A passable shooter that will please Nintendo-owning fans of the genre, but it won't win any awards for originality, ingenuity or design.

Controlling everything with the DC controller, especially over the often lengthy missions, will lead to cramped, achy hands, and the necessity for quick command issuing just doesn't fit well onto a gamepad.

The puzzles are utterly simple, the gameplay is too linear, and we finished it in about 10 hours.

The batting and pitching interfaces are as good as we remember them from the stellar N64 games, but the fielding transitions are terrible and there are graphical bugs that are unforgivable. The game looks okay, with nice character models but lifeless environments and stadiums -- but it's just not what you'd expect from a PS2 sports game.

Poor AI, routine melee combat and unimaginative gameplay consign Rune to the hellish abode of the bored.

After a year of impressive Dreamcast titles, gamers have come to expect something more from their next-gen consoles, and the same shallow, flashy arcade games just aren't going to cut it.

While the pack does allow you to throw an amazing party, it doesn't do anything else -- and parties lose their novelty pretty fast.

The biggest problem with the game, aside from the voice acting, is the difficulty. Both the characters and the monsters are capable of getting critical hits, but the monsters seem to have an advantage over Zak and his companions.

With its limited gameplay, repetitive modes and lackluster multiplayer, we can't recommend it to anyone other than flight sim enthusiasts.

It's fine for players looking for basic off-road action, but those looking for hardcore realism or arcade action should look elsewhere.

Unfortunately, it also has crippling flaws that suck fun out of gameplay like a starving Nosferatu gnawing on a rat.

As it comes out of the box, the awkward controls, ordinary story and mediocre multiplayer prevent us from recommending this marginally fun game.

This is one really short game. With a little effort, you can beat it in 10-12 hours.

Unfortunately, this isn't the sort of game we want to play online or off.

With so many interesting alternatives to real life available on so many systems, why stick with one of our most repetitious and grueling sports?

We come not to bury Spider-Man, but to lament that more could not be done to make the Nintendo 64 version of the game as sharp as its counterpart.

It the best of the Olympic crop, but it still doesn't quite get even a bronze medal.

The game looked promising and campy, but ultimately left us unimpressed.

Though occasionally enjoyable, endless game crashing bugs, bouts of tedium and a few badly designed elements make it a miss.

Unfortunately, there's some yellow snow on this mountain.

What should or could have been a cool, sneaky shooter devolves into a series of tedious levels, severely aliased graphics and some of the stupidest, ugliest enemies we've seen this side of "Delta Force: Land Warrior."

Plenty of flash, spectacle and new features... but so little meat to carve a proper meal from.

Gamers will probably derive more fun simply from reading this paragraph than they will from actually playing Deep Fighter.

The difference is purely in level design, which is creative and interesting in the first game ("Strider") and pure crap in the second.

There were a few fun moments while playing this, particularly in the Capture the Flag mode. Unfortunately, the cosmic physics combined with the hit-and-miss controls ripped the huge potential out of its heart.

While it's an improvement over the original, Team Arena is essentially a decent mod but it's nothing that can't be found for free.

In a move that perfectly mirrors our own high-school careers, it seems as if Ubi Soft went to every length imaginable to make sure that every aspect of this game is dead average, and no more.

Giant robots Good, lame story Bad, stealing sechnology Good, weak level design Bad, nothing innovative... that's bad Homer.

Decided it didn't want an in-game save function and forgot to add multiplayer, a skirmish mode or the ability to change the level of difficulty.

With dated graphics, no unlockable characters, and a "revolutionary" fighting engine that was new in the 20th century, there's no doubt that this game simply, is the Court Jester of Fighters.

Contains fleeting moments of fun, but the weak control of the game makes playing it more of a chore than anything.

Marred by technical difficulties, ultimately simplistic design and a painfully complex interface, RPG Maker is less a dream come true than a nightmare that never seems to end.

Whether standing on its own or against the legion of fine racing alternatives out there (from "Gran Turismo" to "Wipeout"), this is one racer we'll probably leave in the games garage.

The Bouncer is here and it's not any good. We know how much that hurts, but it's time to move on. The game is less than three hours long -- less than 30 minutes if you skip the movies -- and what's there isn't fun.

