Yes, Flock comes with an intricate and powerful level editor for easily building new challenges and sharing them with others, which makes for easily building of the 50-level library that comes with the game.

A healthy mix of melee and gunplay, the stealth action is tried and true.

This game without the Godfather license could have been great, and they wouldn’t have had to have changed too much either to the core gameplay. But with the awkward-fitting pelt of Coppola’s murdered masterpiece on its shoulders, it will be hard for people to discover the really well-designed hybrid-type game underneath.

It features far too many—and poorly integrated—“quicktime” events, frustrating core combat and non-sardonic C-movie camp. There are bright spots here and there, but the fact that said bright spots still pale in comparison to those featured in Ninja Gaiden doesn’t help Ninja Blade’s cause.

While Dead Samurai’s gameplay could have used a bit more Dawn for it to truly shine, the visuals and overall presentation value makes this unique, indy-produced IP easily worth its 800-point asking price.

While Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office or Bust does succeed in the execution and delivery of its smutty script, it fails on nearly every other account.

The coolest offering is a Metallifacts overlay for all Metallica songs: When you play one, you get the in-game Metallica characters playing the song, but text comes up every few seconds to give you some trivia about the particular song, such as reminiscences from the band or inspirations for that tune or the lyrics. I’m not a big Metallica fan, but I was fascinated by some of what I read.

Even though FF2 could be stronger, it does come equipped, like the rest of the PopCap Arcade Volume 2 compilation, with co-op action and multiplayer party games.

The difficulty arises from the speed at which card arrangement this needs to be done. You’ll literally have seconds to anticipate what numeral/color will be thrown down before your turn and to arrange your cards in a logical order. This involves not only thinking very quickly, but also having pretty sharp hand dexterity since fast controller inputs are mandatory for said sorting purposes.

Even though Wheelman combines myriad genres, gameplay styles and presentation references into a single title, it actually pulls it off quite well.

Stormrise also does a terrible job of giving you information.

Beyond the licensing, WWE Legends of WrestleMania is a smartly-designed game that enables studio antics to be more approachable to the common gamer. The gameplay isn’t dumbed down to the point where hardcore wrestling fans will scoff at Legends either.

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.

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.

EA Bright Light did about as good a job as a team can do when working with the classic games of many of our childhoods. It’s a delicate job, but HFGN pulls off classic-board gaming with aplomb, while at the same time adding more video game-centric modes to each title.

EA Bright Light did about as good a job as a team can do when working with the classic games of many of our childhoods. It’s a delicate job, but HFGN pulls off classic-board gaming with aplomb, while at the same time adding more video game-centric modes to each title.

EA Bright Light did about as good a job as a team can do when working with the classic games of many of our childhoods. It’s a delicate job, but HFGN pulls off classic-board gaming with aplomb, while at the same time adding more video game-centric modes to each title.

EA Bright Light did about as good a job as a team can do when working with the classic games of many of our childhoods. It’s a delicate job, but HFGN pulls off classic-board gaming with aplomb, while at the same time adding more video game-centric modes to each title.

If you can’t deal with the combat gameplay in the RE series (there’s a demo to save you potential naysayers a few bucks), then there’s a good chance that you won’t be buying what the boxed copy of Resident Evil 5 is selling. But if there’s even the slightest amount of indifference in your brain about the aiming and gunplay of RE, then RE5 is worth your time.

The game is incredibly colorful with a great mix of animation and sound to satisfy players of all ages—it’s not dumbed down for kids and it’s not loaded up with sophisticated gameplay concepts that only adults can take in. Most of all, though, it’s the combination of simple gameplay, challenging action and cartoon-like graphics that makes it highly appealing.

Okay, there are some compelling strategies at the heart of Crystal Defenders, so it might draw you in for a while—in one of those “Why am I still playing this game?” moments—but it’s such a dull presentation that it ends up dragging down the whole gameplay concept.

For the rest of the loony bracket heads out there—those that would never buy a retail version of a college basketball game but follow the tourney religiously—NCAA Basketball 09: March Madness Edition is the best ten dollars that you could ever spend in the month of March.

Trivial Pursuit on the Xbox 360 is a pretty well-made digital adaptation of a board game classic. But its flaws are also rather glaring, especially the lack of online play.

Yes, Watchmen is worth…well, watching, due to its outward beauty, but its essence doesn’t lie in the gaming medium. Maybe the movie will prove something similar—that Watchmen’s mid-’80s comic book-series brilliance cannot be outdone.

Halo Wars is undoubtedly fun; one just worries if it’s not enough for one group of gamers and too much for another. If you’re part of that middle ground like I believe I am, then you’ll love Halo Wars as much as I did.

It’s quite often entertaining and challenging, but often frustrating and boring as well.

Want a better baseball video game experience? Unfortunately it’s on the PS3 with MLB The Show. Xbox 360 gamers are stuck with this rough-hewn and frustrating game that could have otherwise been a gem. Instead, that no-hitter in the bottom of the ninth got broken up by a grand slam.

The cover system is actually pretty good. The rest of the game, completely rote.