The Shield's graphics look average and it brings nothing new to the action adventure genre, but the foul language and story should entertain people like a trashy novel. While not especially well conceived, people will always crave the next, ridiculous scene.

Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia feels like an expansion to the previous game. Its graphics and audio haven't changed, still immersing the player in a bland Pokemon universe.

Alien Syndrome for the PSP stands out over its Wii counterpart, thanks to a less inept control scheme and a somewhat improved presentation. However, the game suffers from a host of issues.

Controlling characters is a snap with the Nunchuk's analog stick, and the graphics and sound are as delightful as ever. Mario Power Tennis is mildly enjoyable (especially with three friends), but it needed more love to ace the competition.

Ninja Blade's presentation trumps the actual combat. Excessive quick time events result in lots of trial and error, the game chugs along during certain boss fights and monsters have a nasty habit of scoring cheap hits that often put players at a disadvantage.

Sega's Ghost Squad takes less than an hour to beat and features plenty of insignificant extras. But instead of overcharging you, the company budget priced its arcade shooter $30, $10 more that it's worth.

It plays well, but instead of creating an innovative product, developer Sumo Digital followed the Grand Theft Auto template, relying on a list of familiar and boring jobs including escort and carjacking missions. In addition, the game looks dated.

Madden NFL 08 for the PSP feels like the black sheep of the family, a game that wants to fit in so badly with the rest of the football clan but comes up short way too often to get there. Maybe next year we'll see a game with better timing throughout its presentation, a functional multiplayer set-up and more modes.

It's overly repetitive and squanders its Wi-Fi Connection advantage by only allowing quick SOS emails to go out to other users. It's not bad, but it's hardly innovative.

With spotty combat controls and unintuitive evidence gathering, the game gets boring fast.

A barebones rhythm game that focuses more on visuals than it does on outstanding music, which should always come first in this genre. Downloadable content in the future will help, but unless it offers better music or a significantly different game mode, only the diehard rhythm gamers will care.

As moviegoers walk away from the film hoping to continue the adventure, this Hulk is far from incredible.

An above-average dancing affair for the Wii that delivers familiar graphics, forgettable songs and no online options. If you liked the original, you might dig this one, but it's not worth our time.

But if shooter enthusiasts own a powerful gaming rig, they will not be disappointed, with a $39.99 price tag (a full $20 cheaper then the X360 version) thrown in for good measure.

The game is simple to play, but unfortunately nearly impossible to master, due to the overwhelming amount of swirling colors on the screen.

While this game attempts to break new ground, it failed to hold our interest[].

Sure, it moves fast, and the online options deliver a sweet community aspect, but the 1/4-mile drag events suck, the game at times looks jaggier than a shark's mouth and the drab presentation denies it much needed personality. It's a decent racer, but not sexy enough to rev our engines.

It offers online play through Wi-Fi Connection, but it's strictly limited to ruled nine-hole match play. With the exception of amateur golfers, this Love simply doesn't last.

As it stands, it's just another fighter that tries – and fails – to knock Street Fighter IV off its mighty throne.

Even with the multiplayer options and the touch-screen gameplay, it fails to provide much enjoyment. Fans of the original game and patient kids probably won't mind digging in. Everyone else, on the other hand, should pass this one by.

It's a sometimes great-looking, seldom spooky copy of its original that doesn't quite live up to the media buzz.

The artificial intelligence is a beast, scoring lots of points and reading offensive and defensive plays like a prodigal genius.

A great game for any fan of Yu-Gi-Oh!, yet numerous shortcomings, including the lack of an interactive tutorial, leave little redeeming value for those outside that fan base.

It's not bad, although the game is plagued by severe balancing issues. Some boxers are more talented than others, and online match-ups are unfair, resulting in a Facebreaker finisher and a quick end to the match. At least the Create-a-Boxer mode is great, enabling you to scan yourself or a picture of someone into the game.

Don King's Prizefighter goes the same route as some of the promoter's bigger fights – it's too over-hyped for its own good.

It comes up dreadfully short in content, with no single-player campaign and only a handful of maps.

The punishing artificial intelligence makes Chocobo's Dungeon more annoying than fun.

All of what made the original great is still here, with lots of new recipes and new additions like a multiplayer mode, but it's really just the same game reheated.

Viking's a decent game, thanks to over the top combat moves and a sprawling fantasy world, but its lack of drama and a few design issues make it inferior to Sony's exquisite "God of War" franchise.

Although the game's presentation could've been sweeter, the gameplay manages to impress. Multiplayer isn't bad, either. That is, if you find a buddy with a fine tolerance for pain and really gross stunts.

Atari's Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 causes fatigue, thanks to its tiring and broken controls.

While it contains some cool features in the form of three unique play styles and finely tuned audio, the game's timing is almost completely off, even with such simplicities as a serve or a ball return. The visuals also took a step backward.

It's a decent puck slapper, but hardly a Stanley Cup contender.

