The multiplayer doesn't seem especially deep, though, and consequently I suspect it will lose its luster after a week or two. The good news is the campaign alone is worth playing through two or even three times.

The multiplayer doesn't seem especially deep, though, and consequently I suspect it will lose its luster after a week or two. The good news is the campaign alone is worth playing through two or even three times.

The game's combat feels limp, the quest design is immediately monotonous, and the whole package manages to make being a superhero or villain feel like the most mundane thing in the world. Considering the game's "everyone's a hero/villain" plot, I suppose that makes perfect sense.

As I trudged through hour after hour of Lost in Shadow's adventure, a singular, pervasive thought cycled through my head: I wished this game were shorter.

This should have been a superior sequel, but there's not enough here to make it anything than a mildly enjoyable but ultimately underwhelming action game.

After some serious consideration, I cannot come up with a single good reason why someone would buy PowerGig: Rise of the SixString. Even morbid curiosity is hard to justify.

The only thing I really wish Pac-Man Championship Edition DX had was just more. More mazes, more modes, more ways for me to subjugate ghosts and rub my high scores in my friends' stupid, stupid faces. It's not that this package feels particularly anemic, it's just that what's here is so damn good, I wish it didn't have to end.

Above all else, Splatterhouse is a game that screams "competent." Specifically, it screams it with a guttural heavy metal growl over the deafening din of grinding power chords and machine gun blasts of double bass, while simultaneously vomiting a fire hydrant's worth of blood all over the screen.

Above all else, Splatterhouse is a game that screams "competent." Specifically, it screams it with a guttural heavy metal growl over the deafening din of grinding power chords and machine gun blasts of double bass, while simultaneously vomiting a fire hydrant's worth of blood all over the screen.

Its weird, half-hearted political gestures aside, Vanquish is the kind of video game that reminds you that these are video games. Perhaps more than any quality, video games allow for visceral thrills unfettered by the real-world logistics of physics and general plausibility. Sometimes a game just needs to look cool and make you feel like a space-age badass, and Vanquish accomplishes both with vigor.

Its weird, half-hearted political gestures aside, Vanquish is the kind of video game that reminds you that these are video games. Perhaps more than any quality, video games allow for visceral thrills unfettered by the real-world logistics of physics and general plausibility. Sometimes a game just needs to look cool and make you feel like a space-age badass, and Vanquish accomplishes both with vigor.

But it doesn't matter how slick a game like this looks if the action isn't on point. Housemarque has proven in the past it clearly has the chops to make great shooters, but it doesn't feel like that skill was fully brought to bear on this one.

Though I occasionally felt like I was fighting the front-end UI to get it to tell me which events I should be trying next, the gameplay offers just enough variety to work well in short bursts and the online modes are terrific fun that could keep you coming back for a while as you strive to gain levels and get a better, longer spike strip.

If GoldenEye 007 wasn't called GoldenEye 007, people would likely not know entirely what to make of it, perhaps viewing it as an interesting, entertaining curiosity.

If you're yearning for solid, demanding 2D platforming and can look past some slightly misplaced motion controls, you could do far worse than Donkey Kong Country Returns.

NBA Jam has always been a game that lives and dies by its core gameplay and your desire to play that game at length, and that part hasn't changed in 2010.

As a guy that appreciated Tron back when it was released who is already interested in seeing the new movie, the way Evolution fleshes out the world and sets up the events of Tron: Legacy makes it a lot more interesting than it would have been otherwise.

As a guy that appreciated Tron back when it was released who is already interested in seeing the new movie, the way Evolution fleshes out the world and sets up the events of Tron: Legacy makes it a lot more interesting than it would have been otherwise.

Do you want to play more Call of Duty? I'm guessing the answer is yes, and by all means, Black Ops is worth playing. But for all its ambitious steps to set itself apart from the previous games, it flounders in a few too many of those areas to be a total success.

Do you want to play more Call of Duty? I'm guessing the answer is yes, and by all means, Black Ops is worth playing. But for all its ambitious steps to set itself apart from the previous games, it flounders in a few too many of those areas to be a total success.

Nevermind these heightened expectations, though: even on its own merits, Epic Mickey is a platformer that feels about a generation behind, though one with just enough flashes of inspiration to keep you constantly aware of its wasted potential.

Gran Turismo 5's core problem is that the broad scope of all these game modes diminishes the polish of the general product. There's no denying the feel of the actual driving, but everything else that makes up the game feels tedious and half-baked.

The standard gameplay in NBA Jam is insanely entertaining, and if you've got a group of players ready to play at your side, you'll easily get $50 of enjoyment out of it.

The standard gameplay in NBA Jam is insanely entertaining, and if you've got a group of players ready to play at your side, you'll easily get $50 of enjoyment out of it.

Brotherhood lacks that generational leap we saw from Assassin's Creed to Assassin's Creed II, but it more than makes up for that with a full-bodied single-player experience teeming with interesting gameplay additions and a risky multiplayer component.

I'll go so far as to say that the genre of sports-themed minigame collections probably isn't capable of really being revolutionized, but Kinect Sports gets dangerously close, simply by virtue of doing the one thing other motion-controlling technologies haven't been able to yet: Tracking your feet.

Dance Central feels very basic and leaves a lot of room for future expansion, but it's also a lot of fun in its current state. It's also one of the best Kinect games out there, so if you've got one of those, make sure you pick up one of these, as well.

New Kinect owners will undoubtedly have some fun early on with it, but Kinect Adventures seems destined to be more or less forgotten by the time the next wave of titles hits store shelves.