If you're a fan of the MLB and are strictly an Xbox 360 owner, then you'll probably find something to like in MLB 2K9; after all, you pretty much have to. Unfortunately, you'll also have to put up with some of the shoddiest fielding AI I've seen in a while, and enough bugs that will cause semi-frequent frustrations with the entire game, including one that I'd consider to be pretty much a game-breaker at this point.

Had it run better, Rime would've been an easy recommendation. Its story offers a tantalizing look into a beautifully realized and poetically orchestrated world of magic, love and loss. Its gameplay, while simple, offers satisfying puzzles that guide the action in meaningful ways. However, severe frame rate drops and unbearable resolution compromises hold back the final product from the greatness it deserves. While there is enough good here to overshadow the optimization problems on display, avoid the Switch port of Rime unless you have no better option.

If you can accept the studio's adventure game formula and the fairly large deviations to the canon, then Batman: The Telltale Series is a good game. The story remains gripping, and the additions to the gameplay formula make this feel more refined over the studio's previous efforts. The lack of further technical polish, however, is unfortunate; fixing those issues would've placed this game in the upper echelon of the studio's offerings. As it stands, Batman fans will certainly want to check out this title.

Overall, Mad Riders is a good - but not great - racing title, and those looking for a new racing experience will feel that this is $10 well spent, despite the omissions and issues.

I had a lot of fun with the Career mode in Need for Speed: Undercover, and the easy-to-grasp controls really make this an accessible and fun title in the Need for Speed franchise. Don't expect a lot of innovation or new ideas, as a lot of the things that were implemented seem to be pulled from previous NFS releases, but I think race fans will be able to have some fun with this title.

Phantasy Star Universe was designed to be a console game, even more so than Blue Burst was, and doesn't relent in that position even slightly.

Armored Core for Answer fixes a lot of the problems that existed in Armored Core 4. Significantly more fun missions, graphical improvements, a fantastic sense of scale, and an enormous amount of customization really help the title. However, the impossible-to-understand story detracts value from the single-player experience, so the only reason for you to return is to build your mech, which is something that's going to overwhelm most players.

Parcel Corps is loads of fun in short bursts. It's one of those games that you can play in between other big titles as a palette cleanser. You have to be able to overcome a few things like the unorthodox control scheme to get the most out of it, and if you can get the game for cheap, it's worth a look.

A game worth playing if you're a dracophile, if you like the character or like animated movies, and if you're not averse to starting over with a fresh slate.

In the end, Academy of Champions: Soccer is a great arcade-style sports game.

Although you'll find very little that you haven't already experienced in a multitude of other platform games, Ratatouille provides a visually pleasing gaming experience with a single-player campaign of decent length and a respectable rewards system.

The graphics are uninspiring, and the gameplay is extremely simplistic and often boring. This game needs a shot in the arm - more exiting waves, a better selection of music…something.

Overall, Apples to Apples makes for a decent, but not great, conversion from board game to video game.

In the end, Sleep Tight means well but is very limited in scope. The core mechanics are fine, and the different upgrade trees are good, but the slow difficulty ramping can make it feel like a grind in a short amount of time. The lack of any modes hurts significantly, as does the lack of variety in locations and your arsenal. Unless you want something simple in your tower defense or twin-stick shooting game, it's easy to pass on Sleep Tight in favor of other titles.

Some of the more ardent fans of the series might be able to get some enjoyment from the title, but everyone else will be put off and turn elsewhere for their zombie-killing fix.

Unfortunately, as imaginative as the X-ray camera and creative gadgets are, they simply cannot make up for Cold War's countless missteps

It might not seem like it right now, but Forspoken had some very good ideas, and I ended up still having some fun with it. It feels like it needed a little more time to figure out its real identity instead of its disjointed little-of-this, little-of-that experience. I think it's true form, which it hinted at, is as a young-adult, Bayonetta-adjacent ass-kicker, that needs to pick a tone and lean into it. If that's what it had been, we'd be onto something.

