This is very much Inafune by numbers, a Mega Man game in all but name, and not a particularly good one. [Issue#296, p.118]

A pretty but vapid experience. [Sept 2010, p.98]

An over-complicated take on a classic recipe.

If the idea was to get you into Fury's angry mindset, then job done - though in truth you more often feel like one of her lesser-known cousins, Boredom or Irritation. [Issue#328, p.112]

Too often feels like a predetermined narrative that's indifferent to your involvement. [Issue#373, p.114]

Unless you possess a particular zeal for collecting and upgrading slightly different weapons, the familiarity of slicing through yet another batch of spawning creatures soon grinds way at the thin gameplay. [June 2009, p.97]

Somebody up there probably regards this as a trailblazing taste of high-concept, one-size-fits-all blockbuster games to come. Consider that, and know true Primal fear. [March 2003, p.92]

Were it not for the driving model, which against all odds remains a pleasure, and desperately rare moments of imaginative mission design, this would be an abject failure. As it stands, it's simply a serious one. [Issue#314, p.114]

As the credits roll, and we once again consider what Fort Solis is, the Steam blurb reminds us of another thing it isn't. A "riveting thriller", after all, requires thrills - and those, like the station's employees, are conspicuous by their absence. [Issue#389, p.110]

The virtual interface does little to help players and, if anything, slows the game down as you wait for it to catch up with things that are already evident to players – such as victory, failure and boredom. [Dec 2007, p.89]

Unfortunately, no sooner does Geist suggest it can blossom into something fresh and exciting that it's undermined at every turn by a frustrating insistence on being nothing more than a mundane firstperson shooter. [Oct 2005, p.88]

Feels cheeky to be criticising a scrolling beat 'em up for being too shallow, but TMNT is possibly one of the most tedious ever. Repetition is only acceptable when you're repeating something gratifying. [Jan 2004, p.109]

It's a laugh, albeit at the expense of itself. [Issue#314, p.118]

There's a fine line between graphic artistry and immaturity, and while Alter Echo makes an attempt at the former, it probably falls into the latter. The hues are creative enough, and the faux-naturelle structures suitably curled and alien but perhaps the real problem is that a world made from plastic would look as dull as it sounds. [Nov 2003, p.109]

By keeping it real, the game retains many of the things that make navigating the real city more of a pain than a pleasure: countless faceless skyscrapers don’t make for memorable landmarks, and facing the wrong way down a jammed one-way street when you’re in a hurry to get somewhere is the sort of challenge few will relish. [Jan 2005, p.91]

Certainly, releasing it so close to Halo Wars suggests deliberate commercial suicide - that it’s genuinely progressive ideas will be ignored and lost as a result is a minor tragedy. [Apr 2009, p.118]

The lasting impression is of a game that, for all its charms and potential, simply wasn't quite ready for takeoff - and that what might have been won't arrive for a couple of years yet. [Issue#331, p.102]

A stunt-filled shooter in the vein (but not the league) of Stranglehold, it's a game that takes control away, reverts to how things used to be done, and judders between debilitating combat and haywire presentation. [May 2009, p.92]

Jett Rocket's mistakes remind us of the N64 days, when developers were feeling their way through Nintendo's brave new 3D world. [Aug 2010, p.99]

A game that, while dripping in style, is miserably lacking in substance. [Issue#328, p.118]

It’s simply baffling that it manages to make so many mistakes within such a well-worn template.

It's a shame, but LifeLine is just poorly implemented. With the laborious pacing complicated by the dodgy voice-recognition, flaws in the gimmicky technology negate what satisfying moments are on offer here. [May 2004, p.106]

It's not just that it's frustrating to fail but, knowing there's no satisfaction in overcoming that frustration. It says a lot that after stepping away from this game we reinstall the original Super Meat Boy to blow off steam. The real Bob-Omb Battlefield is surely next. [Issue#423, p.112]

When it comes to paper, Tearaway has the aesthetic edge and Paper Trail boasts smarter puzzles, while for inventive transformations, Mario remains the origami king. Next to those three, Hirogami feels flimsy and flyaway. [Issue#416, p.120]

Screamer becomes repetitive, overly simplistic and needlessly verbose, a hybrid vehicle for narrative and racing where the only thing less engaging than the off-track drama is the driving itself. [Issue#423, p.114]

You'll trudge endlessly around the forest, cursing your protagonist's languid walk speed as you wander from one already visited landmark to the next in the vague hope of triggering the next bit of scripting in a narrative which goes out of its way to confuse the player.

