Action game fans ought to be able to settle in and blast their ways through Total Overdose's relatively brief campaign with reasonable levels of enjoyment. Just be prepared for one extremely cheesy ride.

An admirable effort of it with a beautiful 3D graphics engine, but, unfortunately, the end result is hampered by some frustrating gameplay, poor AI, and bugs.

"Cute" is the most appropriate way to describe Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, though "frustrating" may also come to mind as you make your way through the game.

Despite its unrealistic physics, repetitive racing, and insufficient options, the game can, at times, be surprisingly enjoyable.

A soccer game that boasts far more style than substance and has more in common with the FIFA games of old than it does with "FIFA Soccer 2005."

If you can get around the weaker aspects of the game, Rogue Ops should be a reasonably entertaining experience for stealth fans looking for their next fix.

A basketball game that remains virtually unchanged from last year's version.

Despite its simplistic nature and barbaric difficulty level, Izuna: The Legend of the Unemployed Ninja can be intensely satisfying.

Definitely a more well-conceived game than The Power of Juju, and there are some genuinely fresh, inventive ideas at work here. The problem is, the whole experience is muddled by an inconsistent difficulty and slapdash level designs, and these good ideas don't quite coalesce into a good game.

The gameplay is very much like that of the earliest real-time strategy games. This is a traditional RTS that seemingly ignores all the advances that the genre has experienced over the past several years.

Mystical Ninja will be digital culture shock to the uninitiated. Mystical Ninja is a solid, quirky, and entirely rehashed title that holds its own well against the horde of painful Mario clones.

Action game fans ought to be able to settle in and blast their ways through Total Overdose's relatively brief campaign with reasonable levels of enjoyment. Just be prepared for one extremely cheesy ride.

Conflict: Desert Storm II isn't without problems, but it's not the worst squad-based game you'll ever play, and it's decidedly improved over the original game.

Rogue Trooper is at times a very exciting and enjoyable shooter, which makes it all the more disappointing that it's over so soon.

Strictly on its own merits, this version is an altogether unimpressive action adventure that still smacks of being a watered-down port of a technically superior game. In other words, both GameCube owners and Splinter Cell fans deserve better than this.

Had the feel of the weapons been a little better, and had the campaign been more consistently intense, Finest Hour could have been a much better game.

There's plenty to do in SX Superstar, but the problems lie in the gameplay mechanics--such as the trick system and camera--which could've used a little more tweaking.

Though the game's developers clearly put a lot of work into the way the game looks and sounds, Enclave's gameplay just doesn't measure up to its presentation.

Sports Mogul has adjusted aspects of the artificial intelligence to make play more satisfying in key areas like trading and finance and has tossed in a few sorely needed frills that make the game at least a marginal improvement over its predecessor.

Its slavish dedication to convention will scratch the methodical, cerebral itch all diehard adventure game fans have. As a genre exercise, though, it exerts little energy to draw in new players.

A decent dungeon crawler that invests some energy into lampooning RPGs and high fantasy in general, but like a stand-up act about airline food or the line at the post office, its perspective isn't very interesting, and it lacks any real follow-through.

It's a fairly simple and repetitive action RPG experience that's rough around the edges, yet it's not without a certain homegrown charm that should appeal to fans of the genre who don't expect too much.

These technical problems, in addition to its short length and inconsistent quality, make Heavy Metal F.A.K.K. 2 the most frustrating kind of game: It's only decent, when it could have been great.

If you're not looking for an unofficial sequel to "Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail," and you can see past a few problems, you'll find that The Bard's Tale is a decent enough action RPG.

The disjointed nature of Orphen is unfortunate, because it's easy to envision great gameplay experiences being the product of its game system.

Conflict: Desert Storm II isn't without problems, but it's not the worst squad-based game you'll ever play, and it's decidedly improved over last year's game.

If you can get past its dense and uninviting interface, Warship Gunner 2 offers unique naval combat and an incredible amount of ship customization.

Rogue Trooper is at times a very exciting and enjoyable shooter, which makes it all the more disappointing that it's over so soon.