It provides a shockingly large amount of game time (with Separate Ways, expect to be playing this game in the 25-30 hour realm the first time through).

Like Nintendo's cult classic, it's a game with likable characters, a sharply-developed sense of humor, and somewhat perfunctory gameplay.

Lemmings on the PSP is basically the same game it was 15 years ago. But with new-and-improved eye candy and on-the-go play, Lemmings is worth a fresh look, because some of the new (and old) levels will no doubt challenge that gray, gooey mass that sits in your skull.

A sequel worthy of the other Hawk games I spent countless hours playing.

EA has succeeded in making a fun party game that's easy for players of all ages to pick up and enjoy thanks to its superior controls and fast pace.

The voice command system in EndWar is terrific, and hopefully, future games will take advantage of a similar control scheme. It just isn't enough by itself to raise the game beyond "mediocre RTS." It's definitely worth checking out to see voice command done right, but overall, it lacks the depth and substance to bring anyone over from superior PC alternatives.

OK, so maybe it is sorta piratey, after all. Either way, assuming you can find some friends to sail with, Booty's more fun than a barrel of grog with a wench on top.

The main game isn't terribly long, and the missions, though sometimes creative, are often frustrating because there's usually only one way to complete them, making them feel needlessly restrictive--something that stings a little more in a sandbox game such as this.

Infestation is the single best follow-up to James Cameron's Aliens since Mark Verheiden's black-and-white Dark Horse comics (the original edition that starred an adult Newt and an embittered Hicks, mind you) more than 20 years ago. More than that, it's an excellent game.

Manhunt's biggest problem is pacing. Like Richard Nixon, it peaks too early. It has a lot of smaller problems, but all of those issues contribute to the unfortunate fact that I was tired of Manhunt long before it was over. I was tired of its violence, certainly, but I was also tired of its AI quirks, tired of its repetitive level design, and tired of the growing impression that I was just the main character in a geek show.

Crashing is probably something you should get used to before jumping into Create & Race, though, which brings us to the primary problem with putting a simulation racing game on a handheld like the DS.

Maybe the boneheaded A.I. is intentional; maybe they're supposed to be feral lemmings, and the game's forcing you to slow down for tactics -- but I ain't buying it. With a throng of mischievous pets as the game's centerpiece, you'd expect 'em to be a little better housebroken.

It doesn't pack quite the "wow" factor that we saw in Legends, but it's still a more-than-competent racer, and one that's a remarkable demonstration of the PSP's capabilities.

The series seems to be back on the right track. Here's hoping that ZX speaks of good things for Mega Man's future...and that we won't have to suffer through a few more years of half-baked sequels before those good things arrive.

The strategic elements that are firmly in place seem to be working against the action elements, when they should be working together: that is to say, it's difficult to be both General and Private in the same fight.

Superstar Baseball was obviously meant to be played in short bursts instead of long sessions. (The lack of any sort of regular season mode ensures this.) And as this simple type of game that's neither too deep nor too shallow, Superstar's "swing at anything, steal all the time, watch out for the Thwomps in right field" brand of baseball is tough to beat.

"Cooking Mama" does have more recipes than Order Up!, but it lacks that special ingredient that keeps me coming back for more. In fact, now that I've tasted what a fleshed-out cooking-game experience can really be, it'll be hard to go back to "Cooking Mama" -- I'll definitely be coming back for more Order Up.

A lot of the setpiece "dungeons" are smaller and more limited; when combined with the lack of an "overworld" to explore along the lines of the Silent Hill streets, The Room is much more linear and less exploratory than any of the previous games.

With its breadth of content, incredible amount of collectibles (even if their placement isn't as intuitive as I would like), and the new Assault game modes, this is one of the best Lego games created yet.

It's an addendum to a broader karaoke game, not a stand-alone.

It's a lot of work for flashes of scandalous fun, and not as much reward in the long run. Neither the new Aspiration nor the dating mini-game brings very much to the gameplay, and that's the crux of the problem.

As a demo that gives a glimpse into the Wii's gaming future, Wii Sports is reassuring, charming, and good, clean fun.

The uninspired title selection and painfully compromised presentation are heartbreaking disappointments, given the sheer amount of effort and love that Konami clearly put into the rest of the package. It's like sitting down for a meal at a four-star restaurant and opening the sterling silver lid covering your china plate...to find a cold White Castle burger sitting there.

It's a strange situation when one of the weakest elements of a game -- in Spider-Man 2's case, the story -- can massively improve in a follow-up, and yet the overall quality of the games can remain roughly the same, but that's exactly what's happened here.

Space Marine isn't a disappointing game, it's just an uneventful one. As such, fans of the series may find more to salvage here than the average gamer...If the pacing problems could be addressed, the addition of a campaign co-op mode, and more multiplayer maps leave a healthy amount of room for improvement for the future of this series.

Regardless, after only five to six hours of family-friendly trivia, questions start to repeat -- effectively killing the fun. Microsoft promises downloadable question packs sometime down the line, but the jury's still out on the price or size of these additions.

A welcome return to form for the series. Even the plot revolves around minor characters from "Suikoden II," and the loading screens show the game's characters as they would have been rendered in a 32-bit sprite style, as if Konami is apologizing for the turns taken after that era.

If you're interested in throwing down cash for a beta and maybe getting in some practice before things get smoothed out, go ahead and bump that score up a letter grade. Anybody else should find something else to do until then.