Team Ninja

Staying Alive

HIGH Landing a well timed Power Blow that destroys the opponent—not to mention everyone and everything around them.

LOW Inconsistent netcode often leads to irritating online matches.

WTF Virtua Fighter characters made it into the series before Rachel and Momiji did? Seriously?

Taking a Stab at a New Audience

HIGH Swooping down onto an enemy battleship before destroying the entire fleet.

LOW The versus multiplayer is intolerably bad.

WTF "Hello Canna, I'm Ryu. It means 'Dragon.' Now, shake this scabby corrupted hand of mine. I said shake it!"

Wanted: Dead, not Alive

HIGH The responsive combat controls.

LOW The haphazard and awful excuse for a story mode.

WTF The sheer number of women getting backhanded.

Subtraction by Addition

HIGH When the game starts inverting and magnifying gravity.

LOW The cut-scene preceding a major boss encounter that depicts Samus as a sobbing child.

WTF Could you have maybe let me use the Varia suit before I spent all that time dying from heat?

Game Description: Metroid: Other M is a single player shooter for Wii that takes the beloved Metroid franchise into uncharted and exciting new territory. Set between the events of Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion, the game features unprecedented access to the backstory, thoughts and in-game interactions of the usually closed off heroine of the series, Samus Aran. Developed jointly by Nintendo and the celebrated Japanese development studio, Team Ninja, the game also features exciting play options, including the ability to switch between first-person and third-person perspectives, pointer and sideways Wii Remote controller orientation, stunning in-game cinematics and a classic blend of Metroid action and puzzle-solving gameplay.

Paradise? That's a Pretty Wild Exaggeration...

HIGH The volleyball's not horrible.

LOW Everything else.

WTF All this emphasis on skin, and you can't zoom in any further?

Game Description: Featuring the sexy female characters from the Dead or Alive series, your two-week Vacation Mode starts at the getaway resort, New Zack Island. Select a favorite from nine playable characters and you are free to mingle, flirt, play, take snapshots and challenge them in mini-games found throughout the island. Store the snaps in your one-of-a-kind private album along with teasing "venus clips" for viewing and editing or share an intimate experience with your girls by buying gifts and having them model your favorite bathing suits. You are in full control to create your own private paradise, in the palm of your hand. It's all on-the-go. Take your girls anywhere, and play with them anytime.

Intruder is a Class A ninja!

HIGH Pulling off the dual-sword finishing combo that turns your opponent into the second-best thing since sliced bread.

LOW Stupid, pointless fetch-quests.

WTF Big-boobed sidekick gets her own helicopter and a bazooka, while I get little throwing stars and arrows.