Thor doesn't pop on Wii, thanks to a campaign anchored at times by repetitive combat and objectives, but die-hard fans burned out on Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 now have a suitably decent standalone option for taking the Norse comic hero for a spin around a few of the nine mythical worlds.

There is no joy to be found within the data contained on this disc. Only crushing disappointment, suffering, and weak shin muscles.

The controls -- namely character acceleration -- feel awkward and counterintuitive; for instance, you're forced to hold forward on the left stick to accelerate while also trying to steer your character. The tracks are a mishmash of right-angle turns and jumps that sometimes lead you down random paths, requiring several runs just find your way around the track.

From a game design standpoint, Extreme Challenge isn't bad, it just feels lazy; it's a collection of shallow minigames of variable quality that grow progressively more repetitive with time. Namco Bandai takes players on a monotonous minigame excursion that has some bright points but is simply attempting to to cash-in on the casual Wii demographic.

Perfect for those who want nothing but a straightforward, hack-and-slash game. It won't offer you substance, style, or even repeat gaming, but at least you won't need any illicit drugs to make your mind numb.

Even though the game eventually collapses under the weight of its own complexity, I'll give the developers credit for at least trying to break the mold with presentation, style, and gameplay.

Older and more seasoned players, however (along with PETA members), can safely abstain from this simple critter-caging diversion.

A super repetitive punch-and-kick fest.

Unless you're one of those die-hard fanatics that simultaneously weep and scream at the sight of MJ, it's unclear who would be interested in dancing to 26, largely questionable, songs.

If you have any sort of good taste in games whatsoever, please do not buy this game -- instead, have someone else buy it, laugh at him, and then make fun of the title together over a Sunday afternoon. It's a short game, besides.

Developer A2M gets a thumbs-up for effort on this focused iteration, but Iron Man's on-the-go heroics are largely average in practice.

Even if 90 percent of the monsters you use said spells against are giant snails, battles are much more interesting than just tapping away at the X button over and over.

It doesn't bring anything new to the table, and while its party games provide some casual fun, it relies far too heavily on the Viva Piñata license for the bulk of the entertainment.

To a fan, if you can get over the fighting's sluggish pace, there's much nostalgia to be had. For the rest, this is one ghost file that best remains closed.

The only thing that makes RF Online stand out is its unique art and setting, and that doesn't count for a lot when the game world and background story has the depth of a kiddie pool.

No matter the situation, whether you're sneaking around a dark building or barreling through a shopping mall with three police cars in pursuit, you always feel on edge, as if you're living the 007-like "danger is my middle name" lifestyle at all times.

Just a bad shooter in its bones. Whether the cops or the robbers win a matchup is still mostly dependent on who gets there first and camps out with line-of-sight to the objective. Lack of locational damage means hitting someone with a sniper shot is going to make them half dead whether the bullet hits someone in the face or the ankle. Other than the tweaks mentioned earlier the vast litany of complaints we had about the game the first time around still stands.

If there ever was a game destined to attract a cult following for its strange design decisions, Colosseum is definitely it.

I was so frustrated at the game, the entire experience was comically agonizing, sort of like a newer Martin Short "film" that tries to be funny but winds up being hilarious for all the wrong reasons.

The act of reloading requires you to physically slide the bullets into the gun with the stylus. Sounds simple (doesn't it always?), but it's not. In fact, it's frustratingly unresponsive.

As good as the tactical and strategy elements are, frequent lockups, glitches, and a limited amount of crucial onscreen information hamper the overall package.

The only reason that Prince Caspian doesn't utterly fail is that it does feature the occasionally interesting puzzle. However, figuring out a clever, well-thought-out solution only made the otherwise forced and repetitive nature of the rest of the game seem that much worse by comparison.

The enemy AI tends to be pathetically stupid. Whole garrisons of enemies stand around waiting for you to attack, and when you do they simply charge your men and chaos ensues.

Although it's not a great game, it is worth investing time in, and one that grows on you in less than a half-dozen missions.