It's the Excitebots themselves that disappoint most, so drearily conceived that they make the predecessor's humble trucks look like flaming DeLoreans. [July 2009, p.100]

The bottom line is that Rise Of Nightmares isn't as engaging or exciting as AM1's established brand. It's also too adult in its content to appeal to the younger users who might enjoy its gimmicky use of Kinect.

It says a lot that a dancing game is the best thing on offer in this muddled, cynical package. For the most part, Kinect Star Wars feels ill-conceived: kids will be bored, and adults will be embarrassed.

It's a pity that it has exited development before it was fully evolved. [June 2015, p.118]

Judged solely on its Balance Board controls, Skate It comes up little short of unplayable thanks to a bewildering complexity. [Jan 2009, p.96]

Despite the obvious talent at work here, the studio has chosen to bury The Order's potential under a fug of dissociative, QTE-focused game design that's as stifling as the smog that creeps through its Victorian streets. [Apr 2015, p.106]

The story is inventively fantastical but ridiculously so, like a child’s weightless daydreaming, and its shallowness is made all the clearer by Agetec’s lifeless and laborious translation. [Feb 2006, p.92]

For the most part, Song of the Deep is content with being pleasantly unremarkable. [Oct 2016, p.119]

It’s just too hard, the physics too capricious, and the tasks too frustrating for words. [Aug 2006, p.85]

Two Worlds has a lot of content for anyone willing to slog through it, but its buggy failure to take Oblivion’s crown, its troubled development and unfinished feel are testament to ideas beyond its makers’ capabilities. [Nov 2007, p.96]

With no real sense of connection with your monsters, or of engagement with the clumsily delivered plot, there is little here to help the game overcome its tendency towards charmless, chore-based repetition. [Jan 2004, p.106]

For such a costly flagship title to provide neither the promised statement of mainstream grown-up appeal nor even polished, lesser disposable thrills is a landmark failure. [May 2006, p.92]

It's telling that the more dejected and hoarse your voice becomes, the easier it seems for the forces to understand their orders. Whoever programmed Odama's English speech recognition clearly wasn't having much fun either. [May 2006, p.90]

At a base level, this is simply too forgettable to give players a good enough reason to return. Perhaps it would be different if Zombie had been more lenient with its economy, allowing you to try more before committing to buy.

The possibility of this all coming together in a more flexible and engaging manner is still a welcome one. But, for a game based on a culture of reputation, craftsmanship and leaving a mark, Getting Up is one that’ll pass by largely unnoticed. [Mar 2006, p.86]

With the exceptions of deplorably bad cutscenes and haphazard signposting, there are few significant flaws here that a steadier gestation couldn’t have resolved. [Aug 2006, p.90]

The games it apes work because they're easy to engage with and paced to banish boredom. Here, everything takes ages and is sprinkled with tiny irritations. Appropriately, given its title, the game can offer only a muted reverberation of its inspirations, with the exception of recreating their flaws quite capably. [Issue#415, p.102]

Faithful as a bloodhound to the Dreamcast original, this GBA port is a stunning example of when authenticity ought to be sacrificed to utility. This is not a lazy port. But the loyalty of the conversion is ill-advised. [Sept 2003]

This month alone, we have far better alternatives. [Issue#359, p.123]

Its stripped-back beat-matching will leave you tapping your foot - but out of impatience as much as approval of its grimy dubstep. [Feb 2011, p.103]

While there are some interesting mini-games to break up the wandering, Grunty's Revenge is mainly an abject lesson in breadcrumb following game design. [Dec 2003, p.106]

It collapses entirely when it comes to combat. [Feb 2015, p.122]

Blacksite is a thoroughly unexceptional title for which unrealistic promises were made, and one that is further let down by a wide assortment of bugs and design issues. [Jan 2008, p.83]

Playing Gungrave OD, there's a nagging sensation that the design team experienced the original through a shop window...In attempting to meet criticisms of Gungrave's single-minded focus, that focus has been squandered. The result is unlikely to satisfy. [May 2004, p.110]

The series' modest ambitions are here scaled back to a glum inventory of FPS conventions, its spectacle dampened by hardware limitations and dormant art direction, and its platform-specific novelties largely revealed as fussy irritations, presumably born of a need to promote the struggling Vita's features.

