You know that "PS2 game with shiny characters and lots of bloom lighting" look that plagues PS3 and 360 ports of last-gen titles? It's dripping all over Spider-Man 3. Except it's not a port. Which is almost okay, until it throws in some vicious slowdown whenever you make the mistake of breaking environmental objects.

Ultimately, Mister Slime feels like a decent level-traversal concept in search of a more attractive, ambitious game.

As a mashup of :Need for Speed: Carbon" and "Need for Speed: Most Wanted", Undercover is ultimately fairly successful. For many, though, in a post-"Burnout: Paradise" world, the question has to be raised: "What does this give me that Paradise doesn't?" The answer to that is "cops and robbers," a mechanic that has worked well in single-player since the days of Hot Pursuit, and works even better online when played in teams of 4-on-4 in Undercover.

Reviving Dreamcast games for the HD generation should involve a little more effort than putting out a slapdash port of the original.

Okabu would be a much better game if it only had the confidence to display itself proudly to the player. Until it gains some courage, we are left with a hampered game that never quite play as good as it looks.

I understand that the game is meant for a younger audience, but there are quite literally hundreds of other titles out there that provide a far more enjoyable experience.

It's just a damn shame that the nigh-amazing "The Rocketeer versus UFOs" premise crashes hard into "tepid Gears of Uncharted knock-off" ground.

For all of Atlus' hype about the game's "full HD support," SF3 looks no better than your average PS2 title.

A throwback to the good ol' days of "Diablo 2"-style dungeon exploring, PSU is a value-packed, worthwhile action-RPG that finds its biggest challenge not in its modern-day peers, but in escaping the shadow of its predecessor: "Phantasy Star Online (PSO)."

Saw's derivative gameplay -- which even includes sliding around crates (or racks of frozen pig carcasses) and searching dressers for hidden valves to shut down nearby pipes spewing hot gas (did that happen this often in the movies?) -- has all been done before, and done better by titles like Silent Hill and Condemned.

A series of random mini-missions pushing you further away from feeling like you're a Corleone.

It's got a few design holes, but in part because of those, Lucidity presents a type of game you don't see very often.

Soccer fans will find it boring because it's too fast and too vapid, while nonfans will probably find it little more than a mildly distracting ball-themed action thing. It's reasonably well executed for what it is, but it could very well be something that no one wants.

While it might not be worth the asking price for veteran Sega Bass junkies, this is a great opportunity for all you would-be Wii fisherman who happened to miss the boat the first time around.

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.

Shot Online's execution is just poor.

A triumph of botched execution, with almost every element it introduces to the game serving to undercut it.

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.

Lunar DS isn't really up to the thrilling and dramatic heights the series was synonymous. Worse, the changes and tweaks the developers made, trying to bring Lunar into the 21st century, are irrelevant at best and annoying at worst. That said, this is a better-than-average handheld RPG with a likable cast, a charming story, and appealing graphics.

So, here's the thing: without the dynamic water effects, Hydrophobia is just a passable Live Arcade title. The game ends abruptly (an out-of-nowhere "To Be Continued" flashes on screen), it leaves something to be desired visually, and in some ways feels rushed; the only element raising Hydrophobia from pure mediocrity is its interesting use of water.

The Spiderwick Chronicles is a standard licensed game -- it's got just enough content to make a virtual reenactment of the Human/Goblin war worthwhile for fans of the franchise.

Aladdin is just as solid now as it was then; jumping is still precise, the visual package is bright, colorful and well-animated, and the game's score and sound effects are all dead on.

The Xbox incarnation appears more faithful to the animation, while GameCube and Playstation2 versions look slightly less crisp.

Coming back to the franchise after several years away has been frustrating for me, because it reminds me how good these Mega Man RPGs could be... and also how little Capcom has actually done to realize the concept's potential. There's the foundation here for something great, but the games continue to plod along in unambitious mediocrity.

The gameplay is classic run-'n-gun style, creature designs are as uninspired as the environments they inhabit, and the unintuitive controls mean shooting often leads to frustration.

In short, it's your typical platformer -- with all the good and bad connotations that term holds...It's just not very engaging.

In short, this is a completely standard beat 'em up with nothing innovative, nothing that stands out, and a number of features that have been less than ideally copied from other games. Beyond that, it's a decent title.

When a game about giant robots flying, shooting, and fighting with each other makes it this hard and unpleasant to actually do any of those things, it's time for change.