It's fun, inventive, cute, often hilarious, and occasionally heart-pounding -- nearly everything you expect a Wario title to be. It's just not especially challenging nor lengthy.

No single aspect will blow you away, but there's enough variety, the puzzles are fun, the controls work well, and you keep moving quickly, so it's a fun ride that's unlikely to bore you unless you try to play through it a second time.

Everything about Star Fox: Assault comes across as competent, yet, frustratingly bland.

The game simply bit off way more than it could chew with the stealth sections. The end result is certainly a thumbs up -- but only just.

A tired, sluggish, and uninspired action adventure that would have barely cut the mustard six years ago on PS1.

The PS2 version has the most ideal control scheme, offering the best palette of buttons and shoulder buttons to perform ballhandling tricks with. On the flipside, the PS2 version also suffers from the most irritating load times.

But while King of Fighters 2002's old-school 2D graphics and 2003's 3D backgrounds may not win any visual awards, their fast-moving, hard-hitting gameplay more than makes up for it. Few games muster up the same sort of thrills that the KOF roster does.

Thanks to the thoughtfully designed courses, tight control, and -- thank goodness -- a battery backup and autosave feature, Racing Gears Advance is a pleasure to play from start to finish line.

If what you're looking for is a rip-snortin', metal-bending slamfest where dunkers prosper and long-ranger shooters make weak defenses pay, then this is your game. Nothing else is this specific, arcade basketball arena comes close.

No other version allows you to swat the rock off Shaq with Princess Peach the way the GC iteration does. Whether this is 1) cool, or 2) a joke to you is a matter of preference, but it's worth keeping in mind if you have younger, or more open-minded gamers in your den.

Doesn't offer enough of these diversions, subjecting the bulk of the adventuring to an endless procession of serpentine dungeons, where killing some entrenched boss figures counts as variety.

WE8 just feels real. The tempo and feel of the game show a deep understanding of soccer. The A.I. is spot-on, especially that of your own teammates, who continually move around and make runs for your benefit. Control is smooth and rock solid.

WE8 just feels real. The tempo and feel of the game show a deep understanding of soccer. The A.I. is spot-on, especially that of your own teammates, who continually move around and make runs for your benefit. Control is smooth and rock solid.

As an eye toward where Playboy came from, The Mansion is a compelling lesson--even the loading screen factoids are fun to read. But as a game, the unpolished graphics and stale gameplay keep the title mediocre at best.

Working your way toward the end of each level, experimenting with mixtures of the different ammo types, is just too enjoyable to miss. The feeling of accomplishment when you manage to take every member of a gang alive is worth the pain of the more difficult boss showdowns and somewhat unfulfilling plot.

The derivative nature of the plot goes hand-in-hand with the completely unimaginative gameplay. Nothing here is original -- the RPG-in-a-computer gimmick is straight up .hack, and the action feels like martial arts-oriented Mega Man Legends.

In its weird little way, it's fun, but not quite $50 worth of fun.

The derivative nature of the plot goes hand-in-hand with the completely unimaginative gameplay. Nothing here is original -- the RPG-in-a-computer gimmick is straight up .hack, and the action feels like martial arts-oriented Mega Man Legends.

With its intuitive interface and pile of options, Zoo Keeper is the best game of Bejeweled you'll ever play. And frankly, that should be all the recommendation you need.

No, the Punisher believes in planning ahead and has come prepared with an infinite supply of ammo—his clips might run out, but you never need to find more.

Aside from bugs like that, annoying as they are, Punisher does a good job of translating the source material, right down to the dingy, everyday visuals and the character design for the lowlifes within.

The best looking GameCube game ever released and features a story better than 99% of those on the market. Most importantly, though, it does all the little things that allow the game to focus on letting the player enjoy the ride.

Pandemic's packed the game full of well-coded smoke and explosion effects, and seeing a bomb sortie work its way across an enemy compound is almost a thing of majesty. Bring a tear to your eye, it will. It's this unwavering feeling of exhilaration that separates Mercenaries from the other "free-roaming" ripoffs.

Simultaneously a beautifully holistic encapsulation of the entire history of Zelda and a worthy new chapter to the series in its own right, Minish Cap is quite simply one of the most engrossing portable games ever made -- and it ranks pretty high among Zelda titles, too.

Pandemic's packed the game full of well-coded smoke and explosion effects, and seeing a bomb sortie work its way across an enemy compound is almost a thing of majesty. Bring a tear to your eye, it will. It's this unwavering feeling of exhilaration that separates Mercenaries from the other "free-roaming" ripoffs and lets the game stand on its own merits.

Yes, it targets a small audience, but it hits a bull's-eye.

Not only is the pacing much more deliberate -- and therefore very intense -- but the awesome selection of different mecha and other war machines give this game a feel all its own.

It's this carefully guarded lack of realism that keeps the game fresh. While the multitude of moves are clearly wacky, they're never too over-the-top, and it all fits together in this surprising, tight package.