

From the Abyss isn't a terrible game, but it offends us with its pure mediocrity.

To be fair, there’s also a sandbox-like, “just suck it all up” mode that unlocks when you’ve beaten each level, as well as a two-player versus mode that finds you racing to suck things up or change the color of crystals (which earned it a bonus point in our score below). But Tornado still just doesn’t have the suction to hold us for long.

In an arcade-style game, anything that requires the player to take a break from shooting is a questionable call. We’re okay with reloading, but handicapping us with awkward controls is just uncool.

The atmosphere of Theresia, as well as its convoluted story, just doesn't scare us, but instead makes us want to stop playing, or failing that, kill ourselves.

Why buy the new one when the older, better version is still available at a reduced price? We know you have a PS2.

Even if you’re a tremendous fan of Marcinko and love his books, rent this one before you spend your hard-earned cash. The season is too full of top-notch games and excellent DLC for you to spend your cash on this stinker.

Even if you’re a tremendous fan of Marcinko and love his books, rent this one before you spend your hard-earned cash. The season is too full of top-notch games and excellent DLC for you to spend your cash on this stinker.

Even if you’re a tremendous fan of Marcinko and love his books, rent this one before you spend your hard-earned cash. The season is too full of top-notch games and excellent DLC for you to spend your cash on this stinker.

It’s almost heartbreaking how much wasted potential there is here.

Despite the appearance of finesse, it’s surprising how quickly everything devolves into frantic button mashing and rote flailing.

Despite the appearance of finesse, it’s surprising how quickly everything devolves into frantic button mashing and rote flailing.

The game also suffers from a lack of content.

In the end, it’s a cool experiment, but it quickly goes horribly wrong.

In the end, it’s a cool experiment, but it quickly goes horribly wrong.

A broken core of a game.

Our main problem with History Great Empires: Rome is that the historic elements are only surface level and the strategy elements aren’t much deeper than that.

An aggressively mediocre FPS. Any decent ideas suffer from bad design decisions, and so the shallow multiplayer is a hollow experience that even the most hardcore Frank Castle follower will want to skip.

We really, really wanted to like BCFX, as the idea of any kind of competition for EA’s NCAA monopoly is music to our ears. Sadly, BCFX simply isn’t anywhere near ready for the big time.

The gameplay is still fun if you’re willing to suffer through painful hand cramping from playing guitar and bass, severely wounded vocal registry, and a general lack of precision provided by the Drum Grip. Oh wait, that doesn’t sound so fun. The peripherals do more to kill the experience than enhance it, which totally defeats the purpose of this pricey package.

With so many other notable SRPGs already out for portable consoles, Hero's Saga: Laevatein Tactics fails to emulate the magic of its forebears such as Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre, and also fails to define itself among contemporaries like Rondo of Swords and Jeanne D'Arc. We still love classic SRPGs; it's just that at this point, Hero's Saga feels like a step back.

Lastly, and perhaps most tragically, the PlayStation 2 comes with full voiceover work for all the characters. You might think this would be a good thing – but Zak repeats his exclamations over new Cryptids so often, you find yourself wanting to choke him, and some of the subtitles appear as placeholder text. Party foul.

To make matters worse, Iron Man 2 can be shockingly ugly at times, especially in the cut-scenes, which spotlight terrible effects, fuzzy and slow-loading textures, and choppy animations.

Without the AI and stealth problems, it might be a decent, if extremely derivative, shooter. As it is now, you're better off skipping this one.

While this could have been an awesome game to geek out on, its numerous technical problems kill the mood pretty quickly.

A shame then, that marvelling at the cartoon tennis racquet pretending to be in your hand is immensely more enthralling than anything you'll actually do with it in the game.

From the game-stretching fetch quests to the clanking camera to the clumsy cliffhanger ending, Hydrophobia just doesn't feel like a finished game. The water is truly unique and special, but everything else feels too much like a soggy, overblown tech demo.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold takes place over four chapters, each separated into a handful of levels. You can grab a second controller and team up with a friend or family member, but you might not want to subject them to the boredom.

I need to emphasize that my problem isn't that Comic Jumper is difficult – I love difficult scrolling shooters – my problem is that Comic Jumper is difficult for all the wrong reasons - and to top it off, the game constantly insults your incompetence with grating voice work.