Fans will definitely get some enjoyment out of this title, but it's going to fall a little flat for everyone else.

Somehow, flubbing the gameplay itself surprises me; it's like showing up to a party and finding that the snack bar consists of really butt-kicking salsa and a bowl of live lobsters to dunk into it.

If you have several friends with DSes, you should add at least [10 points] to its score, since you won't be spending much time in its single-player mode, except perhaps to practice. It's an excellent party game.

Shadow Labyrinth is good if you set your expectations accordingly. The constant corpse eating makes the game feel darker than expected, while the mazes are a nice diversion. The overall mechanics don't stand out compared to other titles, but the basics are performed well enough that the game remains enjoyable. The presentation is good but not great, while the story and overall premise exists more as an exercise in head-scratching than something you're going to want to remember. Again, the game is better than expected but not extraordinary; Metroidvania fans will get some enjoyment out of this before moving on to stronger titles.

Spirit of the North: Enhanced Edition is a beautiful remaster of an average game. If you enjoy wandering around pretty environments and solving some light puzzles, then this is a fantastic "chill out" game, but anything beyond that is somewhat forgettable. Add on some frustrating bugs and the lack of meaningful improvements over the last-gen version beyond visuals, and it isn't a must-buy for anyone who has played the original title. It's worth experiencing if you haven't played it before, but you should perhaps wait for a price drop, since the $35 price tag isn't worth it when you can purchase a last-gen copy for $20.

Killer is Dead is playable, but it commits a far worse sin than being awkward or glitchy. It takes the fantastic and makes it boring.

If you only own a Wii and desperately need a JRPG to play in a pinch, then this game will do, but that doesn't mean that you're going to feel good about it later.

Fans of the original may not be up for playing through the same game again, even with tacked-on touch controls that end up being fairly problematic. It offers a large amount of challenges that make the game worthwhile.

A pretty solid game with only one major downside: load times. This has got to be the game with the longest load time on the PS2 aside from love smash which will never make it to the states.

It has everything that should make it a quality game and a good seller, then drops all the marbles by failing to put in enough game to hold up the bargain.

Star Trek: Tactical Assault really tries to present itself as a tactical real-time strategy game, but unfortunately, it just doesn't measures up due to the lackluster storyline and repetitive nature of the gameplay.

Although the gameplay is a bit repetitive and shallow, the graphics are certainly a pleasure to look at in each area, and the cut scenes with voice acting are a nice addition for a Nintendo DS title.

The biggest head-scratcher about Cranium: Kabookii is why would you buy it for the Wii, when all interactions are restricted to what you can do with a Wiimote. Instead, why not get the board game, which is much cheaper and allows you to draw with a pen and paper and mold with clay?

An incredibly good "gateway" game. If you want to take a child away from their Dora the Explorer and Barbie games and guide them into the more difficult, more rewarding games that the older children play, Hello Kitty Roller Rescue is the game to do it with.

Samurai Riot is a passable experience. The fighting mechanics are fine, and the moral choices add something to the game, even if the story that accompanies it is rather uninteresting. The pacing, however, detracts enough from the game that unless you want to see all of the potential storylines, you'll stop playing if you can muster enough interest to finish one storyline. If you plan on playing this with a friend, then it isn't a bad purchase, but those looking for more from their beat-'em-ups can skip this one for now.

Track Lab is an interesting title. If you're looking at it as a game, it has some great puzzle mechanics, but there's only enough content to last you about an hour unless you get stuck on one of the puzzles. If you're looking at it as a music creation tool, the interface is novel but not something you'll use to seriously create tunes, especially since there's no easy way to export your creations. Ultimately, Track Lab is more of a fun toy in VR but not something you'll be itching to visit more than a few times.

While it may be different from what series fans are used to, it is absolutely a game worthy of the Earth Defense Force title and lineage.

If you don't mind the quirks and rough attempts at humor, then you may enjoy The Witch and the Hundred Knight.

