The gameplay isn't terribly deep, and the story mode isn't very long, but the game is still mildly enjoyable. What Starsky & Hutch does best is pay homage to the wonderful clichés of 1970s cop shows.

As someone who loves Lord of the Rings, life-sims, and cozy games, Tales of the Shire is heartbreakingly disappointing--so much so that I find myself genuinely wondering what went wrong. With such a strong premise, a solid team working on it, and what seemed like a concentrated effort being made to let this game fully cook before it was shipped, I’m ultimately confused by the finished product and concerned for what happened during production. Although Tales of the Shire has some charming ideas, dull gameplay, heaps of bugs, and a general sense of emptiness ultimately drag this once-promising life sim down to the pits of Moria.

A new coat of paint can't save this busted and broken remake.

Serious control issues spoil an already bland adventure.

Rocky Balboa has plenty of heart, but it's counted out by a poor fighting system and frustrating controls.

It's true that the series wasn't gaining a lot of momentum before, but in its new form, Monster Rancher EVO dilutes the basic activities that made Monster Rancher endearing in the first place, and it's not particularly great as an RPG, either.

The PC version of Raving Rabbids is still a goofy collection of minigames, but some of the fun was lost in translation from the Wii.

Xiaolin Showdown has its problems, but it's generally a solid beat-'em-up.

Unless you're a rabid fan who simply has to be in contact with all things Futurama, this game is playable enough to warrant a rental but little else.

Unfortunately, it offers very few thrills, and instead, an overly cumbersome control scheme and some insanely convoluted level designs suck just about all the fun out of what could have been an entertaining shooter.

TiQal builds on rich puzzle traditions to create an exotic game full of ambiance and excitement.

Few of the nine minigames that comprise Wii Play have much staying power.

Punch Time Explosion's ensemble of Cartoon Network characters falls victim to the evil forces of shallowness and frustration.

Elex's world is no doubt enticing, but the good moments are heavily dispersed among some rough technical problems and odd designs that only serve to frustrate. The game offers an incredibly designed world and the basis of a compelling RPG that disappointingly fails to live up to its potential in almost every way. For a game that relies heavily on its combat for progression, it feels overwhelmingly geared against you, and with the added technical issues and lack of a compelling story to tell, Elex takes the wind out of its own sails at nearly every turn.

When X7 ventures into new territory and starts tinkering with the tried-and-true Mega Man formula, things start to go wrong.

Marvel Nemesis has been engineered in such a way that you must slog through the game's weakest parts to gain access to its best features--and you'll have to wrestle with some serious balance and gameplay issues along the way.

Romancing SaGa is ultimately a role-playing game without any substance.

The elements that made its predecessors interesting have been all but destroyed, making Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel a functional shooter but little more.

Enjoyable despite its flaws, and it offers those who have never seen the original television series or its movie adaptation a condensed version of a classic part of anime history.

Extremely similar to the previous games, but if you care more about the series' engaging turn-based gameplay and colorful presentation, you'll find enough in Winds of War to keep you busy for some time.

A game that--despite its lengthy development cycle--still feels rushed and incomplete.

The developers spent a lot of time creating a really engaging story, but they hardly put any substantial gameplay into the game.

This rendition of Open Season is a plodding adventure full of inane fetch quests and lifeless dialogue scenes.

This is a quality version of Defender that will definitely please fans of the original, but the game doesn't hold up especially well today.

This XBLA update of the classic brick-breaker is let down by poor presentation and imprecise controls.

Aside from making the "groundbreaking" move of featuring a lot of cursing and strippers, BMX XXX doesn't do anything particularly well.

A game with some promise and some good ideas, but a half-cocked presentation and execution.

It certainly raises the bar on vile, pointless cutscenes. However, anyone interested in more than stubbornly average gameplay should look elsewhere.

Rabbids: Alive & Kicking doesn't capture the boundless energy and kooky personality that sometimes makes them so endearing. You should look elsewhere if you want to get a real kick out of the rabbids.

It's not that your time with Kraven Manor won't be well spent. There's fun to be had and there are scary things to jump at, but this short adventure comes up shy of other great first-person horror games from recent years.

While it seems like it's missing a lick of paint to make sure that its aesthetics are as strong as its mechanics, it's still a smart step forward and a good example of how we can pay homage to the beloved works of others with originality.

