Before buying Stake: Fortune Fighters for Xbox by Metro3D, you'll have to answer this question; What do you value most in a game, eye candy or challenging play? Stake promises a lot of action for a 3rd-person beat ?em up, but the graphics look a little on the simple side. Fortunately, this shouldn't distract you from your main activity of stomping opponents, and there are lots of ways of doing it.

The objective of Stake: Fortune Fighters for Xbox is simple: defeat everybody using a myriad of weapons, power ups, and spells to win the cash prize, or Stake, offered every two years in the timeline of the game's universe. Aggressiveness and bold moves work to your advantage in the fast paced action. Weapons include grenades, ice, gasses, hot oil, flaming statues and rocks. Lots of collectible items, special tricks and magic powers give you an edge. Play any one of nine anime-inspired characters, each with different attacks, defense, speed and special "anger" power levels. Play modes include Death Match, Team Death Match and Castle Mode where you race to light a sacred flame on your opponent's castle.

Stake: Fortune Fighters for Xbox uses a third-person split screen to allow up to 4 local players to compete together. It seems kind of strange that the game was not built for Xbox Live, so there's no internet support. Obviously, this limits replay value. But, not every Xbox user goes online, and not every Xbox title offers so much raw action. Stake is worth consideration whether you play online or not.