The real problem is that Suikoden 4 fails to stand up to role playing games that came five years or more before it. The title looks, plays, sounds, loads, and I dare say is written like a first-generation import Playstation 2 launch effort.

If you're looking for a good exercise game, go with the Wii console version of The Biggest Loser instead, as this iteration will be more cumbersome to use once you start getting active.

While the title has made great strides in improving the overall look of the players and fields, the actual gameplay has already grown incredibly bland and repetitive.

If you enjoy the one thing that Alpha Protocol does well enough, you'll probably be able to overlook its downsides. There is little else to recommend Alpha Protocol, so if the idea of the fluid story line doesn't get you excited, then this game isn't for you.

Spectrobes seems to fall short because of its monotonous method of collecting and the poorly designed battle system.

Even if it weren't the only game of its type on the console, it would be easy to recommend Broken Alliance as a purchase for anyone looking for a spaceship shooter with some depth. It's not the best surprise game of the summer, but it is an enjoyable one.

NBA 08 is roundly good at what it does; it just doesn't do much. In today's top-tier sports games market, it's not a bad game. It's just, save the engaging Upside Progression System and unique Games of the Week challenges, behind the times.

The title throws plot pieces at you seemingly at random and will confuse you if you aren't careful. Thankfully, the game manages to be enjoyable enough to make up for this fact, but in the end, Eragon is simply another middle-of-the-road offering.

Not a single enemy proved to be a real challenge after a few seconds of observation. The boss fights are long, but with half a brain, most gamers could complete them with ease. As for the intuitive controls, these are counter-balanced by the ambiguous character development and equipment systems.

It is perfect for short sessions of play, possesses serviceable multiplayer functionality, and its sufficient production values make for one of the most unexpectedly fun times on the system.

The Godfather II is an offer that you probably should refuse.

Qasir Al-Wasat: A Night in-Between stealthily snuck on to my radar during Steam Greenlight, and I'm glad that it did. It is an amazingly fun and well-crafted adventure that delves into a rich backdrop of legend and myth that's infrequently visited by game developers. Couple that with simple gameplay and the tough puzzle challenges, and Qasir al-Wasat might just be the oasis that players desire.

It's a little easy, but otherwise, Avatar: The Last Airbender is a solid, well-put together game.

While the title has made great strides in improving the overall look of the players and fields, the actual gameplay has already grown incredibly bland and repetitive.

These gestures toward usability cannot overcome the fact that Everlight simply isn't very much fun to play. The dialogue is stilted, unfunny, drab and poorly acted, and some of the gameplay mechanics are obtuse.

The Lord of the Rings: War in the North is a fun but flawed experience.

By today's standards, Sands of Destruction falls well short of the benchmarks set by other top-tier RPGs. The entire experience takes a few steps down the path toward immortality, but then comes running headlong back into well-worn trail of every other JRPG before it.

Triggerheart Exelica is one of the best XBLA games I've played on the 360, so if you like vertical shooters of old and new; if Radiant Silvergun, Parodius or Do Don Pachi mean anything to you; or if you enjoyed the recent Omega Five, you'll be perfectly at home with Triggerheart Exelica.

Even with these menu and presentation issues, Namco Museum Virtual Arcade is definitely worth picking up at the current price for classics like Dragon Spirit, Galaga '88, Mappy, Super Pac-Man and a few others that are worth trying, in addition to the XBLA content.

Arcadian Atlas is the definition of a fine game. It isn't bad, and it isn't great; it's just perfectly passable. There are some solid moments and a nice hit of nostalgia for PS1-era RPGs, but that's about it. Other spiritual successors like Triangle Strategy and Fell Seal have proven that the genre can do a lot more on a lower budget, and Arcadian Atlas feels dated. If you're a fan of SRPGs, this might be worth a look, but it's mostly forgettable.

The only real benefit I could find for buying a Sudoku game on the PSP is the ability to wirelessly download additional puzzles, free of charge.

