Despite the glaring flaw of a cramped field of play, there’s no denying that Triggerheart Exelica is still a blast to play. Nonstop action teamed up with unique gameplay elements and easy to use controls make this just the game to please those of you longing for a good ol’ fashioned space shooter.

Despite all this chafe in the wheat, Namco Museum Virtual Arcade is a pretty decent package for the price.

The game is easy enough for the casual player to jump right into, difficult enough to keep the gaming vets interest, and stylish enough to have both glued to their sets.

Lack of strategy, complexity, longevity and intensive AI and multiplayer modes which are usually the foundation of true mech warfare are absent here. I would consider this more of an advanced 2nd or 3rd generation shoot’em up with extra eye candy.

In some ways it plays worse than existing stealth/action games, especially when it comes to interacting with objects. The combat mode raises the gameplay level, but not enough to truly satisfy people that are familiar with other stealth titles.

If Van Helsing had a camera on the right thumbstick it would be near the top of the movie franchise game list, and probably TeamXbox editor’s choice winner. Everything else is there; fun and varying gameplay, excellent graphics and sound, and online scoreboards.

Despite these problems, Matt Hazard: Blood, Bath, and Beyond still manages to do a good job at being what a video game should be … entertaining.

Spidey 3’s camera is horrible. You can’t look up and move at the same time, because, when you start to move, the camera wants to correct itself to show Spidey’s heading, which sometimes conflicts with what you need to see when you’re playing.

SNK’s long line of fighting games are classics for a reason. With Fatal Fury Special pretty much being the benchmark of the early fighters (not to mention the harbinger for the modern-day 3D fighters) it’s no surprise that this game rocks.

It provides gamers with a creepy, action-packed experience with a solid plot and unique designs. No one should go into Jericho expecting the “Citizen Kane” of gaming, just like no one expects a slasher flick to win an Oscar. Instead, Jericho should be enjoyed for what it is: an interactive horror experience, good for some chills, thrills and a little bit of ye old gore factor thrown in for good measure.

There’s much worse out there, and even though Scrap Metal may not rise too far above the heap, but it’s definitely up there, on pure fun alone.

Fans of the series should definitely give it a shot because the game does do the Wallace & Gromit name justice in every respect. With a little tweaking of the camera and level design Project Zoo could have had a bit more flash, but it still ends up being pretty fun overall.

The fact that Monsters vs. Aliens doesn’t miss the mark in every area already makes it better than over half of the movie games out there. You could do better for your action/platform dollar, but you probably wouldn’t make your kids as happy with the purchase of Prince of Persia as you would with a fifty-dollar copy of Monsters vs. Aliens.

A solid addition to Xbox Live Arcade, but it is simply just not the version of the game most of us will expect and prefer. Instead of delivering the NES build of the game, we are given the coin-op version that is designed to take quarters from your pocket, meaning it’s quite difficult, and without the thirty-lives code it gets frustrating very quickly.

Despite its simplicity, Hot Wheels: Stunt Track Challenge is still surprisingly fun to play, but it definitely it not a challenge in any sense of the word.

The card game may be old, but it’s far from obsolete, providing a perfect counter from the faster-paced, high-concentrate titles.

It’s $60 hors d’ouvres passed off as a main course.

A game that tries to combine killing animals with some popular elements from other action games, but sadly it falls fairly flat. Frustration is all too common and the missions aren't very involving despite their attempts at delivering some elements of a story.

It offers a unique and entertaining feature (terrain deformation), but doesn’t utilize it in enough creative ways to keep it enjoyable. It’s run-and-gun gameplay with too much run and not enough gun. It’s a title that relies too much on brute force in its opposition, when it could have tested to see if the player could come up with creative solutions when completing objectives and having adversaries cross their paths.

I wanted to like Missile Command more than I did. While it was fun to play again—and the 400 Microsoft Points price tag (about $5) is a small cost—it’s another case where a control pad isn’t the best input device.

It's actually a pretty fun experience...IF you’re playing with a small group of close friends. Outside of this specific situation, though, the experience loses a lot of its initial interest.

Unlike some classics that have been ported to XBLA, Track & Field seems to retain much of what made it fun when it first came out. It’s a title that is one of simple-to-play-yet-hard-to-master concepts—and its party potential adds to its appeal.

