It's far from a perfect package, but whether you're a veteran who remembers the series' heyday back on the Sega Genesis or a newbie looking to dip your feet into the series, you won't be disappointed with Sonic Rush Adventure.

The slowness of Digimon World Data Squad might help to offset the grindingly boring gameplay, and the pretty colors might cheer you up despite the exceedingly poor production values of … well, everything.

Real-time strategy gamers have become accustomed to things being done a certain way, and while World in Conflict makes massive and sweeping changes to the tried-and-true formula of RTS titles, it does so in such a way that makes other genre offerings pale in comparison.

Throw in some of the options that were removed from this release, such as new officer and duel modes, and they'll have plenty enough to land another $60 from the fans.

Unfortunately, the buggy, short, one-shot gameplay, dodgy AI and disappointing storytelling leave you feeling more alone in the cold, dark reaches of space than behind the stick of the deadliest fighter in the galaxy.

Veterans of the series will enjoy the enhanced play modes and the new tag dueling. Fans of the Yu-Gi-Oh! television series and card game will be happy with this offering, which gives you room to grow and features galore.

Eternal Sonata is a beautiful game. It has excellent music, a reasonably well done dub and a curious and interesting setting. This doesn't change the fact that it is far too easy.

Despite minor issues, Skate absolutely does for skateboarding what Fight Night Round 3 did for boxing early last year — it delivers a true, undeniable next-generation experience in nearly every significant way, from the visual presentation to the sheer scale and structure of the environments.

The title is by far the best single-player experience yet on the PlayStation 3 and certainly one of the finest on any platform this year.

With intuitive controls, exciting gameplay and a one-two punch of audio and visual goodness, this game has just about everything that any hockey gamer could want.

DiRT is the best racing game on the PS3 thus far.

The shaky physics, unnecessarily brutal opponents and wild inconsistencies put it strictly in the no-fly zone.

It just gets kind of boring watching the fights instead of participating in them.

There's no competition for the cup in hockey games this year: NHL 08 sweeps the final series. No game is ever the same. Some are far better than others.

With the number of cookie-cutter titles out there, it's a breath of fresh air to see developers taking a risk with a new genre. Unfortunately, innovation does not necessarily translate to quality. Jam Sessioins is dull, and calling it a game doesn't seem right because it's mainly one big music lesson.

Zoey 101: Field Trip Fiasco is a pointless exercise in tedium, so I have to say again that no one should ever consider spending money on this title.

The drawing is spot-on, and if they could clean up the platforming, make a more intricate plot and present us with characters we care about, they could have a true classic on their hands.

The recap does a splendid job, but it's no replacement for the experience of the full universe.

The problems with Pro Stick are inexcusable, the implementation completely factoring out the human holding the controller.

The action-centric gameplay is as intense, over the top and engaging as any Woo work should be, and combined with the visuals of the Unreal 3 engine, the title is essentially what a next-gen Max Payne needed to be.

The title has great gameplay and presentation, but the issues that plague it — the sudden inclusion of out-of-place enemies and the woefully unbalanced multiplayer portion —tend to drag down the overall enjoyment level of an otherwise spectacular game.

The title has great gameplay and presentation, but the issues that plague it — the sudden inclusion of out-of-place enemies and the woefully unbalanced multiplayer portion —tend to drag down the overall enjoyment level of an otherwise spectacular game.

This game is pretty much a train wreck from start to finish.

A title that is easy to learn, but difficult to master.

A terrific game. The gameplay is simple, fun and forever addictive, and it's coupled with chunky, colorful graphics and a multiplayer system which has served as the de facto model for many other titles.

At the end of the day, Lair is more of a visual and aural masterpiece than a game you'd actually want to sit down and play.

Dead Head Fred is genuinely funny, well written and simply fun to play.

Perhaps the highest praise I can give the title is that despite Sony's concerns with overpricing a multiplayer-only game, Warhawk, lacking all single-player capabilities, is worth every bit of the full price for games of this console generation.