It's all very disappointing because every facet of #DRIVE Rally is something that really could've been something special had it been thought through or fleshed out more than it was. The only strength is the game's presentation and art style, but when the remainder of the package is an arcade-style rally game that has no progression and a series of rough edges, it becomes impossible to want to keep playing for very long.

If you like CCGs, you'll have fun with Fable Fortune, but it'll be the same fun that you've already had elsewhere. If you've picked up Hearthstone at any time in the past four years, you won't miss anything by skipping this one. If you haven't picked up either, it's probably more worthwhile to pick up the one with a larger player base.

The level designs are somewhat inventive, especially where Violet is involved, but mostly they feel like the developers talking down to their audence.

Holding back choices from the player does nothing but destroy a game's accessibility, and this is a token case. In the end, what we have with Yars' Revenge is a game with a genuinely novel and interesting aesthetic, but the lack of control concessions makes it something that's not worth picking up - that is, without trying the demo and making sure they're absolutely comfortable with how the game controls. Odds are that they won't be.

Like all roads to hell, ReCore is paved with good intentions. Sadly, a cool concept, intriguing story and lovable, endearing characters aren't enough to stop this game from being one of the more annoying and frustrating game-playing experiences you will find in 2016, if not in the past few years.

In the end, Table Top Racing is a fine port.

A gamer who wants to get a fix of stabbin', stealin', spellin', an' strollin' will find everything he enjoys here, just in a slightly more austere wrapping.

Matt Hazard: Blood Bath and Beyond's short length and lack of online co-op are only amplified by its price tag. These faults could be overlooked if the price were $10, but at $15, those two aspects become detrimental to the game.

A pretty standard Roman city builder. While that may seem like enough for hardcore fans of the genre, the title fails to really bring anything new and innovative to the table.

If you're a big supporter of the PlayStation Mobile platform, then UFO Dad isn't a bad puzzle game.

Combined with the price and lack of cross-buy, which other twin-stick shooters on the system offer, it's rather difficult to recommend #KillAllZombies to anyone but the most dedicated twin-stick shooter fans.

Between Spider Sense and the web slinging, Spider-Man 3 offers a fairly comprehensive Spidey experience, but there's as much frustration as fun here.

If you demand your A.I. to be spot-on and choose cover that isn't made up of boxes of grenades, or if you get annoyed easily by not quite having the timing right to trigger pre-recorded sword combos, then maybe you should sit out this rather imperfect – but fun – FPS for the Wii after all.

As a stand-alone offering, the XBLA version of Serious Sam 3 is undeniably flawed but also undeniably enjoyable.

Although we waited for a few patches to arrive and fix up Confrontation's tattered connection problems, it's still no remedy for the game's lack of substance. With an absence of polish, customization, and maps, Confrontation just doesn't deliver a full-fledged online experience worthy of the SOCOM name.

Awakened Shadow is a net positive, but there's almost nothing about it that makes it stand apart from other titles in the genre. Everything is functional, and nothing is extraordinary; the game is interesting, but it's not particularly entertaining

In the end, Lost in Harmony just doesn't deliver. The dual stories can be hit-and-miss for some players, but the music is good in both tales. However, the poor gameplay implementation sinks the experience, and the lackluster presentation doesn't help, either. The game is inexpensive at $6.99, but it can only be recommended if you've exhausted all other options and still want something to play that isn't terrible.

Jericho is a title with great ideas. The squad-switching mechanic works very well, the various magic abilities are mostly sound and the plot is potentially very interesting. However, great ideas don't make up for shoddy execution, and Jericho just isn't a $60 game. It's far too short and easy, and the complete lack of any post-game content is almost unforgivable.

Scrap Metal is a solid, all-around vehicular combat game.

If the developers give us some heavy handed code-bandages, I predict that one day this will be at the very least an enjoyable RPG, if not the epic and sprawling adventure it was supposed to be.

