With a stellar script from the show's writers and outstanding cinematography and voice acting, it really feels like you're playing through a season of 24. Good show. [Apr 2006, p.100]

I remain a firm supporter of the original PS2 Roses, but this flaccid follow-up fails to get me in the mood. [May 2006, p.89]

My biggest gripe is that the special moves are ineffective to the point of being useless, and you can rack up over 20 blocked shots a game, which is absolutely ridiculous. [Dec 2002, p.212]

I recommend Bug Mutha Truckers for the occasinal distraction or one-nighter, but don't expect it to keep you entertained for the long haul. [Aug 2003, p.111]

You'll never get lost instantly die from misjudged jumps, or have to play through difficult parts ten times over. Consequently, it's also a little too easy. [Oct 2003, p.135]

Essentially, it has the appeal of publisher Capcom's previous superdeformed novelty, "Pocket Fighter" (PS1): It's an awesome showcase for series cameos and artwork, but it doesn't work as well as a fighting game as it does a museum.

Problem is, getting to the good stuff requires battling through a blitzkrieg of banality. [May 2006, p.98]

Gamers weaned on faster smackdowns and who aren't turned on by the idea of a showdown between Megalon and Destoroyah should proceed with caution. [Holiday 2004, p.106]

Lamentably, this FFT doppelganger actually reminds me more of Tactics Ogre, and that’s a stop back for the genre. [Feb 2002, p.168]

RE3's high price and disappointing lack of extras mean I can't recommend it as anything more than a rental for those new to the series. [Mar 2003, p.128]

A camera system that hates you dominates throughout. [Jan 2003, p.194]

At best, BlackSite is a poor man's "Resistance"; at worst, it's half of an unfinished game with a few cool set pieces. [Holiday 2007, p.74]

Complete rosters and statsitical tracking complement a simple, quick and fun game engine. [Nov 2001, p.222]

It does prove entertaining in multihour bursts, it's just that it feels unsubstantial compared to better titles. [March 2005, p.128]

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]

It's dog slow, with shallow gameplay and a whole three varieties of power-ups. [July 2003, p.110]

Larry's surreal brand of dong-and-fart humor lost me somewhere between the fifth date-rape joke and the gay-bar sing-along...The meat of the game - the cheesy, lowbrow funny business - goes limp in mere minutes. [Dec 2004, p.148]

A no-frills but still decent update. You can exit your car now! Wow! [Jan 2004, p.188]

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

Wrath on the GC is much more polished here than on the PS2. [Nov 2002, p.306]

But it's mostly mediocre. Fantastic 4 desperately tries to break up the button mashing with lame minigames, like hacking a door by doing preschool puzzles, which just made the game feel like a fantastic chore.

To learn how to perform each event, you need to check the directions from the pause menu; what happened to just explaining the mechanics onscreen? [Sept 2004, p.102]

Breaking up recipes into several steps, each its own minigame, is an enjoyably elegant gameplay mechanism; it works particularly well here on the Wii. [May 2007, p.80]

And like "Dynasty Warriors 4: Empires," it mistakes drastically overcomplicated tactical menus for strategic depth...but underneath, it's just another tepid hack-n-slash tour of ancient China. Wise man say: Learn some new tricks.

Technological feats aside, N3 doesn't do much else....er, make that anything else that you haven't seen from this stuck-in-the-mud genre. [Sept. 2006, p.96]

Ostensibly a real-time strategy title, Future Tactics is really a glorified game of hide-and-seek: You either fall into your enemy's sights or manage to luck out for another turn. [July 2004, p.94]

The lack of a career mode and create-a-wrestler (both considered genre norms) makes Bandai's grappler one of the shallowest wrasslin' titles out there. [July 2004, p.98]

This includes multiplayer, which is a joke: dull levels, instant respawns in capture the flag (try invading a base when downed enemies just reappear right away, with full health), and a horrible interface that leaves online soldiers more confused than eagerly anticipating the action. [Aug 2004, p.110]

A little more fantasy throughout the game might have given ADS the personality it desperately needs. [Jan 2002, p.231]

Laughable characters aside, this game just ain't fun. It's so simple that even experienced players fare better pounding one button than trying to executre combos or reversals. [July 2003, p.122]

Even with my "I dig all things Star Wars" glasses on, I still realize this is an average-at-best game. [Feb. 2007, p.99]

The throwaway storyline, endless loading times, small environments and barely Dreamcast-quality graphics are instant turn-offs. [Jan 2002, p.230]

Fortune II doesn't have the same visual polish or addictive team-based onlne play of ["Return to Castle Wolfenstein"]. [Aug 2003, p.112]

Isn't a terrible game, but its sketchy camera, imprecise controls, and lackluster combat relegate it to the realm of the terribly average to me. [Jan 2004, p.124]

Reminisce feels like a long-winded anime with mediocre RPG battle mechanics grafted on just so they could sell the thing for more money. [June 2007, p.92]

NC is too shallow to be an RPG and too complicated to be a quick-fix good time...highly repetitive. [Mar 2002, p.144]

Seven Sorrows baits you with a role-playing-game-style character development system, but the game's short length (easily clocking in under six hours) makes leveling up unrewarding.

