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."

There's so little variation in how any given activity is completed that even younger muggles will quickly bore of it. Not even Bellatrix Lestrange would be crazy enough to spend $50 on it.

The odd thing is that while Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel is clearly not a well-executed game, it still manages to be fun with a friend. It's quick, stop-and-pop gameplay with carnage and explosions aplenty. Every awkward moment and terrible line of dialogue is a potential laugh -- or two -- so it's not the worst choice for a weekend rental.

In spite of some strong individual elements, it ends up feeling like a sloppy and ultimately pointless conflict. Focusing on superficial distinctions that add nothing to the game, Warfighter lacks a convincing reason to fight, and there's no reason anyone should pick up the banner apart from brand loyalty or sheer boredom.

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.

Just like the DS versions, the concept for Lost in Blue: Shipwrecked hits all the right marks, but it's the execution that fails. A stupid, impractical A.I. companion and the unrealistic stat maintenance make playing it just about as much fun as being stranded on an island in real life.

Facebreaker tries to revive the arcade boxing glory achieved by classics like Punch-Out!, but with its punishing difficulty, minimal gameplay modes, and humor that falls on its face, it doesn’t come close. Creating your own boxers can become addictive, and it’s not a bad option for a casual party atmosphere, but for serious players it lacks the depth to pick itself up off the mat.

So, lame missions, filled, again, with arbitrary restrictions like time limits and invisible walls, meet a clunky camera and mindless wash/rinse/repeat combat that doesn’t require the suspension of disbelief, but the annihilation of it.

Lair is one of the PS3’s biggest disappointments so far. The potential was great, and the core gameplay isn’t bad. But instead of the fantasy epic fans dreamed of, the final product comes across as a short and unsightly mess.

The Wii version of Spider-Man 3 plays sloppy, looks bad, and just doesn't feel complete.

Think of it as a way to spend some personal time with the girls from the fighting game. If that doesn’t interest you, and you don’t have a thing for well-endowed video game chicks, you’re probably out of luck.

It is yet another game with potentially interesting mechanics that fail to deliver on their promise, making Inversion's approach to gravity feel more plodding than liberating.

Genesis thus toys with a promising twist on the real-time strategy formula, but its shortcomings nevertheless manage to repel both audiences it seeks to attract.

It’s really difficult to recommend Pokemon Battle Revolution. For casual players, there’s no substance to the game—especially if they haven’t played Diamond & Pearl on the DS and are unable to upload their critters. For the hardcore Poke-maniac, the online play provides an opportunity for bragging rights and little else.

The only way Shred won't make you want to tear your hair out is if you play the game on the casual setting, during free ride, and with low expectations.

A poorly-executed horror game with a lot of control and design issues. It’s a rather painful game to play, and fails to provide any real scares. We recommend playing Resident Evil 4 again before spending the time and money on this.

The campaigns are repetitive, the action is fairly mindless, and it's not all that rewarding to play. Masochistic players who really enjoy the series may get a mild kick out of this new spin, but everyone else would be better off chalking this one up to ancient history.

With its shallow multiplayer modes and brief campaign, Bodycount's long-term play value is limited, making it more suitable for renting than purchasing. Had the developers spent more time in fleshing out the game's modes, play mechanics, and options, Bodycount might have been more memorable than your average B-action movie. Sadly, it's not.

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.

The problem with Eat Lead is that it only replicates the looks of all the games it spoofs, and not the gameplay. What's left is a repetitive, subpar third-person shooter skinned in various game themes and filled with cheap gags.

So, lame missions, filled, again, with arbitrary restrictions like time limits and invisible walls, meet a clunky camera and mindless wash/rinse/repeat combat that doesn’t require the suspension of disbelief, but the annihilation of it.

There are some brief moments of fun in Kinect Joy Ride, but most of the time you'll be too busy fighting the loose controls to really enjoy it. Making matters worse, the game would be an absolute pushover if you played it with a traditional analog stick and buttons. With shallow gameplay and just a handful of tracks, it certainly doesn't justify the $50 price tag.

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.

Rygar: The Battle of Argus is sub-standard in every area, and while it has its moments, most are filled with boredom or outright frustration. The PS2 version is readily available for a few dollars, and the meager additions to this Wii iteration provide little incentive to pick it up.

