It's fun, challenging, and it left this jaded reviewer as giddy as a schoolgirl -- in this case, a schoolgirl that happens to control a 120-foot tall robot.

A great, if overly hard revamp, of the classic SNES racer.

Overall I found Close Combat: Normandy Invasion a breath of fresh air in a genre where emphasis is often placed on the "amass and swarm" strategies, or resource attrition.

A great expansion pack. It makes Shogun better, adds new units, modes, and campaigns, and yet doesn't disrupt the sweaty-palmed fun of the original.

An incredible technical achievement, and easily the GBA's best retro-collection. If you have even the slightest fondness for the Atari Age, or if you want to begin your game-history self-education in earnest, Anthology is a must.

Sure, it can be rather frustrating at times, but it's always such enjoyable frustration.

It's got a nice open-ended style, a character that fits the gimmick, and plenty of violence.

Black Gold's combination of intense real-time action, gorgeous graphics, and streamlined play make this one of the best real-time strategy games of 2001.

The missions are a wee bit tough, but nothing a veteran player can't handle. This game is realistic enough to satisfy the wargamers among us, and exciting enough to satisfy the most jaded real-time strategy gamer.

Long-time fans of the KOF series may feel a bit cheated by the lack of a voice announcer and background animations.

Perhaps the best brawler on the Game Boy Advance, and a good nostalgia trip for Double Dragon and beat-'em-up aficionados.

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

While Spider-Man 2 has some issues, nearly everything is outweighed by the fantastic web-slinging and the huge city environment.

Even if you've played the original, SSX Tricky is a fantastic game of fast paced action and tons of surprises.

Forget it if pure action is your bag, but fans of MGS-style thievery owe it to themselves to check this one out. Just keep a couple of puke bags handy if you're a little emotionally sensitive.

Even with multiple solutions to some situations, the game follows a largely linear path. Except for the user's material participation in combat, Bridge Commander can feel like a pure adventure game.

While Spider-Man 2 has some issues, nearly everything is outweighed by the fantastic web-slinging and the huge city environment.

An excellent wrestling game offering enhanced creation tools, excellent graphics, fast paced action and a ton of new (and old) gameplay modes.

Certainly one of the best racing titles for the system, even if there are no foolish spectators to mow down every time you slide a bit too widely around a curve.

It has plenty of meat to go along with the sweetness, and is part of your well-balanced gaming diet.

I thought I had totally burnt myself out, playing for over four hours a day for over a week. I wondered if it was possible to ruin a game by playing it too much. But 60 hours in, I still want more.

Thanks to revolutionary ten-man motion captures, the look of 2004 will impress you. This is the first hoops I've played where everyone on the court acts the way they're supposed to.

Immersive elements are everywhere: You don't just press a button to activate a lever that opens a gate -- you use the analog stick to shift Harry in the direction you want to tug that lever.

The combat system is one of the best you're likely to see in an action game of this sort. It's so solid that Crimson Sea 2's "kill everything that moves" formula doesn't become stale or tedious until quite late in the game, which is a huge accomplishment for a game based on such a simple concept.

Possibly the best game currently available for Xbox Live. Conversely, the single-player game offers very little gameplay and thus the title will likely not be too attractive to offline gamers. But what the game sets out to achieve, it achieves quite well.

It's not perfect, but it's got enough unique style to create thirst for a follow-up.

This game exemplifies the sleeper hit; its unique feel, solid gameplay, and great aesthetics offer up something a little left of center, but it's something that anyone who's remotely interested in the genre should be checking out.

The look of the game is also solid. Creepy catacomb textures and eerie lighting effects crank up the spooky mood of the game. Character models are also solid, with Buffy and crew actually looking a lot like their TV counterparts.