Heroes of Ruin is a functional lootfest, but its poor economics balancing, uninteresting weapons, and boring combat don't do it any favors. It's like listening to a terrible band cover your favorite song. All the musicians are holding the right instruments, but it just doesn't quite come together.

The single player story mode is unspeakably repetitive, and the multiplayer games can be equally frustrating since the eight playable characters are seriously unbalanced. [Apr 2004, p.110]

Cheap or not, there are many good racers out there, and Tokyo Extreme Racer Drift doesn't come close to its contemporaries. [Apr 2006, p.124]

Merely mediocre action. [Dec 2005, p.161]

Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light isn't glitchy or broken, but that's the highest compliment I can muster.

With an excellent soundtrack and a simple concept, Endless Ocean succeeds in its goal of being a relaxing, educational experience. However, it fails miserably when it comes to feeling like a game. [Jan 2008, p.95]

Instead of shoring up Dragon Rising's shortcomings and improving the Operation Flashpoint experience, this sequel stubbornly clings to the quest for realism while ignoring the technical issues plaguing both games. [June 2011, p.90]

An interesting concept; too bad the real meat of the game (the racing) is as dry and tasteless as roast beef at Old Country Buffet. [Feb 2003, p.98]

When the gameplay is this stale and DW 5 isn't even optimized for the system (there's no online and the draw distance still blows), there's no reason to take this lemon for a drive. [Oct 2005, p.140]

Instead of shoring up Dragon Rising's shortcomings and improving the Operation Flashpoint experience, this sequel stubbornly clings to the quest for realism while ignoring the technical issues plaguing both games. [June 2011, p.90]

I could forgive the sub-par progression if Krater's battles were more interesting, but the optimal tactical approach is often obvious and the encounters don't vary much. What's there is fun, but it wears thin quickly as there's little room for improvisation or innovation in battle.

Though Crimson Dragon has a slight next gen aesthetic, the controls are unintuitive and sluggish – proving that you can’t change the recipe after you’ve started cooking.

Instead of shoring up Dragon Rising's shortcomings and improving the Operation Flashpoint experience, this sequel stubbornly clings to the quest for realism while ignoring the technical issues plaguing both games. [June 2011, p.90]

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]

Warcraft III: Reforged teaches the harsh lesson that sacred, legendary titles need to be revisited with only the utmost care. Core elements that made the original an absolute Earth-shaker still remain, but as a remaster meant to enhance the original experience, Reforged is greatly flawed.

If you're an FPS-loving Wii owner that doesn't care about single-player, or someone who adored the original Conduit, you may be able to squeeze some entertainment out of this game. Everyone else should pass.

LKA made the best recreation of an Italian setting I’ve ever seen in a game and I wanted nothing more than to enjoy it. However, LKA’s love of Italy is the only warmth I felt in Martha is Dead. The rest left me feeling as cold as Giulia’s dead sister.

The three-dimensional game world is basically linear, but a brave attempt to add verticality adds some scope.

Great graphics, good music, a somewhat amusing plot, and a humorous "hiding" mechanic are all wasted for the want of something to do besides search for keys and clues while performing some lightweight platforming. [Jan 2004, p.160]

All of this doesn’t alleviate the standard overarching Mario Party complaints: You won’t have fun without friends, and you’re going to get screwed no matter what at some point and you can’t do anything about it.

Hyrule Warriors Legends is still a solid action game featuring Zelda characters and worlds, and the added mechanics, levels, and characters for 3DS are fun and worthy additions. Unfortunately, the game’s technical performance drags it down significantly.

Building off the success of Payday is a decent premise for Starbreeze to explore. Raid: World War II does not successfully lead a winning campaign, however. The poor A.I., repetitive design, and technical problems had me waving a white flag long before the war should have been over. If Starbreeze plans to turn this into a long-running service game, it has a lot of work to do.

If you are feeling nostalgic for Mega Man, dust off your NES or Super Nintendo; Mighty No. 9 is not the spiritual successor we wanted. It may look and play like Mega Man, but Comcept’s robotic doppelganger doesn’t have the heart of Capcom’s Blue Bomber. A sparkless facsimile, Mighty No. 9 never captures the excitement or creativity of Mega Man’s classic exploits

Top off the list with repetitive and uninspired boss battles, an off-kilter depth of field and a one-dimensional economy, and Fairytale Fights is offensive, just not in the way Playlogic intended.

If you’re already a fan of Harvey and the craziness that surrounds him, you’ll love how this game nails the feeling of the series. If you’re just a regular gamer looking for a solid legal adventure, other attorneys will represent your interests better.

I can't let my desire to root for an underdog discount the fact that this game is really nothing special. [Sept 2004, p.111]

All the beautiful graphics in the world can’t save a game as badly designed as Genji. Unless you’re looking for nothing more than a pretty face, stay well away from this mediocre-at-best effort.

Even with all the new features, it's still the least compelling of the "classic" puzzle games. [Dec 2002, p.118]