Nothing beats running around cramped dungeons seeking treasure and revenge while hacking, arrow-ing, and spell-casting your way through hordes of Lord of the Rings rejects.

While this muck jam has expansive environments and great graphics, it also boasts as much originality as a Winger sing-along chorus. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun.

It does have...a kung-fu penguin! And what's cooler than that?

Nothing beats running around cramped dungeons seeking treasure and revenge while hacking, arrow-ing, and spell-casting your way through hordes of Lord of the Rings rejects.

Improvements in puck physics means that hard shots can bruise your opponents, while last year's overly aggressive defense has been scaled back to realistic levels.

And while fans of such modern shootouts as Halo 2 will scoff at its Super Nintendo–ish look and gameplay, anyone who can remember the last decade without the aid of I Love the ’90s should come away smiling.

Eye-popping.

It’s not the deepest game you’ll find, but its oddly satisfying.

Can’t be beat for fun, mindless destruction.

Yeah, it’s still just a video game version of pinball, but at least it won't steal all of your quarters like the arcade version of "My Little Pony."

These intense, roller coaster–like tracks will twist and turn until you swallow your tongue and beg for mercy.

The ho-hum game play won’t wow you.

While this muck jam has expansive environments and great graphics, it also boasts as much originality as a Winger sing-along chorus. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun.

While these side-scrolling action games are still addictive and challenging, it's hard to get nostalgic over games with release dates from 2002 and 2003, respectively.

Your all-terrain vehicles come equipped with oil slicks, smoke screens, and acid bombs that are so fun to use that it's hard to tell if it's more fun to use contraband or smuggle it.

Unfortunately, you spend more time scaring the crap out of people than blowing the crap out of people, which slows down the action.

While this muck jam has expansive environments and great graphics, it also boasts as much originality as a Winger sing-along chorus. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun.

And while it's more of a tech demo than a test of reflexes, after a long day of crime and combat, it's just what your overworked thumbs need.

Unfortunately, none of the additions will distinguish this one for vets of the PC version, but tight controls, abundant targets, and beautiful scenery still deliver the most disturbing vacation package since Kathie Lee Gifford stalked Carnival cruise ships.

Since they opt for realism at the expense of fun, you just can’t pull off those sick, death-defying feats you can in other games.

Play is especially intriguing online, where our hero's acrobatic skills, ability to find cover, and state-of-the-art weaponry deliver death matches to die for.

[Its] shortcomings make it hard to recommend if you’ve bought a previous edition in the past, but it’s just so damn fun to play and watch that it might be worth picking up anyway.

With matches of five-on-five taking place on small fields with really basic controls, Strikers is classic arcade-style soccer, but the game gets an extra kick from power-ups, random Bowser attacks, and a Telemundo-style announcer.

Improvements in puck physics means that hard shots can bruise your opponents, while last year's overly aggressive defense has been scaled back to realistic levels.

But after nine innings, it's basically the same game, including easy to master controls that'll finally allow you to be big man on campus.

Improvements in puck physics means that hard shots can bruise your opponents, while last year's overly aggressive defense has been scaled back to realistic levels.

The problem here is Blitz is a lot like Jerry Springer: if you’ve seen one episode, you’ve seen them all. This year’s edition does little to dispel that theory, since it comes with only a handful of new features, none of which include online play.

But after nine innings, it's basically the same game, including easy to master controls that'll finally allow you to be big man on campus.

The problem here is Blitz is a lot like Jerry Springer: if you’ve seen one episode, you’ve seen them all. This year’s edition does little to dispel that theory, since it comes with only a handful of new features, none of which include online play.

But even if you lack broadband, the bizarre characters and 13 arcade-style courses to choose from will keep you giddier than Carl Spackler on a gofer hunt.

For the casual player, this is archaic stuff that’ll provide about an hour of nostalgic fun.

Unfortunately, the controls are still choppy compared with Dreamcast blockbuster "Soul Calibur," which defeats the purpose of splurging on a new PlayStation 2.

It’s the perfect cross-breeding of "Super Mario Brothers" and "Hooters!"

With Heroes, D&D has severed its dorky roots in favor of fast-paced, arcade-style hackin' 'n' slashin'.