With the bland levels, generic PS1-era platform gameplay, and cheap enemies, you shouldn't bother. [Sept 2005, p.116]

The game deteriorates into a sloppy mess of nonsensical objectives, oh-so-awkward moments, and guards as brainy as microbes. [Oct 2004, p.110]

The game's strange mix of sim and arcade gameplay will please no one, and will leave serious Lotus fans in support groups, talking about what could have been. [June 2003, p.124]

Rogue Agent does do a lot of things extremely well, though. The enemies are realistic, ducking in an out of cover, constantly moving, even updating each other on what you're doing ("He's behind the bar!" - brilliant). [Jan 2005, p.130]

But it's mostly mediocre. Fantastic 4 desperately tries to break up the button mashing with lame minigames, like hacking a door by doing preschool puzzles, which just made the game feel like a fantastic chore. [Sept 2005]

Besides the poor enemy A.I., the paint-by-numbers gameplay (requiring surgically precise cursor movement for actions like jumping or climbing) makes the action feel canned. [Dec 2003, p.195]

The in-game dialogue has all the creativity and wit of a Fred Basset cartoon. [Nov 2001, p.222]

Factor in obscene load times and overly difficult enemy A.I., and it's a game that only rabid X-fans will enjoy.l [Jan 2003, p.194]

This game is so supremely easy for anyone to pick up and play that what initially seems one-dimensional and lame ends up leading to awesome multiplayer. [Nov 2003, p.196]

Shooting centerfolds and putting together a magazine is halfway interesting, but the gameplay is nothing more than a third-rate "Sims" clone. [April 2005, p.114]

Business as usual. [July 2008, p.84]

Too many levels center on mindless droid hacking. [Aug 2005, p.110]

Even if you play through both titles multiple times to see all of the branching missions, you can still blow through it in a day or two. [Dec 2002, p.218]

You can save anywhere or enter and exit battles as needed - nice touches that make this one user-friendly. [March 2005, p.124]

Combat is sloppy, with poor hit detection and enemies that score cheap shots; all of the fun special moves have to be unlocked, which requires meeting unreasonably difficult time and health goals; and most of the levels devolve into tiresome thug/robot hunts.

It's the boring level designs that annoy me the most. [Nov 2002, p.296]

Voice recognition will be a lot more fun when it <I>works</I>. Until then, if I really want to be ignored and misunderstood by a girl, I'll go clubbing and hit on the hughty hipster chick in the Pabst Blue Ribbon T-shirt. [Apr 2004, p.118]

By combining the original's gadgets and controls with "Mario Party"-esque minigames, Escape fails to be more than the sum of its parts. [Holiday 2004, p.108]

The action isn't bad - just appallingly generic. [Jan 2004, p.110]

But as much as I enjoy building giant human mousetraps, the package here is light on content. And without any real guidance, you have to make your own fun. Imagination sold separately.

Well, for what it's worth, Dynasty Warriors: Gundam wins the distinction of being the first game that made me fall asleep while playing it. [Sept 2007, p.92]

Basically, it's a game with loads of potential, but awful physics and endless technical glitches are the real crime here.

Too bad the side-scrolling gameplay is so generic. You're best off staying far, far away from this galaxy. [Dec 2004, p.170]

Rogue Agent does do a lot of things extremely well, though. The enemies are realistic, ducking in an out of cover, constantly moving, even updating each other on what you're doing ("He's behind the bar!" - brilliant). [Jan 2005, p.130]

Rogue Agent does do a lot of things extremely well, though. The enemies are realistic, ducking in an out of cover, constantly moving, even updating each other on what you're doing ("He's behind the bar!" - brilliant). [Jan 2005, p.130]

Fight the war with friends instead: Co-op mode minimizes casualties and lets the otherwise captivating "oh sh***!" moments shine. [Dec 2004, p.156]

It's a decent enough action-platforming romp, sure, but it's clearly not the product of the real Wario crew. [May 2007, p.87]

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

Facing friends is better, but even with the fancy animation and sound effects, why not just clear the kitchen table and play the original? [Nov 2003, p.178]

Basically, it's a game with loads of potential, but awful physics and endless technical glitches are the real crime here.

