Like reuniting with a close friend after many years apart and then discovering how they've gone nowhere with their life, Duke's return is a sad engagement that makes you wish you had left the past where it belongs.

GameDay has always seemed to be chasing EA's Madden games, and this GameDay is no exception, but it still shows some spark, and manages to be a fun mix of football action.

There's just nothing to hold your interest over the long haul and while roaming around with some friends helps, it just isn't entertaining enough for me to recommend it to anyone, not even those who love fairy tales and platform titles.

Adventure's six party games and puzzle-based challenge mode are the best this game has to offer. With multiple players, Adventure flies in the face of its weak story mode and becomes a genuinely fun experience.

If you liked what you saw at the theater and need a way to blow off a few hours then it's a perfect weekend rental. But it doesn't live up to the epic nature the classic poem and it certainly isn't going to make you forget about God of War III either.

NFL GameDay is the Detroit Lions of the league.

In the end, fans of Tekken will simply ask, "Why?" [Apr 2005, p.80]

From its terrible graphics to its awkward controls, Mercenaries is a complete and utter disaster. The iPhone version of Mercenaries is not the version you want to play.

The controls are quite responsive, offering a wide assortment of combat moves, but the weak camera hinders them.

If you liked what you saw at the theater and need a way to blow off a few hours then it's a perfect weekend rental. But it doesn't live up to the epic nature the classic poem and it certainly isn't going to make you forget about God of War III either.

If you're still not tired of the extreme-sports trick performing/exploration formula, Crusty Demons offers a pleasant but outdated rendition of Tony Hawk style gameplay at a bargain price.

Most distressingly, inventory management is a total nightmare; identifying and using a healing ’shroom is an amazingly laborious process.

Putting the entire flawed premise of Jaws aside, Jaws: Unleashed would be a decent title to play if the camera system, collision detection, and graphics were up to par. But unfortunately, Jaws garners lackluster scores in every one of those categories.

A brainless, gratuitous gashingfest that means well but just doesn't play well.

Luckily, Family Table Tennis' low cost makes it easy to justify an impulse buy for those in quick and urgent need of a virtual ping pong tournament. Just make sure you bring at least one friend along, though, because the single-player modes will leave you bored in a hurry.

Blade is a kick-ass hero in the comics and movies, but take away the "kick" and what you're left with adequately describes this game.

The graphics are generic, but the audio presentation is quite nice. The GBA has a large library of average side-scrolling action games, and Revenge of Shinobi is just a slight notch above them.

Largely an awful shooter. And instead of trying to do everything and failing to deliver virtually anything worthwhile, Bodycount probably would have been much more successful if its design was simplified by focusing on one or two key features it could attempt to do differently. But it didn't, and the end result is not pretty.

One of the most frustrating games in the entire PlayStation 2 library, thanks to a few design flaws that could've been easily avoided.

Despite its faults, for old school gamers this trip down memory lane is worth the low price of admission, but for others it'll get tiresome quick.

A game full of lousy gameplay and poor visual effects that will only make you ask, “Why?!” ... Clearly belongs in the bin of horrendous movie-to-game translations.

A Witch's Tale has good ideas, but these disparate elements are too haphazardly implemented to raise it above mediocrity. It's got its heart in the right place, but good intentions do not necessarily equal a top-shelf product.

If you have played any pre-Super Nintendo RPGs, you've played this game. The characters and enemies are uninspired; the dialogue is a little flat; and the twenty-leveled tower is agonizingly mind-numbing.

It's just difficult for the game to be fun enough to surmount the great, big, monstrous control problem the concept inherently carries.

But while putting the psychokinetic kibosh on telepathic geeks is fun, the endless wandering and backtracking hell is a straight-up drag.

The controls are quite responsive, offering a wide assortment of combat moves, but the weak camera hinders them.

Those who have been waiting for a quality role-playing will be sorely disappointed, and anyone brave enough to search for the positive aspects in Two Worlds may find something to satiate their appetite, but finding those good aspects takes far too much effort than it should.

Returning to the horror genre's roots might be a good idea, but Trapped Dead doesn't offer convincing evidence of the idea's merits. It fumbles at every step except -- with the possible exception of mimicking comic books in its menus and cutscenes.