Basically, what we have here is the same game as was released in 2001, except it's five years later, near the end of the system's life, the plot has taken a downward turn, and the muddled controls have gotten even more muddled.

Aliens: Colonial Marines is both disappointing and sad. The plot plays out like a bad fan-made film with unintentionally bad acting and ties to familiar things because it didn't have any original ideas. The gameplay feels dated and out of step with the evolution of the shooter. Bugs are rampant throughout the title, and the game lacks a level of polish that was expected during the first year of this console generation.

If you like racing games, play Forza, Burnout, or Gran Turismo. If you are someone who likes Hummer vehicles, go and play Mercenaries to see how it should handle.

Stormrise is the perfect example of good ideas not always translating into good games.

The license might not match up, and if the developer had created it without "Red Bull BC One" being attached, I believe that more people would have been willing to check it out, but as it stands now, it's definitely enjoyable.

There's nothing in particular to recommend Brave: A Warrior's Tale beyond the budget price and vaguely interesting mythology.

I was really disappointed with Dragon Ball Z: Infinite World, and I already wasn't expecting much from it. Sure, the roster is impressive, and it definitely covers some unique characters, but playing the game feels more like a chore and less like the fun fighter it should be.

While it's true that Eragon is not a game that will change your life or keep you hooked to your TV for 60 hours, it is a really damned fun co-op title where you and a buddy can wreak havoc on big orc-like critters with sick-looking neck-snapping and gut-stabbing moves.

When you get down to it, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is absolutely boring to play on the DS. It's a constant series of fetch quests that's rarely broken up by the wand duels, potion-making and Quidditch matches.

A Bastard's Tale is the kind of game you want to like. The level of challenge is very high, and those with an extreme amount of patience will get the most out of it. However, the combat is rough and unfair most of the time, and your lack of agility can make defeat sting much more. It is short and cheap, but unless you're a masochist, you're better off giving passing on this one.

The Secrets of Atlantis: The Sacred Legacy is a wonderful glimpse at what could have been. You have a great premise and a great setting, but ultimately, the game falls flat with an uninspired story and frustrating, sometimes nonsensical, puzzles.

I tried so hard to like Card Fighters DS, but I feel it's a good card game stuck inside of a bad video game. The source material was there, and it had potential to be lots of fun, but the method of earning cards is repetitive, you are stuck in a static location throughout the game, and it is basically impossible to complete the game until SNK redistributes new cartridges.

Lackluster design elements (poor textures, collision issues), repetitive gameplay, and tacked-on concepts all equate to one spy adventure best left classified.

Sonic Adventure is still a loved title among some hardcore Dreamcast enthusiasts, but those may be the only people who need to pick up this title without any reservations.

The gameplay is a mess from start to finish, and the muddy visuals and terrible writing don't help things a bit. Furthermore, the game breaks itself by allowing players to access a cheat menu and use in-game points to purchase exploits, such as one-hit kills and invulnerability, during the very first playthrough.

Even if you're hard up for new Move-controlled games (in which case you should be perusing PSN), avoid the temptation to give this title a shot. Deadliest Catch: Sea of Chaos is beyond disappointing, and it's one of the most boring titles I've had the displeasure to play this year.

It’s filled with those fantastic Outlaw Golf-esque characters, except somehow with even less charm than the freaks that made up the cast of that game.

Truly, this game is a disappointment on nearly every level.

In many ways, Indianapolis 500 Legends is more an interactive history lesson than a proper game. By limiting you to certain drivers and certain years, players gain a deep historical knowledge of certain races at the expense of all the others.

Compared to the competition, RotSS feels more like a side story that borrows just enough gameplay elements to provide fan service for those who can't get enough of the film, but as a game, it's not much of a leap from an expensive bag of stale popcorn at the theater.

Overall, Saw II: Flesh and Blood certainly feels unique based on the strength of its puzzles and traps.

Ultimately, what damns SpongeBob SquarePants featuring Nicktoons: Globs of Doom is its limited quality of use of just about everyone who isn't SpongeBob, combined with its utterly generic gameplay.

