While I can't recommend playing the game solo, I offer a hesitant thumbs-up to a pair of players looking for something unusual and off the beaten track.

ModNation Racers remains a bastion for creativity, and I can only hope its focus on user-made content influences other kart racers and the racing genre as a whole. Road Trip's new touchscreen controls further refine content creation, but they aren't a game changer. Unfortunately, the lack of online multiplayer is.

Krome has done a fine job of translating this fantasy into the video game sphere. Legend of the Guardians sticks to a couple of core experiences and executes them well. You could do a lot worse than flying the skies protected by these stalwart owl defenders.

Strange missteps abound in Heroes Over Europe, but glimmers of fun WWII arcade flight shooting shine through from time to time. [Oct 2009, p.90]

The action is satisfactory, and the multiplayer options are robust. [Nov 2005, p.148]

This expansion is nothing more than the quintessential extension of the base game. [Oct. 2006, p.106]

Almost every texture in the game is soaked in bright neon colors to deliver a stylistic sci-fi setting. Unfortunately, where Alter Echo excels in graphics and gameplay, it comes up short in plot and personality. [Sept 2003, p.107]

There are way too many technical problems to list, but it makes up for them with a cool theme, fun environmental interactions, a decent story, and gameplay that's, well, fun. [Apr 2004, p.106]

Unlike a lot of titles geared toward the younger set, this one is actually fun and well designed, with great graphics and good sound. [Aug 2003, p.93]

Essentially the video game equivalent of sleeping with your eyes open. [Nov 2004, p.149]

The good news is that the game, as dull as it gets, doesn't last for more than five hours. It's quick and dirty. [Apr 2009, p.77]

Without getting too fuddy duddy, the low-stress charm of building your skyscraper is hard to really knock, expecially for fans of casual simulations. [Jun 2006, p.119]

Long story short, this is a flawed game through and through. Even the most devout Spyro fans should avoid it. [Jan 2009, p.69]

Basically, play it for the multiplayer, or don’t play it at all. [Dec 2008, p.110]

While WRC 5 offers a decent experience, it lacks bite or any distinguishing characteristics.

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

Mafia III is a missed opportunity to put an important time in American history in the spotlight, and ends up being one of the most lifeless and one-note open-world experiences I’ve come across. You can see the potential for a great game here, but it sticks to safe and simple gameplay and storytelling conventions, and ends up being a bloody bore.

The racing itself is pretty good, and the rest of the game feels like a total hackjob. [Oct 2004, p.123]

Agents of Mayhem is cheesy, rarely funny, and generally ridiculous, but I was eager to play for long periods of time. The action is frenetic and fun, with room for strategy using all the characters’ assorted abilities. Even if Seoul ends up being a bland backdrop, I enjoyed being in the world and causing explosions in at every opportunity.

Strikes a great balance between simplicity and flexibility. [Dec 2005, p.165]

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]

With a skippable story mode, a poorly implemented in-game currency system, and shallow multiplayer offerings, Super Bomberman R is not worth your time. It's a better multiplayer game than a single-player game, but it's not a particularly good multiplayer game either.

It just seems that the team spent a lot more time coming up with ideas for the game than they did executing them properly. [Dec 2003, p.183]

The Matrix vibe is in full effect, and I can give you my personal guarantee that you won't be able to put it down until you've seen all the new footage. [June 2003, p.100]

On the gameplay end, it's still a little shallow in the moves department, but it's tighter on the whole. [Feb 2003, p.105]

The lack of multiplayer on or offline seems truly misguided. The occasional challenging dogfight and the thrill of the open countryside below may entertain for awhile, but if I were you, I'd just go beat "Crimson Skies" again. [Nov 2004, p.163]

If you want a good wartime shooter, "Medal of Honor: Frontline" is far superior to Desert Storm. Look at that - I just saved you $40. [May 2003, p.87]

When a game is unpredictably rendered unplayable, spending even one minute with it is one minute too long. [May 2005, p.132]