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]