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

EA's NHL effort is masterful, ballsy, and innovative. NHL 2K7 is stale, boring, and predictable.

Honestly, though, that's part of the problem. Way too much of your new game feels like you're just playing it safe.

The game gets away from these roots far too soon and often, delving into middling mech territory with brain-dead humans broken up by rote boss battles and a forgettable story. Sleek graphics and a fast start can't mask what's an entertaining but ultimately disposable diversion.

Combine that frustration with the almost insultingly shallow combat and it's hard to get too excited about jumping back into the game more than once or twice.

The marriage of the Yu-Gi-Oh! universe with strategy-based combat is an addictive one, making this game one that even the curious fan should check out.

Sorrows nails the controls, making the repetitive hack-n-slash action enjoyable in a Dynasty Warriors kinda way, and multiplayer is mostly successful. Unfortunately, the graphics fail to impress, the story isn't anything memorable, banging buttons is as effective as making use of the combos, and what should have been an epic quest can be completed by a novice gamer in around eight hours, with not much reason for replay.

If you're looking for a more competent take on gaming-mascot Olympics, go with the DS version. But if you're looking for a casual party game, go with the Wii version -- it's just not the same without trash-talking all the Sonic furries.

This one's fun, no doubt about it, and the way the beats bang the environment is a must-see. But its lack of fighting depth definitely keeps it on the casual tip.

Evolution's problem is that each of the characters is distinct, but there aren't nearly enough of them for the game to stand on that concept alone. It's not gimmicky nor is it comprehensive, instead going for some kind of arbitrary blend of the two.

The atmosphere in Red Dead is the real thing -- not the pseudo-parody of "Dead Man's Hand" -- and that alone should satisfy the audience it was made for. If you can forgive all of its faults, you'll enjoy the few hours you spend in Red's world.

The game's well-polished; it would have been hailed as revolutionary a few years ago, but now it's just another decent, 10-hour-long hop-n-bop to add to the pile.

Whereas the original Doom 3 featured dense, serpentine level designs that played every bit as much of a starring role in exerting dread and ambience, the environments here lack a sense of coherency, even while it tries to hit you over the head with its own exoticism.

Once its player-versus-player elements are fully implemented, Lineage II could become the tense, harsh, and Darwinian experience it's supposed to be. At this point, it's basically an occasionally chaotic, and aesthetically attractive level-grind.

I can't recommend the weak single-player mode, but the multiplayer left me surprisingly satisfied.

The hyper-speed of this game makes it feel like more of an arcade experience than a real hockey simulator. It's still a huge step in the right direction, though.

The pick-up-and-play impressions started out positive, but as I spent more time with it, the less I enjoyed the novelty and just wished I could play good football... It's all in the game on the field, and with a defense that's allowing old-school, Hail Mary money plays pretty much at will, this doesn't cut it.

It's all a bit dull, gameplay-wise, until you can trudge through at least one season of shutouts. The good news is that presentation-wise, Quidditch World Cup sparkles.

Despite its control and camera issues and the general predictability of the game's structure (and laughable plot), it's a pleasant throwback to some of the better early 3D adventures.

The younger set might not mind backtracking through old levels, hunting high and low for weapon parts (and that last, pesky, unsmashed crate). But other aspects of Root of Evil definitely aim older, such as the characters -- which include a dead boy, conjoined brainiac twins, and a wiseacre baby with stumps for limbs in a jar of formaldehyde.

Although it's not a great game, it is worth investing time in, and one that grows on you in less than a half-dozen missions.

The ability to find various items and combining them to create new items like lock picks and Molotov cocktails is an interesting aspect, too, though not as cool in practice as it sounds in theory.

There's just nothing new at all on the gameplay end, and nothing very compelling on the external-polish end. It's hardly the first GBA game to be guilty of this, but it won't do much to compel people to buy it.

Knights of Honor is never slow and offers plenty of things to occupy your time in each game, but none of it is particularly deep or challenging. Once you've mastered the basic mechanisms of the game, it's just a matter of time before Europe is yours.

Area 51 is in no specific way a bad game, it's just an exceptionally dated game. The player's objectives aren't much more evolved than an old Doom or Turok game, and the graphic presentation isn't up to par with the genre's best.

Yes, this is a low-budget game, but at least they spent their time and money working on the most important aspect: the nuts-and-bolts gameplay. There are 30 tracks and 20 characters buried within, and when you get tired of blowing past the computer, there's a four-player mode with just as many options.

Disgaea 2 adds only one significant new feature to its gameplay: the ability of stacked characters to attack.

While Live 08 is definitely looking better in every respect (gameplay, graphics, and online), the series still needs more time in the gym.