Shame on Namco for sitting on this game for so long and letting it grow stale.

The game's abysmal controls and moronic A.I. fail to deliver.

Recommended only if you're uncontrollably and incomprehensively addicted to the original.

The Wii might be hurting for air combat games, but even the mediocre Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII is slightly better than Heatseeker (and by this point, there's a decent chance that you can find it used).

As a shooter, it's an awfully generic game that we're hard-pressed to recommend among the smorgasbord of significantly better FPS titles out there right now. As a political allegory, it's undermined by poor audio with no subtitles, heavy-handed storytelling, and little to emotionally invest in these characters.

Its lack of innovation, crude trick control scheme, and lousy opponent AI might tempt you to look elsewhere for your watercraft kicks...but I can't help but smile as I weave my way through the course.

An ambitious genre-bending title killed by one tedious mission after another.

Rock Manager does truly emulate the music industry: it's the equivalent of a CD where the first tracks are the best and the rest is all filler.

It's a decent baseball game on the GBA, but not a pennant winner.

It's not so much that the enemies are hard to kill, or that the simplistic level design inflicts any brain-bending puzzles, but more that the inherent trial-and-error style progression through the levels gets tedious to the point of removing all the fun from playing.

There is no single thing terribly wrong with Tork, other than the fact that it's extremely vanilla, uncreative, and by-the-book.

A mess of a real-time strategy game that's unlikely to appeal to either EQ loyalists or RTS fans.

If you enjoy strategy games that aren't too in-depth and have a slower pace, this game is for you.

This is a hard game. Despite the intended juvenile audience, keeping your demons alive through even a single battle can sometimes be a real struggle.

The graphics flow toward you with zero draw-in at a rock-solid 60 frames per second, creating a mesmerizing light show that can be captivating.

While it has the series' trademark snappy dialogue, sultry vixens, and more double entendres than a classic Rodney Dangerfield routine, it's missing one thing: the fun. The mini-games dragged after only a few hours, and getting through the game felt like a chore.

Orochi's one of the most polished of the recent Warriors games.

Despite Fracture's promises of altering the gaming landscape as we know it, its aftershocks will likely be nearly imperceptible.

Gretzky '06 piles up some new features, does a better job of tracking franchise info, and has the AHL license for minor-league teams. It does not, however, come close to equaling the on-ice fun of "NHL 2k6" or "NHL '06."

I can't say I had no fun at all playing Jagged Alliance: Back in Action -- in fact, I'm having an entertaining time replaying the early missions with an all-melee hit squad and doing better than my first time around -- but I can say that of the 50 hours of my life it took to put a bullet in the queen, I want about half of them back. Even hardcore strategy players are going to have a hell of a time liberating Arulco without it turning into a frustrating quagmire.

The lack of secrets and multiplayer modes also means an utter lack of replay value, but I felt nothing but satisfaction at the rousing conclusion.

The voice acting is more painful than ever, and continues to sabotage the series' attempts at dramatic storytelling.

It's no modern-day classic, but Barnyard is still a good choice for young gamers, with a nice unhurried design somewhat reminiscent of "Animal Crossing."

The game's presentation is easily worth the attention of even the most hardcore comic fans.

If you're a gambler and need something to wean yourself off of the online poker sites, then you could do far worse than playing with the relatively benign token system at Pogo.com. On the other hand, if you're a gamer looking for a compelling puzzle diversion, then you could do far better.

Unless you're a hardcore fan of Tetsuya Mizuguchi, there's not much to hold your interest here.

Its look and feel is too juvenile for adults, and some of its challenges are too difficult and frustrating for kids. Even rabid Tolkien fans won't care for the game, thanks to its translation of the classic novel into a lightweight, cartoonish platformer.

Clusterball is fun in spurts, but the control and the physics keep it from being as addictive as it potentially could be.

An ambitious, overly flawed attempt to revitalize a true gaming milestone.

It's not necessarily the best wrestling game put out by THQ this year, but it's easily the most innovative.

It's solid enough, with only minor bugaboos as a single-player game, but it really kicks butt with its multiplay.

The game is moving the Conflict series in the right direction with better level design and graphics. But at the same time, some of those levels can be a nightmare of retries and micromanagement because of the outrageous odds, limited saves, and weak teammate A.I.

Cooking Mama: Cook Off has its moments, such as in multiplayer, in which most players will end up on the same level playing field, partly due to some of the flaws of the gameplay mechanic. It seems as though Taito wanted to get a Wii version out quickly, and we wish it hadn't.

