This is a no-brainer for anyone who still has a yellow Hulkamania shirt tucked away in their closet.

A solid story and cool puzzles only go so far when the production values scream “low budget” every step of the way.

The good news is that the game, as dull as it gets, doesn't last for more than five hours. It's quick and dirty. [Apr 2009, p.77]

The good news is that the game, as dull as it gets, doesn't last for more than five hours. It's quick and dirty. [Apr 2009, p.77]

The Wii version looks just like the DS version, which is to its detriment since the DS visuals don't look very good blown up on a big screen. [Apr 2009, p.82]

It may be far from perfect, but Echoes of Time's amusing gameplay and ground-breaking multiplayer make this the most noteworthy Crystal Chronicle title to date. [Apr 2009, p.82]

BattleForge is a combination of strange mechanics and bad design. Units are diverse – and yet none of them are terribly interesting. Missions have a ton of variety on the surface, but in practice they’re variations on the same few objectives.

If you haven't played Diamond/Pearl and are looking for a good RPG, Platinum is absolutely the way to go. [Apr 2009, p.90]

In this day and age, you just can't get away with not sharing user-created content online. [Mar 2009, p.95]

Resistance: Retribution is a worthy addition to Insomniac’s series. It adds an amazing story to the existing lore, and is a great standalone experience for those of you who haven’t played a Resistance game before.

Even when it fails, though, Rune Factory: Frontier is packed with so many other activities that there's always more than enough to do. [Apr 2009, p.85]

While this game plays better on the pitch because AI teammates are smarter at taking runs, distributing the ball, and springing others with through balls, it lags behind FIFA in its feedback to the player and the fact that it has a better sim feature while you are on the bench.

Hardcore platformer fans will find this a trying test of skills. Henry Hatsworth could have been one of the most unique and interesting games on the DS, but some baffling design choices hold it back from greatness.

Don’t let the diminutive size or nostalgic look fool you, this is just as complete of a Grand Theft Auto experience as any of the console iterations.

The intelligently designed stages offer a well-balanced challenge even without bumping the difficulty to hard. [Mar 2009, p.86]

Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d encounter a game so thoroughly terrible. Where do I even start? The racial stereotypes? The positively broken controls? The revolting art design? Ready 2 Rumble sucks in every conceivable way.

In its attempts to fuse grid-based combat with the series’ RPG roots, Covenant of the Plume doesn’t capture the essence of either, descending into a jumble of mismatched design decisions.

Co-op changes your approach to survival horror, and the masterful pacing ensures you never take your eye off the action. Like its predecessor, Resident Evil 5 is destined to be remembered as one of the best games of its time.

Co-op changes your approach to survival horror, and the masterful pacing ensures you never take your eye off the action. Like its predecessor, Resident Evil 5 is destined to be remembered as one of the best games of its time.

If you play this game the way you should – by slaughtering victims in the most foul of ways – it ends up being a non-stop highlight reel. The ranked boss battles are especially entertaining – think Mortal Kombat Fatalities with the budget of a Star Wars movie.

Collecting codes and manipulating them is engaging, but the rest of the experience is merely functional.

It’s odd that a franchise that has been so creative with its game designs would settle for such pedestrian pursuits. Putting toppings on a pizza? Carrying luggage? Watering plants? Sounds more like “chores” than a party to me.

I want to like Panzers – the basic design is full of concepts that I enjoy, and the presentation is outstanding. It’s a pity that the gameplay sadly lacks the chops to pull it all together.

Nintendo’s goals with this game appear more modest, and they are largely accomplished. If better controls for an eight-year old game meet your equally modest goals, you should find little that disappoints.

The game doesn’t have much new content. A few new courts and characters won’t attract anyone who’s spent serious time on the GC version. Still, I couldn’t help but find myself getting wrapped up it the game again, even if I had the nagging feeling that this version seemed a little easier than it had before.

As much as I’d love to own a panda, after an eight-hour shift in the dullest pet shop in the planet, I was ready to tell my mom to stuff the allowance.

Halo Wars isn't perfect, but it's a huge step in the right direction for console RTS. For the first time in the sub-genre, I felt like I was playing a game instead of wrestling with a kludged-together control scheme. [Mar 2009, p.88]

This is one of the most sophisticated, entertaining, and historically accurate strategy games ever made.