The sole fact that Star Fox Command is entirely about dogfighting is enough to make fans of the series rejoice. The action is intense; single-player is packed with replay; and the controls will quickly grow on you like a tick on a dog.

As simple and effective the control scheme is, other elements in the game are rough around the edges. It’s a little surprising that more ship types aren’t available in the game (less than a dozen). The visuals are nice, but not exactly jaw-dropping.

The races behave in unique, meaningful ways and we really appreciate the attempt to minimize the strategic tedium. That’s why it’s so strange to see a game that is clearly trying hard to attract new players to the genre come up with an interface that is at time incredibly hostile.

And this is one mythical, three-headed dog that could possibly have some bite in it, if only the damn thing would only, for one second, consider ceasing its infernal barking.

The addition of perspective and emotional content comes out of left field, but is amazingly well done. It’s the rare button masher that can play on a person’s sympathies, and Nights proves it has both heart and brains to go with its mindless exterior.

"King's Field" was a slow, clumsy, fairly-boring-to-look-at first-person hack-and-slasher with a legendarily lousy framerate. Deep Labyrinth is all of those too, except that its framerate isn't bad enough to pass into legend.

It borrows or attempt to borrow conventions from several popular shoot-'em-'ups, but in the end it's just a confused mess that's not very fun and not very impressive.

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.

If you didn't know what "taisen" means, you can probably give it a pass.

It’s unfortunate that it didn’t try harder to give players a truly satisfying quest.

The striking visuals, the hard-driving licensed soundtrack, and the variety of events make for an appealing, fast-paced game that's perfect for venting a little steam.

Quaint graphics, recognizable characters, easy gameplay, and many mini-games give Barnyard some staying power with its target audience. For older gamers, the game is entirely standard and boring.

Quaint graphics, recognizable characters, easy gameplay, and many mini-games give Barnyard some staying power with its target audience. For older gamers, the game is entirely standard and boring.

It doesn't take new hardware to crank out good-looking graphics, and you definitely don't need to buy a PSP or DS to find memorable handheld gameplay.

Besides some of the best graphics and sound on the PSP, this Tekken has enough breadth and depth to match its console cousins.

The added scenarios, especially the alternate history ones are just icing on an already sweet, sweet cake.

Civ City: Rome doesn’t do much to meaningfully innovate, but it does successfully take the more important design elements of past games and incorporates them into a challenging, great looking, and great playing package.

Innovation isn't the point here. It's just flat out fun (in a messy, bloody sort of way). This is a fantastic and enjoyable way to blow off some steam, shoot tons of baddies, and, ultimately, satisfy the bloodlust that strikes the best of us.

Warpath isn't horrible, but it is incredibly uninspired. The design is, on every level, lackluster, as if the developers were so sick of the genre that they didn't even try this time.

Warpath isn’t horrible, but it is incredibly uninspired. The design is, on every level, lackluster, as if the developers were so sick of the genre that they didn’t even try this time.

Evidently Square Enix didn't have the time or the inclination to do serious work under Valkyrie's hood. Instead, we get this sloppy emulated version, with all the warts of the original and more.

Consider it an apology for EA’s underwhelming 360 sports lineup last year.

A game needs more than good atmosphere. Monster House could have been a spiritual successor to the GameCube launch title, Luigi’s Mansion, and rips off plenty of elements from Nintendo’s haunted, vacuum cleaner-endowed game. It just doesn’t do it very well.

Certain of the mech types, such as the underpowered and, surprisingly, oftentimes sluggish-moving scouts are simply less fun to play than others.

It's the breakneck pace afforded by Tommy's spirit world resurrections and the dizzying effects of promiscuous gravitational pull that makes Prey such a fresh gaming experience.

A fairly simple game that offers little challenge once you understand the basics. Yet it’s still charming in its own right.

More open-ended environments, greater character customization, trickier puzzles, and smarter enemies would have all made for a memorable trip.

To be breezily blunt, it’s possible to be Over G Fighters after a few hours’ worth of play.