Give Wii Music a try if you're growing lethargic of repeating the same songs in the same way over and over -- you might learn something about how music composition works, and you may discover your more creative side. Compared to other games of the genre and casual games in general, Wii Music is really more of a basic creative canvas than a "melt-your-fingers-off" game, but it enables its players to do a lot with a little and to do it nearly however they want -- it pulls this all off with a relative amount of finesse, too.

There’s only so much that a developer can do with Tetris before they expand into a different genre or create something that doesn’t even feel like the original game, which is why it’s so impressive what Hudson has done with this title.

Prey the Stars: Gabu Gabu Planet is a great platforming game that is simple to pick up, looks great and plays well. It does feel a little repetitive after lengthy play, but with online options and multiplayer options the game can be picked up at any time for a quick laugh.

Bad graphics and the odd bug are acceptable on a game of substance. However, NBA Live 09: All-Play lacks a career mode, and is only as good as the person online that can be played against. Unfortunately, AI is so odd that it makes multiplayer somewhat futile after long periods of time.

The game has a lot of replay value in the form of trying to woo a different boy each time -- that, and collecting all of the magical accessories that grant Sabrina different stylish dresses to wear while dancing.

A welcome return of a quality Sonic title that brings back memories of first playing Sonic 1 on the Sega Mega Drive. With great graphics, great gameplay and a developed storyline that’s not overly serious, Sonic’s a great addition to all gamers. The only downside is the somewhat odd battle system.

Overall, Pipe Mania DS is a well-designed port of a classic game idea, and aside from a few control and implementation problems, is a continuously interesting title for those interested in classic arcade action on the DS.

Samba De Amigo is a welcome return to a Dreamcast classic, with tons of modes and content, as well as new songs for download. This game is well worth the price of admission. Only the bipolar difficulty and tricky IR sensitivity keep this from being the perfect Samba De Amigo experience.

With a tired and clichéd premise, Dinosaur King makes a good use of what could be done. Lots of DS features are used, and the graphics are strong, but it’s just too similar to Pokémon but with too few of the features to capture older gamers attention. Younger gamers will enjoy this title a lot, especially those who follow the series.

Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure is a charming and welcome addition to the DS library. If you're looking for any sort of challenge, then turn around now, but if you prefer characters and light-hearted stories in your RPG. then by all means pick it up. This is a perfect title for newcomers to the RPG genre and hopefully sends a message to other publishers dumping shovelware onto girl gamers.

The game's presentation is really awesome. Maybe it's not technically impressive, but the artistic design of the visuals is really enjoyable and a large part of what makes De Blob such a joy to play. Painting Chroma City is a fresh and satisfying experience. Multiplayer modes are fun and the way the graphics and sound combine is one of this game's greatest features.

Provides players with an engaging and polished experience -- everything on a technical standpoint is sharp, the presentation is energetic and lively, and the level design/variety is solid...but this entry in the Wario Land series just feels lacking in some extra element inherent in the previous titles -- some spirit seems to have been lost in the translation.

Kirby Super Star Ultra delivers an adequate platforming experience with Kirby at the peak of his platforming game -- lots of modes, solid presentation, lots of powers, variations on the main concept...But, like Kirby titles before it, a new coat of paint and some extra modes can't hide the fact that Kirby's outings generally lack the finesse and expert execution of other titles in the genre.

Mega Man 9 sets out to be a better game than Mega Man 2 but for all of the same reasons why that game is respected: it succeeds, and it proves that gameplay is king while also artfully taking us back to an era where this was much more evident than it is today.

Dragon Quest IV is a classic RPG in every sense of the word, from its charming medieval atmosphere to its plucky cast of characters. Behind the cheerful exterior lies a tough and challenging game that requires lots of patience and time. The game will easily give the player their money's worth, and is a great starting point in the franchise that will have you waiting in anticipation for the next game.

Strongbadia the Free isn't a leap forward over the first episode, but really, this is more like a full-length game split into chunks, and as long as they keep coming out every month, it will prove to be a pretty solid set of adventures.

As this is a party game for the youngsters there was no need to add the Single Player option. However, there has been an attempt to prolong the gamelife after Christmas is over with the Single Player, which is actually fairly challenging. With no real flaws, and a Single Player mode to make it stand out from games like Bakushow, it’s a good fun buy for a quick laugh.

The Sims 2: Apartment Pets is fairly engaging for a few hours, but unfortunately it becomes stale very quickly as the Sim character itself requires far too little attention. A great concept, but owing to the awkward controls and the lack of care needed for the Sim, there’s just too much monotony.

