God of War Sons of Sparta struggles to deliver on the best of God of War or the best the Metroidvania genre has to offer. Combat is dull and lifeless despite a handful of nice ideas, and it's visually ugly and muddy. Even lacking in brutal finishers, this all feels quite tame. It's not bad, but serviceable struggles to excite – and that's a sin for God of War.

If cutesy farming RPG makes you raise an inquisitive eyebrow rather than gag, Harvest Moon DS may be worth cultivating.

And the world is huge. If it was more packed with opportunities for us to use those tools and stunts, this could have been a GTA-killer.

You can hack your way through nine holes in one bus ride, thanks to fast animations. And, let's face it, if you're a big-time golfer there are not many DS options. Just don't expect much strategy or finesse or beauty.

Not everyone is going to appreciate the deliberate humor or the bad acting found in EDF 2017 Portable, but those who want a solid arcade shooter that offers plenty of challenge are sure to come back for more.

The series' most stylish entry ever thanks to The Yard and player customization, but these new features come without the substance required to contend for football glory.

While it's not nearly as deep as you'd expect for a game with the Firaxis seal of approval on it in terms of features or gameplay, CivCity Rome manages to provide a significant level of entertainment, despite its obvious and glaring faults.

HDTV nuts note: the 360 version also goes to 1080i resolution, while the PS3 is limited to 720i. But ultimately, like an import tuner with fuzzy dice and neon running lights but no steering wheel, you can't help feeling that some of the most important parts are missing.

PowerUp Forever has a gorgeous look, and if it copies too heavily from other games, it combines the borrowed bits in a truly unique way. It’s more artistic than most games, but it’s also strictly a solo experience. There are a ton of other twin-stick shooters that are just a little deeper and better balanced, and many of them offer multiplayer support.

It's got enough content for you to get through a few career mode seasons while you wait for a likely iteration timed for the 2013 season that's loaded with features. But make no mistake, it's not FIFA 12, and despite the cover athletes, you'll be disappointed if you dive into this one with expectations of the latest console experience.

Its toughness means that for the bad tempered out there, this game is a sure source of busted controllers. And its visual and story blandness might be a turnoff.

Global Offensive takes no chances and it's hard to tell who it was made for. Source and 1.6 players will feel at home with the tried and true CS mechanics and traditional game modes, but GO gives them few reasons to migrate, other than flashy graphics on a few of the old maps. Conversely, newcomers to the series will find Counter-Strike's steep learning curve rather discouraging.

There’s not much else on the DS to challenge MX, so if you’ve got to fill your mud-spraying fix, it’s a decent enough choice, but don’t expect a whole lot of variety in the experience.

The best thing to say about Dynasty Warriors 6 is that it's an easy way to kill quite a few hours, but that doesn't make it particularly good.

"For fans only" is a well worn cliche, but in a game as incredibly specific and dedicated as NTG: 2011, it's the truth.

That parade of cathartic moments still makes God of War 3 worth playing, especially given the vividness and eye-popping destruction woven into every major battle. It peaks and drags and peaks and drags, sure, but God of War at its high point was never going to be sustainable.

Meet the Robinsons already fares tremendously better than its kiddy-fied brethren mainly due to its witty and sharp script. The game has some great ideas and gets points for at least trying to separate itself from the pack of bargain bin mother-friendly games. If it weren’t for the awful aiming system and cumbersome objectives, it might get an extra [10 or 20 points].

Thanks to its unusual source material and sunny setting, Enotria: The Last Song looks like a fresh take on a genre so often set deep in gothic nights. Unfortunately, beneath the mask, there's little that sets it apart from other, better games.

There's going to be a certain group of fans who absolutely love (lovelovelovelovelove) DanceMasters – it does a great job of translating the spirit of DDR to the Kinect interface.

For the devoted, Edge of Time is a nice rental with a weekend of passable web-slinging, but we hope, for Peter Parker's sake, that this one marks the end of the character's downward trend.

Using the GamePad screen to play gives the best experience and also frees up the TV for other use, which has proven to be an unexpected bonus of the Wii U overall. If it weren't for the choppy framerate of the standard game modes, NBA 2K13 would be a contender for the best sports game on the platform.

We liked the setting, liked the gameplay but ultimately there wasn't enough to keep it in our console for a very long time.

So while the spectacle of the park exceeds the actual rides, PokePark Wii is still worth checking out if you're a fan of the actual Pokemon themselves and just want a relaxing Pokemon-themed diversion.

"For fans only" is a well worn cliche, but in a game as incredibly specific and dedicated as NTG: 2011, it's the truth.

It's also not like there are many JPRG options on Wii right now, so if you're really eager to play a traditional, if uninspired, RPG on Wii, Arc Rise definitely offers a respectable 40-ish hour experience – just don't expect it to throw you any curve balls.

