This game seems to be yet another victim of "let's concentrate on making the console versions good and just crank out a portable version in order to generate a few extra bucks."

Unfortunately, there isn't much to this game's rendition of New York that hasn't been done better in other games.

While technologically more advanced than its predecessor, Evil Dead: Fistful of Boomstick proves to be no deeper or innovative than "Hail to the King."

All of this would be excusable if the game's mechanics and level designs were interesting, but they're not -- it's baseline stuff.

While the experience isn't particularly compelling, you can conceivably play Circle of Doom for hundreds and hundreds of hours.

After six nearly identical Mega Man Battle Network games and one followup that was presumed to reboot the series (but didn't, really), is it any surprise that Mega Man Star Force 2 is pretty much the same game that Capcom has been churning out for the past seven years?

It's important to note that there are some very solid fundamental designs at work here, and an entertaining game can be found if you have the patience to stomach the painful technical issues and the small user base that currently plagues Fury. In a best-case scenario, Fury's population would quadruple in the next six months, and with a larger community, some of the player-matching issues would clear up.

All in all, Cold War Conflict doesn't offer much except cut corners and a genuinely frustrating experience.

Overall, it's just a confusing, poorly conceived product that should set off a consumer's "money grab" senses.

This is adventure gaming for lazy gamers who don't mind being led around on a leash.

A sometimes overwhelming game that lacks the simplicity of the genre's most addictive titles.

I occasionally caught glimpses of a competent simulation underneath the bugs, poor instruction, and rage-inducing interface, but not even the best of today's strategy games would be tolerable to play if subject to the malfunctioning saves, crashes, and sloppy presentation of Port Royale 3.

While there's some fun to be had with Mario Party Advance, and quite a few great game-playing aspects, it's a bit tedious and tired when you look at the slew of other excellent multiplayer games have been released for the GBA.

While Ballers hits from long-range with pretty graphics and plenty of Cribz-esque intros and unique elements, it clangs off the rim a bit with its Chosen One storyline execution.

You can randomize population (electoral votes), wealth, issue importance, and demographics, but all this does is divorce Political Machine 2012 from context even more. There are historical and social reasons for red state/blue state divides, reasons that Republicans tend to be more successful in rural, poorer states, reasons that certain issues may be more important to California and New York than they are in Georgia and Tennessee. But Political Machine 2012 is only interested in the game of presidential politics -- and unfortunately, it doesn't even do a good job with that game.

The generic nature of the challenges, graphics and controls forces me to propose that gamers try something else.

A good idea waiting to be fully realized and simply needs more depth to compete with the competition.

A step -- albeit a small one -- in the right direction for the series. The gameplay has been deepened, as has the career mode. Where it still needs work is in the presentation.

The difference between the two games is night and day, with "Mario Party 4" being the better of the two by a wide margin.

Night Watch's main element -- combat -- is fun and engaging, especially once the characters reach higher levels and have more options. But to call it an RPG is a bit disingenuous, because you truly have very few options to individualize the characters, and the story continues in a linear fashion.

An improvement over "Real War," but only in parts. It's still a clumsy game to play with a major frustration factor.

There were times when I was loving Astro Boy and times when it was boring me to tears.

The constant rattling of locked doorknobs in Nakatomi Plaza makes it obvious and frustrating. Since floors in the plaza are limited in size, why have all the locked doors?

The embodiment of third-rate gameplay.

As ridiculous as it sounds, with a little more money and thought put into how the player might react to not actually playing the game, this could've been something worthwhile.

Jurassic Park just feels like an iOS title, and it suffers on the PC because of it.

If you or a person on your Christmas list would like an adventure game with a good short story and wouldn't mind a few old-school arcade moments, Atlantis Evolution might suffice, but it's far from being a must-play.

An original title? Heck no. Is it a complex title? Certainly not. But is it loads of fun? You bet.

We were hoping for more from The Lord of the Rings: Conquest, and we're disappointed that the game didn't do more with such a powerful license. Star Wars: Battlefront hasn't aged very well, and to get essentially the same game with a different theme left us wanting more.

The game remains faithful to the source material and blends two distinct gameplay styles into an entertaining hybrid. Fans of the series should find this a great addition to their Shaman King collection.

All things considered, it's probably a blessing that Dead To Rights II is a short game. Most players will easily nail the coffin shut in a weekend.

Only truly hardcore fans will need to own their own copy; as competent and polished as it is for the genre, it's also a throwback.

One gets the feeling that the show's creators are trying to wash their hands of Via Domus, awkwardly placed as it is in the series' now-sprawling legendarium. But above and beyond that, fans should approach it as a lark; it's not very accomplished as a game.

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.

The game is short -- way too short. A halfway decent player is going to spend more time watching the movie than playing through the story mode.

