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.

When taken as a whole, Children of the Nile is a disappointment. It's not that it's a bad game. In fact, buried under the rubble of the game's interface is the germ of a classic.

A super-deformed take on Diablo, wholly devoid of strategy or audiovisual pizzazz.

This game is good for a quick robot violence fix or if you happen to be a huge Gundam fan, but that's about it.

"GTA: Mexico" with B-level developer talent: The game Robert Rodriguez would have designed if his brain had been replaced by a satsuma: This is Smash TV in sombreros.

Unfortunately, the decision to split things across two titles makes each game feel like an overpriced demo, proving the old adage that the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts.

Has all the makings of a truly great air combat sim, but it's hard to recommend while it's crippled by bugs and poor documentation.

"Burnout 3" was a title that changed peoples' tune from "I don't play racing games" to "No, you can't have the controller. It's still my turn." Compared to that, Dominator just isn't as fun.

Collectively, these tweaks add a number of new tactics to the Worms repertoire, and another layer of customization. Revolution is a positive step forward. It's not, however, a game-changer, and if you're tired of the basic Worms template, it's not going to draw you back. It's no revolution. As a revival though, there's lots to like, in the old and the new.

In some ways, the problem with Unreal II is that it tries to wear too many helmets. It's a sequel to the original title, and has a healthy multiplayer mode intact because of Unreal's highly popular tournament editions. In the end, it does both without excelling at either.

Capcom has created a PS3 version of Lost Planet that includes extraordinarily limited bonus content and which doesn't run very well.

This GameCube port has a few new features that the PS2 version didn't, like a few new stages and skill capsules, but you can't escape the fact that the game is already a year old.

The racing isn't as deep as it could have been, and the game's race-first, shoot-second design keeps the player from making full use of all the armaments at your disposal.

A tragically missed opportunity. There are hints of an excellent Total War-style real-time tactics game married to the undeniable crazy charm of the Warhammer Fantasy universe.

It shows flashes of its former brilliance through two new races that are full of personality and are a lot of fun to play with, but falls flat through a lackluster single-player campaign, mediocre (at best) new air units and two devastating bugs that will kill the multiplayer scene until Relic issues an eventual patch.

The most astute comment I've heard about Battlefield 2 still applies to Special Forces: everything about it sucks except for the actual game.

Ultimately, playing the game makes you wish that the developers had spent more time refining the command system (or finding a decent cast of voiceover artists).

Veterans of "Starfleet Command" or "Homeworld" multiplayer champs should get excited, because as tactical space combat simulators go, this is a pretty good one. The rest of us who would rather keep our micromanagement confined to the realm of Excel, on the other hand, will probably go back to our "simpler" RTS games.

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.

Simply put, this isn't anywhere near as entertaining as any of the "Resident Evils" or "Silent Hills," but it's no "Blue Stinger," either.

Maybe in Dark Void 2, in which a brash, headstrong pilot gets a hold of a jetpack created by an aging engineer and uses it to fight zombies, we'll see the full-fledged realization of this game's genuinely interesting designs. Until then, however, jetpack fans will have to settle for half-baked.

I'm left wondering who Lego Rock Band is really for. It seems to be trying to cater to everyone, but it ends up simply unfocused, and occasionally outright sloppy. It doesn't actively offend, but it's nowhere near a must-have, even for serious music-game fans.

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.

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.

It's good to have a better Rayman Raving Rabbids installment on DS than the one released last year, but we have a feeling that Ubisoft could have done much more on a handheld system that offers many great examples of mini-game collections.

Awkward controls and handling largely dilute the fun of "kicking ass with the Force," especially during a few big moments toward the end. The Force Unleashed spins an entertaining yarn, but its gameplay prevents it from becoming a rich contributor to "Star Wars'" interactive tapestry.

The PC version of Alan Wake includes the two mildly interesting special episodes that debuted on Xbox 360 post-release as DLC. Continuing from the end of the main game, these gritty episodes delve deeper into the psyche of Alan after his adventure in Bright Falls, but rehash themes and environments seen in the first six episodes. They're worth playing if you just can't get enough of Alan and the darkness swirling inside his noggin, just don't expect new environments or a clear resolution to the character's fate.

Take away the armored masks and you'd have a hard time telling Army of Two: The 40th Day from a glut of other third-person shooters. It's not bad enough to be especially memorable, and it's not good enough that people will talk about it for very long.