The combat system is extremely unintuitive and, like the rest of the game, sacrifices most of the actual gameplay for cinematic moments.

MLB Front Office Manager was a good opportunity for console gamers to experience the joys and hardships of a standard MLB general manager. Unfortunately, with a very cumbersome menu system and nothing else to make it exciting, the title becomes a boring mess.

All in all, Dora Saves the Snow Princess is a great game for kids. You can't really fail at any of the challenges, as you're encouraged to try again.

PlayStation Move owners can safely skip Brunswick Pro Bowling. It's a pretty uninspired take on the sport and lacks any real personality or options.

The few things the game does well (voice acting, the potion-brewing system, the item imbuing system) just cannot possibly hope to save what is, at best, a beta-release bundle of sloppy code.

Every once in a while, a glimpse of the intended gameplay shines through in Stronghold 3, and you can see the strategic elements for what they should be. However, there are so many bugs and flaws with the game that it can be really tough to get a true look at its potential.

As a whole, Extinction is a game built around plenty of promising ideas, but the execution fails to live up to its promises on almost every single point. It's hard to shake the feeling that Iron Galaxy didn't provide the game with the resources it needed to come close to reaching the heights it was aiming for. That's a shame, since all we're left with is a massive skeleton of a game that could have held some real meat.

Terminator: Resistance is reminiscent of the days when tie-in games were released with practically every action movie. It's playable, but it's forgettable. It's fun to get your chance to shoot Terminators in the face and see John Connor being John Connor (instead of the mess he became in the various sequels), but beyond that, there's not much to recommend it. If you're a die-hard Terminator fan who is eager for a chance to visit the future of the original movies, then it might be worth a go. It's difficult to recommend for anyone else, though.

Wing Island is just not fun. It's close to intelligence-insulting in its attempts to pander to "all ages," it's needlessly difficult, suffers from exceptionally poor controls, sounds ridiculous, looks unexciting, and offers basically nothing for anyone.

A decent game marred by glitches and rushes.

At $10 on the PSN store, Dragon's Lair is at the high end of the "impulse buy" scale. Purists will probably prefer the Wii version, but if you just want to experience an arcade classic (or want to watch the game you were never able to beat back in the day), then this is a nifty way to do it. It's also a lot easier than a visit to the Smithsonian. Just don't expect incredibly deep gameplay, and you won't be disappointed.

Hole in the Wall is both fun and short. It's initially amusing to see players try to go through ridiculous shapes, but it is a novelty that wears off quickly if you plan to play it for long periods of time (instead of in the advised short bursts).

The fairly sloppy control made the parts where I was actually interacting with the game less than ideal.

Even with the low 400 Microsoft points ($5) price tag, it's difficult to recommend Red Bull Crashed Ice Kinect to anyone looking for more than an hour or two of entertainment.

Sadly, The Punisher: No Mercy is a complete waste of a license for a comic book antihero that does have out there amongst gamers a loyal following.

With more polish and a wider variety of mini-games, One Piece would make an excellent addition to any party. Unfortunately, it falls just too short of its mark to appeal to any but the most die-hard of One Piece fans.

Sonic Free Riders would have been a decent, if not exciting, racing title for the Kinect had it not been plagued by a bad turning system.

The monotonous gameplay wears thin all too soon, and what you're left with is a boring game that I can't see anyone enjoying for more than a few hours at best.

It falls short of even being mediocre. Even though it presents some truly superb ideas, the game is destroyed by the incessant load times, which should have been addressed long before its release date.

About the only good thing going for ATV Quad Kings is the looks, and even that is stretching it. Beyond that, the game feels lackluster at best

In a way, the experience you'll have with the game matches its name perfectly, so unless you're desperate for a masochistic experience, Agony gets a hard pass.

