Blazing Angels is a competent air combat title. I just wish Ubisoft would have delivered the kind of epic experience I’m used to after playing games like Medal of Honor and Call of Duty.

As far as multiplayer enjoyment goes, there are definitely some fun modes and a lot of room for craziness. [May 2003, p.91]

There is a load of personality in Chicken Little, and the large variety of level types and playable characters will appeal to fans of the film. [Nov 2005, p.149]

It's designed to have you play through it multiple times, but I don't know if you'll come back for more after the first pass. [May 2005, p.114]

By rigidly following Dragon Quest traditions, we end up with flat, cartoonish characters who inhabit a repetitive, cyclical world. But The Dark Prince plays to its strengths to deliver a solid RPG experience with a cozy narrative seasoned by a long list of charismatic creatures and entertaining dungeons.

I didn't mind investing over 50 hours to the grind in The Surge. I felt powerful at times and exploring every little area rewarded me with a nice bounty. It just clings too tightly to a one-note approach to world building, enemy encounters, and level design. This is a genre that has a rich history of wowing players, sometimes from the look of a boss, and maybe even the design of the world it inhabits. I was never dazzled by The Surge. I mostly felt like I was battling animated junk in a junkyard.

I could see this reaching a more casual audience of duffers, but hardcore fans of golf video games probably won't be satisfied. [Jun 2006, p.113]

Giving players creative control isn’t enough of a spark to make this experience shine.

An adequate boxing title for fans of the franchise. [Dec 2002, p.144]

Baba is You makes you feel brilliant as you transform the properties of each puzzle to get the win in the early game – but then things get complicated.

All told, this GBA edition is done well enough that fans of the series will be satisfied with the on-the-go experience, but don't expect to be blown away. [Sept 2003, p.125]

Whenever the guns are pumping, it's a legitimately blast to play. That’s where the experience shines, and everything else around it holds it back from being truly engrossing. This is one of those games that frustrates because you can see the greatness within it, but it's always just out of reach.

Burning Skies isn't a failure by any means. While the visuals won't sell you on the console's power like Uncharted: Golden Abyss, the campaign is filled with the big boss fights and unique weaponry you expect from the series. As long as you're not hoping for a console-quality multiplayer experience, Burning Skies should satisfy fans.

The Top Spin series, despite its gameplay issues, at least made an effort. Virtua Tennis needs to try much harder if it’s going to regain its title as the preeminent tennis franchise.

The map changes are great, but the other aspects feel like modified retreads of the first game. Even with the story’s interesting attempts to look at the origin of the Yo-kai Watch, it plods along without ever rising up to something worth seeing to the end. Yo-kai Watch 2 still stands as a worthwhile Pokémon competitor, but its forward progression is only happening by small steps.

Like last year’s Thrillville, Off the Rails, requires some research on the part of the player to discover which things are fun (designing faulty rides) and which are a waste of time (talking to guests). Unfortunately, even the content that survives the cull isn’t enough to make the whole experience more than a diversion.

The narrative is often a slog (though it can be interesting and heady at times), and it devotes too much time to world-building and setup. As much as the game tries to highlight different walks of life, all of the characters, even Jensen, end up looking like faceless beings used to dump lore onto the player. I like seeing games tackle difficult subject matter, but that message, while occasionally coming through loud and clear, is ultimately lost in this dull and slow-moving story. It starts off with a bang, but quickly becomes a muddled mess of politics and techno-babble.

Another Lost Phone’s voyeuristic mystery is worth playing, despite some missteps. Its subject matter is compelling, and is conveyed in inventive ways. I enjoyed learning about Laura, but I would have had a better time with more engaging puzzles and a more memorable cast.

Drone Tactics is functional and occasionally fun, but it never gets exciting.

The presentation is strong, and there are some genuine moments of surprise - most memorably a scene that shrinks your character down and places you on a life-sized pool table. [Feb 2004, p.109]

The action does get intense, and if anything else, having to keep your eye on your comrades in a way highlights the grim fight for survival and tight-knit nature that all soldiers need in battle. [Oct 2004, p.129]

The one undoubtedly cool thing that ProStreet brings to the table is its online play (except on Wii), where you can create your own race days and invite friends to compete them. The race day will keep a persistent leaderboard of everyone’s progress, so you can always go back and knock off your buddy.

I’ve wanted a solid follow-up to Yoshi’s Island for years, and this game is the third in a trilogy of follow-ups that range from half-baked to decent. Considering how unimpressed and apathetic I was towards most of Yoshi’s New Island, it might be time to just be happy with my Super Nintendo memories when it comes to this series.

While head and shoulders above its console brethren, Crouching Tiger on the GBA is still a medicore effort. [Dec 2003, p.185]

Unfortunately, the joy that comes with slaughtering entire civilizations is still plagued by plenty of slowdown and environment pop up. [Oct 2003, p.139]

Character progression is interesting at first, but the game quickly becomes trivially easy. [Issue#203, p.95]

While I continue to respect Klei Entertainment's art style and devotion to bloody fantasy above all else, it needs to design less frustrating levels and encounters before its games truly click for me. The upgrades in Shank 2 are a lot like the act of revenge: It feels satisfying in the short term, but in the end you're left with the empty feeling that maybe it didn't improve that much at all.

Rock Revolution is exactly what you’d expect from the music game genre, assuming the last three years never happened.