Domino Master's a bit like going to Baskin-Robbins and noticing the employees refilling the containers with generic grocery-store-brand ice cream.

The only challenge comes from the occasionally imprecise controls.

Ubisoft's work here leaves Astonishia as little more than another could-have-been, doomed to mere mediocrity. PSP fans have been waiting a year for a great RPG...sorry, guys, this ain't it.

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.

Malice is so generic and mediocre that its release only serves to spoil what little status it had as the punchline of a joke.

While the graphics and sound won't be winning any awards, their strong, primary colors and simple but clean approach come across with a Hello Kitty feel that wraps everything up perfectly for the style.

It has a few fun moments, but for the most part Winback 2 is an utterly unremarkable game, except perhaps in that despite all the gunplay, it's completely bloodless.

What little tactical challenge commanding these brain-dead battles presents still manages to overwhelm the game's signature whip select system.

The game itself offers several technical improvements over its predecessor, but the overall package just feels like it's just... not... quite there. Breasts can only solve so many problems.

Never does it become particularly fun, though it's quietly engaging in its own methodical, repetitive way. It's not a full-price purchase by any means, and it's nowhere close to the high action-RPG bar set by Champions of Norrath on the PS2 three and a half years ago.

It's kind of a cakewalk. You won't feel pressed to utilize just the right combos for a given situation, and health boosts are generously doled out. Even the highest difficulty is pretty forgiving.

The hi-tech gadgets are there - yet you don't need them. The massive levels are there - yet most of them are plain boring. The place is full of security cameras and guards - yet you can easily deal with them once you've familiarized yourself with the gameplay mechanics.

No, the problem here is that getting to the naked women is a painstaking chore, and the few seconds of a girl going wild does not make up for the five minutes of inane videos leading up to it.

There's a great idea lurking around in Rock Of The Dead's dumb-fun concept, but instead the game winds up being dumb even when it isn't trying to be.

A slapdash title like this shouldn't take anyone's time or money.

Its basic design philosophy is one of laziness and glossing over problems rather than really putting out the effort to make a decent game. That's a bitter pill to swallow for a kid who just shelled out 50 bucks of lunch money.

It's a simple puzzle game, along the lines of something you would find pre-installed on a computer. But nicer looking, and with a lot more style.

But given the quality of the game, the title could also denote a certain level of unpleasant surprise. (Example: "Please avoid this horrible wreck of a game that Ubisoft has Sprung upon unsuspecting DS owners.")

A game that is certainly violent, absolutely profane, but also acceptably playable and filled with enough replay value and customization to warrant a purchase as opposed to a rental. But in terms of sheer polish and finesse, "Def Jam Fight for New York" is still the standard bearer against which these sorts of games should be judged.

Plain attacks with repetitive animations undermine any hope for the finesse that four unique characters could have afforded.

Feels like that blatantly annoying contemporary relative -- a sort of unironic Ali G.

Despite an entire review's worth of problems, Fantastic Four isn't a complete loss. It has some nice-looking effects ("flaming on," specifically), a decent joke or two, and some nice extras to unlock (old Fantastic Four comic covers, alternate costumes, etc.), but it's just not compelling in any of the basic areas it needs to be.

No, the problem here is that getting to the naked women is a painstaking chore, and the few seconds of a girl going wild does not make up for the five minutes of inane videos leading up to it.

By the time I'd defeated my 10th werewolf, I was already tired of needing to cut or shoot its head off so it didn't regenerate. By the time I defeated my 200th, I just wanted to turn the game off.

The problem with this control innovation is that the game often requires you to perform very particular movements (such as jump in the air, and grab a pole with your whip) with imprecise controls forcing you to playing the puzzles over and over until you are ready to rip your fur out.

Science of Evil is ultimately a God of War rip-off, but that's not the problem. Rather, very basic game-design flaws keep it from moving ahead of the licensed-game pack. Interesting characters, excellent animation and art direction, and all of the Ron Perlman in the world can't save this one from mediocrity.

Everything in the game (art, dialogue, characters, etc.) is barely bargain-bin passable.

I hesitate to say that Iron Man is dumbed down for the Wii, PlayStation 2, and PSP, since hardware limitations likely necessitated such a distinct iteration, but the resulting experience is a by-the-numbers affair unlikely to rouse most action fans.