It’s a game that’s full of faults, but also one in which they can be immaterial to the experience of playing. [Sept 2007, p.95]

Sometimes a lazy afternoon's worth of slow-release serotonin is all you need, and this soothing backrub of a game delivers on that promise. [Issue#359, p.117]

There's something here: a glimmer of promise, the kind of idea that surely shone bright in the game's original conception. But the realities of development have resulted in a game that, like a misjudged Translocator leading only to a dead drop, falls well short of the imagined outcome. [Issue#385, p.102]

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.

Under the Skin is refreshing but it's let down by its erratic camera and the whole experience eventually wears thin.

All good clean fun, then, but it's not really anything we haven't seen before. [Nov 2010, p.95]

The concept may be a worthwhile shot in the dark, but its choppy execution is straight to video.

It's certainly got strong production in its favour, but needs better direction - what's been gained in grunt and intensity has been lost in terms of poise and refinement, resulting in an uncomfortable middle ground between truly outrageous action and the disciplined choreography of the original. [Jan 2007, p.74]

Rather than gradually introduce the many plates you have to spin, it puts them all into action at once, starting with 20 near-identical walkover levels and then spiking brutally when it assumes you've worked everything out. [Dec 2010, p.101]

3DS was the perfect opportunity to take Super Monkey Ball back to its GameCube glory days. Instead we find a game that has spent so many years honouring various types of hardware, it has forgotten its own original aim. [May 2011, p.102]

While Monster Madness does much to scratch the co-op itch, and offers some titillating online modes, it sullies it with patchy execution and a series of poor design choices. [Sept 2007, p.93]

It all feels like a bit of a hassle, and that, presumably, is not the message the WWF would like to convey about saving the environment. [May 2008, p.98]

Haze is a distinctly unflattering addition to Playstation 3's library, embarrassingly reminiscent of the previous generation. [July 2008, p.88]

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]

The poor relation of its canceled 360 and PS3 brothers. This is a stripped-down version of a game that never was, offering only fleeting glimpses of a magnificent concept through a console and engine that could never, even with four more years to work at it, have handled it. [Aug 2009, p.98]

It’s during its harder moments that Crimson Dragon pushes you away. A combination of heavy handling and poor communication make you feel hoodwinked rather than outmatched, and the ability to buy continues with Gems you’ve purchased with real money sullies the challenge. It’s a good job that the Zen gardens of those easier levels are always there to return to.

Where COD maintains a smooth 60fps, Warfighter gets a nosebleed trying to put out 30fps. Modern Warfare boasts near-instant restarts after death; here, lengthy loading times merely add to the frustration.

If zSlide wants to directly compete with WarioWare’s creativity, not toying with the PSP’s optional camera or microphone has been a missed opportunity. [July 2007, p.94]

Puzzles are of the ‘give doughnut to the doughnut-desiring character’ variety, rarely extending beyond chores. [May 2008, p.97]

The whole production’s chintzy Hollywood feel is just right, and there’s plenty to keep its target audience entertained. [Jan 2009, p.90]

The Assembly is yet another example of mundane game design attempting to hid behind the novelty of VR. The mileage in this strategy is running out. [Oct 2016, p.122]

Without the challenge and cruelty that can make a classic, the results here are likeable, confident, and nowhere near essential. [Mar 2007, p.86]

It's an enjoyably twisted and often satisfying piece of fantasy, then, even though the reality of its more generic aspects poses a serious threat to its achievements. [JPN Import; Oct 2006, p.92]

We'd much rather play the awful unicorn levels in [Trials] Fusion's Awesome Level Max DLC, which probably ranks among the most damning things we've ever said about a game. [Issue#296, p.123]

Fable Heroes' appeal is all Fable, rather than its elaborations on the well-worn, side-scrolling brawler. Played in a group, there's a knockabout charm in vying to emerge the victor, but unlike those gold coins there's not quite enough longterm value beneath the outer sheen.

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]

Polish and beauty is the essence of ULALA, and while this conversion is superb, it's simply not made for the small screen. It's large, loud and beautiful, and that's how it should be. [Oct 2003, p.103]

Your main objective is the bane of the modern FPS: follow a little blue arrow while shooting things, with the odd escort or protect responsibility thrown in to make you turn around occasionally. It's average justice dished out to the licence, but nothing more. [Christmas 2003, p.121]

The pacing, thanks to a combination of necessary haste and the weakness of your divided squad members, feels more akin to a corridor shooter; there's a constant sensation of feeling harried and hemmed in. [Oct 2004, p.107]

Away from the restrictions enforced by the licence the game improves. Free Roam gives you unlimited access to the excellently designed LA streets and rooftops, while Stunt Mode also takes greater advantage of the exquisite physics engine. But why are there no added incentives such as stunt scoring or accumulators? A missed opportunity. [Oct 2003, p.101]

The Great Escape is saved by a few good set-pieces and the licence, but it's hard not to feel hard done by. Those willing to endure yet another stealth game could find their morale ebbing away by the end of this. [Sept 2003]

Lost feels truncated to the extreme, a grand tutorial to island living violently cut off when the credits roll after four hours. [Apr 2008, p.93]

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]

At World’s End would shame Jack Sparrow himself: it’s boring, nondescript and significantly lacking in adventure. [July 2007, p.91]

For most players there's just not enough here to hold any prolonged interest. [Mar 2008, p.100]

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]

An over-complicated take on a classic recipe.

