Its tone is a perfect balance—not cutesy and not over-serious. The characters may be stereotypical, but there’s a real sense of self-awareness and satirical humor in them as well.

Everything has been improved over the original, and yet nothing reaches the heights of greatness. Graphics are better but not perfect, gameplay is more fun but still bogs you down sometimes, and multiplayer is finally here but it's not the online dogfighting it clearly should be.

The whole game makes as much sense as watching an episode of "Twin Peaks" backwards. But it looks a helluva lot better.

Sure, it lacks the licenses and loving treatment given to the major league games, but it's innovative enough for to warrant a go. Although some of its risks don't pan out, we still recommend recruiting this surprisingly skilled kid.

The deep season, clean online play, and new Career mode are all big additions, and make The Show an easy call.

While eviscerating so many ninjas is cathartic, Afro Samurai ends up feeling more like a slick, hyper-visual arcade experience more than a solid home console experience. But still fun nonetheless.

What truly rocks is the game's affordability. Donkey Konga comes with one bongo accessory in a neat and tidy $50 package. What a sweet concept.

Despite its flaws, there’s nothing Magna Carta 2 does bad enough to keep me from playing. If you want to see what a JRPG from the olden days would be like if you gave it a modern overhaul, MC2 will form your responsum.

bit.Trip Runner stands practically alone in a crowded lineup of Wiiware releases. Like its predecessors, the nostalgia-fueled gameplay makes up most of this game's charm and it's easily recommendable as a downloadable title.

The gameplay is just as good as you remember it to be and the engine still hauls a great deal of ass, but considering it's had two years to stew, this tour feels a little too much like the last one.

It delivers unbelievable graphics and more cathartic chaos than you can shoot a luger at, but has something of a dumb head on its shoulders, an overly simple control scheme and busies itself providing greater densities of the same old content without doing anything new.

Fortunately, the 360 version is blessedly free of the slowdown and Civilopedia bugs that mar the PS3 version, leading to a much more relaxing experience.

It’s a gateway game and the perfect hook for those American Idol hopefuls who know more about D notes than D-pads.

Glaring, suspicious omissions and a mostly broken online multiplayer aside, OutRun Online Arcade is a solid conversion of an already fun arcade and Xbox game.

The throwback to Amplitude is a welcome reminder of Harmonix's more electronically themed music games, but the experience is too limited. Still, it's a fine game on the go. At least you can take your band on the road and not have to ride around in a sweaty, junkyard bound VW bus.

All in all, I found myself jumping for joy after a hard fought goal more often than I found myself wanting to headbutt my 360 out of frustration like Zinedine Zidane.

There’s plenty in FIFA 2004 to keep you happy until next season, when hopefully we’ll finally able to execute some plays of greater skill and complexity.

On the whole, STO is very promising; it needs a little more clean-up and content, but the fundamentals of the gameplay are very strong, and the options available during character creation make for an experience with a lot of potential depth.

A surprisingly solid game. The numerous missions are hard, but not impossible.

Even if there’s no particular reason for it, Prince of Persia is a fun romp through a desert temple. The parkour-heavy gameplay looks impressive and is satisfying without being too frustrating. So head on over to your local store and pick up a copy of Princess Elika and That Nameless Drifter Guy Looking For His Donkey.

The simplistic nature of the game doesn't leave a ton of staying power, but with an MSRP of $29.99, it's a great way to go out.

The game tries to be everything for everyone by offering a great variety of gameplay styles, but doesn’t quite succeed at any of them. Each facet of the game has minor issues that hurt an otherwise enjoyable experience.

May not have as much punch as its predecessors, but it still keeps the Rayman fun alive while adding some new tricks to the mix. A few fixes here and there and the Rayman series can easily get back on track.

By virtue of its impressive new control scheme and solid delivery, Fight Night 2004 doesn’t really have any peers and by default can be declared the unanimous champ. However, it still needs a much better single-player Career mode before it can stand toe to toe with other, deeper sports games.

That said, WWE '12 is a decent offering that gets the job done without much fuss and deserves to be in any WWE fan's collection.

If there’s one area in which ESPN clearly dominates the competition, it’s in its graphics. Player models are terrific, the framerate is smooth throughout and the animations are pretty fluid.

The additions to combat, varieties of gameplay, and throngs of enemies who are serious about doing you harm make this infinitely more playable than most of the self-styled "survival horror" games.

Serves as a great start for this five-part series. While it doesn't contain much story-wise, it more than makes up for it by setting up the future episodes, especially considering how this chapter ends.