Crime Boss: Rockay City isn't a complete disaster. The idea of fusing together managerial duties with action-oriented shooting works well on paper since the gameplay styles complement each other. However, neither aspect plays out that well, and when you combine it with a lackluster story and worse than mediocre performances, the experience doesn't improve as you get further into it. Unless you're hard up for a crime-based game, there's little reason to give this title a shot.

X-Men: Destiny feels like a demo for a bigger game that never was. Little of the excitement that could have followed in the booted footsteps of X-Men Legends or Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is buried within its too-short campaign and thin smattering of gameplay. It's Dynasty Warriors for mutants; it can be fun at the outset, even with all the button-mashing, but the boxed-in world is not enough to distract from the hollow feeling of this particular destiny.

Dungeons and Dragons: Daggerdale is a fine, if unexceptional, game.

Major Minor's Majestic March sounded like a great game on paper. The graphical style from the past still looks good despite the transition to 3-D and the sound works. However, the finicky controls and shallow difficulty levels don't give this game much replayability at all. Despite the pedigree behind the game, rhythm game fans will be disappointed in this one.

There are better representations of what ninja titles can really pull off, and while Red Ninja had the potential to really shake up the genre, it just doesn't have enough draw to even give it a gentle nudge.

It offers nothing, not even to die-hard fans of the Zoids series, and certainly not to Xbox 360 owners who are looking for an SRPG to tide them over. It's rare I say this, but Zoids Assault is a game to avoid at all costs.

It's nice to see a publisher put in a little extra effort with the presentation of their product, which is rare these days.

Fish Tycoon cannot escape the trappings of mediocrity. Besides its unique status as a game that requires tedious work for minimum payoff, it also features some of the worst DS compatibility to be seen on the system.

Just a bad game, and unless they patch it thoroughly, I can't recommend it to anyone in good conscience.

Sure, it tends to wear its influences so prominently on its sleeve that it bleeds over into the derivative (Unreal 2, Tron 2.0, Deus Ex, Star Wars, etc.), but there did seem to be a certain passion that went into the code somewhere along the line.

If you're interesting in skating, you have at least a moderate athletic streak, you're willing to put in the training time, and you're looking for a game different than the Wii Sports variety to get you up off the sofa, you'll likely find Tony Hawk: Ride a treat.

Spectral Force Genesis is a really disappointing game overall, and while I found myself oddly enthralled with clicking through menus, the end result is that I spent a lot of time not really doing anything at all. Anyone who's considering picking up this title should avoid it, as it's really not worth your time.

Incredible Hulk is an embarrassment, one of the worst movie-to-game translations to come out in some time — and that's really saying something.

At the end of the day, Arc of Alchemist delivers a decent gaming experience. The characters' personalities are fun, and their antics are worthy spectacles. The building mechanics are a fun respite from the otherwise ho-hum aspects of the game. Those who are interested in the genre may find this to be worth their time, but the music, art, and significant chunks of the gameplay are too blasé to talk up.

The platformer is very cleverly planned out, and I applaud them for that, but the game sucked. I couldn’t help but go “What the hell?!” every five seconds.

Despite the time delay, Greg Hastings Paintball 2 is the same decent paintball game you've seen on the other consoles last year.

If you can look past the mediocre graphics and lousy sound, Dreamlords really has a lot to offer. Multiple play styles, an extremely friendly community, and the constant forward progression of the game make for an overall enjoyable experience.

Fear Effect Sedna is a case of improperly executed good intentions. It has an intriguing story at its core, but the bad script fails to make it shine. It has lots of different gameplay mechanics at work, but none of them feel good, let alone good enough to carry the weaker parts. It has a presentation that's less than stellar, even for fans who enjoyed the originals. There's still a chance that you can enjoy the game, but you'll have to forgive the various flaws to do so.

Operation Darkness isn't a bad game at all. It has its issues, but they don't ruin the experience — with the possible exception of the absolutely shameful graphics. The problem is that it doesn't really rise about mediocre.

Yogi Bear is a bland platforming game.

The enjoyment of seeing all of your favorite characters in a new story may not be worth the frustration of the endlessly tedious random battles. If you can get past the endless swarms of identical enemies, a rather lackluster adventure awaits you.

