The game shines particularly bright in the Total Team Control mode, which allows you to hook up online with nine other players for 5-on-5 basketball. This mode simulates the experience of playing an actual game of basketball more closely than any videogame I've played.

At times like this, it's a wonder that adventure games ever went off the rails.

But be patient, put in the dedicated time, research, and strategic planning, and Sunshine Islands will reward you satisfactorily.

Devotees will immediately recognize Retro Evolved 2's myriad improvements.

I commend the game's focus on simplicity -- Trials HD doesn't have gratuitous power-up integration and smartly avoids an unnecessary Jump button. And the game is rife with content: the heavily replayable 42-stage campaign complements the Skill Games mode and the easy-to-use level editor.

You could easily fill an entire review with the grocery list of games from which Outland cribs its gameplay elements -- Ubisoft's own marketing specifically calls out Ikaruga and Prince of Persia as "inspirations," for heaven's sake. But doing so seems unnecessarily reductive to me, because Outland manages to take those "inspirations" and create something that feels like genuine innovation.

But is Sports Champions a "killer app?" Not exactly, but, as you might guess, the multiplayer is a lot more fun than single-player.

You could easily fill an entire review with the grocery list of games from which Outland cribs its gameplay elements -- Ubisoft's own marketing specifically calls out Ikaruga and Prince of Persia as "inspirations," for heaven's sake. But doing so seems unnecessarily reductive to me, because Outland manages to take those "inspirations" and create something that feels like genuine innovation.

Origins' brilliance is it keeps that simplicity on the surface, but ends up feeling incredibly varied thanks to its level design.

New control schemes that work this well have been long overdue in baseball games, especially when you consider that we've been hanging onto the standard pitch meter for the past eight years. It's time to move on and analog controls are the first step in the right direction.

Origins' brilliance is it keeps that simplicity on the surface, but ends up feeling incredibly varied thanks to its level design.

The fact that it does something genuinely different than the rest of the genre earns it a lot of goodwill from me; if DOW2 really was just the expected "COH in space" or "DOW with spiffy graphics," then those flaws would be intolerable. So yes, I love it, flaws and all. Besides, watching Assault Marines or Stormboyz fly in the air and slam down onto some fools doesn't get old.

As a game steeped in immediacy, Mirror's Edge is an absolute must-play despite its idiosyncrasies. And as a pied piper for progressive design in first-person gaming, it's all the more important.

Evolution evolves the series, and it does so wonderfully. I suspect a future follow-up will involve a complete overhaul, but until then, GTR Evolution -- and Nordschleife in particular -- is where every good driver should be.

Sacred 2 turns out to be a great couch game, largely because you can play co-op with a friend at your side. But the real surprise is that the folks at Ascaron managed to create a mostly-great interface for the XB360 and PS3 controller, giving you faster and easier access to more combat abilities than you could use in the PC version.

Mass Effect 2 is a fantastic game regardless of platform, and anyone who doesn't own an Xbox 360 should definitely experience it on PS3. Nevertheless, the 360 version is still the way to go. The continuity of customization offered by the dozens of decision links between the first two games were easily the most satisfying thing about ME2, and that's largely lost on PS3.

Even without multiplayer, Torchlight makes for a remarkably entertaining 10 to 15 hours, with plenty more custom content to come thanks to the powerful game editor TorchED, which you can download free of charge.

Though it occasionally stumbles, there's one thing that Bad Company 2 clearly demonstrates: DICE has graduated from the, "can only do a multiplayer FPS" class, and is perfectly capable of making a great all-around game.

Most of the game, though, achieves its goal, keeping you off balance but entertained. Experiences like the grimy claustrophobia that comes from wearing a decades-old gas mask as flames lick around you or being caught in a tense chase through an old cabin will stick with you. With rock-solid gameplay and plenty of creeps, Bloodshot finds its soul by making your heart race.

Overlord 2 offers a lot of options for customization, be it in the form of minion upgrades, spell specializations, and purely aesthetic options like how to decorate your fortress and which of your mistresses you choose to favor.

It heralds a bold new era in arcade-style sports games.

After years of online fumbles by developer EA Tiburon, our annual war cry for an online dynasty mode has been answered. Not only is NCAA Football 09's most impressive innovation brilliantly seamless, but it's full-featured as well (from recruiting and scheduling to talking sure-fire pros into staying on an extra season).

