Jericho is way too ambitious and it hurts on every side. While not broken, it’s poorly designed and dull, from spawning enemies making the tactical play irrelevant, to a horror story that, despite its charm and intricacies, just isn’t scary. Jericho may be art, but not all art is good.

You can get through the main story in a casual weekend of playing, and the extra mission objectives aren't exactly compelling. Tack on some seriously under whelming visuals and a problematic camera, and you're left with a game that has its moments, but is ultimately disappointing, even for true believers.

Need for Speed Undercover lacks challenge, struggles technically, and practically requires sunglasses to play. The framework for a stronger game is present, but the final product simply doesn't come close to competing with games like "Midnight Club: LA" or "Burnout Paradise."

Even with a few problems and annoyances, a generous, no-failure design makes it fun to just screw around or work together with another player. Super-serious cloud-whale pilots, if such a thing exists, may want to go for high scores and best times on the leaderboards.

Dark Void’s single real achievement is the way it blends in-the-air and on-the-ground action without creating a horrible accident of compromise. While the game can be a lot of fun on a mechanical level, it’s not quite different enough to feel like a brand new experience, and there are enough minor-yet-noticeable problems that make it harder to appreciate the overall package.

Bionicle Heroes looks good, and has a decent license backing it, but completely fails to capture the magic that made the LEGO Star Wars games a hit. What you get instead is an average, boring shooter that’s only worth playing if you have a deep love for the source material.

What originally looked like another throwaway movie to video game tie-in is a surprisingly well conceived horror story. The combat is Saw's biggest weakness, with the replay value a close second.

Sega Bass Fishing does a lot of things right. It's easy to pick up and play, yet tough to master, and it emulates the art of fishing quite well thanks to the Wii remote.

While it’s a big improvement over last year and a clear step in the right direction, NBA Live 15 forgets that basketball is a team sport. Dunks are overpowered, rendering ball movement and teamwork pointless. Hopefully further refinement can produce a great basketball game in the future, but for 2015, NBA Live’s advances are still overshadowed by flawed fundamentals.

Unless you can’t seem to get enough games about demented children and ghoulish babies with poor combat and stupid-proof puzzles, then I suggest you steer clear of this one and save your money for "Silent Hill 5."

Despite these setbacks, Contrast crafts an amazing world and continuously invents clever new ways for you to interact with it. The story is fantastic, bolstered by strong voice performances and a jazzy soundtrack that nails the mood. Few games can consistently grab your attention and wow you with each passing moment like Contrast can.

In all, it's a complex recipe that just isn't prepared in the most appetizing way.

So much potential turned into so much dull shooting. Instead of an experience that’s been richly integrated into EVE Online, we’re left with a me-too shooter that’s eager to take and unwilling to give, doing very little to justify its own existence. It may be technically free, but it isn’t worth even a minute of your time.

Bionicle Heroes looks good, and has a decent license backing it, but completely fails to capture the magic that made the LEGO Star Wars games a hit. What you get instead is an average, boring shooter that’s only worth playing if you have a deep love for the source material.

This latest Monkey Ball is briefly enjoyable, but the charm quickly spirals into maddening chaos.

With career mode and total team control M.I.A., it's much thinner on the options than past games, but the perpetual left-hand turn never ends, and that's just about all NASCAR fans ask for.

If nothing else, Ultimate Band proves that you don't need plastic instruments to feel like you're the second coming of Eric Clapton or Tommy Lee. The gesture-based controls are well-designed, fun to use, and contribute significantly to the experience.

Lost in Blue 3 is one of those games that starts off well, but eventually you realize that its mundane elements are never rectified and it becomes a grind.

Despite the new additions, Epic Mickey 2 feels phoned in. The charm and novelty of the paint mechanics are starting to fade, and it lacks the ambitious decision making that helped to distinguish the original. What's left is a mediocre platformer, and all its allusions to Disney's rich history can only help it so much.

A good idea that’s hampered either by poor programming, or perhaps expecting too much of the Wii’s controller. It’s hard to tell which. And really, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter which is to blame. The sad fact is that it just isn’t much fun to play, and if you try to use the motion control setup, it becomes a real struggle.

The game isn’t terrible, but it isn’t any more engaging or less repetitive than it’s been for the past five versions.

The few moments where Murderd: Soul Suspect actually makes good on its supernatural potential aren’t worth slogging through the rest of the game for. It’s trying to be a gripping murder mystery, but never really knows how to get there. This is one you should probably just leave for dead.

While the various play options and ESPN integration makes for a great front end, the slo-mo gameplay, horrid animation, and awful online execution means that the competition--"NBA 2K7"--is the only game in town for virtual ballers this season.

