IGN

• PS3
• X360
• 8.3 / 10
• États-Unis

Skate 2 is technically an improvement over the first title, and anyone who hadn't yet played the original should skip it and go right to the second. It's a really fun game that allows you to play it the way you want with a control scheme that is second-to-none at the moment. However, it's far from perfect. The story presentation has issues, the on-foot controls suck and it can feel a little too similar to the first game on the whole. Again though, for all its issues, Skate 2 is still a hell of a lot of fun and anyone into skateboarding titles should look no further for the best thing on the market right now.

• WII
• 6.8 / 10
• États-Unis

• X360
• 8 / 10
• États-Unis

• WII
• 8.5 / 10
• États-Unis

It's easy to see why M.U.S.H.A. is still so highly regarded after almost two decades, as its visuals, gameplay and overall style must have felt well ahead of their time for players who got the chance to experience it first in 1990. Wii owners today, particularly shooter fans, would do well to give it a look here in 2009 for its 800 Wii Point asking price -- a price that's especially reasonable, as in addition to all the accolades listed above, M.U.S.H.A. is an incredibly rare and expensive game to try to track down and own in its original Genesis cartridge form. Virtual Console fans may continue to bemoan the lessened amount of new classic game releases each Monday on the download service, but if the all-by-themselves games selected continue to be as compelling as M.U.S.H.A., Nintendo can just keep them coming one at a time.

• WII
• 4 / 10
• États-Unis

The better mini-games still can't save the overall Family Glide Hockey package: even for the cheap and impulse five bucks price tag I wouldn't recommend the download.

• PS2
• 3.5 / 10
• États-Unis

PBR: Out of the Chute is the kind of game that only hardcore rodeo fans could get into, and even they would likely be bored with the gameplay within an hour or so of picking up their controllers. The game looks mediocre, even by PS2 standards, its audio component doesn’t add much at all, and, its gameplay is simple and unimaginative. Honestly, I don’t think this game has one redeeming quality.

• WII
• 3.4 / 10
• États-Unis

PBR: Out of the Chute is the kind of game that only hardcore rodeo fans could get into, and even they would likely be bored with the gameplay within an hour or so of picking up their controller. The game looks mediocre, even by Wii standards, its audio component doesn’t add much at all, and, its gameplay is simple and unimaginative. Honestly, I don’t think this game has one redeeming quality.

• WII
• 6 / 10
• États-Unis

High Voltage Hot Rod Show isn’t a bad game, but it is a victim of the smaller WiiWare design philosophy. Games on download services can be low extra content as long as the polish is there, but in the case of Hot Rod Show the initial game design is decent, but the overall control, camera, and balance isn’t quite there. Each of the game’s five cars drive identical in order to encourage balance, but in reality players will often pick their favorite out of the bunch right away, and have no reason to switch around (during load screens the game suggests the opposite, but I wasn’t personally driven to do it). If the police car, for example, was extremely fast and not too strong, I would have tried him out, switched to a few others, and found a personal favorite. Instead it feels like five different models with identical gameplay, and an even thinner overall offering. The sense of speed is only half-there, as is the general control. We dig the concept of a cheap, simple arcade racer on WiiWare for a budget price, but this is a little too simple, and a little too quick out the door. Gameplay needs to be priority #1 on WiiWare, and Hot Rod Show just isn’t there yet.

• WII
• 2.5 / 10
• États-Unis

Seriously, there's no reason to play this game. The controls are a pain, the graphics are bad, there's next to no sound, and the objectives are dumb.

• PSP
• 8 / 10
• États-Unis

Star Ocean: Second Evolution is clearly a better game than First Departure, despite suffering from some of the same issues. If you don't mind playing an older game with a more simplistic battle system, Second Evolution will definitely reward you with a diverse cast of characters and a classic story that mixes fantasy and science fiction together in a charming way. This member of the Star Ocean series also boasts a hefty amount of replay value and one of the biggest plot twists I can remember. Even though it's not perfect, I recommend Second Evolution, especially if you never had the pleasure of playing its PSone counterpart.

• PC
• 8.5 / 10
• États-Unis

There's a distinctive flow and rhythm to DICE's Mirror's Edge, letting you bound across obstacle courses with seemingly inhuman strength and agility. Though the disarm system isn't as immediately accessible as the platform-hopping mechanics, with some practice you'll eventually find you can slide, dash and smash for long, continuous stretches, a thrill reminiscent of Sonic the Hedgehog's early days. While its elegant controls, visuals and audio weave a dreamlike tapestry that its animated cut-scenes do their best to eat away at, the whole is an experience you'd be remiss to let fly by if you missed it on consoles.

