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.

If you already own "Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance" for the Game Boy Advance, then consider this the strictly optional, backwards-compatible 2.0 version.

For mindless, violent action, the title reigns second to none. However, we've played the same game four times over, and it's high time the franchise had a face-lift.

A good game with a number of good qualities, but its emphasis on some of the less exciting aspects of strategy games and the horrible voice acting hold it back from greatness.

In particular, it's disappointing to see that extra processing power hasn't gone to make the horses feel more responsive and real.

But since the web, which plays such an important role in solving many of the puzzles, makes it easy to cheat, only pick it up if you’re certain you can resist temptation.

This game is quirky and cool, but just isn't substantial enough to make an explosive impact. For the best of both worlds, buy Lumines II and play the included Every Extend Extra demo.

Chili Con Carnage is short-lived, but incredibly fun. The complete focus on crazy, stupid gunplay, tons of enemies, and decent graphics and environment make it a guilty pleasure.

It's no stunner visually and the background music will drive you up the wall, but there's just something about its deceptively simple gameplay and excellent head-to-head mode that will keep you coming back again and again.

The game may be stylized, but it looks and plays spectacularly in high-definition.

A game that aspires to be big, loud, obnoxious, and fun, and it succeeds. Much like the original, there’s virtually no depth here, but the focus on pure, unadulterated explosions is the perfect alternative to the heavy-handed, dramatic shooters we’ve seen lately.

The deeper toolbox and more varied rogue's gallery are welcome additions, but the stronger story and improved sense of character that New York Zero has been imbued with are the big saving graces in Prototype 2.

Delivers a fluid and challenging (if thinly plotted) single-player experience and shell-shock multiplayer that makes this new Xbox recruit easily worth the war debt of the game's price tag.

There’s a lot to like here, and the game does a nice job of blending mindless destruction with equal parts stupid- and well-thought out humor.

It seems like the slightly retarded love child of Meteos and Tetris DS – a clunky excuse to use the stylus more than a fun experience. Both of those games – despite their own flaws – are miles better than Pokemon Trozei!

For a relatively inexpensive game available on Steam, Shadowgrounds makes for a nice diversion, especially if you have some buddies over and a few controllers to use. It’s fun solo too, but it gets repetitive quickly and even freshly upgraded weapons won’t keep your interest for long.

While the production values are pretty good, the gameplay is pretty shallow. If you’re into action games, this is worth playing once.

While the level of exploration and interaction is nowhere near the quality of later games in "The Legend of Zelda" series, Radiata Stories offers several genuinely humorous moments, a colorful world, and a cast of characters that stick with you long after you’ve powered down the PS2.

While a new game with new characters and gameplay would of course have been preferable to a port, Darkstalkers Chronicles is still a solid and satisfying old-school portable fighting experience, with just the right amount of depth and all of the necessary features.

Army of Two is a dream come true for co-op enthusiasts. It doesn’t hit every note perfectly, but the campaign and team-based multiplayer modes are the perfect reasons to pester your old "Gears of War" buddy into picking it up.

The music and visuals are excellent. And you know what? So is the core play of the game. There's a lot of innovation here in SpellForce. Although parts of it are rough around the edges, there's too much good gameplay here to pass up.

The absurd amount of sneaking around at the end of the game becomes overly tedious and a poor replacement for more exciting gun battles.

It just fails to reach the bar set by the best racers on the system, not to mention it doesn't come close to enjoying the level of polish or fun present in the console iterations of Underground.

Excerpt forthcoming.

Those who enjoyed "Tennis 2K2" or "Top Spin" probably won’t appreciate Smash Court Tennis as much, since the game isn’t nearly as accessible. Yet if you felt these titles were lacking in realism and challenge, Smash Court will easily satisfy your inner Roddick or Williams.

The players to whom that would really be a problem have probably already done something about it, though. To regular humans who don't know about imports and don't care that there might be a better version on another continent, Clash of Ninja 2 is the best Naruto game on the market.

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 game can at times be a repetitive, dreary experience in any case. Ostensibly distilled down to lure console gamers, EverQuest Online Adventures is less about lofty quests than about repeated bouts of monster-hunting, loot-grabbing, and leveling up.