Dark of the Moon provides plenty of popcorn thrills that you'll likely forget as soon as the credits begin rolling. Judged against other movie games, it's actually pretty good; next to last year's superior entry, however, it looks a bit like a tin can.

Time Crisis: Razing Storm's arcade gameplay lacks the challenge and variety needed to make it worth replaying. And rather than trying to advance the genre for a home audience, Namco has opted for a cheap imitation of Western FPS games that feels completely out of place.

There isn't much to explore in Steel Diver's shallow waters. There are better ways to showcases the new hardware, even among the 3DS's sparse launch lineup. Only the most dogged would-be Nemo need apply.

There’s a ton of wasted potential here, but by the standards of the movie game the third Pirates game doesn’t fare too badly.

THQ's Battle of the Bands doesn't look good, sound good, or feel good.

While Dungeons & Dragons Tactics has a lot to offer, the real enjoyment of the game lies in the details. Yet it’s such a hassle to pick up its intricacies that most players will stumble through the game and have a rotten experience.

Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash feels like an unfinished game. The shallow mechanics quickly grow tiresome, and this is further emphasized by the lack of game modes and creativity that we’d expect from a Mario sports game. It can be a fun diversion with a group of friends, but it loses its appeal within a day.

Judged as a pure action game, Evolved isn't bad, with its strong customization element letting you blow things up any way you see fit and creating action that satisfies on a basic level. Unfortunately, Square Enix has squandered many of Front Mission's strengths, and the game falls well short of its potential.

APB's good points can't be ignored. It's got the best spread of customization features this side of City of Heroes, and the idea of a player-driven combat environment is certainly appealing. But the multitude of design and technical issues hamper the fundamental gameplay and make it hard to enjoy without some serious compromise.

The first movie's cult status will draw people into Tron: Evolution, but the single-player campaign's repetitiveness and the unmemorable multiplayer action point to a game that's best enjoyed as a rental rather than a purchase. Tron: Evolution isn't a total failure, just a disappointment for fans hoping for something as innovative as the original film was back in the day.

The flaws are numerous, even in comparison to other launch games, but if you want to spend a mindless weekend full of fantastical hacking-and-slashing it’s not a terrible choice.

Lost Planet 3 isn’t a particularly handsome or graceful action game, but beneath the somewhat dull surface the characters and the multiplayer progression are outstanding.

As the first game in the series since Itagaki's departure, it's kinder, gentler, lighter, and a little less interesting.

Edward’s trip to the park is no picnic, but suffer through the controls and some aggravation and you’ll be compensated with a lot of unique moments. The game needed more gestation to really iron out the interface issues, but it remains an adventure worth pursuing.

The end result is a game that feels unrefined as a whole. You can certainly power through it if you're determined enough, but it drags the experience down nonetheless.

Expect about an hour of play, give or take. If you're desperate for more Assassin's, jump right in. Just be aware that you're only getting half the story.

Some classics should remains where they belong--in our memories.

It will scratch that itch if you’re looking for nothing more than some mindless gunplay mixed with dangerous doses of testosterone, but there’s nothing going on upstairs. And for a tactical shooter, that’s not going to cut it.

Offers up more in terms of variety, and can become an oddly compelling game to play for those who enjoy managing their resources. The problem is that it takes a good five hours before it truly becomes enjoyable, which is a lot to ask from the typical player.

The mixture of real-time action and strategy is a joy to play, and a nice departure from what is fast becoming a stale play mechanic.

As a standalone game at full price, we would rake Wii Play over the coals. But as a pack-in with the Wii Remote that basically costs $10, it’s a winner.

Datura just doesn't seem to go far enough, offering just a quick dip into occasional oddity instead of a full-on baptism in the truly peculiar. Even its most attention-grabbing moments can come across as a little dull. With gimmicky motion elements, threadbare puzzles, and a ghost's whisper of a narrative, Datura ends up as an underwhelming experiment.

The story is interesting and fairly epic, but told in such large chunks at a time, that sometimes the pacing is thrown off.

Landit Bandit can wildly fluctuate between quirky fun and complete frustration, but if you don't mind a little turbulence, it's not a bad pick for $10.

While Sacred 3 isn’t a broken mess, there are few redeeming qualities to be found. Linear levels, repetitive enemies, meaningless progression, and insulting voice acting add up to a dreary mechanical exercise. There are far better options for action RPGs than Sacred 3.

Akiba’s Trip is largely a wasted opportunity. For as much as it tries to honor the Electric Town, the attempt is undermined by severely limiting exploration. It’s amazing that a game about tearing clothes off can be so consistently dull.

With career mode and total team control M.I.A., it’s much thinner on the options than past games, but the perpetual left-hand turn never ends, and that’s just about all NASCAR fans ask for.