A game for those who think they don't make 'em like they used to, but should, Shodown is an exact replica of the classic arcade fighter.

It's too bad that clunky controls and eh game play stay forever buried in a time lock of dull sloppiness.

Stevie Wonder could breeze through this first-person shooter in under five hours.

While the kill-and-kill-again objective may be low in frills, the simple, straightforward action is a welcome break from a sea of complex games that currently take longer to set up than to play.

Though challenging, it's also sometimes pedestrian, with a host of uninspired levels and dim bad guys ruining what could have been the triumphant return of 007.

What’s really shocking, though, is that it plays as well as a regulation tennis game. It has the same responsive controls, and even lets you play online doubles with your friends—assuming they're more likely to chug a Country Club than apply to one.

Most of the game consists of endless management, such as babysitting your kids, managing your dough, and constantly mailing postcards to your friends so they don’t resent your ignoring them.

Decent graphics and gory (if kinda short) game play will keep most players nailed to the controller, but sometimes wretched camera placement sucks harder than the minions of Dracula at a Red Cross blood drive.

If you’re keen on tasteless, tongue-in-cheek jokes, smooth sailing lies ahead.

Now we don’t mean to be football snobs here, but there’s just something wrong when a downfield bomb takes longer to drop than the Goodyear blimp. Just ask the unconscious wide receiver that got clocked by a safety waiting for it to come down.

The concept and play consistently deal a royal flush, just ignore the choppy visuals, which can irritate like a pesky infection picked up at Miss Kitty’s Cat House.

Despite the occasionally clunky controls, Emperor’s Tomb does impress with its hand-to-hand brawls (Ms. Croft would be lost without HER weapons) and the free-range exploration allowed within each level.

Painstaking detail and suspenseful play make this a thinking sofa slug’s delight, though the deliberate pace might frustrate action fans.

This build-your-own-robot game gives grease monkeys a 20-story garage, hundreds of parts, and plenty of time to tinker with and create the ultimate 40-ton rig.

Such virtual destruction may once have seemed innocent, but these days the whole thing hits a little close to home.

We forsee you buying this game, enjoying it at first, getting frustrated at certain parts, then putting it on your shelf after you’re done and rarely playing it again.

Hilariously crude.

We forsee you buying this game, enjoying it at first, getting frustrated at certain parts, then putting it on your shelf after you’re done and rarely playing it again.

Some of the better moves defy gravity and reason—such as the four-man pile driver. The game doesn't reveal who these freaks are or why they're fighting, but extensive research has revealed they're based on a line of rubber toys and a disturbing '80s TV show.

What's really shocking, though, is that it plays as well as a regulation tennis game. It has the same responsive controls, and even lets you play online doubles with your friends-assuming they're more likely to chug a Country Club than apply to one.

It’s all so much like the Xbox version, in fact, that you might wonder why the hell you spent money on it a second time.

But the game's star is really Nevin's cool, morphable costume, which gives new meaning to the phrase "class action suit."

Like the movie, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is quite an ambitious undertaking. Unlike the movie, it doesn’t consistently deliver the goods.

Blowing away targets requires use of annoying lock-on control, but rolling out of harm's way during lead showers and stealthy clinging to walls varies the pace-as do cut scenes dripping with cheezola dialogue.

Welcome to the mile-high club.

The drab pacing isn’t helped by clunky controls and muddy graphics.

The whole shooting match feels kinda Xeroxed, but for fans of the genre, it's worth the rental after a long day at the rock pile.

The only "improvements" consist of a slew of extra outfits, yawn-inducing training missions, and a handful of bonuses that only the most avid Gear geek could appreciate. If that’s you, fine.

Though the tired scenarios prevent this from being a gourmet experience, on the action-starved Xbox it makes for a satisfying lunch special.

Offers enough twists to make us take the bait.

We don’t like how the pesky pedestrians always manage to dodge your cab, but the graphics of the San Francisco–like city are amazingly detailed.

But the game's focus on cooperative gameplay with an AI fighting partner feels more forced than fun. If we wanted to be this bored with another person, we’d have gotten married.

The graphics and sound (enhanced by the actual voices of the movie’s stars) were well-rendered and intricate indeed, but players soon grew bored with repetitive thrusting and parrying against evil Sauron’s monstrous hordes.

