Sure, the single-player campaign can be a letdown. Your money's well-spent, however, once you log on and play with other people. [Mar 2004, p.63]

Overall, Perfect Dark Zero is a solid first-person shooter (it's certainly more user-friendly than "Quake 4"), but the nagging flaws push it a few notches below the greatness of its predecessor--not to mention justifying the $50 price tag.

The Strike is a well executed fishing title that should please amateur anglers and professional fisherman alike.

The best aspect of the game might be the way that satisfying play experiences come in bite-sized pieces. [Sept 2005, p.80]

In the end, Klonoa is a fantastic game that unfortunately suffers from a high degree of difficulty.

Koei's obviously performed emergency surgery on the AI routines, because everyone's a thousand times smarter now.

By far, the best element in the game is the hilarious commentary.

Flawed though it may be, the chance to fight as a giant ape is something gamers have dreamed of since the 2D days of "Rampage."

Looks like a shooter, but at its heart it’s a mind-busting puzzle game that transcends its own graphical limitations and delivers an intelligent gamer’s paradise.

It's not as bite-sized as the rest of the iOS puzzle elite, but the patient are aptly rewarded with a satisfying challenging experience.

It lays out more features, more gameplay, and more outrageousness than any other freaky football variation ever, and if it's not careful it might become as complex as a real football game.

Even though the graphics aren't the greatest and there's nothing new about the actual gameplay, Twisted Metal: Head On: Extra Twisted Edition is still incredibly fun to play. Playing through both very brief story modes made me really jones for a PS3 Twisted Metal, so go out and buy this title, if only to encourage Sony to do up a proper new-gen Twisted Metal title!

RO2 is an acquired taste and brutally punishing to newcomers.

The pistol is one of the most satisfying I've handled since scoring head shots with Halo's popular handgun, and when you're shouldering the rocket launcher, your character fills nearly a third of the screen with an impressively threatening presence. Most of the gadgets and features from the online conquest mode carry into the solo campaign, too.

Inexplicably fun despite its obvious flaws.

With a GBA link cable, the head-to-head Byrd Rescue mode is a blast. Tight, responsive controls seal the deal, making Attack of the Rhynocs the most enjoyable GBA Spyro title to date.

Forza Motorsport 3 isn't exactly a leap for the series. The incredible realism of Forza's physics, car mechanics and driving simulation, especially when it comes to the slippery, hard-to-control upper-class cars, is going to bore arcade racers or casual drivers. But car junkies and passionate racing gurus are going to find a nice cave to hole up in for the next few years and it'll make you less jealous when PS3 owners start crowing about Gran Turismo 5.

The graphic and sound departments could have used just as much depth. Instead, the visuals are reminiscent of how the first-generation PS2 games look—not refined with average detail.

Some of Deadly Alliance's game elements are still very arcade-minded—such as ludicrously difficult bosses and schizophrenic A.I.

Sim fans will be disappointed with the under-powered defense, but for twitch players, NBA Live 2003 is a dream come true.

Anyway, when it comes to the bottom line, Farming Simulator 2011 is really not bad at all.

For a paltry ten clams, gamers will certainly get their money's worth with Bejeweled Blitz Live. Its fast-paced style, carefree and easy multiplayer options, and unique gameplay modes make for a lot of fun.

Visually, the Xbox version smokes its PS2 counterpart, but it won’t blow your doors off.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is an incredibly original and rich experience, and may be the best handheld Star Wars game to date!

The single-player NFL Challenge mode can destroy your enjoyment in short order, but as long as you have real-life friends to join you, NFL Street is a blast—and a much-needed shot in the arm for the genre.

Though it may lack the polish and panache of mainstream football franchise games, Blitz: The League plays to its strengths as an over-the-top, hyper-aggressive action-sports experience.

It's a solid and enjoyable action title with enough action and plot to keep you interested over the long haul. Even if you don't like the comics or care about the upcoming movie, there are worse ways to spend a couple of hours.

The icing on the cake is the game’s superb production value, which includes beautifully crafted sound effects like devastating explosions and the eerie whistling of radioactive wind, solid voice acting, and copious visual details that flesh out a nightmarish world decimated by nuclear warfare.

It never really lives up to its title - a vision that could have benefited from a little more focus. It's a tired cliché but one that Beyond Good & Evil exemplifies: jack-of-all-trades, master of none.

While not the deepest game around, there’s enough here to keep you engaged for weeks, especially in two-player mode.

So much of it is familiar that it walks a tightrope between being fresh and being too derivative.

With many degrees of selectable difficulty, a wide variety of events, and the ability to customize your own tournament, Sports Jam offers lots of replay value and fun.

While it's still Mega Man at heart, it's managed to grow up while also staying young. It's a gaming anomaly, but one that's worth a serious look.

The Sims Medieval is a beautiful game with fun and interesting ideas, but it doesn't live up to my fantasy of the Middle Ages and it doesn't completely satisfy the Sims fan in me.

Despite the dents, GT Advance is a solid early contender in the handheld racing championship—just be sure to drive with the lights on.

