In the end, this one poses as a tennis game for beginners, but even tykes will only be mildly amused.

Even the most die-hard Naruto fan would be ill-served by this game, especially when the DS library is filled with dozens of far superior, less-contrived options.

While the multiplayer may be passable, the rest of VBR is so flawed that it tests your patience more than your boxing skills. If you've been waiting for a Wii boxing game, you should just keep waiting and go back to Wii Sports for now -- at least that was free with your Wii.

With its slick visual polish and ample bone-crunching sound-effects, Urban Reign could have come out on tip. But thanks to an endless series of increasingly maddening and increasingly boring stages, you'll find yourself saying "No thanks," and turning off your PS2 and bringing this game back to the store. Xbox owners, be thankful you were spared this agony.

It's not an awful game. It's just utterly inferior to Lumines and costs just as much. What's the point?

Customizable background themes, icons, and skins are offered to spice up the aesthetic, but they're not the least bit pleasant to look at and offer about as much artistry as clip art.

But when the game's core mechanics are middling at best, dragging other players into it is just asking for a reputation downgrade. When the world has so many better games to offer, you have to ask yourself "Why play this?"

The game's mash-up of a story never amounts to anything meaningful or groundbreaking, and the single player campaign is pretty short -- clocking in around five hours or less.

It would be easy to pinpoint the games faults solely on the new, unresponsive control scheme, but Ride's gameplay lacks several established principles of the skateboarding genre. Concepts as simple as session markers and on-foot travel are nonexistent, and the ability to restart a challenge mid-run (a longtime staple of the Pro Skater series) is simply not there.

An absolute mess that isn't worth your time.

An absolute mess that isn't worth your time.

We've come to expect a missing coat of polish on film tie-ins, but Iron Man seems to lack even a level of care, resulting in a drab adaptation that sinks well beyond simple mediocrity.

Worse than simply being tedious, though, is how jaw-grindingly frustrating Zombie Apocalypse becomes.

The Rise of Cobra's biggest problems aren't in the way it uses the license -- the problems are that, on anything but the lowest difficulty setting, the game is unnecessarily unforgiving and uses a completely counter-intuitive health regeneration system.

It still ends up as one of the prettier 3D offerings on Xbox Live Arcade, despite some framerate annoyances. It's too bad that everything else about the game -- from the mechs and environments to the play modes -- seems so generic and quickly cobbled together.

It would be easy to pinpoint the games faults solely on the new, unresponsive control scheme, but Ride's gameplay lacks several established principles of the skateboarding genre. Concepts as simple as session markers and on-foot travel are nonexistent, and the ability to restart a challenge mid-run (a longtime staple of the Pro Skater series) is simply not there.

After finishing the disappointingly anticlimactic game, I felt like I just read through a graphic novel side-story, but one that doesn't reveal anything new or interesting. From a technical standpoint, the game is passing, but its narrative, structure, and inattention to detail reveal this game for what it is: Yet another lazy cash-in on a "blockbuster" film.

Worse than simply being tedious, though, is how jaw-grindingly frustrating Zombie Apocalypse becomes.

We've come to expect a missing coat of polish on film tie-ins, but Iron Man seems to lack even a level of care, resulting in a drab adaptation that sinks well beyond simple mediocrity.

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.

Gather a few friends around the TV and Deadliest Warrior can provide about an hour of brainless laughs, but I don't see much appeal beyond that.

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.

As much as it pains me to say it, Tron: Evolution proves that it takes a lot more than nostalgia and shiny graphics to make an enjoyable videogame.

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.

A game that tries so hard to prove that the series is progressing, but ignores fixing the issues that have plagued it for years: poor defense, sloppy animations, and catering to the home run mar any greatness this game was hoping to achieve.

Bust-A-Move Universe stops just shy of being an irredeemably terrible game, but it's certainly not good.

As much as it pains me to say it, Tron: Evolution proves that it takes a lot more than nostalgia and shiny graphics to make an enjoyable videogame.

A by-the-numbers affair unlikely to rouse most action fans. Maybe you won't toss your controller in a fit of rage (unlike the frustrating PS3/360 games), but with gameplay and presentation this uninteresting, do you even need pick it up to begin with?