Gamers

After being crushed by his own set, Eddie Riggs awakens to a bizarre world of heavy metal that would be nightmarish for some but not for him. He feels right at home in a dimension of demons, hot rods and monoliths.

Mario and Luigi team up again for their third portable RPG adventure, but this time, archenemy Bowser is along for the ride.

"Dissidia: Final Fantasy," with a cast drawn from Square Enix's long- running RPG series, answers the age-old question: Who would win in a fight between Tidus and Sephiroth? Or Cloud and Kefka?

Pick a noun, any noun. Chances are, barring anything inappropriate, it'll appear in an instant if it's in "Scribblenauts."

"Batman: Arkham Asylum" isn't just a great superhero game – it's a great game, period. It plays largely like a combination of "Metroid Prime" and "Splinter Cell" with an emphasis on stealth and exploration over combat, though there is plenty of fighting.

"Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny" is an impressive PSP release.

The three "Metroid Prime" games have been packaged together, and the first two updated for Wii, in this compilation.

As remastered Beatles box sets arrive in stores this week, so does the first video game based on the legendary rock group's repertoire: "The Beatles: Rock Band." The game is available on its own or in a limited-edition bundle that comes with several Beatles-theme "Rock Band" instruments.

For a game that consistently shows up on best-games-ever lists and fond retrospectives of mid-'90s classics, "Super Metroid" has surprisingly few direct imitators apart from the last decade's "Castlevania" games.

Two princesses addicted to cake are the focus of the cute and comical (yet surprisingly bloody) game "Fat Princess."

One-on-one fighting games such as "Street Fighter IV" have always been the main focus of the genre, but tag teams can be fun, too.

"Dawn of Discovery" fits the Wii's nation-building bill nicely, focusing on the construction of thriving island cities and an economic engine rather than the sprawling nations of "Civilization" games.

Two new games in the "Battlefield" series revisit the familiar territory of World War II but in a fresh way.

The game based on 2007's "Transformers" movie was decent. This year's model is a bit better.

"Fuel" is big. Several smaller open-world games could probably fit within its immense play area, a collection of zones that the back of the box claims cover 14,000 virtual square kilometers.

"The Sims 3" takes some big steps forward for Simkind, allowing players to influence and interact with an entire town of gibberish-speaking Sims to their heart's content.

Alex Mercer has become a monster in "Prototype," and he wants to find out how and why.

A dozen or so older adults at the Folsom Senior Center erupt in cheers and clapping as Elsie Offner, a 91-year-old resident of Folsom, bowls a strike.

"The Legendary Starfy," starring the starfish prince of Pufftop Kingdom, is a mostly underwater adventure with a cute cast, crisp visuals and game play that doesn't feel like a rehash of other side-scrolling mascot adventures.

MYSIMS RACING

"Red Faction" was a decent shooter with an awesome gimmick.

Nintendo's "Punch-Out!!" boxing games date back to the mid-1980s with the original arcade version, but most gamers are probably more familiar with the 1987 home version for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

One minute, Cole MacGrath is on a courier run with a strange package; the next, he's the only survivor of an explosion that's taken out several blocks of Empire City.

The new "Bionic Commando" continues the story begun in the Nintendo Entertainment System game of the 1980s and last year's stellar remake, "Bionic Commando: Rearmed."

"LocoRoco 2" and "Patapon 2" are ideal sequels. Both are instantly playable for anyone who spent time with the original games, and both add a number of new features into the mix without losing what made the games work in the first place.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Attorney General Jerry Brown said Wednesday they are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take a look at a lower court ruling that threw out the state's law banning the sale of violent video games to children.

Two elements nearly always go hand in hand in a "Resident Evil" game: hordes of zombies and limited mobility.