Combining pinball, real-time strategy elements, and voice-recognition commands into a ball (pun unintended), Odama straddles the line between 'whack' and 'wacky.'

There's some frame-skipping when things get really frantic, which is often, but it doesn't murder the experience.

Worth a tour if you really loved the movie, but maybe less so if you've already played the hell out of Vice City. We can't really blame Scarface for the familiarity of the setting, but the fact remains that we've been here before.

Had the developers made it about 30 percent smaller, cut the fat, and tightened its assorted good qualities, they may have realized its true potential and produced something special. As is, nothing's intrinsically bad about Two Worlds -- but neither is anything memorably good.

FlatOut basically feels like a slightly more frustrating successor to the original "Destruction Derby" series on the PlayStation 1 (well, the first two games).

It's kind of a cakewalk. You won't feel pressed to utilize just the right combos for a given situation, and health boosts are generously doled out. Even the highest difficulty is pretty forgiving.

The game's not realistic enough to satisfy sim fans...and it's too realistic to be as fun as Rainbow's previous games. It tries too hard to be a jack-of-all-trades, and masters almost none.

The whole thing skates dangerously close to the "edutainment" realm by building its core mechanic around reading comprehension and deductive reasoning, but then again, DS gamers weaned on Brain Age will likely welcome the cerebral stimulation.

Sims 2 for consoles is definitely not on par with the depth and ingenuity that its PC sibling offers but it's refreshing to play a relaxed version of the game that doesn't require as much surveying and emotional input.

The graphics have improved since this game made its debut on the PS2. They still don't look great, with very plain character designs and horrendously boring backgrounds, but technically, the improvement makes this the better version of the game. If only by a little.

Ultimately, skipping Konquest mode altogether doesn't seem like such a bad idea, considering that all the characters are unlocked from the start, which was the main reason to play through Konquest mode on the home consoles.

Sims 2 for consoles is definitely not on par with the depth and ingenuity that its PC sibling offers but it's refreshing to play a relaxed version of the game that doesn't require as much surveying and emotional input.

First among F.E.A.R.'s transgressions is the nauseating framerate. This isn't me being metaphorical here; the framerate in this game is so bad that it literally made me feel nauseated after any appreciable playtime. We're talking about something in the realm of 20 fps; that's just inexcusable for an FPS.

It's by no means a bad game, and is certainly a very admirable effort in the context of the Rush franchise, but its contemporaries ultimately outclass it.

It can't provide the immersive realism of its console counterparts, but it does manage to recreate all the fun of playing with ants and matchbox cars -- especially if you liked blowing them up and setting them on fire.

The accessibility gives it decent chops as a party game, and the unlockables give it fanboy cachet, but it's simply time for Capcom and Bandai to rethink this enterprise.

You never quite reach the same pumped-up heights you get while playing similar games, like "NBA Ballers" or "NBA Street" -- and despite the tricks, online play, and generally responsive controls, it would take a serious interest in the AND 1 legacy to maintain any level of interest in this game.

But the grand experiment of translating stylus swipes into intuitive no-look passes and alley-oops fails more often than it works, and that's the big "if" upon which the whole thing hangs.

Episode II offers hints of excellence, but few of them have anything to do with the gameplay.

A completely standard beat 'em up with nothing innovative, nothing that stands out, and a number of features that have been less than ideally copied from other games. Beyond that, it's a decent title.

A potentially great game with flawed execution. Still, the Inside Edge scouting reports are the best addition to any sports franchise ever; they should drive sim fans wild.

When Tactical Strike works, it works really, really well. In spite of the soul-crushing frustration I experienced, those moments of genius made it worth soldiering on for me. If you have an extraordinarily high tolerance for cheap deaths, long load times, and insubordination, you could have a pretty darn good time with this game.

OK, the individual missions may not all be epic, but the side story of this renegade squadron (whose tale weaves in and out of the events from the original movies) is one worth seeing through. (Hey, you can be done by lunchtime.)

When played on a PC, where you can tweak both the settings and the hardware to get solid performance, Quake 4 works because of it. Without those options on the 360 you're stuck, unable to really get into it because just about the time you do, the framerate breaks. And with that, the moment is gone.

Worth a tour if you really loved the movie, but maybe less so if you've already played the hell out of Vice City. We can't really blame Scarface for the familiarity of the setting, but the fact remains that we've been here before.

