I've got fist pump fever and the only prescription is more Dance Central 2.

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.

Truthfully, Bastion could be sold on its presentation alone; the game's hyper-detailed 2D graphics along with its eclectic and moving soundtrack perfectly match the well-told and understated story. But beneath this pretty packaging, there's a real game here -- and a good one at that. Supergiant Games seems to have done the seemingly impossible by creating the perfect mesh of game and story, all while preventing each of these elements from overpowering one another. Other developers, take note: this is how it's done.

The problem? It's built on the assumption that when four people play together, they won't play for long periods of time. And as such, it's extremely simple.

A truly enjoyable game with some minor quibbles. You can pick it up and race in five-minute sprints when you feel like killing a little time, or you can drill down into it with the level editor and the myriad unlockables.

Symphonia isn't any great shakes as a narrative, and its graphics may inspire more hate than love, but it's fun to play, and that's the important part.

My only real complaints are that some single-player missions feel a little too simple and the game engine occasionally stutters even when you're not playing online.

Simply put, this is one of the most original and entertaining games we've come across in ages.

The fidelity to the source material is such that you can literally navigate the world using those maps printed in your dog-eared paperback copy of "The Fellowship of the Ring."

It's a shame Rockstar chose not to fix obvious flaws that have been called out repeatedly, but the weight of the total experience more than counterbalances this disappointment, making PSP owners, however briefly, the envy of those in the portable war.

Relic Entertainment's latest effort does most of the usual RTS things right -- well-balanced, good-looking, deep multiplayer game, all that -- but what sets it apart is how good it looks and sounds while it's doing them.

GRAW1.5? Yeah, I don't have any problem calling it that. But that shouldn't stop anyone from suiting up for battle again. GRAW2 is still tremendously fun despite its all-too-familiar design.

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.

Battles in WAR are not only highly entertaining but also enriching; PVP nets you more experience, money, and gear than any other activity in the game. And that's a good thing: The other methods of acquisition are nowhere near as fun.

The best version of NHL in the past three years -- it's like the previous versions were simply leading up to this release. Everything looks and feels and plays as it should; a fine balance of entertainment and realism. It's a fantastic entry for any fan of the game.

Days of Ruin offers plenty new, but it's possible it got rid of too much of the old. But just like with our ol' buddy Jake, we're OK with trading up all those bonus modes in Dual Strike for more tactically oriented units and real online play (though it'll still take us some time to get used to this new CO gameplay). Advance Wars has finally advanced.

The soundtrack to Bionic Commando: Rearmed is a fantastic piece of work, a deft contemporary reworking of classic 8-bit NES tunes. In fact, it's so good that Capcom put it up for sale on the iTunes Store months ago to build hype for the game.

DJ Hero attempts to mold turntablism into a mainstream medium. It succeeds, but stumbles along the way. I didn't experience the sensation of scratching and mixing, until I turned it up to Expert difficulty. Beginner is way too easy, and Hard is lackluster.

1946 might as well be the holy grail of WWII flight sims, a platinum anthology of everything good about no-frills airborne scrimmaging. The new material's a deal, whether you own the earlier games or not. And if you don't, 30 bucks nets you something that -- six years on -- still outclasses everything else.

It's a fine interpretation of the old brick-breaker style, and it should keep you entertained, even if it's only once or twice.

Catchy mixes, impressive visuals, and a much improved career mode make DJ Hero 2 worth checking out.

The Wii version has online play as well.

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.

The multiplayer is easier to jump into than Rock Band, but the game's more intense difficulty settings still provide a challenge for the plastic-instrument elitist. The franchise still has a long way to go to catch up to Rock Band's mind-bogglingly large library of downloadable songs, but, on the software side, GH5 is the current feature leader.

It's solid, pretty good-looking, and packs a thoroughly decent single-player campaign, too.

Football fundamentals matter now. Successful plays come from knowing the situation, calling the right play, making a good pre-snap read, and then executing -- the same criteria that determines the outcome in a real game.

Part of what makes this game so fantastic is that it has the same joyful resonance as those mid-'90s NHL classics. The good times are back.

A whole lot like the game before it, except better in just about every way.

OK, so Shivering Isles doesn't reinvent the fireball. But the impeccable design and construction of the original game breathes life into this expansion -- not, as you might assume, the other way around.

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.

Historia may not have the panache or cachet of this season's other RPG releases, but behind its humble surface is an engaging role-playing game that deserves a chance.

This is a beautiful, substantial, classic-style game, and it's a great deal to boot.

All the focus on the game's details comes at the expense of its questionable design and overall lack of cohesion. It's here that the latest Castlevania comes up short.

Conviction's stylish presentation and intuitive cover mechanics prove that Ubisoft can make a highly polished product, but for the amount of game you get, the price seems sorely inflated.

Its "arcade mode" is remarkably well-structured, and far more developed than the lazy "put a cool car on any track" approach that we usually see these days.

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.

Part of what makes this game so fantastic is that it has the same joyful resonance as those mid-'90s NHL classics. The good times are back.

