The levels are too drawn-out and repetitive, and I odn't really care for the theme, but underneath it's a no-bull shooter steeped in classic gameplay juices. [Sept 2002, p.148]

If Sapphire put as much emphasis on the combat as they did on conjuring gritty stories to back each fighter, Barbarian could have been a lot better. [July 2002, p.115]

Sure, the graphics, control and physics here are super-duper. It's just that the actual gameplay can get as repetitive as scrawling "I'm a stuntman!" a thousand times on a chalkboard. [August 2002, p.128]

Boasting some of the most inspired aesthetics since "Panzer Dragoon," SG conjres a sense of flight and freedom so convincing, you'll want to nose dive out of the sun and into and enemy's blind spot just because you can. [August 2002, p.130]

Gorgeous, fast-paced and balanced enough to offer fleeting fun whenever it's booted up. [August 2002, p.126]

Trying to master the game's unintuitive control system (with 12 different types of punches) was making my head spin, until I realized that mashing buttons and "circle strafing" my foe produced great results most of the time.

The owners of the Tetris license have got to stop whoring it out. [Sept 2002, p.162]

I can look past your repetitive combat, formulaic structure and sometimes misleading game design. It's your stylish presentation, puzzles and ability to mess with a guy's head that's gonna make me own you. Literally. [Sept 2002, p.161]

The awful camera throws a bucket of painfully cold water on an otherwise good time. [August 2002, p.130]

Without the strategy element to back it up, combat (by which I mean tapping the same button over and over) gets repetitive quickly. [August 2002, p.124]

C'mon, we're talking about a hack-and-slasher with stationary pinatas for targets here! [August 2002, p.126]

I wish I had room to mention all of the game's cool nuances; suffice it to say, compared to last year's edition, Superfly is a more well-rounded title. [August 2002, p.126]

There hasn't been a more thrilling motocross game since Nintendo's "Excitebike 64." [August 2002, p.124]

Fusion's control, graphics and tracks are so spot-on that once mastered, weaving through the curves at supersonic speeds becomes second-nature. [June 2002, p.112]

It feels less like a sequel and more like a remix of the original game. [June 2002, p.124]

The clunky control doesn't help; I never got the hang of aiming my rockets, no matter how much I practiced on the herds of sheep. [August 2002, p.124]

Despite my small gripes, Dead is stsill a must-have in any to-go gamer's pocket. [July 2002, p.126]

Mostly a scenic buzz through Africa and little else. [July 2002, p.120]

The fun is over too soon.

The result is a game that casual racers can handle, while real F1 geeks can turn all the realism up to full and enjoy one of the most competent F1 sims this side of the PC. [Sept 2002, p.150]

Might not be the deepest racing experience you'll ever have, but it's very satisfying. [August 2002, p.130]

What took me by surprise was the rather deep, involving golf game that lies beneath the crass interior. [Sept 2002, p.152]

Almost a wrestling fan's dream come true. But there's one thing that's keeping it from achieving greatness: the incredibly dull Create-A-Superstar mode. [August 2002, p.137]

This is as close as a console RPG has come to pen-and-paper games like "D&D": deep, non-linear and H-U-G-E, with more characters, towns and dungeons than you can imagine. [August 2002, p.134]

The third time is definitely not the charm. [July 2002, p.128]

A tamer, single-player "Time Crisis 2" with fewer unique enemies and lamer bosses. [August 2002, p.124]

You can almost feel the snap of a bone as your opponents bend your elbow 90 degrees too far -- the other way. [July 2002, p.120]

Loads of awesome game types to play with your buds. [August 2002, p.136]

The whole package is about as exciting as a flight attendant's safety demonstration. [July 2002, p.115]

Samurai's unique but ultimately clunky combat system avoids repititious button-mashing with parry-and-dodge techniques that keep you on your toes. [August 2002, p.130]

It's one of the worst games I've ever played. [July 2002, p.128]

The mission progression helps things gel, but the leaden controls and graphical sterility weigh down an otherwise decent action game. [August 2002, p.123]

The linear missions and non-interactive environments don't hold their own when compared to feature-rich PS2 shooters like "Red Faction" or "Deus Ex." But none of that matters, because in this game, presentation is everything. [July 2002, p.116]

A must-have in any to-go gamer's pocket. [July 2002, p.126]

A very solid racing title that, if anything, ,is just a tad too short. [July 2002, p.120]

This game hangs with the best of them, and in a few areas, outskates even "Tony 3." [August 2002, p.123]

I just couldn't help but get bored as I raced through the "Looniverse" - the game's simple straightforward tracks get tedious after the first couple of races. [August 2002, p.130]

A nifty, if linear, action-RPG. [August 2002, p.136]

Hunter would have benefitted from a ton more firepower - you know, the kind of bang-bang action where ammo is a foreign concept and you simply hold down the "kill" button to mow down everything in sight. [July 2002, p.122]

Developer Heavy Iron has captured the show's personality perfectly. The 3D characters look exactly like their cartoon counterparts, and it's stuffed with classic Doo touches to the bursting point. [July 2002, p.120]

It's just too bad the menus and team customization options require more intensity and concentration than the actual game. [July 2002, p.122]

Who needs the real-world risk when you can play the finest, most realistic motocycle-racing game on a console? [July 2002, p.124]

Sega stuck to the fundamentals, such as great control, gameplay and graphics. The result: a baseball game that sucked me into the action right after the first pitch. [July 2002, p.124]

Because the controls are overly ambitious (read: complex), instead of being a crack shot with mad skillz, Jake Slade is about as easy to control as a 6-year old kid. [June 2002, p.110]

Battling enemies is both frustrating and boring thanks to touchy hit detection and extremely repetitive fights. [June 2002, p.122]

