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

Maybe if this blah shooter had better controls - and maybe if you haven't played a first-person bast-em-up since 1995 - it would be worth your time. Ah, who am I kidding. Coded Arms would still suck. [Aug 2005, p.119]

Put simply, this game looks awful...An excercise in frustration with clumsy controls and uneven level design. [Nov 2004, p.150]

But mostly the gameplay comes down to trading fire with enemies who have way too much health and not ennough variety in battle tactics. [Nov. 2006, p.140]

What they've done is mash together a platform/coin-collecting game with a plodding kart-combat racer, then grafted on some escaped-from-a-cell-phone minigames. It's a Frankensteinian mess.

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

By axing most of the series' normal role-playing elements, the developers have effectively devolved Dawn of Mana into a linear adventure-platformer. [June 2007, p.90]

The Columns formula really isn't that fun. [Mar 2002, p.146]

It's just mediocre all around. [Jan. 2007, p.106]

What they've done is mash together a platform/coin-collecting game with a plodding kart-combat racer, then grafted on some escaped-from-a-cell-phone minigames. It's a Frankensteinian mess.

Playing Tao Feng is a lot like diarrhea; the longer it lasts, the more irritated you get. [May 2003, p.134]

Should be plenty fun for the very young ones in your family. [Mar 2002, p.141]

Viking simply doesn't do enough to stand up to the more polished action experiences out there. [June 2008, p.86]

Viking simply doesn't do enough to stand up to the more polished action experiences out there. [June 2008, p.86]

Bland gameplay, however, stifles what inspiration there is. The fighting action is fundamentally underwhelming, and a poor camera and constant loading further handcuff things.

Play Adventure for the solid traditional modes and adequate multiplayer, but don't expect to get too much enjoyment out of the dull platforming. [Sept. 2006, p.98]

Any joy you might glean from Tao's progressive treasure collecting and monster slaying will be completely drowned by your tears of boredom. [May 2006, p.108]

Only players with a "Top Gun" level of dedication will persevere. Everyone else will start looking for the eject button. [Aug 2006, p.88]

While I think it's kind of neat to have a big party of six tearing through dungeons, controlling them all during real-time combat is a bit cumbersome, and I wish the loot was a bit more inspiring than the generic fare you find here. [Mar 2007, p.95]

In more than 20 years of playing games, I have never seen a console game as obviously unfinished and rushed to market as Enter the Matrix...This game is a complete mess, and that's the only complete thing about it. [Aug 2003, p.114]

Excitement wears thin when you realize you're fighting the same enemies and running down the same corridors over and over. There's not even a real story to cling to, so players are left with little more than a few hours of tedious button mashing. [Oct 2003, p.163]

It took me exactly four hours and seven minutes to finish Astro Boy, which (if you buy the game at list price) comes out to around 10 dollars per hour. It's not a particularly memorable four hours, either. [Oct 2004, p.107]

Sorry, but the near total lack of horror in this survival horror game bored me plumb to sleep. [July 2003, p.116]

Evolution 2 has all the right ingredients to be fun – it just doesn’t put them together well. [Dec 2001, p.250]

In more than 20 years of playing games, I have never seen a console game as obviously unfinished and rushed to market as Enter the Matrix...This game is a complete mess, and that's the only complete thing about it. [Aug 2003, p.114]

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]

If only the Eskimos had 144 words for "tasteless" in their language, I would totally learn Inuit just to describe 187. As a game, I give 187 a 40, but as a product, my score is a negative f*** you. [Oct 2005, p.115]

May your future romantic disappointments be less expensive. [Jan. 2007, p.96]

Play Adventure for the solid traditional modes and adequate multiplayer, but don't expect to get too much enjoyment out of the dull platforming. [Sept. 2006, p.98]

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]

I usually have a hard time falling asleep on long flights. But I really did conk out during one of Delta Strike's many dull, virtual-lullaby cinema sequences. [March 2004, p.115]

Where&#146;s the freaking Dynasty mode? [Mar 2002, p.138]

Bland gameplay, however, stifles what inspiration there is. The fighting action is fundamentally underwhelming, and a poor camera and constant loading further handcuff things.

