Honestly, X-Men: The Official Game for the GBA does one thing and does it poorly. It's the same platformer/brawler that seems to be the generic genre for licensed games and resembles most every X-Men game from the 16-bit era.

What could have been a very neat idea is ruined by a bad camera, buggy gameplay, and totally ridiculous mission objectives.

I don’t often enjoy using scrap paper and making my own charts for a RTS game. These kinds of things should be already built-in. I can’t see anyone but extremely diehard Roman Empire gamers with a lot of time and patience on their hands enjoying this game.

Even at a budget price, I'm not sure that I'd recommend Blades of Time. It can be pretty to look at, and there are some decent concepts behind its combat system. It's also a better game than the middling experience provided by X-Blades, but not by much. As a whole, it feels like it could have used far more development time and play testing than it likely received. It's probably worth a rental if you're really curious, but I wouldn't suggest a purchase.

For better or worse, there is a certain draw to this game, and I occasionally enjoyed myself, when I wasn't getting headaches from all the crate-ducking, getting killed again due to the excessively long reload animation, or exposing myself to enemy fire after a successful kill.

It's got little to offer for SoulCalibur fans, little to offer for hack-and-slash fans, and little to offer in the realm of gameplay substance.

The whole nostalgia thing was nostalgic a few years ago. That’s a sad state of affairs, folks. Are we so void of new material, or can we spread our creative wings a little more than this?

Dynasty Warriors fans will be happy with this offering because the gameplay is still the same but you now have the opportunity to fight in something that doesn't involve the Yellow Turban rebellion.

The problem with this game lies in the fact that it's not only the main characters who have these super-human abilities, everyone does. Even the standard every day thugs that you will run into in this game are capable of jumping 20 feet in the air and flying across rooftops.

Despite everything you just read, Last Encounter is not a bad game. It looks decent, it plays decently, and it sounds decent. That's all it is, though: a relatively inoffensive twin-stick shooter. Since it glosses over the woes concerning design, perspective, and heck even gameplay, but this title is pretty functional. If "functional" is the kindest word that can be mustered for this flat and frustrating game, then I wouldn't necessarily call it good, either.

There's a pretty good RPG hiding in Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader. The story is interesting, the quests are plentiful, the characters are well rounded, and there's plenty of depth in the RPG systems. However, the graphical presentation is merely passable, while the performance varies so greatly that you need a ton of patience to get through all of the hitching and long load times. This is a game to be avoided for now, but if the promised patches improve the performance issues, then those who crave a really meaty RPG in the infamous grimdark sci-fi universe will have a very good time.

I enjoyed the system’s blocking and Nitoh-Ryu, but the slowdowns really bother me. The game is also relatively short with ten chapters – I beat it within five hours, and it is very repetitive.

Dead Rising 3: Operation Broken Eagle is sort of just there. The story doesn't offer anything interesting to shed a different light on the main story.

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is a fun game that is simply buried under too much to be really great.

The puzzles are the meat of the gameplay, but it feels the need to make you kill time between puzzles by sneaking past idiots or beating the snot out of invalids.

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

Crime Boss: Rockay City has done something that few other games have accomplished since the advent of patching. The team has taken what was a very bad game at launch and made it good enough to be enjoyable. The missions may be short, but the lack of lag and the presence of better-than-expected AI companions makes each encounter fun. The presence of the player XP system makes the tweaked campaign and online modes worth grinding through. Coming in at a cheaper base price than its Epic Games Store launch price, Rockay City is a decent purchase for those who were disappointed with Payday 3 and exhausted with Payday 2.

Being able to control my favorite characters would be fun, but if the gameplay of those made-up games were the same as that of Inuyasha: Feudal Combat, well ... being a fan of a particular anime series only goes so far, you know?

A fun, albeit easy, rhythm game.

There's enough shovelware on the Wii already, so don't encourage any more, and skip this one at all costs.

