Not all of the sports are winners and having a house full of people is still the best way to get the most enjoyment out of the game, but even with these slight caveats, it's hard not to recommend Wii Sports Resort to gamers of all ages and experience levels.

From Dust is the ideal Xbox Live Arcade game. It would be a tough sell as a retail product simply because it's so creatively constructed and hard to easily define, but as a 1200 MS Point download? It's not to be missed.

Disgaea 4 is a noteworthy edition to the popular strategy RPG series because it adds so much new content without destroying the familiar gameplay that fans have grown to love.

A terrific collection of games from a very influential (though now grossly over-exposed) franchise that none the less fails as a full-featured compilation.

From the opening attack on the restaurant that evokes the car chase that opened the original, to the game's focus on storytelling as much as killing, it's clear that the developers knew not to mess with a working formula. Even if some of the narrative moments fall short of the original, the new content and new powers more than make up for it. The Darkness II didn't knock its predecessor from the top of my list of favorite narrative shooters, but it comes in as a very close second.

Players who have been dazzled by such visually stunning games as "FFVIII," "Legend of Legaia," and "Parasite Eve" will want to look elsewhere for that kind of entertainment. [FFV review]

This is that fresh breath of air that the system needed so badly.

Is the experience worth the purchase price of the game for average console gamers? If you've played Ace Combat and the like and want to try something a bit more involved, that would be a definite yes - even without the flight stick.

With the new additions of online play and downloadable content, Sony has created a quiz game which will not only stay fresh and new, but will also make it easier than ever for friends and families to play with one another no matter where they are.

In the end what you have is gameplay that is as good as it has ever been – not perfect and still with some frustrations but clearly NCAA 10 is the most respectable version of this series to date.

A wonderful new edition to the SmackDown! family, serving up slick graphics, vastly enhanced gameplay, and lots of other bells and whistles that make the whole package shine. Online play is a bit of a disappointment, but better than not having any online play at all.

As someone who wanted a true sequel to the original Ground Control that continued to break away from the generic mold things like the "Command & Conquer" series has become, I was ultimately disappointed.

The combination of a compelling and ideological narrative with complex combat, not to forget the outright fun of collecting demons, makes Strange Journey an incredible addition to the series.

For long time fans of the franchise, Skate 3 will seem very familiar, however it's hard to argue with a successful formula and this formula has worked like gangbusters so far.

King Kong offers solid gameplay and production values that will appeal to almost every gamer.

What's most amazing about the game though is how well Ubisoft Paris was able to take the system it given and play to its strengths.

Ninjatown has “sleeper hit” written all over it. It certainly looks innocent enough on the outside – it’s cute and goofy, and oozes sugary sweetness, as it’s actually based on a stuffed toy line (the Shawnimals, created by ex game journo Shawn Smith). But underneath that fluffy exterior is a seriously addictive tower defense game that is as hardcore as it is adorable.

One of the best dungeon romps I've played this year. The scale of the adventure may not be epic but the overall package is pure unadulterated addiction. If you like role-playing games then you'll love FATE.

If you’re a fan of the GT series, it’s certainly worth picking up and at the very least is worth a rental to get your Turismo fix. New players may want to wait for a sale at the PS Store.

I look forward to MX vs. ATV Unleashed returning on the next generation of consoles and showing us what a leap in technology can do for the franchise.

All the heroics of harder games without any of the fuss, and set in a place you've made your own.

Dragonshard has so much going for it: great graphics, good sound, an entertaining and functional setting, innovative elements like the home base structuring and the familiarity of the D&D license.

Day of Defeat is not only a great looking game, but an enjoyable WWII multiplayer experience that gives you more than your money’s worth.

Living Room jocks and stressed out parents, here is your ticket to weight loss. Toss Wii Fit, use the Jillian Michaels disc as a Frisbee, shove aside all of the pretenders. This is EA's throne now – so go buy a resistance band and start sweating.

It may be a little out of left field, but if you have love for puzzles, platformers, or excellent blob-based fantasy realms, you’ll almost certainly enjoy it. The Wii needs more games like this one.

