Tropico 3 had a very clear progression of campaign missions, and while Tropico 4 does have a campaign, it seems more focused on intra-mission tasks rather than overall goals.

It's a little repetitive, but smooth controls and varied weapons make this pig's tale an addictive game of revenge.

You could also research a serviceable AI aid that would organize units into groups and automate functions like repair. Teleportation was a significant travel mode for many of the units. But unfortunately, cool ideas don't sell games until they're implemented into cool games.

Fighting Fantasy's writing doesn't do much to differentiate itself from the stock fantasy novels that litter bookstores, but the novelty of seeing what amounts to an e-book with branching paths and light RPG elements may be worth five dollars.

King Arthur: Fallen Champions needs what it simply won't get -- varied units, improved AI, and some more thought placed into tactics and the utility of formations. I can't speak to the rest of the series, but unless you're a diehard fan, feel free to skip this one.

If it's OK for Peggle to borrow heavily from pachinko, Kickin Momma should be able to take some cues from Peggle. In many ways Kickin Momma is the best of the three.

Fun Labs displays some creative ideas, asks its boss what they think is cool, and then it tries to decide where to go from there.

There's no denying that Devil Survivor Overclocked is a fantastic strategy/RPG. If you somehow missed this one when it initially released, then this is an easy recommendation.

While those curious about the unsolved mysteries from the first game get some much-needed answers, the puzzles used to forward the story are rehashed and noticeably easier.

When I wasn't thrashing foes along complex battle maps, I was laughing my ass off at the brilliant cutscene sequences.

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.

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.

Madden NFL is as gratifying and frustrating as ever.

Still, $15 is a small price for a remake of a game that I always considered to be better than Street Fighter IV. Many 2D fighting games have outright borrowed or stolen wholesale from the Street Fighter III series' formula, and for good reason -- there simply hasn't been a been a better 2D fighting game since. If you want to see how good at Street Fighter you really are, step up.

Even if you don't own a 3D TV, there's value in this high-definition makeover -- even for those who've already played both Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta. At the very least, the reasonably priced Origins pack should make the wait for God of War IV (of whatever the next God of War incarnation is) more bearable for fans of the series. Plus, now you can own all five God of War titles (not including the non-iOS cell phone game, Betrayal) on the PS3.

Crazy Machines Elements gives me a similar feeling where I just want to play with the pieces and see what can be built. But, like a parent worried their child will choke on the board game's tiny pieces, Crazy Machines Elements doesn't trust players with all of its tools from the start, preventing many from ever finding the fun lurking just beneath the surface.

For a budget PC title, you'll get a good hour of entertainment out of the gun stacker's novelty and likely a few chuckles out of the dialogue and enemies. But what could have been either a really clever parody or a tight side-scrolling shooter is unfortunately neither.

The game looks fantastic and the touch controls are quicker and more precise than its PC counterpart's mouse. Its glorious mix of tactics and action is both instantly accessible and deceptively deep. An anomaly indeed.

If I could, I would seriously give Dive to the Titanic a 0.0 out of 5. Every time I started up the game at home, I had to make sure to have something going on in the background -- cartoons, the news, or a podcast -- just to distract myself from wishing that I was dead.

Though the story's perfunctory and flat nature doesn't help when later levels become monotonous, Beauty of the Fall managed to wring enough from an established formula to make stemming yet another alien invasion worth your time.

After years of claiming that they have to get the "gameplay right" before moving on to other issues, it seems that Tiburon has, for the most part, done just that. So, the foundation seems to be in place, but as with the Detroit Lions, Madden 12 is probably still a year away (sorry, Lions fans). But take heart: it'll be a good year nonetheless.

With over 40 challenging stages to push through and bot upgrades that reward you with cool retro game blocks to collect on repeat play throughs, Blocks That Matter has a lot of content for its meager price. But despite the immense level of creativity infused throughout the entire experience, there are still moments where the gameplay is not that enjoyable to muscle through. Unless you crave a good brain bending, your mileage may vary with this one.

If Tindalos Interactive can attract more players and implement a more stringent matchmaking system, Stellar Impact may follow in the footsteps of Frozen Synapse and become an indie strategy star.

Despite these issues, my family had fun playing Hole in the Wall. We'd laugh at some of our silly poses and would bump into each other to hurriedly get in position when playing as a team. While not even close to being the family favorite (a spot currently held by a Fruit Ninja Kinect), a fun Kinect game in this price range is a hard bargain to pass up.

Alpha Polaris may drive you mad, but not for the right reasons.

It's still a great game, but it settled for being port when it could've been a complimentary extension to the iPhone game.

Another caveat is that while the game does run on an iPhone, I would not recommend that anyone with adult hands play it on anything but the iPad. There is too much going on, both visually and with the controls to cram it on to the iPhone's screen.

In short, it's a very good, highly flexible game marred only slightly by an occasionally inconsistent difficulty curve -- and for some people, the lack of narrative progression might put them off progressing through the single-player campaign. Despite these minor issues, however, Sanctum remains a high quality game which the developer remains committed to -- and at the price, it's a complete bargain.