The music isn't quite as good (as its predecessor), and the gameplay has been simplified so much that it fast becomes mindless and quite repetitive.

The controls are incredibly stiff, the locales are boring and rectangular, and the enemies will stand stock still until you shoot them.

The tanks are cool and feature gritty design and nice detailing -- but their animation sets are pretty limited and the sensation of piloting an actual, steely titan is somewhat lacking.

Overall, Stupid Invaders is an adventure title that just isn't as much fun as it should be. But it's plenty stupid.

In a repetitive mind numbing kill-a-thon manner, it's a good time. Is it a $30 (120 quarters) good time? No.

Everything that's done right here is on a prom date with wrong, and the wrongs manage to dance all over the rights' feet a little too often.

The golf ball "rolls" like a ping-pong ball on an air-hockey table...TW2001 slices into the rough when it comes to actually playing the game, and that's a shame, as nearly everything else is top-notch.

An unforgiving game for adults might be one thing, but serving up an endlessly difficult Disney title is altogether another, and it serves to sink the ship.

Is Gunman Chronicles a good total conversion? For the most part, yes. Is Sierra trying to milk the Gordon Freeman cow one too many times? Absolutely.

Is EX3 the worst fighter we've ever played? Absolutely not -- however, its mediocre fighting engine and uninspired visuals are yet another example of a once noble series gone sour.

Neither excellent nor miserable, it's a fairly good racer, but it's not changed much since our last look at the game, and since then a lot of handsome titles have hit the shelves.

X Squad was to be the first squad-based game on PS2, but its AI is so bad that it really becomes a basic third-person action title with only some nice effects and a huge weapons cache to show for it.

Longtime fans of Lara's exploits will find more of the same ride, but we can't recommend paying the full admission price.

It's a gun game without a gun, and there's really no way to get past that one glaring omission.

A tired genre makes its first zombie steps onto the PS2. It's time for a rethink.

A mostly retrograde move -- less impressive in almost every aspect than the gems that inspired it. It's by no means the worst game we've played, but only the most rabid of Star Wars fans (of which there are plenty) should take this one for a spin... hover... whatever.

A must for shooting enthusiasts and fans of the disappearing light-gun genre, but is almost the perfect definition of a rental title to the rest of the gaming community.

Now imagine the whole game, from start to finish, lasting about 15 minutes -- even with limited continues. Oh dear.

Combining an informational resource with a full expansion pack would have been a better idea than this greedy effort.

Plain, cold and uninspired, ESPN NBA 2Night has all the grit and soul of an Egg McMuffin.

The gameplay is as expected -- slow, with a lot of exploration and some tough and sometimes frustrating enemies and puzzles.

Once the game starts up, another problem becomes apparent; the game was rushed out the door before it was finished. From random lockups when loading to a litany of missing features too numerous to list completely, it's obvious that Age of Sail II was released in a beta state.

Prolonged exposure to this latest Bond adventure reveals that TWINE is, despite the gorgeous visuals and top-notch presentation, at heart a relatively shallow experience -- decent, but not quite good enough.

Melodramatic dialogues precede and follow each fight, and they're handled with the same mildly illiterate aplomb as most anime translations -- meaning that they're longwinded, heavyhanded and occasionally unintelligible to all but the most diehard of fans, which is just how we like 'em.

In the end, though, the lackluster graphics, frustrating gameplay and repetitive actions make it a slightly entertaining romp through a scary theme park, but not fun enough for us to recommend as one of the DC's best.

The sort of videogame that needs to have the epilepsy warning printed in 72-point Helvetica bold. This game is so colorful, fast and disorienting that we came close to passing out a couple of times and poking ourselves on the "Seaman" microphone.

Its personality, attractive graphics and RPG elements could've spawned a fun and frantic 3D RTS, but the game ends up feeling like an incomplete action game that's a little "ruff" around the edges.

It's such a banal misuse of a popular franchise that its mediocrity really shines through.

The included events -- Long Jump, High Jump, 110M Hurdles, 100M Dash, Shot Put, Javelin Throw and 1500M Run -- all involve the same control scheme. Each is equally frustrating.