I just wish there were a melee attack so I could finally bludgeon an Ewok to death with the butt of my blaster.

It's a great game that's filled with memories of what used to be considered mind-blowing. Check it out.

There are some instances though when you just want to rip the game out and throw it across the room due to some crappy camera angles, which keeps it from getting a higher overall score. It's the best Spider-Man game since the original Genesis game, which is saying quite a lot.

That said, I like a lot of what Relic has done here in both opening up the campaign a bit and finally giving the basic grunts of the Imperial Guard their time in the sun.

It’s definitely a summer sleeper hit. At 800 points ($10) it’s double the cost of Frogger and Galaga, but I think you’ll get much more enjoyment out of this one game over those two arcade classics.

Panzer Corps has brought back a flood of wonderful memories for me and while I fully realize that I'm a certified Panzer General fan boy and that could possibly cloud my judgment of the merits of Panzer Corps, all I know is that my campaign ended in a German defeat.

If working as a doctor ever interested you, this game has it’s moments of fun. It will not give you training for the real world, but it does pass the time nicely.

If you opt to try it out, beware that this is the sort of thing you really do need to play with others. Playing is fun, watching others play is fun – but flailing through a bunch of Kinect minigames alone in a darkened apartment is not the Happy Action way.

It's not a perfect game by any accounts, but it's by far one of the better titles in my collection, and one I'm proud to recommend to fans of either action or strategy games.

An upgrade in terms of pure on the course play; it’s technically a better game than 07, but the overall design remains so dull and workmanlike that it feels like a job at times more than a game, and is only recommended for those who like playing the mini games and hopping online rather than for those who just want to jump in and start playing tournaments.

But Links 2004 on the Xbox is pure relaxation for the video gamer. No high-pressure, adrenaline-soaked gaming here, just the pure satisfaction of a perfectly executed swing and the resulting well-placed plop of the ball on the green.

A must-buy expansion. While I badly want to see larger-scale enhancements to the gameplay for future expansions, the amount of content in this release still balances very well against its cost, and those 'turtle'-styled RTS gamers (guilty here) hesitant to get onboard Sins of a Solar Empire due to the lack of any real defensive options will now have a great reason to pick it up.

I enjoyed using Move, for swinging, but not much else. Navigating through the game's menus, especially when spending hard won experience points for attribute boosts, required not just the Move's navigation controller but a "normal" controller lest I experience a level of frustration no caddie could talk me down from.

Had Amalur been stripped down to its bare essentials it would be a much easier game to recommend. This would make for an excellent 12-15 hour action game with its cool combat and fun player progression and a main story that's certainly no worse than most other videogame fare. However, as an especially long RPG masquerading as an open world design it simply overstays its welcome, it feels soulless, and tries to juggle too many balls at once.

Unfortunately, it's almost exactly the same accessible, fun and goofy experience, so those that had their fill of Lego games with earlier outings won't find enough new stuff here to get them excited all over again, Indiana Jones fanatics notwithstanding.

Snoopy Flying Ace may not do anything that arcade dogfight games of past console generations didn't already cover but it remains a unique title in the XBLA catalog and I'm glad that I gave it a chance despite its questionable provenance.

Uncertain futures aside, Rocksmith is a breakthrough title not just for the music genre, but for gaming as a whole. It's the first time a developer has been able to deliver a game that makes learning fun and deliver something meaningful in the process.

Yes, this game has the power to rip families apart, it's that cool. With nice graphics, violence, swearing, and Matrix-style camera angles galore, this is a must-have for action game fans.

More of the same? Absolutely, but whether this is a good or a bad thing depends on your enjoyment of the previous games in the series.

Huge lands, lots of moving characters, and plenty of special effects all show off just what the X-box is capable of.

In taking away the screens and screens of dialog and the need to manage an overcrowded inventory or complex skill point system it boils itself down into the essence of what a good action RPG and portable title should be: tight controls, a well told story and the ability to get in, smack some monsters around and get out.

Soccer diehards will love the action on the pitch and the faithfulness to the pageantry of the UEFA Euro competition. However, given the limited scope of this title, it’s hard to justify paying nearly full price unless you’re a soccer junkie.

