I can't recall in recent memory a console launching with a sports franchise the likes of Sega Enterprises' Sega Sports. From the very beginning these sports titles showed off the power of the console at launch, and more to the point, they set new watermarks in their respective genre.

Seaman is a tough game to review. Since the overwhelming majority of titles released these days are rehashes of games that have been done time and time again, a rare gem brimming with originality is something to be cherished. Overall I found it to be a very worthwhile and interesting experience that has never really been done before. On the other hand, Seaman isn't really a "game," so I'm sure that a title like this isn't going to be to everyone's liking.

Seaman isn't a game in the traditional "command and conquer" sense. Seaman is a somewhat passive experience best described as part digital pet and part conversational simulator, but 100 percent strangeness.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Mild Animated Violence

Taking the concept of playable and collectable cards one step further by bringing it to an electronic format and succeeding fabulously, Tecmo brings us Monster Rancher Battle Cards. Based on their two other virtual pet/monster raising niche titles, Battle Cards takes the same previously established world and characters and gives them an entirely different style of play.

I wasn't interested in giving Battle Card 2 any praise when I first saw the game because I have come to view these "battle card" games as cheap opportunities for publishers to milk a popular franchise. But after playing it, I found that it held a few surprises that almost made me overlook the static 2-D graphics, inadequate translations, lack of a multiplayer and uninteresting cast of characters.

For the uninitiated, Diablo II is the sequel to the popular medieval RPG title that once again cast players in the role of an adventurer out to put an end to the newly resurrected Prince of Darkness, Diablo. Played from a diagonal three-quarter view perspective, the most surprising thing about Diablo II is its simple and console-like gameplay.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Animated Blood & Gore, Animated Violence