But even though forming custom parties with your favorite characters is a blast and the combat system feels fresh and satisfying, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian lacks soul.

The real breaking point for this innocuous title is the price tag. Yes, Watchmen is one of the best looking downloadable games we’ve seen on a console (even if the lighting takes the murky color palette to nearly opaque darkness), and yes, the voice acting and production values are impressively high-end. Still, paying $20.00 for such a shallow experience just doesn’t seem right.

Rise of the Argonauts has a nice story and something to offer, but shortcomings like this chip away at the fun and ultimately keep the game from matching its legendary sources of inspiration.

All that horrible stuff said, there were some moments when we had legitimate fun with Predator, and it makes us feel like the idea of a portable Ghost Recon may not be all bad.

If you really want to know all about the Nintendo Switch 2 and its various features as a product, there's no better way than playing Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour. But if you're looking for a truly engaging experience, you're in the wrong place.

Devil’s Cartel seems to accomplish exactly what it set out to do, offering an intense, impressive two-player co-op experience that’s heavily customizable and replayable. While it won’t likely scratch the itch of those looking for a more traditional shooter game--namely, competitive online multiplayer--it’s an original concept set inside familiar trappings.

Boogie Bunnies doesn’t stand out next to the best puzzlers on Live Arcade - Bejeweled, Puzzle Fighter, Zuma, etc. - but it is a solid title with something to offer.

Stacked could benefit from more polish and deeper player customization (no, we don't want to look fat and balding, even if we are), but its actual gameplay is solid, and the creepy I'm-watching-you-so-I-can-destroy-you vibe can only help your real-world strategy.

We fall in the middle of the two camps and found Troy a welcome, but ultimately underwhelming attempt to evolve the franchise beyond its thumb-numbing roots. If Koei Canada can further refine the combat, add some multi-player - this game screams for co-op - and polish up the presentation, we're willing to plunge our bloody sword into a sequel.

Repetitive missions and a lifeless fighting engine are sure to disappoint both newcomers and fans expecting to relive some of the action the series is known for.

There's a two-player, multi-cart wireless mode to try with friends, but it's nothing that’s gonna keep you interested for long, and the bland Piston Cup races aren't exciting by yourself anyway.

Overall it’s just too much work to really keep a person interested. And when the audio, graphics and visual design aren’t adding to the appeal, it’s a little too likely that you’ll suddenly ask yourself, “Wait – is this actually fun, or is it just tedium?” and realize you can’t quite tell any more.

If you love this music, go ahead and buy this game in spite of the score below; you’ll love it. Just don’t ask us to sing along unless you found that video we were talking about.

A mediocre port of a merely decent original entry, resulting in a functional but hardly enticing take on the series. PSP action fans are probably used to this second-class status by now, but this one's strictly for the franchise die-hards.

Could have been a passable romp through a zombie-infested castle of terror, but the frustrating controls, lack of horror elements, and sub-par presentation make it a game that's difficult to recommend, especially for the mature audience it's meant for.

The actors (not from the film cast) sound utterly bored throughout their lengthy speeches; the only thing that trumps the highly questionable French accents is a guy who actually says "woof woof" on behalf of a virtual dog.

But unless you routinely wear your Federation uniform in public, you're probably not rabid enough to get your money's worth from this one.

Shamefully sparse.

There was limitless potential here, but it's wasted. Transformers: The Game should be a sleek, cutting-edge sports car; instead, it's an old beater whose driver's seat has a spring sticking out in exactly the wrong place.

So, unless you like condescendingly easy adventure games where the gameplay is only loosely tied to the story at best, you’re better off reading a mystery novel instead.

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.

The way better controls make this our favorite console version, but it's still not great. Transformers: The Game should be a sleek, cutting-edge sports car; instead, it's an old beater whose driver's seat has a spring sticking out in exactly the wrong place.

This collection presents something of a quandary; there's no doubt this is a fantastic package and perfectly-priced, and a must-buy for video game historians, fighting game collectors, and fans of the franchise. But the years haven't been kind to Ryoko, Janne, and the other second-rate "stars."

