The reason for buying Rise of Flight, you'll quickly see, is the graphics. Most notably, it's the planes.

The gorgeous GameCube version delivers the best graphical pop in the slew of Chamber of Secrets games.

It boasts a fun engine, endearingly weird characters, and funny voices and sound effects, but lacks a few key customization options that keep it from becoming the ultimate champ.

For what it attempts, the tower-defense aspects are not well explained enough, or implemented simply enough, to raise Dungeon Defenders above the slew of similar games out there.

What little it lacks in gameplay sits UT a close second to Eidos' excellent "TimeSplitters."

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.

King of Fighters XIII is a title that every fighting game fan should take notice of. It's gorgeous and surprisingly accessible, yet challenging and deep for competitive play. There's no shortage of solo gameplay appeal, either: the characters are great, the story is intriguing, and there's a wealth of varied content to keep you playing.

At times it's frustrating and you'll die more than you'll succeed, but when you actually do accomplish a mission, it's all worth it.

Dead Nation may not be perfect -- the imbalance towards co-op keeps it from becoming a truly great solo experience -- but compared to its competition, this is one corpse that still has some fight in it.

Brings the super stylish world of Marvel comics to life with beautiful and enjoyable results, but ultimately spins a regrettably short Spidey story-mode experience.

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.

Stranglehold might stumble occasionally under its own ambitious weight, and might not quite deliver on all its promises and potential, but it's still a unique and absorbing 8-hour tour through a legendary action director's potent unfilmable dreams.

Considering everything you get with this title -- a solid single player campaign, a diverse multiplayer suite, and just plain fun shooter gameplay -- Section 8: Prejudice is a steal at $15.

A wholly enjoyable if gruelingly difficult dungeon-crawler, Etrian Odyssey III is a worthwhile improvement on its predecessors, offering a variety of new features, options for customization, and fresh challenges to face.

While the story line is relayed in a disappointing series of 2D images and conversation captions (no animated cut-scenes or voice acting), and even the fights don't push the PS2 to its graphical limit, the interactive gameplay is entertaining enough to make up for it.

Compelling gameplay features elevate True Crime beyond mere GTA-clone status, but a cliché-riddled script and control issues keep it from being monstrously cool.

It’s a fun game that slowly grows on you, but like all MMO games, it takes a special kind of gamer to enjoy.

Looks and plays almost exactly like the original GT Advance—not a problem if you liked powersliding around the first game, but disappointing if you were expecting fifty dozen cars and pages of intricate tuning options.

The RTS genre's notoriously slower pace and complex controls can be a bit snooze-inducing to newcomers, but Red Alert 3's smooth interface, fast-paced action, crazy-ass weapons, and endlessly entertaining cheesy style should keep even the most short attention-spanned gamer engaged.

As one of the first budget-priced GameCube-to-Wii upgrades, New Play Control! Pikmin is a perfect example of what the series is capable of.

Its only real drawback might be its rather short length, as experienced gamers will probably smash through the single player levels in no time, even at the highest difficulty level but for small, bite-sized chunks of action, Empire definitely satisfies.

New tools and enemies are introduced throughout the adventure mode's more than 80 levels, which helps keep things interesting. [Apr 2008, p.84]

I plan on playing more Heroes VI, and if you've enjoyed past Heroes game, you're going to enjoy this one, too. But it'd be nice to see Ubisoft try more new things and ditch their lousy online strategy.

Carbon almost always manages to feel as finely tuned as any of its high performance sleds, and with downloadable content on the way, it seems safe to think that it'll be an adrenaline generating favorite for a good long while.

As for controls, combat and inventory-sorting are quick and clean. Spellcasting can be frustrating, though, as aiming projectiles is often a trial-by-error process. [March 2005, p.90]

Overall, the result is an efficient, memorable, and entertaining DLC release that's easily worth the $15 budget price.

With its slick voice-command system, depth of strategy and frenetic action, EndWar is one game I'll still be playing after its evaluation. [Dec 2008, p.96]

The custom built 4A-engine does a terrific job of bringing this desolate and sad world to life, and the developers made an admirable attempt to build the gameplay around the narrative. But Metro 2033's strength lies in the ideas which underpin its action -- without them, it's just another gritty first-person shooter with some interesting tweaks built in -- and it's unfortunate that the rich source material didn't mesh with the actual gameplay to form a cohesive whole.