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]