This real-time strategy game's convoluted controls make it hard to play, much less enjoy.

Grand Ages: Rome is yet another generic city-builder set in ancient Rome.

This arcade game is relatively shallow and a pale imitation of its television inspiration.

This flaky action game falls short of the darkly funny teddy-bear rampage promised by the concept.

Iron Man's high-flying new adventure is hindered by erratic difficulty and repetitive level design.

The PC port of this inconsistent action adventure smacks of indifference.

The Expendables 2 feels like a natural extension of its source material, but it's likely to please only a certain breed of old-school game fan.

Not only a surprisingly difficult game, but it's also a fairly boring one... With a little more polish, Galerians: Ash could have been something special.

The game does have a solid and innovative franchise mode, but given the available choices for football sims on the console, it is tough to recommend.

This visually enchanting game tries to whisk you away to a young girl's dreams, but the often frustrating gameplay makes for a rude awakening.

A little dumb and a lot dated, yet still marginally enjoyable if you're into retro shooters with lots of kabooms.

Replacing a light gun with touch-screen support doesn't make up for Touch the Dead's contrived gameplay or its stiff, boxy presentation.

Touch Detective returns with wacky new adventures and a fresh coat of paint, but the frustratingly esoteric puzzle design is the same as before.

Does not offer enough excitement for the arcade crowd or nearly enough complexity for simulation hounds.

This series badly needs to learn some new moves.

A bland story in the single-player mode and a host of gameplay issues make Lords of EverQuest feel like a cheap knockoff instead of a worthwhile entry into an established genre.

Variety and character are treasures left undiscovered in the action RPG Crimson Alliance.

The visual excellence of this party-oriented fighting game can't make up for the fact that it's just not that much fun.

Die-hard real-time strategy fans may find something to like in Kingdom Under Fire, but everyone else might as well keep waiting for Blizzard's next big hit.

Adding zombies into the mix isn't enough to revive Undead Knights from its stale, typical hack-and-slash action.

Tekken Hybrid is a shallow collection that doesn't give Tekken Tag Tournament the rerelease it deserves.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3: Defiance is a competent though flawed handheld shooter.

The stellar artistic design shines, but the disappointing lack of strategic depth casts a long shadow over this lengthy adventure.

Hard Evidence offers few surprises and even fewer challenges throughout its five undemanding murder mysteries.

Wanted Corp makes traveling to an exotic planet and battling strange creatures a repetitive bore.

Mega Man Star Force 3 is another disappointing installment in a tired franchise in need of a reboot.

For all the shortcomings of WRC Powerslide, nothing stings so much as the absence of a split-screen local multiplayer mode.

Tomb Raider: Underworld is ultimately a competent but underwhelming platform game that has little to offer fans of the genre.

Linear, repetitive, tedious.

A strictly average action game that may interest the few players who haven't graduated to a newer system, but serious gamers will pass it over for something a little more modern.

Though Cook Off is a lot like Cooking Mama on the DS, something significant has been lost in the translation to the Wii.

Avalon Code offers unique mechanics but ultimately fails to come together well.

Mega Man Star Force 3 is another disappointing installment in a tired franchise in need of a reboot.

Flush the Goldfish's fun premise is washed away by its fishy execution.

Landit Bandit is good at times, but it's also overly difficult and frustrating.

The single-player campaign is frustrating and boring in equal measures, and nothing really noteworthy has been added to the multiplayer game.

While the $15 asking price makes ROTT's flaws more palatable, the sadistic single-player level design, the optimization problems and bugs, and the limited multiplayer content are major turnoffs.

Over-the-top difficulty and some strange design decisions make The Haunted: Hell's Reach extremely frustrating.

Ultimate Ninja Impact delivers an unexciting action game adaptation of the current Naruto storyline.

Iron Man's high-flying new adventure is hindered by erratic difficulty and repetitive level design.

Hyperballoid HD's brick breaking is competent but far from compelling, and most of its levels are a grind to get through.

A short and shallow shooter that fails to deliver on the potential of its beloved license.

Vibrant visuals are undermined by repetitive combat.

Bad graphics and repetitive play make Mega Man's latest adventure a dull one.

A short and shallow shooter that fails to deliver on the potential of its beloved license.

The game is visually keen, and its pacing is marvelous, but its fighting system is remarkably slim, emphasizing one-button combos and nearly instant-kill supers.

With a focus on trap deployment and confusing free-for-all multiplayer, this doesn't feel much like a Tenchu game at all.

This inattention to detail is emblematic of the Madden NFL 13 experience. Aside from new commentary and a few Vita-specific controls, this is the same basic game that Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 owners played last year, only with a choppy frame rate dragging the core action down.

Bloodlines offers a few good moments, but it fails to capture the joy of its console brethren.

Does have a certain charm about it, but not to the extent that anyone but die-hard fans of the TV series should risk their hard-earned dollars to play it.

Painting destruction becomes tiresome in the repetitive Sumioni: Demon Arts.

Incompetent AI, grind progression gameplay, and a limited vehicle roster make SuperCar Challenge more lemon than hotrod.

