Since you play every role on your first time through the game there’s not much new to experience should you repeat the journey. Again, we have to lament the fact that you can’t draft a capable friend to help you on your quest. The absence of this feature is quite vexing indeed.

There’s something almost absurd about paying for a game that inundates you with a constant stream of ads.

Hardcore fans might balk at the scaled back customization, but new players should be able to get up and running quickly.

While over a thousand cards may look good in print, picking through cards that wouldn’t be fit for the spokes of your bike five years ago seems like a let down.

And what's with all the text? One thing that continually aggravated our group of casual gamer test subjects (relatives we roped into playing) was the inordinate amount of text you need to wade through while you're playing.

Players looking for another MegaTen may still be disappointed, of course – if you want more of those out-there visuals and dark fantasy themes, then go ahead and stick with Atlus’ own home-grown games. If a more grown-up Pokemon sounds like a good time, though, Jewel Summoner’s a great choice.

If you're going to hit your audience with meta-humor about wireframe graphics, you ought to follow up with gameplay that gives them just as much credit.

With graphics and a soundtrack that are identical to SBaM, and the eight returning characters unchanged by even a hair, this game is more like a re-release of SBaM than its own unique title.

The length of the game is a bit short as it only takes around six hours to complete, but the strong story and cinematic sequences make sure that it's an unforgettable six hours.

Like a miniature fashion model: short, quite pretty, and as insubstantial as it is fun.

A good-looking, challenging game with a nice collection of cars to win and race. You'll also get the steep learning curve that some gamers thrive on.

The controls are too simple to make you want to play the game for very long.

The biggest problem is the lack of communication among teammates. You can press a button to taunt or another to cheer, but that's it.

You might enjoy the tough love of the strategy phase, or you might be so furious at unclear missions that the game doesn't feel worth it. The graphics are unimpressive, and the gameplay will be too simple for hard-core flight jockeys, but the good-looking replays are worth a mention.

Largely more of the same.

A game with this much customization and apparent depth is sure to have its fans, and the extent to which you'll enjoy Custom Robo largely depends on your willingness to overlook the simplicity of the story mode and sink your teeth into the somewhat repetitive battles.

One for the fans. While the fighting is passable, it's too shallow and strategically repetitive to hold any serious fighting freak's attention for more than a few minutes. Even if you're a fan, approach with caution.

It's hard to recommend a game that ultimately turns into running in circles while attempting to unload your weapons faster than the next guy.

What does become frustrating at times is the wild camera during fights, which can swing into totally useless positions in small spaces. It’s rarely a game killer, but there are times when you’ll lose track of Jason entirely. Still, if you could handle the camerawork in "The Bourne Supremacy," you’ll be fine here.

What Big Air Freestyle lacks in originality and trick accessibility, it makes up for in scope and replay value.

Casual players may find the game entirely too complicated. It’s not an easy game to pick up if you haven’t been playing the series since day one.

If you are a fan, you’ll find this a lot more impressive than last year’s Ultimate Ninja. It’s a better job of making a fighting game and a better job of bringing the TV show to life, with more characters, better graphics, and a deeper single-player game.

In spite of its problems, this remains the best boxing game on the market.

It won't make GameCube owners forget about "Super Smash Bros. Melee," but it's a worthy alternative if you think characters with spiked hair and furrowed brows are cool, feel there aren't enough fighting games that let you change into smoke, or don't mind a special move that causes you to dance like John Travolta.

A bit of a disappointment. It’s a great game on the PC that lost some luster thanks to a less than ambitious porting job. Still, it’s a good game, providing you can get over that initial difficulty hump and you have a solid group of friends to play with.

Sabreman realizes he’s basically jumping through hoops so he can collect glittering treasure and do it again. So do you, but Sabre Wulf gives you both of enough reasons to keep going. It’s rather fun, really.

It has an undeniable, nostalgic charm to it. While nothing here is creative or original, it’s still a mostly fun little adventure.

What you won't get is a lot that went with it before, like the hopelessly addictive online multiplayer options.

Mario Mix is easier than forgetting to put the toilet seat down. If you have any DDR skills whatsoever, you'll trounce it without missing more than a step or two.

It’s disappointing that to get the most enjoyment out of Rogue Agent, you have to “bond” with others.

The game is an intense shooting gallery, despite the repetition, yet the set-up, landscape, and gameplay feel so familiar at this point that it borders on boring.

The tweaking and decent gameplay salvages things, but the caps the game's developers put on things leaves you struggling to have fun instead of it coming naturally.

The storyline and voice acting are the high points, but it's a real shame that all the Evil Dead games have simply focused on mindless combat instead of more substantial adventuring.

Need for Speed: Undercover is a game that both satisfies and disappoints on a regular basis. While the chases provide top-notch thrills and spills, you can’t help but feel like you’ve just done it too many times to really care anymore.