The game also fails as a high-profile PS4 launch title in terms of what it’s putting onscreen. The particle effects serve their purpose, but everything from the vapid story sequences to the hackneyed goblin foes feels blandly feeble. A chapter setting entitled The Barren Wastes? Yes, you think, no need to ram it home.

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]

It doesn't willfully withhold information, but it takes some time to acclimatise to what you're supposed to do. [December 2016, p.118]

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

It looks great, and the boosting system means that, as a time-trial game, it's fantastic. If your progress wasn't so easily sabotaged by a thoughtless collision, it would be a fantastic racer, too. [June 2004, p.104]

Beneath the drab visuals, then, Taito's unlikely classic remains a game of skill and wit, as well as proof that no-frills fun can still be found in the strangest of places.

As a script, Flower, Sun And Rain is, for at least two thirds, hugely witty and effortlessly mad, eliciting enough regular laughs to cover for the game's otherwise painfully tedious forms of interaction. [JPN Import; Dec 2008, p.96]

Infinity is extremely limited, both in terms of what little content it offers and your ability to access it. [Aug 2014, p.119]

As a proof of concept, Reality Fighters is convincing, but it's sub-par as a high-priced fighting game, trailing the competition and offering novelty in place of substance.

An undercooked dish. [Issue#368, p.123]

Die-hard roleplaying game fans might have shrugged off its technical flaws and turgid combat if only the story had a pay-off. But instead of a tragic hero, Jason’s a dud. [Feb 2009, p.86]

The left to right weaving that gave Secret Rings old-fashioned zip has been jettisoned for narrow paths, funneling you from one fight to the next. Add on-rails cart rides and regular pauses to hand rings over to local villagers and this becomes Sonic's most static adventure yet. [May 2009, p.97]

The result is a tiresome slog that proves the first casualty of war is not innocence, but brevity. Valkyria Devolution might have been a more honest title. [Sept 2017, p.108]

Astro Boy is a light cartoon romp sure to please young admirers of the character, but it fails to offer the depth required to engage a broader demographic. [May 2004, p.105]

In short, Welcome Tour seems designed more to highlight USB ports and air intake vents than give us a game. The climax of our tour sees us trapped inside our new machine, running laps and poking into every corner, praying we'll find the last stamp to open the exit. At this point, one question about Switch 2 remains: Nintendo, how did it come to this? [Issue#413, p.123]

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

Trying to balance the ceaseless button-mashing with the necessary manual camera tweaking is a bad joke, and often leaves you slashing just out of view and hoping for the best. [Mar 2009, p.93]

We'd be lying if we pretended we didn't have some fun with it. But it only works in the same way a McDonald's occasionally hits the spot: this is cheap, junk-food gaming that comes with a side-order of regret. [Issue#331, p.110]

Astonishingly, there's no replay function for your defensive performances. [Feb 2016, p.122]

Wrist ache is inevitable, but it's the imprecision of the strength gauge that ends up causing the most pain. [Sept 2010, p.103]

We've a right to enjoy this kind of brainless, murderous throwback, but we've also a right to expect it to be made to the standards of videogames of five years ago, never mind those of today. [July 2005, p.91]

Sure, Platinum has made flawed games before, but nothing nearly so bland or as uninspiring as this. [Christmas 2014, p.120]

Levels feature numerous boss battles and a stream of identikit foot soldiers, but merrily send the player back to square one when their lone life is over and make the singleplayer story mode an agonising exercise in self-abuse. [June 2005, p.88]

Away from the restrictions enforced by the licence the game improves. Free Roam gives you unlimited access to the excellently designed LA streets and rooftops, while Stunt Mode also takes greater advantage of the exquisite physics engine. But why are there no added incentives such as stunt scoring or accumulators? A missed opportunity. [Oct 2003, p.101]

Moops isn't a bad idea for a iOS title, then, but it's extremely poorly implemented. For a game about bug hunting, it's failed to catch enough of its own.

Series fans will know better than to expect an epic, but even by its own standards Kinda Funky News Flash is a short game...After 20 years in the shadows, Ulala's return to the spotlight involves a few too many missed beats to recommend. [Issue#344, p.120]

While the appeal of Ghost Rider palls in the long term (the game is simply too samey, unless your thirst for fighting overrides your need for variety and pacing) it’s a strong and well-considered title. [Mar 2007, p.86]

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.