Boogie could be fun, but it’s kind of like playing with a younger sibling. They’re not going to offer you a real challenge, and it’s going to be kind of embarrassing.

However important its place in the lore may be, this DLC simply doesn't play very well to the main game's strengths.

A visual presentation that looks more PSP than Vita, doesn't help matters. It makes a killer first impression-and certainly earns points for offering something different on launch day-but such limited appeal may not be enough to send gamers to Hell.

The game has a lot going for it when everything is working properly and the handful of new gameplay elements turns Riptide into something legitimately better than its predecessor. In some ways, Dead Island: Riptide feels like a massive content patch, but considering its smarter pacing and greater visual and gameplay variety, it's closer to what the original game probably should have been.

The replay value is tied to your interest in collecting items like newspapers, action figures, golden spiders, and alternate costumes. The story will take roughly seven hours to complete, with the majority of your time spent crawling, climbing, and clobbering your way through an uninteresting environment that offers little interactivity.

Feels like it's held back by the need to incorporate the different features of the Vita, ultimately over complicating a package that would have benefited from some simplification.

Dawn of Mana is a tale full of marvelous art and storytelling that captures the look and essence of the older Mana games, but beneath the veneer is a different beast that has excised most of the gameplay elements that make the old games so memorable.

Not even Don King's legendary hair and hype combo can cover-up Prizefighter's mediocrity. It's a case of all glitter and no glam thanks to awkward gameplay and controls.

BlackSite: Area 51 features a handful of fun moments blasting giant aliens, but there’s too much time spent in forgettable shootouts, the story fails to engage, and it’s so riddled with bugs that not even the Orkin Man can feel safe purchasing it.

A straightforward stealth game that's capable of scratching a particular type of sneaky itch for many players, but also feels slightly dated and accomplishes little that hasn't been done before and done better.

Another Sonic game, another disappointment. It seems like whenever the hedgehog jumps off the tiny screens of the current handhelds, everything just falls apart for him.

Purposely frustrating, Spelunker HD offers a lot of game to work through, straddling the fine line between good difficulty and rote memorization for an entertaining enough throwback, but one that few will end up finishing. Idle thumbs need not apply.

A year or two ago, it may have been a viable option, but with great alternatives out in the market right now, you can stand to sit this song out.

Dragon Ball: Raging Blast certainly feels and plays differently than your typical brawler, which is a good thing, but the dizzying camera limits its appeal to hardcore enthusiasts of the anime series instead of the general public.

Lightsaber Duels is an average fighter with solid visuals, but it doesn’t deliver on its most important element. There’s plenty of fan service, and swinging the Wii remote around can be fun at times, but the payoff just simply isn’t enough. This one’s still a padawan in training.

It does a good job of recreating timeless fairground classics, and because they are so recognizable, this really is a game that you can play with friends and family members of any age and they’ll instantly get it.

The Viva Pinata Universe is a creative one, and has loads of potential. Party Animals doesn’t really harness all of that, but it does provide a somewhat shaky foundation for a much better sequel.

It just never offers more than a middling gameplay experience for its price. That on its own might satisfy the casual freebooters, but when you couple that mediocrity with abysmal NPC pathing, inexplicable bouts of lag, and the game's tendency to crash at key moments, even they may find themselves tossing this one down in Davy Jones' locker for good.

As a cartoon tie-in aimed at a very specific demographic, Transformers Prime does a pretty good job defining its setting an action. It just doesn't go far enough. A decent kids game that gets old a little bit too fast, Prime just won't quite measure up for Transformers fans that frankly have shinier, better toys to play with.

Rumble Blast looks and feels like something you'd expect on Nintendo's eShop, but instead it's a retail release at full price. Don't be deceived--Rumble Blast is a far cry from the quality you've come to expect from the Pokémon series.

It’s hard to completely dismiss the game as trash, but it’s harder not to feel like the game should be giving you a lot more.

Bound by Flame is far from perfect, but underneath a few rough edges, a memorable journey awaits, defined by an unpredictable storyline, and decisions that have a meaningful impact on the story.

Many of the individual games exhibit occasional flashes of brilliance, and the absurdity of the Galactic Dance Off bears witnessing at least once. We just can't recommend picking up the entire package in order to do so.

A serviceable showpiece, but there aren't a lot of modes to explore, and the short-lived mini-games get repetitive pretty quickly. It's fun in short bursts, but it doesn't approach the staying power of the most memorable party games.

Conceptually speaking, Onechanbara entreats a dangerous dance of kitsch and low-brow entertainment. But poor design philosophy, a general disregard for story, and gameplay that will literally leave you sore land it in a special category of games barely worth the plastic they’re burned on. Sexy just isn’t enough, and contrary to its buxom beauties, Onechanbara is an ugly game from most angles.

