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.

The intended audience will love Quidditch World Cup, if only because it expands on the Potter novels' rich mythology. It’s fun, and as a fantasy-sports game, it flies - but not as high as it could.

Anyone who is at least remotely interested in the Dragon Ball Z craze should check out Budokai. For the rest of the bruiser club, however, you'll be sorely disappointed with this average brawler.

The satisfying story mode is a big improvement on THPS’s structure. The story ramps up the difficulty gradually, so you build skills as you go, but there are now four difficulty levels, making THUG totally accessible to newbies.

How about a Bra & Panties mode where WWE Divas rip off each other’s clothes? It’s the raunchiest Teen-rated action you’ll find anywhere.

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.

The story ramps up the difficulty gradually, so you build skills as you go, but there are now four difficulty levels, making THUG totally accessible to newbies.

If you’re really serious about this, better game-creating titles do exist, especially on the PC, offering easier interfaces and more freedom to mess with the basic building blocks. Still, this makes for an entry point into the vast realm of game design.

The game's voice recognition works great and enables you to switch from a low baritone to high falsetto without confusing the judging. Unfortunately, it doesn't distinguish whether you’re actually singing the correct lyrics, so you can get by with just "na, na, na'ing" it when you’re in trouble.

A basketball technician’s dream. Games against the CPU realistically mimic a real game, while scrimmages against friends received a boost of energy thanks to sped-up gameplay and better shot blocking. ESPN NBA Basketball 2K4 retains the top slot by just a hair.

Complete with giant bosses, exciting gameplay, days of exploration, and an involving narrative, this is the best Castlevania game in years. More importantly, it’s Castlevania in 3D but done right.

It’s both fun and immensely frustrating, and it’s so old-school you’d swear you’d have to blow on a cartridge to get it to work, but it’s a very good example of an ancient, long-missing genre.

If you can get past the quirks of the AI, Hidden and Dangerous 2 still is a fun game to play. Sure, stealth doesn't really work out well, but the action is rewarding when enemies don't space out.

A basketball technician’s dream. Games against the CPU realistically mimic a real game, while scrimmages against friends received a boost of energy thanks to sped-up gameplay and better shot blocking. ESPN NBA Basketball 2K4 retains the top slot by just a hair.

The first-rate gunnin’ action takes precedence over everything else in the game. This is one crisis that all pistol enthusiasts should make time for.

The e-Reader functions (new levels, cheats, gameplay elements like capes and hurlable veggies from other Mario titles) are very promising and help make up for the fact that this is a bit of a baby step back from "Super Mario World" and "Yoshi’s Island."

The swelling chase music, idealized world, larger-than-life story, and easy-to-master controls combine to cut through the clutter of some more pretentious games and deliver a sense of majesty and bravery straight to your heart.

The gameplay is diverse, and it’s backed by strong graphics and audio...The main downside is with the nontraditional controls.

Simultaneously increasing the realism of the experience of big mountain boarding and tearing the throat out of board-physics as we know it, SSX 3 completely revolutionizes the snowboardercross concept.

This game is strictly for action junkies and can be completed in a quick weekend rental. However, the quality of the graphics and gameplay hints at the potential for deeper, more compelling Batman games to come.

Interacting with the animals and learning their different idiosyncrasies is compelling and fun, but it takes a backseat to the conventional platformer mechanics that the genre is slowly leaving behind.

Isn’t really The Sims as you know it - it’s more like "Animal Crossing" with human beings instead of sapient anteaters.

If it weren’t for the sloppy handling, Rogue III could have flown a perfect flight.

When it comes to sports games, the GameCube’s controller always seems to suffer in points due to its unconventional button arrangement, but surprisingly it's not an issue this year. The default setting has been specialized for the GameCube, and it works wonders.

Combining the addictive life-simulation aspects of The Sims with real-time strategy elements, Firefly Studios has produced Space Colony, a tough, funny, and very charismatic hybrid.

A huge amount of slowdown, even when there’s little going on, detracts from the overall simple shooting-n-slashing frenzy. A sloppy targeting system and the inability to strafe make the controls more of a pain than painless.

Despite these shortcomings, Destination Berlin’s blend of battlefield strategy and sneaky infiltration will appeal to experienced strategy fans. Novices should scout out another battle.

A platformer only by heritage, Naughty Dog’s latest is an enormously entertaining, surprisingly dark, and enduring shrine to what makes games fun.