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

Playing Lionheart could easily be a completely different experience every time. [Oct 2003, p.141]

I wouldn't be sad if an RPG initiate tried his hand with Harbinger, but for hard-cores like myself, it's definitely forgettable. [May 2003, p.93]

The only thing that could make this worse would be if the game was broken, but then you'd at least be spared the agony of playing it. [Jan 2003, p.96]

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]

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

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]

If you're excited about the movie or characters, for once this is an easy game to recommend. There's nothing here that should scare away fans, and any player ought to appreciate the way each game level feels unique from the last. After this game and last year's War For Cybertron, High Moon has proven they've got the chops to handle and understand the Transformers, no matter what continuity they're playing around in. Here's hoping that Hasbro and Activitision recognizes the talent, and continues to give the team the creative freedom they deserve.

It may not be the follow-up that fans of the Mana franchise have been hoping for, but cool visuals and an interesting story elevate it above the level of an everyday mindless button-masher. [May 2007, p.87]

This formula was a blast back in 2004, but history has been repeating itself for a decade. Unfortunately, Spider-Man’s open-world shtick has been overplayed so many times that his puns look fresh by comparison.

A grotesque abomination that should be burned at the stake. [Aug 2007, p.93]

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.

This game has about as much play to it as a crusty green booger. You'll marvel at it for a few seconds, only to realize that it's one of the world's most appalling abominations, then will flick it away. [July 2003, p.122]

The remake disappointed me more than delighted me, but it’d be disingenuous to say I didn’t have fun with it. Taking down a boss that’s triple your size is still satisfying, and the wondrous world is teeming with creative baddies, from mushbooms to nitro pumpkins. Even so, this remake doesn’t do enough to address or improve the original’s problems. Some tweaks are for the better, others are for the worse, but the end result is a remake that fails to do anything meaningful with a beloved classic.

With crawling load times and a story that reeks of awkward Japanese translation, a glance should be all you give this game. [Oct 2008, p.109]

Prizefighter definitely has its frustrating moments, but there was enough fight in it – in and out of the ring – to keep me from needing the smelling salts.

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]

As with most poor racing titles, the control is only solid in the first-person view - the mark of mediocrity. [June 2003, p.113]

It's your run-of-the-mill hack 'n slasher. [Apr 2002, p.83]

As a racer, it's decent; as a freestyle trick game, it sucks. [Nov 2002, p.134]

The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-earth lures you in with the promise of a strategic city builder, but once you’re on the hook, the fun dissipates as you are repeatedly penalized unless you keep a steady stream of costly mithril flowing through your city. I like strategic city-building games, and I like Tolkien’s universe. I don’t like The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-earth.

I can see FPS fans having fun with BlackSite since it provides all the standard FPS rollercoaster thrills, but most of us have been up and down those hills a few too many times.

This button-mashing brawler offers decent combat functionality, yet cannot deliver one adversary that you would actually feel good about punching…unless you get a kick out of clocking knights that are as passive as Buddhist monks.

If you go into it knowing that stretches of it can be aggravating, either because they push your skills to the test or make you question the gameplay, it should do the same for you.

Earthfall just isn’t fun. The game has a solid foundation but that structure doesn’t hold anything that’s entertaining or interesting enough to merit the effort of playing it, especially when there are already several superior games that inhabit the same subgenre.

It's business as usual over at 989, and it must figure business is pretty good. Well, it isn't - it's pathetic. [Apr 2005, p.128]

Carnival Games: Monkey See, Monkey Do is too realistic for its own good. Outside of evil carnies appreciating the attention to detail, I can't see anyone enjoying the frustration and feeling of helplessness that undermine most of the minigames.

Disciples III is pretty enough, but it doesn't take long to figure out that there's no soul behind the enticing facade. [Sept 2010, p.95]