All these modes, combined with the incredibly entertaining gameplay and four-player support, add up to a sports game with plenty of play life.

The best fighting experience available on home consoles...One of the slickest fighting games ever.

The gameplay is surprisingly tight.

While the gameplay is still overly derivative of games like "Colony Wars" and "Wing Commander," and doesn't quite capture the "Star Wars" feel in the same way the "Rogue Squadron" games do, it's a massive step in the right direction.

One of those rare titles that benefit from being played loud. All the background noise (or lack thereof) will play with your mind to the point that you'll be taking frequent breaks to collect yourself.

Racing doesn't get much grittier than this. Here's mud in your eye!

It's not cutting-edge, but this gritty, violent, and incredibly dark adventure into the occult is just the thing for horror fans looking for something smart and very off beat.

The result could be the best "Star Trek" game ever -- maybe not in terms of pure strategic or simulation gameplay, but certainly in terms of being true to its license.

As a first-person shooter, it doesn't quite reach the level of a "Quake" or "Half-Life," but neither is the correct measuring stick, since the gameplay here falls somewhere in between the two.

A step down from the audio and visuals, unfortunately, is the gameplay. The No. 1 culprit has to be the frustrating batting mechanics.

The simplification of the gameplay also tends to make the game feel a bit repetitive, and it can be frustrating to repeatedly try to make the same jump to that last graffiti spot only to fall and be forced to climb all the way back up and try again...[yet] one of the best games on the Xbox.

While there's room for improvement in terms of graphics and sound, it easily makes up for it in realism.

The biggest problem is that despite the large number of tracks, the racing starts to feel the same after a while. The races are exercises in cutting off your opponents, grabbing the turbo power-ups at the right time, and learning to take curves properly.

While the graphics aren't especially mind-blowing, they complement the game's overall feel and make the unbelievable story that much more appealing.

It's essentially a one-trick pony -- short, fast, fun, and to the point, just like a good arcade experience should be, but not exactly what gamers hungry to spend $50 will call filling.

Featuring an interesting story line and fresh spin on classic gameplay, it may just barely make its way onto the short list of great pirate-themed titles to hit videogame consoles.

It's the most graphically inferior Xbox title yet, and while the controls and combat are entertaining, the bland level design and shortage of puzzles make the gameplay repetitive and boring.

There's not nearly enough depth or substance to the game to recommend it. SoE is a game full of sound and fury, signifying a rental at best.

The general AI of the characters seems confused when not actively engaged in grappling. This is especially true of tag matches, where the computer will sometimes forget whose side it's on.

Engaging, visually stunning, and a whole lot of fun to play.

A perfect complement to Maximo's music is its sound effects. Everything from sword and shield clashes to more subtle ambient noises are excellent.

An excellent "pick-up-and-play" title. The trouble is most will be satisfied enough by "picking up" the controller just once to play this.

Typifies the phrase "easy to learn, hard to master."

A fairly solid title, but it falls short of the mark for a big "Sonic" release.

Even though the game is well thought out and relatively well executed, it's not the most exciting subject matter.

All the important elements that made "Super Mario World" a classic are preserved in this portable version and should inspire other companies to revive other SNES titles for possible GBA ports.

Given that all you're doing is shooting everything around you, it's almost essential to give the player a continual sense of progress and achievement by opening up new locales frequently. Otherwise the whole exercise collapses under its own redundancy.

One area that the game is really lacking in, however, is its soundtrack.

Buildings are built noticeably faster now. Especially huge projects like the airport. Now there is a random damage element courtesy of the elements themselves, occasional storms will pass through and they can put a final nail in your faltering economy, or at least slow down a burgeoning one (this feature is optional).

Simply experiencing the old-school "Sonic" gameplay again after so many years of 3D titles makes the title a must-have for longtime "Sonic" fans.

Suffers from a lack of replay value: Once you get the hang of its flawed controls, it is possible to get a gold medal in each event within an hour or so of play, leaving little reason to ever touch the game again.

You could easily spend 40 hours or more if you wanted to explore every inch of the levels and do all the secondary quests in the game...a solid, if not spectacular, gaming experience.

Suffers from a lack of replay value: Once you get the hang of its flawed controls, it is possible to get a gold medal in each event within an hour or so of play, leaving little reason to ever touch the game again.

Addictive, brilliant, and fun. It has an intuitive interface, charmingly simplistic graphics, and the relaxing yet relentless pacing that always denotes a Sid Meier game.

