It brings the phenomenon to the GameCube, and while far from being the best the DDR the series has to offer, in the final analysis it could have been much worse.

While many adherents of The Sims franchise will lament changes to the Story mode, The Sims 2 for the console market is a seriously strong entry in the series. It simply doesn't get better than this when it comes to playing god from a La-Z-boy.

Add in the co-op mode, and it comes down to the fact that if you've ever liked any first-person shooter, you should pick up Serious Sam II.

Eventually even the most diehard series zealots are going to begin to ask themselves why they are still in the same place playing the same game they were playing nearly a decade ago. While the genre has grown, the series that helped to spearhead games of this type into the public eye has stayed disturbingly static.

Nothing like this has ever been played before, and like a true classic will probably never be reproduced. Even if a player finds the gameplay uninteresting, or if the lack of anything other then sixteen boss fights makes them uncomfortable, this game can still be enjoyed for the art direction alone.

If you want to spend hours twiddling with option screens and menus, there's Gran Turismo. But if you want some of the best get-up-and-go vehicular carnage since "Twisted Metal" and "Burnout," Jak X: Combat Racing is the most adrenaline-pumping racer you can find on the PS2.

Given a more robust fighting engine with more variety, coupled with visuals that didn’t make you want to turn away, this could have been a breakthrough game for the PSP. What it is instead is merely passable.

It seems a bit odd to say that a game rooted in comic books is now the best RPG experience to be had on the PSP. However, the game... even outshines its console counterpart.

With the camera and control issues of THUG2 corrected, a fresh, compelling story mode, and the highlights of the series up to this point in tow, Tony Hawk's American Wasteland stands as the best game to bear his name thus far.

Perfect for a younger crowd, as the difficulty and ambience seem to be particularly well suited for those in the 5-12 age bracket.

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.

With the camera and control issues of "THUG2" corrected, a fresh, compelling story mode, and the highlights of the series up to this point in tow, Tony Hawk's American Wasteland stands as the best game to bear his name thus far.

The missions are plentiful, and thankfully they never become repetitive.

A combination of the impossible, a game that will in one moment make you sweat with the intensity of the elaborate set-piece firefights and make you shiver in nervous fear the next.

A game tailored for strategy gaming zealots that suffers from a few shortcomings and limited appeal.

Members of the mainstream beware: this is is videogames at the graduate level, and you'll have to do a lot of work to make it pay off.

The missions are plentiful, and thankfully they never become repetitive.

It can be absolutely brutal at times, but it is also true to the series' fundamentals, and that alone should ensure acceptance from fans of the series.

Deeply amusing, dramatically fresh, and incredibly novel.

Just mindless combat that amounts to little more pressing the attack buttons over and over from beginning to end.

Players looking for the Rush series they grew up on in the arcades will come away disappointed at this game's inability to offer consistent high flying races, while fans of games like "Midnight Club 3" who are looking for the next big underground racing game will no doubt find Rush's take on the subgenre amateurish at best.

This is the best online action on the PS2, period. Nothing else is even close. Whether you want to gun down terrorists, hop in a tank and blow stuff up, smuggle goods across the border, or extract hostages from hostile territories, SOCOM 3 is where it’s at.

The issue here perhaps that the SSX franchise was not yet ready for another sequel, and EA’s attempt to further cash in on their past success has resulted in a game that is inferior to its predecessors.

The lockdown stick is a terrific addition, and is a step in the right direction for future basketball games to include in making the defense more player-friendly. However, the slow tempo and the blurry graphics completely bring down the in-game experience, which are really the meat and potatoes of any sports game.

The story, graphics, speech, and every other aspect make this game an addictively fun title that no true RPG fan should pass up.

Quake 4 brings an engaging single-player challenge with a refresh of some of the genre’s most popular online play. Still, this is an incremental step, not a leap in design.

The game emphasizes role-playing over subscribing to the underlying story, and that is what makes Romancing SaGa such a terrific experience to be had.

Add in the co-op mode, and it comes down to the fact that if you've ever liked any first-person shooter, you should pick up Serious Sam II.