Like the legendary sword the game's named after, Muramasa easily cuts through all the unnecessary fluff and gives you just what you want: tons and tons of flashy sword action.

Despite its initial approachability, PvZ gets surprisingly challenging toward the end of the game.

Wrath features more than enough content to keep me busy for a while yet. And if WOW's current track record maintains, things can only get better with time.

The game shines particularly bright in the Total Team Control mode, which allows you to hook up online with nine other players for 5-on-5 basketball. This mode simulates the experience of playing an actual game of basketball more closely than any videogame I've played.

Everything is put together so well that, unless you've become truly tired of the franchise, Ghost of Sparta is well worth playing. This portable title, while it may not be the best or most original entry in the series, is more than worthy of the God of War name.

The level changes remove the garbage found in Gaiden 2, while creating an almost new experience, and the Team Mission mode introduces thoughtful, meaningful ways to test your skills. Any doubts about whether Team Ninja could succeed without their former boss now sit on shaky ground -- the developer seems to be thriving.

A well-executed rerelease of a great game.

Like Wii Sports, Wii Play, and Wii Music, this is a game made to be played with friends, and your enjoyment with the title will directly relate to how much time you're able to spend playing it with other people.

All the elements gel perfectly here: The characters, the combat, the game flow, the dialogue. More than that, this is a game that revels in simply being a game. It celebrates the best parts of both role-playing and Mario games while mercilessly lampooning their worst habits. It's absolutely brimming with exuberance.

The game succeeds at bringing the bar down so everyone can feel a sense of accomplishment. And that level of accessibility is something more hardcore simulators should aspire to be.

Broken Destiny's visuals are gorgeous on the PSP's screen, and matches effortlessly flow without any noticeable stutters or jarring problems.

Think of it like this: the Wii-mote has already proven it can be a good FPS controller, so what's wrong in bringing a good FPS to Wii? Modern Warfare is still an excellent game, even when it's done "good enough" on weaker technology, and like it or not, Reflex fills a niche. Maybe there's a family that only owns a Wii, but with a dad who might enjoy something a little rougher than Mario Kart.

I'm glad to say the multiplayer remains addicting and is more balanced than ever.

This is as good as action games get. It controls like a dream, is extremely well balanced (not terribly difficult on Normal and incredibly challenging on Hard), has tons of variety, features great retro game references, contains tons of unlockables and challenges to keep you busy after you finish the story, and when it comes down to it, is the best game Sega has published in years.

I'm glad to say the multiplayer remains addicting and is more balanced than ever.

A must-play that'll dominate your PSP all summer long.

Ys has had a bumpy history in the U.S., but if this is an indication of how good the series can be, I hope it's here to stay.

Roogoo is simply delightful. Its bright and cheery art style, adorably cute characters, and challenging play make this one of my favorite XBLA titles to date.

There's never been a Final Fantasy as free and as fun as X-2.

The multiplayer is a generous force with new modes, and significantly more depth allows the game to stand next to first-person shooters designed explicitly for multiplayer.

A genuinely excellent game. It impresses on many levels, perhaps most of all for the simple fact that it's the first example of a traditional 2D platformer that genuinely works with no input besides a stylus.

Darwinia isn't just a good game. More importantly, it's a place you've never been.

But while a ton of awesome bands are represented (Nirvana, Guns N' Roses, Anthrax, All That Remains, Kansas, and so on) Guitar Hero II is still missing a few megaton metal bands -- mainly Metallica, Iron Maiden, and AC/DC. But no one will ever be happy, so instead of crying, crank the volume and bang your head until your brain busts.

You'll find a much smarter brand of football in 08: Quarterbacks now scramble when no one is open, wideouts continue to make blocks 30 yards downfield, and defensive backs rarely fall for the deep ball. Some might even say that pass defense is a tad too stingy this season.

It's far more than just a really, really good-looking boxing game; it's a little glimpse into the future, and a remarkably good yardstick for ongoing reference.

It's a brilliant collage of smooth, polished gameplay, solid netcode, unadulterated diversity, and a frenetic pacing few games can rival.

Few games can match the amazing fusion of story, graphics and controls in Riddick. It's a step forward for not only movie-based games, but action games in general.

Dark Avatar does what a good expansion pack should -- it makes it tough to imagine ever playing the base game without it. It makes a great game greater, even if its achievements are measured in pinky widths instead of leaps and bounds.