During gameplay, be prepared to suffer through countless glitches, blurry textures, and clunky animation.

Justice League Heroes is not perfect, and it's definitely not innovative, but it makes a solid action adventure out of the familiar gameplay and well-loved characters.

It’s not innovative or great in any regard, but it does provide plenty of explosions and challenge. It’s also far and away the only decent game to yet come from the franchise.

A good game insomuch as it’s about as realistic as you can get. But that devotion to realism can be an unforgiving master. If you’re new to the genre, stay far away from this game. It’ll only end in tears.

Has fun, straightforward gameplay and a simple heart. There is a little more to it, like plenty of game-time extending side quests, but some of the extras just seem like coronary blockage.

While it isn't the defining UFC console experience, the career mode and two-player competitions are worth your time, especially when you've created and developed your own fighter.

On paper, it's got the potential to be more than a match for "San Andreas"; in practice, it's nowhere near it.

The enemies almost seem to know you’re at a disadvantage, control-wise. They’re far from the brightest opponents, often standing around seemingly bored when they have clear shots at you. This does keep things from becoming frustrating, but in this era of challenging AI in games like "FarCry" and "Gears of War," Red Steel can sometimes feel like a throwback.

Sure, it might be tempting to focus on the game's weaknesses, such as its repetition or limited focus, but in the end it's hard to dislike such a well-made package.

There’s little variation among the GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox versions of Cars, and each hits the mark in terms of racing game basics such as framerate and sense of speed. Rainbow Studios has performed admirably here.

These improvements to the graphic engine come at a price. The frame rate slows down whenever multiple players are running the bases, and it experiences noticeable hiccups during the batting sequences.

Although these games don't compare to their modern console counterparts, well-developed characters and complex stories compel you to see past the primitive graphics.

In a lot of ways, these games are starting to mimic the films. They get released semi-regularly and right from the get-go we know what to expect; a reasonably engaging time that we'll quickly forget about as soon as we put the controller down.

Though the poor handling doesn’t drag down every mission, the lousy feel did make us put down more than a couple missions in frustration.

We really like Savage. There's a lot of daring gameplay ideas here that work, but it's still pretty rough around the edges. If you're willing to look past these issues, there's a tremendous game here.

If you can stomach the poor writing and the annoying camera, Crimson Sea has some visually rewarding intermissions and some decent battle situations to keep the action game fan happy.

Persona 3's daily structure is both a blessing and a curse. A benefit of the system is that you genuinely look forward to seeing what new characters or events are revealed the next day. Yet having to visit a single dungeon, even one with hundreds of floors, is not always appealing.

It’s not exceptional on any level, but the solid, easy playability and multitude of arcade and career game modes make it a lengthy driving experience.

The game is arguably more suited to a handheld since the fast-paced, somewhat repetitive action is best enjoyed in small doses.

If you’re into quirky stories, environments worth exploring, memorable characters, and a gameplay experience that doesn’t feel like a jumbled bag of puzzles, this is your game.

There's always potential in the realistic shooter, and on paper, Shadow Ops seems pretty strong. But that crucial spark that separates the good from the great is mission in action.

Crippled by a lack of online play and a horrible camera system. Yet despite the problems, the core game is so good that it's still worth playing, as long as you have human opponents to compete against.

Patient, strategy-minded players who don’t mind reading volumes of on-screen text littered with typos may just fall in love. However, the onerous difficulty and complexity, along with grueling amounts of typo-riddled text, will quickly discourage most from trying to conquer this nuclear wasteland.

Other problems include a strange sense of physics where you can push or slide other vehicles away from you, intensely aggressive pedestrians and gang members who swarm like bees, and frustrating timed races that will have you contemplating whether or not you should use your GBA as a Frisbee.

It’s not a terrifically engaging or lengthy experience, but with its compelling puzzles and interesting atmosphere you could certainly do much worse if you’re looking for some adventure.

But with only 35 songs, unless you’re the ultimate country music fanboy, there will only be a handful of songs you’ll want to sing.

Fans of a license like this deserve better, though. Whether or not you like the Naruto cartoons, you have to admit that they're pretty great fighting-game fodder -- bright, violent, over-the-top action. We'll have to wait and see if Bandai gets it right the next time.

Mercenaries 2 won't entice those expecting glitch-free gaming, diverse missions, gritty realism, and cerebral combat. Yet for the run-and-gun crowd, it's escapist entertainment worth seeking out just for the sheer amount of chaos you can create within the colorful jungle setting. It’s not long, it's not deep, but it's never boring, especially with a friend.

It isn't as addictive or diverse as the great pinball videogames, but it'll quench your "Pokemon" thirst.

Heavy Weapon is a fun, if repetitive, game for one, but it is truly comical multiplayer diversion.