Gangs of London gets the portable game design thing absolutely right, with lots of choices and play sessions that are over relatively quickly. But the decent collection of distractions doesn’t make up for the awful controls.

As it stands, these blades still need a lot more sharpening.

Soul Calibur Legends isn’t a particularly bad game, but it does absolutely nothing to separate itself from the piles of generic action games on the market.

Again lacks almost all of the elements that made Cing's previous games stand out amongst fans and critics alike. This dull, plodding experience isn't worth your time or money. Given the lack of meaningful interactive segments, you're better off just reading an actual thriller.

All in all, this eagle has landed on some seriously shaky ground. Short, boring, and reeking of “been there, done that,” this first episode in the series feels like a poor value as a one-off $9.99 purchase or as part of $29.99 season pass.

In spite of its novel class-based combat and varied multiplayer, Operation Raccoon City can't shake its one-note campaign and fundamental mechanical problems.

A horribly repetitive platformer.

With awkward control schemes, modes that don’t differentiate from one another, and a bleak overall look, it pales in comparison to similar games in the genre.

While the 3DS-enabled features are a nice touch and the core concept is intact, The Sims 3 ultimately feels like a lightweight launch title. Newcomers may get a small kick out of living a fake life, but if this isn't your first virtual rodeo, you're better off sticking to the real world.

For those wanting to explore the wilds of Westeros, climb to the top of The Wall or engage in a thrilling battle with a direwolf, this Game of Thrones falls completely flat. However, if you don't mind suffering through the combat, the visuals, and the lackluster environments, there's actually a decent interactive story to experience. Of course, that's a very big "if."

Dark Messiah certainly had potential, but poor decisions and a sloppy conversion put a damper on what should have been an improvement over the earlier PC game. Oddly enough, we found ourselves continuing to play just to see if it got any better. Unfortunately, it didn’t.

Battlegrounds is a competent enough shooter, though it could use more depth and originality. The single-player portion can be completed within an hour, and the multiplayer games lack the depth to sustain long-term play.

Warped charm makes these bizarre critters and their zany game world likeable enough, but Rabbids Land falls woefully short of the Mario Party format it attempts to mimic.

It could be a raw and visceral action game, but it’s merely another way to distribute his music and generate interest in his clothing. If you like 50’s tracks but don’t own any of his CDs….then buy the CDs.

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.

Like flowers in a trash dump, the fragrance of NeverDead's high points is overpowered by the tons of garbage surrounding them. Even the most worthwhile moments are awkwardly handled, and there's nothing fun or helpful about having your body torn apart over and over again.

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.

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.

All that saves Pirates on PS2 from completely walking the plank is Johnny Depp’s boisterous performance, the rare drop in co-op gameplay, and the fact that it’s always fun to be a pirate for a while. But as far as everything else goes...you’ve been warned.

It’s good to see a developer at least trying to break the mold on the system, but Dragon Blade is far too archaic and bland to appeal to either side of the Wii equation.

Instead of rebuilding Spy Hunter's Interceptor from the ground up to make an action-racer that could potentially smoke "Burnout," or adding third-person shooting and grappling control to make you feel like Sam Fisher and Triple H at the same time, Nowhere to Run ends up being a mediocre mix of both.

A horribly repetitive platformer.

Superman Returns looks like a passable game, and it definitely feels like one when you first start playing it. Six or seven hours later, when you’ve done absolutely everything Metropolis has to offer, you’ll be shocked how little they’ve sprinkled over the obscenely huge environment.

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.

Instead of rebuilding Spy Hunter’s Interceptor from the ground up to make an action-racer that could potentially smoke "Burnout," or adding third-person shooting and grappling control to make you feel like Sam Fisher and Triple H at the same time, Nowhere to Run ends up being a mediocre mix of both.

A disappointing game with little to offer. The original had its eyes toward the future, very deliberately trying to do things differently. Great remakes are able to adapt, modifying and expanding upon the previous game’s ideas. Here there’s hardly more than recycled concepts and a total failure to capitalize on the first game’s potential. Improvements are few, and many of the updates make things worse instead of better.

Fans of the movie are going to be put off by an extended story and characters that don’t live up to the original.

X-Blades doesn’t fail for lack of originality or innovation, because that would imply that it met some meager expectations. X-Blades fails because it’s an ill-conceived lovechild of poor taste and even poorer game design.