Sadly, it's just a pretty face, and there's not much below the surface. As a result, exploring doesn't yield much in the way of rewards, so odds are, you'll just stick to your daily routine of repetitive levequesting and crafting. And then you'll log out. And then, one day, you'll probably just decide to omit the part where you log back in.

This game's title is a massive misnomer. You don't "create" anything – you mess around with preset environments and then slap stickers all over it. You want to get the Create experience and save a few bucks? Buy a coloring book.

This game's title is a massive misnomer. You don't "create" anything – you mess around with preset environments and then slap stickers all over it. You want to get the Create experience and save a few bucks? Buy a coloring book.

If you were hoping for a Kinect-friendly great snowboarding game, this isn't the one. It controls terribly and is just plain uninteresting. Don't bother unless you're desperate for some XTREEM action. And we mean XTREEM in the worst possible manner.

It's hard to recommend this game to anyone but the most hardcore of flight simulator fans. As in, you have to be unreasonably hardcore. As in, you have Apache-themed bedspread and keep a picture of a Boeing AH-64A in your wallet that you stare at longingly throughout the day.

It's hard to recommend this game to anyone but the most hardcore of flight simulator fans. As in, you have to be unreasonably hardcore. As in, you have Apache-themed bedspread and keep a picture of a Boeing AH-64A in your wallet that you stare at longingly throughout the day.

When the best thing your game has going for it is supplemental abilities to support your primary one-button combat, you know you've got problems.

The overall feel of the game is just not engaging – there's no sense of speed, there's no sense of control, and there's no sense of variety.

If your biggest complaint about previous such entries is that they didn't include horseback riding, hang gliding or skiing, then MotionSports might get you in front of the TV for a weekend of flawed fun. Otherwise, we suggest leaving this one on the sidelines.

If you're going to make a game with ninjas and dragons, it better be larger than a mountain and a couple of rock textures.

Sonic Free Riders can offer some real fun when everything comes together and works properly but those instances are rare and the rest of the time the game can be very frustrating. The lack of content also makes it quite a steep purchase.

Tron: Evolution is a mess of poorly implemented ideas and sloppy mechanics boiling down to a game that offers very little even to its most hardcore fans. Its story is barely there, and the exploration of the universe isn't one that is worth traversing the problems that it wallows in.

Unlockable spells lend a little variety to the otherwise stale battles with moron squid-monsters and typical fantasy fodder. Beyond that, this is a stagnant role-playing game with nothing to offer anyone who isn't already obsessed with the original game, the 2001 PC remake this is based on, or the DS remake from 2009.

The Dynasty Warriors franchise is a beast of inveterate laziness. The gameplay is tired and, while the story and characters could be intriguing, the presentation is too bland and wonky to draw in gamers who are new to the series.

The never-ending explosions shake the screen and before long chaos and confusion take over. Battlegrounds is hectic given the small maps and spawning becomes silly as you come back from death straight into another death. It's annoying, yet not as annoying as waiting for an online match to start thanks to a nonexistent community.

The never-ending explosions shake the screen and before long chaos and confusion take over. Battlegrounds is hectic given the small maps and spawning becomes silly as you come back from death straight into another death. It's annoying, yet not as annoying as waiting for an online match to start thanks to a nonexistent community.

Repetition, repetition, repetition.

Repetition, repetition, repetition.

Could have been a passable romp through a zombie-infested castle of terror, but the frustrating controls, lack of horror elements, and sub-par presentation make it a game that's difficult to recommend, especially for the mature audience it's meant for.

It's when you get into the tedium of every activity that you realize a game that only does a few things well holds more value than a game that does a dozen things poorly. Variety is supposed to be the spice of life, but let's be honest, everything has its limits.

The Random Encounter is just, well, bad. Seeing our favorite enemies rendered in 16 bits is really just not worth even the very small amount of time or money you'll spend playing this game - particularly when there are other worthwhile demakes or Flash games available for free.

Stronghold 3 is a bizarre third outlier, clinging to an aging formula but making changes that actually feel like a step back. The real crime here isn't that Stronghold 3 is a bad game, it's the disservice done to a series that has provided so much joy in the past, ruining our nostalgia. Somewhere, a child in a tree fort is weeping.

There is some fun to be had from time trial, challenges and the tracks that work properly. And with the penalties switched off, it almost passes as some crazy, incident-filled version of F1. But if you're after an authentic racing sim on 3DS, best wait a little longer, cos this most certainly ain't it.