The second way the songs are better is how they're played. The notes and chords are laid out in natural and engaging patterns that make sense musically and with the way your hands are moving.

So whether you're an FFXI veteran or noob, rest assured that this story is far from over. Based on the evidence at hand, we're quite confident that it has only just begun.

Whatever travails Psychonauts endured throughout its development history, the end result is a gem. It's a brilliant debut for Double Fine, and here's hoping it's just the start of what we can expect to see from them.

Oblivion is easily the finest open-ended RPG to date. It lacks the out-of-the-box crippling technical issues of every other Elder Scrolls game, looks great, and delivers on every promise Bethesda made during its development.

The Takedown system is what makes the already pretty good Burnout series amazing... Burnout 3 delivers the purest hit of <I>awesome</I> so far this year.

A consequence of this darker approach is that that game loses part of what made The Sands of Time unique. Instead of a charming and almost silly character like we saw previously, the Prince here is more one-dimensional.

It's a stunning bit of work...Though not a blanket revision, this is a solid upgrade that assuredly fortifies SimBin's position atop the race-sim podium.

It also feels like a more polished game, and the base mechanics work extremely well by the time you reach the end of the single-player campaign. It doesn't quite have "Riddick's" pacing, due to the open city that asks you to find your own way through, but it presents a better feeling of accomplishment and familiarity by the end.

It's certainly very enjoyable, it's incredibly slick, and packed with features, but it still loses out a little to Konami's game on that difficult-to-quantify quality; feel.

Visuals aside, what makes or breaks a game like Street is the gameplay, and No. 4 in the series totally delivers.

Flat out, this is an amazing shooter. You can fight through over 50 levels, upgrade your weapons, take control of enemies, recruit enemies to help you fight, drive different types of tanks, and a lot more -- think "Ratchet & Clank" fused with "Halo."

Unquestionably the best portable Castlevania to date; in fact, it's the best entry in the series since the much-vaunted "Symphony."

Immortal Throne continues Titan Quest's winning blend of killing, shopping, and strategic decision-making. It's a textbook case of a great expansion.

It's a good-looking, sublimely clever game that sets out a host of expectations for future PixelJunk projects.

I've always been a hater of this series (far too arcadey for my tastes) but this time around, I'm completely sold. There are a few issues standing between it and true wrestling perfection (a better targeting system would be nice), but they're hardly anything to tarnish the experience.

Simultaneously a beautifully holistic encapsulation of the entire history of Zelda and a worthy new chapter to the series in its own right, Minish Cap is quite simply one of the most engrossing portable games ever made -- and it ranks pretty high among Zelda titles, too.

The graphics are among the Xbox's best&#151;the environments are huge and intricately detailed, and tons of smart little effects (like the haze behind your plane when you go into turbo) help add to the atmosphere.

A perfect fit for the PSP -- creative, stylish, and easily broken into the bite-sized chunks that work so well when gaming on the go. It's also a stellar game by its own merits.

MotoGP 06 is great to look at and fun to play, carrying the next-gen torch for the genre that Hang-On kicked off so many years ago. It's simple, fun, and beautiful. What more could you ask for in a racing game?

It is quite possibly the most ambitious, comprehensive and successful remake ever attempted for a game of this type. Far more than a mere graphical upgrade, MZM expands on its source material with refined control, gameplay ideas retrofitted from its sequels, new plot hooks for subsequent chapters of the saga, and some jaw-droppingly cool innovations which add new layers of complexity to the series.

Damn, is this one fine game. If you've ever dreamed of shredding blistering licks in front of an adoring audience, you need to pick up Guitar Hero III.

The conversion from Super NES to GBA is rock-solid, and American gamers who are only familiar with this "lost" classic from its shoddy PlayStation repackaging will be pleasantly surprised at how incredibly fast this game is.

While the 360 version of NCAA Football 08 is finally a BCS bowl contender (after two limp seasons), the PS2 incarnation continues its steady march as the USC of last gen -- it's consistently dominant.

WE8 just feels real. The tempo and feel of the game show a deep understanding of soccer. The A.I. is spot-on, especially that of your own teammates, who continually move around and make runs for your benefit. Control is smooth and rock solid.

EA did their homework and pulled together a solid basketball game this year. There isn't much to complain about in NBA Live 2005. And with the addition of the Slam Dunk Contest, the replay value is huge.

