Naruto: Ninja Council 2 isn't an awful game, but it doesn't do anything particularly well, either. It's strictly for the most die-hard fans of the show, and even they may find themselves growing bored with the game after a while.

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

It's a broken, buggy game, and if the statement about learning curves were true, it would still take far too long to gain wings before the average gamer would grow disenfranchised. The game feels completely rushed to retail in time for the launch.

The extra unlockable characters don't make replaying races a worthy use of time, and the credits roll long before you expect them to, even for a GBA racer. It's too bad, since it could have been a cute family-friendly title, but thirty bucks it's a complete waste of money for an hour's worth of gameplay.

Ninja Council 3 comes across as a game that was quickly slapped together just to get something Naruto-related on the DS.

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.

It's the lack of spectacular leaps, jumps, and tomfoolery made famous by the series that makes this knock-off all the more embarrassing, sure to sicken fans of the original game.

It's playable, mostly, but so uninteresting and bland that it's nearly impossible to think of a reason to.

My biggest objection to this game, however, is just that it's not the "spiritual sequel" to "Transport Tycoon" -- it IS "Transport Tycoon." It's not even "Transport Tycoon Deluxe," the enhanced version of the game that fans have been playing all these years.

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

PC strategy gamers have a lot to choose from on store shelves these days, and bugs, muddled combat, or weak AI aren't things that strategy fans have to live with. It pains us to admit it as fans of the franchise, but this Empire is definitely in decline.

Even though the difficulty ramps up dramatically halfway through Career mode, dedicated gamers will be able to complete the whole thing in a day, if they don't get tired of fighting the poorly designed controls before then.

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

If there's a sequel, maybe the developers will spend as much time fleshing out the game as they did their concept art.

DiRT: Showdown delivers bargain-basement entertainment value for the high, high price of $50. With its neutered physics, limited driving venues, clunky multiplayer, and diminished off-road racing options, discerning arcade racing fans should just write this one off as an unanticipated pothole in Codemaster's trailblazing DiRT series.

Afro Samurai is a mess of a game. It's such a shame to see such a beautifully rendered and stylish world ground into the dust by such staggering gameplay foibles and technical glitches.

That lackluster combat is a lot to get past in order to enjoy the tiny morsels of classic Hellboy wit, and the lingering bugs that cause Hellboy to snag and hang on bits of the environment don't help either.

Just don't be surprised if you quickly become frustrated by the copious battles and find yourself merely slogging though the adventure out of loyalty to the franchise.

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

It's exactly what diehard gamers feared that the casual gaming revolution was going to inflict on the industry: shallow, gimmicky software whose main selling point is that no one is too young, old or uncoordinated to be able to play it. Buy a real videogame or buy a board game, but don't be a dummy and let Smarty Pants walk away with your 50 bucks.

Think about building up the biggest, most elaborate base you can imagine in an Age of Empires game. Now imagine it takes four times as long as any other RTS game on the market. Then imagine that all this elaborate building leads up to a strategy portion that would have seemed primitive and simple back in 1997 when "Age of Empires" first came out.

Indeed, the problem of "generic civilizations" is particularly acute in The Art of Supremacy.

Trek fans are meant to salivate at the sights and sounds of their favorite universe made manifest, like a dog hearing the chime of a chow bell. And publisher Atari is banking on the hope that -- like Pavlov's pups -- consumers will be content with the same ol' kibble day after day. The result is a shallow, poorly paced, and repetitive game that, divorced from its storied source material, wouldn't warrant a second look.

Has a bit of style but not much new gameplay behind it. It looks good and it's a serviceable shooter (you do get to shoot things, after all), but the game play just isn't that exciting, especially when you consider that it has no multiplayer and the single-player is so linear.

The Incredible Hulk isn't the worst movie tie-in game ever made, but the initial charm of mass destruction dissipates rather quickly. This leaves it a rather buggy and joyless experience that, like a gumball, loses its flavor all too fast.

The most disappointing aspect of the game, however, is the lack of attention to detail. The loading times are atrocious simply to go from one menu to another, you cannot improve your fighter's abilities between fights in the Title Belt mode, and there's no Training mode.

Unfortunately, for my rapidly dwindling sanity, the PC version not only retains the basic gameplay, erratic camera, and simplistic level design of the original, it tops off that witch's brew of gaming mediocrity with a whole passel of problems unique to the PC version.