Games may not be art, but if they were, X-Men: The Official Game would be like one of those posters of a wizard and a dragon locked in a magical duel to the death.

Ford Bold Moves Street Racing does very few things wrong and gets a lot in the genre right.

Trainwreck Studios tried with Time Ace. They tried hard. But it's obvious that while they do have some skill in game design (some of the less prohibitive levels, especially later in the game, are quite enjoyable), their first attempt lived up to the company's unfortunate name.

After playing for a while, you'll realize that Tetris Evolution may have been better suited as an Xbox Live Arcade game priced somewhere closer to $10. There is no real evolution to be seen; it's the same classic Tetris you've played for years, albeit with a handful of different game modes and a few more graphical options in an attempt to stir up the experience.

Overall, I was mostly disappointed with Cross Edge, and while the hardcore fans of the series involved will be willing to give this one a try regardless of the content, I wouldn't advise it to the more casual RPG crowd. The battle system is pretty inventive and fun, but everything that surrounds it is a total chore.

If Contra: Rogue Corps were known by any other name, it wouldn't be so bad. The idea of a twin-stick looter shooter is intriguing, and the shooting can be decent even if the level flow isn't exciting. However, that reliance on the franchise name comes with certain expectations. The overheating guns, restricted co-op, and missing weapon sets run counter to what fans have come to expect from the series that's been around for over 30 years. If you aren't too discerning, this may be worth a look if it's in the bargain bin. If fans of the series pick up Rogue Corps, they will be disappointed.

Game of Thrones revels in the source material, wraps its narrative around it, and plays along with the vast universe that George Martin has crafted. It's too bad, and deeply disappointing, that the game celebrates little else.

The bare-bones plot and general lack of direction mean you must make your own fun. It's set in a largely static world that doesn't care about the choices you make, and the few times when you can impact the world may be lost to you or circumvented by others with a mere server hop. There's fun to be had if you enjoy the thought of poking around a Fallout wasteland with a friend. Otherwise, very little here feels new, and it feels like a lot of content is missing in comparison to previous games in the series.

Overall, Warriors Orochi 2 is a solid game, but the repetitive gameplay and missions that make up the majority of the game prevent it from being anything more than a rental.

It's a good-looking, smooth-playing title that captures some of the mystique (ha-ha) of the comics and movies. Where it fails is in the limitations placed upon it.

You can't help but coming away from Never Breakup with mixed feelings. The concept remains novel, and there are a number of stages to make the experience feel meaty, even without a narrative. While the player can get used to the wobbly controls, the lack of variety in the co-op challenges — and the sense that a number of areas don't seem to be designed with the co-op concept in mind — robs the game of any fun. It isn't a terrible co-op title, but you're better served by going with other co-op experiences first.

I genuinely feel rather bad going on and on about the game's flaws, but the most exceptional thing about Clive 'N' Wrench is the effort that went into bringing it into existence. I'd love to say that it's a great, or even a good, game, but it's pretty unexceptional even by the standards of low-budget indie 3D platformers. There just isn't anything to recommend this game on its own merits, and it is buggy enough that it's hard to even recommend it as a curiosity.

If you can snag a copy as a free pre-order bonus for Red Faction: Armageddon, then go ahead and give it a spin, but if you're thinking of spending money on it, give this one a pass. At 800 MSP ($10) for the download, Red Faction: Battlegrounds simply isn't worth the cash.

Clunky controls and nonexistent difficulty, however, reduce the game into bargain bin status.

It's a rental, but it's worth trying out despite the flaws if you happen to find it at a reduced price.

In the end, No Time to Explain is hurt by inconsistency.

A very underwhelming port of the original PC title. The game would've been fine on its own, but it's plagued by sluggish controls, a broken touch interface, and multiple omissions from the original game that would only disappoint fans.