It's a button masher, pure and simple, with very little skill necessary. Sure, the unlockable rewards are fairly cool, but only the most patient DBZ faithfuls will suffer through it for that long.

If only the Eskimos had 144 words for "tasteless" in their language, I would totally learn Inuit just to describe 187. As a game, I give 187 a 40, but as a product, my score is a negative f*** you. [Oct 2005, p.115]

In more than 20 years of playing games, I have never seen a console game as obviously unfinished and rushed to market as Enter the Matrix...This game is a complete mess, and that's the only complete thing about it. [Aug 2003, p.114]

Problems from the first Raw carry over - matches plod on too long, and animations look unrealistic and robotic. Even diehard WWE fans should treat this as a rental. [Dec 2003, p.224]

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]

What a thermonuclear disappointment. To someone like me, who loved all three Fallout role-playing games on PC, this is a power fist to the face - an insult. [March 2004, p.114]

This game is awful. And also totally hilarious. [Feb 2004, p.120]

Instead of being boring, it's totally unbalanced and infuriating. [Jan 2004, p.142]

If someone handed you a lightsaber, I bet you, like me, would want to rip a lot of things a new poopchute with it. Unfortunately, this isn&#146;t the Ginsu simulator I was hoping for. [Feb 2002, p.168]

If the nausea-inducing camera doesn't kill your patience, the wacky wall-running and platform-leaping sections will. [May 2005, p.125]

An epic game. But like other grand-scale projects, say the movie "Waterworld" for example, it ends up spreading itself too thin for its own good. [Apr 2002, p.144]

Trust me: The nostalgia is lost after you bash your hundredth battle droid or start getting creamed by the enemies' cheap gang-up-on-you tactics. [July 2005, p.116]

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

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]

If the nausea-inducing camera doesn't kill your patience, the wacky wall-running and platform-leaping sections will. [May 2005, p.125]

What a thermonuclear disappointment. To someone like me, who loved all three Fallout role-playing games on PC, this is a power fist to the face - an insult. [March 2004, p.114]

Offers some decent (yet uninspired) missions to fly, but...true thrills are in short supply. [Nov 2003, p.184]

Monster Madness is a train wreck if you happen to be an only child or lack nearby friends. [June 2007, p.89]

It should be illegal for you to own money if you even considered buying this crap. [Jan 2004, p.189]

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

Inexplicably horrible graphics completely ruin an otherwise splendid title. [Feb 2002, p.156]

Besides the horrendous camera and controls, what irked me the most was how nonsensical it was. Its relentless linearity leads to jumping puzzles that make absolutely no sense. [Oct 2004, p.101]

Airblade sabotages everything it gets right with gameplay problems. [Mar 2002, p.135]

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

It almost seems like a kid's game - until you encounter bosses and trick shots that push your temper to full tilt. And speaking of tilt...where is it? [Nov 2004, p.152]

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]

You'll still have to deal with irritating load times and janky collision detection problems (it's easy to get your car stuck on objects and buildings). [Mar 2002, p.141]

Never thought Vikings could be so boring. [Oct 2001, p.148]

The fakeout mechanic that allows you to maximize your gambling dollar is pretty cool, and the over-the-shoulder camera gives a neat Punch-Out!! vibe...but that's about it for the highlights. The rest of the game, from the shallow fight mechanics to the load times to the bland backgrounds, is very mediocre.

