Even with some warts, Black & White 2 is still pretty good. Heck, no god is perfect, right?

All the GBA's power is utilized here to make a truly gorgeous little outing.

While this game makes "RedCard 2003" look like... I can't even think of a non-offensive comparison... it still hasn't gone quite far enough.

If you're a hardcore puzzle fan that lives life at Level 9/High 5, or have a buddy to tangle with, Puyo Pop Fever is a worthy purchase.

Perhaps the biggest change is the smooth, clear graphics.

Call it the sophomore jinx. A great rookie season had us anticipating more, but MVP needs more work before it can really be considered the Most Valuable Player.

Easily the best title in the series and it’s most likely the result of having to cram content in to the final episode.

For a one man project, Starshatter is a graphical tour-de-force. Infinitely customizable. Once the problem areas are tweaked, Starshatter will shine.

Ironically, Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu has more extras than many superior games. This title is absolutely stacked; it’s just a shame you won’t want to play for as long as the game could theoretically last.

The entire Ki Blast process is made meaningless, because regular fighting moves do more damage, specifically throws.

The variety of innovating aspects are balanced by multiple flaws, making this one strictly for the horror-obsessed.

While I would have liked to try the multiplayer, the sparsely populated servers listed didn’t give me much incentive to try a five-disk installation for a third time.

It just doesn't have heart.

Please do not buy this or even rent it. To do so would make you think less of Remedy and Max Payne 2, an absolutely terrific game on other consoles. Try another version instead.

Cooperative multiplayer and the basic gunplay thrills don't quite make up for bad control and ugly graphics.

More of the same for the franchise - a solid game, with an inspired (if a bit overdone) presentation.

A game that, while it can’t compete with the hockey titles available for the PSP’s big brother, still has a solid look and feel to it, despite the gaping hole left by the lack of commentary.

But I still would have to advocate passing, particularly since The Matrix: Path of Neo still hovers at a full MSRP price point for what is essentially Enter the Matrix with a facelift.

Really tends to disappoint when it comes to replay value. I expect strategy games to at least last 20 hours or so, but the multiple campaigns, single player maps and multiplayer gameplay will have a tough time reaching that magic number.

Enjoy swinging around New York to your heart’s content, but stick to a rental for this title.

The most depressing thing about Black Monday is that parts of inspiration or beauty occasionally shine in the abyss of missed potential. This game is alright, but aspires—rightfully so—for much more, and misses the mark.

If you do need a proper fix, just buy the movie and watch that instead, or rent another game. The wartime epic Dynasty Warriors 4 and ninja title Shinobi both make excellent candidates for replacing Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon on your ‘must play’ list.

It's an awkward position to be in for a game that's not bad - just not as good as it could have been.

Worst game ever? No, not really. That was an exaggeration fed largely by the flames of my initial frustration. But it’s not really a very good game, either; probably slightly below average, in the scheme of things.

A game caught between markets. Gamers who want a pure FPS shooter have much better options to look into. Gamers who want tactical, squad based shooters will consider this a watered down, arcade version of the genre.

Hopefully if Climax releases another PSP version, they work the kinks out, because this one needs some polish.

If you have a PS2, get that version. If you've got a PSX, and you absolutely must have baseball, rest assured that you can buy (or at least rent) this and have a reasonably good time.

Guilty Gear Isuka does a lot of new things. They just aren't fun things.

Since there's no way to rent PC games, most will want to pass on this and just buy an RC car instead. Good try, but next time, less physics and more fun.

This is not intentioned as damning with faint praise but the fact that the mini-games are the most fun part of the gameplay does say something.

If you've played the PC version and are looking for something new, you are likely to be disappointed as some of the newer and richer features have been stripped away to fit it onto the console.

It's not the Xbox version or even "SOCOM: Navy Seals," but this version of Rainbow Six 3 is decent, on its own merits.

