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Only in "Tropico 3" is it possible to hear that your biggest fan has shaved your name on the side of his llama or that your people are so unhappy they are joining the rebel cause against you and preparing an assault on your palace.

NEW YORK -- You might call him the Mickey Mouse of video games. He’s reminiscent of a doughnut, round and sweet and comforting. He’s also a vessel, devoid of a real personality so you can live vicariously through him. Mario, the pot-bellied Italian plumber with a penchant for rescuing princesses, collecting golden coins and gobbling magic mushrooms, has been around for nearly three decades.

"The Warriors: Street Brawl" is based on a 30-year-old movie about members of a street gang who -- finding themselves trapped deep in rival gang territory -- must fight their way back to their own turf.

Alright, look at this list: open-world games, heavy metal, real-time strategy, Jack Black, and games that put more of an emphasis on story than gameplay. If you hate more than two of those, you probably won’t care for “Brutal Legend.”

When a new game comes out in an underserved niche – like, say, fighting games for the DS – it’s tempting to overlook their flaws. So I’m going to cut “Naruto Shippuden: Ninja Destiny 2” some slack, and just say nice things about it.

The latest spin-off casual adventure game in the “Nancy Drew Dossier” franchise found its way onto my desk, “Resorting to Danger!” I wasn’t sure what to make of the game at first but was surprised that it boasts a fair amount of adventure fun. You play as Nancy Drew, of course, who is asked to help investigate construction accidents at a fancy and secluded spa.

It really seems like the transition from comics to video games should be easy. Both forms of media rely heavily on distinctive visuals and unique characters, and the action that normally plays a large role in superhero comics should translate well into familiar game mechanics.

Though the Hardy Boys have been around for more than 80 years, their gaming history is brief and, so far, unimpressive. Now the development studio responsible for the popular videogame incarnation of Nancy Drew, Her Interactive, is looking to change that with their latest game, “The Hardy Boys: Treasure on the Tracks.” The end result takes a few steps in the right direction, but ultimately lacks the polish necessary for a good adventure game.

Ratchet and Clank, the lombax/robot duo now starring in their ninth video game, may not be as famous as some other lovable mascots, like Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog. They haven't gotten their own Saturday morning cartoon show, cereals or plush toys. And they haven't been spun off into sports games, kart racers or pinball games.

Like most drivers, I don't think much about how my car gets me from point A to point B. The idea of fiddling with my Nissan Sentra's engine, brakes or suspension is as appealing as being stuck in traffic. About the only thing I can do to my car is fill it with gas.

"Spyborgs” is a 3-D beat’em up, with a story that lives up to the Saturday-morning-cartoon silliness of the title. Someone has been kidnapping the eponymous cybernetically enhanced heroes, and it’s up to you to put a stop to the disappearances in the traditional way -- beating up a countless horde of evil robots.

Moments into playing "Majesty 2," a delicious smile crosses my face. "I'm melting," the wizard croaks out with his last breath. No, I’m not sadistic. Most sequels end up ruining what made the original game so darn enjoyable. "Majesty 2," however, includes all of the sarcasm and wit of its predecessor with a little extra pizzazz.

When a mysterious plague begins to spread amongst the peaceful Toads, Mario and Luigi are called upon to stop it. When the person spreading the plague tricks Bowser into swallowing the Mario brothers whole, things get a bit more complicated. The brothers find themselves manipulating – and sometimes aiding – Bowser from the inside.

Previous “Resident Evil” games focused on scaring the player. They used dark rooms and classic scare tactics to keep the player on his toes. With “Resident Evil 5,” the scare and fear tactics are removed and there is more action-packed zombie gallery shooting. The controls for the game, however, are not very compatible with its ‘action-packed’ theme.

Like most video gamers, I've wielded enough virtual weapons to equip a small army. We all have favorites, from the classic BFG-9000 in "Doom" to the chainsaw-equipped assault rifle in "Gears of War" to the awesome RYNO ("Rip You a New One") in "Ratchet & Clank."

At first, it’s hard not to love “Champions Online.” You start with the incredible customization offered by the character creation system – it’s almost complex enough to be a game by itself – and then move right on to stopping a good, old-fashioned alien invasion. The combat is more dynamic than in most massively multiplayer online games (MMOs), and as you level up, you find that the power customization is almost as flexible as the character design.

The “Halo” series has always been more about polish and presentation than producing anything new or groundbreaking, and “Halo 3: ODST” lives up to that legacy. There isn’t much here that we haven’t seen before, but it’s all so carefully crafted that it might still be worth playing-- provided, of course, that you aren’t already sick to death of the standard first-person shooter.