The weapon variety that defines the series is flaccid at best, the story is forgettable, and the multiplayer isn't even as varied as the last handheld game in the series. It's hard to even recommend this one to gamers who've spent the last six years popping Chimera skulls.

It may sound odd, but we'd gladly trade HD's so-so graphics and unruly physics for straight ports of Tony's first two PS1 installments.

It looks like a dungeon crawler but plays like an action RPG, yet it doesn't provide enough variety to make you want to come back for more. Its format gets repetitive far too quickly, and the only the thing that will keep your attention is knowing the fate of your character, even if you only played a small part in it.

Dragon Ball Z for Kinect is more a curiosity than a game, and even then one specifically aimed at DBZ fans. The one-two punch of nostalgia and novelty is appealing for a while, but thanks in large part to shoddy motion controls, later rounds will leave you waiting for a haymaker that just never comes.

None of the key features really hold up compared to other shooters, save for the appearance of Seth McFarlane and his crew of writers and actors. Even then, this would have made for a weakly written episode of the show. If it were down to a night with your buddies in front of the TV with a few drinks, then it would make for an alright rental.

Crimson Shroud is clearly Matsuno's labor of love, but it's a shame so many of its features failed in execution and proved more annoying in practice.

So the mechanics, narrative, and modes are poorly executed, but the very concept of a mobster strategy/tactics game can’t be denied. It’s a fantastic idea, and the novelty of feeling sort-of-almost-not-really like a mob boss will make the game enjoyable on occasion. Unfortunately, there’s not much here beyond a concept that you can only hope someone, someday will make a great game out of.

Alien Spidy's environmental aesthetic, cute characters, and charming music are alluring, but beneath those features is an unbalanced platforming adventure that can drive you mad. The controls are unreliable, and the difficulty spikes are incredibly harsh--especially when mixed the the game's environments, which can often become muddled as you try to discern interactive object with pretty set piece.

From a gameplay perspective, Star Trek is hindered by its unpolished character animations, clunky controls, and repetitive hacking minigames. While it can be entertaining to experience the return of the movie's cast to their roles as the beloved Star Trek characters, it's difficult to get past the gameplay's shortcomings.

The Hustle might aim to be an affordable budget diversion, but even a bargain price can't make this deeply flawed game worth buying.

State of Emergency 2 deserves a spot right next to 25 To Life, 187: Ride or Die, and Final Fight Streetwise as another title that's an urban nightmare for all the wrong reasons. Stop buying them, and hopefully they'll go away.

Plays more like a kind of arcade light-gun shooter with legs, and feels like it needed a better script and about six more months of development time.

One more thing: the swearing. Normally we don't mind, but the script for Streetwise sounds like it was written by a grade-schooler who'd just discovered cursing. Obscene language is overused to the point where the effect isn't gritty at all. In fact, it's just laughable.

With insanely repetitive, mindless action and completely unengaging character progression, Bounty Hounds withers and dies within its first hour.

The lousy racing also means that the reasonably attractive graphics go to waste, and that the only one of the middling engine sounds you’ll want to hear is your own, cooling down. At least the atrocious techno music is easily silenced.

But if you're looking for a fresh new take on the old, bubble-blowing action you remember so fondly, Bubble Bobble Revolution just plain blows.

Steel Horizon is its own poorly constructed ship, and unless you’re the captain - which you’re not - then abandon ship. Or, better yet, don’t even get on.

It doesn't help that the gameplay and story are unattractive twins, the runoff and trash of better RPGs.

The sum of these flaws is a total disconnect between what's occurring on the TV screen and what's occurring on your dance pad.

Unacceptable graphics, a chillingly dull fishing system and a cast of characters who lack any combine to make this a horrible excuse for a journey.

The Hustle might aim to be an affordable budget diversion, but even a bargain price can't make this deeply flawed game worth buying.

It's Dragon's Lair disguised as a brawler. There are a few extraneous bits like endurance arenas (beat them all to unlock the final boss!) and ship-based multiplayer combat (also not terribly well thought-out) but they can't distract from the fact that the core brawling gameplay is an absolute mess.

Cheap-looking graphics, pros represented by poorly-drawn caricatures, jerky animations, dark and murky game rooms... visually, this game's a mess. You've seen better maps in any 8-bit RPG.

Even training monsters has become a total chore; you have to set each task manually, instead of being able to set long-term training schedules. This is a de-evolution at best.

Nostalgic music and consistent art direction can't save a game from crippled controls, a mulish camera, and painfully tiresome reptition. Dawn of Mana is ultimately remarkable only for being such a bitter disappointment.