Even without the technical issues, Shrek would have been average at best. But when an already mediocre game comes complete with the types of problems plaguing this product, it's impossible to recommend it at all.

While it's apparent that Studio Gigante toiled away long nights to perfect character realism, it's equally obvious that perfecting the remaining chunk of the game didn't keep them quite as occupied.

Quirk enthusiasts will be disappointed, mainstream gamers will only find more to support their suspicions about those "weird" games, and Capcom is in danger of believing that small, strange games like this won't do well.

Ultimately, Start The Party! is an inoffensive suite of party-centric minigames; they range from amusing distractions to boring EyeToy Play rehashes.

It certainly holds up better than certain other Mini titles, which shall of course remain nameless. Provided you can get past the fact that multiplayer is but a fleeting dream, the solo experience isn't bad at all.

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.

Combine that frustration with the almost insultingly shallow combat and it's hard to get too excited about jumping back into the game more than once or twice.

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

With three friends on a couch with you, this is a solid 7. Considering that friends and a couch don't come in the box, it's more of a 3. I'm going to compromise and call it a 4.5.

Objectively, this first Watchmen episode is just an average brawler that looks fantastic at times, and has some good voice acting to boot.

A ton of side missions offer varying entertainment value, plenty of doodads to collect and power Hulk up with, and even a few cool alternate character skins for the green guy to wear. But I can't just quietly ignore the fact that a similar, but far better Hulk game (the best superhero game, for my money) sits on my shelf at home, and is readily available for anyone to track down.

While your first few moments with Grave Danger might actually fool you into thinking it could be fun -- especially if you're getting some co-op play on -- you'll ultimately be brought back to painful, boring reality.

On the whole, Haze isn't outright terrible or broken -- it's just unsatisfying and misguided and would have been merely average on the Xbox and PS2.

The broken controls, derivative enemies, and maddening attack moves remove any ounce of fun. The saving graces are the cut-scenes, but we don't even <I>play</I> that part. So in short, it's at its best when you're not touching the controls, and when a game plays this badly, you don't want to.

Street-racing nuts won't get the satisfaction they want, while fans of the original Rush franchise will be disappointed that their favorite series has been reduced to another ride-pimpin' also-ran.

It was only a matter of time until the PSP caught microgame madness, and while it's fun in bursts, it's also derivative and disappointingly insincere.

Eventually, the alternation between dull platforming and frustrating adventure just murdered my initial interest in the setting and characters. Insecticide, you won my heart...and then you broke it. But at least you did it quickly.

But Movies is a videogame, not an acting studio; it's the game parts that wear thin, becoming more tedious than fun. Ultimately, Movies is that type of game you only bring out at parties, and even then, your guests will probably ask to play Rock Band or Guitar Hero instead.

A satisfying role-playing experience, as long as you know what you're getting yourself into. Hardcore players may actually lament the slight ease in difficulty and the fact that the game doesn't give them the character development freedom it really should. But as far as portable RPGs go, you could do a lot worse than Hoshigami.

The inevitable conclusion, a showdown with the final boss, should sensibly have been the one part of the game to slip into classic Bomberman battle mode. Instead, it's just another retread of one of the less interesting minigames. Imagine all that buildup with not even an explosion to be seen. How fitting.

Sadly, SCT3 just doesn't have the chops to go beyond mediocrity, regardless of bells and whistles.

Like most third-person action games, Bullet Witch has its share of problems, but it was designed with considerable replay value in mind for those who find the game's sweet spot.

While there's gobs of visual polish, including a vast array of impressive generic player heads, 09's gameplay double dribbles in too many key spots, making this little more than a palatable No. 6 seed -- it's worth supporting if you're a rabid fan of the sport, but it's far from Final Four material.

Dance Dance Revolution X broadly sidesteps innovation and serves up another entry where enjoyment's purely a function of how much you like the set list. If you own any other DDR games, particularly last year's SuperNOVA 2, it's hard to recommend shelling out cash for this one -- aside from the new tunes, I've seen it all before.

