Twenty-plus playable characters (including fisticuff faves Krillin, Goku, and Piccolo), ground-based and sky-bound battles, a brimming list of offline challenges, and an addictive around-the-globe online Versus mode (complete with leaderboard tracking) fill out this beefy package.

Brimming with subdued pastel colors, hand-drawn characters, and a trippy, jazzy soundtrack, Pid's aesthetic is peculiar but challenging enough to be fun. [Nov 2012, p.85]

NiGHTS is like the dreams it's based on: it's easy to dismiss as silly nonsense, but when you dig deeper into it, you'll find something beautiful and revelatory.

The “a-ha” moments when you successfully combine your various marker powers to navigate a pitch-black cave, escape the clutches of a pursuing beast, or access a seemingly out-of-reach ledge made us feel like Mensa members.

Lavish graphics and cinematic cutscenes are worth the $19.99 price tag alone, and though a couple of annoying bugs exist, it's a mature, intelligent journey that will entice any true adventure fan. [Nov 2003, p.124]

A decidedly old-school FPS that modernizes itself just enough to make it fun today. [Nov 2009, p.68]

Our favorite addition is the inclusion of tooltips telling us how to perform the required tricks. When doing a challenge off one of the brand-new park objects, we now know exactly how to do a Crail or a Truckdriver without having to dive into the glossary of grabs!

It feels just like last year's version with online play added. [Oct 2002, p.100]

Selecting Online mode almost literally transports you to another game - a new interface and a surprisingly robust and navigable online selection screen. [Dec 2003, p.93]

Only diehard fans will spend more than a couple hours with the Wonder Boys, but Monster World IV is worth a look all by itself.

If you can get some pals together, have a stable connection, and don’t mind interrupting your game for a level-up session, you’ll have some fun here, but Battle Grounds still falls short of being the sleeper hit it could have been.

It's easy to put down the wrong tower as you hurriedly try to set up your defenses, but otherwise, the controls are solid. [Holiday 2009, p.75]

Breezy and bite-sized, it won't wow you..but it's no dog, either. [Holiday 2009, p.82]

Clunky controls. [July 2010, p.79]

Imagine if "Hot Shots Golf" had been developed by Larry Flynt Publications, and you might have an idea of the humor and content included in this otherwise sharp-yet-strangely-normal golf game. [August 2002, p.81]

Whether you're playing with buddies online or in the same room, or just battling through the career, this extremely polished sequel is an excellent way to rock out. [Nov 2010, p.66]

Dungeon Siege III is among the finer ways you can dungeon-crawl on your 360 these days, and if the developers can iron out its quirks, a sequel (which this game sets up nicely) could be epic.

As far as gameplay goes, World Cup performs a notch better than "FIFA 06" did(although taking free kicks from midfield is an odd moment with limited options for control and strategy). [Jun 2006, p.77]

A hard game to review simply because it's so very, very good in almost all the right places except for its length. [Dec 2002, p.105]

There's one thing that we can't dispute: Axel & Pixel is a gorgeous point-and-click adventure. However, the story leaves a bit to be desired. [Holiday 2009, p.76]

Fortunately, nostalgic fans can indulge in four-player split-screen, which - while offering a third as many match types - still manages to recapture some of the fun Bond games have been grasping at for the past 14 years.

For a fair price of $40, the high caliber of NASCAR 07's tune-up keeps the good times rolling--and turning left, of course. [Oct. 2006, p.82]

Hexic 2 deftly expands every concept that made its freebie predecessor the star of Live Arcade's launch. [Sept 2007, p.74]

Despite a few flaws and one ill-conceived megamix, these games are treated with the respect they deserve at a price we’re willing to pay. We’re happy to see them on Arcade where they belong.

The game was expressly designed for co-op play, but that makes the enemy A.I., poor vehicle mechanics, and the inability to save on command hard to accept, considering it costs you and a friend a combined $120 to play the game “as intended” over Xbox Live.

A splendid dungeon crawler that's one of the best co-op experiences on Xbox. [Nov 2003, p.108]

It never does anything exceedingly well, nor does it do anything poorly...Though solid in many aspects, [it's] ultimately underwhelming. [Nov 2003, p.120]

Haven't played Arkham City yet? By all means rush out and buy the Batman Arkham City Game of the Year Edition, which includes Revenge and the rest of the game's DLC. On its own, though, this revenge isn't cold - it's a reheated dish of bland bat.