Contrary to its title, this disappointing puzzle game possesses little in the way of creativity.

Charming visuals and vivacious storytelling can't save this adventure game from some huge frustrations.

Little League World Series Baseball 2010 may have a cheerful personality, but it strikes out where it counts.

The attention to detail, the well-considered level design, and the sense of momentum that characterize the finest shooters are missing here. Aliens vs. Predator is sometimes enjoyable but never escapes an overwhelming sense of carelessness, so while it may remind you of the good old days, it fails to recapture them.

Poor AI and insane difficulty get between you and the sniping in Sniper: Ghost Warrior.

Little League World Series Baseball 2010 may have a cheerful personality, but it strikes out where it counts.

Deadpool tries to hide its problems behind an exuberant personality, but all the talking in the world can't smooth over some fundamental flaws.

Simply not a very fun game. Its unchallenging gameplay mechanics, substandard graphics, and lack of any real multiplayer modes make it the worst iteration of the game yet.

Bad graphics and repetitive play make Mega Man's latest adventure a dull one.

A unique concept only goes so far in this frequently frustrating game that combines puzzle and action elements with uneven results.

The same shallow combat that plagued the original release keeps this feature-rich pack from being absolved.

Your guitar will gently weep for this frustrating platformer.

RocketBowl reinvents bowling through the introduction of rockets and minigolf-style courses, but isn't nearly as much fun as it sounds.

Jumping around is a lot more fun than engaging in combat in this licensed movie adaptation.

Wordmaster isn't a bad game, and fans of crossword puzzles, word searches, or sudoku might enjoy knocking out a few puzzles before bed. Even so, it's hard to recommend paying for something that could easily be found online for free.

Wizardry Online is jagged around the edges, but manages to pull off a few interesting tricks.

It may have 16 solid arcade hits, but if you care at all about visual accuracy in your arcade compilations, this package most definitely isn't for you.

This egregious, twisted mess of narrative is not an auspicious start to Square Enix's latest foray into the realm of episodic content.

Technical problems shroud the entire experience with the feeling that you've paid to play a beta. And that's unforgivable, good moments or not.

There's no escaping the been-there, done-that feel of Rotohex.

There's no great gameplay to be found in Medal of Honor: Vanguard, so there's nothing to hide those feelings of déjà vu that you'll get when you play it. Nearly everything in the game has been done before, and it has all been done better.

This flashy fighter is all style and no substance.

Even for a French adventure, Nikopol is awfully surreal.

Choplifter HD retains the core elements of its forebears, but the experience is dampened by some missteps in tone and difficulty.

Save for its fish tank presentation, this is a wholly unremarkable version of Tetris.

Just like its predecessor, Zeno Clash II is a mediocre first-person brawler memorable mainly for its psychedelic storytelling and art.

Street Trace: NYC provides a few moments of multiplayer amusement, but it doesn't have enough going for it to be compelling for long.

Cargo: The Quest for Gravity pulls you in with its surreal visuals and strange premise, but its gameplay rarely gets off the ground.

It's not a bad game, and portions of it are competent, if not quite remarkable. But Avatar wears thin quickly, and the story is too fragile to compensate for the deficiencies.

It features a plot worthy of the TV series, a number of the original TV actors reprising their roles...and boring, frequently broken gameplay that absolutely ruins the entire experience.

The latest addition to the Codename Panzers lineup is too straightforward and simplistic.

Wielding more Wii Remote-waggling moves than you can shake a quake at, Disaster's lack of clear gameplay focus has resulted in a game that is competent at best and never compelling.

It has all the earmarks of a classic puzzler that keeps you coming back for more. That's what makes it so frustrating: it's clear there's a good game under the surface, but it's lying at the bottom of a deep pool of frustrating, ill-conceived design decisions.

Black Mirror III is sufficiently spooky but is burdened with a dreary pace and frustrating puzzles.

This shallow, simplistic beat-'em-up is stuck in the past.

It's a relic from arcade's past that probably won't appeal to new players, but outside of being able to say "Hey, I remember liking this game back in the day," old arcade buffs probably won't get $5 out of it either.

Impressive boss battles aren't enough to save Thor: God of Thunder from its shallow combat.

Heroes of Mana is an ambitious and sloppy game that will both entertain and infuriate you.

All flash and no substance: Ninja Gaiden 3 is a shallow action game with little of the series' challenge and depth.

This turn-based strategy game is a dated and shallow blast from the past.

Aside from the visual problems, the game also suffers from weak artificial intelligence, which makes playing the single-player game for any real length of time pretty unexciting.

The Sims 3 charms your socks off at first but soon reveals its disappointing limitations.

Spectral Force 3 is a functional and predictable strategy RPG without a lick of personality.

A perfect example of awesome but unrealized potential.

Naughty Bear might have more ways to kill in Panic in Paradise, but the overall experience is barely more entertaining than the original.

Blowing stuff up is the only enjoyable part of Front Mission Evolved, a mediocre third-person shooter featuring giant mechs.