There's a decent story hidden under the mess of missed conversations and seemingly irrelevant puzzles.

With an 800 Microsoft points ($10 USD) price tag, Ben 10 Alien Force: The Rise of Hex is positioned as an impulse buy, but even then, it fails to impress. Take away the license, and you're left with an extremely generic platformer that manages to achieve mediocrity at best. There was potential here, but it went unfulfilled.

Starpoint Gemini has some great ideas and concepts, but it lacks the budget and vision to really drive home those ideas.

If you're itching to play Verdun, then the PC version is the only way to go. A healthy online community and good performance mean that there's always a game going on with people who know what they're supposed to be doing. On the Xbox One, that's not the case. Problematic presentation aside, there aren't enough people around to keep the games interesting, and the weapons unlock system doesn't seem to function correctly all the time. It may be the more realistic title when compared to Battlefield 1, but none of that matters when other factors make this a title that you should avoid unless you're willing to put in the time to learn the ins and outs of the system, provided the community sticks around.

Just Deal With It is an example of a title that just wasn't planned out well. The inclusion of online play is fine, but it's wasted since there hasn't been an online community to speak of since the game's launch. The forced multiplayer means that there's no real way for players to learn the games on their own, and the use of power-ups feels arbitrary. Unless you want a more expensive way to play these games with friends locally, your best bet would be to check out YouTube tutorials for these games and break out a physical deck of cards.

Praey for the Gods is game that is inches away from being a new classic. It does many things very well, and it is an incredibly impressive achievement for a small team. It is dragged down a bit by trying to be too many things at once. I applaud the attempt to spice up the "in-between" time that Shadow had, but the result doesn't quite hit the mark. If you have a tolerance for tedium to reach some brief high points, then Praey delivers, but newcomers might be best served by starting off with Shadow of the Colossus.

It doesn't handle anywhere near as tightly as a good FPS, but this is forgivable, since aiming and the success of your attack is stat-driven instead of aim-based.

I simply can’t recommend this to anyone but the most obsessive of fans. Other "giant robot" games such as "Zone of the Enders" and "Armored Core" have so much more to offer, with nowhere near this many problems.

Crime Stories suffers from some poor design decisions as well as a downright annoying presentation.

With a fairly decent presentation, it makes for a fun party game if you're up for something a bit more violent. However, with the current price point of $50, it is impossible to recommend the title unless you need to have every game for the new system. The best thing to do is to wait for a severe price drop on what should've been a breakout title for the eShop.

Maybe one day the developer will have the opportunity to show us a completed idea, but based on the current build, Tennis World Tour is disappointing.

It was an incredible concept that intrigued me to no end, but the finished product leaves so much to be desired. Between the lackluster story, the poor presentation and the boring gameplay, Swashbucklers leaves you feeling cheated.

This is a decent budget-minded fighting title, but it's not exactly one where you'll get much playtime.

Star Trek is a dish best served to Trekkies who want to fight their way through the bowels of the new Enterprise and see what the new sickbay and engine room look like while they occasionally blast things.

Mushroom Men: Rise of the Fungi for the NDS had some potential to be an interesting title and provided some neat concepts, but unfortunately, it stumbles in the execution. The controls are very clunky, and the unfair deaths due to poor platforming make it very difficult to enjoy this title.

There's very little overall polish to the title, and there's nothing particularly inspired or compelling about it, either.

With so many other twin-stick shooters available on Xbox Live, there is little reason for anyone except hardcore fans of the show to bother with Ugly Americans: Apocalypsegeddon. Yes, it is technically sound, but the gameplay is bland, the humor barely rates as juvenile and the video unlocks are slow to open up. Unless you need something to put you to sleep, spend your 800 Microsoft points ($10 USD) elsewhere.

