The PS2 just can't be killed. Even with its successor nearly three years old, the war horse keeps going. And while the PlayStation 2 has a good amount of shovelware clogging its new release section, the Shin Megami Tensei series is keeping it honorable with games expertly tailored for the RPG fanatic in all of us. ...

We tried. We really, really tried to get to grips with the notion of these sorts of games being massively popular in Japan, where this one, Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2, is called Gundam Musou 2 – loads sexier. It’s based on an anime series featuring androgynous pilots fighting each other and accidentally dying/falling in love/wearing sunglasses in space. In theory, it should be the best thing you’ll ever slip into your console ...

You can always count on the Ultimate Ninja series to provide flashy, over-the-top kung-fu craziness with each installment, and Ultimate Ninja 4: Naruto Shippuden certainly delivers the fireworks … for a PS2 game. But even if you’re a Narutophile, you should consider how deep your love for lil’ whiskers goes before investing in this one. ...

If the first Rock Band was the opening leg of a full-blown concert tour, with four players living the rock and roll dream via color-coded buttons and plastic guitars, drums, and microphone, Rock Band 2 is like the final show of that same tour. ...

The great trouble with a lot of SNK games is that due to the exorbitant cost of the Neo Geo consoles and cartridges, pretty much no one got a chance to play them when they first came out. It’s only now, through downloads and retro compilations like this one, that many of us are getting our first taste – and for many titles (such as the uber-bland King of Fighters) it’s just come a little bit too late. ...

Sony’s baseball franchise has been rocking our socks for years now, lighting up our old reliable PS2 season after season. The development team has squeezed just about everything imaginable out of the venerable hardware, and the result has been a steady stream of hardball awesomeness. This go-round, The Show bears a striking resemblance to seasons past – and we’re OK with that. ...

Holy crap, this is the TWELFTH Nobunaga's Ambition, and yet not a whole lot has really changed since the old NES days. Whether that's a good or bad thing depends on how much you fervently love the series. And with a series as focused on a specific audience as this is, you either maniacally tent your fingers at the prospect of another entry, or their brain wanders away at “Nobu-” ...

The virtual college basketball landscape has shifted dramatically in the past year, as 2K Sports has dropped out of the game, leaving EA alone in the NCAA hoops arena. Their March Madness brand has been abandoned, substituted with the blander (if slightly more apt) NCAA Basketball “Insert Partial Year Number Here.” ...

As the epitome of niche, Ar Tonelico 2: Melody of Metafalica will never enjoy mass-market appeal, and it’s kind of a shame. As far as JRPGs go, AT2 does absolutely everything right, with an innovative battle system that never seems to get old, well-developed characters, a complex yet easily-followable story, and even a well-streamlined map system that eliminates the tedium of traveling. Unless you totally hate RPGs, you will enjoy this game ...

In the arcade glory days, 2D fighting games from SNK had many fans in both the US and Japan. In the mid-nineties SNK created The King of Fighters, a “super” fighting game combining characters from some of their numerous hit series. This annually updated fighting franchise’s first five versions (1994-1998) have been archived in King of Fighters: The Orochi Saga. ...