The big problem is that the PS3 has the SingStore, where we could have downloaded only the tracks we wanted. Hence, tossing out what is essentially a track pack is pretty much useless to us.

With its creaky, ancient-feeling game mechanics and ultimate lack of replayability, Reloaded feels like it would be much more at home on mobile platforms at a much smaller cost than its $20 release price tag.

So, basically, you have a pretty average, simple golf game, with a world online that's enjoyable enough to play through with fellow golfers.

Modern action games are expected to be stylish, thrilling, customizable, and visually compelling, and Dragon Blade comes up wildly short in most regards. There's surely a market for titles that feature punishingly difficult, fast-paced battles and little else, but most gamers will likely tire of this drab experience long before the final battle.

Horrific in completely the wrong way, Outlast 2 is a night-vision journey into frustration. An intriguing story just can’t save the infuriating misery that awaits.

While its well-crafted array of puzzles are fun whether you’re new to the games or not, its controls and technical hiccups take away from wanting to play the game. Jack Keane may have what it takes to be your next daring adventurer, but Fire Within may not be your next go-to adventure.

A game system without a compelling game. You've got to love the smooth, easy-to-play combat, and at least appreciate the modes of play and the attempt to replicate card game realities like buying booster packs and unique cards to build killer custom decks. But there just isn't enough depth or Warhammer personality here to hold your interest for long.

Compared to other minigame collections, Bomberman Land is a dud.

Some boss battles are absolutely thrilling, and the plot, while somewhat convoluted, definitely feels like a proper X-Men story, but the dull, monotonous battles and lack of polish hamstring the game.

Time has moved past this style of game, and if you don’t miss JRPGs like this one, you’ll end up wishing this vision of the future stayed in the ’90s.

It's far from the top of its class, and it has a lot of rough edges, but Game of Thrones is perfectly competent in most of what it sets out to do. It tells a good story that's worth experiencing, but if you don't care about the series or care more about the gameplay wrapper around a plot, there are a few better choices out there.

Part of a mixed media web, Unknown 9: Awakening isn't strong enough to pull us further into its universe. Anya Chalotra's Haroona is a great protagonist, and causing havoc with supernatural powers can be a delight. But, lacking in polish, Unknown 9: Awakening feels torn between what it wants to be, ultimately undermining its areas of promise to deliver a janky experience. Despite it all, it can still charm – but takes work to love.

Charm can only go so far in interactive experiences, and in Battle of the Bands, it's not quite far enough.

There's a compelling game in Gotham Knights, but it's hidden away behind a messy UX, needless crafting and customization systems, and combat mechanics that have been stretched paper thin to accommodate four heroes. I do believe that WB Games Montreal is capable of greatness, but this isn't the game that Gotham deserves after the death of Bruce Wayne, and it's not the one it needs right now following Rocksteady's retreat to Metropolis for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.

With some more care and ambition, Command & Conquer: The First Decade could have been the single greatest compilation of all time, a must-have for vets and newbies alike. Instead, it's actually only appealing to fans of a few of the titles that are still playable, and it's just a buggy nostalgia trip for everyone else.

Unless you really, really dig old-school shooters that will take no more than a day to completely finish, this game isn't for you. Unfortunately, for what Platypus is, a thirty-dollar asking price is hard to accept.

It looks, plays, and feels exactly like a quick, smooth, arcade-style basketball game from ten years ago, but with slightly next-gen graphics, and that can still be fun. But the game's only competitor looks better, plays smarter, and offers more game modes and adjustable options than can easily be counted.

It’s just too basic and simplistic for big kids. There’s also no multiplayer of any kind and the five mini-games, which range from a shell game to a take on Simon Says that uses burp and fart sounds, won’t add much life.

A multiplayer game that required the turtles to co-ordinate their efforts and powers could have rocked so much harder. For that matter, so could a camera that chose better angles and thus caused to fewer missed jumps due to misjudged distances.

The Medium isn't even really a horror game, despite the setting and themes, and lacks any scares bar an early cheap jump. For a studio so focused on creating psychological horror it's hard to see this mildly spooky action-adventure as anything other than a misstep.

for fifteen bucks we wanted a lot more game than Madden Arcade delivers. A bland on-field experience coupled with no single-player season/tournament/anything translates into another failed attempt at “extreme” football. Please, just give us our NFL Blitz back!

The Legend of Jack Sparrow is bogged down by a host of flaws, but in the end, it's still a passably entertaining sword-brawler.

The strength of TGC’s physics and its engaging Course Designer are shining diamonds in the rough, but the rest of game (or lack thereof) proves the dev should be less concerned with wasting money on a pointless reissue and focus its attentions on building a franchise that has the potential to give EA a run for its big boy money.

If you’re looking for a challenging mystery adventure, look elsewhere. If you’re looking for a 5-6 hour distraction, Hard Evidence is the game for you.