An above-average shooting title that feels a lot like Sega's "The House of the Dead" games. [Sept 2002, p.150]

Too many levels center on mindless droid hacking. [Aug 2005, p.110]

Larry's surreal brand of dong-and-fart humor lost me somewhere between the fifth date-rape joke and the gay-bar sing-along...The meat of the game - the cheesy, lowbrow funny business - goes limp in mere minutes. [Dec 2004, p.148]

I am certainly a big fan of the game's vibrant, anime-inspired graphics, but with no replay value and a lot of frustrating, nonsensical puzzles, Touch Detective isn't quite worth solving. [Nov. 2006, p.141]

The whole package amounts to a single "Vice City" car mission in which you tail jalopies along rigidly scripted trails, but without the room for improvisation you'd find in "GTA." [Nov 2003, p.173]

As a fan of both shooters and fighters, I dig the shooter-fighter mashup concept--it's just a shame that it really doesn't work as well as you'd imagine. [July 2007, p.89]

Too bad it handles like a remote-control car, bolting from a stand-still to top speed in an instant. I'll pass. [Apr 2008, p.73]

There's no sense of progression, only a sickening sense of tedium as you're dropped into the next box of a level and take on another too easy minion, too tough boss, and the too bewildering camera.

No way would I recommend this game to legal eagles with the superior "Phoenix Wright" titles already out there. [Feb 2008, p.78]

The sad truth, however, is that the game pales in every conceivable way to its fellow pro brethren. [Oct 2002, p.184]

On a basic level, however, the game's still fun - simple, yes, but immediately engaging no matter what kind of gamer you are. [Feb 2005, p.114]

With its forgettable characters, interminable load times, and mind-numbingly dull battles, Blade Dancer assaults players with such profound mediocrity that only the most tenacious questers will make it beyond the first few hours. [Aug 2006, p.93]

Beyond isn't survival-horror, exactly...more like annoyance-horror. The creepy moonbase is spectacularly atmospheric, yes, but many of the puzzles are extremely difficult (I doubt anyone will finish this without some Internet assistance), and important items have a habit of hiding from you in dark, missed areas. [Sept 2004, p.104]

Jericho is a mess of a shooter with nonexistant A.I., frustrating timed events, vague puzzles, and PS1-style load times. [Dec 2007, p.107]

Ostensibly a real-time strategy title, Future Tactics is really a glorified game of hide-and-seek: You either fall into your enemy's sights or manage to luck out for another turn. [July 2004, p.94]

Webslingin' remains the selling point, but the combat--although built from the ground up for this game--still consists of random button mashing. [July 2007, p.88]

Some of the problems are rookie mistakes, like players not always going after stray balls, while others are more serious: Street has a tendency to slow down at the worst moments, like during a mad scramble at the goal mouth, and that just plain sucks.

A FRICKIN' RIP-OFF... [yet] still deserves playing. [Apr 2003, p.128]

Basically, it's a game with loads of potential, but awful physics and endless technical glitches are the real crime here.

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

A Zelda: Wind Waker&#150;esque cartoony graphics style would have been perfect for Jack, who, now that he's 3D, looks kind of like Jay Leno or John Kerry what with his freakishly long chin. And the cut-scenes&#151;often the only good part of a licensed game like this&#151;are embarrassing.

Darkness' molasses pace, cut-rate presentation, and simplistic throwaway quests leech any sense of drama or importance. [Aug 2005, p.113]

Control is a bit janky, maknig cheap deaths easy. The camera also tends to obscure things. [Oct 2005, p.120]

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

Framerate lag (stuttering graphics) cuts into some of the more action-packed bullet storms, potentially ruining key game moments. [Jan 2002, p.222]

A Zelda: Wind Waker&#150;esque cartoony graphics style would have been perfect for Jack, who, now that he's 3D, looks kind of like Jay Leno or John Kerry what with his freakishly long chin. And the cut-scenes&#151;often the only good part of a licensed game like this&#151;are embarrassing.

The presentation feels more like local-access television than Wrestlemania's glamorous theatrics. [Feb 2003, p.146]

The main single-player mode is fairly short and repetitive as well, so with no online play, FIFA won't be in your rotation for long unless you've got some soccer-obsessed pals.

Seven Sorrows baits you with a role-playing-game-style character development system, but the game's short length (easily clocking in under six hours) makes leveling up unrewarding.

Instead, you get a short, straightforward adventure game with predictable puzzles and tedious, sloppy combat. [Oct. 2006, p.113]