As a pinball game, the tables are too barren and as an action/platform-like game, the pinball control is out of place.

An ugly, hollow mess that disgraces its storied predecessors in every way.

With its myriad bugs and lack of real multiplayer component, Jet Fighter IV is the sort of game that should have spent a few more months in the hangar.

A decent game that could have been great if it had been released three years ago.

Misses the mark by just a tad, but that shouldn't halt the admiring throngs.

Lacking in gameplay and visual splendor, Evergrace doesn't do enough to provide a quality next-generation RPG experience.

Alas, KISS Psycho Circus just plain sucks.

A thin game that is sometimes fun, but mostly routine, and with less depth and imagination than the great games it is copying.

It's simplistic and mechanical, and just doesn't deliver the feel of a smoky pool hall where skill rules out over luck.

With bland graphics, poor gameplay balancing and -- worst of all -- terrible controls, so much of the game is so much of a drag that it falls short of the anemically rising levels that set the 3D action/adventure standard.

While it graphically looks fairly good, its simulation of the sport places the emphasis squarely on offense, and that's just not how baseball is played.

Though "PGA" plays the simulation angle well, the easy putting, occasional quirks in control and lackluster graphics that actually affect the gameplay adversely all leave this title mired in mediocrity.

As the Whatsit says, " @!#?@!"

Crave's "Sno Cross" is a far better game and is five bucks cheaper at $9.99.

The problem is that its main competition, EA Sports' Madden series, has most of the same features, plays a much better game of football and looks a lot better doing it.

Tomb Raider junkies will like the new levels, but anyone that got sick of this back in 1997 isn't going to have a sudden change of heart.

Pressing alternating buttons as quickly as possible is only challenging (and fun) for so long, but with the exception of a few events, that's all this game is.

If there is such a thing as a low end to a Miss score, this game would be there, precipitously hanging with its arms spinning in comical circles directly over the ledge that drops into Dudville.

What was cute and fun, if a little simplistic, on the PlayStation is unimpressive and difficult on Dreamcast.

Sure, it's got Mario Lemieux in it, but while Super Mario may be able to save the Pens, he can't save this one.

It contains an interesting and cleverly told story and takes great pains to build an atmosphere, then smashes the whole house of cards to the ground, violently, with a cheap cop-out ending.

From the moment this underwhelming title stumbles into action, gamers will be hard-pressed not to notice its painful mediocrity --CB2001 makes the annual SCEA father-son hackeysack tournament look like a paragon of x-tremity.

In this confusing and muddled 3D platformer, Buzz just can't run straight, and that makes him one annoyed lead character in a crippled game that's really hard to like despite its eminently likable star.

After a few hours around the track we quickly grew tired of the same shallow driving, no matter how great those courses looked.

It could have been an interesting game with a little more imagination, but it's flatter than month-old soda.

A poor ending to a bad journey.

It certainly does not have the basketball depth of "NBA Live 2001," and we'd only recommend it to die-hard college hoops fans who simply have to play as a Division I team.

The graphics are fine, the options plentiful and the details lovingly polished, but the core gameplay -- the part where you're in a car racing against other cars -- doesn't do much to advance the genre at all.

Those who enjoy lackluster game values, cliched dialog and a motley collection of sophomoric characters will find this a competently produced title that won't be hard to get through.

A pretty vast improvement over the PSOne version, but numerous technical and gameplay problems that were apparent then return to mar the experience, making a mighty big mess of what's still a promising idea.

There are too many nagging problems, from the stuttering animation to the strange, stooped-over look of most of the players, as if they couldn't stand up straight.

It is an utterly routine shooter with a handful of different ships to fly, awkward controls, and robotic enemies that on their worst day aren't so much dangerous as they are sort of "pesky."

Poor graphics and boring gameplay kill a fighter that could have been a contender.

All we can tell you is that the game has mediocre graphics, poor sound, stability problems, an awkward premise and a whole lot of standing around. It may be utterly realistic, although the lack of any falling damage and the fact that wooly rhinos can magically sprint up sheer cliff walls make us doubt it.

Erratic control and graphical limitations on top of too many niggling requirements make this game experience less than enjoyable.