And although you can probably get twenty bucks' worth of fun out of it with a little effort, why wouldn't you just drop the cash on a game that did it better two years ago?

Subpar gameplay, graphics and presentation.

It's playable, mostly, but so uninteresting and bland that it's nearly impossible to think of a reason to.

Gratuitous Tank Battles may do a brilliant job of catering to some idiosyncratic gaming tastes, but I don't think it has much to offer the tower-defender or the strategist.

There's an embarrassment of riches in the genre on Xbox, so why embarrass yourself with this?

The lack of speed is a real problem here.

Killer 7 is going to start a lot of arguments -- it's definitely a love it or hate it type of game. I'm more in the "hate it" camp, but I do have to give it some props for being so radically different. Just be aware that it's a pretty severe case of style over substance.

But the problem with Homefront isn't just that it sucks, which it certainly does. The problem is that it reveals just how badly many first-person shooters are starting to suck. It's a game that magnifies the preexisting trend of developing to the lowest common denominator.

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.

Just an exercise in scribbling faster than everybody else, with no real challenge and no rewards. It's just not fun: who wants to buy a game that offers no fun at all?

But the problem with Homefront isn't just that it sucks, which it certainly does. The problem is that it reveals just how badly many first-person shooters are starting to suck. It's a game that magnifies the preexisting trend of developing to the lowest common denominator.

There's no shortage of better ways to spend your hard-earned gaming money, even when you're rummaging through the bargain bins.

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.

A second-rate adventure title with some good puzzles tacked on to a poor story.

While the abilities are beautifully balanced and the right team can be a near-amazing gameplay experience, the price, the stinginess of the content, and the amateurish lack of polish gives us pause. Maybe a lower price point that doesn't make Shadowrun as much of a ripoff as it is could help down the line. But until then, despite how much I want to like Shadowrun, the good times are not nearly worth all the money, frustration and hassle.

As a concept, Starvoid is pleasantly surprising; as a multiplayer game, the lack of community is disastrous, which makes Starvoid both quite easy and annoyingly difficult to recommend.

Unless you're desperate for a baseball game on your 'Cube, MLB 2K6 is probably worth passing up.

MLB Slugfest 2006 isn't going to revolutionize baseball games, but even at less than half the price of the competition, it still can't be recommended.

Un-inspiring characters fighting un-inspired battles to get to un-inspired cutscenes just makes for a boring, tedious disc. If you hate RPGs there will be nothing in this game to change your mind.

Piling on an unfortunate number of bugs and glitches, Blazing Angels on the Wii is undoubtedly the most disappointing version of this game to date. The lack of online multiplayer also detracts from the replayability.

Players with the patience to slug through the interface and the slow parts of the game will discover an overarching story, allowing them to reunite with lost family members and even conquer the whole of the Caribbean under one flag.

It's such a shame that Cold War is subject to crashes and often won't even load; otherwise, it would be worth a much stronger recommendation.

MLB Slugfest 2006 isn't going to revolutionize baseball games, but even at less than half the price of the competition, it still can't be recommended.

SOE tried, and failed, to straddle the line between action game and MMO. Think Crackdown -- but with all of the concessions, limitations, and annoyances of a mediocre massively multiplayer game.

If you are going to make combat the central focus of a game, that combat better be, at the bare minimum, on par with other real-time strategy games, and Legends fails miserably in that regard.

The simple fighting engine allows for some easy to get into action that will satisfy Naruto fans' desire to see their favorite characters pulling off their signature moves. If you want anything deeper than that, however, you're out of luck.

If you can live without high scores and multiplayer, then you'll be fine. Just don't bother if you already own the original Namco Museum and Pac-Man Collection. Rally-X isn't worth $20.

GT Pro Series simply fails to deliver any sort of substantial racing experience. No matter how many cars you have or how many ways you can tweak them out, the fact is, if it's no fun to actually drive around, then it fails as a racing game.

It's truly saddening to see the Rainbow Six series plummet to these depths. As it is, unless the next installment is a return to the series' glorious past, Lockdown will be the last Rainbow Six game I ever play.

Beyond the graphics and design foibles, the difficulty ramps up in an unsettling way, with races going from child's play to infernal bloodsport in the span of a single race.

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

Maybe in the next generation of consoles, I'll be able to immerse myself in the pretty graphics and forget I'm playing the same damn game yet again, but not this time.

