It's pretty good as a game that casual players can fly through on the easiest difficulty setting, and its production values are as good as you'll find on the market. But it doesn't hold up as well for those looking for a story or a challenge. It's a fun evening, basically.

Populous DS floats somewhere between a time-waster and a strategy game, but it never provides the addictive "hook" of either genre.

It's a bit of an awkward comparison, but I see shades of "Ninja Gaiden" here: It's unassailably gratifying when the mechanics finally click and you start slicing and volleying your way to victory, but at the same time, it's prohibitive to folks who don't want to spend hours in the school of hard knocks, pursuing what should be a relatively uncomplicated act of learning the game's basic rules and logic.

Seemingly because of the simple interface, however, none of the individual minigames held my attention for more than 30 minutes.

Sky Crawlers was better than I was expecting, but still left me unfulfilled in a couple of places. The main culprits are the largely unexciting missions, which don't pick up in scale or drama until the final few, when the fighting and the set pieces around it start to actually feel stressful.

Avatar's not a bad-looking or playing game -- it's just very average. You may have the whole planet to explore, but your primary objectives boil down to "go to a point, push a button and or kill some guys, then go back to the start." The framework's in place -- a wide array of weapons, big enemies to take down -- but Avatar just doesn't put them in an interesting setting.

It's hardly the deepest game around, but its combo system, barrage of enemies, and difficulty all dovetail with the endless brutal carnage to recall, in some ways, the Ninja Gaiden remake: If you're good and quick enough, you'll avoid getting hit, but when you get cornered, you'll be walloped.

A ton of side missions offer varying entertainment value, plenty of doodads to collect and power Hulk up with, and even a few cool alternate character skins for the green guy to wear. But I can't just quietly ignore the fact that a similar, but far better Hulk game (the best superhero game, for my money) sits on my shelf at home, and is readily available for anyone to track down.

The needless addition of QTEs to the formula and a relatively short single-player experience keep it from becoming a legend in its own right.

It does a lot of things right (great looking graphics, fun multiplayer, and quality voice work), but it's constantly held back by unfortunate design decisions that replace satisfaction with frustration.

Origins isn't bad at what it does, but what it does isn't very ambitious.

When it comes to bringing the full complement of instruments to the DS, Band Hero represents a very rocky start. If it weren't for the game's shortsighted and unintuitive peripherals, there might actually be something worthwhile here -- assuming you dig the soundtrack, anyhow.

Shadows is halfway there. I experienced plenty of cool "Spider-Man" moments throughout thanks to the basic locomotion and combat and the occasional well-done cut-scene...but Shadows never really hits any sort of stride. Rather, it settles into a rhythm of repetition and drags out as its third act self-destructs.

Time Hollow may be light on gameplay, but the story's competent enough for fans of point-and-tap adventures.

If you're looking to get in on some air combat without a huge wait, you may be disappointed. More hardcore flight fans, however, will eventually find an enjoyable experience somewhere beneath the fluff.

You don't have to settle for mediocrity as a fan of the genre -- and you sure as hell don't have to support it.

If you're looking to get in on some air combat without a huge wait, you may be disappointed. More hardcore flight fans, however, will eventually find an enjoyable experience somewhere beneath the fluff.

Ultimately, Star Trek Online's problem is that it doesn't put enough emphasis on its own ground combat abilities. The action feel much better in space, where properly combining a Tachyon Beam and a boost to auxiliary power can result in the swift annihilation of your enemy.

A Vampyre Story's got some bright spots: The original score is quite good and recalls the old iMUSE scores from LucasArts' heyday, with jaunty character themes and dynamic tonal changes. And the story is an interesting vehicle, but it really deserves better jokes and puzzles.

Aside from the frustrating control inconsistencies and the abbreviated storyline, this is still a well-made trek through a history that thankfully never happened. Though the sluggish multiplayer mode doesn't even deserve a glance, the predominantly solid mechanics and terrifying premise make this a more than competent deviation for someone itching to kill more Nazis.

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

I still had a good time gunning down hordes of undead, but I can't emphasize enough how disappointing it is to get really close to the end of the game, only to be sent back to the beginning because you've run out of your allotted amount of continues.

Like so many games that try to straddle a balance between mass market and fervent gaming enthusiasts, what Big Bang does well and what it does bad are both incredibly noticeable. Yet, on the whole, it's worth a try. Weird.

If only HVB wasn't so difficult and limiting at the start; being stuck with below-average bowlers using below-average bowling balls while trying to navigate oil patterns and control ball-spin is more than enough to dissuade anyone looking to simply, well, bowl.

Ultimately, Start The Party! is an inoffensive suite of party-centric minigames; they range from amusing distractions to boring EyeToy Play rehashes.

The game itself offers several technical improvements over its predecessor, but the overall package just feels like it's just... not... quite there. Breasts can only solve so many problems.

The game is filled with lots of good and well-executed ideas, but they all seem to exist independently of one another. It's a popcorn movie that clearly took a good deal of talent to pull together, but comes up short of creating the grand adventure that it seems to be trying for.

The core "side-scrolling submarine action game with a bit of realistic physics" campaign is either way too short or frustratingly padded.