Here's chess, arguably one of the easiest games to learn to play, but the hardest to really get any good at. I always had visions of me sitting down with one of those old guys in Central Park who just play this all day, getting my butt kicked for a few months, only to earn a slow respect that would eventually culminate in my beating Big Blue before a worldwide audience. Then I'd remember that I never really was a child prodigy, so I'd just walk over to Broadway and play some pinball.

The benefit of collections like this for guys like me is the quick trip down memory lane. Quite a few times, I heard myself saying, "Oh yeah, I remember this game." Even my wife, who was all of three-years-old in 1982, could recall playing games like Pitfall. Honestly, who doesn't remember Pitfall? But the fun I had with AA wasn't when playing the titles I remember playing for hours as a kid, but when trying out the new ones or remembering the more obscure ones such as Keystone Kapers and Fishing Derby. Playing through these is like visiting that kid with the most games, only you don't have him yelling at you to stop playing because he's already bored with them all.

If visions of Battle-Bots are dancing in your head, stop them right now. Your little bot will go out on missions, some of them involving combat, but the guts of this game are in designing and debugging the programming for your little bot. I want you to think about this; would you find programming, designing and debugging fun? Think carefully. It's not as glamorous as it sounds.

Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness met with heavy opposition when it was released on the PC and consoles. Apparently, it was quite buggy. Paramount Pictures went so far as to blame the lackluster box office sales of Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life on the poor reception of this game, the release of which coincided with the live action movie. That seems a little harsh, if you ask me. I can't imagine a game would be so bad that it would stop 14- to 25-year-olds from going to see Angelina Jolie in a silver, spandex jump suit.

What happens [in ToySight] is that you see your image on the screen, inside the game. You can see where your hands are and move them accordingly. It's all a bit ghostly, really, like you're some kind of god looking down on and controlling your subjects. This is especially weird in Free Fall, the parachuting game. There, it's almost angelic; here's this little guy plummeting to Earth at terminal velocity, trying to line up with other parachuters and catch some balloons, but there's this oddly transparent, omnipresent figure (you) controlling his every move, guiding him to safety. I'd like to think that the one time I went parachuting, there was a higher power controlling my moves, too...

Mahjong Solitaire is a tile game nearly as popular as solitaire card games themselves, and there are many shareware, commercial, and online versions of both available. With so many to choose from, each game developer adds their own twist to make their version of Mahjong unique. Aki gives an historical and geographical perspective as you complete each level while traveling through Japan. Is this enough to make Aki the Mahjong solitaire game you should own?

Kyle has kind of a liberal attitude to the Force, however, and has no problem teaching you to use Dark Force powers. "They're just tools," he says, or words to that effect. Uh, Kyle, I thought that a Jedi used his power for knowledge and defense, never for attack; that the Dark Side was quicker, easier, and more seductive; that once I started down that path, forever would it dominate my life. Apparently not, because you can Force Choke people all you want, and nobody seems to care.

For many years, there was chaos as the gods vied for power amongst themselves until one God rose above them all and cast them from Heaven into oblivion. After this time, there was order and peace in the world until, one day, the supreme God vanished. Instead of forming a search party, many beings of power decided instead to battle each other to see who would take his place. In Dominions 2: The Ascension Wars you play as one of these pretender gods who must maintain superiority in both battle and faith so you can attain the role of supreme god.

Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb is a good enough game. It has its heart in the right place. There's a lot of puzzle solving, some great fighting, that whip, and Indy's affection for his hat. Yet, the further into the game I got, the more I realized that Indiana Jones himself is completely replaceable here. He could be Lara Croft, for example, or maybe American McGee's Indiana Jones.

The Nostromo n52 is a lot like a good pick-up trick. You either need it for what you do, or you don't. Hard core gamers with a 100% compatible keyboard are going to love this thing, as it will quickly improve your scores. Anyone else looking for an edge will also find it useful, although those happy with the n50 probably won't need to pay for the extra keys.

Games of this genre are the bane of the software reviewers. We have to spend our free time playing a game that becomes more of a chore to complete than a privilege. These games are repetitive, unoriginal, uncreative, and require the endless memorization of thousands of button combinations that must be input lightning-fast at precise moments.

That's right, you can teach a shark tricks. What can it do? Feeding frenzy and breach attack. You'd think with such names that there'd be a bit too much blood involved for your typical zoo crowd, but the people love them nonetheless. See? Discovery Channel has numbed us to the horrors of aquatic violence. And here the Senate is blaming Grand Theft Auto III for the decline and fall of western civilization...