In the end, the solo play features can get a bit boring.

It’s a great ‘show off’ game for the PSP.

NBA Live 10 can easily stand toe to toe with NBA 2K10, a franchise that now no longer holds complete sway over the genre. The flow of the games, the resourcefulness of the AI, and the immersion factor provided from the fantastically dynamic crowd, all serve to make this an absolutely worthwhile pickup.

In the end, Wii Fit works at what it was created to do, namely raise your level of fitness awareness and get you off of the couch and exercising.

AKI has done a grand job of creating a game engine that (I hope) will evolve into the foundation for a formidable and robust franchise. This first iteration of the engine is great but there's room for improvement.

Capsized recalls memories of Turrican, Commander Keen, and Cybernator, but this is not a nostalgic retro-rehash. You won't find chunky pixels, chiptune soundtracks, or tongue-in-cheek nods to the past. Capsized is a modern original; a nearly pitch-perfect blend of combat and exploration that manages to be as beautiful as it is exhilarating.

For long time fans of the franchise, Skate 3 will seem very familiar, however it’s hard to argue with a successful formula and this formula has worked like gangbusters so far.

With its latest offering, Ninja Theory has proved it is capable of pulling off an engaging, enthralling and – dare I say it? – enslaving action game.

A decent game with a lot of twitch style role-playing action that button masher fans are going to love –and a lot of hidden baubles and activities (like a versus fighting mode for two players) that role-playing fans can sink their teeth into.

With a ton of new features including The Solid Eye, improvements to the graphics, the huge improvement in the amount of cards you can have, all in all I think that Metal Gear Ac!d 2 will not only appeal to fans of Metal Gear Ac!d series, but anyone who enjoys tactical strategy games and doesn't mind the cartoonish graphics.

The Game Cube controller, while receiving some criticism when it was first announced, provides perfect button usage with WR.

Arguably the best wrestling game yet on this generation of consoles.

I like the concept of returning to the mansion (or its doppelganger) with a new emphasis on teamwork, and I like the two additions to Mercenaries, but there isn’t enough substance in action, storytelling, nor the puzzles to make Lost in Nightmares stand out.

The world is bright and so colorful it almost assaults the senses. The eccentric cast of characters is extremely well detailed and animated.

NBA Jam is a delightful return to a classic game, and a bizarrely perfect fit on the Nintendo Wii.

As a way of taking the four player Rock Band experience and distilling it down into a portable, instrument-free experience, the game excels, it's just that I don't want my Rock Band experience to be instrument free.

To put it in the simplest possible terms, Other M is largely a joy to play, and largely a torturous pain to watch, and you unfortunately cannot choose to experience one without the other.

Delivers a great graphical and audio punch as well as retaining good gameplay. While new players may feel a little lost, those who have followed the series will likely enjoy the level of customization and the great environments.

Unfortunately, while this third episode was overall entertaining and fun to play, it doesn’t improve from the previous one. In fact, it takes a step back, which is obviously a bit disappointing.

Although platforming may not be the key gameplay mechanic here as it was in previous games, Rare has obviously grown with the current state of gaming and brought a breath of fresh air to the genre as a whole with the whole vehicle system.

It's great to see some real competition for THQ in this genre and MMA fans shouldn't hesitate to pick this one up.

Scribblenauts succeeds in being an incredibly creative game. It just isn’t enjoyable after the effect of its initial charm wears off.

The shipped version of Silent Hunter IV feels like little more than a half-working teaser of things to come.

This game is a good alternative fighter for the 3DS; it's definitely not as good as SSFIV3D, but most assuredly not an embarrassment with its own set of respectable values and a very different play style.

Lost Planet is great because of the sum of its parts and for serving up action that is paced perfectly and a lot of fun.

Puzzle Dimension is one of those puzzle games that is perfect for fans of the genre. It's full of charm and challenge, and some levels are so difficult that it's an incredible rush when they're successfully solved. This is not a game for those looking for a casual mind teaser, but it's just about perfect for those who prefer the difficulty level turned all the way up to eleven.