A premiere NBA Finals matchup features basketball's two best teams going at each other shot-for-shot, rebound-for-rebound in an all-out quest for dominance.

Now in its fifth year, the “Guitar Hero” franchise has now released “Guitar Hero 5.” With more gameplay options and better visuals, it seems the genre has yet to slow down. While the game offers a very broad spectrum of song choices, ranging from Bob Dylan to Johnny Cash to 3 Doors Down, I was a little disappointed with the overall song selection.

"Scribblenauts” is quite possibly the best terrible game I’ve ever played. The wonderful central concept -- you have a magic notepad, capable of summoning anything you write down -- is brilliantly executed. Almost every other detail, however, is off in some way.

“Fate/Unlimited Codes” has a strange name and an even stranger storyline, but its gameplay will be familiar to anyone who has ever played a 3-D fighter. Fortunately, it features enough refinements and additions to the genre to be more than just another “Soulcalibur” clone.

It took a long time and a lot of work to get here, but the wait was worth it. “The Beatles: Rock Band” doesn’t change much about the established “Rock Band” gameplay, but it does add the sound and charm of a certain English rock group, as well as raising the bar in terms of style and presentation.

Someone at Bethesda Software did the right math. Draft-age males play games, so a slashing, pirouetting assassin with a body rivaling that of Angelina Jolie seems like the winning combo for the new title "WET." But not everything in a successful game can be so easily contrived.

One of the best parts about “Batman: Arkham Asylum” is discovering all of its little nuances. “Arkham Asylum” combines a great Batman story with very good gameplay mechanics, and despite a few missteps, the result is an amazing game that kept me totally engaged from start to finish (and a bit further).

“Marvel vs. Capcom 2” combines 50 years of Marvel comics, 20 years of Capcom games and a unique combat system to make one of the best fighting games in Capcom’s already stellar history. It’s been almost 10 years since its original release on the Dreamcast, but the gameplay and characters have both aged well, and the addition of online play makes this the definitive version.

When a bunch of occult-obsessed Nazis set out to raise an army of supernatural super-soldiers, there’s only one man to call -- B.J. Blascowicz. Blascowicz, a one-man army and possessor of the single-greatest made-up Polish surname of all time, is forced to save the Allied cause yet again.

“Shadow Complex” is a 2D platformer with an emphasis on exploration and the accumulation of weapons and abilities. As reluctant hero Jason Fleming, you have to take on a well-armed, technologically-advanced, home-grown terrorist organization in an attempt to rescue a girl you just met.

My army stands in patient rows behind me as the last rays of the setting sun reflect off their polished helmets. In moments, we will face the feared Red Turnip Warrior, the guardian of the land that borders our kingdom. Fresh off our victory against the ruler of the Party Kingdom and his alcohol-fueled magic, we are feeling quiet invincible.

John Madden retired from coaching 30 years ago. He called it quits as a broadcaster earlier this season. If it weren't for his name still gracing the box of “Madden NFL 10,” you'd swear he was out of the video game business, too.

Following in the wake of many summer blockbuster films, movie tie-in video games tend to lurk. While the first “Transformers: The Game” wasn’t all that bad, the sequel “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” is just too clunky for its own good.

"Dawn of Discovery" is an interesting, fairly deep world-building game that is set in the early 1400s. While a lot of strategy games focus on war, "Dawn of Discovery" is more about exploring and building settlements.

For better or worse, “Wii Sports” changed the face of gaming. It showcased the potential and the purpose of the Wii in a way that no other game could have. It established a game template of quick, focused mini-games that is the basis for most successful Wii titles, and -- almost as an afterthought -- it was fun.

Last year’s Summer of Arcade promotion was nothing short of amazing. Five weeks of high profile Xbox Live Arcade game releases, and every one of the games was a fun title in its own right. Three weeks into this year’s Summer of Arcade -- well, it’s not looking quite as good.

“G.I. JOE: The Rise of Cobra” picks up where its cinematic counterpart ends, following everyone’s favorite covert military organization as they try to track down the sinister forces of Cobra.

Using graphics, sounds, and story from “Doom 3,” “Doom Resurrection” offers players yet another chance to take on the role of a lone space Marine on Mars. Fortunately, what could have been a fairly generic entry in the series is rescued by a close attention to the advantages and limitations of the iPhone as a gaming platform.

School may be about to start for many, but summer is in full swing, and that means two things. First, we’ve got a big lineup of new games. Second, we’re having oppressive summer heat, giving you the perfect excuse to spend a little more time indoors.

