Nintendo DS

Folklore received heavily mixed reviews upon its release back in 2007. Though it was praised by many for its dark atmosphere and emphasis on lore, it was hit hard by some for its incessant back-tracking, messy storytelling, and hit-or-miss Sixaxis controls. Though it was never deemed a complete failure (and surprisingly, got more than a couple 9/10's) there was something about it that doomed it for the bargain bin.

Created for the opening of the 15th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, this montage depicted 15 of the year's top games. The project was created by Alex Kobbs and features a musical score called "Roll the Dice" and composed by Glen Ballard. It must have been a treat for attendees.

What if the Prince of Persia left an 8-Bit Iran and landed in present day Israel? Could he cope in this new land? As you might expect, things didn't go so well.

Dynasty Warriors wouldn't generally be considered broken, but it has been negatively seen by a large portion of critics out there. This series saw its best ratings early on, but as time passed, the ratings continued to drop. Warriors (as a whole) isn't safe from the ire of the gaming masses, but it's still a game that I love to call my guilty pleasure.

If you play games with any regularity, it's inevitable that you'll eventually come across a roughly-made, unbalanced, unpopular, or straight-up broken title that you grow attached to regardless of how low the score on Metacritic drops. Whatever the reason, I'm betting that every gamer out there has at least one of these awkward, ugly ducklings that they hold dear—and I've invited a group of guest writers to kiss and tell.

Going by the reception of Nintendo's 3D update of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, there is much love for the Nintendo 64 classic even today. So it's not surprising that a group of very dedicated and talented fans got together to recreate that world in Minecraft.

Call of Duty has arguably been the biggest and most successful IP that this console generation has seen. Yearly releases have set sales records and the first-person shooter genre reached heights never before seen. Activision has had a great run, and the publisher has become dependent on the success of Call of Duty to carry it to success.

I talked about the Xbox 360 last night in my preliminary analysis, and the unit sales number had already been made public. There's not really much to add to what I said. I expected a Year-over-year (YOY) decline, but a 29% drop was sobering to see.

At first glance, the preliminary NPD sales data that has been shared with the public for January 2012 incite fear and panic. Sales fell from $1.14 billion in January 2011 to $750.6 million in January 2012. That's a stunning 34% Year-over-year (YOY) drop and is the lowest number since 2004.

Nintendo will be looking to the 3DS remain strong in January. Expected residual interest in Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land can be cited as factors, and there's a certainly a chance that the 3DS can stay close to Xbox 360 numbers.