Again, Nexuiz is by no means a bad game. It does, however, seem like a superfluous one.

During each mission, there's a chance for some turn-based squad combat to occur. These fights, I'm sorry to say, are a poor man's XCOM.

There's no real story to hold any of this together, so in the end, Cars for the DS amounts to nothing more than some disjointed mini-games that are either too drab or too long to warrant unnecessary replays.

The level design and longevity just isn't there to make this more than a rental or a bargain-big pick-up -- especially with God of War II's release closing fast. This rider is anything but the leader of the pack.

Remedial action with faint glimmers of fun, wiped out by tedious and insipid gameplay.

The game's poor presentation and frustrating combat system make the mystery behind The Da Vinci Code one that most gamers would be better off leaving unsolved.

Maybe one day Frogger will get his chance to recapture his '80s video-game glory, but if Ancient Shadow is any indication, you can probably expect a new hit single from the Bee Gees first.

It's an offensively bad use of a cherished license, and it's an offensively simple and thoughtless strategy game.

It remains bogged down with completely unbalanced gameplay, maddeningly difficult AI, and online gameplay that has the longevity of a stick of Big Red. That being so, there's nothing worthwhile in the final product that you can't get in the demo.

It's hard to recommend Transformers: The Movie on its own merits, but those looking to simply stomp around a city as Optimus Prime will have some fun with it.

If Namco just spent another month or two polishing the camera and targeting, it could have had a rock solid action title under its belt.

It's occasionally so rough around the edges that you'll lose sight of its superlative premise and you might just decide you'd rather play "Baldur's Gate" after all.

A visually clumsy representation of the card game with an even clumsier and clunkier way to play against another duelist.

I can't imagine anyone but diehard fans going to these lengths. Everyone else should stick to Atari's game that's based on Transformers Armada -- it's still the best way to wage a battle to destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons.

If At World's End had standard combat controls, it wouldn't be a great game, but it'd be solidly mediocre. As it is, it's just no fun to play. Even the biggest Pirates fan will quickly grow tired and toss in their "Dead Man's Chest" DVD to watch while they place an ice pack on their shoulder.

Isn't worth the cost of an Extra Value Meal, let alone two.

Diehard RTS gamers, however, will find War Times doesn't keep pace with the depth and appeal of stalwarts like "Age of Mythology" or "Rise of Nations."

There's a steeper visual disparity between this and the HD-gen versions than many multiplatform games, partly because Rainbow wasn't behind the development of this version. However, if you're not interested in how modern a game looks or feels and you just want to go big now, you'll probably enjoy Untamed.

It is on the cusp of being a fun game, but the lack of editing capability and the omission of offline bots severely limit its replay value.

Like an old, wretched, but enthusiastic quarterback that's become painful to watch after too many seasons of failure, expect to QBC come back for one more season.

It certainly sounds like an awesome game, but the execution is so terminally flawed in almost every way that a game can be flawed that it isn't worth anyone's time.

It's impossible to recommend a multiplayer shooter that no one plays. If no one's playing now, just after release, rest assured no one will be in a month.

Exactly what I expected it to be -- a perfectly mediocre game with a few good jokes and not a whole lot of gameplay.

The core game is unsatisfying because of the control scheme that seems Hell-bent on ruining your wrists; all that waggling is good for precisely nobody.

The game isn't deep enough to offer anything else more complex than a block-and-return-punch style of combat.

There's just not a whole lot of game here, but what there is, is pure Britney. It's as shallow as the diva herself.

Such a faithful port of the original that it even reproduces the disappointment many of us felt oh those many years ago when we realized that there was not a lot of gameplay beneath the clever film-like experience.

It's just not user-friendly. The HUD is a mess, and I struggled to decipher how damaged vehicles were -- either mine or my opponents'. Your level objectives aren't easily displayed, and neither is a radar of where your enemies are or what the track looks like.

Big Willy Unleashed isn't a bad game; it just feels extremely watered-down. Perhaps it's because all the real effort is being put into Crypto's upcoming PS3 debut, but this feels like a pale imitation of the other DAH titles.

Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 just isn't as relaxing, with its frustrating mini-games and flawed core game mechanics. There's still plenty of eye-candy to be had, but if you're looking for anything more, you may want to pass.

There might not be any innovation here, but there's still some fun to be had. Just don't expect much more than what you're used to getting.

The crashes, lockups, and bizarro-world English really put a damper on things and lead to a lot of nerve bending frustration, and in the end it's just not worth the effort to fight through all the mess.

If special effects trump all the complaints in this review, well, go ahead and enjoy, just keep the receipt around for when the novelty starts to fade.

The story should rekindle your fondness for the series, since you're basically replaying through the same storyline as the cartoon.