The thing is, the hooks just don't sink that deeply. It's a nice time waster, when I have time that needs wasting, and it's certainly worth packing along for those transoceanic plane flights or interminable car trips through, say, rural Kansas, but Frantix ain't making the trip to a desert island, if you catch my drift.

David Duchovny has an exceedingly flat voice. At no point does he ever really sound excited. Even when he should be excited, he really doesn't sound it. There's just a sense of resignation always seeping through.

The online experience as a whole needs some serious work. I’m not sure if it’s lag-related, or simply poor coding, but it’s not unusual to see cars sort of “stutter” their way ahead of or behind you in turns. Collision detection is also fairly shoddy online.

I really wanted to like Oogie’s Revenge more than I did. The Soul Robber was fun to use, and the game did a great job of recreating Tim Burton’s vision. However, the constant backtracking, poor camera, and repetition make it hard to justify anything more than a rental.

The wasted potential here is like a swift kick to the face. Still, it's worth a play if you live by the gospel of QCF + P.

True fans of the AND 1 Mixtape Tour may be able to look beyond the many flaws of the actual basketball in this game because the presentation offers a dream come true.

PureSim is a game I want desperately to love, even to the point of staying up 'til 2 a.m. because it's a fix for my baseball addiction, even if it's still a clumsy fix. PureSim is also a game that infuriates me at times, and maybe that's a note in its favor. An atrocious game I wouldn't waste time getting angry with (well, in most cases. A TRULY atrocious game might be another story). I'd simply put it down and move on. WIth PureSim, that's easier said than done.

The value is placed in the sale price, not in the replay, and after two hours you’ll most likely be done with everything.

Comparable to the PS2 version, except with much longer loading times.

Perhaps worth a rental to R-Type junkies and those who love a solid 2D shooter, but nothing is really new here... and maybe that's the point.

In the end, Shrek 2 is going to appeal to a pretty limited market. Older gamers aren’t going to want to bother with it much, but young children who idolize their movie heroes (and why do you think "Finding Nemo" sold so well?) will probably eat it up despite its mediocrity.

Monster 4x4 is as wild as the trucks featured in the game; a real sense of control over your fate in the race is never established, since a wrong move can get you stuck thanks to some poor planning, and getting good turns and boosts seems more like luck than anything else.

Lockdown has a steep learning curve and an unfair difficulty level for all players not intimately familiar with the Rainbow Six setup.

Blade and Sword tries hard to be a classically-designed action RPG, but doesn’t seem to realize such a product comes years too late.

There are certainly the trappings of an epic fantasy game here, but lack of attention to latecomers to the series and horrid pacing and voice acting drag this game down to something that's fun to play if you can get the story out of the way and can get a solid grasp on the control scheme.

Right now it’s average in quality, and what should be amusing feels like a chore. It’s hard to make dragons unexciting, but somehow Drakengard manages to do it.

Unfortunately, while brevity is the soul of wit, even at $29.99, it's hard to recommend a purchase of a game that can be beaten in a rental, and offers nothing beyond that in the way of replay value.

These treasures are glass jewels in tin settings.

Capcom may be good at 2D fighters, but when going to 3D, controls matter all the more.

What so frustrates me about Genji: Dawn of the Samurai is how the game seems to desire this average result from the onset; there is nothing in the game that looks remotely ambitious.

Graphically, both King of Fighters 2000 and 2001 are nearly pixel-perfect ports. Unfortunately, this is as much a liability as anything. The character sprites are low-resolution, as befits three-year-old Neo-Geo games, and the backgrounds are muddy and annoyingly aliased.

When you're trying to sell a game to a non-hardcore crowd, don't make it frustratingly hard for no reason.

Once you've customized your car to the max, there's nothing else to do except change its color; you can't even earn new cars to customize or anything, as you're stuck with only the one car.

Some very interesting ideas are buried under a tide of sloppy coding and bad game design.

A better word for the new story might be laughable. I understand the rationale behind the change, but the ending is ridiculous. Thankfully the book’s ending is included, so you can see what really should have happened.