A promising effort, delivering an engaging gameplay experience and an expansive world. While it's hampered by overlong cutscenes and bland characters, it will satisfy fans of the genre, and maybe make a few more.

At best, Civil War is a weekend rental for shooter fans, history buffs, or Achievement miners who aren't knee deep in this fall's blockbuster military games. Be prepared to learn a little and reload a lot - while the buckshot flies all around you.

Tetris is Tetris, which means Splash is still supremely playable. But 800 points feels like an awfully high price. Especially when you can get a used copy of Tetris Evolution on the 360 for just a few bucks more.

Namco Museum Megamix is hit-and-miss, but for retro arcade gaming, it can't be beat. If you drained your allowance into beeping machines for most of the late 80s and 90s, you'll love it, but if you're only interested in the new "remixed" games, you may be disappointed.

If you’ve ever played the captivating "Pikmin" titles on GameCube, you’ve seen this exact kind of game done infinitely better in every single way – way cuter, clearer goals, more unit variety, vastly superior controls, pathfinding and graphics, etc.

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

An ambitious and fascinating wander through gaming’s history, but one that can’t replicate the addictive gameplay of the forefathers it documents.

It's so dumbed down that it might actually be more appropriate for children if it weren't for the T rating on the package. Just play the 360 version. Actually, scratch that, just go play Spider-Man 2 instead. It's worlds better than this. There are actually parts of this that look like they're right out of the original PlayStation game from 2000.

There are better satires of gaming in other forms, and they likely won't leave you feeling kind of dirty afterwards.

The best thing going for this hyper-violent pavement-pound is the epically bold badness of the unecessary storyline, concerning revolutionaries participating in Velocity Death Battles (VDBs, biatch!) to confuse a weather predicting machine hell-bent on controlling the human race. It makes the "Twisted Metal" canon look like Shakespeare.

So the game play isn't new or innovative - in fact fans of the series will find it to be a little too similar to the first two to be truly 'new.' But the one liners - the one liners almost make up for it. At one point we were laughing so hard we missed the police shooting at us and died, having to 'start over.'

Utlimately, all that Xtreme 2 did for us is to make us wanna play earlier incarnations of the series' fighting games - and head to the tropics for a much-needed vacation. We've got a feeling that wasn't Tecmo's objective, but that's about all this one's good for.

Today, with so many able competitors on the market, we just can't recommend sparse, shallow collections with slow load times and GBA-level visuals. Whether you're looking to train your brain or just play some minigames, there are simply better options out there than Brain Assist.

Ultimately Empires continues Koei’s long-standing "if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it" credo when it comes to Warriors games. Which, when you've made the same game nine times in a row, has us adopting the philosophy "been there, done that."

Not even awesome vampires and world design can redeem Redfall's repetitive gameplay, which becomes progressively more monotonous the longer you play.

The biggest problem here is the dated feel of it all.

These little touches go a long way to please fans of the original games, but it does not hide the fact that the core game is a fairly mediocre, repetitive collection of games that aren't quite small enough to be considered mini, but not nearly large enough to be considered full.

Also frustrating throughout are the special balls that fly around above you, waiting to be shot out of the sky and used to blow things up/get extra points. But actually all they do is get in your way and distract you from the actual game. We want to be angry, but all we can muster is indifference.

Die hard Sam Fisher fans don't necessarily need to return because they've seen the same thing better, and newcomers are jumping into an inferior version of an easily accessible console game. It's just cheaper to play Chaos Theory at its best.

It only offers a few days worth of play on its own and isn't much fun at all to newcomers. The game is at its best when used as an accessory, albeit an expensive one, to Diamond/Pearl.

If you love this music, go ahead and buy this game in spite of the score below; you’ll love it. Just don’t ask us to sing along unless you found that video we were talking about.

Ugly, last-gen visuals further dampen the fear factor. Muddy textures and low poly counts cause scenery and monsters to blend together into a murky mess.

With the failure of its flagship story mode, Super Monkey Ball Adventure becomes a rather dull product that has little reason to exist.

Fallout 76 has glimmers of the trademark series’ sci-fi splendour, but they’re few and far between.