Fat Princess Adventures is a great entry into the hack-and-slash genre for those who don't necessarily want something sprawling. The lack of deeper mechanics and loot is compensated by a fun combat system that feels good whether you're playing multiplayer or solo.

It's a good title for kids. It controls well, the levels are interesting, and the references to Pac Man 25 years ago are respectful.

The game had good graphics and gameplay, but suffers from some extraneous features (gold-plating) and a low replay value.

So far, Missing: An Interactive Thriller shows promise. The puzzles might not be mind-bending, but they display a bit of toughness while the presentation is rather top-notch, good enough to break the stigma of bad acting that was previously associated with the genre.

All in all, Brakes Are For Losers is a fun retro-inspired arcade racer. It doesn't excel anywhere, but it doesn't have to. It's a decent enough experience at a very low price point in case you're craving an isometric racing frenzy.

With Soldner-X Himmelsturmer, SideQuest Studios and Play-Asia have delivered a solid shmup that checks off all of the basic requirements, but if you simply need a shmup fix that takes advantage of your PS3, it really isn't a bad deal as long as your patience can hold it together.

But Monsters vs. Aliens does fulfill its modest promise: provide enjoyable entertainment that's suitable for children and best played with friends or family.

Priced at 1,200 MSP ($15 USD), Scarygirl is on the high end of the impulse purchase range, but still worth the cost. It's one of those select titles that grabs your interest from the start and holds it through the end of the adventure.

Despite Secret of Mana's technical blunders, this new version is a faithful re-creation with a lot of reverence for its source material. For those who may have missed out on Secret of Mana the first time around, it also serves as a solid introduction to a classic from the Golden Age. At a time when local co-op is difficult to find on most current-gen consoles, it gives a fresh option for those wanting to play with others. Secret of Mana's remaster offers a magical, vivid tale for the current-gen library.

Essentially the same game that was put out for Dreamcast. The graphics might be better, the sound certainly isn't, but the gameplay is in tact and sprinkling of a lame story about street racing leaves much to be desired.

Cat Girl Without Salad: Amuse-Bouche is a brief yet amusing shooter. The silliness works well, and the varied weapons make you rethink every attack to keep shooter fans on their toes. The shooting is fun for those not normally skilled in either traditional or bullet-hell variants of the genre, but it really takes some effort to not complete the game in one sitting. This isn't a fantastic game in the genre, but it's worth owning if you're down for short and satisfying side-scrolling shooter jaunts.

WTF: Work Time Fun can be summarized by saying "Waste of Time, Fool." The game is pointlessness incarnated, even more than "WarioWare, Inc." or "Ape Escape Academy."

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 is about as much of a step backward as a direct sequel can be.

Miami Vice has drugs, violence, hacking, and cussing, but in the end, it feels like the game is trying to hard to be, well, hard. It is not particularly bad, though definitely not very good.

It's a solid puzzle game, and I recommend it to fans of the genre, though new players may end up being more puzzled by the gameplay rather than the actual puzzles.

You'll most likely find that your level of interest in this game will be based more on your love for the Final Fantasy franchise than the quality of the product.

Manages to provide an engaging combination of simulated medieval warfare and peasant life without getting too lost in the mundane details that can easily wreak havoc on such a title.

It does some new things that should've been improved upon a long time ago, and it's the only game on the market right now that offers double-player monster-blasting action with this kind of setting, but you might find that it's just too hard, too annoying or too rough-edged to hold your interest.

The Life gameplay mode is a very good idea that could use some more polish, as could in-game play. It's come a long way from its previous installment, but it's still not breathtaking, nor is it breaking new ground.

This is also one of those games that outright begs for a bigger, badder and hotter (pun fully intended) sequel.

The bottom line is that if you have kids in the house who are fans of the "Tak" animated series, then they'll likely love Tak and the Guardians of Gross, and you can rest easy knowing that it's an all-around solid title.

Sadly, first-class presentation can't save Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm from disappointing mediocrity.