Avadon: The Black Fortress is like a time capsule waiting to be unlocked. The sparse visuals, uncompromising interface, and lack of tutorials will likely prevent those who cling to polygons and sweeping orchestral themes from embarking on its adventure. But those who venture into Avadon with an open mind will be transported to one of the richest fantasy worlds to grace gaming in many years. They just don't make games like this anymore.

Mega Man 10 is an extremely fun and worthwhile purchase, and a much better overall value.

Packed with a bevy of features, TimeSplitters Future Perfect is a cornucopia of candy-coated goodness for any FPS fan. If you start now, you just might be able to unlock everything by the time "Halo 3" ships to stores.

Almost everything about Uno Rush is an upgrade from the original. The problem is, unless you can't put down the Uno and are craving more, Uno Rush's upgrades are probably not worth another $10.

A challenging game that tells a good story (if you get the best ending that is). Lots of replay value and let's not forget huge full screen bosses.

Black & Bruised isn’t "Knockout Kings," but it doesn’t try to be, and it certainly doesn’t have to be. All it has to be is fun and engaging, and on those levels, Black & Bruised succeeds.

Like other great physics puzzlers on the App Store, Cover Orange consistently adds plenty of variation to its puzzles as players progress.

The gameplay is where the fun shines in as it mixes twitchy gunplay with a puzzle-like bent to stalking your prey.

The visuals may be on target, but Advance Warfighter's controls in the single-player campaign bites the bullet. It's been an unfortunate and ongoing theme in the Ghost Recon series, yet the wonky control scheme still hasn't been fixed.

Some may yearn for a more complicated gameplay, but for those who do not, Partners in Time is still as funny and enjoyable as its predecessor.

Handsome and smoothly executed.

A light touch on the analog stick will be rewarded with precise control...There’s no multiplayer mode, so the fun doesn’t last terribly long. Worth a weekend rental.

The real meat of the game is the incredibly satisfying tactical combat.

Playing Dr. Mario Online RX for an hour or so virtually guarantees a smile and good mood to follow. Precious few full-price Wii games are that much fun, and a $10 game that delivers and that every single member of your family is likely to enjoy playing - is frankly a bargain.

Overall, Tetris Party is very impressive with all of its modes and things to do.

The controls, however, are a challenge (even with "simulation" turned off) and take some getting used to -- particularly when maneuvering in and out of corners.

There are predictable missteps--the driving sequences are awkward and twitchy, and the camera doesn't always behave itself--but on the whole, From Russia With Love is a convincing and enjoyable ride on the sixties Bond rollercoaster.

Unfortunately, the game shows not only its age, but also the console’s age and its considerable weaknesses.

The game can be really difficult, but, thankfully, you can choose from seven ratings, ranging from "Very Hard" to "Baby."

The best way to describe Disaster Report is "Silent Hill without the monsters."

Another benefit of the DS is the two screens that allow up to eight people to play, and only one player needs the actual game for all to join in. Multiplayer is where Bomberman has always delivered, and the DS version is probably the most engaging yet.

Thanks to a plethora of patches, Magicka is now stable so you can have fun without the frustration. Just one chapter with some of your friends is well worth the $10 cost.

For those with patience, a good sense of direction, and an interest in the obscure, you owe it to yourself to try the game out. If you have a short temper or enjoy the mundane, it's best you avoid making contact with this one.

A very fast-paced game that will test an action gamer's reflexes to the limit, especially on the harder difficulty levels.

If you value gameplay over graphics, there's no just beating the standard Xbox version of Legend -- it's just much, much smoother than its Xbox 360 counterpart.

Yet as innovative and inviting as the Forgemaster system and customization facets are, Curse is slightly hexed by a repetitive play scheme: enter room, kill enemies, exit room, repeat.

None of the game support two-player action, which is downright unforgivable given the PSP's wireless capabilities. Also, the controls can be troublesome with neither the D-pad or analog nub offering up the really fine-tuned controls that I was hoping to have.

A great game in an awful—or is it just nostalgic?—package; a title that would be considered a classic if it had been released, oh, seven years ago today.

Heroes Over Europe--sequel to Heroes Over the Pacific--offers armchair aces yet another reason to climb back into the cockpit, provided you already have a love for the genre. [Sept 2009, p.84]

With NHL 06, EA Sports is revisiting its roots to create a feature-stable game with both style and substance, and it all starts with the controls. Quite simply, they are the most responsive ever. [Oct 2005, p.102]

Portable Ops still has a way to go- it still sucks being gang-stomped for the tiniest of sneaking missteps- but it's encouraging to see that Konami is willing to take chances with one of its main franchises. With luck, they'll take things even further in the future.

The Godfather is one of those films that defined a decade of cinema. The somewhat open-ended world of this game isn't destined to have anywhere near that level of impact, but it is juicy amoral fun all the same, even if its belated arrival on the next generation is more than a little disappointing.

While this shooter hasn’t been a total hit in the arcades, Confidential Mission is right on target for the Dreamcast.

It has a terrible name, but Spinzizzle is a surprisingly fun game.

