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As someone who's closely followed the bizarre, often tragic trajectory that Sonic the Hedgehog's mascot career has taken, I approach each successive Sonic release with a heart full of dread. With his edgy, art-deco Sega Genesis glory days now long behind him, Sonic's recent platforming efforts have feebly attempted to recapture the well-crafted 3D prowess demonstrated by Dreamcast launch hit Sonic Adventure. Regrettably, every post-Adventure outing has garishly gilded the proverbial lily, screwing up the formula with the addition of extraneous playable characters (crocodiles, bees, robots -- you name it), misguided new gameplay styles (like Shadow the Hedgehog's guns-n-cars nonsense), and laughable narrative excess (I'm still trying to forget the sick cross-species romance that defiled Sonic's previous eponymous effort). Somehow, the kiddies have remained loyal throughout Sonic Team's decade of desperately grasping for relevance, but many of his more discerning fans have long since jumped ship. If Sega were to pull off something akin to Super Mario Galaxy -- a mainline franchise reboot that augments classic gameplay with clever new concepts -- he could once again be a contender. Sadly, Sonic Unleashed is not such a title.

With months of hype since its E3 announcement, the New Xbox Experience update was finally unleashed on Xbox 360s this week. In addition to instant Netflix movie streaming and a totally revised dashboard appearance, the NXE adds in the ability to create Avatars to represent you to friends and in some games. Now that everyone around the office has had some time to check out the new offerings, we've rounded up some of our editor's early impressions. We also grabbed some thoughts from 1UP users from our official forum thread on the New Xbox Experience. And even if your post isn't included, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.

Ray Barnholt - Staff Writer, MyCheats

I was hating on NXE when it was revealed at E3, but I've warmed up to it now that I've actually tried it. Its function far outweighs the form. There's much more stick-flicking to navigate the panels than there was on the old "blade" interface, but on the other hand, you do get more info from those panels, like screenshots and standard descriptions that can be read at a glance without a slowly-scrolling window. Hell, I'm even pleased that my Avatar turned out looking more like me than my Mii ever could. But my number one favorite feature? Erasing all those old zero-point games from my history! Finally, I am rid of the records of those crappy, ancient Arcade demos that I played for two minutes. One of my bigger gripes is that there should be better theme/color customization -- I downloaded a nice set of Mega Man backgrounds, but their mostly-white colors hide the category text in the upper left corner.

Daniel Perez - Files Editor, FileFront

Microsoft has completely reinvented how we interact with our gaming consoles with the NXE. The idea of a video game console updating itself through software to better the hardware is something that has been ongoing for quite some time due to the necessary inclusion of hard drives to our gaming consoles. Microsoft took that idea and decided to give gamers a completely new and refreshing experience. Menus are easier to navigate, online games are a breeze to join, and the inclusion of avatars gives the gamer their own identity within a massive community -- all while running on the same Xbox 360 hardware that was released three years ago.

It's hard to resist Mama, Majesco's cooking series' head chef and gourmet, with her big, bright eyes and charmingly accented adulations. Stirred your soup particularly well? "Goo-late jahb!" she congratulates. "Bettah zen Mama." And with Wii debut Cook Off's motion controls, chopping onions and grinding beef was never quite so fun. The satisfaction from a meal well cooked is profusely evident in both the original DS game and Cook Off -- not so much in Cooking Mama: World Kitchen. This latest installment moves Mama to the back burner, with you taking center stage as her apprentice. Worse yet, the motion controls are now slow and cumbersome.

Being a pupil under Mama's tutelage isn't inherently bad. The concept actually intrigued me initially, as it's a way to connect more with the main character (as much as you'd need to in a cooking simulation, anyhow) and further highlight Mama's role as a mentor. At the start of the game, you're able to customize your girl or boy apprentice, but you've got disappointingly sparse character-customization options from which to choose. More bothersome: The characters spout the same annoying catchphrases whenever they mess up...and you will mess up, often. I quickly tired of hearing the girl character incredulously exclaim "Seriously?" over and over again.

The graphics have gone from 2D to cel-shaded 3D (Mama and the new cast look appropriately adorable), while the cooking view's switched from first- to third-person; these changes allow you to get a better look at your custom cook, but the pulled-back view distracts from some of the tasks at hand and takes you out of the experience a bit. You'll also have to deal with multiple camera angles, which slows down the game when you have to watch each transition between steps in a recipe.

That slower pace is perhaps World Kitchen's worst element. Previous Cooking Mama games always had quick efficiency in mind when it came to completing each step in a recipe. In Cook Off, you could flail the Wii Remote as fast as possible in an attempt to shave off those few extra seconds of onion chopping, and the game felt like it responded. Conversely, no matter how furiously you shake the Wii-mote in World Kitchen, you never really feel as though you can go any faster -- it feels like your speed is locked to the animation instead of the other way around, which almost makes me glad the game fails to include a two-player versus mode (but not really).

Company X -- a Canada-based manufacturer of so-called "social gaming" accessories -- has brokered a deal with Everlast to produce genuine boxing gloves for Wii owners. Made from actual Everlast gloves, wannabe pugilists can slip their Wii remotes and nunchuks into the straps affixed to the top of the gloves, lending a little authenticity to their fake boxing experience. As an unadvertised bonus, they're also likely to help cushion the blow whenever you accidentally toss a haymaker into your kid sister's temple.

The manufacturer's other products include similarly Wii-focused peripherals, like a tennis racket that's officially licensed by Prince. They also produce a line of drumsticks bearing the logos of bands like Led Zeppelin, The Who, and AC/DC for rhythm games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero World Tour.

These sort of accessories have been popping up on the Wii from the get-go, but these Everlast gloves in particular have left us with quite a few unanswered questions. For starters, who out there is so serious about the two Wii boxing games that they absolutely need an Everlast brand glove to play them? Perhaps most importantly, how does one go about pressing any of the buttons on the Wii remote and nunchuk when both of your hands are strapped inside a pair of boxing gloves? We're pretty sure even seasoned gloved-button-presser Strongbad would have trouble pulling this one off.