Guardians of Middle-earth just doesn't seem to have the lasting appeal it needs to, and it overcompensates for this by whitewashing itself with a thin coat of Tolkien paint. Don't get me wrong, it does a lot of things right, and it does several things brilliantly. Unfortunately, this is a genre that requires a healthy community, and it's hard to be optimistic about that here.

There's so little offered in Hot Rod Show, it feels a lot like one of those trinkets you'd buy from a machine at the grocery store. Still, the game has an undeniable charm, and it's fun in extremely short bursts.

Strategy-RPG fans will ignore the game's shortcomings and find much to praise, but this isn't a game that's going to rope in those who aren't already fans of the particular genre.

For a budget title, things could certainly be a whole lot worse. It’s worth a rental at the least, and if you can find some online play then you might just want to consider purchasing it. It’s fun, challenging, captivating, diverse – and cheap.

Kane and Lynch reeks of an undercooked effort that should've baked a few more months in the development oven. If the care and polish that went into the wonderfully cinematic level presentation had also been applied to the writing and gameplay, it could've been a bar-raising effort for the third-person shooter genre.

This game is a simple kind of fun, and if you play online with your friends you'll have a great time. Otherwise there's not much here for you unless you like to hunt for collectibles.

NASCAR Kart Racing is a solid kart racing game, but its biggest flaw is just that there's so little to make it stand out. It's so amazingly similar to Mario Kart Wii, and the latter is a better, more memorable game in every way possible.

Somewhat underwhelming. It’s got all the ingredients of a great game but somebody just didn’t get the recipe right.

If you attempt to unlock everything in this game you can expect it to last about 15 hours or so. The average gamer will probably get five to eight hours out of it before they've seen most of it and start to get bored. I would definitely recommend renting this for a weekend before committing to a purchase.

It's a great debut on the PSP and even if you're not a strategy buff, it's easy enough to learn and highly recommended for a rental. Unfortunately the DS version doesn't fare nearly as well.

The shooting, platforming, and boss encounters are all enjoyable, but the game is incredibly short. It's also a very conventional formula that plays out a bit too simplistically.

Simple, well executed fun works well for what it is. Just don't expect a slew of bells and whistles.

I enjoyed Spectral Force 3 when I first started it up. I liked the old school tactical gameplay, and I was excited to see where it went. However, I was sorely disappointed when this game ended up going nowhere.

While you can easily drone through this game a second time due to the two distinct factions, lots of annoying flaws crop up that make it difficult to warrant a second playthrough.

The production values are impressive on the DS, the puzzle adventuring is fun and clever, and the game has quite a unique vibe. But, there isn’t much variation at all in either the look of the game or the gameplay itself, and the repetition weighs down the experience substantially.

A lot of it is repetitive, but there's a decent amount of gameplay here. There are many things to do, and it will take many hours to fully explore the island.

I really wanted to enjoy Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia, but it was really the repetitive nature of the game that weakened the overall package.

A marked improvement over Streets of L.A. Overall it's more refined and the storyline is more relevant to the gameplay.

You get a lot of game for $15, but a ho-hum presentation and antiquated gameplay counterbalance the actual value of the package.

Joint Assault is decent fun if you can get past its yawn-worthy elements.

Rock Blast isn't a decent game for its originality - it has little. It's a good game because it successfully apes the gameplay mechanics of Bust-A-Move, Snood, and other similar titles.

A great level of Japanese-inspired humor, charm, and the arcade vibe works in its favor, but there's nothing incredibly new or outstanding about the games.

It may not be on the same level as the original, but it holds its own among other Wii titles. Admittedly, this one is for newcomers instead of those already blood-soaked from the original.

For a budget title, things could certainly be a whole lot worse. It’s worth a rental at the least, and if you can find some online play then you might just want to consider purchasing it. It’s fun, challenging, captivating, diverse – and cheap.

There's a lot to experience for a $15 downloadable game, as long as you enjoy the battle system.

Hector has a hilariously rancid personality that few point-and-click characters can match, and when the writing is good, his antics can be highly amusing. However, the writing in Episode 2 is simply not up to snuff, and it brings the production down-especially when paired with boring puzzles and a story that goes on for too long.

The Dunwall City Trials are a bit like the Disneyland version of Dishonored. They've cut out some of the most compelling parts of the game, such as exploring the expansive levels and learning the secrets of Dunwall's citizens. There are no interesting moral choices to make and no lore-filled books to read, but there are some fun challenges that remain true to the spirit of the game.

The game gets the controls right, and it's to be commended for that; too many times a game is ruined by tacked-on Wii controls, but such is not the case with A Space Oddity.