DemiKids doesn't stack up all that well against Nintendo's "Pokémon" games in terms of variety, fun, or overall cohesiveness, but it is decent enough to provide most players with a healthy 10 to 20 hours of play time.

Armchair tycoons who haven't already played RollerCoaster Tycoon to death on their PCs should find a lot to like here.

A generally uninteresting futuristic racer that doesn't do anything that hasn't already been done, and done better, by previous futuristic racers.

Why only three CPU opponents? Why only support for two human players? Why can't the CPU race on custom tracks? The Dreamcast could have done better.

Urban Empire is a trying game, but there's beauty in how it captures the many obstacles that plague political life, but it’s still marred by instances of poor execution and an unwieldy user interface. Still, if you've ever wanted to know what a more realistic, less tongue-in-cheek rendition of SimCity would be like, you could do a lot worse. If you're willing to spend the time, Urban Empire has a lot to show you, but it comes with its share of annoyances.

Fuse is calibrated for people to play together, designed in such a way as to be merely serviceable for solo players, but solid fun for groups of gung-ho mercs.

Moon Hunters doesn't give you the time to truly nestle into its world in one sitting, relying instead on the idea that they’ll keep coming back to uncover more and more with each successive playthrough. I wish I could say that at some point it all started to come together for me, but it didn't. It never felt like I was getting enough out of those playthroughs to make them truly worthwhile.

This stand-alone zombie expansion for Sniper Elite V2 can be a lot of fun in 4-player co-op, but the action gets monotonous over time.

Mad Tracks is the sort of idiot-simple game that you'll forget about five minutes after you play it.

This expansion to last year's underwhelming city builder is surprisingly good and makes a number of important improvements.

This add-on is a hollow return to a distinctive city.

It's a bit of a shame, really. Codemasters Racing is one of the best and most dependable developers of racing games out there, but F1 Race Stars simply doesn't live up to the high standard defined by F1 games of the past.

The fact remains that you have to perform a lot of legwork to understand how each boss works in respect to your abilities. There's a fine line to be crossed in a boss rush game, where hard fought battles lead to either sighs of relief or aggravated groans. Too often, Malicious Fallen earns the latter. Malicious Fallen isn’t a game that feels triumphant so much as tiring.

If you're willing to forgive its brain-dead gameplay and occasionally frustrating design, Magna Cum Laude is a hysterically entertaining romp through the world of wacky sexual hijinks.

A forgettable comedy is actually a good table tennis game on the DS.

All the gore in the world can't disguise Splatterhouse's laundry list of clumsy mechanics.

Three Kingdoms China meets Sengoku Japan in this fan-service-powered snooze fest.

NHL 2K11 is a big letdown compared to last year's great arcade hockey game.

The ability to alter terrain isn't enough to save Fracture from becoming the latest run-of-the-mill shooter.

Hockey fans will be able to play Gretzky '06 without much frustration or duress, but that's really about all you can say for it.

The series' transition to real-time strategy is a rough one in this flawed remake.

This puzzle game is fun in short bursts, but it lacks the depth and gameplay options to hold your interest for long.

Despite being a rough composite of a half dozen other first-person shooters without much personality of its own, Mace Griffin Bounty Hunter is still pretty good.

Hanging 10 in this movie-licensed surfing game has its moments--just don't expect to enjoy it for very long.

Everyone who liked the first game is going to love Driver 2- - the new types of missions, cities, and gameplay features, as well as a fantastic, original story, make Driver 2 a winner.

It's still technically a solid game, but at this point it almost feels totally obsolete.

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

It's competent, certainly, but it's hard to shake the feeling that the stork could have left us something a little more interesting.

A decent sim that does things mostly right. It provides a solid framework for an online space sim, but it needs additional content to build and sustain its appeal.

Stylish combat and white-knuckle driving make this an enjoyable James Bond adventure, despite some pacing issues.

The open-ended design is a breath of fresh air, while the overall presentation lives up to the movie's skewed style and humor.

What starts out as a simple but entertaining aerial jaunt quickly becomes monotonous and shallow, making it hard to justify its price tag.

The game suffers from imprecise controls, a lackluster presentation, a few bugs, and other issues that make it difficult to recommend.

It's another Empires iteration of a Dynasty Warriors game, and it comes with all the tedium and light strategy you'd expect.

This certainly isn't a bad game of pool, but it lives up to few expectations beyond what its meager price tag would suggest.

