DeVuego

Scrapland has virtually everything that you could wish for in a game although a little more gameplay variety would be welcome. It's loaded with humor, action, great graphics, interesting characters and a kicking soundtrack.

NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits is old-school at heart, but completely innovative and fresh when it comes to gameplay. It's an excellent adventure that defines the gold standard for WiiWare. You'll make fun use of the unique functionality of the controllers, with minimal waggle - though the gesturing still makes great sense within the context of the gameplay. When you put this game up against most of what's currently available on the platform, it becomes clear that NyxQuest is a must-own title. It's a challenging adventure - make no mistake - but its rewards are godly.

It's a pretty short experience, one that took me maybe five hours (if you don't die at all, you could easily finish in under two hours), but there are hidden knicknacks that make exploration worth your while. These come in the form of pages that have been torn out of Randall's diary (once collected, these pages will be crudely taped back into the book) as well as various other collectible "memories" that Randall keeps in a scrapbook. You can even loot I.D.s off dead bodies, giving names to many of the corpses you'll find lying about. And some of these names are kind of disturbing; I particularly remember finding a Gacy and a Bundy in the mix. (In case those names don't ring a bell, they were famous serial killers.) Lastly, each of the game's three acts has a handheld video game hidden in it, and you can actually play these games once you discover them. (You'll earn achievements for beating the high scores even though those scores are extremely low.)

Invizimals hints at better things to come, but you may as well get in on the ground floor and start rounding up these creatures before they overrun your household.

Now that we've established the bottom-line, it's time for our usual nitpicking. In terms of gameplay, while we love the idea of bullet-curving in general, it made the game way too easy (even easier than normal) in open areas. When there's no ceiling to worry about, you can simply lock on to a target, hold up on the joystick, and shoot an arc to an almost-guaranteed headshot. Each curved bullet costs you one unit of "Adrenaline," but you earn back one unit every time you kill someone, so you can do this indefinitely.

The Dream of the Turtle has the basic point-and-click formula down to a science. It does have a style all its own and it's different enough to make it an interesting alternative for those looking for something different.

Visually, Strike Force is not a looker. Even the cutscenes display some stiff animation with emotionless faces. The music is good and the sound effects are very realistic. It's a pleasant experience to bask in the screams of the dying enemy. Overall, the production is somewhat dated. There is an online multi-player mode but it's just your standard frag fest and not really much of an incentive. You will extract the majority of your enjoyment from the single-player mode. 

Monster Band certainly has its limitations, both as a musical toy and as a rhythm game. Unsuspecting buyers might pick it up expecting one thing only to realize they've been given something completely different when they get home and actually try it out. Older players may very well find the game's kiddie vibe irritating, but the gameplay is solid regardless. This is a good pick for the younger gamers or casual players in your life. Beware, you just might find yourself enjoying it too.

In the end, Animal Boxing's main success is that it pioneers a boxing system fit for a better game. Like the Super Smash Bros. series' special-move system, it has essentially no learning curve, so it's something we'd like to see again. Animal Boxing itself is, unfortunately, plagued by balance and difficulty problems too severe to forgive.

Elite Forces: Unit 77 mainly suffers from its generic presentation and lack of innovation. There's very little about this game that makes it stands out from other more interesting handheld action games. The gameplay itself is moderately entertaining if you can keep your squad mates from dying. It just doesn't have that spark that keeps you coming back for more.

I was admittedly excited for the game. WiiWare feels like the perfect platform for good, old-fashioned, arcade fun; throw in some zombies and sexy anime chicks, and you've got gravy on the side. But at the higher end of the pricing spectrum for downloadable games, Zombie Panic simply doesn't offer a big enough bite of gameplay. The shooting can be fun for a few minutes, especially with a friend, but it quickly loses its luster. The game's pretty to look at - and who wouldn't want to see Snow White in garter belts and stockings - but when you tally up its component parts, the value just isn't quite there.

Jericho doesn't really bring anything new to the gaming world. It does blend the gory horrific mind of Clive Barker and a shooter game. Just in time for Halloween, this will be a game to remember and help fill your night with the required amounts of gore On the other hand, if you are looking for a horror game with a deep gameplay experience, this is probably not the next must buy game.

So, while Planet 51 isn't nearly as bad as E.T. for the Atari 2600 was, it still has many issues that'll keep it from being a fan favorite. Whether it's the floaty and complicated vehicle handling, the confused radar, the repetitive nature of the missions, or the random and surprising difficulty spikes, Planet 51 gives players (especially younger ones) a multitude of good reasons to stay away. This is unfortunate considering that at least the game wasn't just another movie-based action platformer, but in the end the bad manages to outweigh the good.

All of this sucks the fun out of a potentially quirky and charming platformer. Alien Spidy is so close to being an enjoyable, active puzzle experience, but it lacks the fluidity, both in gameplay and in progression, that would allow it to be a truly memorable and engaging experience.

The AI follows a scripted battle plan that remains virtually unchanged regardless of what strategies you implement against them. To that end the game doesn't have much of a real-time feel.

But despite these small improvements, it’s just so hard to keep playing Lords of Shadow 2. Lords of Shadow 1 suffered from feeling like a God of War clone with poor platforming. Lords of Shadow 2, on the other hand, no longer feels like a clone. It just feels like a generic action game. It has a story you don’t care about, a mashy combat system, and generic enemies and locales. The only good thing about this game is its voice acting, but even Robert Carlyle can’t save this one.

Gives the white trash population what they want: more crap. This game is just bad.