I suppose the brilliance is that, however many times I watched a scene or fought a battle, Mass Effect never truly lost its magic.

It is far and away the most cerebral sports title ever released, forcing both the offensive and defensive coordination to methodically attack each other in order to achieve their respective goals. Careful and well thought out strategy is the name of the game, much more so than relying on frantic, on the field playmaking.

The big new addition is Tokyo. Fortunately, the developers have made the city available by default right on the menu screen, so for those of you worried that you might have to play through the original three cities to get to the new stuff, worry not.

Upgraded graphics, some of the best ambient sounds in the business, a deep story, new additions for character customization as well as two new professions, tons of new monsters, items and zones and Funcom's above par customer service makes this game a must buy for anyone even remotely interested in MMO's.

A consequence of this darker approach is that that game loses part of what made The Sands of Time unique. Instead of a charming and almost silly character like we saw previously, the Prince here is more one-dimensional.

It's a brilliant debut for Double Fine, and here's hoping it's just the start of what we can expect to see from them.

I loved, loved TF2's cosmetic makeover. "Cartoon come to life" isn't compliment enough. Some cartoons are better animated, more distinctively stylized than others -- and, by analogy, this is among the best.

One of those sorts of games where nearly everything goes right. And despite some annoying load times, Kingdom Hearts II eventually becomes so involving, so enthralling, you'll find yourself propelled from world to world as if by some magnetic invisible force.

OW2 looks and sounds great, and offers more content than any Worms before it. It's an excellent value and a wonderful addition to the PSP's action-strategy lineup.

The stealth-based gameplay that MGS introduced has rarely been equaled, and it's as perfect here as it ever was. If I seem disappointed, it's only because there are signs everywhere that this could have been a remake of epic proportions, but the extraordinarily talented creators settled on a port.

It's the first game where I've actually felt a sense of attachment to my customized car, and it's one of the most entertaining racing games around.

The entire production is treated with reverence and class, and this goes to show that you definitely do not always need the latest and greatest hardware for great gaming experiences. What you need is a dedicated development team, a distinct sense of style independent of processing power, and polished execution and interpretations of proven ideas.

It <I>is</I> a full-fledged GTA experience, and it <I>is</I> only $20 (even cheaper if you shop around), which means it's an incredibly good value for money at a time when the PS2 is absolutely starved for great new games. Don't buy it if you've played the PSP version, but if you haven't -- it's great.

Whether you're careening through desolate urban alleys or rocketing across a rickety railroad trestle, the game looks nearly flawless and runs at a buttery-smooth clip.

OW2 still looks and sounds great though, and offers more content than any Worms before it. It might have scored even higher if it had been $10 cheaper (it would have truly been a must-buy for all DS owners at $20), but it's still an excellent value and a wonderful addition to the portable action-strategy lineup.

Built around utterly convincing physics and animation systems and a unique control scheme that's equal parts challenge and reward, it manages to be realistic without being discouraging and feels completely different from not only the competition, but from anything else out there.

A no-brainer for Flight Simulator X owners. And with the slipstreamed service release boosting performance dramatically (and the original down to $30), it's also a perfect reason for Flight Simulator X standbys to climb on board.

EA did their homework and pulled together a solid basketball game this year. There isn't much to complain about in NBA Live 2005. And with the addition of the Slam Dunk Contest, the replay value is huge.

FFVIA is a mostly great port of a mostly great game, and that makes it entirely worth having. If this has to be the end of the GBA's lifespan, we can't think of a better way to go.

Though the sometimes frustrating difficulty and occasional pacing misstep taint the experience slightly (it would be nice to have longer moments of respite between the busier levels), Everyday Shooter succeeds wildly as an engaging shooter for the art-house crowd, and a creative change of pace for the hardcore-shooter crowd.

A terrific action-RPG that serves as an example of what a sequel ought to be. It's better than the original, absorbing and well balanced with enough challenge and variety to keep you busy for the 20-plus hours you'll need to get through it.

Take the solid gameplay of Toadstool Tour, add in Camelot's talent for top-class GBA visuals and music, and throw in a story mode that beats the pants off many "real" RPGs, and you've got the best GBA game you'll see all this summer.

It successfully integrates stealth gameplay into a multiplayer setting by pitting spies against mercenaries in a four-player, two-team competitive game, and we love it.