In the end, Stairway to H.E.A.V.E.N.'s gravest flaw is its beat-for-beat recreation of the original game's many problems. None of these issues are new, and they haven't been improved in any notable way since the first game.

Xiaolin Showdown is a bad game, plain and simple. In a genre where speed and chaos is an important part of gameplay, Xiaolin Showdown’s fights are out and outright tedious.

If you don't care how broken and rudimentary this game is as long as it's like the show, you're going to be in a fury in no time.

The only way you'd really want to play this game is if you're a diehard fan of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and The Flash and you don't mind beating up stupid robots for hours on end in dull levels.

Realistic? Yes. Fun? Not one bit. What's worse is that you have to sit and listen to the other fake players talk smack at the tables with the same four lines of speech. You'll be wise to quickly run to the Options menu and turn the sound off.

It's not fun, and it drives so off course from the show that it should be embarrassed. Graphics are ugly, minigames are dull, and there just isn't any will to plow through this.

The biggest problem with Acme Arsenal is that it doesn’t contain an inkling of the depth on display in the classic cartoons its levels attempt to emulate.

There’s some minigames and a wi-fi Battle mode, but good luck trying to play with a friend more than once. We wanted to adore Cookie & Cream; it’s a shame we only get a clumsy mess.

Of the game’s 100 levels, the majority are either totally uninspired or ridiculously difficult.

Avoid this one like the glowing radioactive ooze that it is.

Giving us eight play mode options to choose from is about as generous as giving a death row inmate choice of execution. Legend of the Dragon plays like a shitty banjo.

You’ll need the patience of Buddist monk to progress through the archaic Quest mode without consistently resorting to a cheap “Ring Out.”

We suspect that control scheme would work better if it emulated that found in games like Robotron 2084 or Geometry Wars - though that wouldn't be as authentic, it could make Tron a fantastic Live Arcade game. But as it is, this just doesn't work.

We advise you to save your sanity and leave Atlantis at the bottom of the ocean.

We can't help but feel Namco's overestimating our affection for Pac's smiling yellow puss if they thought that'd be enough to get gamers to enjoy this pathetic pile of remixed drivel.

This is what happens when games go bad... then worse... then are given to another developer to do a sequel in half the time and with a fourth of the budget. This one should have committed the ol' seppuku long ago.

We jumped online on several occasions and it appears there are so few people playing online that we found the same dudes in a lobby on totally different nights. It’s little wonder though why there are so few soldiers playing; in this game, being a soldier sucks.

The very concept of Jenga tilts towards mediocrity, but this game sends it collapsing into utter awfulness.

Shovelware may be a be considered a generally deplorable concept, but it would have been better than this dreck.

Ugly, last-gen visuals further dampen the fear factor. Muddy textures and low poly counts cause scenery and monsters to blend together into a murky mess.

Avoid this one unless you’re a sucker for dickhead aliens. The Path of the Furon leads straight to disappointment.

See, as the puzzles get bigger, you're actually forced to scroll them onto the screen, which will slow you down even more. Save your $10 for something more worthwhile. This isn't even a decent time-waster.

This is a game you should get free when you buy a bright orange hunting hat. It might offer a brief, quick killin' fix for some hunter-gamers, but won't offer much in terms of videogaming satisfaction, delicious meat or hours of fresh air.

This is a game you should get free when you buy a bright orange hunting hat. It might offer a brief, quick killin' fix for some hunter-gamers, but won't offer much in terms of videogaming satisfaction, delicious meat or hours of fresh air.

A boring, unrefined, too-short brawler that you'll forget the second you eject the disc. We've already gone blank; what were we talking about?

A boring, unrefined, too-short brawler that you'll forget the second you eject the disc. We've already gone blank; what were we talking about?

We might be able to forgive the game its sin of unoriginality and consumer whoring, but we can’t forgive them for taking the fun out of shaving a sheep. Tacked-on, twitchy controls; lousy graphics and all-round dull gameplay fraught with mindless minigames tank any hope a would-be virtual farmer might have of actually having fun on a farm.

But unless you routinely wear your Federation uniform in public, you're probably not rabid enough to get your money's worth from this one.

Unless you routinely wear your Federation uniform in public, you're probably not rabid enough to get your money's worth from this one.

Though largely inoffensive in its sloppiness, Alvin and the Chipmunks amounts to a forgettable budget title priced like a premium release this holiday season - as if you needed another reason to abstain from it.

