It's simply trying to be the best console WWII shooter ever created, and in this it almost certainly succeeds. The single-player game is short, yes, but it's incredibly epic (in the cinematic definition of the term), and multiplayer should keep you playing long after the main campaign is over.

The GameCube version adds yet another setback on top of what's in the PS2 version: no versus mode altogether. This wasn't unexpected given that the GameCube isn't an online-friendly console, but this missing feature limits the overall package a bit.

The localization team at Capcom should be commended for writing dialogue that is genuinely funny. Basically, if you're a fan of the earlier Phoenix Wright games, you will laugh...a lot. Couple the comedy with Justice's engrossing story and you have a case that would be criminal not to take.

Significantly better than its predecessor, but like most EA Sports releases, sequels feel more like baby steps rather than giant leaps.

The majority of my Puzzle Quest hours were logged on the DS, and though the PSP version does look a hell of a lot nicer, I liked the convenience of the stylus for moving puzzle blocks.

Unless you seriously have a thing for turn-based combat and having to really work for your progress, the game isn't for you. But if you do, Gladius is one of the better examples of the genre on the system.

How many games are there that take place in a recently Westernized Japan and involve exposing ill-meaning demons, all laid under a campy detective theme? If there are more than Devil Summoner, they're likely not done quite this well.

It's a testament to the diversity of the medium that in a season marked by realistic, violent and often grim video games like "GTA," "Halo 2" and "Def Jam: FFNY," a game like Paper Mario can be so willfully charming, harmless and child-friendly in appearance and still make for a compelling, sophisticated experience.

It's not easy to create a multiplayer game that's utterly accessible to first-timers and yet varied enough to have serious legs.

Between its genuinely clever elements and its preposterously over-the-top ridiculousness, Square Enix and TOSE have crafted a spin-off that captures the appeal of the source material in an amusing and unique way.

Unless you seriously have a thing for turn-based combat and having to really work for your progress, the game isn't for you. But if you do, Gladius is one of the better examples of the genre on the system.

Forza 2 is the best sim racer out there right now, no question, and it continues to lead the way online. But aside from the cool online auction and community stuff, it's pretty much Forza 1 with updated graphics -- which is great, but I was hoping for a slightly larger step forward.

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.

The simple fact is Knights of the Old Republic doesn't do anything revolutionarily different or better in any single category than games like "Planescape," "Baldur's "and "Freedom Force." In fact, in some areas it's a lot worse. Nevertheless, this is as solid a Star Wars experience as we're going to get (since no one has the balls to make "Tie Fighter 2").

Significantly better than its predecessor, but like most EA Sports releases, sequels feel more like baby steps rather than giant leaps.

It's a great feeling seeing something you shoot explode into tons of little chunks (which looks similar to when buildings explode in "Return of the King" -- another EA blockbuster title), and some of the racing scenes define the word "epic."

Players who didn't voluntarily step off the train with "Hawk 4" or last year's "Underground" will find more to love here -- more new tricks, an even more streamlined system of goal selection, a ridiculous selection of goals to select, and levels that hurt to try and comprehend.

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.

Every robot smashed feels satisfying, and it captures the feeling of being "in the zone" while wading knee-deep in enemies better than any other Stylish Hard Action game has yet -- all while being challenging, but still possible.

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.

A few in-game glitches and some questionable exploits slow down the game's momentum and keep it from becoming the true football fanatic's obsession.

It feels more sophisticated, looks great, delivers tons of cars and racing disciplines, and upgrades what was already a solid online component. But far more critical, it's one of the best <I>drives</I> on the 360.

Like the other awesome turn-based strategy game for the DS, Advance Wars Dual Strike, Age of Empires provides the deep, addictive balance of strategy and action that should keep you toting that wee silver clam around with you for weeks.

Inevitable immaturity aside, Picross is an exceptional puzzle game with a no-nonsense presentation. It's especially great to see it in America at long last, a decade's worth of entries having been Japanese exclusives.