There's just a crazy amount of things to do, though the game isn't overly thrilling. It lacks a good sensation of speed, the controls could've been tighter, and the graphics aren't so hot.

The game's presentation is on par with the comic book series, but the characters aren't well balanced. Furthermore, only certain skills can be upgraded, and the rest of the game contains the same old beat-em-up formula that's been around for ages.

Doesn't play nearly as well as its predecessor. With a significant drop in visual fidelity as well as a reduction in the number of people in online matches (from 32 to 16), things just aren't as exciting.

Most of the game is flat, due to monotonous tasks (hitting rocks and trees, going back for items) and bland fighting controls. The multiplayer action is solid and the presentation is true to the show, but this Adventure is too limited.

The atmospheric first-person shooter retains all of its tension, along with the neat slow-down option that lets players pull off some brutally imaginative kills. However, the graphics look like they've been reworked for a PlayStation 2 version instead of for the PS3. Furthermore, the weak response time of the SIXAXIS pad ruins the experience and the game takes too long to load.

As moviegoers walk away from the film hoping to continue the adventure, this Hulk is far from incredible.

Party Animals completely lacks what made the first Viva Pinata so endearing.

Occasional boss fights and tacked-on multiplayer/co-op modes do very little to liven things up. It's worth a rental, but it's hardly the stuff of Legends.

While not original, Tenkaichi 3 is a must-buy for hardcore Dragon Ball fanatics.

The story is also flimsy and not interesting. Mutant is still a great game for kids and achievement junkies, but this series needs a reboot for anyone else.

If you dig the swinging and master the controls, you might find this sequel worthy of its legendary name. Other players, however, will discover a linear game banking on a gimmick.

Overdose gives the original 2004 game a new paint job along with new settings, but it's essentially the same game, which made extensive use of physics technology. Except, games since then matched and surpassed it, making it monotonous.

Avatar: The Last Airbender fails to live up to the creativity of the show it's based upon.

Forced switching between two playable characters proves annoying due to their differing abilities, the fixed camera restricts the player's view and the voice samples of party members still repeat with infuriating frequency.

It's got exciting stealth gameplay and the controls offer some fun once players get used to them, but the lack of multiplayer, a strong visual appearance and a user-friendly save system make this a weak but enhanced port of the Xbox or PlayStation 2 version.

As it stands, it's just another fighter that tries – and fails – to knock Street Fighter IV off its mighty throne.

The voice acting and comic book sequences sound and look decent, although the dialogue gets cheesy and annoying. HOAE offers just enough to keep people interested, but doesn't leave a lasting impression.

You'll double-tap to roll him under things, tap along walls to jump, draw a slash mark in the middle of objects to slice them and so on. While novel, it makes precision jumps nearly impossible. This results in a lot of trial and error, and if you beat the game, there's little reason to play it again.

The game is easy, and I really enjoyed the graphics and story line. The only things that really bothered me were that when you repeated any missions, there was Alfred saying the same things over and over and over again. That got annoying.

Contra deserves more than one play-through, but the bugs make it one of Xbox Live Arcade's black sheep. Hopefully, Konami will pull out all the stops for a version of "Super Contra."

The bland story mode, despite whisking you away to numerous locations, features lame brain artificial intelligence, a boring narrative, corny characters and the same point A to point B objectives, making it worth just a few hours of play.

It's nice to see a return of simple-yet-gratifying combat, but these issues prevent Fullmetal Alchemist: Dual Sympathy from hitting the heights of the genre's heyday.

It's not bad, although the game is plagued by severe balancing issues. Some boxers are more talented than others, and online match-ups are unfair, resulting in a Facebreaker finisher and a quick end to the match.

Now that it has moved to the Wii, however, Tomb Raider: Anniversary's magic has been lost due to crappy waggle controls. Although some of the Wii exclusive puzzles are mildly enjoyable, aiming and shaking the nunchuck leads to imprecise movements and lots of headaches.

Hideous dialogue, repetitive gameplay.

This bland online shooter (no single player element exists) offers only a handful of maps and no map editor. While the game's is based upon an entrenched role-playing game, not a single role-playing element exists.

The whole collection theme grows tiring, with players having to repeat races to find items to proceed. The DS-exclusive enhancements don't help either, and end up being pointless.

Prince Caspian isn't an awful game, but considering the DS' premier adventures (The World Ends with You and The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass), it'll never be king.

The game provides a decent alternative to average hack'n-slash role-playing games, but it doesn't take long before it becomes tiresome and boring.

So while G.I. JOE: The Rise of Cobra provides momentary thrills, it's little more than an overpriced and shallow romp through drab looking levels full of idiotic bad guys.

Midway didn't update its roster (Jason Kidd plays for Dallas, not New Jersey), the story mode (what there is of it) makes no sense and the artificial intelligence is quite boneheaded.

Viking's a decent game, thanks to over the top combat moves and a sprawling fantasy world, but its lack of drama and a few design issues make it inferior to Sony's exquisite "God of War" franchise.

Unless you're a fan, this average RPG has little to offer.