The gameplay simply isn't as tight as it should be. The care and time you take in building your bot is often wasted due to too many quirky design flaws.

Much of Genesis' desert dry tedium would evaporate if it was just a turn-based title. You wouldn't have to spend what feels like an eternity manually sending units to check on every little thing. As is, though, this Game of Thrones feels more like a game of musical chairs set to elevator music: slow, devoid of charm, and utterly lacking in payoff.

Unfortunately, playing it with the flighty Wii Remote controls can sometimes make it more frustrating than fun, and the much ballyhooed eight-player mode (just look at those excited folks on the back of the box) is a (wait for it) bust.

The real draw here should be competing with other players over Nintendo Wi-Fi Connect. Sadly, it's far too difficult to really get anything resembling a fulfilling online experience out of Pokémon Battle Revolution.

The 400+ hours of gameplay is a disability if anything, for if you desire to play more than a couple dozen hours you have a stronger constitution than I do or are a glutton for punishment.

A decent game, with both good and bad points. Nothing to wait in line for though, and not one you're likely to lose sleep over.

By the fifth level, you'll already be saying, "Been there. Done that."

It remains bogged down with completely unbalanced gameplay, maddeningly difficult AI, and online gameplay that has the longevity of a stick of Big Red. That being so, there's nothing worthwhile in the final product that you can't get in the demo.

More tedious than scary and more frustrating than shocking.

Unless you're very forgiving, impervious to frustration, or blindly love all things Monkey Ball, Super Monkey Ball Adventure probably isn't your idea of a good time.

Perhaps the worst offense of all would have to be Wolverine. Not only has Z-Axis managed to take everyone's favorite adamantium-infused Canadian wildman and turn him into possibly the most boring hero ever, they've pinned a sizable majority of the action upon playing as him. Boring, you say? Yes.

As nightmares go, this one ranks right up there with the one about entering the schoolyard pantsless, and perhaps even on fire. The turtles deserve better, and its unfortunate this game extends their bad luck streak.

It's not a matter of the game bringing forth 140 hours of fun, rewarding gameplay, but 140 hours of watching-the-paint-dry monotony. You're better off checking out the wealth of "Diablo II" mods than plodding your way through Blade & Sword.

I think if they had a little more time to work on the camera and control issues (and improve the graphics), Dawn of Fate could've been a great game. Instead it's just a game that the publisher rushed out the door, and it's mediocre (at best) because of it.

This is the worst of the three versions, if only because the 25-30 frames-per-second romp slows to five fps and judders along for a few seconds before righting itself.

As much as we enjoyed playing Katana, we really can't recommend it to most gamers. While the Wii Remote sword combat is the best we've seen yet, there are other games on the horizon that will likely do it better ("Dragon Quest: Swords" or "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" perhaps?).

Operation Spy proves there's plenty of spy-related mini-games yet to be made, but ripping them out of the context of some kind of story means it's all pretty boring.

Several shots short of a 21 gun salute.

Although Marvel Nemesis is far from being a perfect game, it's still an exceptionally strong outing for EA. Comic fans should be suitably impressed with EA's use of the Marvel license, and fighting fans will likely find more than enough substance to keep themselves entertained.

Just a sadly mediocre attempt to do something that really didn't need doing. Now, can we please have a real VF adventure, Sega?

The purpose of parody is to comment on a topic, by means of humorous or satiric imitation, and Eat Lead manages to pull this off admirably. I enjoyed playing this game, not because it was a very good shooter, but because it made me think (and laugh) about the other games I play.

While Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup is a faithful handheld version of the literary sport, it doesn't quite work as a game without the feeling of flight that is Quidditch's most magical aspect.

Even though Spy vs. Spy has some dreadful, contrived gameplay, things are evened out a bit with options for in-game Dolby Digital sound and HDTV 480p functions. Even though you're stuck with a mediocre game, it will look and sound fairly clean.

A somewhat benign, scaled-down version of the console version that might catch some parents' eye on the shelf come holiday shopping time.

One of those "if only" games: if only the RPG elements had been fully developed; if only the game world were larger; if only the combat were smoother and not slow as molasses; if only the A.I. were stronger; if only the bugs and general sloppiness had been worked out.

I can't imagine anyone but diehard fans going to these lengths. Everyone else should stick to Atari's game based on Transformers Armada -- it's still the best way to wage a battle to destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons.

Krater is a game with many problems, most all the more irritating for being specifically added to the formula instead of simply messing it up.

Midnight Nowhere has a very creepy atmosphere, excellent puzzles, and great voice acting. If it weren't for the terrible translations, it might be one of the best adventure games of the year.

Fun for a few minutes but gets played out all too quickly.