Many virtual-reality titles feel more like technical demos than fully formed experiences, and Robinson: The Journey belongs on that list – though it tries to fool you into thinking it doesn’t. A few elements add the illusion of depth, but they feel like shallow afterthoughts. This journey is just a linear tour of the world with no meaningful deviations and barely functional controls, all for the dubious benefit of seeing some cool VR dinosaurs.

The only saving grace that this game has is its combat mechanic. By no means is it good, but it’s competent, and successful in making you feel like you clocked someone pretty hard. If you have some friends over, you can delve into four-player co-op. However, like a friend who picks out a crappy movie, there’s a good chance that your buddies will mock you for this spirit-crushing game for the remainder of your days.

Sure, Mini Coopers are neat little cars, but I think I would rather be run over by one than play this game again. [Aug 2003, p.91]

The worst thing about this title is that there are no dowloadable questions, so you can run out fast. I also don't know why they didn't make use of all the different Trivial Pursuit editions out there. [Aug 2004, p.96]

Unless you're a hardcore fan of BurgerTime, Peter Pepper's Ice Cream Factory or Bad Dudes, you're better off saving your quarters. [Issue#203, p.97]

There is nothing here that you can't experience elsewhere in a better game. [Dec 2006, p.156]

Gamers eager for a new experience tailored to the Wii U likely have their eyes on ZombiU. It shows off nearly every feature of Nintendo's new hardware, but the sum of these parts is a horrifying Frankenstein's Monster. Good zombie games are a dime a dozen these days, and I can't recommend ZombiU above them despite being the only undead shooter on the Wii U.

Knock-Knock offers players two different endings based on how quickly they finish the game, neither of which provides any kind of satisfying conclusion or explanation as to what the heck is going on in the game. Ultimately, Ice-Pick Lodge is right; Knock-Knock isn't much of a game – or a story, for that matter – which makes it hard to recommend.

Only in Cel Damage does a guy with an axe beat out a gatling gun. [Dec 2001, p.101]

Environments are uninspired, the dirt effects are dull, and tricks take too long to develop. [Jan 2002, p.83]

There is simply no reason for a PlayStation 2 game to look this bad. I mean, the framerate chugs when you're walking, fer Chrissakes! [Mar 2003, p.83]

To put it bluntly, the storytelling is a laughable farce. [July 2002, p.83]

It’s sad to see so many good ideas go to waste. From the exploration of the wondrous world to the intricate political situation of its denizens, Gothic 3 nails a good chunk of the role-player’s wet dream. The character progression is solid and the core mechanics are good, yet I will never ever recommend this to anyone that I even remotely like. Yes, one broken system can ruin a game this completely.

The levels are linear and dull, and for some reason you can only take cover in specified circles in the environment, which takes away any sense of reality or spontaneity. [Dec 2004, p.168]

While Atelier Annie offers some entertaining strategic elements, the lack of depth, exploration, and compelling battles keeps the game short of a winning recipe. [Jan 2010, p.91]

Congratulations, Wii owners! While Xbox 360, PS3, and PC owners are enjoying the latest chapter of Brothers in Arms in high definition, you get to relive the glory of the first two games in this buggy, ugly-as-hell port that eliminates the multiplayer and sabotages the single-player campaign with frequent stutters and framerate issues.

I'm sorry, but running around the same old loopy track designs in generic space bikes just isn't cutting it, and I really think developers need to either totally reinvent this genre or abandon it. [Nov. 2003, p.153]

As a huge fan of Doom and someone interested in the possibilities of virtual reality, I came away from VFR immensely disappointed. Outside of some nifty moments involving the slo-mo mechanic, VFR just isn’t compelling. The finicky teleporting mechanic hinders movement, the levels don’t accommodate VR well, the protagonist is annoying, and the combat isn’t fun. The biggest selling point for VFR is that it’s a full campaign in virtual reality, but with stiff competition in the genre like Robo Recall and Superhot VR, it’s hard for me to recommend Doom VFR to anyone.