Shamefully sparse.

It retains a base level of playability that is so often lacking from similar titles, but that's only because its myriad parts range from poor to horrifying in nature. Need we really say more?

At least it's not the worst of the Bold racing bunch – that'd be "Kawasaki Quad Bikes"... or maybe "Classic British Motor Racing." Guess they really are indistinguishable.

A racing game without speed is just plain pointless.

But even though forming custom parties with your favorite characters is a blast and the combat system feels fresh and satisfying, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian lacks soul.

Both the thrill of the hunt and the shock of its brutality are trivialised into non-existence by the threadbare graphics engine, anti-physics and tawdry interface.

While Crash & Dash may look like a racing game, it’s really more of a party game in a racer’s clothing. It has a few moments of fun, but is plagued by its dreary, repetitive minigames, questionable controls, and fundamental lack of strategy.

We can definitely see aspirations of greatness here, so it's too bad Toy Shop is so unpolished overall.

What little mature fun was to be had, including the cutscenes and dress-up mode are now nowhere to be found and the motion controls utterly wreck what should just be mindless zombie-goring fun.

Rock Revolution is inferior to its competition in every single possible way. If you absolutely have to try it, we urge you to think of it as a track pack of guitar-only songs for Rock Band or Guitar Hero and buy just the game (instead of the drums-included bundle).

Rock Revolution is inferior to its competition in every single possible way. If you absolutely have to try it, we urge you to think of it as a track pack of guitar-only songs for Rock Band or Guitar Hero and buy just the game (instead of the drums-included bundle).

Download the tunes and skip everything else.

This is the Sanjaya of rhythm action games – it makes a novel first impression, but you realize almost immediately that it’s only worthwhile if you like laughing at ineptitude.

That feeling of cheap, lazy design resonates throughout Dragonball: Evolution, a game that ultimately seems more concerned with how often it displays the faces of the film's cast rather than creating legitimate use for them.

Even in its most blatantly obvious moments, the game’s plot is still distinctly Indy - minus that whole fun aspect, of course.

Ultimately, Valhalla Knight: Eldar Saga suffers from an overall lack of polish, as well as being an all-around boring game. Only those starved for an action RPG should think of treading the lands of Eldar. Everyone else need not apply.

The drearily straightforward structure, broken camera and mindless action make it one that even the most dedicated Marvel fan won’t find much value in.

So, unless you like condescendingly easy adventure games where the gameplay is only loosely tied to the story at best, you’re better off reading a mystery novel instead.

G-Force for the PSP takes away any joy that might come from being a super-spy guinea pig and leaves a lousy, repetitive grind.

The main appeal of the DS version of The Bigs 2 is that it could be a nice introduction to baseball for kids. It’s relatively easy to play, and offers up a decent bit of strategy to go along with pitching and hitting. Other than that, though, it’s an eminently forgettable slice of an otherwise stellar franchise.

It's possible Armored Core 3 may well have offered something during the PS2 generation, but whatever relevance it might've had seven years ago - especially given its inelegant transition to the PSP - has long since passed.

Even the multiplayer comes up short by supporting just four players, though we assume the game would likely collapse upon itself if tasked with anything more. It's a shame to see such a sloppy effort from a stellar independent studio.

Even the multiplayer comes up short by supporting just four players, though we assume the game would likely collapse upon itself if tasked with anything more. It's a shame to see such a sloppy effort from a stellar independent studio.

In the end, despite the inkling that the designers had a couple of good ideas rattling around in there somewhere, Winter Voices simply fails to be much fun. Perhaps later iterations in the series will polish the AI, make combat more exciting, and fix the writing… but we doubt it.

Between the wide variety of locales, the impressive bits of character customization, and the myriad choices both big and small, this game had lofty ambitions. Sadly, the game does very few things right – the poor design and garbled English make this a sloppy offering that isn't worth your time or money.

We have a game that tries its best but still feels a half-decade behind, we have a guitar that isn't, and we have a drum kit so flawed it's almost offensive. Add it all together and take the average, and it comes out to a nice, even 3.

We have a game that tries its best but still feels a half-decade behind, we have a guitar that isn't, and we have a drum kit so flawed it's almost offensive. Add it all together and take the average, and it comes out to a nice, even 3.

Lord of Arcana has made a painfully deliberate attempt at riding the wave that Monster Hunter started, and lamentably, it's wiped out.

