PUZZLE #24: Squeezed in the Middle

Before I get to this week's puzzle, I'm going to explain the new system that's going to be in effect starting today. Before now, I gave the solvers one or two stars depending on whether they solved a puzzle within the first week or the second one. Well, I'm going to change those stars into something resembling the hint coins found in the Professor Layton series of puzzle/adventure video games. Each potential solver starts off with four stars next to their name, and if you want help on solving the puzzle (be it an alternate clue or a nudge towards a right answer or whatnot), you can email me using the same email addresses that you use to send me the FINAL ANSWER, and I'll provide you with a hint as quickly as I can, but at the expense of a star. So someone who solved it after two hints will get two stars next to their name, while someone who solved it with no hints gets all four stars next to their name when I post the solvers list. I doubt anyone will use these "hint stars" for this first week (especially since looking up the answers is still allowed), but they may prove useful when it comes to any harder puzzles that'll pop up in the future. So without further ado, let's get to my latest puzzle!

PUZZLE #24

SQUEEZED IN THE MIDDLE

For this puzzle, you're going to sandwich together words (entered in the white rectangles) by surrounding it with a letter on each side, one at the beginning and one at the end, making a new word in the process. Once you're done, the extra letters you've added in the "crust" (the brown squares) will spell out a two-word phrase. In the example above, the words URN, RAT, and OVER become BURNT, IRATE, and GOVERN, and the letters in the brown squares, reading down, spell out BIG TEN. However, to make things trickier, the "Wholes" will be in no particular order, so it's up to you to figure out which one of the "Centers" it matches up with!

Once you've filled out everything, the letters in the brown squares, reading down, will spell out this week's FINAL ANSWER: the name of a video game series

CENTERS
1) Pretentiously showy
2) Part of WPM
3) Maltese money
4) Actress who once played Poison Ivy
5) Fanged beast from the original Warcraft
6) Small movie segments
7) West Wing underling

WHOLES
* Cell with dendrites and an axon
* Football player that's black and white and gray all over
* Internet browser used in the Nintendo Wii
* Joan of Arc, for one
* Poison ivy, e.g.
* Solar event that's featured in the logo of NBC's Heroes
* What the British call a flashlight

Once you think you know what this week's FINAL ANSWER is, send it to either redhead64@chartermi.net (the main email for my home computer) or itsredhead64@gmail.com (the main email for my tablet and whenever I'm not at home) and I'll put your name on a solvers list once I post the answers in about two weeks. You can also use those email addresses to give me some comments and feedback (regarding either this puzzle or the new "hint stars" system) or send me the answer to last week's puzzle, if you haven't already solved it. If you have a printer and want to solve this puzzle on paper, just head below the break and print out that picture!