The repetitive races keep it from a higher score. Still, the snarky attitude and sweet physics model of the go karts make for a good deal of fun.

There’s something almost absurd about paying for a game that inundates you with a constant stream of ads.

This isn’t a bad game, but just the same, the audience is certain to be limited to gamers who are still fans of the Capcom legacy.

One has to wonder, however, whether or not there's a price to be paid for the dazzling graphical presentation. Could it explain why the level design is so utterly boring? Aside from background variations, each stage plays almost identical to the others.

A bunch of nice ideas and fun combat wrapped up in a fairly bland game. There’s nothing particularly deep going on here, but it sure is a big galaxy.

The Godfather: The Don's Edition isn't as fun as "Crackdown" and no amount of celebrity voice acting is going the change that.

Nightshade isn't the sharpest depiction of ninjitsu out there. But we can't say it's entirely demanding of seppuku either. Some will enjoy the mindless mayhem, warts aside.

Ditching the nauseating first-person camera altogether and instead focusing on delivering a playable behind-the-shoulder fielding cam would also be a good start. This one will be warming up in the bullpen until next year.

Even with all of the cosmetic and gameplay changes, the improvements from the first game are minimal. They're not enough to bump it up an extra star.

Split-screen multiplayer is in, but the game completely lacks online multiplayer, which is downright shocking for a racing title in this day and age. L.A. Rush feels like a fourth place finish in a highly competitive field.

For most players Operation Surma will feel like a stopgap measure until Sam Fisher returns for the next "Splinter Cell," despite its great gadgets and fairly solid play. It's just too reliant on this recently popular template, making every weak spot seem glaringly obvious.

If you expect the budget price to reflect the game's poor online performance, you shouldn't be too disappointed. If you demand the same performance and quality in your games that you do in your cars, you'll probably want to pass this one over.

By the time you’ve whipped your way through a dozen or so levels, you’ll probably be getting a little bit tired of mashing the square button and twirling your analog stick. You’ll also notice that other aspects of the game are a bit sloppy.

It's too complex for the very young, and there's not much of interest here for older players. As such, the game seems best suited for parents seeking some non-offensive entertainment for their kids.

A likeable platform game, but as it progresses, its lack of variety makes it dull.

Everything in the game is too clear and too consistent. There’s no room for ambiguity or context. You’re either a goody two-shoes or a complete jerk.

A reasonably engaging, yet perfectly average experience--much like most summer blockbusters.

To move away from the pack, Underworld takes a very interesting stance by focusing on tackling cliffs rather than tackling tigers. It’s the right idea with wrong camera and gunplay to pull it off.

It's like one of those pricey meals that foodies order at swank restaurants. Three bites and the plate is clean. It's a good thing that Cooking Mama has an early bird special price tag, because right about now we're ready for the desert menu.

Despite the appealing presentation, it's generally a de rigueur platformer, and no more than par for the series. And with the wildly extreme difficulty settings, this is one for die-hards only.

It’s not innovative or great in any regard, but it does provide plenty of explosions and challenge. It’s also far and away the only decent game to yet come from the franchise.

Bluntly put, Frogger Beyond is quite difficult. Your patience and reflexes will be put to the test from the beginning and things will only get harder as you progress.

The bar has been set higher by "ESPN NHL 2K5," whose presentation, sense of realism, and play modes simply outclass, outshine, and outperform those found in NHL 2005.

Fans of the character and the action sequences will likely find plenty to enjoy, but anyone expecting something more will be disappointed.

The sorry presentation and a complete lack of multiplayer missions--online or otherwise--ultimately keep Yager from being a top-notch game.

There is a bit of difficulty with the camera, however--that being the lack of a universally useful view of the pitch. The default side camera is restrictive when it comes to all that punting, and more than once a bit of critical action took place out of view. That's fine for art films, but frustrating here.

For its ambition and tackling of two genres at once, Battlestations: Midway ain't half bad. Its duality means that not a lot of players will absolutely fall in love with it, but there's enough here for most gamers to find themselves happily immersed.

The missions are more engaging, the environments more detailed, and the graphics substantially improved. Sadly, the interface has become unnecessarily complicated, and the few bugs that exist upset the game's flow.

Platform fans of yore will definitely want to play this one, but gamers looking for something new or original will be disappointed.

Heatseeker is a very fun game to play; it’s just not one that you’ll want to play for long. The simple gameplay and tight controls feel spot on but everything else built around them fails to live up.

Excerpt forthcoming.

If you're looking for the ultimate racing experience, you'll need to look elsewhere.

Serious gamers shouldn't give it a second glance. It's simply not designed for them. Anyone looking for a good time or an excellent gift-giving opportunity shouldn't pass the game up, though.

Simple, yet fun, Polarium is an engaging puzzle game. It proves that the touch screen can be used for more than gimmicks.