A simple game. It doesn't promise to do much, but what it does do, it does fairly well.

A game that would have been considered mediocre by last year's standards. This year, with every other title cranking it up a notch, MLB 2004 is left in the dust.

The gameplay is extremely fast paced, and while difficult to master at times, it does make for an extremely captivating experience.

You'd be much better served picking up a port like Rayman or Mario, or something more original like Warioland.

What I did get is some good co-op play, an extension of the Empire mode that I enjoyed a while back, and a current-gen price tag acting almost as an apology from Koei for the lack of innovation.

From here on out, next-gen games are going to be separated into two categories: those that have evolved, and those that have not. Even though N3: Ninety-Nine Nights gives us literally 1,000 onscreen opponents, I'm afraid it sits firmly in the latter section.

The AI is stuck in neutral, the races aren't exciting enough to get your engine running, and the missions feel a bit flat.

Most importantly, the gameplay feels just a bit looser and less controlled. That's not to say it fails -- it just could have been better.

Simply put, it has no hook. It offers nothing of interest to an even semi-seasoned gamer. It's as dull a foray into platforming as you'll find on your local store's shelves, and another unfortunate example of this license being diluted.

Perhaps the single biggest fault of Shadow Ops is that the game simply offers nothing new to the genre and lacks any personality.

The cars are simplistic, out-detailed even by their real life plastic counterparts. The tracks are colorful and filled with interactive objects, but this won't be mistaken for next-generation gaming.

The game falls short of its potential, serving more as a sort of interactive blueprint for a few decent episodes that would probably be more entertaining on TV.

Once you step on the field, things start to unravel.

It is a decent effort to bring the RTS setting to the battlefields of Europe during World War II, yet it doesn't compare to such similar themed titles as "Combat Mission" or "Close Combat."

Though configurable enough for newbie play, the subject matter actually makes for a poor tactical wargame.

Having the option to buy more planes is great, but something that bugged me was that I couldn't upgrade the planes and improve the plane's stats.

The series is beginning to fall behind the times, and BR: Extreme is a bit shopworn, but it's still a good time.

Looks and plays like it's ten years old.

Star Wars: Lethal Alliance does little to differentiate itself from the herd of third-person action games on PlayStation Portable. The Star Wars inclusion is too subtle to be considered a benefit and the action is ho-hum.

If you judge TMNT on its own merits as a platform-hopper with a dash of semi-imaginative combat thrown in, then it's a fine game.

Hockey fans want to see their favorite players gliding effortlessly across the ice, not spastically jerking from end to end. The Great One was one of the smoothest players of all time, but his game is in dire need of a few visits from the zamboni to smooth out the bumps.

Somewhere inside Nexagon: Deathmatch, there's an interesting concept trying to get out, but the arena combat, base building, and futuristic sports theme never gel. The lack of clear instruction, the fun-killing load times, frequently lame combat, and some bugs and pathfinding problems don't do the game any favors.

Even the overdone gore isn't realistic enough for the morally unhinged. It's a lackluster experience and part-time embarrassment to the hardware potential of this game system.

A good game for kids. Since that's the target for this title, then it gets higher marks than it would otherwise.

At almost no point does anything feel remotely "extreme" about the game, and it feels like everything has been watered down to accrue that "E" rating.

A pretty good port is a far cry from a strong original game, but fans looking for a quick fix of shooting action should find that this game meets the standard.

As dense and nihilistic as the source material, but not nearly as thrilling.

Taking into account the small development group and the price, I'm hard-pressed not to recommend this game as a must-have.

Unfortunately, similar products have been around for years now, and unless you're not old enough to play competitive poker on an online gambling site (most of which offer free games as well), it's hard to justify picking this one up.

But for those who were hoping for an evolution of the franchise, or those who have had no exposure to it in the first place, this is not the game for you.

Although the terrible voice acting, bad translations, and poor animations give Prince of Qin a rather unrefined feel, the numerous and interesting locations and quests and the thrill of raising levels are enough to make the game worth a look for role-playing fans.

A borderline disaster. I say "borderline" because there are a few things which save the expansion from being a total flop, but they are few and far between.

If you loved the multiplayer part of "Rune" -- go for it. If you're hoping it improves Rune… sorry.

The combat is challenging because of the limits of the interface.

It may not be revolutionary or technically stunning, but it is a lot of fun; and that's what games are all about.

It starts off promising, but too much of what follows is lamely generic or underdeveloped. The game also punishes you for exhibiting daring or initiative.

You have to own military manuals to make any sense of the thousands of acronyms which are "understood" in the game.