A lot of riddles are solved by the end of the game, yet even as the final curtain falls, many more questions are left unanswered.

It is capable of delivering great in-ring action, and it has the flashy production values that none of Vince McMahon's competitors have ever been able to replicate, but it's hard to care about why any of it is happening beyond the moment-to-moment competition.

Those already committed to the games from Pogo.com on offer here might appreciate this portable package, though it still feels a little lean.

Spaceforce offers up a beautiful, dynamic universe to explore, though it suffers from a steep learning curve.

The Spiderwick Chronicles isn't bad for a game-of-the-movie, but it's not good for a game.

You can save the Netheruniverse from floating sushi, but not always from repetitious dungeon crawling.

Gunpey's pulsing music and visuals may remind you of "Lumines," but don't let it fool you: This addictive puzzle game is unique and bizarre enough to stand on its own merits.

Tolkien fans may enjoy the game's presentation of Middle-earth lore, but The Hobbit tends to rely too heavily on derivative, uninspired gameplay for it to stand up on its own.

While it may not be the world champion of team-oriented multiplayer games, Clusterball is an unusual and enjoyable addition to the genre.

It's filled with lots of arbitrary, convoluted, brutally tough puzzles, though. In fact, you could say this is really a puzzle game masquerading as an adventure game.

Some flashy action, a playful sense of humor, and a clean visual style bring this otherwise straightforward beat-'em-up to life.

The charm of the film's characters isn't enough to save this simple, tedious platformer.

All too often, though, the stages are designed in such a way that you're tricked into failing, and any technical issues stand out more than they might elsewhere because precise timing and concentration are so vital to success.

Its limited use of cel-shaded graphics, which seemed revolutionary when Dragon's Lair 3D was first revealed two years ago, is now thoroughly outdated, as is its simplistic, puzzle-based gameplay.

This portable wrasslin' game is basically fun, even if there aren't a whole lot of play modes.

Athens 2004 certainly looks better than past Olympic Games, but the gameplay itself honestly doesn't improve much on the button mashing and timing-based gameplay that Konami built Track & Field on more than 20 years ago.

This stand-alone F.E.A.R. expansion feels completely dated and unnecessary.

Whether you want to call it a shank, a duff, or a whiff, all that really matters is that Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is a poor effort from a series that was looking to make a splash in its generational debut.

Blacklight: Tango Down is a good, cheap multiplayer shooter for the budget-minded gamer looking for a change of pace.

Breach delivers some excitement, but its generic online first-person shooter action and a number of performance issues prevent it from standing out from the crowd.

Lost Planet 3 is both less exasperating and less diverse than its predecessors.

Like the previous games in the series, Global Terror offers some redeeming value as a shooter, but poor execution on certain aspects, such as the AI, keeps the game from distinguishing itself.

Most disappointing, though, is that Sym manages to successfully convey nothing enlightening, moving, informative, or even coherent about social anxiety. Hiding may be a central mechanic in Sym, but obscuring your meaning to this baffling degree is never the answer.

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

Fun enough to sit down with for a couple of minutes, but more serious soccer fans won't find it the least bit satisfying if they're looking for a proper and involved video rendition of their sport.

Isn't the most authentic or the most extravagant baseball game available, but it does fill a niche for casual fans who just want to dive in and play a quick game of hardball.

A vastly simplified game, and while some of the changes are for the better, as a stand-alone game, it doesn't offer enough challenge or variety.

Unless you're desperate for a new Star Wars story, you'll find nothing worthwhile in this shallow action game.

The artificial intelligence of TWINE's enemies is both shaken and stirred.

The game's heavy emphasis on a disjointed and needless plot and some generally unimpressive production values are Frogger's Adventures main drawbacks, though they don't prevent the game from being enjoyable overall.

Mission: Impossible is a very inconsistent game - some levels are great, and some just aren't any fun at all. But overall, most of the game is challenging and fun.

On both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, Friday the 13th has been intermittently unplayable. Yes, private matches with friends are sometimes possible, but if you wish to join up with a band of strangers online for a bout of deadly hide-and-go-seek from the comfort of your couch, you're either entirely out of luck or stuck waiting upwards of ten minutes for a match--after days of not being able to play at all.

Extreme repetition, poor controls, and a barely there story makes this game a dull proposition from start to finish.