A great RPG for a next-gen system. It doesn't earn a perfect score because every element of Blue Dragon has been done time and time again.

A remarkably detailed game with a level of depth that is usually reserved for full game consoles and PCs.

A niche game meant for niche gamers. This title really isn't for anyone who's prone to violent outbursts when he loses a fighting game or misses a note in Guitar Hero, but it's still a lot more accessible than it could have been.

A great follow-up to the fun, albeit challenging, game. You'll have to deal with some pretty frustrating moments and some spotty control, but if you bear with it, you'll find a truly enjoyable experience.

For those who are not fans of the franchise, "bland" is perhaps the best way to describe Wild Arms 5.

A great expansion pack, and it's the standard to which all other expansions should hold themselves.

Overall, Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes takes an okay series of PS2 games and manages to downgrade them severely, not once, but twice — once from PS2 to PSP and again, in mostly inexcusable fashion, from Japan to the U.S.

If you enjoy the thought of watching Kamille Bidan and Heero Yui team up to blow away an army of Zakus and Z'Goks, or if you're simply a fan of the hack-and-slash gameplay that the Dynasty Warriors franchise provides, then you could do far worse than Dynasty Warriors: Gundam.

If you enjoyed any Dynasty/Samurai Warriors or Gundam titles in the past and are ready for something familiar but different, this game's for you. Even after beating all of the core missions and campaigns, the game leaves plenty to do. Too bad they still haven't gone online with this franchise, but, yet again, maybe next time.

The Wii control implementation in the title is passable at its best, downright awkward at its nadir.

The additions of the GamerNet and Shot Confidence don't make up for the faulty driving controls and inconsistent putting support.

I say there's a point at which suspension of buying by default the latest Tiger Woods game makes sense: It's a close call, but I favor stopping here at PGA Tour 08 over sitting pat on last year's version.

Turn It Around is nothing less than a slap in the face to Nintendo DS owners everywhere, a spiritual successor to Furu Furu Park in that it combines uninteresting and often non-functional games with painful audio/visual elements and a lack of replayability to drain every ounce of value from the purchase.

Vast amounts of patience are required for some of the more peculiar puzzles, and this may turn off many gamers. There are better options available, but adventure fans may still want to give U:OW a whirl.

Even with a low difficulty level, lackluster story and flawed unlockables, Metroid Prime 3 is certainly a must-play for Wii owners.

There are some new features, but they come down to things we've seen many times before (Pink Slip racing) or something that should have already been in the series (Championship mode). The title makes a few concessions for casual players, but the requirement of playing a whole season before unlocking Extreme mode just seems like a slap in the face to all of the seasoned MotoGP fans who want the tuning and buying to begin from the get-go.

Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 is a little late in coming to the PS3, but it still manages to be one of the console's most thrilling shooters.

If you're looking for a sub-par RPG with a sub-par storyline, sub-par gameplay, sub-par sounds, and very sub-par multiplayer, then sure, pick up Two Worlds.

Even some bad games can be somewhat enjoyable, but this title started off badly and held up worse.

I don't think I've enjoyed a wargame as much this one since I played the original Combat Mission game all those years ago. If you have an interest in simulating realistic modern warfare, and specifically seeing how the new Stryker concept would fare in battle, you can't go wrong with Combat Mission: Shock Force.

As much as I personally love it, there are plenty of people out there who will outright loathe it. Many won't manage to see past the colors and will simply be unable to play the game. It can also be deeply unforgiving, and while there are concessions in the form of the automatic save, you'll usually advance two or three levels and then hit an absolute brick wall of a stage that will take multiple tries to finish.

With a little more attention to contemporary FPS titles, I think it quite possible that Digital Spray could produce some patches or expansions that could make Instinct a decent budget shooter title.

From the superb visual design to the enchanting audio soundtrack, this futuristic period piece is a delight to play and accomplishes a rare feat for a video game: It leaves you with plenty of weighty existential questions to think about.

