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.

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.

The real tragedy here is that a simple attempt to emulate Atari's 2004 Transformers game would have made this movie tie-in an order of magnitude better. As is, those looking for a Transformers fix should scour the bargain bins for that classic, and leave this one on the shelf.

Sure, it's cool that you'll find references to some of the more popular third-person action titles, such as Prince of Persia's balance-beam act and hand-over-hand wall crawling, but nothing in here screams innovation.

Sure, running around the dungeons and slashing through enemies is enjoyable enough -- and, dare I say it, even fun at times. But as soon as you attempt to play through Valhalla Knights like its an actual game, it completely falls apart.

The real tragedy here is that a simple attempt to emulate Atari's 2004 Transformers game would have made this movie tie-in an order of magnitude better. As is, those looking for a Transformers fix should scour the bargain bins for that classic, and leave this one on the shelf.

All of the game's step-by-step recipes are available in the game, but instead of buying it, I'd recommended taking your money and picking up the actual source, the aforementioned How to Boil Water. It'll has the game's 12 dishes, plus a couple hundred more. Not to mention that you'll be able to appreciate the smell of real bacon coming from your kitchen as opposed to seeing it sizzle on your TV and waiting two minutes to virtually flip it with a remote.

If the theory of natural selection holds true, The Adventures of Darwin will find its way into the bargain bins of the world in no time flat. And if you have any intelligence in your design, you'll stay far, far away.

Lair is a game that you'll want for its eye-popping experience rather than its gameplay. So buy it if you want to justify all the thousands you spent on your PS3 and that 1080p HDTV you can see from the International Space Station. Don't buy it if you want a dragon that does what it's damn well told.

WarPath's only saving grace is that, despite being one of the most forgettable FPSes we've ever seen, it's not actually bad when played with some real human beings. Unfortunately, there don't really seem to be very many human beings playing the game on Xbox Live.

What's most impressive is the way a lot of humor is injected into the actual gameplay.