This game is surprisingly enjoyable for a few hours, but after that it goes from good, mindless fun to mind-numbingly repetitive.

The charm of the film's characters isn't enough to save this simple, tedious platformer.

Tharsis feels like a sadistic game of chance that makes all my decisions feel completely meaningless.

The Ghost Recon series makes a solid debut on the PlayStation Portable with this action-filled shooter, but competitive multiplayer is missing.

Even a solid game needs some spice, and We Are Doomed never gives you much. You will certainly notice how good it feels to play the game, and the presentation is top notch, but it never really gives you a reason to care.

Rayman 3D may be yet another port of Rayman 2, but its improved controls and capable 3D implementation breathe new life into the title.

Too many frustrations interfere with the joys of killing orcs and collecting loot in The Lord of the Rings: War in the North.

The video game version of Order of the Phoenix captures none of the magic in the Harry Potter books or films.

MX vs. ATV Alive has the potential to be a very good racing game, but right now, it's sorely in need of more content.

Once again, the Empires expansion of Koei's long-running hack-and-slash action series turns out to be the bright spot amid the doldrums of endless button-mashing, thanks to some legitimately interesting strategy.

These shortcomings and ongoing server issues aren't easily overlooked, and work against what promise Friday the 13th shows. As of now, a week after launch, it's short on content and performs poorly all around, especially on consoles. The story goes that the developers weren't prepared for amount of people who wanted to jump on day one, but that does little to assuage players who were convinced that they were paying for a finished product. Despite showing potential that may one day be realized, Friday the 13th comes across as an unfinished game that shouldn't have been released in its current state.

Loki may be awfully late for the party, but this Diablo derivation is a solid rip-off with great game mechanics and atmosphere.

WRC 3's lightweight handling and lack of diversity means it fails to hit the heights achieved by other racing games.

Medieval Moves: Deadmund's Quest loses steam early, resulting in a tepid adventure that annoys more often than it delights.

Ninety-Nine Nights puts a lot of enemies onscreen but doesn't give you many interesting ways to dispose of them.

It's an intriguing experiment that ultimately suffers from shallow, simplistic gameplay and an uninvolving story mode rife with bland characters.

Occasionally intense but lacks the personality and polish of its source material.

"Traitors Gate" had the sort of continuity that is crucial to story-driven adventure games. Unfortunately, The Messenger lacks this continuity, and as a result the puzzles are confusing, and the protagonist comes off as a sort of confused sociopath.

On its own merits, Galactic Wrestling is a solid grappler. But anyone hoping for a real step forward from the first Ultimate Muscle game is going to be a bit disappointed.

Adults will find it far too easy, and kids will bemoan its torpid controls. Nasira's Revenge does succeed at being fun at times, but the game ends right around the time it begins.

Despite the fact that Krome Studios was able to translate the story, look, and feel of the film well enough into its offering, the gameplay is simply too lifeless and frustrating to hold your attention the entire way through.

The Good Life is a curious and uneven experience. As a sort of hybrid RPG meets life-sim, it's certainly competent, despite the grind it demands. Surprisingly, the novel premise takes a back seat for the most part, but it's never anything less than adorably easy-going, carried along by a carefree attitude and endless charm.

A much stronger license than it is a game, as it's plagued by overly expansive environments and poorly realized combat sequences.

When Into the Stars hits its stride and you feel like Admiral Adama leading a desperate race to save humanity, it's a tense and rewarding thrill. Unfortunately, combat never matches the tension of survival, as the cruelty of the game's RNG system can bring your breakneck race to the finish line to a screeching halt.

Certainly, the lack of interactive environmental features combined with the expansiveness of the game's levels could lead to burnout after a while.

Shadowrun Chronicles isn't just a bad Shadowrun game. It's a bad game. That it comes from a series with such an exceptional pedigree and plenty of exceptional recent successes just makes the disappointment that much more bitter.

There's fun to be had in this adaptation of the Blood Bowl tabletop game, but it strips away some important features.

The campaign missions can be pretty intense at times--but the underlying action itself lacks the sort of visceral punch that shooters ought to have. It's not that big of an issue in the heavily scripted single-player levels, but Shadow Ops' clunky multiplayer gameplay significantly suffers for it.

Cities XL 2012 merely adds some new buildings and maps to the otherwise identical Cities XL 2011.

A delicious mix of arena fighting and bullet-hell chaos wins out over weak presentation in this action battler.