If an absolutely brilliant story, finely detailed characterization, and faultless attention to canonical detail are what you're after, then, X-Men Legends is not what you're looking for. If you want a good game, though, and an especially good game to play with a couch full of superhero fans, this is the game to get.

With a bright, buoyant soundtrack, sharp, eye-catching visuals, and tightly-wound responsive controls, Sonic Rush is the Sonic game Sega's needed to make for 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.

The perfect antidote for people who think they've seen it all when it comes to the stealth genre.

Beyond the bugs/glitches, the online matchmaking feels lacking compared to, say, Super Street Fighter 2 HD Remix or Street Fighter 4.

It's a beautiful remake and a testament to the longevity of smart game design; it's just not the must-buy it would be for a couple bucks less.

Whereas "Call of Duty 2" did an incredible job creating the illusion of an open environment, it's just the reverse here. You feel hemmed in and herded along at every turn, and the pacing also reflects that. Unless you rush forward, progress in the game grinds to a halt -- no considered approaches or tactical positioning, just advance and keep firing.

The main quest is entertaining enough to justify the $9 or $10 investment (based on your platform of choice), but the new and revised bonus elements really make Strong Badia the Free a comprehensive experience.

Like Soul Calibur Broken Destiny, another Namco Bandai developed 3D fighter, Tekken 6 is a quality port that closely resembles its source material.

You'll assuredly have plenty of fun with this, even if Nintendo's play-it-safe, dumb-it-down approach will make many longtime players yearn for something more ambitious and risky.

For all the additions in this game, some sensible, some less so, there's one constant: The gameplay is sharp, and players move up and down the court with purpose and meaning.

By expertly blurring the line between arcade racing and popcorn action flicks, Black Rock has not only further established itself as one of the top racing studios in the game, but also created arguably the most intense driving experience of this console generation.

This game is the first to go beyond the major leagues and include all the AAA and AA minor-league clubs, adding a level of detail to the Dynasty franchise mode unrivaled by other games.

Sam & Max's design crew runs a well-oiled humor machine, and Ice Station Santa flaunts everything from suicidal alley rats to demented gift exchanges to a trio of time-displaced Christmas spirits who turn the expected feel-good story cliché on its head.

Anniversary edition is a collection of some of the best pieces of Halo. It revives a classic campaign that sports a fresh look. The multiplayer package adds classic maps into Reach's larger framework and re-enables classic CE behaviors for multiplayer fans to revisit the original, and even Kinect brings something unique to the table.

As an enjoyable, pick-up-and-play package with a sublimely simple design, N+ succeeds, and it's hard not to recommend for the price. Just be wary of the inevitable eyestrain, and if you're only going to play it at home, make sure you've exhausted the XBLA and PC versions first. It's still the most badass ninja simulator around...just less so.

And unlike previous baseball video games MLB 2K5 moves at a nice pace.

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.

It recaptures the fun of the console games, while adding features that make it a worthwhile entry in the game's canon. This isn't a little sibling; it's a true, if slight, evolutionary step for the series.

Though hardly the revolution that the original Myst was, it's still an impressive achievement in the art of integrated visual and game design.

The most exciting RPG to come out this year. It has a different setting, a different focus, and different structure than anything else for consoles, and that's ultimately what makes it so appealing.

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.

Pirates!'s brand of potluck goofing around works outstandingly in portable form. Sure, it can get a bit repetitive over long sessions, but that's why a game such as Pirates! belongs on a stop-and-go handheld in the first place.

Because of all the extra micromanagement you need to worry about in C&C3 -- the aforementioned problems were never issues in "BFME2" -- some campaign missions become aggravatingly difficult. The A.I. opponent doesn't let up on the accelerator even though you can't manage everything as quickly as you can on a PC.

Despite the controls, BlazBlue Portable is a game that you'll probably find immediately appealing. It's easy to pick up and start firing off combos and flashy special moves, but for hardcore fighting game fans, only a handful of characters are viable on a competitive level.

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.

Like Mass Effect 2, FFXIII seems to be an attempt to answer the question of how to create an RPG for the modern, console-owning masses. Square Enix's solution is certainly different than BioWare's, but it's arguably just as effective in its own way.

A no-brainer for Flight Simulator X owners. And with the slipstreamed service release boosting performance dramatically (and the original down to $30), it's also a perfect reason for Flight Simulator X standbys to climb on board.