July is a good month. It features relative peace and quiet, the Major League Baseball All-Star Game and the annual release of the new EA Sports “NCAA Football” game. “NCAA Football 10” has a few new features that really seem more like tweaks to last year's version. Here's a rundown of the vitals:

"Prototype” is an anti-hero open-world game in which you play Alex Mercer, a man infected by a gene-altering virus on the island of Manhattan. Uncertain of his past, Alex sets out to exact revenge on those responsible for his mutations.

“Overlord II,” like its predecessor, is a very odd game. You step into the heavy iron boots of the Overlord, controlling a small army of goblin-like minions as you seek vengeance and power in a grotesque parody of the standard sword-and-sorcery fantasy world.

“Guitar Hero: Smash Hits” brings back 48 master recordings from previous “Guitar Hero” games, but with the added ability to play all of them in full band mode. While the die hard fans of the franchise might view this as money wasted on purchasing the same songs twice, those gamers who are new to the franchise will love this game.

The premise has been done before: Mysterious evil threatens peaceful kingdom, a handful of heroes are the land’s only hope, and so forth and so on. “Trine” is a 2-D platformer that won’t win any acclaim for the originality of its plot, but the sheer creative depth of its basic gameplay makes up for the failings of the story.

In his sixth year at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry Potter has surprisingly little to do. Well, there’s the small matter of preparing for a massive showdown between the forces of good and the armies of evil, but really, who has time for that when there are potions to be made and practice Quidditch matches to be played?

“Ghostbusters: The Video Game,” despite arriving 25 years after the release of the original film, takes place in 1991, two years after “Ghostbusters II.” You play as a newcomer to the squad, recruited to test new equipment. When a massive explosion of paranormal energy rocks and distorts the city, though, your first day turns into a long one.

“Delta Force: Xtreme 2” may be considered a new game, but many of the features look and feel like something from the previous decade. That isn’t to say that the game is all bad, but it certainly felt like I was playing a game from the late 1990s.

The alien invasion has begun, and Washington is its epicenter. One guy, Secret Service agent Michael Ford, is apparently the only earthling who can save the planet. At the behest of a shadowy organization called The Trust, Ford is given this directive: If it moves, shoot it.

The story of “Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings” isn’t a total failure, but it might as well be. For the most part, the story is simply absent, with a few hurried words like, “We need to find the Jade Sphere,” being the only access you have to Indy’s motive in any scene. What is present is mostly a retread of “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” centering as it does on the archaeologist’s efforts to find a mystical Old Testament artifact before it falls into the hands of his Nazi-employed colleague.

The year is 2125, and Mars just can’t catch a break. Just 50 years after breaking free from the cruel grasp of the Ultor Corporation, the colonists of Mars now find themselves virtually enslaved by their former allies, the Earth Defense Force. As a fresh-off-the-shuttle immigrant from Earth named Alec Mason, you quickly find yourself caught up in the underground rebellion known as the Red Faction.

“LEGO Battles” breaks with many traditions of the recent LEGO games. Instead of being a 3-D platformer, it’s a 2-D real-time strategy game. Instead of using licensed properties like Star Wars and Batman, the storylines follow characters from various distinctive LEGO sets.

Here is another movie-to-game release that seems to forget that even though the game may be suitable for younger gamers, you still need to have some form of gameplay to keep it entertaining.

After Empire City is rocked by huge explosion, bike courier Cole McGrath awakens at ground zero, mysteriously unscathed and newly imbued with the ability to control electricity. Using these new powers, you must guide Cole through the large, open world of Empire City, fighting off roving gangs, figuring out what happened to you and deciding whether to act for the good of all or for the good of you and your friends.

The latest “Bionic Commando” is a sequel to a 21-year-old Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) game. As in the first “Bionic Commando,” you control Nathan Spencer and his huge, grappling-hook-equipped robotic arm. As the sole government operative in the besieged Ascension City, you have to shoot, slam and crush enemy after enemy as you attempt to wrest control of the city from a mysterious terrorist organization.

“Desktop Tower Defense” for the DS is a simple game, based on an identically titled, freely available Flash game. Wave after wave of little blobs try to cross your desktop. You build and upgrade towers of various types that fire on them as they move across in attempt to rid the board of them before any make it to the other side.

“Sacred 2” is actually a prequel, taking place thousands of years earlier than the first game in the series. Choosing one of six distinct characters, you set forth across the land of Ancaria in a quest to determine the precise nature of a slimy blue substance called “T-energy” that has become a source of both power and woe for the land’s inhabitants.

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