• DS
• 6 / 10
• États-Unis

In a time of economic crisis, you can't help but feel sorry for the monster truck drivers everywhere who depend on obscene amounts of fuel to entertain drunken crowds. It's a tough time for us all, but if you need a cheap alternative to the real thing, Monster Jam Urban Assault DS will help with the shakes. While Urban Assault has variety, its main attraction (doing tricks for points) is more up to chance than anything. You can direct the truck to do a back flip by pressing down on the D-pad, but the most rotations are added when you smash into the ground, which is a completely random event in itself.

• WII
• 3 / 10
• États-Unis

Planet Pachinko may be a unique concept for an action game on Wii, but it’s far from one that’s worth your cash. The overall experience, despite being uniquely funny in its introduction, and obviously oddball in design, is just far too sloppy, and it’s obvious at every turn that this game was created by a team that’s still getting the feel for exactly what’s needed in a good little arcade-inspired action game. The interface is inconsistent, the visuals are at times a mess, the audio is unbalanced, and the gameplay suffers from a lack of strategy and an overwhelming amount of chaos on the screen. Even the game’s main controls are flawed, having the two shoot buttons, character movement, and jumping assigned to the main buttons on the Wii-mote and nunchuk (Z, C, B, and A), but leaving the game’s melee attack down at the 1 button, completely out of the way. While left and right on the d-pad are used for weapon select (which is needed), down on the d-pad, often used by games like Metroid Prime 3 and a few key others as an impromptu button, is mirrored to the analog stick’s down as an additional “duck” button; completely unneeded. It may sound nitpicky, but that one example sums up Planet Pachinko fairly well. The game has the best intentions in mind, but fails to execute every step of the way.

• WII
• 5.8 / 10
• États-Unis

Fun! Fun! Minigolf has the foundation of a solid miniature golf game with good control and some decent course designs, but the game's balance is completely off and the experience just doesn't last very long at all. It's not the worst 900 points you can spend on the WiiWare channel, but it certainly is a letdown.

• DS
• 6.5 / 10
• États-Unis

Bella Sara is not the best horse game on the DS. It is the best Bella Sara product I've seen though. If you know somebody (yourself perhaps?) that is a big Bella Sara fan then they'll probably adore this game because it includes magical horses that they can pet, feed, and ride. Even just a horse enthusiast is likely to be entranced for a while. Once the magic of the three different things to do wears off, these imaginary horses will probably disappear.

• WII
• 9 / 10
• États-Unis

Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse is an excellent game, and one of the best adventures the 8-bit NES had to offer now nearly two decades ago. Its age will be made apparent to modern players through its challenge level and the stiffness of its control, which could be frustrating for fans only familiar with the more modern, smoother installments of this same series -- but its innovative inclusion of multiple playable characters and branching paths through levels more than make up for any negative aspects. Its soundtrack, too, is one of the best you'll ever here from an 8-bit title. For only 500 Wii Points, Castlevania III is one of the best options for your money on the Virtual Console. Download it to complete your digital collection of 8-bit Castlevania hits, or just grab it on its own -- its quality stands alone, even without its predecessors.

• PC
• 6 / 10
• États-Unis

Luxor: Quest for the Afterlife goes by the saying, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” This game knows what it wants to do and does it competently; unfortunately, what it does isn’t that special. Luxor certainly isn’t a bad game, its simply hard to justify paying 20 bones for something that’s been done before many times. In the end, Luxor is decent distraction during lunch breaks, but you probably wouldn’t want to play this game for long periods. If you do like these games, however, Luxor: Quest for the Afterlife isn’t a terrible purchase.

• DS
• 7.9 / 10
• États-Unis

I was actually a pretty big fan of the original Elebits on Wii – I absolutely loved the idea of boosting up a gun so powerful that I could toss cars over fences and lift houses over my head. That sort of gameplay's scaled back on the Nintendo DS -- oh, sure, you can use your gun to lift and move boulders to send elebits scattering, but that's pretty much where the similarities between the Wii original and the Nintendo DS sequel end. I think that the console game is a more ambitious design, but the Nintendo DS title – a non-violent, kid-friendly adventure -- is pretty rewarding too.