Truth be told, the presentation is awful, but this replay value is built to last with the right audience. And hey, with an easy 1000 points in achievements to be had (I unlocked them all within a few sessions), it's at least worth a rental for those on the fence.

In the end, it's nothing but some nice 2D art strapped onto a mostly non-engaging story and a halfhearted attempt at a game. The gimmick to gameplay ratio is almost off the charts for this one.

A partially fun, partially frustrating escapade for Phoenix. Once again, the puzzle construction is likely to send you running for a FAQ when, if it was done right it should have you yelling "Take THAT!" at your digital legal foe right along with Phoenix.

Sadly, like many other previous WarioWare games, Smooth Moves doesn't have much replay value. Even though there are 200 mini games and about 20 different controller positions, there isn't much to do once you've completed the game.

Poker on the Wii can wait until a game with more features is released.

A serviceable entry in the Castlevania series. While it's not going to ever contend for best game of all time, and while it also isn't even the best Castlevania on the DS, it's certainly better than a lot of other things out there.

A fine game of college basketball from top to bottom. The feature set in the game is robust and the graphical upgrades help to take advantage of the Xbox 360’s hardware and make this version of the game distinct from the PlayStation 2 version.

There are the issues with clipping and shadows that you expect from a launch title, but the problems are never so bad that you have trouble figuring out what you’re looking at. It is a little strange, however, seeing the Matrix-style animations associated with the world of twilight. Overall, the game looks very nice, but nothing about it screams "next-generation."

This glorified tech demo is an excellent game for groups, whether the serious gamers you'd expect from a college dorm or the kids at a family reunion.

Fairly forgettable. However, you cannot underestimate the fun it is when you get a few of your buddies together or hop online for some Xbox Live fun. Heck, if Big Bumpin' were offered on the Arcade, it would cost 320 points ($4), making it the cheapest XBLA game you could purchase. For this, I stress that this title is a tremendous value for those looking for some quick achievements and easy (and cheap) gameplay to jump into.

At $3.99 with the purchase of a Burger King value meal, Sneak King is far cheaper, and surprisingly better, than most games on the Xbox Live Arcade.

A number of excellent minigames keep the game enjoyable long after finishing the main game.

A decent game for those who love the genre, but this release isn’t quite sure exactly what it wants to be. While worth it for the dedicated RPG fan and Final Fantasy completists, it shows that Square Enix has a long way to go before they can dominate the handheld RPG market.

This game is available for multiple systems, but if you happen to have a Wii, then that is the system on which you need to play this game.

Trying to adapt the controls from earlier incarnations of the game for the remote left a nigh-unplayable mess filled with crude sounds and very little to endear it even to fans of the series. If you really want to get your fix of playing as a giant monster demolishing buildings, play the cheaper and better incarnations of the game for previous-generation consoles or wait for the older games which are bonus features in this title to show up on the Virtual Console.

The premise behind Viva Piñata is solid, but irritating gameplay and sound issues hindered the overall execution. What could have been a true classic ends up being a remarkably average game.

To not have this game in your Xbox 360 game collection is like a form of self-punishment. There's no doubt in my mind: Gears of War can easily go down as one of the greatest video games ever created.

If you've got a PSP and a love of pure, twitch-your-brain games, you simply owe it to yourself to grab EEE; this literally is one of the best reasons to own a PSP.

"Guitar Hero" was one of the best rhythm games I had ever seen, but Guitar Hero II improves upon it in nearly every way.

The idea behind Elite Beat Agents is one of the best I've seen. The story is told with near-perfect timing, and the engine itself is solid. However, the song choice is incredibly spotty, and the multiplayer modes are a disappointment.

In terms of a remake compared to the original, Final Fantasy V Advance manages to faithfully reproduce the experience of the original game. The biggest problem with that is that Final Fantasy V was never a great game in the first place.

But the play’s the thing, and in this title, the play is a chore to get from cutscene to cutscene. Though I’ve often snarked that this was how Square Enix designed the series starting with Final Fantasy VII, I can’t imagine this is truly what the designers wanted from their latest creation. The result is a decent but ultimately disappointing experience from this venerable series’ latest entry.

Pokémon Ranger is one of the big misses in this franchise’s history. It can be entertaining for a short time, but uninteresting game mechanics and utter lack of difficulty will result in most players putting this game aside for good even before the relatively short story is completed.

Unparalleled graphics, improvements to the combat system and a longer gameplay experience don’t completely make up for a weak storyline and other annoyances, but the result is still solid.

Despite the relative brevity of the experience, I can honestly say that Touch Detective is an excellent game to go through... but only once. It's disappointing that the game is so short, because the eccentric cases and endearing cast just deserve to have more than just a brief few hours in the spotlight.

The splendid level design, and the attention to action make this worth playing, and if you're into the local multiplayer, it makes it worth buying.

You have no idea how badly I wish this worked. For a game that offers so much promise and nostalgia for its huge fan base, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 on the Xbox Live Arcade turned out to be a travesty.

It does seem, though, that the gamer who patiently waits for all the episodes to come out, and then plays them in one long block is going to have a much more satisfying time, in my opinion.