Extremely boring. [Jan 2002, p.98]

A workmanlike, uninspired racer that just doesn't do enough to sutain my interest. [Aug 2003, p.93]

Despite my preconception that handling baggage at an airport is not enjoyable, I wanted Aero Porter to surprise me. Unfortunately, it didn't.

Collectors will get a kick out of it for some of the extra data, but the games don’t quite have the same luster as they do when you play it on an actual unit (although "Astrosmash" is much easier to play using the PS2). d-pad)

The levels are linear and dull, and for some reason you can only take cover in specified circles in the environment, which takes away any sense of reality or spontaneity. [Dec 2004, p.168]

As much as I’d love to own a panda, after an eight-hour shift in the dullest pet shop in the planet, I was ready to tell my mom to stuff the allowance.

Soulstorm retains the series' signature charm, but it's not enough to forgive its tedious and dated design as well its litany of swear-inducing technical issues.

Sadly, the gameplay is buggy. [June 2002, p.79]

Shadow Labyrinth is such an odd concept that I optimistically assumed it came from a specific, focused creative pitch, but it's one of the least focused games I've ever experienced. The story, art design, and structure are messy and underbaked. It's middling at best and maddening at worst. It doesn't have enough Pac-Man for fans of that franchise, and its Metroidvania elements are too weak to appeal to fans of the genre, so why did they make a Pac-Man Metroidvania? After spending 40 hours with the game, I still don't know, and that makes it difficult to recommend.

Natural Motion’s Euphoria technology is a great building block for a football game, but Backbreaker suffers from too many rookie mistakes. Only the most hardcore gridiron fans dying for an alternative to the EA Sports offerings should bother bringing this one in for a look.

The general feeling this game conveys is confusion and chaos, akin to being flushed down a jet-powered toilet. [Apr 2006, p.118]

It's a pretty loaded disc, but how much do you want to eat at a buffet where everything tastes like crap? [Feb 2006, p.109]

Imitation is the highest form of flattery, but Sonic’s mimicry of Super Mario Galaxy’s planet-hopping formula is an embarrassment. Sonic Lost World is a confused mash-up of finicky platforming, aggravating level design, and some of the most aggressively annoying villains ever.

The game looks okay, but combat is dull and it doesn't compare to its PC counterpart. [Dec 2004, p.168]

This series has great potential, but with each new season, it continues to degrade in quality. [Aug 2006, p.81]

Leave this one stranded on Ceti Alpha V – it’s of no use to you or the cause of the Federation. [Feb 2008, p.96]

Devoted players may find some depth and strategy in these nuances, but with such underwhelming modes and gameplay, there's no reason to become devoted in the first place. After a few matches, most players will be ready to move on to a bigger, better game.

There may be a very deep and interesting strategy game laying somewhere within Generation of Chaos, but you're going to have to work to find it. [May 2006, p.111]

The only saving grace that this game has is its combat mechanic. By no means is it good, but it’s competent, and successful in making you feel like you clocked someone pretty hard. If you have some friends over, you can delve into four-player co-op.

This game should have stayed dark for another few months, because it's not ready for the field. [June 2011, p.95]

Same crap, different console. [Dec 2001, p.109]

Ubisoft must think the Vita audience is brain-dead to try to sell them a flawed, unimproved port of an already mediocre game for $39.99.

The gameplay is fairly one-dimensional. [Feb 2002, p.100]

If you're going to ask people to buy your content it's a good idea to make it compelling in the first place, and Ridge Racer doesn't do that.

I’m all for blowing things up, but after tooling around for a while, I was more interested in turning the guns on myself instead. [Feb 2002, p.91]

This series has great potential, but with each new season, it continues to degrade in quality. [Aug 2006, p.81]

Nintendo’s handheld systems used to be the last refuge for quality Sonic titles, but the series’ awful 3D gameplay has infected that lineage with Sonic Lost World. This portable version of Sonic’s latest adventure hits the same sour notes as the recent console games, while maintaining the subpar side-scrolling feel established in the 3DS version of Sonic Generations.