Wii Sports is still the reigning champion when it comes to party sports games. Deca Sports is, if anything, a distraction, and worth renting if friends are coming over.

Soldier of Fortune: Payback is a one-trick pony of blood and guts. And if that’s your thing, you might be able to overlook the generic shooting mechanic, enemy AI that’s cheap and stupid, and dull level design. But we just can’t.

Fans of the movie are going to be put off by an extended story and characters that don't live up to the original.

Most of the characters, courses, and board types are also locked away from the outset, so getting to any of the worthwhile content is a test of your patience and endurance. The presentation, meanwhile, is average at best. Ultimately, you'll find little value in Adrenalin Misfits. Seek your Kinect thrills elsewhere.

Soldier of Fortune: Payback is a one-trick pony of blood and guts. And if that’s your thing, you might be able to overlook the generic shooting mechanic, enemy AI that’s cheap and stupid, and dull level design. But we just can’t.

Fans of the movie are going to be put off by an extended story and characters that don’t live up to the original.

Final Fantasy XIV is in no way, shape, or form ready for commercial release. We suppose there is potential down the line for the experience to improve with patches and tweaks, but that doesn't justify why the game is in such shambles at launch.

Dungeon Hunter does offer a few moments of fun, but they're eclipsed by painful repetition and clumsy design.

Knights Contract is far too rough around the edges to be worth its asking price. The needlessly frequent cutscenes interrupt the game's flow, combat against the majority of enemies requires little thought, and you'll be constantly fighting either the camera or the level design. The finishing blow is Gretchen's AI, which makes the boss fights annoying instead of exciting.

Despite all of its flaws, Nitrobike has one thing going for it: if you blowup 15 times during your career you can unlock crash test bowling. It’s not particularly fun and uses some whacked-out physics, but at least it will keep you from playing the main game.

The battles are often tiresome, not only because of the activity level associated with the controls, but because fights tend to drag on with rock-paper-scissors type counter attacks, blocks, and deflections. While you can unlock over 50 characters, all of the fighters control the same, and the first-person perspective means you can't even see them in action. Considering the lack of new content and spotty controls, Dragon Ball Z for Kinect ultimately puts the "sigh" in Super Saiyan.

Giant robots or not, Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2 doesn’t quite have the thrust to wedge this stagnating series out of its fixed orbit.

It's a bare minimum situation that will disappoint even the most desperate player. We have to go back a long way to remember a Madden game that offered so little.

It's a case of missed opportunity with Castlevania Judgment. The concept sounds so enticing, but it doesn't take long to realize that the series has not done a good job of creating memorable characters. It tries to implement creative ideas, but nothing really clicks and both die hard fans and fighting game enthusiasts will be discouraged by gameplay that's anything but immortal.

There was so much potential for Korra when you consider the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a developer like Platinum to work on the combat, but it seems like the Japanese studio’s B-team showed up for this project.

Fuzion Frenzy 2 is like a decent-tasting smoothie of low-calorie gaming activities with a disgusting cherry on top. The game improves a lot if you’re playing at home with friends or smack-talking strangers online, but like any party, it isn’t meant to be a solo affair.

It's an embarrassing, abhorrent heir resting on its laurels with plenty of ugly humor, bubblegum pastiche, and very little in the way of ass-kicking prowess.

Even at the discounted price of 30 dollars, this is clearly the wrong move to bust on a new platform.

While the specs look alright on paper, the dodging and shooting almost completely lack precision and the sloppy bike-fu loses its punch when you realize you can get away with mashing all the buttons at once to propel your combo counter into the thousands.

The battle system is fairly shallow; the dragon riding is plagued by bad collision and controls; the presentation isn’t up to Xbox 360 standards; and the story is merely decent.

Daylight's potency is diminished by repetition and distraction, but when you have the chance to become truly engrossed in its shadows, it can really pull you in and make you jump, especially if you’re wearing a pair of headphones.

Maybe one day, they'll come out with a motion-controlled game that captures the frightful excitement and immediacy of being in a fistfight. But that day has yet to come. Not even the grizzled charmer Danny Trejo can salvage this trainwreck.

Worse than Bound in Blood in every way, and you'll have more fun laughing at its missteps than anything else.

Fantastic Four isn’t bad in the sense that it’s incredibly buggy or overly frustrating. It’s just mind-numbingly mundane. And the thinly veiled attempts at character customization aren’t enough to make the game any less boring.

