Killer is Dead never becomes anything more than a decent action game. The perpetual nonsense in the story isn’t remotely cohesive and the gigolo missions are nothing more than degrading distractions. While Killer is Dead often looks striking, the game’s other parts rarely match its outward style.

There's a lot of strategy to explore in Fortune Street, but it can drag on with games averaging two hours long, and it's a bit dull even if you like this sort of thing. In the right circumstances, it can be rewarding, but you really need a group of like-minded friends to make it worth your while.

But at the opening price of 20 bucks, players craving something genuinely different will definitely find it in E.Y.E. Divine Cybermancy, without breaking the bank.

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."

It is essentially the spiritual successor to Gauntlet Legends. Yet those weaned on games like Diablo will find the content too shallow to merit consideration. The limited loot, lack of randomized dungeons, and loss of leveling ultimately undermines this Alliance before it has a chance to shine.

Almost all of the major control issues have been fixed, the graphics are much cleaner, and the wireless co-op feature is fantastic. But all of the good still doesn’t outweigh the bad--the horribly generic gameplay just doesn’t cut it.

You feel more as if you're performing a repetitive series of tasks rather than surviving by your wits, but there's still a certain satisfaction in overcoming the game's challenge.

Behind all the brush strokes and ink lines lies a rather ho-hum experience.

Major League Baseball 2K9 is really rough around the edges. Smoothing out the frame rate has improved the fielding, but this game really needed a visit from the exterminator before it shipped.

It's all combat, all the time, with the absence of exploration, puzzles, or a free range of movement making the game feel a bit too basic for its 40 dollar price tag. Still, decent production values and responsive controls make Medieval Moves one of the better motion titles on the system, offering plenty of action but little in the way of interesting challenges or variety. It's fun, but after a few repetitive play sessions, you're going to want to rest those weary bones.

Perhaps unwittingly, Shadows of the Damned accomplishes what it set out for, by providing a B-level experience in video game form. It has more than its share of groan-worthy one-liners and irritating gameplay mechanics, but there's enough oddness and variety for it to pull in a cult following.

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.

The Skylanders concept still feels novel and you get the feeling that there's a lot of potential waiting to be squeezed out of the experience. However, it's clearly being held back by the focus on peddling collectible toys. There's a decent game in here, but it's ultimately hard to justify the substantial investment you'll have to throw down for all the figures required to get the full experience.

Risen 2 has more than a few issues, but there's plenty of buried treasure waiting here for players who are willing to dig for it. Unfortunately, the excavation is demanding, and the slaphappy combat and bland quest structure might prove too overpowering for players who want to sample one of the few examples of a genuine pirate roleplaying game.

The impulse to go back in time for inspiration serves this SideScroller well in creating an attractive visual identity. But failure to properly consider what makes shoot'em ups fun, past and present, holds this PixelJunk project back from greatness.

It's hard to recommend Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts. It's too complicated for kids, and too convoluted for adults, If you're the creative type, you'll enjoy fiddling around with all the parts, but if you're looking for an accessible game that you can play in short bursts and make headway, then steer clear.

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."

Though it gets off to a decent start, Sands of Destruction fails to keep up the pace. The battle mechanics deteriorate only after a few hours, and the story fails to compensate you for time invested.

With options that are barebones and gameplay that can be at one moment exhilarating and the next maddening, PilotWings Resort isn't a great showcase for the 3DS' capabilities. It's a different kind of game that will appeal to specific players, but the lack of content won't keep anyone coming back for long.

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."

If videogames are systems of learning, then Bangai-O is a scatterbrained professor teaching advanced calculus.

Players new to the formula may enjoy it for a while, but the uninspired random levels quickly get monotonous even for first-time dungeon crawlers.

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.

Contrary to its namesake, One Piece: Unlimited Adventure is more of a spirited Easter egg hunt than anything else.

If you don’t have any friends to play with steer clear, but if you live with a group of buddies or have a lot of siblings it can become incredibly addictive.

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.

Mario Super Sluggers is fun to pick up and play for a short session with friends, but as a game to play by yourself it's shallow. It also doesn't make much use of the system's capabilities with limited motion control and no online play.

There's no mistaking that Tales of Graces was originally released on the Wii, and it seems that little effort was made to bring it up to PS3 standards.