First to Fight's flawed A.I. and abbreviated single-player game certainly don't advance the FPS genre in a significant way, but its entertaining multiplayer component scores a welcome bull's-eye.

One frustrating game. It gets so many things right and it certainly looks the part, but fans of the genre -- especially those interested in Napoleon-era fighting -- will have a tough time getting around the game's lighthearted attempt at modeling combat.

An incredibly short racing game featuring spectacular crashes and cunning AI, but an alarmingly few cars, no tweakable vehicles, and few track variations.

The karaoke system works very well, both in single-player and in multiplayer, and the original music videos improve the overall presentation of the game. The only problem I can see in this title is that 30 tracks won't be enough for whoever buys it, just because it's pretty addictive.

While it has a few things going for it like its pretty look and the fact that it's the only cycle game available for the system, its overall difficulty level and its lack of variety in circuits and gameplay modes drag it down.

To enjoy this game properly you are going to need a keyboard and a mouse -- two things that are readily available on the PC -- so you might as well plan on going for that version instead.

While you might not complete Wrath Unleashed in a weekend, it's possible that it won't hold your attention for too much longer. Although Wrath does what it does very well, it suffers from a lack of ambition.

An excellent hex-map turn-based strategy title. The disappointment hits when you realize that a really fun strategy core is riddled with bugs and is wrapped in a simply awful presentation.

Those of you who haven't experienced Dynasty Warriors before are better off picking up a cheaper, older version for your introduction. Trust me: you won't be missing much.

The game's saving graces are its graphics and well-balanced races, and if you crave long backbreaking campaigns, you'll find plenty to keep you occupied here, but it's too bad that Black Hole couldn't have fleshed out the game's embryonic innovations to deliver something more daring and less imitative.

Despite some smart moves on the part of the developers (voice talent, good graphics engine, franchise overhaul) none of them really pan out and bring much to the experience, leaving the game to flounder with its new but repetitive focus on combat.

It's a heck of a lot better than the recent batch of Mega Man X games. If you're looking for a hardcore RPG experience, pass on this, but Mega Man fans should appreciate the change of pace.

If you're looking for a decent RTS that's different than the others, Submarine Titans is a good bet.

Despite a lack of polish and the ineptly presented storyline, Kya: Dark Lineage had enough fresh ideas and fun scenarios to keep me pluggin' through to the end. It's not the prettiest game out there, nor the longest, or the coolest. It is, however, fun and original.

A solid and pleasantly deep arena beat-'em-up with lots of longevity, and through the presence of the Hedgehog and his posse adds absolutely nothing to the game, it's nice to see them getting work in these tough economic times.

The biggest letdown of all, however, may be the quick-and-dirty nature of EDF's PC port, evident from the "Press A or click to start" opening prompt. It didn't crash on me, but that's it. Beyond that, however, it's locked at 30 frames per second, lacks any significant graphical options, and has a multiplayer match-finding tool that could be unfavorably compared to a maze filled with minotaurs.

Something completely new in The Sims series and on the Wii. This is not a game for players looking for complex social interactions; it seems more of a tribute to Lego fans who want to exercise their creativity.

When considered as a game separate from its good ideas, JTF comes up as decidedly mediocre. I'm a believer in deeper and more meaningful games -- just not at the expense of gameplay.

There's a decent plot, and the game's fantastic graphics really make you feel like you're in Faerûn. And for a brawler, it's a very playable game. However, compared to other games, it's more like an interactive movie.

The constant action means the Harry Potter series has always lent itself well to the video-game format, and thankfully (albeit surprisingly) EA has mostly improved upon their winning formula, while upping the ante visually and adding welcome multiplayer features, easily making the Goblet of Fire their best adaptation yet.

While the voice command feature is interesting, games like World in Conflict, Empire: Total War, and Company of Heroes offer far more depth and are ultimately easier to recommend.

It's great for family gaming and the competitive edge offered makes it attractive to core gamers. If only Nintendo had bothered to include global ranked high-score leaderboards.

Does the formula of giant robots and three-tiered combat succeed? Definitely. But there are a few quirks along the way to deal with, most notably the anemic unit pathfinding AI.

No major breakthrough, but it is an exceptional outing suited to longtime RTS fans and newcomers alike.

No other game to date comes this close to replicating what it would be like to explore a truly seamless universe.

The only groundbreaking things within this title are the mission-based challenges and the multiplayer games. Other than that, there's just not much new here.

It goes halfway towards inventing a new genre, but it can't decide whether to invent the action-RTS or the tactical-fighting game, so it ends up just awkwardly defying any sort of established gameplay conventions.

The cinematic cutscenes are completely uninvolving, with bored-sounding voice acting, the flimsiest of plots, and the most uninspired script imaginable. This would all be alright if the gameplay were strong.

If you've played "Syberia" and absolutely need another adventure game, give this one a shot.

The Sims 2 Pets expansion pack could be a good purchase for PC gamers, but buying it for $39.99 on consoles is the kind of choice that will only satisfy the kind of people who keep a place for their cat at the dinner table.

A jack of all trades and a master of none. Although it offers variety, it doesn't do anything so well that you'd want to play it again.