What began as a simple tale of a dog and the flower he loves has become a farcical, overblown imitation of a cheesy action movie with little challenge or replay value. As unfortunate as it is for gamers to be let down so early in the new year, it must be said that PaRappa 2 is the first disappointment of 2002.

It provides simple, addictive gameplay for the novice with enough depth for all but the most spreadsheet-crazed war gamer.

While it does not have the seemingly endless replay value of the original, the tighter gameplay works well for a more straightforward gaming experience.

While a bit overblown and convoluted...The story is solid, the graphics are spectacular, and the action is fast-paced and frantic.

One of the finest first-person shooters to hit the PC in years. It is intense, fast-moving, challenging, and despite the unrealistic elements, it feels real.

Dark Arena's graphics are average at best. Much of the architecture is plain-looking and the average enemy sports only a half-dozen character animations.

Not only does the commentary get old after a few games, but Ralph Lawler and Van Earl Wright, who provide the play-by-play commentary, sound eerily alike. The commentary may be accurate and colorful, but it'll be one of the first things you'll turn off when you want to concentrate on gameplay.

One of the freshest titles in recent memory in both concept and execution.

Another problem...is its incredibly jumpy sense of physics...It's far too easy for your boat to get battered around in the waves.

The level design is generally uninspired. It doesn't take full advantage of your Jedi powers.

Exquisite graphics and sublime gameplay...It's just a shame that not all the voice work is as good as it could have been. It's also too bad that the FF minigames have once again taken away any hope of fully appreciating the game's story.

While it may sound fun, the play control and physics in the game are rather loose, resulting in unresponsive vehicle controls and collision detection that has you occasionally hitting objects you aren't even touching as you drive.

The camera is sometimes unwieldy, and for some bizarre reason can only be rotated around Jak, not moved vertically, though there is a first-person view that lets you look around. Beyond that, however, Jak and Daxter is an excellent example of a 3D platformer.

A showcase of a game. There is so much to do and unlock, both in the single-player and multiplayer modes, that the title can easily eat up dozens of hours of your time.

At normal difficulty (which is actually quite easy) the game should take about eight to 10 hours to complete. There is replay value in the different characters, although the dungeons and quests remain identical.

It's one of the few singularly unique titles to find its way to shelves this year and is truly great fun.

With its unique setup and variety of multiplayer modes, Ecks vs. Sever is a title worth checking out.

It's unfortunate that the gameplay of Mojo Jojo-A-Go-Go is unbalanced, the graphics are subpar, and the audio fails to impress. With a classic gameplay setup such as the side-scrolling shooter, this GBA title had potential to be an above-average cartoon tie-in.

Dark Summit is rated H for half-baked...Though pretty, [it] manages to be both repetitive and too short.

Truly stunning visuals, excellent, non-linear map design, hours of playtime, and an innovative magic system help bring it up a notch above the competition. Unfortunately, the control problems, a few technical glitches, a slow start, and a lousy camera hamper the experience.

Even though there are minor pacing problems at times, RtCW delivers an amazing single-player and multiplayer game, and for first-person shooter fans, it's a must-own.

If you have a GeForce III or comparably advanced graphics card, the game might be worth picking up as a showcase, or as a simple and fun -- if slightly disappointing -- arcade-style shooter.

Amped isn't the most fun-filled snowboarding game you can buy, but it's easily the deepest and most satisfying.

In one stage, Imperial walkers are deployed into shallow water. You see the walkers' reflections in the water, and the sand beneath the water can be seen as well, with the walkers' feet crushing it as it lumbers up to the shore.

Madden NFL 2002 not only plays an incredibly deep and solid game of football, but it showcases the system's versatility for handling a fast-paced sports simulation.

if you're willing to take the time to get over the initial awkwardness of steering, you're in for one of the freshest and most rewarding water racing experiences since the original "Wave Race."

All the action in the game takes place in and around a single mansion. It may be a richly textured mansion with little visual surprises in every nook and cranny, but it's still just one house and can sometimes feel a little claustrophobic.

The extremely clean graphics, married to addictive, simple gameplay are enough to recommend this title.

This game is about jumping puzzles, timing puzzles, and exploration -- all very simple and not at all challenging.

Stunning. "Oddworld" is better than it's ever been, and everything about "Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee" is refined, polished, and utterly playable.

An excellent, sophisticated, and mature game that will appeal to sci-fi and action fans, and currently represents the best of what Xbox has to offer.

It's a shame, because this game, while merely good, does hint at the possibility of a truly great RPG, given another development cycle or two.