It's a £39.99 inferior remix of a £2.99 iPhone game with bad sound, bad graphics and shockingly slapdash collision logic. Not only is it the worst game of the 3DS' launch line-up, it's a contender for the title of 'worst launch game of all time'. Worse than Pen Pen. Worse than Tama. Worse even than Altered Beast. Do I really need to say it? Avoid.

Ghostbusters: SOS will break you down, challenging your patience and your goodwill toward the franchise. Even if you're a diehard Ghostbusters fan, don't let yourself be duped: this game is a waste of your $10.

From the very start of the game, it becomes quickly apparent that Rush'N Attack has nowhere to go but down. The visuals are ugly and look dated, it borrows the majority of its concepts from other better games and it simply is no fun to play.

From the very start of the game, it becomes quickly apparent that Rush'N Attack has nowhere to go but down. The visuals are ugly and look dated, it borrows the majority of its concepts from other better games and it simply is no fun to play.

An unpolished mess with few redeeming qualities other than a nifty premise.

Its biggest flaw is that it lacks spirit, which is ironic, since the game is actually trying to take your character's soul. Without a spark, though - even a stolen one - The Cursed Crusade has ended up damning itself.

Heavy Fire: Afghanistan is a game that really wants to be Call of Duty on rails, but it simply lacks the budget and creative license to pull any of it off. The game is just a cheap cash grab in every sense of the word. Even the most hardened on-rails gamers will find little to show for their tour in Afghanistan other than a severe case of PTSD.

The story is just supposed to string together the action sequences, which is where the strength of the game is supposed to shine. Unfortunately for NeverDead, it seems to have forgotten that essential element.

It's a complete misfire, and no amount of goofy skins or nifty track editors can make up for the seriously busted fundamentals.

Not only does Raccoon City not deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Valve's zombie-killing masterpiece [Left 4 Dead], a number of poor design choices, narrative missteps, and technical issues combine to make this one of the worst Resident Evil games to date.

Ninja Gaiden 3 has completely missed the point of everything that made the series great. Challenging combat, weapon variety, engaging enemies and the series' legendary difficulty have all been cut out in favor of a bland story, flashy finish moves, screen nukes, and button mashing.

From the dysfunctional camera to the bland and uninspired combat, it's an absolute chore to play through this game. It doesn't matter how great it looks on the outside - Bloodforge is rotten at its core.

The single-player feels like a series of demos strapped together, and the terrible AI only piles on more mediocrity, leading to an absolutely incomplete experience. The adequate multiplayer offering does give die-hard Call of Duty fans something to be excited about, but even that portion of the game feels slapdash and rushed.

We really wanted Bad Day L.A. to live up to its potential, which makes its suckitude feel even more than just bad; it's like a betrayal.

The minigames don't play any better with real-world opponents and the few games available for single-cart download play are not worth sharing.

A textbook example of how to screw up a sure thing, the Nintendo DS version of LEGO Star Wars II is easily the 'must avoid' release of the year. Other systems get a stylistically pure and super fun title. Meanwhile, the DS is saddled with a buggy, incomplete letdown that wastes your money and good will, deeply tarnishing LucasArts' reputation.

Maybe it's a good thing that there's no online play - it's best to keep these ugly player models, awkward animations and irritatingly short sound loops away from the internet, where they might breed and multiply.

If the GameCube could handle Metroid Prime's environments and beasties so beautifully, there's no reason the superior Wii can't deliver a first-person shooter worth remembering. Unfortunately, Far Cry Vegeance sure as hell isn't it.

Online minigames and a decent selection of cars don’t save Pocket Racers from being one of the worst rubber-burners on Sony’s portable system.

NRA Gun Club may be useful for demystifying gun ownership for wannabe weekend warriors, but it sure as hell doesn't qualify as much of a game. Even with its sub-$20 price tag, NRA Gun Club is just too overwhelmingly dull to take seriously.

If you have some disease that forces you to buy everything green and ninja-like, go for it. But then get help, man - digging this disaster is the gaming equivalent of eating donuts out of the garbage can; it just isn't healthy.

You'd think slamming shells the size of watermelons into heavily armed rolling metal fortresses would be hard to botch, but Tank Beat digs a design rut too deep for even the most ardent artillery lover to climb out of.

Can’t Sega even be bothered to finish making the game before trying to pawn it off on us? Placeholder graphics, unfinished textures and sloppy physics are just a few of the sadistic treats this game has to offer - and the suck doesn’t stop there.