The game's biggest hang-up is that it's simply too hard to tell what's going on half the time. Infantry dissolve into bombed-out backgrounds and balk at inexact selection, and enemy AT and artillery always crouch just out of sight and in perfectly staggered waves, reliably razing your shrewdest scouts.

It's just addicting enough for you to stick it out for the entirety of the game, but unless you're in the mood for a stress headache you probably won't bust it out again.

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.

It's a bad game, but it's a bad game with aspirations, and every so often it manages to entertain in spite of its gaping, hideous flaws.

The real shock is that, nearly 14 months later, Chosen One doesn't live up to the tech, the style, or the ambition of EA's "Homecourt." The game has far too many flaws -- and far too little polish and juice to make it worth playing.

Vaguely addictive.

This sort of do-nothing port is only going to alienate players and further reinforce the stereotype that the genre simply doesn't work on console systems.

If Capcom spices up the battle system a bit and hires some new writers, they may be able to create another Mega Man game worth playing...but until then, I'm keeping Star Force off the air.

The looseness of Conflict: Vietnam, from the lack of comfortable and immediate controls to the boring progression of the game, just doesn't cut it. While the idea of squad-driven combat set in the tense, emotionally-charged setting of Vietnam has potential, Conflict: Vietnam falls short in execution.

Outside of pushing around so many characters onscreen, which was really incredible back when the PS2 was brand-spankin'-new, the presentation in Samurai Warriors 2 leaves a lot to be desired. Architecture pops up all over the place, warriors materialize out of thin air on a regular basis, and slowdown is frequent. And the dialogue and voice acting is often laughable.

Via Domus is fan service through and through, and does deliver one genuinely amazing moment via its ending.

A ton of side missions offer varying entertainment value, plenty of doodads to collect and power Hulk up with, and even a few cool alternate character skins for the green guy to wear. But I can't just quietly ignore the fact that a similar, but far better Hulk game (the best superhero game, for my money) sits on my shelf at home, and is readily available for anyone to track down.

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.

The derivative nature of the plot goes hand-in-hand with the completely unimaginative gameplay. Nothing here is original -- the RPG-in-a-computer gimmick is straight up .hack, and the action feels like martial arts-oriented Mega Man Legends.

It's never a good sign when I nearly fall asleep while playing a game...multiple times.

If Capcom spices up the battle system a bit and hires some new writers, they may be able to create another Mega Man game worth playing...but until then, I'm keeping Star Force off the air.

It's a messy button-masher that makes you really wish it had been able to realize its potential. Don't write it off completely, though...let's talk again in about six months.

But retro compilations are practically a dime a dozen these days, and next to the likes of "Namco Museum Battle Collection" and "Capcom Classics Collection," the games enshrined here show both their age and a general lack of inspiration.

WALL-E's just a bunch of schlock that shares a marketing department with a much, much better movie.

Point-and-click adventures can be great, but more often than not they end up being tedious and mundane. CSI: Miami falls squarely into the latter category, despite the high production values and being so faithful to the source material.

If you have a younger sibling or a rugrat of your own, sure, it may well be worth dropping 30 bucks on this thing to express your affection or shut them up or whatever you need to do. You probably just won't want it for yourself.

Though I'm open to new possibilities and reinterpretations of Mario Party, playing this game made me want to just jump on my Gamecube and play the original console versions -- even if I have to play against 3 CPU players because frankly, being the only player on a board game that's advertised as a party is just disheartening.

The real shock is that, nearly 14 months later, Chosen One doesn't live up to the tech, the style, or the ambition of EA's "Homecourt." The game has far too many flaws -- and far too little polish and juice to make it worth playing.

While the online play is a mess, the offline content is definitely worth a run-through, as well as the $3.99 price tag.

If this were a $20 budget title, then it'd be worth a purchase. But at the Xbox 360 standard $60 at the register, there's no way you should bother with Import Tuner Challenge. Wait for "Need For Speed Carbon," instead.