But the game's star is really Nevin's cool, morphable costume, which gives new meaning to the phrase "class action suit."

If sending a single bullet through someone’s head thousands of yards away sounds like a good Friday night to you, then Silent Scope is right up your alley (and therapy might not be a bad idea, either).

The scares happen early and often, so we strongly recommend you play this one with the lights turned down and the volume turned up. Just make sure you have a diaper on.

This confrontation between Crash and his massively noggined nemesis, Dr. Cortex, is the most innovative yet.

Not everyone’s cup of vino, but a true toga party for fans of the franchise.

A letdown for NRA enthusiasts, surely, but they will enjoy the best spy perk of all—a license to kill.

Maybe they should change their names to something catchy, like Fuzzy or Chi-Chi, so we can remember who the hell they are.

The game’s lack of realism (your cars can’t get damaged or dirty) takes away from that devilish feeling that you’re doing something naughty with the family car.

Like most outings with the little lady, this one gets tired, but ample eye candy—and violence—ensure that Eve is one traditional kiss good night that occasionally slips you the tongue.

Fanatics will tweak tire pressure, suspension, and build dynasties, alliances, and sponsorships; rookies can learn the nuances of drafting, passing, and holding position on dozens of real-world tracks.

Like the comic books that inspired it, Freedom Force features slick animation and plenty of boffo, whiz-bang special effects.

The concept and play consistently deal a royal flush, just ignore the choppy visuals, which can irritate like a pesky infection picked up at Miss Kitty’s Cat House.

You'll add valuable mech piloting skills to your résumé in punishing combat situations that are as close as you'll ever get to the real thing...were these machines not totally fictional.

The unique fighting system keeps things lively—martial arts and gun battles play out by aligning "moves" on an action bar—but whether or not there are enough Matrix fans out there to populate this huge, lush world remains to be seen.

While not the deepest racer, the game has speedy thrills and frantic multiplayer action that help bring Sonic's usual racing antics and signature speed to the sky.

Unfortunately, figuring out how to work the controller is absolutely infuriating, meaning you go into firefights against stealthy Charlie with no knowledge of your environment, opponent, or weapon.

To say you need quick reflexes to survive this would be an understatement—it’s almost like you need to use a mystical, ambivalent power to help guide you through it. Sort of like the movie.

The multiplayer is engaging and the storyline suitably absurd, but in the world of PC games the first-person shooter bar is set high, and with Half-Life 2 out there, it's hard to imagine choosing this shorter, less clever game instead.

An adventure game that looks and plays shamelessly like "Tomb Raider," only without the oversized breasts.

Warning: Tenchu 2 requires a lot of patience and exploration, so if you’re looking for a mindless contest, maybe you should turn on a Presidential debate instead.

It's too bad that clunky controls and eh game play stay forever buried in a time lock of dull sloppiness.

Though challenging, it's also sometimes pedestrian, with a host of uninspired levels and dim bad guys ruining what could have been the triumphant return of 007.

While the tough, stealthy game play won’t grip you in a chokehold of novelty and surprise, it flashes a lethal look and feel.

We forsee you buying this game, enjoying it at first, getting frustrated at certain parts, then putting it on your shelf after you’re done and rarely playing it again.

At last you’ll infiltrate the secret lair, where you’ll discover…you’ve been playing a very standard-issue game.

Decent graphics and gory (if kinda short) game play will keep most players nailed to the controller, but sometimes wretched camera placement sucks harder than the minions of Dracula at a Red Cross blood drive.

Despite the occasionally clunky controls, Emperor’s Tomb does impress with its hand-to-hand brawls (Ms. Croft would be lost without HER weapons) and the free-range exploration allowed within each level.

If you want a glimpse of what the NBA might look like if Vince McMahon were the commissioner, then you owe yourself a look at NBA Hoopz.

The game’s pace rarely manages to grind past second gear, making this a much longer haul than it really should be.

Though challenging, it's also sometimes pedestrian, with a host of uninspired levels and dim bad guys ruining what could have been the triumphant return of 007.

While not the deepest racer, the game has speedy thrills and frantic multiplayer action that help bring Sonic's usual racing antics and signature speed to the sky.