Ninja Gaiden, despite one of the year's worst camera systems, still manages to be one of the year's best action games.

The Judge System and a few other gripes do keep this game from being truly excellent. But hey! At least there's no slow text like in the original.

While there's plenty of new features to separate this game from the other trick games on the market, they're implemented poorly. In the end, it's different, but not much better than any of the other "Pro X" games out there.

Where the game begins to lose some of its luster is in the areas of sound and story, and a camera that suffers from a lack of intuition. The music is not so much repetitive as it is boring.

If you like deliberately subjecting yourself to frustration for little or no reward, surrounded by a group of idiots mocking you, super glue a coin to the ground and attempt to pry it away while screaming obscenities at the top of your voice. It'll be cheaper than wasting your money on this.

The single player campaign, while enjoyable for what it is, pales substantially to its online multiplayer counterpart.

The sequel just seems to abandon all of what I thought made the original unique and special, and has in effect become just another pretty face in a crowded genre.

Delivers breathtaking visuals, set against a fairly average game.

This time around there is more character interaction, more action, more techniques, and THANKFULLY the game is much longer.

There are a variety of attacks and moves that can be mastered for the Diskarmor, but sadly you will often find yourself simply using the most straightforward attacks as they are not only the easiest to execute, but also are less likely to leave Rygar open for attack by any one for the handful of different enemies in the game.

The ability to communicate vocally is hand over fist an improvement over the keyboard and icon based communication in the other versions of the game.

At the very core of the game is something that could have worked, but it is so deeply entrenched within mediocrity and poorly executed ideas that it hurts.

The control aspect is passable at times, and downright painful at others. Whoever wrote the code for this "nodes" system needs to be taken out in the road and ran over.

While the game's extra content and sense of freedom are is exceptional, its bugs and glitches are so severe that they will tax the patience of all but the most devoted player.

If you like deliberately subjecting yourself to frustration for little or no reward, surrounded by a group of idiots mocking you, super glue a coin to the ground and attempt to pry it away while screaming obscenities at the top of your voice. It'll be cheaper than wasting your money on this.

Its song selection is immediately accessible to anyone who listens to pop radio, but for those looking for a bit more variety in their musical games are bound to be disappointed, at least until a suitable expansion disc arrives.

The crux of the gameplay lies in combat that is extremely tedious. There are other features within which to loose yourself, from item customization, to even a Pokemon style creature rearing and combat mini-game that is deep enough to almost be a game on its own. But these facets are made to accentuate the core game, not make up for its shortcomings, which as it turns out are considerable.

Ultimately, a sizeable portion of the game feels more like a 3D "Double Dragon" or "Final Fight" than it does "Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins." It’s solid gameplay in that vein, but it’s a misstep for this particular franchise.

While visually that game is unmatched, there just isn't enough game here to warrant anything other than a rental.

But strip away the culture it’s trying so very hard to win over and there’s a game that’s been hastily, and sparsely, updated, and was beaten to death in the womb by "Burnout 3" months ago. Just like 20” rims and a spoiler on a 1984 Volvo, this game may turn heads, but where it counts most it’s a phoney.

But strip away the culture it’s trying so very hard to win over and there’s a game that’s been hastily, and sparsely, updated, and was beaten to death in the womb by "Burnout 3" months ago. Just like 20” rims and a spoiler on a 1984 Volvo, this game may turn heads, but where it counts most it’s a phoney.

If you like deliberately subjecting yourself to frustration for little or no reward, surrounded by a group of idiots mocking you, super glue a coin to the ground and attempt to pry it away while screaming obscenities at the top of your voice. It'll be cheaper than wasting your money on this.

Typical EA first in the sense of unrelenting polish and presentation, of production values meant to wow you with glitz and glamour at every turn. Typical EA secondly in the sense of a don’t-rock-the-boat, stick-with-the-formula game that offers nothing new aside from a few odd bugs I’ve never seen in an RTS before.

It is complex, deep, challenging, and it is a title that requires a lot of patience. It is not much for presentation, but what it lacks in finesse it more than makes up for in gameplay.

A solid entry in the RTS market, but it's marred by appalling AI which detracts greatly from the single-player experience. Additionally, it's so similar in gameplay to Empire Earth that I find it hard to believe that it didn't begin its development as an add-on for that title.

The game tries to do too many things rather than focus on perfecting a single facet of the gameplay, and as a result Mario Tennis: Power Tour just misses the mark and ends up serving up a shallow, forgettable game.

It is a fine pinball game, though the difficulty of it seems to be lacking severely, the “Catch ‘em All” theme is still prevailing. At first, the game does catch your attention and shows its depth, but after a while, repetitiveness does drag down the fun factor a bit.

It absolutely defines mediocrity.