Clone Wars' appeal may reside more with the younger audience than that of the more dedicated gamer -- there just isn't enough of a challenge here for most. As such, this version of the game works better as a substitute to those who can't play the excellent console iterations, or who want something else to play on their 3DS until a more substantial title arrives.

Godfather II suffers from a lack of design foresight. Instead of delivering a movie-quality narrative, it presents a frustrating, accidentally comic world.

Nothing says a simulator can't be fun. I love the idea of plotting out my draft board, targeting free agents, cutting dead weight, and juggling the salary cap. But Head Coach 09 just left me frustrated and angry.

The controls are unbelievable -- they're more fiddly than an Irish wedding. Every button on the PS2 pad is used, and many actions (like firing a weapon) require multiple presses when one could've sufficed.

Full Auto 2's like an arcade game -- fun in short spurts. And the tough secondary objectives in career mode (finish without dying, destroy certain crates, outscore your foe, and so on) help in keeping me coming back in order to unlock the secret cars and weapons.

Ultimately, this is a missed opportunity through and through. I would have expected better from a Codemasters published game.

The one saving grace is the presence of Pac-Man Vs., a sincerely cool multiplayer take on the legendary maze-chase game that got a bit of a bum rap when Nintendo tried to transform it into the cornerstone of the company's business model.

Squad Command is far from perfect, but it is also the closest thing to playing actual Warhammer 40K on a videogame system. Turn-based strategy enthusiasts will definitely want to check this game out, and if you are a Warhammer fan then it is really a no-brainer.

Best as a reasonably straightforward hack-and-slash action game. When it tries to demand too much precision of the player, things get messy. The camera isn't very precise, blending automatic direction with some fairly crude player control on the right analog stick, and there are situations where the game demands more precision than its controls can provide.

Tecmo Bowl Throwback is exactly what it claims to be, and it freshens up the classic version of the game without completely changing it (read: ruining it). Publishers working on remakes of older titles would be well-served in taking a page out of Tecmo's book in keeping the changes minimal and the nostaligia-factor high.

It's just a shame that, due to Sega's mismanagement of its properties over the last decade or so, Superstars Tennis comes too late to fully resonate with today's gaming audience.

The experiment is a success and testament to the fact that EA really has been spending more time crafting these games as the movies and books become more ambitious. If "Half-Blood Prince" produces the same leap in concept as we've seen here, Potter fans will really be in for something.

This is one flawed gem of an adventure that perhaps only the most patient of us can enjoy.

Dewy's Adventure has some admirable qualities to it, but the control issues keep it from truly shining.

Crosswords is simply a game about word puzzles made for people who love word puzzles -- and that's OK with me.

The venerability of these selections combined with the substandard interface (exiting out of a given game is performed inconsistently and tends to be very confusing) and paltry selection of titles makes this one you can skip over without losing any sleep.

This year, the game has junked its poorest parts and replaces them with some seriously innovative goodies -- but there are a handful of reasons why we're not jumping for joy and declaring this the must-play baseball title of 2008.

No, it's not going to go head-to-head with the onslaught of great FPSes we saw at the end of last year (though its slick, well-designed, robust multiplayer should give it some legs). But the unusual premise, solid writing, and nicely varied play make it worth a look for shooter fans looking for that next fix.

Supersonic seems a tad overpriced at $15 -- especially considering the nigh-featureless multiplayer and bland aesthetics -- but the single-player is short and sweet, and the core mechanics are simple and rewarding.

Despite the faults in character variety, you get a good Ninja Turtle fighter using a proven engine, but maybe Ubisoft will do one better than the Konami of 1994 and produce a sequel worth wishing for.

Tons of content, beautiful graphics, outrageously enjoyable gameplay -- these make up for its couple of foibles.

There's a certain obsessive-compulsive appeal to unlocking goals, and the surprisingly good text guarantees that there's always something interesting to read. But these positive traits seem wasted on a dumbed-down, ill-conceived butchery of a perfectly respectable franchise.

Most importantly, though (especially for fans of the PC Fallout), you've got an RPG without any sort of enticing story.

The stealth fails, however, in at least two significant ways. The first is a near-total lack of choice: there's almost always one prescribed way to navigate a given situation, and player improvisations are promptly curtailed by unsustainable gunfire.

It may not be the flashiest or most technically astute, but it's entertaining, well-suited for portable gaming -- something the competition still hasn't been able to figure out.

At its basic level, Transformers on the DS is a pretty average game. But at least Vicarious Visions tried to bring something unique to the table. It's kind of lame that you have to purchase two full-priced games to experience the entire saga (each title is about four hours long), but these are still the best Transformers-movie games you're gonna find.

The overall effect is that you're playing an unholy union between an old -- and not very good -- point-and-click adventure and a five-year old first-person shooter.

A colossal waste of an opportunity. The game throws together over 10 years' worth of characters from eight of the previous entries in the series, but for some inexplicable reason it sends these fan favorites not on a grand adventure but on a series of tedious fetch quests.