If the game focused more on the highway racing, and improved the track selection, everybody would be better off. However, as it stands now Ride or Die is a game that provides more lasting enjoyment as a scratching simulator than as a racing game.

It's got all the bad hair and pretty boys, but none of the fighting soul.

Even if the jumping weren't horribly floaty and disastrous, the gameplay would still be generic at best.

If the fatigue bug had been fixed the way EA promised it would be, and the game had the same options that other versions had, I’d give the game the same score I gave last year's version: a 7. As it stands, with the lack of features, the lack of innovation with the game play and the higher price tag; I don’t feel comfortable giving this game anything higher than a 5.

A pretty straightforward arcade street racing game that could have been much more with a bit more attention to customization and the inclusion online multiplayer.

It's a sad world when "budget gaming" is synonymous with "poke your eye out with a dull stick."

The vestiges of goodwill created by 187: Ride or Die's gameplay initially might have the game growing on you... but the terribly forced gangsta dialogue of the game fixes that nagging issue extremely quickly.

A soulless cash-in. Every aspect of the game seems hostile to anyone intending to actually play the game. The story is mediocre, the interface is obtuse, the combat is oversimplified and there's little to do or find.

Originality is what Full Metal Alchemist and the Broken Angel, in the end, is lacking. The transmutation is mildly creative, but it's not going to sustain a been-there-done-that story or utterly mindless, thoughtless brawling.

Of course, the real nail in the gameplay coffin arrives with something I’m sure every gamer fears: boredom. Zapper just isn’t interesting to play, and rarely makes attempts to make gamers smile.

Even a little sprucing up on the presentation front doesn’t change the insurmountable gameplay problems that make their NBA 06 particularly sour.

The recipient of the "Coaster of the Year" award. Beer steins everywhere are smiling.

Like "NBA ShootOut" this year, the defensive AI is such that before you take your shot, you can simply run around until your defender gets stuck on other bodies, and then try throwing down a dunk or three until you score.

It's very rare when a title comes along that needs a STAY AWAY warning. Gotcha Force is that title.

It's a tactical, team-based online shooter that isn't very tactical, is only technically team-based, and has broken netcode. What do you think?

Not the worst thing we've ever played for the GBA, since unlike "Mortal Kombat Advance", it actually works. But still, the idea was terrible and the presentation doesn't help.

When blood effects are one of the chief highlights of a game, you know there may be something wrong. Not even the multiplayer, which suffers from the same issues of control and additional problems of slowdown, can save this sinking ship.

Let me be honest here. I am currently watching an infomercial for Jack Lalame's juicer, which features his 80+ year old companion demonstrating that you can get juice from an unpeeled cantaloupe wedge. I am also feeling approximately the same level of excitement as when I played 4x4. This is just a boring game.

Absolutely unacceptable. MMX7 not only fails to be fun, but barely works right.

If Gamenikki scored games with singers instead of numbers, Get On Da Mic would be Milli Vanilli.

It's a very crippled and undesirable game, but not so bad as to make it completely without merit. In fact, my friends still enjoy playing it even after we've suffered through all its slings and arrows.

To put it simply, it's nearly impossible to enjoy Bad Boys: Miami Takedown without being completely naive. The presentation, game play, and voice acting are all about 10 years behind, it's a sad state of affairs.

All the laws of the universe are invalid. Flight of the Falcon is a Star Wars title with horrible sound. The standard TIE Fighter howls and laser blasts are all acceptable, but the theme music obliterates any good from those. The problem starts from the beginning, with an atrocious MIDI version of the Star Wars fanfare, and only goes downhill.

Everything seems like it was created four years ago, shelved and brought out on a rainy day when a semi-popular license could be bended around it.

The Guy Game doesn't shoot high with its premise: a trivia game as a vehicle for softcore porn. Little things sour this deal, like the fixed order of questions, the annoying announcer, the moron asking the women the questions, and the lack of anything interesting to unlock, but these are nothing compared to the core problems: the softcore porn is exceedingly difficult to unlock and the trivia game is godawful.