Mario Super Sluggers attempts to bring the over-the-top fun of Mario Kart to the game of baseball, but instead brings chaos and confusion. The control schemes are broken and the roster is mostly lame. In the end, Mario Super Sluggers does more to damage the reputation of the Wii Remote then promote its functionality.

Wii owners should consider themselves lucky that Homestarrunner.com and Tell Tale games have given the Wii a bizzare yet awesome game series. It is well worth the investment and can be enjoyed by just about anyone without being dumbed down to the lowest common denominator. If you are a long time fan of the cartoon, consider it a 9.

Wild West Guns is best looked at as perhaps a good first attempt. It has good settings and sound to suck you in to the Wild West theme, but the actual gameplay just falls short. The controls are great and responsive, but the game itself is just too repetitive and gets boring quickly. If more variety had been added then perhaps a higher score could have been given.

A short single-player mode makes the 1,000 Wii Points price tag a little on the high side, but the multi-player mode makes up for it. A solid start into what will hopefully be a long lasting franchise.

Under the Knife 2 is a triumphant return for the Trauma Center franchise to the handheld that made it famous in the first place. While it’s a bit too familiar for its own good, and a bunch of features from the previous games are missing, the excellent game design, larger campaign and significantly improved story make this a great title. Atlus is officially 4-for-4 with this unique series.

If you were thinking about getting this game as an attempt to delve into the world of turn-based strategy RPG’s, I strongly suggest you go buy the first Tactics Advance instead because you will probably have more fun with it, and it will probably be cheaper. Or better yet, go pick up a Fire Emblem game.

This is the kind of game that makes Wiiware a worthwhile feature, and shows that good hardcore games can be made for the system in any size.

Soul Bubbles is unique puzzle title in the same vein as Katamari Damacy and Loco Roco. As with those titles, Soul Bubbles is meant to be played in short bursts rather then long stretches as the gameplay gets tiresome after playing to long. If you enjoyed navigating through Loco Roco, or guiding mario through bubbles in Super Mario Galaxy then this is a puzzle game right up your alley.

The start of this promising franchise was so good that this game pales in comparison. It’s not the worst movie to game tie-in in recent years -- The Golden Compass has to take that spot -- but it’s certainly not far off.

Bakushow is really as good as the people that it’s played with; fortunately, I played it with some great people. It feels a little incomplete in places, however, and there’s a lot of room for change if a second is to come out. The lack of colours and a keyboard is criminal, but the game is great fun overall as long as being spoon-fed isn’t something you enjoy.

The title offers up everything a puzzle fan could expect and want.

Does it beat going out and just jogging a few laps, or going for a swim, or even going to the gym? Of course not. However, what Wii Fit brings is a fun way to get back into being active. The exercises display a good mastery over the Balance Board and a great way to show off the possibilities of the peripheral.

Despite its flaws, My Life as a King serves as a wonderful bridge title to bring Final Fantasy fans into the sim genre (and gamers at large, for that matter), blending strategy into the mix to add ample amounts of depth to the proceedings.

A stellar start to the WiiWare's catalog, LostWinds sports great production values, charming atmosphere and delivers a calm, relaxing experience that makes good use of the Wii remote's pointer controls.

While Defend Your Castle is fairly simple and repetitive in and of itself, it is also highly addicting and quite fun with friends in short bursts of time.

No game is perfect, but that said, this is as close as a non-Nintendo game has come in a long while. It's most definitely worth the purchase, as it'll keep you entertained for many, many hours.

Overall, the Iron Man title on the Wii lacked the spark that the film had; however, it’s a huge step up from last year's A2M film franchise adaptation, known as The Golden Compass. That said, if players are looking for a film to game adaptation that actually reflects the film, they should look elsewhere.

Mario Kart Wii features an impressive online experience, but falls a bit short in the offline content.

It ultimately suffers from trying too hard to be innovative and forgets the important part of being user friendly.

Dedicated, hardcore strategy buffs will likely find it rewarding to work their minds through the seemingly impossible odds, but gamers at large will probably just find it to be frustrating.

Clover and Ready at Dawn have given the Wii a beautiful and epic journey. One of the best games on the system that any gamer with a Wii needs to own. Okami is a masterpiece that is not likely to be duplicated and deserves to be in everyone's gaming library.

The title feels like a throwback to some of the older platforming games from the SNES era; however, the length of the title it’s biggest flaw.

Baroque is a marmite game: you’ll either love it or hate it. It’s a piece of interactive fiction genius and although the gameplay can be a little poor at times, the entire package is great and is well worth picking up if you enjoy a hard, dungeon crawler challenge.