As far as either an authentic simulation or a fun re-imagining goes, it’s like some strange negative of the emperor’s new clothes; the pretty wrapping is there but the body is not. [Mar 2007, p.83]

Occasionally, the glow of sheer ambition nudges polish-related problems away from the light, allowing a few glorious moments to gaze upon what EYE could've been. But un-met ambition isn't enough.

Lords Of Shadow 2 is clunky, ugly and deeply misguided. It’s a game that sees the lord of the damned as a vehicle for rat-powered linear stealth, and that takes a future-Gothic London setting and then sets the action in tower blocks and sewers.

There’s a nugget of brilliance at the heart of Micro Machines that’s too simple and solid to crush, it’s true, but the laughable track editor, fussy interface and baffling load times certainly don’t justify this release. [Aug 2006, p.93]

With the exceptions of deplorably bad cutscenes and haphazard signposting, there are few significant flaws here that a steadier gestation couldn’t have resolved. [Aug 2006, p.90]

Its foundations aren't sturdy enough to hold any longterm weight. [Feb 2013, p.110]

Shadow Ops feels like a game put together by a team bored by the clichés of the genre and the special forces material it was given to work with. This quickly communicates itself to the player. [Aug 2004, p.102]

The possibility of this all coming together in a more flexible and engaging manner is still a welcome one. But, for a game based on a culture of reputation, craftsmanship and leaving a mark, Getting Up is one that’ll pass by largely unnoticed. [Mar 2006, p.86]

It's just not accurate or tangible enough to be rewarding, handling with the same kind of wool as Sonic's 3D platformers. [Apr 2006, p.93]

For a series that puts so much stock in its grace and composure, the lack of an intuitive control scheme is hard to overcome. [June 2007, p.86]

For all its wit and swagger, Truckers is inescapably safety-conscious, rewarding the maintenance of a planned route and steady trajectory while more arresting notions - spontaneous risk, for example - fall from the back like poorly fastened cases of moonshine. [Sept 2005, p.99]

Large-scale, new IP RPGs have been something of a rarity on this handheld, but as higher quality titles start to emerge, conformist and mediocre efforts like this become even less attractive and viable. [Feb 2008, p.97]

For all its wit and swagger, Truckers is inescapably safety-conscious, rewarding the maintenance of a planned route and steady trajectory while more arresting notions - spontaneous risk, for example - fall from the back like poorly fastened cases of moonshine. [Sept 2005, p.99]

While the more conventional controls make for a more satisfying experience, they also expose the painful ordinariness of the game. [May 2010, p.102]

A stunt-filled shooter in the vein (but not the league) of Stranglehold, it's a game that takes control away, reverts to how things used to be done, and judders between debilitating combat and haywire presentation. [May 2009, p.92]

It’s just too hard, the physics too capricious, and the tasks too frustrating for words. [Aug 2006, p.85]

Where Black Hawk Down bombards you with exasperating shootouts and tedious escort missions set against a background of jingoism, its competitive modes struggle for the refinements of a game made a decade ago. [Issue#409, p.112]

Feels old-fashioned in the least complimentary of ways. [Issue#384, p.116]

Even at its best, Heroes Reborn: Gemini can't hope to be one of those games that breaks out of licensed-game purgatory. [March 2016, p.116]

After a few hours its lack of variation, poor technical accomplishments and above all its deadening mission repetition make for a hulking disappointment. [Aug 2008, p.96]

Prinny sabotages the player's platforming with unsympathetic controls. [Aug 2009, p.106]

The dev team has an eye for spectacle – a towering golem comprised of cars and other metallic detritus is a visual highlight – but these moments mostly serve to illustrate how dull your actual actions are by contrast. [Dec 2008, p.98]

Hexodius’ dungeon sections aren’t involved enough to offer interesting choices or exploration, but last just long enough to qualify as clunky menu screens.

