Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes raises the intensity of the fast-paced action-strategy game with improved epic battles; new characters, environments, units; and new multiplayer options for waging war.

Genre: Fighting
Publisher: SNK
Developer: Noise Factory
Release Date: June 7, 2005

SNK's popular 2D fighter series, King of Fighters, finally made the leap from quaint sprites to full polygonal glory in the form of King of Fighters: Maximum Impact for the PS2. Now, Xbox owners can see what they missed and enjoy a few new features, not the least of which is full Xbox Live support. Heck, SNK even added the word "Maniax" to the title, which makes the full name King of Fighters: Maximum Impact – Maniax. WorthPlaying spent some time with a preview

Genre: RPG
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Developer: BioWare
Release Date: November 2007

Mass Effect may be the most highly anticipated Xbox 360 title to not be spawned from an established franchise, but the universe-exploring RPG has something else going for it that might be worth as much as a million-selling predecessor: the BioWare logo emblazoned on its packaging. More importantly, BioWare’s trademarked style of highly customizable experiences, introduced to console gamers with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire, infuses every inch of Mass Effect, its most ambitious project to date.

Following three-plus years

Genre: Action/Adventure
Publisher: Buena Vista
Developer: Capcom
Release Date: October 11, 2005

If you've played God of War or Devil May Cry, you will already have a basic grasp of how to play Buena Vista's action/adventure title Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge.

In Oogie's Revenge, gamers play as Jack Skellington, who must fight his way through 25 levels of vicious enemies in order to prevent his sworn enemy Oogie Boogie from kidnapping all of the holiday mascots and proclaiming himself king.

Even though it is facing strong competitors, Oogie's Revenge is looking pretty good, and the fighting and the

Lead a kung fu monk and his three martial arts warriors on an action packed quest to search and protect the Shen Gong Wu based on the hit Warner Bros. animated series! Omi, a Kung Fu monk leads three young dragons-in-training on a globetrotting adventure to find and protect the Shen Gong Wu, mystical power objects that gives its possessor super powers, from a band of villains led by Evil Boy Genius Jack Spicer, his army of robots and an ancient witch Wuya. Our heroes have to rely on their superb martial arts skills, wits, and the mystical

Set on the war-torn, poisoned atmosphere of Nu Earth, Rogue Trooper is a genetic infantryman (G.I.), one of an elite squad of biologically-engineered clone troops, created to overcome the planet's hostile atmosphere, unhindered in their fight against the enemy, the Nort Republic. After witnessing the betrayal and annihilation of his squad at the Quartz Zone Massacre, Rogue has gone AWOL, determined to hunt down the traitor who sent his brothers-in-arms to their deaths.

Armed with the latest experimental weapons, Rogue's arsenal offers him one extra special advantage over his opponents; encoded bio-chips containing the digitised personalities of his fallen

BattleStations: Midway is an immense action game that drops players into massive air, sea, and undersea battles from Pearl Harbor to Midway. Players command massive fleet attacks and take direct, real-time, control of every plane, battleship, and submarine in the battle.

Battlestations: Midway’s blends intense 3rd-person action with epic, large-scale naval combat and brings to life the great Pacific battles of the World War II. From the chaos of Pearl Harbor, through the Philippines, Java and the Coral Sea all the way to the epic Battle of Midway.

Innovative gameplay lets players take direct control of over 60 different warships,

Agent 47 is back and this time he's paid in cold, hard cash. How the money is spent will affect his passage through the game and the weapons at his disposal, resulting in a unique gameplay experience for each player. Powered by a new version of Io's stunning Glacier engine, Hitman: Blood Money will deliver the most brutal and realistic simulation of life as the world's deadliest assassin.

In Hitman: Blood Money, Agent 47 finds himself in the midst of a war between two rival contract agencies. When assassins from his contract agency, the ICA, are systematically eliminated in

Genre: Rhythm/Music
Publisher: MTV Games
Developer: Harmonix
Release Date: September 2008

Rock Band launched at the end of 2007 to great hype and anticipation, quickly becoming the holiday gift for those who could afford the hefty price tag ($169.99). Garnering an average of 93% at Metacritic and moving over three million units, it would seem that MTV Games' gamble has paid off. Coming this September is the inevitable sequel, Rock Band 2, and the devs have taken fan feedback into account to figure out how to optimize the hardware and software experience.

First thing's first — the

Genre: Action/Puzzle
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Developer: Namco Bandai
Release Date: Fall 2007

No seismic shift occurred between the original Katamari Damacy and We Love Katamari for the PlayStation 2, and the PSP iteration, Me & My Katamari, did little to disrupt the balance of simplistic gameplay and quirky storytelling established back in 2004. Beautiful Katamari for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 looks to continue this trend of complacency, expanding the role of the multiplayer game while generally maintaining the same style and feel of its predecessors.

As in previous Katamari entries, the name of the game is

Genre: Racing
Publisher: Microsoft Games Studio
Developer: Bizarre Creations
Release Date: September 2007

Project Gotham Racing 3 was an undisputed hit, both from a commercial and critical standpoint, but there was a distinctive air of exclusivity behind it — almost an arrogance, if you will. By limiting the vehicle selection to those that could reach speeds of 170mph or more (i.e., cars that most of us will never own), any semblance of a learning curve was swiftly axed, as even the most basic car was difficult to control. That didn't stop the Xbox 360 launch title