It never gets quite as fun or inventive as any of the Mario or Rayman platform games, but Tarzan: Return to the Jungle holds its own surprisingly well, and is a must-have for fans of its GBC predecessor.

It's a fun romp that often lacks originality.

A spirited romp, with some very basic but fun play initially, but it eventually wears thin. Its success with an individual depends entirely on how the humor strikes them. While this is certainly not a huge title and there's little innovation, I must admit I enjoyed it.

It's incredible how nasty and trashy this gameplay looks, when something very similar looked so great. There are a lot of really nice touches here, but they're wasted on a game that feels like a high school talent show version of a great movie.

Maybe the developers are just using the characters in an average game so people won't realize how average it is.

Some nifty gameplay mechanics and nasty enemies keep it from being an also-ran, while a little too much repetitive exploration and a short story keep it from being a contender.

The game manual claims to provide 25-30 hours of gameplay, but in truth it will likely take you only half of that.

Dark Legend's fun, I just don't think that a person with considerable skill at games will find it all that challenging. Still, if you want a good, humorous story, and are looking for something to entertain you (albeit briefly), then Dark Legend is among the better choices for the Wii.

It's a good game, with occasional glimpses of genius, but its many flaws prevent it from achieving true greatness.

With a strong showing, 989 Sports' World Tour Soccer 2005 shows that the developer may have the makings of a dynasty on its hands.

Coupled with strong graphics that grow more impressive over time, as well as the standard Disney incentive to open additional animated cutscenes, Treasure Planet isn't quite the gem it could have been, but it does soar at times.

Its simple elements are well-blended in an adventure that only lasts about eight hours but still manages to fill its time with great fighting, fun puzzles and a general nostalgic atmosphere.

The animation is slick, and there are many appreciable smaller touches, but it's also tarnished by repetition and technical issues. If you've never been a fan of the series, this installment certainly won't change your mind. However, if you're a die-hard fan who was disappointed by Spider-Man 3, Web of Shadows should be right up your alley.

Strong, challenging puzzles, a perfect hint system, and an intriguing story makes Keepsake one of the better adventure games to come out in a while.

It's that lack of respect that keeps Blitz from being a truly entertaining alternative to vanilla football. Players are one-dimensional, drugs are easy to get and use, and playing the actual game itself is more about dumb luck and freaky bounces than skill and ingenuity.

While The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe does have some issues with the A.I. not being smart enough to help you out when you most need it, it's not bad enough to make this a totally horrible game.

For anyone who feels like hip-hop is more than the soundtrack to the suburban mall thug experience, the game is really a disservice to a rich culture that involves more than misogyny and violence.

Despite these issues, all the elements are in place for Brink to become a terrific multiplayer shooter. It handles well, offers customization options galore, and challenges FPS players to do more than just pull the trigger.

There's potential for a very good game here, and we've had our share of both highs and lows with the gameplay, but the sheer number of gameplay bugs, graphical issues, and poor technical performance make it difficult to recommend in its current state.

Being able to carry around so much gaming goodness is a boon, particularly since playing in small chunks is so rewarding. It's too bad that gamers looking for a great online race will have to search elsewhere.

If you want excellent action then you should skip this one and go buy "God of War" or "Devil May Cry 3." If you're willing to forgive gameplay flaws for a really unique interactive story then you'll be happy with this game.

NFL Street 3 seems at home on the small screen. This game is best taken in quick bursts of fun, and the PSP is built for just that. Still, even Ocho Cinco might have trouble keeping up the trash-talking intensity after prolonged exposure to the same old Street feel.

If you're looking for a thinking person's shooter that'll let you go to all corners of the world and hopefully make it back alive, this is the one for you.

An excellent example of a "slacker" game: it gets as little done as it can while making sure it fills its quota so it can be out the door for the day. There isn't a thing new here and it makes no attempt to improve the genre.

It's just too darn much like its predecessors. The graphics and sound have shown little improvement since the first game in the series, and they certainly haven't been updated at all with the leap to DS (save the 3D Mega Man on the touch screen).

A decent distraction and if the "Earthworm Jim" games disappointed you, Jazz probably won't.

Even with the new systems, the core mechanics are losing their edge and the tournament structured story isn't helping things, either.

Once again, GameCube owners are left out in the cold with a version of a game that's mildly inferior to its hardware rivals.

What's worse is that the aforementioned combat system is more frustrating than losing a heel on prom night. Ultimately you're left with a game that's based on a really interesting idea, but as a whole is executed poorly.

All we get here is more of the potential and less of the execution, when it would be better off the other way around.

And a note: there's no reason to pay an extra $5 for the DS version when the GBA version's only lacking repetitive mini-games.

That makes the battle tricks on hand in Suikoden Tactics nice twists on the staid tactical RPG. But there's not enough battle, and too much chaff to sort through in order to find it.

The kiddies will enjoy seeing more Robinsons goofiness, and you won't mind picking up the controller to help them through the occasional tough part.

Sure, Order of the Phoenix is a little rough around the edges, but it's still the best Harry Potter game yet. Fans will get a huge kick over how well it recreates Harry's world.