There is, at least, a pleasing weight to impacts as you thump enemies into walls or slam them into the floor. Good job, too, since there's precious little else to enjoy here. [Issue#391, p.123]

Yes, Beat Down revives the warped charisma of Capcom's beat'em up heyday, but that's the only area where it actually triumphs. [Oct 2005, p.90]

This is a game that prizes style above all else, and emerges a mess because of it. [Issue#331, p.118]

So indebted is dev studio Matrix to the old ways that it seems to have granted a free pass to the old problems. Quest signposting is buried in unclear dialogue snippets, bosses are beaten through trial and error, and grinding is rife. [Dec 2010, p.99]

As [Vince] laments the formulaic impositions of the game in successive cut-scenes, it only serves to remind you how much of a chore it is to play - and raises the question; why does every platform hero have to be a wiseguy? [Dec 2003, p.108]

A wholly unoriginal creation burdened by memories attached to the good ideas it’s imitating, and made worse by the sloppy execution of basic mechanics. [Oct 2008, p.100]

To see it submit to mobile gaming's worst tendencies, rather than make any effort to be different, to be better, is galling. It may be flashy and efficient as both a Diablo game and a mobile game, but Immortal offers little that is bold, ambitious or innovative. Instead, its structure and pacing is designed with one goal in mind: to squeeze as much cash out of every player as it can. [Issue#374, p.110]

With Dust, CCP promised something that had never even been attempted before, and it delivered. Dust takes place in Eve. The setting is the same, the currency is the same, and the corporations can hold players from both universes. It’s just not enough. Because without Eve, there’s no point to Dust, a bland free-to-play FPS that can’t even capture the continent-spanning scale of PlanetSide 2, despite having a whole galaxy to play with.

Arzest has laid an egg here, but not of the golden variety.

If Fuse had been made by a lesser known studio, it would simply be forgettable, but set against the expectations of a new game from the house of Rachet & Clank and Resistance, it’s a crushing disappointment.

It's all a little rote - something we certainly don't associate with Final Fantasy. [Issue#315, p.120]

The fun is spread far too thin. [Sept 2010, p.94]

Nevermind the sluggish movement, repetitive phrases from trainers, or ability to trap AI in combination patterns: at the most basic level, Prizefighter has suspicious collision detection and a great many gloves that clip through arms and heads. [Aug 2008, p.101]

Feels cheeky to be criticising a scrolling beat 'em up for being too shallow, but TMNT is possibly one of the most tedious ever. Repetition is only acceptable when you're repeating something gratifying. [Jan 2004, p.109]

Seemingly conflicted between delivering next-gen graphical impact and providing immediately recognisable objectives, Killer Game errs on the side of form over function, and in turn stumbles though a laundry list of poor design decisions. [Dec 2005, p.114]

This disappointing reboot is best left, well, alone. [Issue#397, p.118]

You could also call it derivative and crudely executed, and no transmedia offering can compensate for that. [Issue#404, p.112]

It's almost a relief that the game struggling to break free from these severe technical shortcomings is mundane. [May 2011, p.104]

Firefights become more surreal than menacing when the worst-case scenario is of your fellow GIs having to catch their breath for a few seconds after being riddled with bullets. [Aug 2004, p.96]

A mediocre game a genre stocked with the highest quality. [Sept 2010, p.99]

Its concept feels almost thrown together. [Sept 2010, p.103]

An ugly, throwaway cash grab. [March 2015, p.110]

Frustratingly, the game’s on-rails sequences exacerbate its lack of invention, whipping up enemies that often inflict damage before their location is revealed. When a single rocket can end the game by killing you or your entourage, this tests the patience more than a prosaic shooter has the right to. [Aug 2005, p.97]

Whether there truly is a demand for the high-fidelity thrills found on other formats among shooter-starved Wii owners is largely academic, because Conduit 2 - like its predecessor - just isn't up to the task of providing them. [June 2011, p.92]