The main problem here is that it feels like Legends should have been a side mode in a proper Soulcalibur rather than its own game. There are some good ideas, but it doesn't feel like a complete game.

The final problem for me is that Nightshade doesn't provide nearly enough of an incentive to rise to the challenge.

Nothing else holds up to the visuals -- not the music, not the script, not the gameplay. Seriously, it's like you've managed to combine the worst bits of your own games along with the most annoying excesses of Japanese RPGs and came up with something so indescribably bland as to defy logic.

Perhaps the weakest addition is a new targeting mode that allows the actual aiming of shots.

Broken World does offer everything an expansion should, after all: new game elements, new characters, tons of content, and fan-suggested tweaks. But, somehow, it still isn't all that much fun. The only conclusion to draw from this evidence is that the base game isn't very compelling in and of itself.

For those who want a title like this on the PSP, there's a game to love hidden down deep in here. You just have to dig through a bunch of technical obstacles to get to it.

Other than the simple pleasure of playing in a sandbox and building a really cool version of the Big Apple, TCNY offers players little incentive to keep on trudging through it.

The game's not realistic enough to satisfy sim fans...and it's too realistic to be as fun as Rainbow's previous games. It tries too hard to be a jack-of-all-trades, and masters almost none.

What "Made in Wario" makes drastically evident is just how slow-paced Mario Party 5 is.

Compared to the majority of kiddie-oriented crap that's clogging up the GBA's arteries in its advanced age, MQ3 is downright fantastic.

This game is so boldly beautiful, but the gameplay just doesn't live up to the Champions League standard. The card-game element is superb, but the rest of the package doesn't completely justify the $60 price tag.

It's perfect for players who love kill-everything-that-moves games like "Dynasty Warriors" and movies like "300." It's not so perfect for those who fancy themselves "true" Shining Force aficionados, though.

The repetition waters down the game until you're left with the ridiculously overdone story -- which, admittedly, is all the die-hard fans really want and probably good enough for the financial bottom line. So to say "fans will love it" is not a lazy end to a review -- in this case, it's the plain truth.

Sims 2 for consoles is definitely not on par with the depth and ingenuity that its PC sibling offers but it's refreshing to play a relaxed version of the game that doesn't require as much surveying and emotional input.

It's still a good game -- lovely, and a little tired. But these days, even a favorite old dog like UT needs to learn more than a few new tricks.

No single aspect will blow you away, but there's enough variety, the puzzles are fun, the controls work well, and you keep moving quickly, so it's a fun ride that's unlikely to bore you unless you try to play through it a second time.

Perhaps the weakest addition is a new targeting mode that allows the actual aiming of shots.

Farming's hard, tedious, repetitive work. And don't let anyone tell you different.

If framerate problems doesn't annoy you, then the stupidity of the A.I. may force you to say, "that sh*t is wow, bananas." Enemies are stricken by stupidity, as they'll simply stand there and allow you shoot the living daylights out of them.

The uninspired title selection and painfully compromised presentation are heartbreaking disappointments, given the sheer amount of effort and love that Konami clearly put into the rest of the package. It's like sitting down for a meal at a four-star restaurant and opening the sterling silver lid covering your china plate...to find a cold White Castle burger sitting there.

I don't dislike this game. Aside from a few minor graphical bugs and hiccups, BlackSite is unquestionably competent at what it does. It's just that what it does isn't particularly notable, or innovative, or memorable -- in either a good or a bad way. It's not even memorably mediocre. It's just...diverting, for 10 hours or so. You could say worse things about a game.

What seemed really cool back when Namco first announced the original Dead to Rights -- the sweet disarming animations -- just aren't enough to carry another repetitive action game for more than a few levels.

Where's Knuckles Chaotix, one of the few decent games to see the light of day on Sega's abortive 32X system? Or how about Sonic Pocket Adventure for the forgotten Neo Geo Pocket Color? And what about the surprisingly competent Master System ports of Sonic and Sonic 2?

If you can stomach the somewhat random difficulty during the single-player campaign, you'll be treated to a mostly exhilarating trip through the different battles of Europe, including a virtual take on the Battle of the Bulge.