Despite the lack of variety, I found the game to be very addicting, and since most of the puzzles can be finished rather quickly, I found myself falling into the "one more puzzle" trap a lot.

Though it's nothing stellar, Regeneration does have some nice things going for it -- a great sense of humor, nice visuals, and it captures the feel of the movies faithfully.

If you want pure, unadulterated violence, you came to the right place. Still, I can't help but be a little disappointed in this title -- especially coming from Volition, of Red Faction fame. It's a little too by-the-book.

The 3D graphics may be blocky, but the clean design ensures that you'll always know what's going on. There are also plenty of bonuses to unlock ranging from concept art to character models to cheats.

Fighting game fans will like Throwdown. Mixed martial arts fans will love it.

A very good RTS, and anyone who complains that it lacks the depth of a PC RTS is entirely missing the point.

The old adage about hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror holds true here, and while the terror's fun for a while, the boredom ultimately cancels it out.

Sword of the Stars is full of solid ideas and offers interesting strategic challenges and fun multiplayer action to those willing to weather its quirks, frustrations and obscurities.

The bad news is that a lot of little flaws and a couple of not-so-little flaws seemingly inherent to surfing games keep it from being the kind of game that non-surfers are going to be interested in.

Viking: Battle for Asgard is beautiful as far as offering a hurricane of blood and gore can be beautiful, but it's easy to get bogged down in the repetitive combat.

If you're in the mood for a more simplistic romp through the world of Pokemon, you'll likely enjoy Shadows of Almia. Those looking for a more traditional Pokemon experience, though, might feel a bit let down.

A highly entertaining RPG that no PSP-owning fan of the genre should pass up. Your socks won't be blown off, but your role-playing desires will be satiated. Isn't that more important?

Once you get over the initially steep learning curve in handling the cars, you'll find yourself left with a surprisingly deep and entertaining racing experience.

Binary Domain looks and plays the third-person, cover-based shooter part, but it's really just a soulless imitation. And I'd love nothing more than to bash its robot brains in.

With development teams like Criterion and Black Rock constantly raising the bar, it's unfortunate to see a racing game as passionless as Test Drive Unlimited 2. Ambitious map size and amazing architecture (seriously, some of the purchasable homes are incredible) can't make up for lackluster racing.

If you've played "Midnight Club" or "Need for Speed Underground" for any length of time, it's hard to tell you to run out and purchase Juiced. That's a shame, because this really is a very decent race game.

There are some problems with the driving controls and the genetics-based leveling-up system, but the online game is strong. All told, not a bad game to get behind the wheel of.

This game still overflows with adult themes, excessive violence, vulgarity, mild racism, and everything else that draws so much attention to the series.

You can "create the ultimate coaster -- and ride it!" But at the same time you can do very little else, and while the ride might be the ultimate, too much else just seems to be missing.

It's driven by the sort of maddening adventure game logic that had a hand in killing the genre. But there's no denying this is part of what defined the genre: clever (and often implausible) solutions from some weird corner of the brain most of us never exercise.

The central gameplay mechanic of Gallop Racer 2003, and the one I found compelling, is that it forces you to strike an ever-shifting balance between your horse's position on the track and its level of stamina.

Where Disney Sports Soccer strays from convention -- and becomes a lot more interesting in the process -- is with the addition of magic items.

Think of Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship Tournament 2004 as being like the latest version of "Madden."

A decent racer, but unresponsive controls prevent the Xbox version of QPR2 from outshining the pack.

If nothing else, this game certainly captures the dumb, single-minded spirit of the films. I'm not a fan of the series, but I did have fun with Redemption, despite its total lack of depth. For a while, that is.

A beautiful gaming experience with a solid online aspect. If you can manage to work your way through the steep learning curve for the controls, it gets easy to lose yourself in what the game has to offer.

GameSpy, however, is a website that gives away the answer to the riddle of whether The Cave is worth playing: yes. It doesn't hit the ability-powered platforming highs of Trine or the old-school adventure challenge of Maniac Mansion, and it appears the devs struggled to focus and define this ambiguous hybrid.

Despite some innovative new modes, it's how a game plays that matters most, and it's here where NBA 07 fails to grow. Thus, its appeal has shrunk. Either switch over to "Live 07," or keep your old "NBA 06" UMD close at hand.

You'll likely have fun with Justice League Heroes if you enjoy the classic dungeon crawl games that Snowblind has previously developed, and even moreso if you're a fan of comic books and the Justice League of America in particular.

Its combination of tricks and pseudo-strategy is a bit underwhelming.

The constant action means the Harry Potter series has always lent itself well to the video-game format, and thankfully (albeit surprisingly) EA has mostly improved upon their winning formula, while upping the ante visually and adding welcome multiplayer features, easily making the Goblet of Fire their best adaptation yet.

If you can put up with the need for a control pad and occasionally frustrating levels, not to mention the terrible save option, this really is a good super hero game.

It does decrease the barrier of entry enough that the average gamer has a better shot at enjoying it. Combine that with superior level design and attractive graphics and my preference for it over "Shinobi" is obvious. It's still chock full of frustration and teeth-gnashing.