Spider-Man 3 on Xbox 360 stands out as the best version, thanks to slightly improved graphics and numerous achievements to unlock. Unfortunately, the awful camera, frustrating combat, bad character models and cheesy voice acting make it less than stellar.

If you dig the swinging and master the controls, you might find this sequel worthy of its legendary name. Other players, however, will discover a linear game banking on a gimmick.

As it stands, Modern Warfare Reflex is merely average. The multiplayer is addictive and the control options are varied, but the watered-down graphics and relentless frame rate problems keep it from being a power player. This game has seen better days, two years ago, in fact.

The sloppy presentation, lack of online multiplayer and way-too-easy controls make this more like a bronze contender than a gold medal champion. Oh well, there's always 2012.

Not only is the game too complex, requiring you to utilize all of the SIXAXIS' buttons, but the developers force you to slog through an annoying tutorial in order to unlock single and multiplayer modes. That in itself, is PAINful.

The game plays well, but hasn't changed that much from last year's edition, outside of some ridiculous diving moves and artificial intelligence that's too attentive for its own good. The graphics still appear several notches below current-gen standards and the online play constantly slows down.

Alien Shooter may be a one-trick pony, but its mindlessly addictive game play makes it oddly compelling.

The stories for both are absolute garbage, but the smooth 3D engine is pretty impressive on the tiny hand held.

It has its moments, but this clumsy conglomeration suffers from an identity crisis and is best left as a rental.

Get ready to live the glamorous life of a military security agent, with great benefits, adventure, l33t hacking and rote levels and enemies that leave you stumbling around with a profound sense of deja vu.

Even worse, the game's not much fun to play. Each of the six episodes have a series of chapters full of unclear mission objectives; most times, Capcom doesn't give you hints on what to do next, so instead of making progress, you fumble around repeatedly blasting the same monster and/or revisiting the same old areas hoping for some clue, anything, to stand out.

Somewhere within SimCity Creator is an ambitious idea, befuddled by a lacking control scheme and irritating features.

The game's slipshod controls and lame story mode weigh it down. Even worse, players can't pimp their own rides -- that's handled automatically by West Coast Customs.

Although the stages look decent, hideous camera angles make viewing the action a chore and with short levels taking a few minutes to get through, it's only made worse by repetitious hack n' slash gameplay. The unappealing story further hurts the game, and we had trouble liking the main character's annoying Paris Hilton-style.

As such, Battle of the Bands is a decent party game and worth a rental.

While Raging Blast has a likable presentation and lots of options, the stale fighting and infuriating camera are hard to ignore.

The game's complex interface (composed primarily of a series of menus) makes it unapproachable to many people. Its slow pace gets exacerbated by the fact that cities can either produce or research, not both.

Bland shooting, idiotic bad guys and an average story left us disappointed. Developer Vicious Cycle should've spent less time making fun of superior shooters and more time making Eat Lead play like one. That's no joke.

Know this: if you're not a fan of simulation games, you won't care any more for this n00b-friendly train empire manager than you would any other sim-type game.

The zoom-in/zoom out effect distracts easily and might even create a few headaches among sensitive gamers. Some of the character designs look laughably bad, most notably in Art of Fighting 3.

The lack of diverse missions, along with the insipid gameplay and taxing camera system results in a watered-down experience -- not quite "more than meets the eye".

It's hard to say who the game was meant for. Maybe the game just shouldn't be played at all.

Wario: Master of Disguise could have been a huge leap forward for Nintendo's anti-hero. Instead, it ends up as a low-grade, tiresome platformer, knocking the series almost completely off course.

A boring action RPG that desperately wishes it was released in 1995.

Maelstrom had great potential to be a strong strategy game, but the bugs make it far too frustrating. The developers should have programmed a fourth faction, the Earth itself, to swallow up the Remnants, Ascension and Hai-Genti, because none of them have the brains to inherit this world.

lthough the stages look decent, hideous camera angles make viewing the action a chore and with short levels taking a few minutes to get through, it's only made worse by repetitious hack n' slash gameplay. The unappealing story further hurts the game, and we had trouble liking the main character's annoying Paris Hilton-style.

Awful controls, however, ruin the experience.

The slowdown and overall visual fuzziness leave it looking unattractive and barren compared to the Xbox 360 version; the controls are sorely lacking; the requirement of 5 GB hard drive space to install the game is ridiculous; and the multiplayer is uneventful.

The Wii remote and Nunchuk simply don't work well at all, forcing you to constantly build up speed and perform frustrating motions to do even the simplest of maneuvers like dodging on-track objects and jumping. Avoid this bottom of the barrel release.

While it successfully captures the atmosphere of the series thanks to its episodic nature, excellent environmental visuals and use of the show's soundtrack, it suffers from spotty voice acting, repetitive and bland puzzles, a bad ending and being painfully short.

Shrek the Third disappoints in every single category.

So when Level 5 takes these cumbersome elements and drops them into a single game, we end up playing something that feels half-hearted.