I hope that EA goes back to this idea again eventually. If they do, they need to allow the player to actually CREATE things, fix the menus, and also allow for a little more open-ended gameplay. If they do, I would love to recommend it. Until then, it's worth a rental for the curious and not worth much else for those who aren't interested.

3D settings have always been kryptonite for the Castlevania series. As well as nearly every 2D entry in the franchise has been received, the attempts at 3D have almost always been panned. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow breaks this curse completely by excelling in nearly every way a game can be measured. The excellent voice acting, the suitably grand score, the gorgeously crafted vistas, the compelling plot; everything just clicks when it comes to this game.

When it comes right down to it, if you're a fan of any of the NIS titles or a fan of roguelikes, you owe it to yourself to buy this title. At $30 it's an absolute steal given the amount of gameplay you can get out of it. It's not flawless, but then again, no game really is.

But here the developer's essentially gave players the chance to skip the most irrelevant portion of the game while forcibly skipping critical information by not leaving messages on screen for at least five seconds. Combine this with the complete lack of fun associated with the board game, stripping out the ability to strategize, and hurling flashing graphics and towering buildings at you sans an understanding of what anything means, and the result is a rapid-pace disaster of a game.

The game does over multiplayer with up to eight players. Even here, however, the game seems somewhat limited in scope. You have only a handful of maps, and only four game modes, two of which are ranked.

For a game that borrows so liberally from other sources, Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom stands up pretty well on its own.

I give props to Naruto vs. Sasuke for faithfully recreating the entire second season of Naruto Shippuden. Some stuff was cut out, but the main story points are here.

Namco Bandai has managed to do one of the rarest feats in the video game landscape. They have created a really good game based on an anime series.

Being a big DBZ fan, I really wanted to enjoy Dragon Ball Z: Tenchaichi Tag Team, and at first I did. But the game wore thin real quick once I figured out that all of the fighters control exactly the same way and you can win every single fight in the game using the exact same strategy.

Ys: The Oath in Felghana is a fun action RPG.

Matrix Software has now made three good-to-great games in a row for the DS: Avalon Code, Nostalgia and now 4 Heroes of Light. I only wish they could take one of these fantastic concepts and push it over the hump from "really good" to "exceptional."

The Sly Collection is a great game for kids and adults who grew up with Mario will no doubt appreaciate the platforming gameplay.

It just feels like this game could have been renamed Dynasty Warriors: Fist of the North Star. If you like that style of gameplay, then you may enjoy this game. Otherwise it's not worth your time, even for fans of the series.

In conclusion, the word I would use to sum up Kirby's Epic Yarn is "delightful." It's only aim is to make you smile, and it does so with panache.

A higher level of difficulty and a lengthier campaign might have elevated The UnderGarden's score, but as it stands it's still a terrific title that straddles the Zen and puzzle genres with style.

But this game is an epic fail start to finish. It's storyline is terrible, the graphics are mediocre at best, the voice acting ranges from bad to worse (with Oldman the lone actor who must have used his imagination while recording his lines), the Wii's native controls aren't exactly cut out for this kind of rapid action, there's little to no reason given as to why to play the game (which isn't very fun), and the in-game cut scenes are terrible.

On the whole, Call of Duty: Black Ops for the DS is a genuinely solid little shooter.

Taken as a whole; Time Crisis: Razing Storm is a fairly good package.

N-Space did everything they could with GoldenEye. They've pushed the DS as far as they could, but it simply doesn't have the power to do anything more than the most basic shooter mechanics.

GoldenEye 007 is a great step in the right direction for this long-neglected franchise.

Whatever your gameplay preference is, Call of Duty: Black Ops has you covered and is a must-have title for any shooter fan.

Whatever your gameplay preference is, Call of Duty: Black Ops has you covered and is a must-have title for any shooter fan.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood has everything you loved and hated about AC2, but it has shined up the positives to a sheen I didn't expect. Toss in the fantastic multiplayer with its persistent experience and leveling system and you have a solid and worthy successor to an already great series.

For those of us that are hardcore 007 fanatics, James Bond 007: Blood Stone is good enough to hold us over until the eventual resurrection of the film series (or perhaps another game), but most players will rightfully pass on this one in favor of other gaming options.

Pinball FX2 is one of the most accurate and realistic pinball simulations I have played. If you appreciate the creation, design, and gameplay of pinball machines, you will get many finger-blistering hours from Pinball FX2.

While the previous Ride reviews might have scared you away from getting Shred, it's worth trying out if you get a chance. You might be surprised how much fun you are having with the game.

Yuke's and THQ set the bar quite high with last year's rendition of this franchise, and they could have easily taken the year off and rested on their accomplishments. It is quite impressive to see that the development team has stayed hungry and added some key elements to this franchise that fans are going to go absolutely wild over.

Yuke's and THQ set the bar quite high with last year's rendition of this franchise, and they could have easily taken the year off and rested on their accomplishments. It is quite impressive to see that the development team has stayed hungry and added some key elements to this franchise that fans are going to go absolutely wild over.