A lesson in what happens when there is an unwillingness to evolve or risk new ideas. [June 2005, p.126]

Replicates the movie's charm wonderfully, but its lack of variety hardly qualifies it even as a party game. [Dec 2002, p.130]

The game looks like a first-generation title Playstation 2 title. It even plays like one as well, with basic controls that feature perhaps one of my biggest pet peeves in video games: the combination attack/search/open/event button. [Jan 2002, p.82]

I'd avoid this game faster than doing the skeleton in the nude. [Apr 2002, p.89]

Avoid this game like you would a laser beam to the head. [Dec 2003, p.150]

Releasing Bounty Hunter is tantamount to being held down while someone farts in your face. [Feb 2003, p.101]

The general feeling this game conveys is confusion and chaos, akin to being flushed down a jet-powered toilet. [Apr 2006, p.118]

Leave this one stranded on Ceti Alpha V – it’s of no use to you or the cause of the Federation.

The pumped-up graphics look pretty mediocre at best... the game mechanics are bland and simplistic - like the worst of the Genesis era. [May 2003, p.87]

The game fails in the simple task of capturing the excitement of actual bowling. [July 2004, p.112]

Natural Motion's Euphoria technology is a great building block for a football game, but Backbreaker suffers from too many rookie mistakes. Only the most hardcore gridiron fans dying for an alternative to the EA Sports offerings should bother bringing this one in for a look.

Umbrella Corps is an unusual online shooter. Unfortunately, its odd mix of mechanics don’t come together well, and its online matchmaking is a total joke. I once waited almost 20 minutes for a match that lasted less than 10 minutes. In that amount of time, you could drive to the store and buy a better game.

If you spent months bowling in Wii Sports, then this will be an upgrade. Otherwise, it isn't worth your time. [Jan 2009, p.76]

Playing the trivia games was about as fun as Bliz got. [Dec 2001, p.118]

It's the sheer tedium of every moment that prevents any enjoyment of the cool features it offers. [Aug 2004, p.106]

A dumb, forgettable game and nothing else. [Sept 2005, p.100]

Outside of these interesting narrative nuggets, Survival Instinct sinks its infected teeth into monotony and carelessly chews away at it to deliver a repetitious experience that lets a few cool ideas go to waste. This is an apocalypse you don’t want to survive.

I know the charm of Swery games (and, to a lesser extent, Suda51 titles) is how utterly bizarre they are, but any chuckles Hotel Barcelona’s quirky sense of humor may elicit were drowned under a sea of head-scratching and outright bad design and storytelling decisions. No matter how many secrets it may have or surreal moments it assaults players with, it’s all wrapped around a dull, limited, and flawed core gameplay experience. You don’t have to go home, but you shouldn’t stay here.

In theory, these randomly created dungeons should add a level of unpredictability and replay to the experience, but in practice it renders the level design so incredibly tedious and dull that I could barely force myself to keep playing. [Aug 2004, p.99]

I would love to see more experiments like Skyrim VR and Resident Evil 7 in virtual reality, where fully featured games get ported to this still-young medium. This port is rough, but I’m still hopeful that there is a game out there that works both ways. For now, if you want to revisit Skyrim, your best bet is to boot up one of the editions you already own or grab it on Switch.

Some of the most antiquated and broken gameplay available on modern consoles. [June 2005, p.126]

Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam is an unimaginative and often times annoying game that hangs its hat on a Wii controller interface that is interesting because it is different, but easily forgettable after a few short hours.

Tac Ops' fun will fizzle within an hour of play. [July 2002, p.91]

Long story short, the adventure motif simply didn't catch. [Sept. 2006, p.88]

Outside of clips stolen from the motion picture, you won’t find any kind of story here, either. Pandemic worked wonders with Star Wars, but couldn’t grasp the One Ring. Conquest is a joyless trip through familiar territories, and sadly, nothing more than that.