Fort Solis starts strong but quickly struggles to circumvent its shortcomings. Despite the strong visual identity and drive towards absolute immersion, this narrative-adventure ultimately suffers due to its glacial movement and finicky controls. There's promise in the concept, but a lack of refinement is palpable in the execution.

Our favorite part of Pac-Man Party was definitely the minigames, which were unique, fun, and challenging. Coupled with variety in other aspects of the game, it would've been a great game with fantastic replay value. However, as it exists now, the game will quickly grow dull even if you're playing with three friends and a few drinks.

Metal Saga has ... a few one-liners. It possesses no traits to make it stand out among the current role-playing crop - or even the bulk of RPGs from a decade ago. Let this clunker rust.

Despite its familiar setting and cute puppets, it's tedious and boring, and misfires on multiple fronts. When a game fails to take risks and carve out its own identity, it undoubtedly shows. Fable Heroes aspires to get your bucks, but it's a game with very little "bang" going for it.

The 3rd Phantom moves through never-ending conversations like a Segway driving on an expressway, and the limited text speed options never alleviate the pain. Beat a battle, chug through the monotonous free time scenes, read boring dialogue (repeat this 19 times every chapter) and move onto the next battle.

The Secret World is admirable for attempting to inject much-needed originality and life into MMORPGs, but while its fiction and theme succeed, its mostly derivative questing and stale combat fail to justify the steep time investment.

Sonic Rivals 2 would have been a lot more fun if the racing was more polished and there were more tracks. Instead there are too many other aspects of the game that spoil the essentials.

Turning Point's minimalist approach to everything - from its stale levels and sticky controls to its thin plot and absent character development - killed what could've been a really unique and engaging shooter and will disappoint hardcore fans of the genre across the board.

March Madness 08 is the kind of game you like less the more you play it - and we didn't like it all that much from the beginning. It's not even in the same league as College Hoops 2K8, even though that title isn't perfect. Instead of stepping up like its professional counterpart did this season, March Madness took a giant step backwards.

Awesome graphics and pretty music just aren't enough to rescue Lair from its deeply flawed design.

Fable: The Journey is a game that should deliver magic, but instead, the spell fizzles.

Only fans of the classic genre will really find much to get excited over in The Sacred Rings. The story is forgettable, the characters are lame, but the puzzles are definitely challenging.

If you've already completed every sudoku puzzle in "Brain Age" and you just can't get enough, Gridmaster is definitely easy on the wallet. But it should be your second (or even third) choice for a portable sudoku fix.

So what would the average person want with a tough-as-nails, sloppy conversion of a year-old adventure? Nothing. Even the hardcore Ys fans should skip the PSP game and go straight for the PS2 verison.

The game also suffers from some of the same problems as its Xbox Live Arcade stablemate Galaga - namely, the removal of two-player mode in any from from the arcade original, and a need for a more precise controller.

A potentially good rental title for those that fall squarely into the target MTV demographic, Yoostar delivers what it advertises but won't be a game that you'll regret passing on.

But we couldn’t shake the “I’ve been here already” déjà vu. By the time you hit the halfway mark, you’ll be sick of spinning in circles.

A fair package for puzzle fans, but don't think for a minute that gamers who don't already dig sudoku are going to play this and join the numbers in boxes movement.

There's not nearly enough meat on its bones to warrant a stand-alone game, even mercifully priced $20 less than most new next-gen releases. Frankly, it belongs as a mini-game in Madden.

It's tough to complain about a free game. But the real rub is that grinding through Dungeon Runners feels like a chore without a membership. So in the end, the real question is whether or not this game is worth five bucks a month. We don't think so.

It's likely Valhalla Knights will either lead to you pulling out your hair in consternation at its difficulty, or have you convinced you're doing something wrong. It’s a hard-lined dungeon crawler of the strictest caliber, and that's fine for anyone simply looking to fell a couple hundred skeletons or trolls in the most painstaking way possible.

In style, class, and atmosphere, The War of the Worlds nails it. There are exciting setpieces where you run from gigantic walkers as buildings collapse and heat rays vaporize civilians around you, and strangely those sections usually aren't difficult or plagued with control and checkpoint problems. It's sad to say that those sections make up the minority of the game. The rest is composed of dying repeatedly due to poor controls, poor visibility, cheap enemy ambushes, and ambiguous clues as to where you can hide safely, and then randomly getting screwed by checkpoints.

A few small tweaks, overlapping missions and a reduction of redundant verbosity and this could be as exciting and addictive as old school adventure games. It'd be destined for the bargain bin if wasn't already as hard to find in a store as objects are to find in the game.

There's just nothing particularly great about it. The only incentive to sink any major amount of time into it is that most of the achievements on offer require the best cars in the game to attain. But it's highly unlikely most people will be able to stay interested for even that long.