A horribly repetitive platformer.

A monotonous button-masher, the splashes of other gameplay styles aren’t well executed and we can only recommend this to the true Hellboy fan.

Though the premise isn’t all that bad, poor execution and terrible controls keep Wing Island from taking flight.

One could theoretically get better at playing Sonic Free Riders, but the rewards for mastery pale before the spastic mess of a game you have to deal with.

The good news for beat-'em-up fans is that the combat is fast, furious, and mostly satisfying. The bad news is that repetitive enemy types, lack of cooperative play, and confining levels are decidedly not. Even on the hardest difficulty setting, you'll beat the game within seven hours.

A race to the bottom, buggy and ill-inspired by genre clichés.

The various game crashes, audio glitches, and unceasing loading make up an additional catalog of do-not-want, but it’s really just how diminished Spider-Man is that hurts. The anemic plot and the oft-repeated zingers give us a pencil sketch of the great Spider-Man, when he deserves to be inked and colored.

From the cumbersome load times to the malfunctioning board it's just clunky. If you set it to casual and bring it out at a party it will draw some interest, but it won't take long before everyone realizes it's work to play, and ultimately, not very fun. At a steep $120, it's a bit of a wipeout.

With or without the Samurai Shodown name on its sleeve, Sen is a joyless effort that neither honors its colorful lineage nor brings anything of substantial worth to the 3D fighter. Despite its penchant for gory dismemberments and decapitations, this one simply just doesn't cut it.

Had Barrel Blast come out just after the Wii’s launch, it would be forgivable, if still not a very good game. But at this point in the system’s life cycle, releasing long-delayed GameCube games with Wii controls grafted onto them is a no-no, especially when said game is published by the system’s manufacturer itself.

Tank! Tank! Tank! is hard to recommend on any level. It's short on content, fails to take much advantage of the Wii U hardware, lacks gameplay depth, and quickly becomes monotonous. It holds some charm for those who enjoy massive creature flicks, but everyone else should steer clear despite its discounted price tag. Launch day surprise, this is not.

Tournament of Legends is definitely a different type of fighter with a unique mythological spin, but different isn't better in this case. This paltry package is best left to fade into the mists of time.

However well it might model the experience of killing with deadly precision, Sniper: Ghost Warrior suffers from a barrage of technical and design mishaps that make it hard to recommend wholeheartedly. If you've been hard up for a shooter with precisely this sort of narrow focus, it's worth a look, especially given the budget price, so long as you temper your expectations.

Soldier of Fortune: Payback is a one-trick pony of blood and guts. And if that’s your thing, you might be able to overlook the generic shooting mechanic, enemy AI that’s cheap and stupid, and dull level design. But we just can’t.

Ninety-Nine Nights II is one of the most difficult games available, but the real challenge is putting up with this mess. Boring missions coupled with tedious combat isn't a recipe for fun. Stay away unless you're a glutton for punishment.

007 Legends was clearly rushed to market, and the publisher has such a spotty track record with the franchise, that it's high time for the Bond license to be revoked. Uglier than Jaws and shorter than Nick Nack, 007 Legends doesn't expect you to gawk. Oh no Mr. Bond fans, it expects you to cry. Mission succeeded.

Despite the game’s best intentions to immerse you in the Aliens universe, the result is a bloody massacre. Relying on dated storytelling techniques and technology, and stretching way too far to provide a plausible link between the second and third films, Aliens: Colonial Marines isn’t able to connect its action to any real sense of drama or terror, completely missing the aspect of psychological horror that gave the film its edge.

It’s a game with a hodgepodge of stolen ideas and video game conventions that never quite manage to be pulled off flawlessly.

There's really no reason to bother with Darkest of Days, especially with a price tag that approaches full retail. There are a few moments that might be memorable, but you can live without experiencing them.

Tyris is likeable enough, but generic and uninspired gameplay manage to reduce everything in Golden Axe: Beast Rider to the lowest common denominator. It’s simply not fun--offering very little incentive to keep playing.

EA's Harry Potter series unceremoniously bows out in this final game. While the previous games were also disappointments, this one sinks even lower to full-on cash-in status. What you're left with is a confused mess parading around as a barely-competent third-person shooter.

With sluggish combat, muddy visuals simply, and almost no impact, city-destroying giant monsters have never been so easy to ignore.