If Bioshock has one notable flaw, it lies in the game's difficulty level, or lack thereof. On the normal difficulty level, it's just a bit too easy. It is still fun, but once you start getting a solid number of plasmids, you can tear through every Splicer in your way as if they were nothing.

Dragoneer's Aria played up too greatly on its strengths and didn't try to fix its flaws.

Boasting an incredible story, great presentation and fun, sensible puzzles, this is one game that fans of the genre and fans of the classic story have to play.

Indeed worth $20 for fans of classic top-down shooters. It's certainly frustrating and is a bit on the short side, but it does provide some fun moments and some shining points that make it worth noticing.

The changes are plentiful, but there's nothing ludicrously revolutionary here.

This title has a very strong appeal to anyone who is a seasoned player of Dungeons & Dragons and is interested in playing a tactical combat simulator that is faithful to the system with which it shares its name.

Persona 3 does the franchise proud. The only "problem" that might make someone think twice about jumping in is the focus on character interaction over combat, but if that isn't a problem for you, you'll enjoy Persona 3 a lot.

For an SNK fighting enthusiast and genre fanatic, this game is a must-have. The characters, fighting system and old-school graphics and sound really bring a person back to the genre's roots. For casual gamers, the incredible difficulty will quickly turn them off. Gamers looking for a challenge in their fighting games need look no further.

We've actually been waiting for this game for years, ever since people started coining the term, "next-gen." Thankfully, that time has finally come.

Madden NFL 08 again serves football gamers on both sides of that fan fence.

It is absolutely not worth playing in my opinion, not even as a bargain bin purchase. Its pacing is dreadfully slow, its "story" is so flimsy that no one (not even the children for which this game is supposedly intended) would be enthralled by it, it looks extremely dated, the audio doesn't really work and its abysmal lack of genuine humor thoroughly defeats the point of a title that banks on being comedic.

This game will leave you hoping to celebrate the next Anniversary with Miss Croft in another 10 years.

No matter how shiny the car's wheels, no matter how diligently you clean out the ashtray and how often you wash the exterior, it's just a big lump of metal unless you've got the engine running smoothly, and Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars fails in that regard.

Mega Man Star Force may not reinvent the Battle Network formula — or even make any large-scale changes to it — but at least these re-heated leftovers are pretty good.

With its pick-up-and-play controls, intense combat sequences and surprisingly nice visuals, Attack on Pearl Harbor achieves its goal of providing relatively simplistic and fun gameplay.

The inconsistent AI vacillates between being way too easy to soundly beating me — sometimes while playing the same board game!

A Marathon title on XBLA could have been a fantastic way for Halo fans to see their favorite developer's roots, but thanks to bad controls and an illness-inducing interface, the game struggles to even serve as a window into the past.

Brave Story: New Traveler isn't innovative; it doesn't bring anything new to the RPG genre, break graphical bounds, create a revolutionary new combat system, or last 80 hours. What it is, however, is fun. Battles are swift and enjoyable, the characters are charming and likable, the side-quests are interesting and rewarding enough to keep you searching every nook and cranny of the world, and the graphics are among the best on the PSP.

Drake and Josh: Talent Showdown is a huge waste of time and not worth trying even if you're a fan of the show.

It's got all of the classic gameplay of its predecessor, and most of the graphics are terrific. Couple this with some excellent music, and you definitely have a winner. Unfortunately, the incredibly high level of difficulty is going to turn off almost everyone except the most hardcore of gamers.

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.

There's really nothing new here. It is truly just GH2 with a garish color scheme, some different character models, 30 new songs and nothing else. It feels incredibly bare, but as a song pack, it stands up surprisingly well.

If you're looking for nice graphics in a realistic racing environment on a next-generation platform, then perhaps this is right for you, but if you're looking for an exciting career mode, crazy pileups, or the ability to manage a team, then an older NASCAR title is what the doctor ordered.