Neverdead isn't a great game, and that's disappointing. It doesn't take much time with the game to figure out what does and doesn't work, and that makes it all the more baffling that it's not better than it is. The idea of severing limbs and tossing them about and never actually dying is great, but the combat and physics that surround it are downright bad. Neverdead is certainly worth a rental, as you might be able to stomach its shortcomings better than I did. This is a title that you'd play on a rainy day when you have nothing else to do; it's certainly not a game that you must play immediately.

With a tedious single-player campaign riddled with monotonous action and online play offering a bare-bones experience, the best that players can hope for with Denied Ops may be to simply deny having played it.

Oddly, the problem is that, it feels too much like a classic hack-'n'-slash RPG. Games like Diablo and Baldur's Gate used the same formula over 10 years ago, and they did it better.

Don't come into Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi: The Genie and the Amp expecting too much, and you'll be satisfied with what you get – a fun, short brawling romp that is reasonably well-suited to portable play.

Balan Wonderworld is a great idea on paper, and it's perfectly playable from start to finish, but it's held back by some baffling design decisions and boring gameplay. The idea of a protagonist who swaps between costumes to collect Mario-style shines could be great, but the costumes are too simple, the environments are too boring, and the gameplay is too basic. It could possibly be a good game for extremely young players due to its low difficulty and cartoony graphics, but even then, I would recommend one of the many other offerings intended for that demographic instead.

Many lackluster games have spectacular ideas but poor execution. Rampage: Total Destruction, on the other hand, has the same gameplay it's had 20 years ago, offering only negligible upgrades.

If you're looking for a game that's going to keep you on the edge of your seat, keep looking. This one is definitely not for you. If, on the other hand, you enjoy a game that will severely challenge your intellect (or you happen to hold a doctorate in economics or politics), then I heartily recommend this one.

The nuggets of genuine hilarity hidden within a few encounters are worth a once-over, but Matt Hazard's reboot should perhaps have been left for a later date.

Once you get past the (incredibly frustrating) first hour or two, earn some cash, and buy or upgrade a few cars, it's an OK combat-racing game that's hamstrung by its appalling camera and handicapped AI, and both of those sabotage any satisfaction you might actually get from the game.

Warlords looks nice in demo form, but is a soul-sucking, horrific experience when you're actually playing it.

A more-than-perfect gift for the kiddies, and a solid rental at the very least for older people who, like me, still love the Looney Tunes characters.

It borrows heavily from other titles, but it needed some more refinement before it could have been a smash hit.

The mini-games in the pit are more bothersome than fun, while the opponent's AI makes the game more frustrating than it should be. However, the graphics are good, and the single-player challenges are a great way to keep the player engaged in the story being told.

There are a few good things about Neptunia Riders vs. Dogoos. The silly story provides a good vehicle for the shenanigans of Nep Nep and her friends, and going for a completely different genre is always a welcome move. It would've been nice if the game were actually good in every other area. The gameplay loop is far from exciting, especially since it gets very repetitive rather quickly, and the graphical presentation is terrible when you consider the hardware the game is running on. This is also a painfully short experience without any multiplayer capabilities, despite the format being perfect for team or versus play. Unless you're in the habit of collecting every Neptunia-related game, stay away from this title.

This game isn't worth $45 or $50, but it does have a small degree of potential.

Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories is a mess of a game. The use of an earthquake as a backdrop is wasted due to the lack of meaningful reactions from anyone in the story. All of the incidents you witness range from semi-normal to wildly ridiculous, but the cast of unlikeable characters punctuates each scenario. The mechanic of stumbling across major story beats makes it so that you'll only figure out things by dumb luck, while the solutions to some of the puzzles feel unsatisfying due to their bewildering solutions. The choice system is the game's real saving grace, but unless you're interested in seeing how much of a terrible person you can be in later runs or are just a massive fan of the series, there's little reason to check out this title.

