I was surprised at how simple and fun the fairy collection was, but the combat mechanics are a dull affair. Traipsing around in the walls isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and the game’s reliance on the field guide is a lazy design trick.

This caught-between-generations game manages to just barely clear graphical obstacles and shallow depth by introducing some simple, fun game mechanics.

The sprites are big and pretty, the world is colorful, and the music is lively and fitting (though loops annoyingly in some spots), so even when I'm not engrossed it's still fun to look at. Makes me want to watch it play out on YouTube more than my console.

The best I can say about Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy is that it's adequate at best. But at a time when the 3DS is finally getting all the killer software that it was missing for the first few months of its existence, adequate hardly cuts it.

Tacked-on touch screen support.

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years is an unnecessary game through and through, as it continues a story that was already well-thought out and closed off years ago.

An overachiever with too many character flaws to make it big. It just can’t swim with the sharks. Save your money and pick up "Mean Streets" instead.

We admire the effort and love the style, but we expect our video games to be first and foremost good games, not good art. That's a bonus, not a foundation. Despite our appreciation for those that push the boundaries of game design, Killer 7's lofty ideas come crashing down in a flurry of bad gameplay decisions, proving that sometimes weird isn't quite enough.

It's blatantly obvious that this game isn't quite finished... While it does have its moments and diehard Matrix fans will drool over the extra videos, this game receives the blue pill.

Hardcore adventure types might enjoy it only because there are so few options these days, but anyone else will find the irritating puzzles, well, irritating, and will want to heave the CD out the window.

As good funny and entertaining as Whiplash is off the bat, I don’t feel I grew as a result of having played it, and might have even shrunk a little four hours in.

What we’re left with is a good stab at innovation marred by hopelessly dated level design and short (you can beat it in 10 hours), repetitive gameplay. You get the feeling that Alter Echo could have been much more.

Order of the Pheonix is all about homework and chores, and feels harder to take in than a whole book - those are poor marks for a video game.

I admire the daring look and crazy design of Flipnic, but the sparse tables and occasionally frustrating missions dull its polish.

Dark Void may be the most aptly named game to ever be released - with a half-dozen good concepts sucked in, alas, never to be seen again. It ranks even lower than last year's Bionic Commando in Capcom's list of franchises that had promise but turned out to be no fun to play. A little more fluidity, polish and thought would have made a big difference for this game, as it stands though, Dark aVoid this one.

A bland, thankless and unconvincing entry in the annals of WWII games.

This game features bland, unmemorable beats and lyrics. You don't get anything close to the kick ass reggae dub of the flea market scene in the original or Chop Chop Master Onion's awesome intro.

Its sardonic take on typical conventions is thwarted by its own weak design, and its tongue-in-cheek humor fails more often than it succeeds. Laughter might well be the best medicine, but a bad joke is the worst ailment.

The A.I. consists of walking-towards-you-to-hit-you and occasionally walking-away-from-you-because-they-are-hurt. Your character seems to be the only one in the game to have studied the ancient art of running.

A ho-hum game with some annoying AI and marginal presentation. Despite its plethora of modes, it's simply not very fun.

As a movie port using the oldest recipe in the book, Constantine is about as average a game as you can get, which is actually better than most licensed translations. Neither Heaven nor Hell, Constantine is merely a short stay in Purgatory.

NBA Ballers: Phenom might mark a change from its predecessor with a new story mode and faux third-person exploration, but it ultimately tries too much and does too little. Compared to EA’s more complex series, this is one street baller you’ll want to leave on the curb.

It’s sad to think that with all its high-tech fanciness of the new console generation, TMNT can’t even muster up the personality and gameplay of the old arcade games.

Even though kicking enemy butt can be satisfying and there are a lot of big, menacing monsters to face, Fantastic Four is merchandising at its finest, a hollow game that's beatable in eight hours and isn't replayable at all. We don’t expect you to enjoy it.

For those of us wanting to relive the Goldeneye 007 experience, Quantum of Solace provides some brief, cheap thrills. Yes, Treyarch does manage to resuscitate the old Nintendo 64 Bond title, but this release proves that sometimes it’s best just to let the dead rest in peace.

The overall package isn't too little, it's just way too late. The same kind of online content is free in other, better games, so the ten dollar fee is out of the question.

D&D Tactics flings lines of text at you, and none of it is well written. There's no effort made to provide well-developed characterization, yet there's a lot of time wasted on excess words. Worse, the default speed passes them by so quickly that I was usually three or four words from the end of a line when it faded.

I was surprised at how simple and fun the fairy collection was, but the combat mechanics are a dull affair. Traipsing around in the walls isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and the game’s reliance on the field guide is a lazy design trick.

Unfortunately, the gameplay breaks down fairly often, with enemies acting like idiots, getting stuck on objects, or becoming bulletproof from particular angles.

Isn't so much terrible as it is pointless. The success of a stealth-based game relies very heavily on complex AI and interesting moves. Sadly, IGI 2 fails on these fronts.

