The Good: Three game types; ancient greece is a great setting for a game based on literacy; based on a classic game.   The Bad: Game types not original enough; too conventional; laggy control.  

The Good: Story is well written and can easily consume 20 hours; no shortage of rescue missions to attempt; interesting connectivity options between the two versions.   The Bad: Simplistic dungeon hack with Pokémon characters slapped on; dungeons recycle the same background tiles and enemies; random dungeon layouts don't always turn out sensibly; nothing to do in the overworld except shop and save.  

We spend some quality time fighting the forces of evil in Konami's upcoming DS masterpiece.

The Good: Lengthy single-player game; responsive car handling, great selection of licensed cars; interesting wingman mechanics; great licensed soundtrack; solid online component.   The Bad: Frame rate a little choppy; wingmen sometimes hurt more than they help; certain events can be frustrating.

Ubisoft's giant-ape adventure game is finally in the can, and we plowed through the first two hours of the Xbox 360 version right from the title screen.

The Good: Dozens of selectable fighters spanning the Mortal Kombat series' entire history; konquest mode is a much better action adventure game than last time.   The Bad: Gameplay hasn't evolved much and feels stiff and clunky at this point; new custom fatality system is a disappointing replacement to the classics; presentation recycles a lot of graphics and sound from years-old games.