Most of what Samurai Western has going for it is a goofy atmosphere derived from jamming the samurai and western parts of the storyline awkwardly together, and piling more ludicrously anachronistic elements on top of the result.

If you can stomach the somewhat random difficulty during the single-player campaign, you'll be treated to a mostly exhilarating trip through the different battles of Europe, including a virtual take on the Battle of the Bulge.

The experience is still amazing... and that the gameplay is still really, really broken in many areas. Each new port brings with it a handful of new features, yet none of them are anything more than mere tweaks.

Knights of Honor is never slow and offers plenty of things to occupy your time in each game, but none of it is particularly deep or challenging. Once you've mastered the basic mechanisms of the game, it's just a matter of time before Europe is yours.

While preserving what it can of the spirit of the show -- the goofy patients, the romances, the cliques, and such -- It manages a mesh of genres that makes it hard to classify, but keeps it entertaining, if not addictive. Plus, for the core target audience, who's likely a casual gamer at most, it's surprisingly accessible.

One of Advent Rising's most obvious assets is the game's ability to suck the player headlong into an unapologetic (and occasionally pretentious) space opera, all the while maintaining its inertia throughout the journey.

The whole thing can be finished in just a couple of sittings. However, fans of the film, both young and old, would do well to give it a shot, as it's an entertaining platformer that complements the movie quite well.

Not a long game. The whole thing can be finished in just a couple of sittings. However, fans of the film, both young and old, would do well to give it a shot, as it's an entertaining platformer that complements the movie quite well.

The whole thing can be finished in just a couple of sittings. However, fans of the film, both young and old, would do well to give it a shot, as it's an entertaining platformer that complements the movie quite well.

The successful parsing of battle, dialogue, and set-up sessions in Sacred Stones demonstrates again that the GBA might not be a Revolution, but it's something I sure would revisit time after time.

Although Nintendo has been visiting the WarioWare well fairly often of late, it still manages to feel fresh and addictive.

It might even be considered a pretty decent RTS of usual sort, but taken as a historically accurate simulation; it's utterly disappointing and comes nowhere close to challenging the Total War series.

The ability to find various items and combining them to create new items like lock picks and Molotov cocktails is an interesting aspect, too, though not as cool in practice as it sounds in theory.

It comes on the heels of Capcom's own "Resident Evil 4." After you've played a game as breathtakingly beautiful and exhilarating as that, it's hard to take a step back and play something that just feels dated by comparison.

In the end, it turns out Dungeon Lords wasn't so much released before its time, as it was given up on in an admission that time had already long since passed it by.

A solid, serious, deeply competent game. This competence may not prove an adequate substitute for the moment-to-moment buzz of the mindless FPS in its terminally adolescent pomp.

Notably absent from the multiplayer options is a mode that allows you to play a multiplayer game with a single copy of the game. It's not often that you're going to get eight PSPs and eight copies of the game into the same place at once, so it's kind of odd that there's no provision for a good old-fashioned session of "pass the PSP." Shame.

Pariah's virtues, ultimately, are adult virtues: it's a solid, serious, deeply competent game. This competence may not prove an adequate substitute for the moment-to-moment buzz of the mindless FPS in its terminally adolescent pomp.

This is by far the most realistic console racer ever made, and it's hands-down the best racing game on Xbox.

Ultimately, it's a difficult thing to judge. Pokemon Emerald is one of the most complete, involved, and rich RPGs -- from a gameplay standpoint -- on the GBA. But from another perspective, it's one of the most basic and cynical products on the market.

Fans of the Napoleonic period will get a rise out of Cossacks II, as will strategy buffs seeking out something a little different from the usual tank rush tactics. It's a terrific simulation of the age of "gentlemanly" combat, during which Napoleon almost took over the world.

If there's one problem with EA's portable baller, it's that the controls simply aren't responsive enough.

Few games of this nature began their life so smoothly, as even the massive influx of players on launch date and beyond did little to disrupt the enjoyment of the game.

With good AI for single-player games and a few decent multiplayer options, Empire Earth II is a worth a look for most RTS fans, if not worthy of dropping everything and rushing out to buy.

If the idea of playing an absolutely average (and not particularly lengthy) Resident Evil adventure with incompetent A.I. allies is exciting, then hop to it.

Essentially boring... All throughout my time with the game, my mind kept wandering, like it does in the company of someone who's nice enough but can't hold your interest.

The dictionary entry will read, "Rengoku ren - go - ku n: 1 A game design flaw in which great effort is expended on concept art but little else. 2 An activity that presents itself as entertainment but is, in fact, a form of torture."

This slowly-increasing sense of challenge is what elevates Pac-Pix above so many of the clever tech demo that comprise the DS library.