The King of Fighters XII is the latest chapter in 15 years of fighting game history. It's also a disappointment.

It's not a perfect party by any means, but some good design considerations, better-than-average variety, and always-enjoyable Mario thematics put Mario Party: Island Tour a few notches above your average video game bash-in-a-box.

A short, confusing, and unfulfilling adventure.

Dirge of Cerberus tells the interesting story of a memorable video game character, but beyond that it's nothing more than a very generic shooter.

Spy-story noir meets ridiculous adventure-game puzzles in this misguided tale of Nazis and nukes.

It's inhibited by ponderous combat controls, its repetitious nature, and an overall lack of depth.

Raging Blast 2's good looks and fan service can't conceal the shallow combat at its heart.

Sonic Forces ultimately fails to advance the mechanics of previously successful 3D Sonic games, or present them in their best light. A mediocre platformer at best, Sonic Forces manages to do nothing more than reinforce long held stereotypes against Sega's beloved blue blur.

The core game is still virtually identical to the original.

A paint-by-numbers adventure game, lifting its premise--and even some of its puzzles--from countless similar games that have preceded it.

The high-speed supercars featured in the game feel lifeless, the courses seem entirely too convoluted, and the physics are unexciting.

The game is as far from original as you can get and in need of much better balancing.

The average graphics, sound, and play mechanics contribute to the feeling that all this has been done before, and the uninspired storyline and lack of real plot twists really doesn't give you much motivation to keep playing.

With this game, you get what you pay for: passable gameplay and graphics but far too little bang for the buck.

A solid entry in the "beat up anything that moves" genre.

The game's optimal target audience would be younger players looking for an easygoing shooter, but the M rating and abundance of swastikas pretty much excludes the majority of this group, save for those with open-minded parents.

A decent but plain racing game that doesn't really excel in any one category.

TMNT doesn't wear its nostalgic aspects particularly well, and the remaining components simply don't make for a very entertaining experience.

The First Descendant has moments of fun, but its action is constantly debilitated by tiresome mission design and a grind entirely informed by its venomous monetization. It's designed to frustrate and steer players toward an extensive storefront that lets you circumvent some of its monotony, only to be met with even more. There are no redeeming features to its intentionally infuriating free-to-play model; it feels like a game designed in a boardroom, where every single aspect of its design is secondary to the pursuit of making more money. It's a sad state of affairs, and I wouldn't recommend The First Descendant to anyone.

Curious George may be squarely aimed at a younger audience, but even they will likely tire of its overly repetitive minigames and extremely simplistic platforming.

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

Sacred 3's primary primary flaw is that it's so easy to forget. It contains too little of what you look for in an action-first RPG, and distances itself it so far from its two predecessors that there is no meaningful connection left between the games besides the name and the setting. And that, as you can see from this example, doesn't mean much.

The Need for Speed series takes a giant step backward with ProStreet for the PSP.

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

Driver '76 is a GTA clone that's technically uneven and short on originality, personality, and content.

A new Blitzkrieg game in everything but its title, Frontline: Fields of Thunder is yet another cookie-cutter WWII RTS.

Unfortunately, the core gameplay in NBA is lackluster in presentation and execution, making it difficult to recommend to anyone but the most hardcore basketball fanatics dying for a portable fix.

Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption is an ambitious game that brings something new to an increasingly popular style of action game.

For better or for worse, Nine Breaker is a pure arena combat game with absolutely no frills.

It takes a while to shift into high gear, but once it does, Star Wars: Lethal Alliance offers an enjoyable mix of shooting, puzzle-solving, and platforming.

Dragon Ball Z: Harukanaru Densetsu's attempt to do something different with card battling, while commendable, doesn't compensate for its shallow gameplay.

Sea Life Safari's on-rails adventuring is about as exciting as scuba diving in your own bathtub.

Rough around the edges, it's thematically incoherent, and it's a victim of feature creep, but along with fast-paced action, it has some interesting twists that give it a little depth.

Ultimately it gets somewhat repetitive and can be completed rather quickly and easily.

Sonic Forces ultimately fails to advance the mechanics of previously successful 3D Sonic games, or present them in their best light. A mediocre platformer at best, Sonic Forces manages to do nothing more than reinforce long held stereotypes against Sega's beloved blue blur.