Opoona is one of those once-a-generation type games -- for many hardcore RPG fans this will be a bit of a letdown, but for others it could easily be heightened to the level of the Mother series if another game does come out.

This game took everything I loved about Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town, upgraded it slightly and included fun touch screen controls to allow actual interaction with the animals.

If you love action games, you can't do much better than Ninja Gaiden on Nintendo’s portable system.

The mission mode falls flat due to its repetition -- it takes too long to unlock rewards and the missions are too samey to be very pleasurable.

Unlike Nintendo, SEGA have merely rehashed a collection of loved characters into a poor Virtua Tennis game.

The game is not very difficult, and as soon as players grasp the standard controls they should have no problem progressing through the game. Lost in Blue 3 does not deviate much from experience of the first two games. The game still provides a relatively fun experience, but nothing we haven’t seen before.

George of the Jungle may be aimed at young children, and their requirements may be different from that of a videogame reviewer, but this is just nothing more than sloppy.

Still too deep and complex for a casual audience, but not deep enough to satisfy the other end of the spectrum, which is atypical of a Square-Enix title or any game with the name Final Fantasy in it.

Crackpot Entertainment has created a decent action/detective game with some sharp graphics and a charming story. Sadly, Insecticide is not much fun to play with such wonky controls and buggy camera mechanics, and it may seem to drag at a snail's pace in some spots.

Fast, Fun, Cheesy, and over too soon. The House of the Dead 2 and 3 Return is a great throwback to classic arcade shooting. A great rental for light gun enthusiasts.

Take into account the deep customization, barrage of unlockables and game modes, online components, and the polish and balance of it all, and Brawl is quite a force to be reckoned with, expanding those hours of value into months, if not years of good times.

A stunning little game which deserves a US release and fast. The developers have set the precedent on developing ports for the DS.

What Bully doesn't do perfectly it makes up for by doing so much all at once and connecting it all cohesively into an entertaining world that rewards players for almost everything they decide to take the time to do.

Shiren the Wanderer is the most brutal of the above games in every sense, with severe punishments for slight miscalculations.

SEGA Bass Fishing is a game that needs no introduction, as most people (gamers, at least) will probably have heard about this game series at some point in their life. The Wii iteration of the title is a good throwback to the 90s, but is ultimately a little tired and needs a revamp.

Brain Assist is by no means a bad game; however the awful loading times and the lack of polish does not make it stand out from any other game in a highly competitive market.

With nice presentation values and a generally easy challenge, it isn’t hard to overlook the game's flaws. However the poor design choices and questionable accuracy on the IR aiming really keep this game from coming close to legacy of the main series.

With hilariously well-written dialog, brilliant court cases, DS-specific features, pulse-pounding drama, catchy and moody music, and four cases, you will not want to miss this game.

A very amazing piece of art merged with very unique, engrossing gameplay. Truly a unique experience that almost any gamer should give at least one go at. Other than very minor issues, this is easily one of the most well designed and enjoyable games ever made.

Sadly, the game only has five short “chapters”, making it easily play-able in less then an afternoon sitting. The only replay value is in trying to master each case on hard mode. So unless you’re planning on becoming a vet, or you want an interactive book to teach you more about animal medicine, I’d steer clear of this one.

Bomberman Land Wii has a lot of tasks to accomplish despite its perceived image as merely a minigame collection. While this is the meat of the game, all of its customization, unlockable content, challenges, and the added classic mode help to bolster its value, especially when considering that it has a default price of only thirty dollars.

Few DS titles on the shelves right now can compare to the addictive (and often nostalgic) delights found in BLT2. The playability stands as an example of how DS touch games should be made.

The lack of any real multiplayer mode online is the biggest let down of Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games on the DS as it removes the biggest element of the game - the very fact that it’s a party game.

The characters are engaging, fun, quirky, messed up, and easy to either fall in love with or hate. Santa Destroy itself is full of so many nooks and crannies that any player anal about that kind of thing will easily be able to spend several hours searching for hidden back alleys for dumpsters and lovikov balls. The game is fun, easy to grasp, has a lot of replay value (trust me), and tells an engaging story.

Mega Brain Boost is a game that does precisely what it intends to do, but little else. If you are a gamer who finds these kinds of games worthwhile, then the game can feature somewhat decent gameplay, but any other gamer should not bother themselves with it.

A great value with a surprising amount of modes and depth. While there is no overriding goal to the game, you still will have plenty of things to do and tours to give during your stay in the ocean.

The moment Samurai Warriors: Katana is loaded into the Nintendo Wii, it’s clear that this game is going to be attacking all of your senses with a very stylized and stereotypical look of feudal Japan. Playing as a nameless up-and-coming warrior in the mindless battles between different factions of the Japanese aristocracy is enjoyable, even with all of the annoyances that exist in the game.

