While the gameplay can't exactly be hailed as superior to their self-made rival product, the Drawn to Life sequel opens up the imagination in new ways, just as the original did, and the improved storytelling makes it highly worth the while of the young and young-at-heart gamers who are still a core audience of the DS.

I'm still not entirely sold on the story in Spiderwick Chronicles for the NDS, but I can't knock the game for staying true to the film.

Cat Quest offers cute visuals, solid RPG action, and an overall charming feline adventure, and it's best enjoyed in bursts to avoid the otherwise repetitive quest structure.

From an artistic and technical standpoint, Sleeping Dogs is not a marvel, but it is perhaps my favorite summertime game. It's a game that fuses some of the best parts of other open-world titles and fuses them with Hong Kong Triads. In many ways, that's all I wanted.

Admittedly, Asura's Wrath is not a great game. The combat mechanics are uninspired and the title relies heavily on QTEs to drive the action. However, I'm not entirely sure it's trying to be a pure game so much as it wants to be an interactive experience. That may sound a bit like a cop-out, but I truly believe the interactive elements are there merely to drive the story forward, and in that respect, the game delivers beautifully. Asura's Wrath is a strange bird indeed, throwing in so many disparate elements that all manage to somehow come together and create a compelling, fun experience. This game is weird, but it's weird in the right ways.

I've played my fair share of Soulslike titles, and Lords of the Fallen is currently far ahead of the pack. It provides the standard gameplay anyone would expect from this kind of game and adds enough interesting gameplay mechanics to be distinct and worthwhile. Sure, there are some frustrating design decisions, and it struggles to establish its own visual identity, but it innovates, and it looks good while doing so. If you're interested in these types of games, Lords of the Fallen is certainly the best of its kind that I've played this year.

It's just too bad that in this case, a DBZ game was finally able to achieve such enjoyable gameplay but the surrounding design was not taken further. A proper campaign is nonexistent, the trials won't stay entertaining for long, and the online mode is incredibly bare-bones. The core fighting essence is an undeniable blast.

Overall, I found The Legendary Starfy to be an enjoyable game. It's definitely too easy in terms of difficulty, and it's a bit lengthy.

It still needs some improvements in the controls, and it doesn't offer a deeper single-player experience like its counterpart, Order Up. Still, fans of the original and those curious to try the series will find that this version of the game does not disappoint.

You can't beat animals with artillery, and it helps when they're packing such a diverse selection of weapons, all of which look, sound, and feel great to handle.

Hopefully LucasArts will address the latency issue which would vastly improve the overall experience. As it stands if you are a fan of Star Wars you should pick this up without hesitation.

Even with its easily addressable faults, WWE All-Stars manages to brightly shine because it got the basics absolutely right.

Considering that this could be the closest thing we see to "normal" football for a long time, Madden NFL 21 works. However, I can't shake the feeling that more could be done. Some things feel practically untouched. The create-a-player faces are still weird. Why can there be such a discrepancy in head sizes? Why can't I seem to port over the player I created in Face of the Franchise into a regular roster or at least have him available in regular create-a-player? The array of quarterback throwing motions still seems limited, and it pales in comparison to the way players in other sports games are so heavily signaturized. I still feel there's plenty of work to be done with this franchise, and that so-called "next level" we keep looking for can be reached. For now, I might tighten up my Yard skills, see what new decisions I can make in a new career mode, and beef up on my RPO mastery while I hope for more in next year's Madden outing.

If you've ever enjoyed a Gust game or Atelier title, it's likely that you'll dig Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland. It's a fun, mostly upbeat adventure that doesn't get too bogged down by generic anime themes or trappings.

Shadows of Adam is a worthwhile romp through classic JRPG nostalgia. Fans of the genre will appreciate the '80s and '90s callbacks and expansive world. At the same time, newcomers to the genre should find the title accessible, especially with its easier battles and exclusion of random encounters. While it might not display the same creativity of top-of-the-line JRPGs like Final Fantasy or Persona, Shadows of Adam executes its ideas well, and more importantly, is simply fun to play.

Buzz! Master Quiz is a pretty good trivia game that somehow feels right at home on the PSP.

With its advanced adaptive learning system, Stacked probably offers the best single-player Texas Hold 'em game currently available.

Fans will still like it; nobody will be angered by it. But, when looking at the great work done on the PC version, which has positioned itself on a very different path than the original (thanks to the generation hopping), there really isn't enough in this GameCube version to warrant a release past "Livin' Large."

It's a celebration of all you hold dear, you crazed fanboy/fangirl, you.

I enjoyed swinging through Spider-man 3 even though I felt that game tasks were becoming more and more repetitive as I progressed.

This is an arcade blast based on timing and violence, and it’s a ton of fun if you don’t approach sports games as simulations of the real thing. This is a videogame in every sense of the phrase.

Kunai is a solid game. The genre formula sticks to the blueprint well enough to not mess it up. The game is of a decent length, and it has the right amount of difficulty most of the time, but the kunai movement sells you on what makes the game enjoyable. For genre fans, this is well worth checking out.

Overall, Need for Speed: Nitro does what it was set out to do and does it right. It doesn't feel like Shift, instead playing like something made for the Wii audience. It's got its flaws, but it also has a fast, easy-to-pick-up gameplay and just enough depth to be worth a purchase for a wide swath of Wii gamers.

I'd be lying if I said that Duke Nukem 3D is as good today as it ever was, but it hasn't aged at all badly, and it can teach modern first-person shooters a thing or two about level design and plain fun.

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.

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.

If I were to decide between Rainbow Six 3 and "SOCOM II," I would choose the latter simply because the online play is so much more solid and the lag time from the mic isn’t quite as bad as it is in Rainbow Six 3.

MLB The Show 22 is still among the highest forms of video game baseball available … right along with the game that came before it. It still plays exquisitely, and it's still definitely worth your time if you've never really experienced the series before. For veterans, however, this could be the moment where the game just feels … sort of "there," and the only big difference you'll notice is that this year's cover guy probably should have been last year's cover guy.