It's got a lot going for it in the graphical and sound department, and while the gameplay suffers initially from an unfair difficulty spike, if the player can tough it out and stick with it long enough to get some upgrades he or she will be smiling for the rest of the journey.

It’s both interesting and sad to see how the Karaoke Revolution franchise has paved the way for these other games to thrive, but now the Karaoke Revolution titles are being heavily overmatched by what its successors are doing.

Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, the developers forgot that a pool game is only as good as its controls, and ended up with a scratch before the first break.

A fantastic multiplayer showing is belittled and stifled quite a bit by a rather disappointing single player mode. AI is this game's true failure which is a real shame considering the strides it has made in other areas.

Not a bad game... It just doesn't last long.

There isn’t anything “wrong” with Hardwood Backgammon, but the fact that there really isn’t much to do beyond the standard backgammon game is a real letdown.

What Dead Man’s Hand lacks are the basics which are integral to stellar game. Things such as a steady framerate, next-gen level graphics, and semi-intelligent enemy AI are items which must be present for a game to even have a chance at being anything but mediocre.

Wanted is an unfortunate disappointment to me, but not as much for its gameplay design, which is where a lot of games lose points. It has a nice control scheme, it has some grin-inducing comedic dialogue and more. The key argument against it is that there’s simply not enough of it—and that ends up drawing a big thumbs down from me.

Unfortunately, a video game’s success primarily comes down to the quality of the gameplay, and Dawn of the Dragon felt clunky and unpolished through the majority of my time playing it.

Shows promise, but it’s unlikely to be heralded as "next gen" by soccer aficionados.

The gameplay system is confusing, the graphics are mediocre, and the sound is average.

While the controls need tweaking, and the pace of the game slowed at times, the missions and overall experience of flying these planes held some fun to it.

A competent entry into the arcade-racing genre. While there isn’t a lot of innovation, you just cannot argue with a ticket price of $19.99. Fans of Ford classic and concept cars should take notice.

It might not pick up an award for its revolutionary graphics or voice acting, but it should put a smile on your face at times and give you a teeth-gritting grimace at others.

I’ve played many a game that was jam-packed with features but had a terrible core engine that ruined the entire product. TNA IMPACT! is just the reverse, really. This freshman effort is a little light on overall content and features, but it makes up for a lot of this with a solid engine; upon which Midway can build better follow-up TNA titles.

Challenging enough for younger gamers, and entertaining enough for the old timers, Scooby Doo! Unmasked has a little something for everyone. Certainly not the best title in its genre, but a solid attempt.

I played this game for several days and noticed that I was forcing myself to play it just so I could do the review. This is not a good sign for any game.

PFC’s generous amount of online text and training will make you proficient at landing big fish, but you have to want to sit down and get into a simulation of this nature.

Where the action of Doom’s XBLA debut sucked me back in, I didn’t have quite the same attraction to Marathon: Durandal, especially considering the stomach-churning byproducts of its “new and improved” look. It’s a good, smart shooter, but I don’t think it’s aged as well given its more deliberate pace.

Despite the addition of tag matches, Battle Royales, and Street Fights, there simply isn’t enough depth to keep this hopeful at the top of the ranks. The playability is high, especially amongst human combatants, but the single-player offering wears thin.

Don’t download this one expecting anything more than a handful of variations of Spades, a cache of useless fooms, and a new age soundtrack that even Enya could hate. But if you like Spades enough, the quirky details of Hardwood Spades won’t matter much.

The primary drawback to Alter Echo is its repetitiveness.

I had a blast playing through the titles I loved as a kid, and even enjoyed playing some of the crappier games I'd never experienced before, and for twenty bones the price isn't bad. For the fun, and nostalgia, the price of admission is worth the ride in this game's case.

This is definitely the Pac-Man we've all come to know and love, from the very first fruit to the attacking ghosts, but control issues take away from the overall "fun factor" as needless deaths occur far too often.

Things like framerate and hit detection can sometimes be tolerated if a game looks spectacular, but Commandos Strike Force doesn't even have the beauty card in its hand.

The online mode is fun and can make the game last, but the offline modes are so bland and boring.

Those merely curious will likely be scratching their heads, wondering why they can't download this on their Xbox 360 (Capcom's route).

Something that could have otherwise been a surprise hit ends up beings a problematic mess.