Between all the wrinkles in the main gameplay, all the scenarios which completely change or add to it, and the fact that this comes with little to no system requirement increases or, well, anything that doesn't add to the gameplay, Beyond the Sword is little more than another stop on Sid Meier's traditional formula but is so much fun precisely because of this.

The story is forgettable, the dialog in the cut scenes is cheesy, the single-player campaign is short, and the AI leaves much to be desired — but the fighting is top notch, the battles are intense, the strategic options are myriad, and the immersion factor is so compelling I can give it a strong recommendation.

If you're new to the series or if you haven't played in a few years, go ahead and pick it up to give it a play-through — it's well worth it.

It's blatant fan service, and it doesn't try to be anything more; while the battle system is a lot of fun and the skits are entertaining, there simply isn't enough here to keep a casual gamer interested, especially once things devolve into the endless grind of fetch questing.

I only saw a few minor flaws with Hot Shots Tennis, such as the uselessness of the unlockables, extremely annoying multiplayer, and even a harmless yet painfully obvious "hiccup."

Despite the aforementioned low replay value, however, I'm glad PaRappa the Rapper was released. It still holds up even today, and perhaps having some renewed attention given to the Hip-Hop Hero will convince Sony to have a development house revamp PaRappa the way it should have been revamped, instead of the horrific sequel we got five years ago.

The kind of game that needed a lot more work before it was released. While it's great to play as football legends, the roster creation system is incredibly restrictive, and it's impossible to field the kind of team of which you've always dreamed.

Smash Court Tennis 3 is a solid tennis title with enough play modes to keep most enthusiasts entertained for hours. My only reservation is that it can be a bit frustrating at first because of the moderate learning curve.

Those who aren't wired for the Korean MMO experience of heavy grinding and repetition will probably find that level 1 to 20 is just enough to sate the urge to try something new. I personally think Sword of the New World is very well done for what it is, but I don't quite gel with the style of gameplay.

It's not as common as it should be for a game to clearly have a unified vision, but Project Sylpheed: Arc of Deception does exactly one thing, and does it well: hectic true-3D space combat that makes you feel like a Gundam pilot better than most Gundam games do.

While the crisp graphics hold up their end, the story deflates through a series of recycled clichés and a gradually diminishing sense of drama and excitement to a rather unsatisfying short — and somewhat hysterical — conclusion that leaves you feeling your time could have been better spent watching folk dance.

It has nearly everything you could want from an action game: highly accurate controls, a plethora of well-designed enemies, smart AI, sharp visuals, a wide assortment of useful and unique weapons, brutally visceral combat, and, of course, ninjas.

It failed in every aspect. The gameplay is frustrating and tedious, the graphics are bland and boring and the plotline is simply incoherent.

It uses the DS's unique control system in a way which we can only hope is emulated in other games.

While new and veteran fans of the Transformers were thrilled with Bay's movie, the Activision game is a complete bust.

It's not terrible by any means, but the horrible driving mechanics, repetitive missions and the horrible timer keep this game from being great.

Transformers: The Game for the Wii featured fine graphics, and the mission objectives weren't that bad, but the controls really killed the entire experience.

Overlord delivers a fun experience and is well worth the $39.99 retail price of admission.

Overlord delivers a fun experience and is well worth the $39.99 retail price of admission.

The port itself just seems to be incomplete, with the Xbox 360-centric prompts, reward tokens (previously used for 360 achievements) that now have no purpose whatsoever, and sluggish performance.

Final Fantasy Anniversary Edition is an excellent visual upgrade to the original version with support for the PSP's widescreen enhanced graphics, but it only slightly improves on gameplay and offers just a small amount of new additional content.

Its story and characters contain charm, its premise is tolerable and fun, it looks good, and it's a neat twist on an established genre, even if there hang-ups due to said twist. For what it's worth, I actually enjoyed this game far more than "Odin Sphere."

Nervous Brickdown isn't a game built to last. It is beautifully creative, taking a classic formula and twisting it on its ear again and again … until it runs out.

A mediocre platformer with very serious problems with its gameplay and sound elements.