Midway's got a decade to think about what they want the 30th anniversary Rampage remake to look like. Here's hoping they get it right then.

Alone in the Dark seems to hold open contempt for its players...You've seen survival horror done scarier and better elsewhere. Don't get burned by this one.

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.

The AI is shoddy, ball physics are often laughable, and, worst of all, there's no online play for any of the systems.

Winback 2 is essentially the closest we've come to a three-dimensional maze hunt, complete with action elements that attempt to distract you from an overly simplified gameplay structure. This may have worked at the tail end of the Nintendo 64's lifespan, but at the tail end of this console cycle it just doesn't cut it.

If you're over six years old, you have no reason to check out this game, but it would make a good gift for a daughter or younger sister.

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."

Make no mistake about it: It truly feels as though the camera in this game hates you and wants you to die. Enemies attack from off-camera. Players can't see what's around the corner. And God forbid there's an important jump that needs to be made.

Online, it was worse. There were times when we really felt like there was a 2-second delay between button push and the resulting action.

A feature-rich mediocre game. I can't really recommend it to anyone other than people with a scary obsession over Mr. Depp and fans of the movie that are willing to bear any hardship to play as Jack Sparrow.

For most gamers, there are just too many other RPGs out for the PS2 to justify picking up something as routine, and routinely mediocre, as the final edition of .hack.

Not only can you learn how to play it in ten minutes, you can pretty much master the strategy of it in the same amount of time as well.

Even Sam's biggest fans will disappointed by this mediocre title, especially those that are expecting the same type of experience they've gotten used to on the consoles.

Strong concept, weak execution. Add in the dated look of the game, and numerous bugs and glitches new and old, and Honest Hearts isn't worth the $10.

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. Just try not to get too frustrated with those darn Wii Remote controls.

Everything developer Pitbull Syndicate has achieved in LA Rush has been done before, and usually with more flourish.

All in all, WPT is not a bad title, but $20 can get you into a couple of real tournaments online. Tournaments where you could actually make money.

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.

Coded Arms: Contagion might stave off boredom for a while with its relatively attractive engine, recycled hacking mechanics and obsessive upgrading, but its virtually pointless encounters and drab, forgettable air conspire to make it little more than fodder for buyer's remorse.

The game is tolerable if you're really into its style, which is decidedly Japanese (both the art direction and the gameplay). If you are new to the Mana series, this is probably a bad introduction.

The party mentioned in the title is a very short one and players will likely decide to leave it early to knock on other doors: Rayman: Raving Rabbids and Wario Ware offer much more fun for only slightly more cash.

Nothing's truly new or captivating here. It feels like a half-hearted cash-in designed to prey on our nostalgia, not unlike Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled. It's nothing but a curiosity, fun for the few minutes prior to the realization of just how badly Excitebike has aged.

While this game is quite the looker, its gameplay is far, far too repetitive and strangely difficult. It's more of a license cash-in than a modern-day version of the classic games.

Gearheads who lust after things like a shiny new HKS Turbo will probably have fun tinkering with their fleet. Anyone else will fast become furious over dropping fifty bucks on this game.

And for the beat-'em-up fans who want something new, just playing Beat Down feels enough like getting kicked down the stairs that you won't return to the genre any time soon.

This terribly trite gameplay would be fine if the title of this software release was called, for example, "Go Dai: Elements of Power," but it isn't.

Even by GBA standards, leaves its players sorely wanting.

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.

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.

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

[It] would make a fine purchase for masochists and parents looking to punish their kids. Other than that, gamers could play "Crazy Taxi," and then watch an episode of the TV show to end up ten times more satisfied than this game will make them.

The control is poor, the AI is ridiculously inadequate, the graphics are stuck at a low resolution and are fairly uninteresting, and the game as a whole just doesn't work.

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.

The Ripping Friends isn't half-assed. It isn't even quarter-assed. The game is one-eighth of an ass ... at best.

It takes a few stabs at innovating, but alas, it's turned out to be worse than mediocre: it's lousy.

The fighting system found within Shifters is guaranteed to make just about anyone cringe. Calling it simple is a horrid understatement.

This one stinks of yesterday's diapers.

A hack-and-slash fest in its most basic, embarrassing form -- and faulty, at that.

A great concept marred by exceptionally bad implementation. A game that is impossible to recommend to anyone, for any reason.