If you're a fan of strategy games, you'll love Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. And if you want a game that will bring your GameCube out of retirement, this is the one.

While Chessmaster Live isn't going to suddenly fatten up the ranks of wannabe grandmasters, it does offer nearly everything you'd want in a competitive simulator while including all the necessary tools for engrossing offline and online matches. It's also a great chess educator.

If it was a book you'd call it "a real page-turner"; it can be nigh-impossible at points to put down. When all is said and done, as the credits roll across the screen, you'll remember the poignant moments as part of the story, not the actions you took that caused them to be played out.

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.

Ultimately, Digital Graphic Novel might be the truest MGS experience -- no gameplay to get in the way of pure plot. While it may be geared only at franchise fans, it's hard to fault Konami or Kojima Productions for bringing out something that we haven't seen much of on the PSP lately: interesting software.

Gameplay is balanced with a feel almost like a football game and similarly gives more sense of reward for good tactics than often felt in strategy games.

The other major RPG released this week, the disappointing "Blue Dragon," promised to transport players back to those beloved days. Wild Arms 5 is the game that actually delivers.

FPS fans should appreciate the rich Metroid universe, and Metroid fans should recognize the technical achievements NST pulled off. Then everybody can be happy.

All 13 of the game's missions are well crafted and challenging, but after four iterations of this series, I felt a need for a new challenge.

Ace Combat 5 is not a major leap ahead of 2001's "Ace Combat 4"...But if you liked that game's impressively detailed presentation and instantly playable controls, then strap in and get ready to take off.

As an originator, Valkyrie Profile is an inspired maverick in a field of me-too RPGs, beautiful to look at and exciting to play.

The game's "exclusion zone" setting, a no-man's-land roughly 30 square kilometers surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, is very much "Mad Maxim": post-Soviet road warriors just beyond the containment dome. Bleak as the end of the world (or at least life as we know it), it's an invention as gorgeous as years-old graphics overhauled for a late launch get.

Like any good sequel, Lego Star Wars II improves on the original in almost every way. But most importantly, it's about the good episodes now. For that reason alone, Lego Star Wars II is one of the most enjoyable games of this fall.

And even if you're bored with beating your friends, there's a vast array of unlockables to collect, which will surely delight your inner obsessive compulsive.

The vaunted cross-platform play works mostly as advertised (including Achievements associated with killing/resurrecting users from the alternate platform), but we still have to question whether it's worth the hassle and cost for PC users.

Its core gameplay mechanic meets, and in some ways excels over, EA's baseball game... and yet, the window-dressing features are all fairly useless compared to MVP's innovative pitch meter and other extras.

It's a highly specialized title, with a unique feature that will either delight you or drive you crazy. But those who get into the nitty-gritty of designing custom monsters to play will find in this game rare pleasures and rewards.

Most notably, the game does its best to reward creative pathfinding. Do a little searching in each level and you'll find myriad vents, air ducts, and the like, which, when utilized, help give you the jump on your opponents and let you avoid head-on fights.

One of the highlights of the year for Net-connected PS3 owners. For many, this will be a fresh experience, lessening the impact of the modest mode options and lack of some fan favorites from prior versions. At the same time, the lessons learned over the years of iteration and the sparkling new graphics engine make this the latest and greatest version for fans of the series.

OK, so Shivering Isles doesn't reinvent the fireball. But the impeccable design and construction of the original game breathes life into this expansion -- not, as you might assume, the other way around.

Though it's improving each year, SmackDown vs. Raw could really use some friendly (or TNA's case, not-so-friendly) competition.

Pulling its trigger condenses everything that's right about Call of Duty 2 into a single moment. Online or off it is the epitome of visceral thrill seeking.

Despite the limitations, it's an incredible feat that SNK was able to get a GBA game to look and play this well on its first try.

NFL Street could have benefited from a faster pace, which would have enriched the gameplay. It takes a little getting used, but once you do, it's worth it.

The PSP version is the purest taste of Gunpey you're likely to receive anywhere. The skin collecting is addictive, and as long as you don't mind the brutal, linear, hours-long grind needed to collect them all, then this is probably the version most older gamers will go for.

If there's one thing you can say about Head On, it's that it certainly provides you with plenty of game to play.

Does the motion control work? Absolutely. Granted, casting spells with the Wii Remote isn't a perfect affair, but the interactive nature easily pushes the Wii version above the others, despite its higher-resolution console brothers.

Konga represents a somewhat hefty financial investment, especially if you want to round up enough peripherals to fill your GameCube's controller ports, but for sheer universal fun there's nothing else on the system that compares.