The lack of camera control is a travesty, especially since the right analog stick’s defensive dodges are redundant with the Sixaxis controller’s tilting functions.

North American gamers who aren’t rabid Gundam fans, or Gundam fans that demand at least a solid game experience to go with their giant robots, or even fans of the Dynasty Warriors series should approach this battle with caution – sometimes you have to pick your battles.

The extra modes are more forgettable than fun, but the core Monkey Ball experience passes muster, though keep in mind that using the gyroscopic controls kills the 3D. For best results, pick your primate, turn your circle pad on, and the 3D slider up.

It’s fun to run around as the Hulk in an open world, harassing pedestrians and tearing the city apart with your bare hands, but with its uneven pacing, dull missions, and sloppy presentation, The Incredible Hulk won’t keep most players interested for long.

Warriors Orochi combines the characters and features of two successful franchises into one game, but the convoluted crossover storyline, unimpressive production values, and lack of major innovation aren’t likely to have new players ready to enlist.

Despite bugs that seem to pop up around every corner, Haze isn't an awful first-person shooter. It's just not a very good one.

The controls suit the system, with a surprisingly smart option to touch on-screen icons to turn the camera toward potential threats. The stealth play and covert killing is fast and satisfying but when blades clash, things can get awkward. You're eventually given a reversal move can quickly end fights with weaker enemies, but there's no running away from certain fated confrontations, which are almost always prolonged and clumsy.

Leveling up dragons and replaying for ranks and leaderboard score might be enough to garner Crimson Dragon a cult following, but for most people the bungled core mechanic is a deal-breaker. This dragon might fly, but it never truly soars.

Variety is nice, but when it borders on the absurd, it’s just stupid. And overall, the gameplay in 300 fails to do service to the movie or the genre at large.

You don't have to be a line judge to point out Smash Court Tennis 3’s faults. Pinpointing targets is frustrating, since you have a small margin of error while aiming, and the timing isn't always consistent for "nice" shots.

Wielding the game’s powerful spells can be a lot of fun, but the repetitive shooting and tedious trekking from barrier to barrier make you feel like you’re paying penance for someone else’s crimes.

While the swift pace and simplified mechanics might seem appealing, the combat is wholly unsatisfying, the environments are shallow and stifling, and the camera is annoying.

There’s clearly potential here, but these games will never be more than easily discarded novelties until the developer’s fine tune the controls and embrace the creative craziness of Dream Matches. Here’s hoping Mario and Sonic bring their A game next time around.

Frankly, though, it's unlikely that the gameplay will hold your attention long enough that you'll want to sample these extras.

Conquest relies too much on retreading old ground in almost every way. Numerous bugs, unpolished mechanics, and average presentation are the telltale signs of a rushed game, and this one has all three. It's not quite bad enough to cast into Mount Doom, but only those who can't get enough of Tolkien's tales need apply.

Lost Via Domus will be tempting to fans obsessed with the show, but the story—as good as it is--has no bearing whatsoever on the overall canon. It’s short, much of the gameplay amounts to a hurdle to get to the next cutscene, and at just over five hours long, under no circumstances can we recommend it for a purchase.

It’s fun to run around as the Hulk in an open world, harassing pedestrians and tearing the city apart with your bare hands, but with its uneven pacing, dull missions, and sloppy presentation, The Incredible Hulk won’t keep most players interested for long.

There’s a ton of wasted potential here, but by the standards of the movie game the third Pirates game doesn’t fare too badly.

As generic as a hack-and-slash can be. If you’re looking for responsive action, you’ll be disappointed. If you’re looking for story and dialogue, you’ll be disappointed. If you’re the masochistic type that likes spending dozens of hours slaughtering repetitive foes in order to create the ultimate character then step on up and start grinding.

With the way it looks and how simple it is, it’s easy to think Knack is a game for kids. And while that may be the intent, it doesn’t make Knack any less dull. Whether you’re five or 25, Knack is boring throughout its 10-hour duration.

If a you're going to release an unlicensed football game, it had better knock our socks off. Backbreaker doesn't even come close. Pass on this one and hope for a better game next year.

Basketball should be fast-paced and fluid, yet Chosen One constantly slams on the brakes with impractical design decisions. Irritating computer AI, frustrating challenges, sloppy controls, and an over-reliance on performing specific combos to win are not what you want in a street ball game.

Though largely lacking in ingenuity, Watchmen: The End is Nigh proves that if licensed games can’t be good, they can at least look good. The gameplay has a life expectancy of about 45 minutes, and at a pricey $20 for just a few hours of play, it probably should have been released for five bucks and used as a promotional tool for the flick.