Urban Reign

You may be a glutton for punishment, and for that you may have a need for a quick rental, but even with the Tekken characters as unlockables, this is not a fighter worthy of the Namco name.

Forcing the player to endure 100 repetitive missions just to unlock the meat of the game is an insult, as is the imbalanced fighting engine.

Strangely addicting and fun for the first thirty minutes, that feeling soon wears off as the flaws in the gameplay slowly reveal themselves until you’re so frustrated that you will probably not be in the best frame of mind to complete game or play it for any length of time again.

Ferocious opponents and brutal unblockable attacks ensure the challenge is punishingly difficult, but there is little reward for investing the necessary time to master the fighting system's nuances.

With its slick visual polish and ample bone-crunching sound-effects, Urban Reign could have come out on tip. But thanks to an endless series of increasingly maddening and increasingly boring stages, you'll find yourself saying "No thanks," and turning off your PS2 and bringing this game back to the store. Xbox owners, be thankful you were spared this agony.

Had it been given a little more depth pretty much everywhere, this may have been a sleeper hit. Instead, it’s just a sleeper.

The inclusion of some unlockable Tekken characters and a slightly more balanced multiplayer mode might be enough to give you a fix if you do absolutely nothing else in life but play beat-'em-ups and you've actually run out, but otherwise there's no reason to take an interest.

One of the worst games you could buy this year. Imagine someone took the Mission Mode out of "Soul Calibur II," and sold it as a separate game for $50. That's Urban Reign.