Sub-par gameplay with almost unbearable controls. Boring, uninspired content, from missions, to visuals, to the audio work. Not even hardcore fans of the show should spend more money than a rental on this sucker.

Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law for the Wii is simply an interactive series of brand new episodes. Nothing has changed in the slightest, and that's a damn good thing.

Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity has some good ideas, but it all ultimately falls flat in its execution. The controls are stiff and unresponsive, the track concepts are great, but lack quality design, and the context-sensitive shortcuts feel like a waste of time that do nothing but over complicate things, littering the tracks with garbage.

Sonic Team should really just ditch Sonic games. They are onto something much better with NiGHTS and with a little more polish and tightening up, this series could become something truly magnificent.

There are plenty of great ideas to be found, though not a whole lot of polish or execution.

Each character's story, however, is extremely short, lasting at about two-hours for an average player.

The best Dragon Ball Z game to date, and though it can be a lot of fun, it feels more like Tenkaichi 2.5 than Tenkaichi 3.

A solid on-rails shooter, although somewhat archaic, it’s still very enjoyable. Mindlessly shooting terrorists without having to think it always a great option, with the only flaw being the price.

Interesting motion controls can not save this action title from its poor graphics and presentation to its even worse gameplay. A total disappointment from a development team that is capable of so much more.

Revenant Wings is fairly challenging, especially in the last three chapters, as well as all the last optional quests to unlock the hidden Scions (Rank III Espers) and one that powers up a weapon each time you complete it (though it consists of 10 missions). Brute forcing will work to an extent, but selecting appropriate Espers and learning to pick off enemy units slowly and one at a time are crucial to success later on.

A wonderfully refreshing chunk of stylized retro goodness stuffed into a forty dollar box.

New Blood is the furthest thing from what you’d call “casual”, but it’s so far from it that it also will turn away many hardcore gamers because of its unrelenting difficulty.

Don't even bother with the Wii Zapper, it's a gimmick. Link's Crossbow Training is an average shooter which provides short bursts of enjoyment, but overall is a fairly basic game with a few highlights.

A tough light gun shooter that offers a good length. Weird glitches and detection problems, as well as heavily recycled assets hold this game back from becoming a triple A title in the Resident Evil caliber.

Contra 4's main Arcade mode is a remixed classic and a treat in its own right, but what really makes Contra 4 stand out is how it pays tribute to its fans by using the slick gameplay of the main game to craft an excellent Challenge Mode and consequently reward players with two classic NES titles and a bunch of nostalgic extra features to boot.

Although dungeon crawlers can be irksome, the save function is a saving grace with Orcs & Elves as it makes playing the game much more fun.

A solid, if unspectacular, campaign mode is coupled with an exceptional online to create one of the better 3rd party games on the Wii.

Near flawless package. Gameplay, visuals, sound, presentation and overall value and fun are off the charts.

Its presentation and decent execution put it beyond mediocrity, but its fumbling inconsistency, repetition, and lack of defined flair fail to truly set it apart from others of its kind.

In a platform where there are hundreds of puzzle games, Neves manages to stand out with a spot on price and is just enjoyable and addictive.

The aesthetics of the game are charming, although bland. The graphics are nothing special and the music is calm and forgettable. Tons of words and a decent handful of mini-games (multiplayer versions included) might suffice for a casual quick-play and you might actually learn something.

The story will captivate you to till the end and the gameplay, while repetitive in nature, has enough to charm any fan of stealth games.

Wii controls do nothing to improve the game, but it's still classic Battalion Wars gameplay. A bit more depth in the strategy department, but overall the game is a bit easier and shorter than the original.

Veterans, this game is everything you could hope for an more. While Battle was a bust, what is still tried and true to the series is still amazing.

Dementium is definitely easy to interact with, and it flows quite nicely.

Its unique if sometimes Japanese-infused presentation sports a snappy visual design and an excellent musical score, but the real hook is the superb puzzle design.

Excellent gameplay, challenge and visuals. Voice work and story are the only low marks.

The story is phenomenal, the music is some of the best, and it leaves Phoenix Wright and friends off on a spectacular note.

A lackluster presentation does nothing to help make the minigames available worth playing -- in and of themselves, the minigames are adequate, with a few near-broken ones tossed in, but there's simply no life or feeling contained therein.

Most people aren’t going to spend an entire day sitting their playing the game, but the laid back and comforting idea behind the game is brilliant for just sitting back and relaxing for an hour or so after a long day.