In the end, referring to Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime by its abbreviated name, Ghostbusters: S.O.S., is probably the most appropriate thing to do. Even without the license, this is a game that's on life support. Coming in at 800 MSP ($10), it may seem like a fun impulse purchase, but your money is better spent by tracking down a used copy of Ghostbusters: The Video Game. Even for the hardcore fans, there really isn't much to see here.

While the sound and controls are fine, the somewhat-finicky detection system for clues doesn't help make things easy for beginners. The game length is also very short, and you have very little incentive to keep playing once the main story line is finished. The biggest offender, though, is the graphics; blurry pictures and a small playing area don't make this a very desirable title, especially for the $10 (800 MS points) asking price.

L.A. Cops is a sloppy game. The controls lack finesse in almost all areas, and the shooting is randomized enough to feel unsatisfying.

"Lazy" is also how I'd sum up my feelings toward Ben 10: Alien Force for the Wii. Sure, it's a kid's licensed game, and I think at this point that most of us know not to expect a whole lot out of it. However, that's still a pretty lame excuse for not trying to do something with the given license.

At best, The Cursed Crusade is mediocre. The plot is bland, but the cut scenes try to shove the story down your throat at every opportunity, causing an adverse reaction

I don't believe that there's anything inherently wrong with Sega trying to do something different with the series, but by taking away a feature that many fans wanted and offering nothing compelling in exchange, Beast Rider will have a hard time appealing to both series fans and those who are just looking for a decent action game.

In Grand Prix, the wild-card of bad design proves too difficult to surmount. That lack of consistency, coupled with grading criteria set in the real-world instead of the game's flawed reality, leaves me with no choice but to deem this game unworthy.

Reservoir Dogs: Bloody Days is a confused game. The license seems wasted, since the game fails to use its source material in a meaningful way. Ignore the license, and what you get is a top-down shooter that favors precision over bullet spray but adds a badly implemented time-rewind mechanic that squanders any potential it may have had. A few people can get some enjoyment out Bloody Days, but many will only need a quick glance to realize that this just isn't going to work out.

I was able to play this game for hours straight without realizing it while having the advantage of being able to get up and walk away at literally any moment without it negatively impacting things.

On one hand, the core game itself is good, and the story presented here is something you don't expect in a game. On the other hand, the technical execution of the title is so poor that one is surprised that it can run at all.

It's not the worst Bond game, and it's not the worst take on the films that I've seen, but while 007 Legends may have some of Bond's best lined up in one place, the empty routine tarnishes this license to kill.

NPPL Championship Paintball 2009 is a bad game overall. AI issues contribute to the problematic gameplay; controls are serviceable, but the graphics and sound fail to inspire.

Unless you know someone who wants to join up to play some online paintball, or if you have a high tolerance for buggy games, you'd probably be better served playing a different title.

Your enjoyment of Narcos: Rise of the Cartels is going to be heavily based on whether you can accept its strategy game conceit. If you're good with the idea of only being able to control one unit at a time per turn, then you might be fine so long as you're also willing to accept the inherent lack of strategy that goes along with the very limited objective set. If you want your strategy games to be a little more traditional, where every unit can do something on a turn, then you'll hate this game to the point that even the counteract mechanic can't make things interesting. In short, Narcos is a hard sell for fans of the series, let alone strategy game fans, unless you can find it for a very deep discount.

I have been advised that Hour of Victory may, in fact, be a worse game than Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, a fact that I sincerely find hard to imagine. Out of fear for my life, I do not intend to test this theory, nor do I recommend anyone else do so, as certain things just aren't meant to be known by humanity.

Frankly, the amount of failure that Aliens: Colonial Marines achieves in nearly every category is staggering. If you are an "Aliens" fan, the game's handling of the canon may send you into a rage. If you are just looking for a shooter, you'll find an uninspired mess that is mechanically beaten by games 10 years older. The game has no redeeming qualities, as it is a broken mess that must be the lowest possible point of the franchise.

In general, Made Man: Confessions of the Family Blood is a marginally passable offering, something to play if you've drained every last bit of enjoyment out of Max Payne and absolutely can't find anything else to play.