Lord of Arcana has made a painfully deliberate attempt at riding the wave that Monster Hunter started, and lamentably, it's wiped out.

The actors (not from the film cast) sound utterly bored throughout their lengthy speeches; the only thing that trumps the highly questionable French accents is a guy who actually says "woof woof" on behalf of a virtual dog.

Unfortunately, this genre requires a lot more panache and even more addictive gameplay hooks, something The Chosen fails to accomplish in its quest to push you that much closer to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. At its best, this is a pretty game that seems to understand the target it was aiming for but fails entirely to hit the mark.

A complex story attempts to give meaning to each quest, but even the most hardcore 4Xers will feel betrayed by Elemental. There's very little to love here, and it's so unbalanced and frustratingly crippled no magic will fix it.

Aside from the enjoyable and well-weighted multiplayer, pretty much everything around that core experience of destroying things with big weapons is flaky. Big time flaky. But thankfully, happiness really is a warm gun, even if it is on the 50th respawn before that damn warehouse.

It's the same solid game you've been playing since "Dynasty Warriors 2" came out back in 2000.

It's certainly budget in its lack of polish and its brevity (even with the additional PS3-specific missions added it totaled to barely five hours), so if you really, really have a hard-on for sniping you'll be able to wring some fun from this, but you'll have to swallow some crap along the way.

Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard is trapped in many of the clichés it seeks to skewer, but it’s still a fairly adequate shooter and occasionally gives you a chuckle. It’s just that we were hoping for something truly unique.

Several modes of mindless violence and one mode of a Monopoly-like board game. There's nothing new or exciting about this title.

There was limitless potential here, but it's wasted. Transformers: The Game should be a sleek, cutting-edge sports car; instead, it's an old beater whose driver's seat has a spring sticking out in exactly the wrong place.

It's passable. If you're looking for a 360 party game with something for the adults, this is definitely the candidate you should endorse. But we have to think that's a pretty big "if."

The overall feel of the game is just not engaging – there's no sense of speed, there's no sense of control, and there's no sense of variety.

Silent Hill: The Short Message is an interesting, if not amazing rebirth for the series that proves it can be reanimated for a modern audience. Atmospheric and full of potential it bodes well for future instalments.

Falls short of creating a truly memorable gaming experience for the license with shallow, and tedious platforming gameplay while never fully utilizing the South Park world and characters to their full potential.

Why buy the new one when the older, better version is still available at a reduced price? We know you have a PS2.

The abstruse design and technical flaws leave us cold, but the sheer potential for savage bastardry makes it undeniably fun.

Don't use the lock-on, and the dodgy controls and at best so-so ally AI will end up killing you. The camera system will cause death after death in the infuriating mandatory stealth missions - it's just too hard to get real situational awareness. Despite all that, the game is perfect for the PSP - fun to pick up and play in short bursts.

When the best thing your game has going for it is supplemental abilities to support your primary one-button combat, you know you've got problems.

Crystal Defenders doesn’t do much that’s new or revolutionary, but with very slim tower defense competition on the 360, it’s an addictive distraction.

Soulcalibur Legends does offer some solid hack-'n-slash gaming that'll also make for a nice Wii tech demo to show your non-gaming friends and family over the holidays. But in the end, the title's appeal will likely expire before that half-drunk carton of egg nog sitting in your fridge.

An undiscerning child may have a bit of fun for awhile with Over the Hedge: Hammy Goes Nuts, and adults may even find the wacky, borderline creepy premise of the game slightly bemusing. But if you care about children (or your own sanity), you may want to skip this one and just get the DVD instead.

It's Dragon's Lair disguised as a brawler. There are a few extraneous bits like endurance arenas (beat them all to unlock the final boss!) and ship-based multiplayer combat (also not terribly well thought-out) but they can't distract from the fact that the core brawling gameplay is an absolute mess.

Not only does Raccoon City not deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Valve's zombie-killing masterpiece [Left 4 Dead], a number of poor design choices, narrative missteps, and technical issues combine to make this one of the worst Resident Evil games to date.