The game's soundtrack mix of classic football marches combined with hip-hop and drum loops...gets almost annoying by game two.

It's offbeat, diverse, and boisterous, and the cool graphics and variety of things to do give "Frenzy" a singular distinction in the Xbox library.

Easily the best-looking console racer to date...Expanding the kudos system to include bigger payoffs for clean racing would help make "Project Gotham" more well-rounded.

Unfortunately, aside from slight interludes and fantastic-looking, if generally pointless, prerendered end movies, any actual meaningful bits of plot are almost nonexistent for most of the characters...[yet] one of the greatest fighting games ever made.

The game is both visually interesting and colorful, running at a consistent 60 frames per second, and the quality of animation looks like something you'd see on a Saturday morning cartoon.

Not only adds more stuff to the Sims canon, it improves and more importantly expands the game in subtle but far-reaching ways.

The most ambitious and complicated real-time strategy game ever made. This will make it a joy to devout fans of the genre, but an overwhelming mess to everyone else.

MGS2 suffers in its story. I can't spoil it for you, but I can at least warn you to be prepared for a plot that frequently reaches levels of sheer absurdity.

The "Star Wars" universe was clearly warped to fit over the AOE II lattice. Air combat loses some of its appeal as you watch tie fighters and X-wings hovering stationary over an enemy building, dropping bombs and shooting grunt soldiers on the ground.

It's the best original (nonport) GBA RPG to date, sporting stellar graphics, above-average sound, and a worthwhile experience (at least 20 hours of gameplay) that should make that next family roadtrip that much more tolerable.

The intense strategic gameplay alone makes it one of the better RTS titles released in recent years.

An excellent game. From its graphical prowess to its fast-paced gameplay and killer soundtrack, it doesn't fail to deliver in a single area.

Every cut scene makes reference to events or characters from previous titles, and newcomers will likely be lost as to their significance. Since the gameplay itself is subpar to the point of being at times unforgivably dull, those not here for the story will find little to hold their attention.

The marine single-player is exceptional and the multiplayer is very strong. The predator and alien single-player games just pale in comparison, but they don't detract from the other two.

The entrancing music and compellingly complex but accessible gameplay are still unparalleled, making minutes transform into hours as your nights are dominated by the story of your civilization.

A rare and beautiful thing, a nearly perfect game.

The graphics, though pixilated, are well done and utilize the GBA hardware competently. The monsters still look as threatening as ever, and the action animation is solid.

Aside from an inability to fully control Batman in the first-person mode, many of the things he can do -- such as sneak along walls and use the Bat Grappling Hook -- end up as fairly clichéd means to add puzzle sequences or even just length to the game.

An amazing experience, resulting in a classic crime drama on par with "Heat," "Goodfellas," or "Casino."

Where sound does suffer is in the audio levels. There are times where dialog gets so drowned out by both the music and the sound effects you can't understand a single word a character's saying.

The game won't win any awards for sound design, but the eye-popping graphics more than make up for that.

It features a tighter back story, a more streamlined and interactive combat model, the ability to play the game the way you want to play, and best of all, does so in an easy to understand, even friendly manner.

The novelty of the premise wears thin after about an hour. This is not good, especially for a game that takes about 25 hours to complete.

The tedium, bugs, and simplicity of the game itself outweigh much of the value the game offers in its size or even its faithful translation of the 3rd Edition rules, making this Pool of Radiance but a shallow reflection of the earlier classic.

Ship movements are heavily physics-based, which can make even simple movements near space stations or other ships problematic for anyone unused to this sort of gameplay. Docking is especially nightmarish for new players.

The controls are too simple to make you want to play the game for very long.

Seldom has sound, vision, and control worked in such perfect harmony. Most players will find themselves wanting to play SH2 right after they finish it the first time.

Best of all, the sound mix supports DTS 5.1 output, allowing you to literally feel every hit when cranked up loud enough on the right system.

Despite a solid concept behind it, NHL Hitz 2002 has neither the gameplay nor the presentation level to deliver.

Paradigm has managed to give the series a true upgrade while retaining the excitement of the original right down to some pretty snazzy remakes of the Peter Gunn theme.

The moment Ico first takes Yorda's hand in his is as organic and human as anything seen in interactive entertainment. Sony has created a classic that is both a stunning technical achievement and a perfect example of a videogame as art.

While not terribly complex, the racing itself makes for excellent fun, and the intricacies and unlockable features are more than enough here to keep you coming back for more.