It's like an old-school Sonic game minus anything that made those games good. [Jan. 2007, p.106]

Fun dance patterns, not great music, make dance games worth playing. It's an interesting idea that doesn't quite work. [Sept. 2006, p.106]

I felt like I was on my way to pick up the kids from school rather than racing. [Nov 2002, p.306]

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]

In the end, Live 07 reminds me of Shaq at the charity stripe: It throws up way too many bricks. [Dec. 2006, p.126]

If anyone ever caught you playing this game and heard its so-bad-it's-not-even-good music, it would replace that time you got the porno tape stuck in your parents' VCR as the most embarrassing moment of your life. [Sept 2003, p.112]

Besides the horrendous camera and controls, what irked me the most was how nonsensical it was. Its relentless linearity leads to jumping puzzles that make absolutely no sense. [Oct 2004, p.101]

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

All quirky style with little substance, Overdose has you blasting through endless hordes of goons - although the real enemy is the camera and clunky controls. [Dec 2004, p.170]

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]

The movie might be OK. But the game? It's a lifeless, mediocre beat-em-up.[Mar 2003, p.134]

Unlocking new tracks is a tedious chore - and even then, the tracks all look too similar. [Dec 2002, p.228]

Only a hollow shell of the landmark 1979 series that started it all. [Oct 2001, p.148]

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]

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

Playing DHV makes me feel like Hans Gruber at the end of the first "Die Hard" film: falling backward toward the pavement, flailing and screaming. [Dec 2002, p.228]

Besides the horrendous camera and controls, what irked me the most was how nonsensical it was. Its relentless linearity leads to jumping puzzles that make absolutely no sense. [Oct 2004, p.101]

I could've dealt with the much-lauded adventure elements, subpar graphics--even that clown Shadow--but the bottom line is that this feels more like some hack job created by a bunch of Sega interns as opposed to a game from a competent developement studio. [Jan. 2007, p.95]

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]

Expect a stale, low-tech dungeon crawl that feels like it fell out of 1999. [Feb 2003, p.144]

It's painfully obvious that Astonishia does nothing to ebb the flow of downright disappointing roleplayers on the portable Playstation. [Aug 2006, p.92]

Combat feels stiff, rote, and only semi-interactive: dodge an enemy's flurry, then press the correct sequence of buttons (ad nauseam) to counterattack. [Nov 2003, p.178]

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]

That its online component is limited to a linear and moderately laggy co-op mode - and therefore feels even more ponderous than the single-player game - does little to spirit this comic book tie-in from gaming purgatory. [July 2008, p.80]

This game's simply schizophrenic; it attempts to be all these things to all people, so in the end result is in dire need of polish and focus. [Oct 2008, p.88]

That its online component is limited to a linear and moderately laggy co-op mode - and therefore feels even more ponderous than the single-player game - does little to spirit this comic book tie-in from gaming purgatory. [July 2008, p.80]

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]

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

The game will keep youngins busy, but if any gamer over the age of 10 gets stuck playing this thing, well, that&#146;s gotta hurt! [Nov 2001, p.210]

Throw in boring unskippable intros and interstitials in every stage, and congratulations: Katana completely lost my attention. [Feb 2008, p.79]

The play-style variety may be decent--and you get to upgrade abilities--but each character's level sets grow horribly repetitive and pointless, with stingy checkpoint placement compounding the frustration [July 2006, p.91]

Collectively, the infuriating missions and maddening difficulty swings prove to be overwhelming, sucking away what little fun there is. [Nov 2004, p.136]

The controls are stiffer and less forgiving than Ike Turner on Viagra, and when your crash-prone rider respawns after eating dirt, he's often facing a wall. [Sept 2003, p.122]

You absolutely need more than one (perhaps two) friends to get past the game's flaws: bland menus, a ridiculously annoying announcer, and less than 50 minigames that get old fast. [Mar 2007, p.88]

No online support and "everyone's the same" characters mean no reason to bother at all. [Jun 2006, p.110]

The play-style variety may be decent--and you get to upgrade abilities--but each character's level sets grow horribly repetitive and pointless, with stingy checkpoint placement compounding the frustration [July 2006, p.91]