We struggled to find the punch line in this abomination of half-assed execution and complete disregard for modern gameplay innovations.

And with only average graphics and no multiplayer modes to look forward to, the action quickly grows as old and moldy as the skeletons you're bashing through.

What you get from this DS disaster instead, is a headache without even half the heart of the novel.

Games this low-rent and unapologetically busted only come around a few times a year, but don't bother savoring this rare experience - Cruis'n is undoubtedly the worst Wii racer to date, and another blight on a franchise that has long suffered in home conversions.

With an eye toward putting on some beer goggles to make the game better, we turned to the bottle. Ping Cup has the potential to be a decent drinking game but, again, the controls were mixed.

If they had translated the aura of the film through more creative means in the actual gameplay and story, like they did with the art, instead of just recycling old dialogue and tossing in generic mini-games, Napoleon Dynamite: The Game might have been more of a success. As it is, however, we recommend staying far, far away.

Screwjumper is another one of those Live Arcade games that feels more like it should be a bonus mission in a more fully-realized title. And not a very good bonus mission, at that.

Showtime Championship Boxing would be a lousy looker two console generations ago; in 2008 it’s nothing short of a Mike Tyson-biting-ears-level embarrassment...Every aspect of Showtime Championship Boxing is baffling.

All signs point to Jumper: Griffin's Story being a by-the-numbers, quickly assembled cash-in, but selecting poor, early-gen original Xbox brawlers as the template was a grave mistake. Those games at least made us chuckle; Jumper only makes us wince.

Though largely inoffensive in its sloppiness, Alvin and the Chipmunks amounts to a forgettable budget title priced like a premium release this holiday season - as if you needed another reason to abstain from it.

If you can ignore the horrendous graphics, we defy you to overlook the technical flaws.

Kawasaki Quad Bikes is an example of branding at its most obvious coupled with poor attention to the basics.

Data Design must be stopped. Do not give them any more money. They are the equivalent of those movie studios that produce straight to DVD knockoffs of blockbusters in a cynical, lazy attempt to swindle cash from uninformed customers.

Even at $19.99 there is not a single redeeming quality worth justifying the expense. It’s time to just keep on truckin'.

Basically, they're hoping Wii owners will pay full price for the same poorly contrived mash-up of driving and minigames that's been collecting dust in the PS2, PSP, and Xbox 360 bargain bins for a while now.

It's crap. It’s like Crazy Taxi’s-not-quite-ready-to-hang-with-the-grown-ups little brother, complete with bad hair and pimples.

This may sound like a lot of customization, but every gameplay element is embarrassingly shallow.

As a final insult, some players are experiencing game-killing programming bugs that lock doors or remove crystals, making it literally impossible to complete the game. That is inexcusable.

Our disgust was solidified near the end of the six-hour campaign, as the PS2 version's final boss fight is astonishingly cut short to insert an hour-plus of new fetch quests. We understand padding the game a bit, but lazily dumping these bland challenges within seconds of what should have been the conclusion shows a total disregard for the players who slogged through hours of sloppy programming to get to that point. And if the developer doesn't care, neither should we.

It tries to blend the ideas of its predecessor with arcade sensibilities, and the outcome is a painful punch to the face you have to pay for.

Garbage.

Garbage.

There's no good reason to have this game in your home.

The Fight: Lights Out has very few redeeming qualities, none of which involve playing it, and it should be avoided at all costs. Don't play this game.

There is nothing inside Fighters Uncaged that makes it worthy of your money or your time. The only other plus to playing this title is the extreme exercise you receive due to over-compensating for the game's inaccuracy.

It's impossible to recommend Venetica to anyone when there are so many other better action-RPGs out there. You might be tempted to pick it up because it's only forty dollars, but don't do it... unless you've already played every other RPG on the market.

It's impossible to recommend Venetica to anyone when there are so many other better action-RPGs out there. You might be tempted to pick it up because it's only forty dollars, but don't do it... unless you've already played every other RPG on the market.

It's not worth one hour of your time. We couldn't even recommend this game to the most enthusiastic of JRPG fans. The story is a joke, the combat is uninspired, the quests are utterly banal and the characters are about as likeable as deep sea anglerfishes.

This game might be worth a few bucks on your iPhone, but not forty bucks on your 3DS. This title is so easy, uncomplicated, and unexciting that we can't recommend it for anyone.