I would still recommend the 360 version of the game over any other version because 1) you don’t miss the features you didn’t use last year and 2) once you’ve seen this game run on a 360, playing the same version on the original Xbox is like going from an original Game Boy to a Nintendo DS.

This might be due to a simple lack of competition for the moment, but Sword of the Stars just plains ‘works’ and is one of the best epic space strategy games you can buy.

While the game is impressive in many ways, it ultimately comes up a little short.

One thing to keep in mind though is that this is indeed an RPG. Although it may not seem like one, it is and the games length reveals that very well. You will need to stick with the game for some time until you start to see the real fun start to shine through.

And that's what Monday Night Combat is -- an enjoyable team based shooter, and for 1200 points ($15) it's hard to ask for much more than that.

Beyond that, Tropico 3 is a fantastically addictive single player game that will have you up until the wee hours of the morning — who knew a Castro sim could be so much fun?

GrimGrimoire brings real-time strategy, magic and anime together to create an interesting and cool game experience worth checking out. The game is obviously not for everyone, but those that can "get" what the game is trying to accomplish certainly will enjoy it.

Trauma Center was one of the original sleeper hits for the DS and this is just another step ahead of the pack. Under the Knife 2 is more of the same, but it feels so good to get the scalpel back in hand.

The game is cute, well designed, well implemented and just the thing to show off your big brain to all of your friends.

If there is one thing the Mortal Kombat series is good at, its giving you the bloodiest way to beat somebody's ass.

In Orcs Must Die! a split-second of inattention can mean the difference between victory and defeat-but that's part of why it's such an exciting game.

There's a lot of hidden extras in this game, and despite a few slight omissions, this collection delivers what it promises on the box. If you're still in love with the Street Fighter Alpha series then this collection is a required purchase.

While Dead Rising 2: Case Zero could be considered a glorified demo, with its level progression capped at only five and the ability to carry over character stats to the full game, it is exactly what it set out to be. It's a pint size version of Dead Rising 2 to give people a taste of what the sequel will be along with a little back story.

There is a truly massive amount of game here for the $5 asking price, and Gaslamp Games has clearly set Dredmor apart from the crowd. If you've ever felt the need to crawl a dungeon, this one is most definitely for you, as it serves as both an excellent "my first roguelike" and a challenging quest for the experienced spelunker.

There is a very specific audience for Tekken 6 that will eat it up. Everyone else will see it as more of the same, but with a garbage new game mode and long load times.

As it stands it’s a highly enjoyable game for the first few hours, but whether or not you’ll get much satisfaction from it after it starts getting repetitive depends entirely on how much you like the overall gameplay mechanics.

Unlike many racing games, it doesn't feel repetitive. It feels as though you're always doing something new.

It's an ace introduction to a genre that isn't well-represented on consoles, and it's funny and engaging enough to capture you for hours at a time… even if you're all by your lonesome.

In the end, Future Soldier is a really engaging third-person shooter that tosses you into some hairy firefights armed only with interesting weapons and smooth controls.

If you're willing to use the wonderful fast-forward button and focus your attention on the important parts of the game, then YS SEVEN is well worth the money and your time. On the other hand, if you are foolish enough to take in the entire story, please don't blame me – I tried to warn you.

There's nothing to Dissidia but the grind, and if you're looking for an epic adventure, you won’t find it here after the 20+ hour story mode is finished. But if you’re looking for something engrossing with great characters that’ll keep you playing for weeks, Dissidia: Final Fantasy is one of the top candidates for the PSP.

A quality console RTS game. There are still times that I’d prefer playing this type of game on a PC, but overall I found the controls easy to work with and although I was frustrated at my lack of ability I didn’t think it was the fault of the controls at all.

Like Resident Evil 5 and Lost Planet 2, this Dead Rising is no mere comfort food. It's skillfully made-to-order for people who are hip to zombie mythology, who don't think of Doom or Daikatana when they hear the name "Romero".

A more forgiving countering and less button mashing intensive game engine would have been preferable, but what's there is pretty solid.

This is a charming, incredibly well designed title with a truckload of replayability (still a rarity for smaller downloadable games). Don't miss out on this in the glut of "holiday" releases.