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.

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.

What's left is a rather generic husk of an empty insane asylum and Sweet Tooth, a fat, hairy, and semi-nude protagonist who can run around in it. And what is a mental patient in an abandoned asylum to do? Collect concept art, of course!

Truly an excellent game. Minor flaws and caveats aside, it has been a long time since I’ve played any game so addicting and moment-to-moment enjoyable that it’s actually made me worry about starting it up.

Underneath the bubbly aesthetics of frolicking animals, pan flute music, and dolphin-mask souvenirs lies an intricate strategy game of careful planning and decisive action.

Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice is grounded by its single acrobatic gimmick. The game itself is a well-presented - but ultimately shallow - series of car chases, shooting sequences, and escort missions.

Bomberman Land Touch! 2 proves that deception truly is a sly creature.

These minor hitches notwithstanding, Burnout Paradise is an excellent, solid ride for both solo and online gamers, with superb control, high production values, complete freedom, and so much obsessive, secret-hunting, gotta-catch-‘em-all lasting gameplay incentive that it’s almost ridiculous.

These minor hitches notwithstanding, Burnout Paradise is an excellent, solid ride for both solo and online gamers, with superb control, high production values, complete freedom, and so much obsessive, secret-hunting, gotta-catch-‘em-all lasting gameplay incentive that it’s almost ridiculous.

If you’re a One Piece fan through and through, and if you don’t mind the slow grind of finding items as long as the action is fast and furious, then this is booty in your video game treasure trove. But as much as there is enough swashbuckling to make you a badass pirate, there is just as much to make you a grubby landlubber.

Simple, stupid, silly, and easily the most fun I’ve had on the console.

It’s a bottom-line, top-notch, kick-ass portable strategy experience that finally breaks the online-competition barrier, and brings some new and long-awaited ‘dark cred’ to the traditionally cutesy series without losing its essential streamlined, battle-hardened goodness.

A unique hybrid of plundered gameplay elements. It doesn't manage to actually improve upon its MMORPG parents, but if you've become tired of space lasers or elf wizards, Burning Sea is easily the most interesting new game in town. In the long run, it will be the complex economy and the faction warfare that will determine the success of this ocean venture.

All the games are too short, or just plain not fun, leaving players with no compelling reason to picnic in this park.

A fun and promising new direction for the series, enough to make me anticipate a more polished, more multiplayer-friendly follow-up.

Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom follows a straight-forward formula, but somehow, it can’t even get that right. Most of the time, it just makes the gameplay too easy, too basic, or too difficult by design.

This just feels like one of those movies where you push a button to decide what scene should come next (and we all know how great those movies are). That’s just not enough to justify what is essentially five slow moving episodes of Harvey Birdman.

This just feels like one of those movies where you push a button to decide what scene should come next (and we all know how great those movies are). That’s just not enough to justify what is essentially five slow moving episodes of Harvey Birdman.

This just feels like one of those movies where you push a button to decide what scene should come next (and we all know how great those movies are). That’s just not enough to justify what is essentially five slow moving episodes of Harvey Birdman.

It’s sad, really. Now that Sega’s console days have gone the way of the Colecovision, Sonic just doesn’t get the respect that he used to.

On the one hand, there are more than sixty games available in portable form. Some of them have even been genuinely enhanced, if you're interested. Unfortunately, many players probably won't have the patience to unlock the full library of classics and will be stuck with the eleven that are available from the start.

To both its credit and its detriment, the gameplay remains almost wholly unchanged from the original. Luckily, Journey of Dreams also shares with its predecessor some beautiful art design and a stunning musical score that save it from mediocrity.

NeoGeo Battle Coliseum looks old and sounds old and plays in 2D - all things that will deter most modern-day gamers, but old-school fans of NeoGeo fighters and newbies interested in discovering where 3D fighters originated will not be disappointed.

MX vs. ATV Untamed is fun if you dig on arcade-style off-road racers, but there's still room for improvement in some departments, especially the graphics.

In general, playing the game is a sinusoidal process of momentary elation as you uncover a new element, quickly followed by deep disappointment as you discover it’s a piece of crap.

Probably the closest thing to compare it to would be the Dynasty Warriors series. Its games are not known for being the most in-depth, but they at least strike the good balance between hack-and-slash and RPG that Warriors lacks.

Aside from the constant elevator music, Super Swing Golf Season 2 is a solid golf game with a lot of replay value.

Unlike most other mini-game collections, multiplayer seems like an afterthought instead of a primary focus.