An addictive title with a deep single-player campaign and a unique take on the match three genre is sure to keep gamers busy.

DK: Jungle Climber is arguably more of what we saw in King of Swing, but with updated graphics. For those who felt that game was already a one-trick pony, it may be an undesirable sequel, but tons of hard-to-reach collectibles, unlockable mini-games, and four-player downloadable battles will keep the rest of us honing our skills for hours.

The feel of parody is gone; rather than being a wild action game based on hockey, this year’s edition is a hockey game with some wild action.

Offers no major surprises but plenty of refinements to a proven formula. It’s a major improvement over the first game.

Is RSG worth downloading? If you read everything above and it sounds intriguing to you, then yes, absolutely. If this doesn't sound like the sort of shooter you're looking for, you might want to think it over for a bit before committing to a purchase.

If Black was created to produce an adrenaline-induced euphoria of maddening guns going wild, then it is a total success. In the sequel, as the end of the story sets up, let's hope the AI is improved and includes at least some type of multiplayer.

With plenty of gameplay modes, secret fighters, and varied styles, there’s a good chunk of replay value here.

Despite some clunky combat, Blair Witch Volume 1: Rustin Parr is a delightfully spooky game with some clever puzzles and well worth the twenty bucks.

A platformer with more than just jumping and crawling around, though it can get tiring for those looking for a more fast-paced adventure.

Talk about full-featured-Big Bang Mini is a $19.99 package that is hard to pass up.

Hardcore fans are going to be on automatic and get it right away, but it's a tough situation for the average fighting fan.

This is one solidly constructed action game that doesn't take itself too seriously. It's called "camp" man. Check it out. [Mar 2002, p.98]

If "serious" is the last thing you associate with hockey games, you'll have a blast hammering out checks on Hitz’ rink - especially since Midway’s rolled back the price a notch.

This game can be nail-bitingly suspenseful as you have no radar or warning system of any sort, and never know when or from where enemies pop out and peg you in the head.

Definitely a huge step in the right direction with all the improvements it offers. I would've liked more of a true story mode, like we've seen in the console versions or in the Stories series. And at times, I was reverting back to the mundane "eat, sleep, work, eat, sleep, work" cycle that I thought we'd be done with by now (though this micromanaging is way more streamlined now). But The Sims 3 allows players to play the way they truly want, way more than they ever were able to do before.

It’s good fun for gunslingers who have strong stomachs and who can separate fantasy from reality, but with its average graphics and watery story, Soldier is notable only for its amazingly…um…interactive violence and its place as one of the few semi-realistic shooters for the Dreamcast.

It should come as no surprise that THAW is well endowed with generously sized, multilayered domains for which to carry out all your skating aggression--half-pipes, quarter-pipes, pools, wires, rails, and so much more are in abundant supply.

Even without the board, though, I'd recommend Shaun White's Wii adventure over his less impressive 360 and PS3 treks. It's a tighter, more polished experience that puts the focus on fun over the other entries' ambitious, but not always rewarding free-roaming gameplay.

But these flaws can't keep Trails in check for too long. The game delivers a lot of what JRPG fans want -- a long, epic story (which, it should be noted, doesn't end with this game), lots of fun dialogue, and an engaging combat engine -- and does so in a charming, enjoyable fashion. It might be a crowded market on the platform, but Trails in the Sky manages to soar well above many of its peers.

Ape Escape 3 runs smoothly and is worth your hard earned dollar. [Mar 2006, p.79]

Batman: Arkham Asylum doesn't quite deliver on all of its big ideas, and thus dodges the highest of accolades, but its rousing peaks make its low points more than bearable. Its best moments of dazzling showmanship easily qualify as must-see entertainment, even if they're not sufficient to make the game as a whole a must-play.

Skate 2 does have a lot to offer but it falls short in a lot of ways. Its realistic feel is great when it comes to technical aspects like tricks and controls but it's taken one step too far. [Mar 2009, p.79]

Puzzle Dimension feels like the old fashioned cousin of Ilomilo, a similarly Swedish spatial puzzler. Its charming retro aesthetic and upbeat chiptune soundtrack give it a nostalgic vibe, while its absence of story and punishing difficulty recall the puzzle games of yesteryear. It's not going to convert non-fans of the genre and its score system is negligible for all but the most die-hard fans, but the actual puzzle design is fiendishly clever, and plentiful to boot.

May be repetitive, overwrought, and fraught with unimaginative puzzles and enemies, but those of you dying for some bloody GameCube fun won't get it much better than this.

While the game immerses you in an enormous, compelling saga, its sheer complexity will scare off all but the most dedicated space-combat aces.

Fortunately for Spy Hunter, the control problems rarely get in the way of a good time.

Can be tedious in one-player mode, but it's clearly intended for multiplayer fun. Although it's the only party game for Dreamcast, Sonic Shuffle deals a great hand for all to play.

Despite some flaws, Rakulls is the best kind of downloadable title -- a humorous game with elements from well-designed classics, but integrated with a modern touch.

GGX’s solid and responsive control scheme keeps the fighting exciting, although some moves are difficult to execute and require patience to master fully…if at all.