Overall, the game does just enough to be good, but stops short of being great. Still, if you're an FPS fan looking for a break from Halo 3 or CoD 4, Blacksite: Area 51 is definitely worth taking a look at.

I can put aside the historical inaccuracies, the tie-fighter-style flight modeling and all the other things that make Heroes Over Europe inferior. And maybe if I hadn’t just played and greatly enjoyed IL-2 Sturmovik, I might be feeling a bit more generous. But unfortunately Heroes Over Europe comes across as not much more than a budget title.

Sadly we've got a game that's fun towards the end but with a beginning that will have you throwing back sugar pills just to keep your blood pressure up.

For a small-byte Xbox Live Arcade title, Mad Tracks packs some serious horsepower under its hood. The single-player campaign and multiplayer areas are closer to what you would find in a standalone title, and the amount of event types and variance among them keeps Mad Tracks fresh, yet it’s still easy to pick-up-and-play in true party game fashion.

While the game does contain some exploration and adventure aspects, the core gameplay boils down to a never-ending series of mini games that become repetitive fairly quickly.

It’s incredibly easy to control, but in addition to the timing of hitting the button to drop the floor, you have the lot-building strategy as well.

Aside from the lack of four player action, Fantastic Four is a well crafted title that fills the void until "Rise of Apocalypse" hits the shelves later this year.

It's a few steps away from having a truly enjoyable career mode and with the help of some Xbox Live functionality that goes beyond the simplistic implementation of the Friends List, this one may have turned a few heads. As it stands only the diehard pool players of the world need apply.

There are some undeniably cool settings and promising combat mechanics, but the experience doesn't have the depth to draw players through to the end of the campaign.

Dynasty Warriors 5 Empires benefits from the next generation hardware, but not as much as I had hoped. Yes, this is the best DW game to date, but it doesn’t really push any boundaries in the action/strategy market.

I left the battle bloody from the knuckles to the fingertips and didn’t really feel that satisfied. Was something lost in translation? Could be. But I’m convinced that the button mashing genre needs to grow up a bit before invading the Xbox 360 again.

Taking things into consideration, in an industry where videogames based on film licenses generally fail to match the level of quality, King Arthur does surprisingly well in conveying much of the film’s storytelling and cinematic features.

It misrepresents itself, it isn't particularly pretty, it alienates newcomers because it's so difficult to comprehend, and it may not even appeal to Blood Bowl aficionados because it's so pricey. And that leaves it as an extreme niche product.

One of the best values when considering that it fully supports Live and System Link play, has HD graphics support, and one of the best audio tracks ever laid down in a video game.

For a small outlay of MS points, Frogger captures that old school feel that will bring many a gamer back to the quarter stacking days. The controls are tight, the updated graphics are snazzy, and the online options are pretty nifty.

This is a game you will need friends to enjoy, single player mode just doesn’t offer up much of a challenge or depth.

Games such as "Shrek 2," "Madagascar," and even "Scooby-Doo! Unmasked" all contain some level of camera control, and are therefore better choices than Over the Hedge when selecting a kid's title to enjoy with your littler one.

I felt that the game was missing depth and dynamics that keep the player on their toes and interested. I was disappointed mainly with the audio and the limited maps and areas to play on.

In simple terms, this game was brought to the Xbox unpolished, incomplete, and unready. There’s plenty to go through in SoF2, but it’s too bland and it isn’t worth spending numerous hours trying to complete.

Involves enough gaming elements to keep the action/adventure or platformer fan busy.

It’s one of those games that you can show to people who were alive when the original was released, and it might be fun to toy around with for an hour or so, but that’s all the life you’ll get out of the game, even with the Xbox Live support thrown in.

Graphically, aurally, and from a production standpoint, STACKED with Daniel Negreanu is a bit of a mess, but don't let that gruff exterior fool you. If you scrounge around a bit, you'll find what every poker player is seeking; a real game improvement aid.

If the game were quite a bit longer or featured more variety, we’d feel fine recommending it to all the kiddies out there, but as it is now we can’t help thinking that even a 6 year old would feel gypped.

The game lacks long-term value or originality.

Intuitive combat system is smooth and offers many attack options for each character. Lack of camera movement hurts in areas. Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows honors the origin coin-op in many instances- a nice touch.