Get in your car, drive to a hockey game, support your local team, and go pay $20 for a deep-fried stadium lunch. Because whatever you do, don’t spend any time on this flabby substitute.

While not necessarily straying from the formula that made its predecessors great, this one seems unmotivated and underachieving, like something a dungeon master with a hangover might scrabble together to pay the overdue rent.

I don’t think this was the developers’ intention, but Death Junior and the Science Fair of Doom turns out to be a good approximation of the Middle School experience: you’re frustrated, you’re bored, and you’re not really in control of your own body. And while both have some great moments, in the end I’m happy to graduate and move on.

A game's strength is not found in its replays nor its deck editing. It's found in its gameplay, which is precisely where Evolution Skateboarding falters.

A cool game hiding underneath scads of bugs, control problems and weak swordfighting, leading to not a cool game whatsoever. If you're dying to be a pirate, dig up one of the Monkey Islands.

For a while, it is rather enjoyable to cruise by and experience the closest thing you’ll ever have to being anything like Hef, but you'll quickly long for deeper gameplay or a more real sense of progression. Use that $50 on 3 years’ worth of Playboy subscriptions instead.

Without all of the environmental additions, Sega Rally Revo is an average racer at best.

Clearly the weakest baseball offering of the year. However, it's the only one that's online, and playing online can be fun.

For a title that costs more than "World of Warcraft," Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach is unbelievably light on stuff to do. It does feature some decent dungeons that can be fun to run through with a group, but with no pvp, no economy, no trade skills and nothing useful you can do by yourself, this is a dungeon to crawl away from.

I was happy that The Shield made great use of its police officer premise, but the game really wore me down. It probably doesn’t deserve a critical thrashing, but the gameplay and story can’t compete on today’s shelves.

If you're 12 years old and Mom won't buy you the game with the guns, then this is a relatively nonviolent and enthralling adventure that I think even adults can sink their teeth into.

Whether you are a child of the '80s or a Naruto-watching kid of the 2000's, playing Re-Shelled will hold you for a very short span of time, but it is surely better than the recent Gak-faced, Hose-brained attempts at re-igniting the Turtle Power love.

All of this is not to say that Supreme Commander 2 is an awful game. But the things that have changed simply won’t win over new fans; if you didn’t like Supreme Commander, then you won’t like Supreme Commander 2.

A very average action game that's only funny when it isn't trying to be. Vaporizing humans and terrorizing cities in a big flying saucer is still fun, but the missions are decidedly of this world.

Ultimately, the dated feel, dumb enemies and repetitive gameplay leave you wanting more. The blood is decent and Osamu Tezuka tells a great story, but the will to play just isn't there.

Where's the co-op mode from XBLA version?!

The one area in which Shootout actually trumps the others is online play. 989 has built a robust, efficient online matching and stat-tracking system, making it easy to find other ballers and get a match up and running. The stat-tracking and ease of setting up tournaments are impressive.

If you don't have a PSP, it might be worth checking out if the nostalgia hits you hard enough, but unless you're a glutton for punishment, I don't know how much you can find here. Oh, and if you do have the PSP version, just walk away. Take your time, no need to hurry, just walk aw-BOOM!

New games are thin and uninteresting.

It can end up being too much work for what amounts to not enough enjoyment.

A misguided effort to streamline the experience and create gameplay where realism comes before responsiveness.

Difficulty levels will turn away nearly everyone.

This is one port that went from arcade star to console dog. Heinous, dude.

Everblue 2 does a nice job of being strange. Unfortunately, it does a poor job of being fun.

Like a luxury car with a rusted engine or a fudge sundae made with frozen yogurt, Advent Rising is a study in untapped potential. Although the core gameplay and concepts are really good, the package is marred by execution errors left and right.

Take away the horses, squinty eyes, six-shooters and five o’ clock shadows, and this cowpoke goes from deadeye to dead on arrival.

Whimsical, playful, and bright, MySims surrounds you with fun - but what you do is work.

Without all of the environmental additions, Sega Rally Revo is an average racer at best.

Gun usage would have made it a closer match to the arcades, and more levels would have made me feel much better about it on Day 2.

Embraces neither its campy past nor its current hipness, instead delivering a hackneyed third-person action romp saved only by a few neat ideas.

This game is a nightmare to grade. I've tried to be fair, but I can't help but knock off a couple notches because of the brutal lack of effort and obvious shortcuts.

I would give a C+/B- based solely on the merits of the game, but I just can't ignore unsavory business practices when they're out to con gamers like you.

As for the controls, even ignoring how your character runs like he's trying really hard to hold in a fart at all times, the movement is slow and he turns like a tank in the original Resident Evil.

Don't get me wrong, the game does handle fairly well, and with friends this could be a fun one to share, but single-player is worse than most. Combine a three-player team with the smallest roster KoF has ever had, and you'll have your faves chosen like a routine in no time

The game tries to get by riding the coattails of its 10 year legacy, but it doesn’t offer enough to compete with the likes of "Soul Calibur 2" or "Virtua Fighter" and has lost any edge it might have had over 2D games like "Guilty Gear."