The execution of this entry is almost unplayable because it's just so darn dull and clunky, bu tthe ideas are there to make something interesting. [Feb 2005, p.115]

Like sitting alone in the woods with a bottle of peepee tends to be, this game is damn boring. [Nov 2003, p.171]

Even if I never played "NBA 2K1" or "NBA Live," I'd still know this game sucks. [Nov 2001, p.122]

After this miserable showing, the only waters that Jaws will be patrolling are those of the great video game toilet. [Aug 2006, p.84]

The combat is basic, sloppy, and imprecise, and the spastic overhead camera often gets annoying. [Dec 2002, p.152]

In short, playing this epic-sized monstrosity is similar to being scratched to death by a house cat...not only is it painful, it's also embarrassing. [Sept 2004, p.104]

So maybe the battle system and AI still suck, and the graphics look like an original Xbox game. Is that really a big deal? Building up an army and conquering a nation is still fun. Who cares if hundreds of other games do it better?

After this miserable showing, the only waters that Jaws will be patrolling are those of the great video game toilet. [Aug 2006, p.84]

The only danger in this game is that you might get electrocuted while smashing your TV for showing you this ugly, tedious crap. [Jan 2004, p.135]

The challenges are so easy they're laughable. The graphics haven't improved. The framerate chugs. [Jan 2003, p.101]

Long story short, the adventure motif simply didn't catch. [Sept. 2006, p.88]

One of the crappier basketball games on the planet. [Mar 2002, p.79]

An experience that is unquestionably less fun than doing one's taxes. [May 2005, p.116]

Punch Time Explosion had a good opportunity to impress 3DS owners hungering for a worthwhile experience following the handheld's weak launch lineup, but it simply falls in line with the other disappointments. Cartoon junkies may love seeing their heroes in action, but those used to Smash Bros. polish will want to pass on this one.

This is a shameless cash-in on a popular formula. Don't give Konami the satisfication of duping you. [Nov 2008, p.126]

In short, playing this epic-sized monstrosity is similar to being scratched to death by a house cat...not only is it painful, it's also embarrassing. [Sept 2004, p.104]

You should avoid this game like you would skinny-dipping with your grandparents. [Jan 2003, p.110]

From design to execution, this is a mess of a game, and a new low point for the once-loved marsupial.

The icing on the proverbial cake of poo is that PK has only a few levels with overly linear layout, bland textures, and sub-par cel shading. [Mar 2003, p.85]

I don't use this example lightly, but think back to "Grabbed by the Ghoulies," a similarly good-looking, but unfun and almost unplayable nightmare of gameplay design missteps. [Nov 2005, p.178]

Outside of clips stolen from the motion picture, you won’t find any kind of story here, either. Pandemic worked wonders with Star Wars, but couldn’t grasp the One Ring. Conquest is a joyless trip through familiar territories, and sadly, nothing more than that.

From design to execution, this is a mess of a game, and a new low point for the once-loved marsupial. [Dec 2008, p.110]

In short, playing this epic-sized monstrosity is similar to being scratched to death by a house cat...not only is it painful, it's also embarrassing. [Sept 2004, p.104]

Initially amusing, but it wears out its welcome quickly thanks to a lack of variety. [Mar 2012, p.95]

This Wii shooter is hardly worthy of its namesake, delivering a predicable and ultimately forgettable shooter hampered by poor controls and uninspired level design. Let's hope Future Soldier has a more promising battle plan.

Wow, generic platform games have reached a new pinnacle of dull and cliche. [Feb 2005, p.113]

Anyone looking for a quick car combat fix before next year's Twisted Metal might be able to waste a few hours on this title, but they won't be wholly enjoyable hours. Since you can't save in the middle of a tournament, and some the later cups last a couple hours, the game eventually tests your endurance. I'd rather give bone marrow than sit through this Blood Drive again.

The general structure is annoying, but it's really the obtuse design that ensures that every second you play Valhalla Knights is irritating. [Mar 2007, p.107]