The overall impression is of a game that’s both bravely and badly designed, and weighted towards the latter. [July 2006, p.84]

You come to Virtual-On to beat up big robots through a mix of opportune tactics and instinctive brawn, and throughout Marz the precise and articulated combat remains as demanding as ever. [Sept 2003]

How to mess up a game in which you ride a dragon is quite simple. You make the control of that dragon answerable to motion-sensing technology that can’t distinguish subtle or even very forced gestures in anything like the detail required. [Nov 2007, p.90]

Mission design feels particularly lazy this time round, Locomotive seemingly jotting down amusing cutscene scenarios before finding tenuous ways of tying ‘destroy this’ or ‘abduct that’ tasks to the constant stream of ooh-er references to ‘big willies’ and ‘meat’ in the dialogue. [May 2008, p.97]

Some will still find DOAX 2 to be a soothingly directionless or charmingly goofy, a game that feels numbingly pointless when treated like other games. But if this is you second visit to Zack Island, you may well find yourself wasting fewer hours than expected. [Feb 2007, p.79]

There's an overall level of polish to Inversion that shows a developer improving its skillset. Though the game never fully stretches its ambitious premise beyond the confines of the cover shooter genre, it's a game with the noblest of intentions: to provide wall-to-wall, or, rather, floor-to-ceiling, entertainment.

A cycle of challenges that never transcend routine. If this is what new technology does to old heroes, perhaps they're best left in the past. [May 2011, p.97]

Like Borderlands, the promise of fresh guns, equipment and powered-up skills offers an incentive to press on. But unlike its parent series, the combat in Legends means it's not worth doing so.

Facebreaker is vacuous, its interface without flair and its novelties without purpose beyond littering the boards at Gamefaqs. [Oct 2008, p.95]

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

Had The Official Game provided a consistent overall challenge, it would have been bearable, if unexciting. But it hasn't, and it isn't. [July 2006, p.88]

You'll be more irritated than scared. [Issue#336, p.121]

Access Games' take on the Monster Hunter formula attempts little beyond a straightforward recreation of that series' structure. [Mar 2011, p.107]

The overall impression is of a game that’s both bravely and badly designed, and weighted towards the latter. [July 2006, p.84]

The subtlety of these exchanges suggests that a strategy game of some greatness exists beneath the cumbersome framework, and we trust Stardock, a developer of proven diligence and passion, to continue refining it. [Nov 2010, p.93]

Bodycount's lack of consistent game design, flitting between arcadey action and a sub-par story-driven campaign, ultimately causes the game to misfire. The lesser parts of Bodycount's gameplay ultimately shout the loudest, drowning out its charms and distracting from the flourishes of inspired ideas.

Where B-Boy crucially disappoints is in the execution of its gameplay. The turn-based nature of its stages is interminably frustrating. [Oct 2006, p.94]

Describing the game at all is simply to tick off a litany of annoyances punctuated by one minor triumph, namely that the Transformers themselves look pretty good. [Sept 2007, p.90]

It's a long, repetitive grind that fails to reward your efforts. [Sept 2012, p.100]

Yes, you really do feel in chargeof steering, but when the amount of speed put into a tight bend is dictated by the game, not the player, that feeling only delivers so much. [Christmas 2010, p.98]

Your main objective is the bane of the modern FPS: follow a little blue arrow while shooting things, with the odd escort or protect responsibility thrown in to make you turn around occasionally. It's average justice dished out to the licence, but nothing more. [Christmas 2003, p.121]

This may not suffer the indignity of being delisted, but it's highly unlikely anyone will remember it in a decade's time. [Issue#395, p.122]

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 dialogue is belief-defyingly bad, the characters who deliver it lazy, one-dimensional caricatures. [Oct 2006, p.94]

An unrewarding trudge that doesn’t have any ideas beyond the most primitive. [Feb 2008, p.97]

Sure, the production values are high and the narrative is updated with humour, but this is barely a game... it's all smoke and mirrors. You may win every battle, but underneath you know you're no hero. [June 2004, p.110]

Slant Six Games cut its teeth on handheld SOCOM games, but no tactical subtlety has filtered down to this title. Operation Raccoon City is a gory duck shoot in a series that's already produced the definitive action game, and letting you experience its gore-soaked trudge with friends is its only genuine appeal.

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]

The overall impression is of a game that's both bravely and badly designed, and weighted towards the latter. [July 2006, p.84]

Had The Official Game provided a consistent overall challenge, it would have been bearable, if unexciting. But it hasn’t, and it isn’t. [July 2006, p.88]

That it largely fails to deliver does not quite snuff out its allure – not, at least, for devotees of the fiction. For those yet to be tempted by Martin's work, however, the blunderous combat, mangled dialoguing and profoundly unlovely looks will make it seem, as a Westerosi idiom goes, a mummer's farce.

The reality, inevitably, is that you want Fallout 76 to play like a Fallout game, and on those terms it fails to satisfy. After all, how could you not want that from it? [Jan 2019, p.110]

Had The Official Game provided a consistent overall challenge, it would have been bearable, if unexciting. But it hasn’t, and it isn’t. [July 2006, p.88]