You can drop a few quarters at the local arcade or half a Benjamin for the home version and still beat the game in one sitting. [June 2002, p.120]

You don't really face any hard-to-kill adversaries until you're well into the 16 missions. [July 2002, p.126]

A strategy junkie's dream come true. [May 2002, p.115]

Besides 5-year-old girly-girls who like, love Britney, the banal set of revolving cominations and a suck-it-for-all-it's-got song list will send you surfing on a contagious yawn-wave. [August 2002, p.123]

Provides the most intense street-racing rush I've ever experienced in a video game. [July 2002, p.124]

Not only do the backgrounds look amazing, but their realism combined with the confining effects of fixed camera angles makes this the scariest RE of all. [June 2002, p.116]

The sense of speed is incredible. [July 2002, p.122]

Konamix is worthy, an dif you enjoy music games, you owe it to yourself to get this one. [June 2002, p.120]

It's too bad World Cup's gameplay is so slow an ddeliberate, because I like other parts of it. [July 2002, p.115]

These games just haven't aged as well as the Final Fantasy or Lunar series. [Feb 2002, p.168]

The repetition and generally dated gameplay kept me from ever getting overly excited about playing it. [July 2002, p.118]

Now if it wasn't for the blasted controls! [May 2002, p.108]

In several aspects, this sequel out-classes its predecessor as a quality role-playing experience. [May 2002, p.115]

Save for a few additions to WOC, like some cool hamster-ball levels, it's almost identical to its predecessors. [May 2002, p.113]

I found the combat lame, the camera annoying, and some levels frustrating. [July 2002, p.124]

Spidey's radioactive powers aren't enough to ward off poor collision detection. [June 2002, p.124]

A bland flight-combat shooter. [June 2002, p.114]

Like it or not, this is an OLD game, and the play mechanics are archaic by today's standards. [June 2002, p.124]

Feverishly pressing on a D-pad the size of a piece of Lucky Charms get tiring quickly. [Apr 2002, p.137]

After a few levels I found that it's harder to stop dribbling at the urinal than it is to destroy the opposition. [May 2002, p.106]

Ex affords you a kind of gameplay latitude I haven't seen from any other action shooter. [June 2002, p.110]

Amazingly, for a game that costs 10 bucks, HRT is not the horrific tragedy it could have been. [May 2002, p.115]

Gameplay is average first-person shooter fare bogged down by a convoluted control scheme – switching weapons on the fly is its biggest problem. [May 2002, p.113]

Too frustrating to be fun. [June 2002, p.114]

Too hard...too slow...too ugly. [May 2002, p.107]

Combat is where Blood Omen 2 really outshines previous games in the series. [June 2002, p.109]

Fun for about an hour, and after that I doubt you'll ever pick it up again. [Apr 2002, p.146]

An enjoyable game that's always challenging but never frustrating. [June 2002, p.118]

BA's batter/pitcher duel is one of the best on any system, making the game a blast to play.[May 2002, p.115]

A thinking man's hoops game that looks (the lay-ups and fadeaways are sweet) and plays better than any other. [May 2002, p.112]

It's as simplistic a platformer as you can get. [May 2002, p.108]

The only noticeable difference between this and the PS2 version of PMW2 is that the load time has been reduced significantly. [May 2002, p.113]

No amount of graphical frosting can save GV from its terrible, overly complex controls...GV will frustrate the hell out of you. [Apr 2002, p.143]

This game can't even show a bunt without a glitchy flaw or two. [May 2002, p.114]

If you're looking for serious Blitz fun, get four friends together for multiplayer, as this is where the game really shines. [June 2002, p.120]

Mediocre at best. [June 2002, p.118]

SSS ensures a quick, pick-me-up rush of fun. [May 2002, p.113]

A meticulously balanced fighter's fighter – no cyborgs or polar bears or laser beams. It's simplicity perfected, and you'd be surprised how complex that can get. [May 2002, p.110]

Action: Yup, this game is packed with it. [June 2002, p.120]

Taps that bizarro vein and sucks it dry, with funny (intentionally and otherwise) voice acting and quirky characters. [May 2002, p.108]

Once I got used to the orchestral score, Mad Maestro was surprisingly enjoyable, long and difficult (which isn't exactly the norm in the genre). [May 2002, p.107]

I can't remember a game with almost nothing I would change...No other golf game keeps the action moving so well from one shot to the next. [Apr 2002, p.138]

Compared to smoother, more realistic titles such as "High Heat" (and to a lesser extent, "All-Star Baseball"), this is an embarrassment. [June 2002, p.114]

Lots of SS's gameplay mechanics don't really work; it gets too fast and chaotic at times, leaving you disoriented, out of control, and bouncing off objects like a pinball. [May 2002, p.109]

Enemy A.I. here might as well stand for "Artificial Idiocy." [May 2002, p.109]

The enemies are tougher and more frequent in the brutal second half, but I still enjoyed every thrilling moment. [May 2002, p.106]

Gamers prone to motion sickness might upchuck from the choppy visuals and squirrely camera, which flits around with a mind of its own. [May 2002, p.107]

You'll get plenty of quick-fun fixes from just free-skating around and linking tricks. [May 2002, p.115]

Great controls. Solid game design...Tony 3 has more personality, movies and creative stages than you know what to do with. [Apr 2002, p.146]

An unapologetic, balls-out sim that requires a serious time investment from the player. [May 2002, p.114]

Facial animations and motion-captured movement create eerily lifelike boxers. You can even see real-time reflections in the sweat on the boxers' backs – creepy. [Apr 2002, p.143]

Cooler character and enemy designs alone would have helped immensely. [June 2002, p.114]

Between the unstable camera, gooey controls, and fundamentally tough objectives, finishing Ecco is definitely a labor of love. [May 2002, p.107]