What's here is basically the best of both worlds -- an easy to pick up, yet deep fighting engine mixed with a substantial career mode and online features.

Although some areas of the game were frustrating (beware the last boss), The Two Thrones features a classic interactive ending sequence and epilogue that nicely wraps up the whole trilogy and does the seemingly impossible -- that is, it makes you forgive and forget the lost years represented by The Warrior Within, and lets you to judge the trilogy on the whole.

It's not the best-looking of the football titles out there, but it's the most fun to play and compete with. Maybe next year they'll nail the visual category as well, but as long as the game keeps playing as well as it does, there's no reason to really trip over it.

The mud-caked Slop Bowls, bustling sidelines, and significantly varied player physiques mean that Madden 09's finally lived up to EA's next-gen target video from three years ago that -- for three years -- looked way better than the games themselves.

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.

TVC, while a fun game, isn't the best in the Versus series. It's definitely better than Marvel Superheroes vs. Street Fighter, but it trails behind Marvel vs. Capcom 2.

Sure, it doesn't do anything new with the gameplay (do any of the episodes?), but What's New, Beelzebub? is a fitting wrap-up to Season 2, and it's arguably the most enjoyable episode since season-starter "Ice Station Santa."

For this season, consider it the way you would a September game with your team already eliminated from the chase: If you're the type that wants to check out the young prospects called up, you'll probably be right at home. If you've already been watching preseason football for a few weeks and are enjoying the first NFL games, it might not be your ticket.

Therein lies the paradox of Fight Night Champion: it both points the way forward for sports gaming with a smart, surprising new approach to the genre, and serves to remind us of the tired conventions that make that new direction necessary in the first place.

While it doesn't elevate Rainbow Six back to the genre-defining franchise it once was, it's still a solid, fun game; plus, thanks to Unreal Engine 3, it looks great.

While the game manages to capture a surprising amount of content and features from the console/arcade versions, it's still hamstrung by control methods that aren't entirely up to the task.

Once you've managed to team up with a group of heroes you can get along with, CoH turns into a great game.

My enthusiasm for the XBLA release was initially tempered by busted online play, which took months to correct, but the PSN version luckily lacks significant issues. Lag occasionally pops up, and I've encountered a couple of issues connecting to matches, but by and large, it works -- and aside from having three friends in your living room, playing online is the best way to experience Castle Crashers.

The differences between Diamond and Pearl and their predecessors are small, but they add up. Refinement is paramount here -- refined balance of battle skills, refined relationships between monster types -- as is expansion.

Though the game would still be fantastic with its co-op dungeon puzzles alone, Guardian of Light contains a surprising amount of substance; each of its many levels offer a series of achievements that add interesting weapons and items to your inventory.

If Irrational is able to speed up the player speed just a tad so that run speed and player movement is faster, if server admins are able to control the abuse of non- lethal equipment, and if server admins are given remote server control, then SWAT 4 would be just as spectacular for Multiplayer.

Because the co-op missions are just gussied-up versus matches, and because the versus game doesn't have any variations in objectives (spies simply hack at computer terminals to retrieve files to return to the starting base) or modes, multiplayer may start to wear out more quickly than in previous editions.

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.

The game's issues are outweighed by the fact that no other game on the market plays like this.

The time travel aspect on the one hand conjures up the best puzzles yet in the series, and also gives rise to the lamest story.

Guerrilla isn't a terribly deep game, but as a "summer blockbuster," it works just right. It doesn't expect you to get lost in a deep, engaging sci-fi world -- you're on a mission to Mars to watch stuff explode. A deeper story might have made it more enjoyable in some respects, but it might also have killed the momentum of the demolition action.

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

For all its subtleties, C&C3 might as well be subtitled "speed trumps tactics," something that's especially obvious if you've seen the videos of C&C3's BattleCast feature.

Football fundamentals matter now. Successful plays come from knowing the situation, calling the right play, making a good pre-snap read, and then executing -- the same criteria that determines the outcome in a real game.

With Omega Factor, Treasure has crafted what is perhaps one of the finest 2D sidescrollers in years.

Continuum Shift provides a seamless fighting game experience by offering excellent Tutorial and Training Modes to help you learn your character before testing their skills in the game's near-flawless online mode.

Guitar Hero delivers exactly the things I want out of a rhythm game: great peripherals and fun-to-play music. It's not perfect, but I have a great time whenever I turn it on -- and that's what's most important.

It's an amazingly thoughtful upgrading of the finest motorcycling game series on the market, and with the addition of the Extreme mode, Climax and THQ have taken their stock standard GP sim and taken it into a realm of its own.

It's still "just" a fighting game, albeit an incredibly polished and finessed fighting game, but it won't open your eyes to things you've never seen before. It will bring the fighting game community together, however, thanks to its online functionality, and that's a good thing.

Coming at the game as a hardcore NASCAR fan, I'm disappointed in a few things. The biggest issue is the lack of a few official NASCAR tracks.

Thrilling on the ground, downright heart-stopping in the air, and beautiful throughout, Pure's a blast from start to finish. A career mode would've gone further than the game's "World Tour" in fully eliminating repetitiveness, but Black Rock has otherwise built a real winner here.