If you can find the '01 Rugby on a "used" rack, I'd pick it up before this one; it doesn't accurately emulate as many aspects of the sport, but it's a better video game.

The perspective is wrong, making combat a chore, and playing against other people is a nightmare. Even if you can ignore these faults, it succumbs to another deadly sacrament that affects even the best fighting game: it's repetitive to the point of exhaustion.

A mildly entertaining console port that's heavy on gameplay but short on substance.

Though it doesn't hit the graphical highs of the upcoming "Metal Gear Solid 3," the visual style is one of the few ways that Spy Fiction distinguishes itself from its parent series in a positive way.

Very deep and is worth every penny of its price if you take the time to get to know it.

It's just a simple 3D platformer, and not a very challenging one at that, but it'll likely bring a smile to the faces of kids, parents, and Disney fans alike.

Just a first-person shooter with all the markings of mediocrity. It's got linear levels, an unimpressive arsenal, and simplistic shooter gameplay for both the single-player and multiplayer games.

With a lame story and boring gameplay, I got tired of Ghost in the Shell Standalone Complex in a hurry. There's also a noticeable lack of polish, with things like maps and clear objective descriptors being absent.

Short games aren't immediately terrible, but even the short ones ought to have something to justify their length as much as the long ones.

Or how about the single-player in general? It's boring, consisting mainly of shooting hundreds of uninteresting thugs. The baddies are supposed to be endowed with "Evil AI," but heck if I could tell. They just seemed dumb.

Forget its troubled lineage -- Revenge of the Fallen is a huge improvement over the first movie tie-in. While the average gamer will be modestly entertained, Transformers fans will probably love it.

It's clear that Boiling Point has some neat ideas and the potential for fun, but as tantalizing as the game can be, it can also feel more like slow torture than entertainment.

The game's presentation is easily worth the attention of even the most hardcore comic fans. The graphics are all fairly well defined, with the GameCube version just edging out the PS2 in visual quality.

While the game should have included at least a little bit of museum-quality extras, at $20 it's still a hard deal to pass up.

The game's combination of strong story, seriously tactical real-time battles, gorgeous graphics, and real-time role-playing, make this one of the best surprises of the year.

Had the potential to be a much greater game, but the terrible missions really drag it down. After a while you get tired of having to rely on the strategy guide to find the only way through a map's wacky mission scripting.

The intelligent touches and relative difficulty make Rogue Ops generally fun for fans of the genre. The unevenness in the presentation and controls keep it from really setting the genre on fire.

We haven't been huge fans of Need for Speed: ProStreet on other consoles, but the Wii version is by far the absolute worst one. It's not even so much the muddy, washed-out graphics (though they are quite awful, even by Wii standards) as it is that a significant number of features seem to have been stripped right out of the game and replaced with a control scheme that is agonizingly frustrating.

A gameplay experience more fans will enjoy, but an out of the box experience that might not be challenging enough for hardcore seamheads who spent countless hours mastering how to throw the perfect curve in MLB 2K8. Still, this game is by all means a successful update.

The multiplayer has too many hiccups to be worth your time. The single-player mode is so unbalanced that when I put the game on my bookshelf, it tipped over.

The basic gameplay of Avatar is so fundamentally flawed that even those few bright spots would only set you up for disappointment. Because, despite the guiding hand of Cameron, Avatar is ultimately just another big-name movie game that doesn't fulfill its early promise.

What Infernal has to offer is very simple, pretty graphics, showcased in a variety of levels that take you from a mountainside monastery to an offshore train yard to an aircraft carrier, paired with decent action and surprisingly fun boss battles.

In still frames this game looks good, really good. In motion it has the grace of a beached humpback whale, and even then the whale might have the advantage.

It'll take a much stronger effort than this to give anyone other than Robotech fans the game they've been waiting for.

The admittedly cool storyline is wasted on infrequent text windows with motionless character portraits.

The perceptive lack of lots of courses in Air Ride mode and the limited fun that the Top Ride and City Trial modes offer might shy away some gamers, but KAR is primarily a fast, fun, and novel take on the kart racing genre that shouldn't go ignored.

And though its mishmash of gameplay elements quickly becomes tedious, there are moments of genuine fun that will keep you coming back in the short term, including a wide variety of vintage Playboy unlockables.

You are almost always riding the finest line between screaming along somewhat stably and totally losing it, and in that sense, Baja succeeds tremendously. Those kinds of stakes may not appeal to everyone, however, and the majority of people who tend to like finishing races may not need all of the incredible realism that an intense sim like Baja has to offer.