Order of the Pheonix is all about homework and chores, and feels harder to take in than a whole book - those are poor marks for a video game.

Even though the EyePet offers a lovable virtual pet, it just doesn't cut it in the real world.

You can get an exciting, if not sparse on features, shooter with Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved for half the price. You can get many more exciting, albeit more expensive, shooters on the Xbox 360 like Gears of War or BioShock. Nevertheless, if you play Commando 3, you'll probably enjoy yourself, even if it's been done many, many times before.

A lot more work than fun. When I play it for long stretches, I feel like I deserve a nap on a bale of hay.

The idea of kicking ass as a gothic swordsman and his seven closest unholy friends sounds mighty appealing. However, a crummy targeting system and ultra-repetitive gameplay relegate Chaos Legion to the status of a good idea gone bad.

What we’re left with is a good stab at innovation marred by hopelessly dated level design and short (you can beat it in 10 hours), repetitive gameplay. You get the feeling that Alter Echo could have been much more.

A decent rental that just might give your 7 year old sibling something to do for a few hours.

With both this expansion and its predecessor, Heroes IV expansions only give you more of the same... and charge you $30 for the pleasure. Does that make this a bad game? No, it doesn't, but it is a bad expansion.

For the determined vampire hunter, Castlevania: Curse of Darkness can be engaging, but only in the manner of any item-heavy level grind.

Though Magnetica is a decent little puzzler, it’s also available all over the Internet in a million different versions, almost all of which are cheaper than this full $34.99 price tag. You're intelligent enough of a consumer to know that makes this a hard sell, and in this case, knowing is half the puzzle.

The solid story, decent backgrounds and cool gadgets just aren't enough to offset the lame animation, awful control and bland action.

For a while, it is rather enjoyable to cruise by and experience the closest thing you’ll ever have to being anything like Hef, but you'll quickly long for deeper gameplay or a more real sense of progression. Use that $50 on 3 years’ worth of Playboy subscriptions instead.

Gives World War II games a bad name by skimping on the essentials - story, A.I. and multiplayer - to focus on floating icons and the art of hiding behind crates. Instead, just hide your wallet.

If I were giving a grade on presentation, the marks would be higher. But since I actually have to play through the games, I have to take a not-so-pleasant trip down memory lane. Oh look, some game didn't pick up after themselves, and I've stepped in it.

The game's biggest flaw is its story, which is ironic due to the fact that the Lord of the Rings trilogy is all about its story.

Though the gameplay, levels and story are exactly the same across all three platforms, the PS2 version is the worst of the lot due to the choppy graphics and limited multiplayer.

It overwhelmingly asks the question: “Why fight?” It can’t be for the rewards, which are boring. It can’t be for the story, which is non-existent. And it really can’t be for pride, since without any online multiplayer, you are confined to fighting only people who probably have never played before and who might not enjoy coming over to your apartment solely to get their ass kicked.

At best, I would say this is a game that you can thoroughly ... tolerate.

Its sardonic take on typical conventions is thwarted by its own weak design, and its tongue-in-cheek humor fails more often than it succeeds. Laughter might well be the best medicine, but a bad joke is the worst ailment.

If you’re hardcore into flight sim games, you might find some satisfaction from the better parts of this highway to the danger zone, but if you’re looking for the next Crimson Skies, keep looking.

Despite its innovation, charm and style, the glaring functionality omissions render it impotent. You turn it on, draw out some cool sounds for a couple minutes, and then shut it off wondering why you can't save anything.

Ultimately a bland, thankless and unconvincing entry in the annals of WWII games.

So there you have it: 2K9 comes off as a misguided effort to streamline the experience and create gameplay where realism comes before responsiveness.

I get the feeling that development on Star Wars: The Clone Wars may have been rushed to coincide with the release of the second season of the show, which is kind of a shame because there is a lot potential in the concepts behind it.

While Tecmo Bowl Throwback definitely scratches your nostalgia itch (if you have one), it's just plain and not very fun in the long run in this day and age.

The amount of backtracking required in Sonic Unleashed is absolutely inexcusable, and this mandatory medal hunting is the nail in the coffin.

The relatively decent graphics, fine character animation and easy gameplay make Sarge's Heroes 2 a surprisingly playable Army Men game, but that isn't saying much.

I would love to drive an indestructible car that could never, ever flip in my ordinary, everyday life, but when we play games, we like to break things. After playing some Asphalt Urban GT, you’ll just want to break your Nintendo DS.

MLB Power Pros 2008 sits and stares you down from the television like a catcher who gives his pitcher bad signals.

Order of the Pheonix is all about homework and chores, and feels harder to take in than a whole book - those are poor marks for a video game.

Some gamers can look past gritty textures and stickmen for the decent gameplay and variety, but the poor control that plagues 007 Racing is hard to resolve.

It's a whole lot of “blah” in a tiny piece of plastic.

The King, it hurts me to say, has been de-throned.