High-impact action and lively animation save this brawler from mediocrity.

Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure is a lovely remake of a niche PlayStation classic, but it still lacks broad appeal.

Most of the game's foundation is solid. The beat-'em-up combat, the art, and a lot of secondary gameplay is surprising and fun. Though its blend of gameplay variations feels unbalanced at times, and it isn't always the laugh-riot it tries to be, Battletoads is an entertaining little romp.

Dungeon Siege III is a fun but unambitious dungeon crawler that fails to live up to the games that came before it.

Combat feels good enough, but there's not much to it, and little to strive for.

WRC 4 continues Milestone's trend of satisfying but unremarkable rally games. Some key areas have clearly been worked on, but the core experience still lags behind Dirt when it comes to capturing the pure excitement of off-road racing, and Career mode is nothing that we haven't seen dozens of times in other racing games.

This familiar Lego-themed adventure has flashy 3D effects, but predictable gameplay and a lack of challenge keep it from flying high.

The crazy sense of humor remains intact, but hackneyed and rudimentary motion controls have lost almost all of their luster.

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

Stronghold Crusader 2 understands the art of the troop blob, but that alone doesn't make it a good game. Its lack of interesting units, underdeveloped castle-building options, and terrible tutorials hold the game back. Blob warfare is still fun, and directing an army never gets old. But man cannot live on blob alone.

While the campaign is fun but often too familiar, Resistance shines most of all in some of the game's secondary modes, particularly Invasion and No Cross PvP. Of course, bringing a buddy along to play the story in co-op smooths over some of its roughness, too. I do want to play more of this series, but I'm hopeful the next one takes a bigger leap forward and cleans up some of the long-present jank. Like the difference between the second and third games in the series, it's only going to be the next big step for Sniper Elite if the team finally innovates on what existed before. Otherwise, it's just sparkling familiarity.

That length may have been born from a desire to create a big, meaty RPG, but in the end, it mostly serves to accentuate the simplicity in all aspects. Stretched over so many hours, exploration becomes dull, combat feels repetitive, and the story can't sustain itself. Mario & Luigi: Brothership is well made and has some great ideas, but in breaking free of its handheld limitations, it becomes too ambitious for its own good.

Considering how much processing oomph it seems to need, Sword Coast Legends looks muddy and unremarkable. The world is easily forgotten. Sewers, woods, tumbledown buildings, castles and keeps--perhaps the game’s beauty is limited by the necessity to stick to reusable tilesets, or perhaps the lack of clarity is down to that 3D style.

Hardcore Godzilla fans will appreciate seeing the decent renderings of some of their favorite monsters here, but they're unlikely to be terribly impressed by the action itself.

The addictive gameplay of the SimCity series is completely missing in this lackluster spinoff.

Fortune Street is a decent strategy board game, but the slow pace siphons away much of the fun.

Those unfamiliar with Jojo are likely to be bewildered playing Eyes of Heaven; the game pulls no punches in declaring its priorities with its thick layer of fanservice, pleasing only those who've read far into the series' three decade long run. It's an unfortunate misgiving to newcomers, but for fans, it's unequivocal bliss.

Duels of the Planeswalkers 2015 gives players what they've wanted for a long time by implementing deckbuilding, but it doesn't excuse the bare-bones package and needless extra monetization.

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.

The dark and creepy Afterfall: Insanity is let down by its tedious combat and slow start.

The episode's focus is clearly on setting up the characters and conflicts that might pay off in later chapters; it serves a narrative purpose, but isn't especially effective on its own terms.

Hours upon hours, this little passion play repeated itself throughout my playthrough. Even after stopping everything to grind for experience, the next major area would present another drastic difficulty spike, with help nowhere to be found. Stacking debuffs on enemies was often the only effective recourse, forcing the enemy to unwittingly murdering themselves, rather than handle the task through my own attacks. While effective, it's also the least enjoyable way to experience a turn-based RPG.

Despite these issues, Battle Chasers is sustained through the strength of its story, a rollicking tale that takes our heroes literally to hell and back. It's bolstered by some sharp dialogue, gorgeous artwork, and an ensemble that plays extremely well off of each other. It's also a long game, but considering its relatively few major beats, it feels unnecessarily drawn out. It's too bad, because Battle Chasers is otherwise one of the rare comic-based games to have this many pieces in the right place.

If you're willing to overlook the clumsy controls and the dated look, then Silent Line might be worth your while, but otherwise, there are much better giant-robot games on the market.

A game made by game developers, for game developers, featuring humour that only game developers are likely to fully appreciate.

I have fond memories of playing The Thing back in 2002 because there wasn't anything else quite like it. It was inventive and exciting, and even today, no one else is trying to do what Computer Artworks attempted in the single-player space. I commend the studio for what it achieved, but the limitations of the technology--and its design constraints--are much more apparent now, even with nostalgia-tinted glasses on. Nightdive has done a fantastic job of restoring this flawed but intriguing game, continuing its crucial work with game preservation. All of the changes it's made are positive, resulting in a better game, both visually and mechanically. Nonetheless, this is a case where a complete remake would've been much more appealing, allowing for the trust and fear system to be fleshed out with less rigidity and more dynamism. As it is, Computer Artworks' vision might never be fully realized, and that's a shame.

A big game, to be sure, with enough levels to keep you busy over a three-day rental period. The puzzles within them aren't very original or entertaining, but seeing that this is the only Tomb Raider-style game to come to the Nintendo 64, it deserves at least a little leeway.

It gets the job done, but NASCAR 2011 is a better reminder of the great old NASCAR games than it is a good game in its own right.