In the end, Dead or Alive 4 is to fighting games what Halo 2 was to first person shooters.

Atari has mixed old-school dungeon hack games with modern gameplay to make D&D Heroes a pretty decent success.

Still, Sam nails exactly what it's aiming to do, which is to throw scores of enemies at you in some of the most frantic firefights you'll ever experience.

It's a decent game with some pretty fun volleyball, although only the diehard sim fans are going to keep going after the first few days of play.

Either way, it's worth picking up if you really dug the original and want more of the same, but if you had issues before, then Warhead isn't likely to address them for you.

For those that dig Shatter's depth and style, the rabbit hole goes pretty deep: it offers plenty of strategy with its vacuum system, and the variety of levels and smooth graphics, sound and music make for a great value for many gamers at only $7.99 on PSN.

For the fans that AvP was very obviously made for, however, the high production values, attention to the universe’s detail and generally smooth gameplay make it a worthy addition to the franchise.

Of course, I think THQ and Gas Powered Games probably realized early on that their fan base has been dwindling, so this seems more to be an honest effort. It's damn good, but it's just not quite enough to rekindle interest in their game.

The story won't win any awards, but you can always skip it and just get right to the meat of the game.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a classic beat-em-up in the Final Fight style, with a few of its own twists thrown in.

While you'll find that the repetitive environments and strange puzzle sections are turn-offs, there's still a fine game here in Devil May Cry 4.

A few moderately big shortcomings aside, Need for Speed: Underground is a solid racing game with an easy learning curve, arcade-like racing, online play, great graphics, and a distinct style.

Prey brings some unique storytelling and great, interesting features, but it just lacks the polish required to make this game a top-quality shooter.

Still, anyone who is a fan of Sega's biggest 16-bit franchises could do a lot worse than picking up this latest compilation.

While those who played and loved the original Conker's Bad Fur Day might scoff at the purchase of this new remake, I can still mostly recommend it due to the multiplayer mode.

The idea of a focused single player campaign in one country during World War II is interesting, but the execution could have gone better and the action is just about exactly what you'd expect.

Those who liked Deadly Alliance's general style - its fighting system, story mode, collecting Koins and unlocking Koffins - will certainly enjoy Mortal Kombat: Deception.

And maybe that's Ensemble's biggest success here: that the interface and controls, usually the worst part of a console RTS game and the one that gets talked about the most in game reviews for this genre, were the farthest thing from my mind here after a few minutes of learning them.

RoboBlitz brings action, puzzles, and physics together to make for a much better game than I was expecting, and its budget price certainly helps a lot.

Guitar Hero: World Tour has some interesting pluses - the drum kit is excellent, and there are a few gameplay perks to be found here and there. But to me the touch panel on the guitar is a bust, the mic is still wired (even though that Microsoft karaoke game Lips figured out how to do a wireless mic), and the game is rather light on content both before and after you're sick of the on-disc set of tracks.

While the game is far from perfect because of issues with movement, issues with the grappling hook and cheesy looping of knockdown animations, Lost Planet is still very fun to play through.

With some tweaks, I think that EA has a hit franchise on their hands here with skate.

Harmonix has another excellent game on their hands with Guitar Hero, but the reliance on an uncomfortable controller not only raises the game's price but it also is just sometimes too much effort to even want to play.

Longtime gamers, especially those who dug this type of game back in the day (controller-chucking fits and all), will find Prinny a breath of fresh air on the content-starved platform, even if that fresh air is pierced by your own frustration-powered F-bombs.

I really do enjoy the game, but you should definitely try out the demo and only spend the cash once you're bored with the other online mainstays on the PS3 and 360. Once you do, you'll find some genuinely good fun and action in Battlefield 1943.

Despite the lack of any real innovation and a couple of missing specific features, Capcom has put together a solid package here in Street Fighter Alpha Anthology.

The graphics are about as good as we'll likely get anytime soon on the PSP, and a pretty nice set of songs and the full range of levels are here.

Alley of the Dolls represents a still-funny but less creative chapter in the series that for some will feel more like a stepping-stone to the finale than a worthwhile chapter in itself.