The game exudes a sense of innocence and charm that quickly sweeps away any frustrations, and leaves you whistling the theme song long after you put it down.

The only thing in Mines of Moria that wholly disappoints is the new "supreme master" tier of item crafting.

Despite any story hiccups, I can't stress how incredible it all looks.

Where SC4 really shines, however, is in its character-creation mode. The more you use your custom characters, the more options you unlock -- with a wealth of weapons and armor pieces offering boosts to strength, impact, speed, and more, while certain stat modifiers improve your chances to escape throws or reverse counters.

So with the classic, new-school, and infinitely customizable character roster at the ready, and with online play fully operational, it's not a stretch to say this might be 2008's best fighting game.

Sadly the whole thing is a bundle of obvious cliches. If you simply look at the plot elements introduced within the first hour and try to imagine the most hackneyed twists you could come up with for them, you've probably guessed Fable's story. It doesn't even offer a satisfying resolution.

A game whose lack of originality is matched only by its abundance of... well, pretty much everything else.

Logan's Shadow, like "Dark Mirror" before it, doesn't quite stack up to the better Metal Gears and Splinter Cells, but it's absolutely worth a look for stealth-action fans yearning for something to tide them over this year.

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.

It is not in the new interpretation that this package fails to deliver, but in its presentation of a classic that demands a lot more respect and attention to detail than Special Edition delivers.

The successful parsing of battle, dialogue, and set-up sessions in Sacred Stones demonstrates again that the GBA might not be a Revolution, but it's something I sure would revisit time after time.

Major events -- such as the arrival of a Crusading noble to join in your jolly pagan fox hunt, or the forming of a new faction -- keep you on your toes and inject personality, encouraging you to almost "role-play" the tyrannical zealots or freedom-fighting underdogs you're controlling.

The total package is solid, and while it's not the holy grail fans have hoped for since the N64's "No Mercy," it's light-years beyond what THQ used to try and sell under the SmackDown! name.

If it was a book you'd call it "a real page-turner"; it can be nigh-impossible at points to put down. When all is said and done, as the credits roll across the screen, you'll remember the poignant moments as part of the story, not the actions you took that caused them to be played out.

I'm shocked that 10 episodes in, Telltale's still finding gimmicks to keep this stuff fresh.

The possibilities are endless, and you'll experience something new in every match you play. Try to leave your preconceived notions about what this game should be at the door, pick it up, and just have fun because that's what this game is all about.

This is the game that can actually bring both hardcore and casual rockers together for a good time. The multiplayer is easier to jump into than Rock Band, but the game's more intense difficulty settings still provide a challenge for the plastic-instrument elitist.

Best of all, FF4A is more than a simple port. Like "Dawn of Souls," it offers a massive amount of bonus content.

So is Super Stardust HD better than "Geometry Wars"? That is something that will likely come down to personal preference. I happen to much prefer Super Stardust for its diversity of gameplay -- multiple weapons, multiple stages, multiple ways to build up score -- and its better graphical and aural presentation.

While it's far from the platforming/role-playing godsend that some Nintendo fans expected, Super Paper Mario still qualifies as a must-play for any Wii owner. It's creative, fun, and perhaps most importantly, funny.

And with a game this entertaining, that transcends demographics so stylishly, that offers such addictive just-one-more challenge -- well, the only real puzzle here is why anyone wouldn't want to give it a go.

I can see anyone coming back to this again and again over the next few years, and that's more than enough to justify the peanuts they're asking for Audiosurf.

I'm honestly pretty underwhelmed...Mario 64 DS is a poorly-conceived port of an otherwise good game.

A relentlessly inventive game worth the price of entry...The experience is flawed -- some might say hampered -- by the save system and curiously designed game structure. But whether you 'get it' or not, Dead Rising nevertheless provides a wealth of secrets and mysteries for both eager gamers and the adventuresome.

FPS fans should appreciate the rich Metroid universe, and Metroid fans should recognize the technical achievements NST pulled off. Then everybody can be happy.

This time, the changes are a scattering of smaller ones. Track layout tweaks, customization quirks, 3D effects, first-person karting, and a power-up that adds to the general level of kart chaos by letting one player unleash seven items. MK7 isn't a kart game with a defining voice -- it's just a solid little kart game with a bunch of little tweaks.

Although some areas of the game were frustrating (beware the last boss), The Two Thrones features a classic interactive ending sequence and epilogue that nicely wraps up the whole trilogy and does the seemingly impossible -- that is, it makes you forgive and forget the lost years represented by The Warrior Within, and lets you to judge the trilogy on the whole.

While it's certainly not a perfect game, NCAA Football 11 is a great template for EA's future football offerings to build upon.

If you're a fan of strategy games, you'll love Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. And if you want a game that will bring your GameCube out of retirement, this is the one.

Boom Blox may not be the best Wii game, depending on your proclivities, but it's definitely the best use of the Wii yet. It's immensely accessible, wonderfully tactile, and stands as one of the best treatments of gaming in a 3D space.