If anything, the engaging battle system shows Eternal Sonata's massive untapped potential -- if the rest of the experience had been as fleshed out, we might be talking about the first great 360 RPG. This isn't a bad game per se; the biggest problem is that there's just not enough of a game here.

Worth a tour if you really loved the movie, but maybe less so if you've already played the hell out of Vice City. We can't really blame Scarface for the familiarity of the setting, but the fact remains that we've been here before.

If getting the mechanics right is enough for you, there is more than enough here to keep you busy for quite a while.

In its current state, and for those who just want a single-player RPG, this is recommended to D&D diehards only, who are probably the only ones with enough goodwill to slog through the problems. Everyone else -- wait awhile. A great RPG is in here somewhere; it's just not ready yet.

Sure, it's derivative as hell, but there's nothing getting in the way of actually enjoying the game now.

Though it's improving each year, SmackDown vs. Raw could really use some friendly (or TNA's case, not-so-friendly) competition.

Even if some parts are lackluster there's not much that's truly awful about it, and its unique elements are more than enough to make up for things like the handful of missions spoiled by suicidal Allies.

If you're a longtime fan, Redemption simply gives you more of what you want with no radical changes -- so in that regard, aficionados will likely be satisfied. Generally speaking, .hack has a neat idea, but the games just can't quite balance the concept with an action-RPG play style.

This lack of ambition keeps Genji from achieving any enduring success...it'll suffice for launch-time thrills, but likely won't linger long in your mind.

The game looks like a "Viewtiful Joe" mod with midlevel animated comic-book panels, complimented by decent voice acting to help progress the story. Still, it feels like a hollow adventure.

The original Halo's story was better.

May not be an outstanding game, but darn it if it isn't enjoyable. Its biggest fault is its lack of inspiration.

It's by no means a bad game, and is certainly a very admirable effort in the context of the Rush franchise, but its contemporaries ultimately outclass it.

Simple? Yes. Fun? Well, only if repetition is your thing. But while the various controllable pirates (Capt. Jack Sparrow, Will Turner, and so on) are mostly identical, at least character-unique, trigger-based sword fatalities offer something different.

Oftentimes the game will thrust you into difficult, unexpected situations with little warning; try-and-die when you only have a few attempts before starting the fairly lengthy levels all over again, is frustrating.

In short, this is a completely standard beat 'em up with nothing innovative, nothing that stands out, and a number of features that have been less than ideally copied from other games. Beyond that, it's a decent title.

Is NASCAR 07 a game, or a simulation? Well, yet again it's neither, and EA Tiburon has failed for the second year running to strike the glorious balance that it achieved with "NASCAR 05." It's certainly not "bad," but it's hardly the definitive game of the genre.

It's clear the team at Renegade Kid has plenty of talent and potential, and the creepy atmosphere and unique controls make the game worth a look for survival-horror fans with lots of patience -- there's not really anything else like it on the DS. Just be aware that the most of the screams the game elicits have nothing to do with the onscreen horror.

All told, unless you've got a special place in your heart for this white-eyed, blue-skinned, four-in-one sci-fi warrior, you'll come away with an experience you'll likely forget within a few days -- and a newfound appreciation for the better shooters.

Fine graphics notwithstanding -- this year's model has better arenas, improved sell animations, and much more dynamic camera presentation -- Day of Reckoning isn't much fun to play alone.

It's difficult to ignore some of the more frustrating moments.

It's just a damn shame that the nigh-amazing "The Rocketeer versus UFOs" premise crashes hard into "tepid Gears of Uncharted knock-off" ground.

At 1,200 Microsoft Points on Xbox Live and $15 on PSN, Madden Arcade simply isn't the bargain of the $10 NHL Arcade. While it's $5 more, the experience isn't appreciably better -- in fact, I'd peg it as slightly worse.

Nothing to write home about.

Metro 2033's A.I. is terribly stupid and there's not enough variety in the weapons; yet despite all that it's still a compelling game to play.

A title that isn't all that great and doesn't make a hell of lot of sense.

Quest is easy to pick up and put back down, especially with the chapters-in-a-book framework. The swordplay is far from perfect and the adventuring itself overly simplistic sure, but its accessibility is, ultimately, its most prevailing quality.

Little maintenance problems tend to go wrong (i.e., the A.I. issues), and Pro Evo for the current generation of powerful systems obviously needs some new paint. It seems that the development team did just enough to get by.