The balance of skill based gameplay and traditional racing makes Lotus Challenge a competitor in today’s generation of racers, but some of the game’s handling letdowns keeps it from pulling ahead of the pack.

If you are looking for an action-packed game that is reminiscent of some of the best side-scrolling action games of yesteryear, you can do far worse than Moon Diver.

There is some fun to be had both in single player and multiplayer game modes, but there aren't a lot of areas that Rogue Agent separates itself from the competition.

A massive upgrade over the previous movie-based game in the series. So much so that it’s unfair to really even compare them. Despite some feelings of repetitiveness and a lack of polish in a lot of places, I feel like it’s my duty to commend Luxoflux for what it’s done: make a pretty good game that treats the license with the respect it deserves.

An entertaining game, but one without a ton of variety.

If large-scale battles are your forte and you despise PC gaming, then Delta Force - Black Hawk Down is a must-buy.

Ubisoft Montreal has crafted one of the better licensed efforts we’ve seen in a while, but a weak story, poor pacing and a few minor gameplay flaws keep Avatar from competing with the likes of far superior, recent third-person efforts such as Assassin’s Creed II and Batman: Arkham Asylum.

Fatal Inertia isn’t a bad first foray into the racing genre for Koei. It’s got a good look, decent personalization and a unique arsenal that should keep players somewhat entertained.

Suffers from a bit of schizophrenia, half the time it's trying to be "The Sims" with its purchasing of items/furniture which affect characters' moods and can help your chances of succeeding with your business. The other half of the time is spent taking pictures of half naked women and dry humping the hell out of some seriously monotonous character models.

Innovative in an old-school kind of way, Capcom Fighting Evolution attempts to do more than just port a few coin-op ROM's to a hot console system.

The amount of superbly crafted unlockables and wonderfully chilling moments is almost enough to make you forget about the numerous technical ailments. Regardless if it is a slightly misshapen circle, it is nonetheless, a complete one.

It’s extremely challenging and demanding, so those looking for a more casual shooter might be best served going for another game. Additionally, the lightweight “enhanced” graphics and audio don’t bring the game as far into the next-gen era as some XBLA titles have done.

And if this were just a pen-and-paper experience, it would be almost perfect. The problem is, this isn’t a pen-and-paper adventure—it’s a video game. That means the action doesn’t take place in your mind’s eye. It happens right in front of you on the screen.

Mind Over Mutant isn’t a bad game. In fact, there’s a lot of it that’s enjoyable. I just wish the effort that went into a lot of the peripheral action and non-interactive videos had also been put on the gameplay, to make it more entertaining overall. It’s just not very consistent in its fun generation.

Shaun White’s not the best, nor the worst, snowboarding title we’ve ever played. And its greatest moments are occasionally dragged down by imprecise controls and a sometimes fun-siphoning story campaign.

It presents a very succinct and engulfing story that players will easily be able to get lost in given the opportunity. Native New Yorkers should also have a blast destroying their neighborhood and watching some of the city's most notable locales change with the rising (or falling) crime rate.

The lack of online support, weak multiplayer options, horrendous teammate A.I., and some buggy gameplay mechanics keep this title at strictly an above average level.

All told, if you're a casual gamer and looking for something more than what a pencil and notepad can provide, Buku Sudoku is something that is worth killing some time with.

Bakugan: Battle Brawlers is an interesting mix of card games, marbles, and minigames that generally comes together well but still lacks in variety.

With limited memory capacity and graphical power, Intellivision games left quite a bit to the player’s imagination, and this may turn off some gamers. However, it’s interesting to see the surprising amount of depth and gameplay found in these early titles.

I appreciate Team Sonic’s effort to mix the old with the new, and there’s definitely some potential in the alter-ego mechanic. Unfortunately, they don’t blend especially well in Unleashed, an experience that had me alternately stoked to get to the next traditional level and a bit disappointed every time the sun went down.

Combining clichéd gameplay with tired audio elements are plenty to overshadow any promise that the visual style of the game may bring. Just as the game's title character, John Constantine, this game is straddling the place between videogaming heaven and hell.

If you're the type of person that's glued to the television every four years, carrying a torch for the Summer Games, Beijing 2008 is tailor made just for you. With its wide variety of events and a solid presentation, you'll be hard pressed not to get something out of this release. Still, control issues and a poor online experience keep this game from having any chance of bringing home the gold.