Ultimate Destruction is certainly the best Hulk game yet, and despite a few flaws stands tall as one of the best of this particular niche of the action genre. Hulk fans will adore it, but action fans definitely shouldn't overlook it.

Its intricate gameplay isn't for everyone, but there's a reason it commands such deep devotion among its fans -- and this definitive version of the game is the perfect place to learn why.

This is like a Thanksgiving dinner of Tony Hawk. You're going to feel stuffed and ready for a nap afterwards, and some players may even refuse dessert. It proves that the formula still works, but it may also cause some observers to sigh with relief at the knowledge that Neversoft is working on an original game for next year.

A big reason why the things you do are so much fun is because the controls are exactly like the game needs them to be.

Changes - not drastic. Gameplay - fantastic.

Once you've unlocked the entire area and learned how to get around on the surface streets and freeways, it creates a remarkable sense of immersion in the environment. It doesn't just feel like a collection of scattered race tracks, it feels like a real world, with the player a unique little speck in the middle of it.

It feels more sophisticated, looks great, delivers tons of cars and racing disciplines, and upgrades what was already a solid online component. But far more critical, it's one of the best <I>drives</I> on the PS3.

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.

Not quite a perfect game -- it's a bit short, difficult in the later stages, and Jake walks too slowly for my tastes -- but it's still an addictive, impressive achievement. If there was some sort of "Most Improved Franchise" award, the GBA Medal of Honor series would win the 2003 prize hands down.

The game basically forces you to drive better without being unfair and your rivals put up quite a fight, but you won't feel frustrated. And that's quite an achievement considering there are up to 21 cars on a track at once.

Taken as a whole -- online included -- Fireteam Bravo 2 is a notable, laudable step above its predecessor. But for those of you with no interest in playing in infrastructure mode, don't expect too much more of a good thing. It's a step up, to be sure - just not a very big one.

Penumbra: Black Plague combines puzzles and horror to create a game that is probably unlike anything you've played. It's a little bit like a brain-training game, only between lessons you fray your nerves (in a good way) as you jump and pause at every little noise.

Players who didn't voluntarily step off the train with "Hawk 4" or last year's "Underground" will find more to love here -- more new tricks, an even more streamlined system of goal selection, a ridiculous selection of goals to select, and levels that hurt to try and comprehend.

It's Nippon Ichi's best strategy RPG, which if you've played Disgaea and/or La Pucelle ought to be enough to send you off to the store immediately.

If you're looking for a more full-featured game, with greater variety -- and don't mind the cartoony milieu of Gunpey DS -- then you will find this version not only a superior value, but a superior game.

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.

This game is great precisely because it's an original take on a familiar world.

It's this carefully guarded lack of realism that keeps the game fresh. While the multitude of moves are clearly wacky, they're never too over-the-top, and it all fits together in this surprising, tight package.

The cocky presentation is fantastic, it looks great (especially the crowds), it plays great, and it just might make you smarter than a session of Brain Age. The Bigs isn't just an absolute hoot -- it's also the best current-gen baseball game money can buy.

Fire Team Bravo is amazing simply because it's broken through first. The team at Zipper have done an admirable job of shrinking their larger-than-life, third-person shooter package onto a PSP without losing much in the translation.

Delivers a refreshingly new take on the MegaTen concept while staying true to its roots. It's daring and innovative, yet not too unapproachable for roleplaying fans weaned on more traditional fare.

Periods of sneaking around are rewarded with spectacular firefights, and every so often there's a huge set piece that really shows off how great the Unreal 3 engine is for big, open battles.

Resistance falls a little short of being the hoped-for "Halo-killer," but with a package that would be considered complete by any standards, it delivers a launch classic, and it lives up to its billing as the PS3's killer app.

The expansion neatly captures the frenzied pace of college, the numerous things you can discover and do, the strange secrets every campus is rumored to have, and of course, streaking.

Thanks to this control scheme, Infected is designed tightly enough to be compared to classic shooters like "Robotron" and "Smash TV," but unfortunately the game takes this idea a bit too far with some of its missions.

