I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the heinous menu music. During Franchise mode, there's this rap song - I think it's rap - that sounds like a reject from the "Breakin'" soundtrack. It's neither hip nor hop.

If you're looking for the thinking man's shooter, then keep searching. Soldier of Fortune is all about the mindless yet blissful twitch.

Ho-hum gameplay combined with simple annoyances make this game a shadow of the popular cartoon it was based on.

Even after a sequel, this Street still falls flat on its asphalt.

This year’s installment isn't the most polished basketball title or even the best hoops title in general. But it’s absolutely safe to say NBA Live has returned and will be sticking around as a contender, as long as it continues to take these positive dribbles forward.

The winding dungeon crawl the franchise defined long ago has been replaced with a lifeless linear action game's dash, one which will hopefully get back on the track its forefathers fought so hard to gain.

Rule of Rose has almost nothing going for it other than sheer creepiness, and as you are probably aware, creepiness doesn’t count for much.

Ultimately, Splatterhouse is a fun game when taken in tiny chunks.

TIR ought to be politely referred to as SIR... Sorta Immersion Racing. Everything works, but it doesn't offer anything that hasn't been done better before.

Though short, Contrast can be replayed to get all the collectibles and is worth a look for the way the story and gameplay integrate, even if at times it's a little rough around the edges.

Hydrophobia is just a Titanic of a shipwreck.

While I love this game's unusual art style and I enjoy the story premise, playing Dokuro is more frustrating than fun. It doesn't help that the controls have such an odd layout.

A sub-par romp through what we’ve already seen many, many times before.

I love to waste time with video games, but Loadout seems to point the gun in the wrong direction and then fire dud rounds at all the wrong ideas. The package offers plenty of gameplay and you could certainly get a kick out of using Vita remote play to while away commercials on TV, but you probably have other games to play too.

If you’re a big fan of Souls-likes and want to play a game that follows that formula fairly closely while introducing a few unique gameplay elements, Hellpoint isn’t a bad choice. However, the game lacks direction and polish, and it makes for a poor introduction to the genre.

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.

Part of me wants to really praise Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Impact for not being what the Naruto fighting games have been, and part of me wants to just play Dynasty Warriors.

No matter how you slice it, rampant dragon destruction is more fun than running around smacking bad guys with a dagger.

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.

Strikeforce is a great step toward finally integrating the online universe with Dynasty Warriors and an unexpected excuse to lower your head as other gamers pass you by. You’re not hiding or hanging your head in shame, you’re just looking for items.

As cute and as endearing as Squeeballs tries to be, it just never hits the mark.

You could ask for a version more to your liking, but Ultimate seems mostly focused on getting to these new consoles before any other subtitle.

Coded Arms is such a weak rendition of a first-person-shooter, it makes us wonder whether such a thing is even possible on the single-analog PSP.

It straddles the line between little kid game and hard platformer in such a way that I don’t think anyone will like it. I guess The Hobbit makes these strange concessions to game-play to make it a friendlier game, but it’s still frustrating as hell.

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.

It's a dated PC game ported to a next-gen console instead of a totally revised, retooled product. The folks at Cinemaware may have had their finger on the gaming pulse 20 years ago, but now they're just living in the past.

For those of us looking for a better more improved NASCAR driving experience on a console, it's best to pull out 07 on previous systems or wait for EA to take this design back to the garage for '09.

Still, Faery is commendable for being among the first foray of the core RPG genre in the downloadable space dominated by twin-stick shooters and bite-sized platformers.