But the game feels low-budget and leaves more questions than answers, and the underlying "math" theme isn't exactly the best implementation of the puzzle system.

El Matador's story, characters, and gameplay add nothing new to the shooter genre. There's nothing here that's stupendously bad, but nothing good that's memorable either.

There's a thin line between awful and pointless, and Night Watch manages to wobble like a poorly spun top right in the middle, sporadically teetering too far into awful before righting itself, then drifting over to pointless territory. Again and again and again.

Objectively, this first Watchmen episode is just an average brawler that looks fantastic at times, and has some good voice acting to boot.

Absolutely nothing about Rise of the Argonauts stands out as special, and just when you think the game's about to take a turn for the better (at least in terms of reworking the Jason and the Argonauts story), its fundamental and technical problems -- including some annoying loading times in the Xbox 360 version -- bring it way back down.

Black Knight is a competent action game starring Sonic and friends, but one that's replaced the classic gameplay Sonic fans seek with overly simple swordplay. It'll do the trick just fine for younger players still infatuated with the blue porcupine, but everyone else will likely be just as let down as I was.

A decent buy for those of us who desire a competent, if not great, karting simulator. The fact that there's so little in the way of options and series to run can be forgiven considering the low price tag.

Towards the end, the game kind of gives up on itself. The final two levels are overly repetitive, followed by a trio of boss fights in outer space that are twice as long and annoying (but just as easy) as the previous ones. And then... it's over.

It's hard to imagine Battle Chip Challenge appealing to anyone but the tiny, dedicated group of MMBN link battlers to whom it's a love letter.

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.

Its real failing, though, is that it is difficult to a fault, and again, in solo play, a lot of victories or losses will be chalked up to chance. If you put a lot of stock into multiplayer, though, you could do a whole lot worse than boogying with these bunnies.

Rocket Bowl can be a brief and pleasant diversion for minigolf fans or those who enjoy the idea of fantasy bowling with a new set of rules, but others may want to ball outta control elsewhere.

Best taken in short bursts, the King's solo effort is a decent romp through the world of fast-food capitalism, but only if one can stomach the incredibly frustrating camera and challenges that don't quite test the ol' reflexes.

At its core, Spikeout is what "The Bouncer" always wanted to be, but never was, a fast, action-packed brawler with little pretense to being anything else.

Via Domus is fan service through and through, and does deliver one genuinely amazing moment via its ending.

Stacked does have one hook (aside from the Negreanu name), but it's not a terribly compelling one. You're in control of a customizable avatar, and you can convey some basic poker information through your character via frowning, smiling, calling tentatively, or raising aggressively. Trying to simulate body language and table presence is a fine idea, but with such limited options it's more a gimmick than a viable gambit.

Nothing to write home about.

We found ourselves having some good beat-em-up fun, even if we found a way to exploit [its] game mechanics. But [the] storyline felt like it was thrown together in a few minutes, not really giving us much reason to want to go on. Maybe it would have been better being based on the movie, after all.

All the extra content and intriguing exploration aspects are rendered null and void by the fact that you'll spend the majority of your time babysitting health bars, though. The developers at Hudson nailed the survival aspect a little too well -- now they just need to work on making it fun.

It's the game part of this game that stinks, and the rest of it should have just been a DVD.

Average at best, and a shining example of a control scheme struggling to find its strengths in a full game.

Playing as Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu, unraveling the mysteries that mirror and expand upon the book and movie's stories, you'll be forced to solve a mystery called "find the fun."

This could have been the best Virtual-On ever, and instead it's easily the worst.

If you spend large chunks of free time debating the relative merits of Captain Picard and Captain Kirk, there's probably a teensy bit of enjoyment to wring out of this bare-bones game.

FaceBreaker is fine if you want to mindlessly mash buttons and beat the hell out of friends, but if you want a deep, balanced boxing game, look elsewhere.