Superhero games are supposed to be power fantasies. So far, the Iron Man games haven’t done much to inspire my dreams, but at least they’re not giving me nightmares anymore. If Sega keeps tweaking the formula, next time it might actually convince me that it’s fun being Iron Man.

There are even a few lame vehicular bonus stages thrown in for good measure, but none of the various stage types offer anything close to depth or originality. [Nov 2004, p.145]

This game is strictly for kids, and when I say kids, I mean the kind that may in fact still wear diapers. The smelly kind. [May 2002, p.89]

Mindless fun. [Dec 2001, p.108]

Melee attacks in light gun games always suck. It’s too hard to judge the effective distance of your weapon, and much of the fun of melee combat as a concept is tied to the use of space and the tactics involved in controlling the flow of the fight. Unfortunately for Samurai Warriors: Katana, it’s basically a light gun game with melee weapons.

I wouldn’t say it falls into the “it’s so bad, it’s good” camp, but like a cheesy Nic Cage movie, it sometimes hits the right comedic notes, but it just doesn’t hit them enough.

Dungeon Hearts’ basic mash-up of ideas and charming aesthetic could have set it on the path to casual-game stardom, but fun gameplay would have done a whole lot more. This may have match-three and RPG elements, but Puzzle Quest it most certainly is not.

The real-time combat adds an element of urgency, but the repetitive battles and clumsy controls dull that edge early on. [Jun 2006, p.118]

You have a GameCube controller handy, Zero Gravity is very nearly mediocre.

Cradle of Rome is far from terrible, but it has neither the strategic depth nor the Pavlovian addiction required to be a worthwhile puzzle game.

If you're not averse to the idea of making a fool out of yourself, it's hard to not get at least a couple of laughs out of Kung-Fu High Impact.

Though it technically succeeds as a piece of functional software, Akiba’s Trip fails to be fun. Bland combat, unremarkable missions and sidequests (which are mainly fight/fetch requests), and an abundance of hollow cartoon characters in their underwear don’t deliver any thrills.

There's good humor and writing to be had here, but it's not so much a game as an interactive comic book with a backlight. [Jan 2005, p.149]

Pokémon Quest delivers cute moments, but the novelty wears off fast. By the time I reached the later stages, I was disenchanted by the necessary grinding and random elements permeating nearly every aspect. I enjoy parts of Pokémon Quest, but the adventure never amounts to anything memorable.

If you've been a devout Super Monkey Ball fan since the beginning you may be more willing to overlook this entry's glaring faults. If you haven't hopped on board the banana bandwagon, however, the weakly implemented 3D and unusable motion controls won't be enough to make you a believer.

It's not bad, per se, but the level designs and basic gameplay are just too uninspired to warrant a look from any but the most ardent fans of the genre. [Dec 2004, p.190]

Through the fog awkward mechanics and unsatisfying decisions (not to mention some dumb story twists), the fun and intriguing core of Vampyr is sometimes visible. Unfortunately, that fog lifts only rarely, leaving most of the experience shrouded in darkness.

Through the fog awkward mechanics and unsatisfying decisions (not to mention some dumb story twists), the fun and intriguing core of Vampyr is sometimes visible. Unfortunately, that fog lifts only rarely, leaving most of the experience shrouded in darkness.

Through the fog awkward mechanics and unsatisfying decisions (not to mention some dumb story twists), the fun and intriguing core of Vampyr is sometimes visible. Unfortunately, that fog lifts only rarely, leaving most of the experience shrouded in darkness.

There is some decent music and graphics that don't make me want to die. I guess that's the highest recommendation I can offer on this one. [Jan 2005, p.125]

I didn't expect this little indie game to replace Starlancer or TIE Fighter in my heart, but I'm disappointed that it struggled to strike a single chord with my cherished memories of those classics.

In its attempts to fuse grid-based combat with the series’ RPG roots, Covenant of the Plume doesn’t capture the essence of either, descending into a jumble of mismatched design decisions.

Almost all of the riddles revolve around finding an item and returning it to the appropriate specter - a convention that plays out as tedious and tiresome a short ways into the title. [Aug 2004, p.99]

Simply put, this title's characters, plot, and dialogue are hackneyed and verging on painful. Every joke falls flat, and every plot twist seems scraped from the bottom of Indiana Jones' barrel. [Apr 2004, p.91]

If there’s anything nice to say about Race O Rama, it’s that it provides a teachable moment for parents: Sometimes it’s best to leave well enough alone.

Mage Knight Apocalypse is a lot like eating the generic store brand equivalent of Lucky Charms. It has everything you expect, but doesn’t taste quite right.

This obscure video game brew not only sounds like a garbled mess, it plays like one as well. [June 2003, p.60]

The Brain Age series has a certain charm about it, but this installment is easily my least favorite. If Devilish Training were some unlockable throwaway mode, I’d be OK with it. As the main new concept in a series, however, it makes the experience more annoying than it is entertaining or educational.