If you like driving recklessly and crashing into things, you won't be disappointed. If you're just looking for a chance to actually drive a big rig truck, look towards Sega's Eighteen Wheeler game.

All in all, I can't recommend Hail to the Chimp as a game, but it gets my vote as a satire of politics. The clunky controls, slow character movement, obstructive camera, repetitive gameplay, and chaotic multiplayer work against the title, and although the graphics and audio make up for it to a degree, it's nowhere near enough.

Lacks the muscular gameplay promised by its street-tough premise.

The weak AI, easily abused trick moves, and lo-res graphics all add up to create a boring experience.

In the end, Puzzler Mind Gym 3D is simply decent.

G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout is messy. The presentation is inconsistent, while the story is serviceable at best. The addition of local multiplayer outweighs the lack of online play, and the game is lengthy enough. However, the poor combat mechanics drag down the experience heavily, and on a platform that's absolutely bursting with more competent third-person shooters, this is one that you can easily pass on.

The dragon customization is a nice feature, but every other aspect is so bad that How to Train Your Dragon doesn't come close to justifying its $50 price tag

There just isn't a reason for Rengoku II: Stairway to Heaven to exist besides duping buyers into picking up a throwaway title, or, the most likely case, to get PS3 owners who've never played the PSP versions to pick up that game just because the franchise seems familiar somehow.

With more time and polish, Nowhere to Run could have shown that Spy Hunter can move beyond the car, but for now, The Interceptor is still the more interesting main character.

Children in the target age range for the "WALL-E" movie will undoubtedly love this game, from the youngest in that demographic to the oldest. But the game is also quite enjoyable and good for adults, especially fans of "WALL-E" or Pixar movies in general.

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.

The premise is great, the big set-piece battles are fun, but everything else is boxed within dated design concepts from which other titles have long evolved.

There were some obvious attempts to bring the game beyond the usual mediocre fare provided by film-to-game adaptations, but the few bright parts are eclipsed by the repetitive gameplay, lackluster graphics and atrocious controls. More frustrating than fun.

Penguins of Madagascar is ambitious for a children's game but ultimately flawed.

Even if Away: Journey to the Unexpected weren't a roguelike, it still has issues that would put it in mediocre territory. The main melee combat would be awful, the level designs would be boring, and the boss fights wouldn't be exciting. While some people may be fine with that, the forced repetitive nature of the roguelike makes Away feel unnecessarily padded, especially since parts of the title are too forgiving for the genre. It may look nice most of the time, and the story is so off the wall that it's endearing, but Away should only be on your radar if you can purchase it on sale and don't mind its baggage.

As a game that manages to encapsulate the feeling of being Superman, Superman Returns does an excellent job.

It's a shame since there's a lot of potential here, but Koi doesn't manage to realize it.

I'd recommend staying away from Eragon, but if you absolutely loved the book or movie and would love to swing Eragon's sword or "fly" Saphira, then, and only then, should you give Eragon a try.

This is not a game that anyone will accuse of vast depth. It revels in action-movie cliches, from Jack’s nearly-constant bad puns (“This ought to heat things up,” he says, grabbing a Molotov cocktail) to the near-invisible story to the waves of idiot cannon-fodder who populate each stage.

With a tedious single-player campaign riddled with monotonous action and online play offering a bare-bones experience, the best that players can hope for with Denied Ops may be to simply deny having played it.

The Last Agent is right up there with Fallen Angel as the best of the DLC packs available for Dead Rising 3.

At $10, the price is fine, but if you enjoyed the demo, it would be best to wait for this to go on sale.

It's almost unbelievable to me that some very small problems, all related to the nature of the system the game chose to appear on, can turn a mediocre but charming game into a mess with little play value, but that's certainly what happened with Ape Escape Academy.

