The back of the box declares that it's "fast action fun!" Believe us, and believe our young friend Ethan -- Pokemon Dash is not.

Two things I really dig about World Tour Soccer are that the matches feature generally realistic scoring (on a couple goals per match), and the game buffers your button presses a bit, which means jamming on the pass or shoot button will normally result in multiple, wild passes or shots fired off into the middle of nowhere. You have to remain calm and play the game correctly in order to be successful.

Sadly, Gretzky NHL doesn't move at the smooth clip of other more impressive PSP games. Shots don't fly off the blade of your stick at the precise moments, and you find yourself doing circles like a figure skater trying to collect loose pucks.

It would be nice if the game included some of these types of events as mini-games that players could jump to at any point instead of only making them available in the middle of levels, but there are enough memorable moments in here to overshadow that.

Consider that this 989 Sports franchise has undergone the biggest three-year improvement since Barry Bonds went from 34 to 49 to 73 homeruns in a three year span. MLB seems insistent to keep its totals skyrocketing.

As a promotional tool for Revenge of the Sith, it's spectacular. I'd not previously been particularly excited for Episode III, but if the machinations alluded to in the game really are those that drive the mythology forward, it's going to be a spectacular finale to the series.

Crosses the line that separates challenging from cheap. Charismatic and brazen to a fault, it is something of a return to form, but denies the gamer an honest challenge and the eye-opening lack of balance results in a sometimes-electrifying game that isn't especially fun to play.

What makes Brothers in Arms such a compelling combat simulator is its ability to completely suck you into its hell, kick your heart rate into overdrive, and make you feel like you're not fighting to save the world, but fighting just to save your own ass.

The expansion neatly captures the frenzied pace of college, the numerous things you can discover and do, the strange secrets every campus is rumored to have, and of course, streaking.

Significantly better than its predecessor, but like most EA Sports releases, sequels feel more like baby steps rather than giant leaps.

And unlike previous baseball video games MLB 2K5 moves at a nice pace.

As a promotional tool for Revenge of the Sith, it's spectacular. I'd not previously been particularly excited for Episode III, but if the machinations alluded to in the game really are those that drive the mythology forward, it's going to be a spectacular finale to the series.

Significantly better than its predecessor, but like most EA Sports releases, sequels feel more like baby steps rather than giant leaps.

If you're looking at the game for continuing the fun, campy Mortal Kombat legacy, you'll find a lot to like here. If you're looking for highly technical fighting matches or evolved modern game storytelling, you'll do better looking elsewhere.

Significantly better than its predecessor, but like most EA Sports releases, sequels feel more like baby steps rather than giant leaps.

Once you've been through the process a few times, however, it gradually becomes a snooze fest.

From a purely technical standpoint, the frame-rate is rock solid, and the lighting effects are lavish as well, and while not as polished, overall, as the technical achievements of "Dead or Alive Ultimate," come a close second. Matching the visual largesse is a comprehensive features list that does for PS2 what "Dead or Alive Ultimate" did for Xbox.

Namco deserves credit for creating a game so perfectly suited to the handheld format. Each stage is subdivided into multiple sections so that it's impossible to lose more than a few minutes of progress at any given time, and an autosave function makes recording and restoring progress a completely transparent task.

And unlike previous baseball video games MLB 2K5 moves at a nice pace.

In a straight line the SLR feels like it has warp engines, and the feeling of real power is unlike anything I've seen in a racing game before. Burnout 3 and Need for Speed do a good job of scaring you with speed, but GT4 is still the only car sim to date that's done a convincing job of putting you behind a 5.4 liter V8.

It's a solid if uninspiring little game with a definite nostalgic appeal for fans of old action-RPGs such as "Crystalis" or "SoulBlazer." Or "Ys", for that matter.

Most notably, the game does its best to reward creative pathfinding. Do a little searching in each level and you'll find myriad vents, air ducts, and the like, which, when utilized, help give you the jump on your opponents and let you avoid head-on fights.

And just in case Super Army War wasn't stripped down enough, there's no battery backup -- just a password system. It's true that portable games don't need to be as full-featured as console titles, but people have e-mailed me Flash games that are deeper than Super Army War (not to mention more fun).

Most notably, the game does its best to reward creative pathfinding. Do a little searching in each level and you'll find myriad vents, air ducts, and the like, which, when utilized, help give you the jump on your opponents and let you avoid head-on fights.

The most fun you'll have with the game isn't in a nine inning affair, but rather with the new mini-games. The new hitting mini-game is interesting, but the pitching distraction is certifiably addictive.

In the end, it's a definite thumb-basher, and not necessarily the worst game of its kind. It's just that the pedigree of the developer's past works suggests that NanoBreaker would turn out much better than it did, and that's a disappointment.

Episode II offers hints of excellence, but few of them have anything to do with the gameplay.

Besides the higher-resolution visuals, you'd be hard-pressed to tell this apart from the PlayStation game that kicked off the series nearly seven years ago.