Frustrating to play and a pale imitation of Mega Man, Mighty No. 9 is unlikely to command the same reverence as its older cousin.

The only thing a causal fan will appreciate is they toned down the excruciatingly annoying soundbites. That, we do applaud.

The Ant Bully isn't wholly shameless about setting the bar low, and kids are bound to get at least a little joy from its small world, but this colony is just too repetitive and dull to be fun for long.

It still stands out as a decent music game, but it's no less shallow on the PS2, and just as easy and short.

At 30 bucks Winter Sports isn’t remotely worth the money. You could get a decent rental out of it - get some friends together, laugh at each other while doing the crap events once each, then play the skiing parts until Lost is on.

You could probably leech out a weekend's worth of so-so gaming, and at 30 bucks, you'll still have plenty of cash to check out the upcoming film. It's bound to be more exciting than this.

As distressing as it might be to spend $20 on two whole hours of gameplay, this utterly bland warfare still grows old well before the limp finale. Time Ace might not be broken or particularly painful, but it certainly isn't time well spent.

With energy hearts constantly appearing, respawning masks, and enemies that kindly back off, if you die in Bionicle Heroes you may want to strongly consider hanging up your gaming gloves.

If you're deeply invested in these games and have some friends of the same cloth looking for a twist on the genre, then DoA's multiplayer is certainly worth investigating. The learning curve is steep, but the Xbox Live action is satisfying. Defenders of Ardania isn't the prettiest game, but there's some elements in place to keep you interested.

A broken core of a game.

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.

The never-ending explosions shake the screen and before long chaos and confusion take over. Battlegrounds is hectic given the small maps and spawning becomes silly as you come back from death straight into another death. It's annoying, yet not as annoying as waiting for an online match to start thanks to a nonexistent community.

It's decent at first, but after a few hours of disarming endless bombs, slaying ninjas and flinging ice everywhere, you'll just want to power down the console and go see the movie instead.

Too predictable to be a must-buy, unless you're the type of person that wishes Nintendo Landwas more like Mario Party. Otherwise, wait for this one to hit the bargain bin.

A mish-mash of things, which basically is the result of this game: a big mess. Unless you're all about Fiddy, you shouldn't purchase this game… even for 50 cents.

Hardcore hoopsters will likely scoff at the lack of full-body control that awaits, but there's no doubt that EA has done a pretty decent job making a square peg fit in a round hole; heck, getting any basketball game to work with the Wii controls is an accomplishment.

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.

The story is just supposed to string together the action sequences, which is where the strength of the game is supposed to shine. Unfortunately for NeverDead, it seems to have forgotten that essential element.

Everything surrounding the long-range shooting makes this far from a satisfying experience. The muddy visuals, cheesy dialogue, predictable level design, and lacking multiplayer leaves plenty to be desired.

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.

Unbound Saga is a decent enough brawler. You get to pick up and throw homeless people against a wall, which is always fun, and the story itself is good enough to have you button-mash your way to its finale. But its basic, sluggish gameplay is stuck in the '90s. In this age we expect more.

If the control wasn't so sloppy and loose, Total Destruction could easily have been a much better game. As it stands, this is just like every previous entry.

A game you'll mostly just play online (if you can find anyone) or with up to four players locally (since only one copy of the UMD is required). That's nice, but if everyone's in the same room already, why wouldn't you play the board game instead?

The Hustle might aim to be an affordable budget diversion, but even a bargain price can't make this deeply flawed game worth buying.

As frantic as the action is at times, its drab visuals, control issues and lack of enemy polish brought us to the point of boredom.

Bogged down by a host of flaws, but in the end, it's still a passably entertaining sword-brawler. Its relatively short run-time, clever script and Johnny Depp voice-over are enough to justify a rental for fans of the film.

Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard is trapped in many of the clichés it seeks to skewer, but it’s still a fairly adequate shooter and occasionally gives you a chuckle. It’s just that we were hoping for something truly unique.

Platform-wise, the PSP snags a slim victory, as it supports four players on a local connection, while the home versions will only offer split-screen multiplayer.