Bond's latest shooter is barely kept afloat throughout the five-hour-long campaign, but while it has a smattering of good ideas, they're buried beneath concepts so tired, you'll have a hard time caring. It's a game filled with occasional highs and frequent lows--and you'll be thrown between them so quickly and haphazardly that you'll be lucky to make it through 007 Legends without whiplash.

A wildly entertaining creative concept makes Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League a captivating prospect, but repetitive mission design, a messy confluence of combat systems, and the drive towards a cooperative live service structure ultimately undermine the game's strongest qualities.

StarDrive is not a bad a game, per se--but it's a lot like the games that came before it, and does little to differentiate itself from the pack. It has character, sure--what game with samurai bears wouldn’t?

There’s also a two-player co-op wireless mode, though the fact that both players need the game make it seem unlikely you’ll use it much. Overall, this isn’t a bad game, but it really does feel like the other half is out there somewhere waiting to be found. If it were $15 or $20, we’d say give it a shot. But at press time, it’s $30, only ten dollars cheaper than the latest Guitar Hero game on DS.

It's killer as nostalgia, somewhat crap as a game, and the surprising $50 price will put it out of the minds of all but the most passionate collectors.

In the end, the shoddy interface, graphics, and controls do more than step on the toes of some interesting concepts - they massacre them.

Topping off all of this mediocrity is the weird multiplayer, containing modes (free-for-all deathmatch, capture the flag, etc.) not normally found in this type of game. In theory the game should be more unique for these options, but there's a reason hack-and-slash RPGs avoid this style of multiplayer: it doesn't work well in the engine.

I was shaking my head and laughing during every cutscene, and some of the modes that get introduced are just abhorrently beautiful. They're so bad, they're actually good. Whether it’s flying through the air raining laser bullets down on battleships, or playing a Street Fighter reskin (complete with the same combos for I.R.I.S. as for Ryu), you'll never be bored while playing this tragically beautiful road trip.

A multiplayer game that required the turtles to co-ordinate their efforts and powers could have rocked so much harder. For that matter, so could a camera that chose better angles and thus caused to fewer missed jumps due to misjudged distances.

With excellent sailing and naval combat mechanics, it's a shame that Skull and Bones is so hampered by its lack of diversity, odd developmental decisions, and minimal capacity to offer a true pirate fantasy.

Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory had the potential to improve tenfold upon the previous games, but squanders the opportunity for flashier transformations and hundreds of quests.

Surf’s Up is a bad Mario Kart clone (replete with cloned weaponry) with a dash of the barest of bones from SSX thrown in. As such, there’s no excuse that it’s made for young kids, because any kid would be way better off just playing Mario Kart DS, which uses almost the exact same basic formula, but offers depth and polish.

This third-person shooter is buried under an avalanche of repetitive encounters, endless backtracking, and a partially-thawed storyline.

The on-court gameplay doesn't look very next-gen-like, especially when compared to its NBA 2K14 counterpart.

An undersea adventure that is more about seeing the sights than captivating gameplay.

Disney Infinity 2.0 tries to do too many things, and ends up not being very good at any of them.

The game sure looks pretty, but hopefully your tastes are refined enough to browse the menu a bit longer.

There’s a definite emphasis on quantity over quality in Warriors Orochi 2, and not just in the numbers of mindless soldiers you slice through. The amount of content is frankly overwhelming if you’re one of those completist-types, and the drive to level up every character may appeal to those who have a lot of time to kill while traveling.

Like a trip to a natural history museum. It's empty and nostalgic, meticulous and dated. More importantly, it's hands-off. Like a museum, Colonial Marines is at its best when you're admiring the view. The moment you attempt to reach out to interact you're met with a barrier, reminding you that you're there to look, not to touch.

So while it's always nice to see an attempt to breathe new life into stealth action games, Dark retains and even amplifies many of the frustrating trappings that make the genre so off-putting for some. It's too buggy, imprecise, and narratively unengaging to be of much interest even to those in the market for this sort of thing.

Sonic Forces is a spectacular but empty sugar rush that’s over in a blur. Once again, Sonic’s return to form falls flat.

It’s not that Art of Fighting Anthology is packed with sub-par games; it’s just that it isn’t “packed” with anything. If this were combined with the publisher's upcoming 4-game Fatal Fury collection into one big compilation, the resulting package could be a must-by. But that's not the case, so it isn't.

Hard Evidence is so fast there’s something satisfying in flying through a game in one sitting, especially considering you’ll probably unlock all 1,000 Achievement points along the way just for staying on task.

Here’s hoping Watchmen’s problems, and its price, can be addressed for part two later this year.

A mediocre experience, even considering the relatively affordable $10 price of admission. It's a novel distraction at best – hardly a sterling example of why Grasshopper has such dedicated fans.