Yakuza is a wonderful foundation for a new fan-favorite series. And as an entry into the ever-growing criminal underground genre, Yakuza is a wholly unique, high-quality package that, while possessing as many flaws as it does triumphs, is a crime drama worth mentioning in the same breath as "The Godfather" (the movie, not the game).

Since nothing, not even "Undrentide," is as polished and well done as Hordes, the expansion is still an obvious purchase for fans of the series who may have every user created module to date.

The nod back to the cop chase mechanics of the Hot Pursuit games is certainly welcome, plus it's interesting to see that the vaunted "open" gameplay of the last two games has been dialed down by a more forcibly linear structure to keep things interesting.

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.

It's a great example of a movie tie-in that is easy to play, it's a successful combination of a first-person adventure and a third-person beat-'em-up, and at times it even feels like a dungeon crawler. But at its core, it's an extremely good (and extremely simple) survival horror game.

The multiplayer game in Echoes isn't anywhere near half the fun. It's a noble attempt to translate the single-player control scheme to a head-to-head game, but that attempt fails in a mess of cheap deaths and constant struggles to wrench the view in the right direction.

Despite all these improvements, I can't help but feel that last year's "Madden" still has the edge over this year's ESPN, thanks to fundamental pacing and controls. ESPN has great visuals, has tons of new features, all kinds of new animations, ... but the same gooey controls - they're just not as responsive as "Madden"'s.

This is like a Thanksgiving dinner of Tony Hawk. You're going to feel stuffed and ready for a nap afterwards, and some players may even refuse dessert.

The single-player game is short, yes, but it's incredibly epic (in the cinematic definition of the term), and multiplayer should keep you playing long after the main campaign is over.

An outstanding RTS in its own right, and Relic is currently making the best RTS games in the business. For those already addicted to Dawn of War, this a must-have.

But while King of Fighters 2002's old-school 2D graphics and 2003's 3D backgrounds may not win any visual awards, their fast-moving, hard-hitting gameplay more than makes up for it. Few games muster up the same sort of thrills that the KOF roster does.

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

The most important factor, outweighing most of its problems, is the intelligent layout. It's just about the right size, big enough to be varied and small enough to keep things close together, and packs in about all the different types of terrain you'd like.

This game's brilliant A.I. on offense, the lightning-quick load times, the remarkably improved faces of Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki, the new dunk competition minigame, and the removal of 24/7 mode are a load of positives that far outweigh the hang-ups.

The graphics and control system are almost worth the price of admission all by themselves -- it's rare to find a sports game have this much pick-up-and-play addiction in this age of sim-oriented titles.

It's the nature of arcade sports games to be a fun time, but I didn't expect this one to be so deep. The Bigs has the bells and whistles -- without MLB SlugFest-style BS like punch-throwing or loop-de-loop curves. Thank heavens.

No doubt we'll all be sick of it by the time Powered Up 6 rolls around, but you can hardly hold Capcom's inevitable future sins against what amounts to one of the most addictive PSP games to date.

This is quite probably the only hardcore PC football game you're going to see this year, and it's a very good one.

Gunstar Super Heroes is a superpowered orgy of 2D effects like you haven't seen since the golden age of video games, primarily on the Sega Genesis.

You won't find a better handheld RPG so fitting for bite-size moments of play, and those cute 'n' marketable pocket monsters are only the icing on the cake.

Makai Kingdom has as many fresh new ideas as any other game they've developed. But just as Tony Hawk eventually turned a little stale after its fourth installment, so might it also be time for Nippon Ichi to try something really new next time.

Want to talk about a wild card? There's an argument to be made that this is the best baseball game on the market, including the sharp MLB 2K7 on new gen. Really, it feels like baseball, which is a beautiful thing.

It's a great feeling seeing something you shoot explode into tons of little chunks (which looks similar to when buildings explode in "Return of the King" -- another EA blockbuster title), and some of the racing scenes define the word "epic."

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.

The nod back to the cop chase mechanics of the Hot Pursuit games is certainly welcome, plus it's interesting to see that the vaunted "open" gameplay of the last two games has been dialed down by a more forcibly linear structure to keep things interesting.