You'd think that a "persistent world next-gen shooter" would have a persistent world. What you get instead is a static universe filled with traditional non-player character vendors, crafting facilities, auction houses, and a distinct lack of adventure.

Path of the Ninja is formulaic, repetitive, and barely more than a touched-up Game Boy Advance game, but it's not an awful choice if you're a hardcore Naruto fan.

Get Fit With Mel B is a functional but unimaginative celebrity fitness video made interactive via the Kinect.

Though shallow and flawed, Body and Brain Connection has some neat minigames that engender a satisfying sense of progress.

Hunted: The Demon's Forge buries its rock-solid ideas under a mound of execution blunders.

My eight-year-old self would have absolutely loved Calico to bits, I'm sure. Unfortunately, I am no longer a wide-eyed, curious 8-year-old girl--I'm a game reviewer whose tolerance for bugs and simplistic gameplay has worn thin over the decades. As much as I wish I could view Calico through the eyes of an imaginative youngster, I can't. Perhaps if you are better at embracing your childlike fantasies, you may be able to overlook Calico's many flaws and appreciate its imaginative, fairy-dust-sprinkled charm, but I feel that the magic will wear thin quite quickly.

A game so utterly devoted to the same flawed concepts as its predecessor that it might as well be the same game with a new story.

The novelty of racing teeny tiny cars is more than a little bit stale, and so is Micro Machines v4.

Brutally insane bunnies can be fun, but there aren't enough minigames to keep those in Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 interesting for long.

Total Destruction is a glossy coat of paint on an ancient gameplay formula that simply doesn't hold water in 2006.

The developers at Mad Doc Software balance every good feature in this expansion with something either uninspired or ill-advised.

NASCAR 08 is a decent racer, but it feels like a classic example of a game where the developer put in limited effort because of the lack of competition.

The dull, repetitive combat and uninspired mission structure prevent At World's End from being much fun.

Everything positive that has been added to the game doesn't do anything to counteract the mechanical artificial intelligence and visual problems that plague much of it.

It's a sure bet that there will be countless "Sims" clones in the next few years. The Partners is one of the first, and it could turn out to be one of the most blatant.

People without a passion for shooting fake guns at their television sets probably won't find much to like.

The lack of gameplay depth and the game's frequently erratic difficulty make it tough to recommend to anyone who isn't absolutely desperate for a game about big trucks.

Boogie's gameplay mix of singing and dancing is an interesting idea, but it's poorly executed.

The visuals are fancy, but this kung fu game suffers from uninspired combat and unresponsive controls.

Reborn is a solid add-on pack, but it's too expensive for what you get.

Solid graphics and sound and fun gameplay are things just about everyone can appreciate in a game, and while the fishing genre doesn't have the widest appeal, the arcadelike aspect of the game opens it up to a wider audience.

Regardless of the game's inspiration, Armageddon is a mediocre action game that is carried only by its license.

Playing NFL QB Club for the Nintendo 64 is much like watching a preseason football game; the choppy, sloppy gameplay soon grates on your patience.

Once you give it a closer look, Hey You, Pikachu! is a highly addictive game that both children and adults can enjoy.

Short, unbalanced, and somewhat unattractive.

Doesn't do anything to broaden the reach of the franchise, but it gives fans exactly what they want--and plenty of it.

Super Soldier presents a bland-looking world with a bevy of mechanical problems, but beating down foreign aggressors still delivers patriotic fun.

Ultimately, it is these interactions that could have elevated the game and provided more emotional depth if they were leaned into a bit harder. Rather than spend so much time forcing background characters off their phones, it would have been compelling to explore more of Holland's internal narrative and relationships with her family, slightly estranged friends, and her potential new love interest. So much time was spent walking around, showing others the light rather than basking in that warm glow ourselves, a choice that would have made the game more impactful. Land of Screens ultimately feels like a predictable-yet-endearing Netflix romcom--though think more Love Hard rather than Someone Great.

The most frustrating thing about Outlaw Volleyball Remixed is that, were it not for the stupid posturing and the fact that it's a clunky port of a 2-year-old title, it's not inherently that bad of a game.

Saturated with control and gameplay issues, Fast Food Panic is junk food for your Wii.

It's a short, simplistic shooter that's not worth even its budget price.

Some players will surely find it all rather dull or frustrating. Still, this relaxed pace can be refreshing.