Burnout Crash's ability to underwhelm is actually rather frustrating. The game would fit right at home on an iPhone or iPad, and it can be rather fun. But with all the amazing games available for consoles, it's hard to see why anyone would choose to invest their time in Burnout Crash.

While the experience is definitely fun, blazing through the game's six levels (plus four bonus games) only takes about an hour. So, unless you're absolutely hungering for a short, cooperative experience, just wait for the real game to release in January.

While Re:coded never does anything that's particularly groundbreaking, it does what it sets out to do very well and adds some fun and interesting twists on the standard formula.

Hardcore RTS fans probably won't enjoy Heroes of Mana's simplified design. And fans of more traditional RPGs probably won't appreciate its chaotic, large-scale engagements, either. Taken for what it is, though, Heroes is an enjoyable little excursion.

Beneath the whimsical packaging -- punctuated by the overenthusiastic (possibly underage) air-traffic controller on the front cover -- lies a fearsome beast ready to sink its teeth into your challenge-seeking jugular.

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.

The most depressing issue, however, is the four- to 10-second load time you'll suffer each time you enter a new environment, but methodically engaging gameplay helps make up for this.

The graphics aren't sharp, HD models, but Mario Power Tennis looked good when it first came out, and it still looks good today. It's not perfect, and more carefully retooled port would have been preferable, but Mario Power Tennis provides what's important: fun.

The selection of missions is a little sparse, and the game demands a near-perfect performance to unlock extra content, but that's far less of a problem compared to a control scheme that just isn't any fun.

AC4 feels like a house that's been added onto so often that it's a maze of twisting passages, oddly shaped rooms, and doors that go nowhere. There may be something worthwhile hidden within, but it's not worth the effort to find it. Time to tear it all down and start over.

While it maintains its easily accessible, casual gameplay, obsessive players (like myself) can still work hard towards getting 100% on all dishes. This blend is exactly what makes me love Cooking Mama in general, and Cooking Mama 3 is a great, if occasionally exasperating, addition to the series.

Too Human is also not a good action game. While it deserves some applause for a reasonable translation of PC classic Diablo's mouse-driven controls, its reliance on the right analog stick as a means for attack only works at the most basic level.

Even when considered as an action-driven arcade game though, the awkwardness of controlling the namesake swords takes too much away from the overall enjoyment.

The graphics are almost painfully cute, and the pseudo-physics system that causes enemies, objects, and heroes to ping-pong around the screen with abandon can make combat entertainingly chaotic. It's good, clean, dumb fun. There's just not much to it, or of it.

While you can manually toggle the maximum strength of the shot, the analog swing is still enormously more sensitive than in previous versions -- only there's no meter to give you any indication of how strong a putt you're making. Frustrating? You bet.

Given the game's low price and close temporal proximity to its forerunner, it's unsurprising that the visuals, sounds, and gameplay haven't changed at all since Portable Ops.

Ultimately, Afro falls into the same pitfalls as almost every other game based on a movie/television license: It presents an edited down version of a story that's familiar to fans but indecipherable to newcomers, wrapped up in a generic game housing. It looks great. It sounds great. But, otherwise, it's a mashup of characters and situations that makes little sense.

The move to a new console is rarely without a few bumps, but Gust seems to have weathered the transition nicely; as such, I'm happy to recommend Atelier Rorona to anyone looking for a good JRPG or slice-of-life sim on the PS3.

An uneven effort, MotoGP '08 is a decent game that should please most newbies and occasional riders but proves that Milestone has a ways to go before it fully grasps the handlebars.

That the game outperforms its 3D siblings seems to have happened almost by default: the other games are so poor that this mediocre product seems sterling by comparison. Taken on its own merits, though, it's just not particularly good.

Missing are the large sprites, the branching storylines, the dual-planed settings, and perhaps most disappointing to me, the undead hero, a truly iconic figure of the original game.

The meat (and, hell, the bones, too) of this game is comprised of one thing: searching for a series of hidden objects. At first, this is fun in a Highlights for Children sort of way, but once you realize that it's practically all you do, it starts to get as exciting as finding your lost remote in your messy apartment.

The paper-thin storyline (you're shipwrecked on a remote island and decide to put down roots there) may be an inconsequential excuse for you to repeat the same core game of the past 11 years, but some small lessons learned along the way manage to shine through.

The survivor mode is like the game itself in a microcosm. It's rote and uninspired, a desultory thoughtless collage of bits and pieces surgically removed from the movies and dropped lifelessly into a dated engine.

What we didn't expect is a game asking for $50 and giving you nothing new.

GoldenEye's heyday is long gone, and Solace relies too much on nostalgia and imitation to be anything close to the next shooter milestone.

The graphics have improved since this game made its debut on the PS2. They still don't look great, with very plain character designs and horrendously boring backgrounds, but technically, the improvement makes this the better version of the game. If only by a little.

It's an acceptable rendition of a time-tested classic -- a little too complex to stand beside its classic inspiration, a little too primitive to stand up to contemporary releases, but still decent.