Aliens are here, kidnapping and impregnating women, and it's Duke's job to blow them away. The more intriguing aspect of Duke Nukem Forever is how the character's apparent mythos appears to be the engine of the entire experience. He's worshipped as a living god in the game, with his own burger joint, strip club, museum and stadium. His mission is about rescuing babes and kicking ass, which is well within his strike zone, but did it need to leak into every capillary of the experience? It's as if Gearbox was relying a little too much on the "Dukeness" to cover up any weaknesses. Who care if the game looks dated? It's Duke! Let's have him mess with Halo because he's Duke!

Blue Estate is surprising in both good and bad ways. On the one hand, it delivers some good action with a surprising amount of cinematic flair. It also shows that the lack of an actual light gun can work quite well. On the other hand, the rather short game can feel too long, and the humor fails at being funny. If you can live with those shortcomings, the game is worth checking out for light gun fans who are jonesing for a new experience.

The unpolished gameplay and bare-bones presentation do the game no favors in this day and age, and the general failure to launch issues cast Bullet Witch in a more negative light. Unless you have a strong sense of nostalgia, there's not much of a reason to pick up Bullet Witch.

Sure, it's another cheap knockoff game trying to capitalize on the overstuffed DS self-improvement market, but it's got a lot more heart than other games in the genre, and at times it is rather entertaining.

One of the worst camera systems to taint a simplistic 3D running and jumping game in recent memory.

From interface to basic design, it's marred by numerous game design decisions that simply should not have made it to the finished product.

Crafted in a TV universe that puts less emphasis on warfare, Star Trek: Encounters is a curious choice as a tactical ship combat simulation.

A muddy, hard to handle shooter with no real plot or enthusiasm. It's just "go there, shoot this, shoot this too, okay go here now," over and over again.

Thanks to its ability to maul the movie that it supposedly follows, Beowulf is a poor substitute for the film and an even more frustrating experience on the console, given its clumsy fight mechanics, uninspired enemies and the repetitive button-mashing.

As a game that manages to encapsulate the feeling of being Superman, Superman Returns does an excellent job.

Feels limited, and your powers seem squandered on simply fixing statues or any of the other humdrum tasks you're instructed to complete.

The graphics and sound are average, and nothing really jumps out and grabs your attention. Gameplay is very linear and built around the same engine that brought you "The Two Towers."

Basically, there's not enough content to the Wii port of Dirt 2 to warrant a purchase, and you certainly don't want to pick this up if you have access to another home console version of the game.

While the main platforming gameplay in WALL-E for the Wii is solid and fun, it's really not good for more than a single playthrough and a collecting run.

It's like a Tootsie Pop, only the sweet chewy center is covered by the bitterness of gameplay mechanics and camera troubles.

Ultimately, Saints Row 2: Ultor Exposed is only going to appeal to the hardest of the hardcore Saints Row 2 players, and even then, many of them are likely to be disappointed with the content.

Thanks to its ability to maul the movie that it supposedly follows, Beowulf is a poor substitute for the film and an even more frustrating experience on the console, given its clumsy fight mechanics, uninspired enemies and the repetitive button-mashing.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants isn't bad. The fighting system is quite good, and the additional stages and bosses do a good job of lengthening a very short game. It's fun, and those who were lucky enough to discover the arcade game will be pleased with this port. Those wanting to take the plunge into the title might want to hold off for a bit, unless you can find the title at a discount. The $30 sticker price for such a short experience can be off-putting, especially with only one mode available.

Crusty Demons is fun not because it's a good game, but because you get to use ragdoll physics to beat annoyingly stereotypical characters bloody by flinging them through the air at 130 MPH.

Instead of playing the role of Jaws, you're playing as Jaws in a generic action-RPG. Combine that with sub-standard gameplay and controls, and a lack of "terror-of-the-deep" moments, and you've got a game that you can freely pass over without any worries.

From top to bottom, Daylight falls short of being a good horror game.

With more time and polish, Nowhere to Run could have shown that Spy Hunter can move beyond the car, but for now, The Interceptor is still the more interesting main character.