All that really matters here is if you like the idea of a very simple, kid-oriented brawler featuring cute versions of Marvel characters. The rest of the game falls in line adequately.

The repetitive grinding stretches a cool combat concept thin, and harshly takes away any feeling of accomplishment. It's a shame that the harsh penalties feel so unbalanced, transforming Sakura from a visually charming adventure into a repetitive and often unfair endurance run.

And speaking of multiplayer, that's about all you'll want Multiwinia for. Repetitive maps, exploitable A.I., and a lack of any backstory or plot whatsoever hamper the single-player mode. That said, the game does have "multi" in its title, and for the price (about $20), you could do worse for an online time-waster.

Nostalgia is determined to make its way in a crowded market on sweetness alone. It's charming and competent, but you can do much better on the DS. In this lousy economy, with so many quality alternatives, Nostalgia's attempt at repurposing fond memories isn't quite good enough.

In the end, I felt that Discovery was a smart representation of Assassin's Creed on the DS, but the game feels a little incomplete. Ezio, and you, has no real end goal other than to survive and get back to the main quest... in the console version of Assassin's Creed 2.

I fully expected EA to lay it on thick with the clichéd martial arts mumbo jumbo, but aside from oft-repeated comments from the sensei, the ninja theme is thankfully understated, and the clean visuals are more than adequate for the simplistic mechanics.

For its six-hour playthrough (you can extend that by unlocking alternate characters, but they're so unmemorable and non-gameplay changing, that they provide no incentive to play through again), Wanted: Weapons of Fate is at best a competent, fire-and-forget movie game -- not much more nor less.

Although Shadows of the Damned has fun and interesting moments, the end product turns out to be a decent to slightly above average shooter that, at times, feels a little bland.

Although Shadows of the Damned has fun and interesting moments, the end product turns out to be a decent to slightly above average shooter that, at times, feels a little bland.

Adults still captivated by the Lego formula will probably find more to like in the shinier console versions, but if you know a young Dark Knight-in-training, Lego Batman for DS offers enough competent (but largely unexciting) action and unlockables to keep 'em busy for some time.

GoldenEye's heyday is long gone, and Solace relies too much on nostalgia and imitation to be anything close to the next shooter milestone.

The game is filled with lots of good and well-executed ideas, but they all seem to exist independently of one another. It's a popcorn movie that clearly took a good deal of talent to pull together, but comes up short of creating the grand adventure that it seems to be trying for.

In the heat of this action, The Conduit comes closest to realizing its aspirations to become the first epic shooter for the Wii. By comparison, the best moments in single-player only highlight the missed potential for The Conduit to be more than the rather ordinary game it turned out to be.

As with so many boldly innovative games, Avalon proves that the main downside to new and untested ideas is that they've yet to be refined into something that works smoothly. There's a lot of quality content here for anyone with the patience to suffer through the clumsy implementation in which it's presented. Yet despite these incentives, Avalon ultimately feels like a promising prototype for a brilliant game that has yet to be created.

Coming back to the franchise after several years away has been frustrating for me, because it reminds me how good these Mega Man RPGs could be... and also how little Capcom has actually done to realize the concept's potential. There's the foundation here for something great, but the games continue to plod along in unambitious mediocrity.

I fully expected EA to lay it on thick with the clichéd martial arts mumbo jumbo, but aside from oft-repeated comments from the sensei, the ninja theme is thankfully understated, and the clean visuals are more than adequate for the simplistic mechanics.

Coming back to the franchise after several years away has been frustrating for me, because it reminds me how good these Mega Man RPGs could be... and also how little Capcom has actually done to realize the concept's potential. There's the foundation here for something great, but the games continue to plod along in unambitious mediocrity.

Shattered Memories gives you something to think about, even if you don't feel like you have direct control over how events transpire -- a result of the game's non-binary, open-ended decisions, both in how you play the game and in the "psychological profiles" you undergo.

If nothing else, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is an apt representation of what you'd expect from a Transformers movie: a disposable, explosion-laden piece of mindless entertainment featuring robots beating the crap out of each other.

It's perfect for people looking for a quick gaming fix, but lacking in long-term replayability.

I want to like Flashpoint 2, but instead, I just feel like the game is telling me: "war is hell, sorry."