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.

Gamers seeking a hardcore RPG experience would admittedly be better off with something like "Golden Sun" or "Fire Emblem." But if you're after some lighthearted, lightweight gaming, or if you're simply a Mario fan, you'll have a hard time finding a better buy than Mario & Luigi.

This game's brilliant A.I. on offense, the lightning-quick load times, the remarkably improved faces of Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki, the new dunk competition minigame, and the removal of 24/7 mode are a load of positives that far outweigh the hang-ups.

New ways to play, sure, but SmackDown isn't a true champion -- the terribly long load times (it has to load each and every entrance) gave me a bad case of PSP fever.

What Silent Storm does better than most strategy titles, even those not of the type, is create dynamic, diverse situations that players must adapt to using an insane number of weapons, skills, and evolving strategies.

Despite its relentlessly "noir" (French for "melodramatic," I guess) storyline, Max Payne 2 does an even better job of pulling players into the game than even its predecessor -- and that's saying something. The graphics, in fact, do a lot more to push the game's gritty atmosphere than the story.

The Bigs has the bells and whistles -- without "MLB SlugFest"-style BS like punch-throwing or loop-de-loop curves. Thank heavens. The cocky presentation is fantastic, it looks great (especially the crowds), it plays great, and it just might make you smarter than a session of "Brain Age."

An uninspired story, a glitchy weapon, and a sometimes-unwieldy camera don't damage Ratchet beyond repair. The irresistibly addictive jumping-shooting-collecting-upgrading gameplay is as powerful here as it's ever been, and the optional collectibles, side-missions, and unlockable Challenge mode offer a really satisfying amount of play time.

It's this carefully guarded lack of realism that keeps the game fresh. While the multitude of moves are clearly wacky, they're never too over-the-top, and it all fits together in this surprising, tight package.

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.

What really brings the story to life is Odin Sphere's brilliant, flowing script, which is almost Shakespearean in places. Combined with the gorgeous art, the eloquent dialogue really cements the illusion that you're playing an animated fairy tale. I can't stress enough how important this is.

It's hard not to say something dull like "fans can't afford to miss it," but, you know, it's possibly the first time anyone's been able to say that about any Middle-earth game. Ever.

It's the best Ridge Racer yet... If all you're looking for is a fast, fun, and highly replayable racer, you're getting a solid, full-featured package in Ridge Racer 6. But if you're looking for slightly more meat on the bone, "Project Gotham Racing 3" is a bit more filling.

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

Unless you seriously have a thing for turn-based combat and having to really work for your progress, the game isn't for you. But if you do, Gladius is one of the better examples of the genre on the system.

Not only does its game system encourage players to think out their moves and concentrate on realistic tricks, but it also does this while still keeping the game addictive as you put more time into it. Quite a feat.

You won't find a better handheld RPG so fitting for bite-size moments of play, and those cute 'n' marketable pocket monsters are only the icing on the cake.

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

Although it is a game for tactical, patient players, there are still enough big booms and explosions to keep things exciting.

It scores big points by offering the most strategic Xbox Live experience available. Patient players willing to take the time to continually tweak and test their arsenals of skills will find themselves with a new favorite game to play online.

It's still an experience best enjoyed in short sittings because of its intensity, but (with the Classic Controller) it's also a remarkable one. Perhaps not a CocoaBella confection, but maybe a king-size Snickers bar...ultimately very satisfying.

It's varied, addictive, and replayable, with a big difference between the experiences available at lower and higher levels of difficulty.

With only a handful of business buildings for each class, neighborhoods became monotonous stretches of identical storefronts; CL:WE adds dozens of new buildings -- employers, leisure destinations, service structures, and 15 real-world landmarks -- and an accessible building editor for designing and adding even more.

Its gorgeous trappings, addictive combat, and well-balanced difficulty make it the most satisfying DMC in years, and Dante's such a killer character that you'll actually want to tackle the game on a tougher difficulty in order to fully explore his amazing arsenal.