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.

At its best during four player matches, where everyone runs around the ring, bounces off the ropes and delivers bone-rattling special moves. Outside of its enjoyable multiplayer, however, the game isn't much fun.

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.

Samurai Warriors 2 only has a couple of things to make it feel different- the addition of a Monopoly-esque board game and a purchasing power-up system that, sadly, has little effect on the gameplay. Past that, it's the same hack n' slash game you've been playing for years, with very little changes or features to signify its presence on a next-gen format.

Newcomers may enjoy this remake, but everyone else should stick with the superior (and inexpensive) PS2 version.

The graphics look bland and the gameplay fails to perk up, as players simply clear out rooms without receiving any reason to keep pressing forward. The nearly inoperable item management system frustrates as well.

While the puzzles are clever, shrinking the game to a handheld and the lack of a cursor makes solving them more a case of trial-and-error. Purists may dig it, but the vast majority of gamers should pass this adventure by.

With an uninspired plotline and by-the-numbers missions, around 30 hours of sleepy questing and a repetitive multiplayer mode only the diehard need apply.

Fans of the franchise will be drawn to the game's authentic anime stylings, but might soon be turned off by repetitive missions, brainless AI and problems with saving and restarting missions.

While online play is acceptable, the game does have a number of unlockable achievements, but players can experience all of that over a weekend.

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.