It's not a complete failure, per se, but its gameplay is generations behind games that were released five years ago. [June 2002, p.79]

If I had more space I could detail the game's numerous flaws in control, design, and AI, but I don't. Thank God. [Jun 2006, p.112]

Outside of tournaments and multiplayer, the game doesn't have a mode that you can sink your cleats--or time--into. [June 2008, p.101]

Telltale's flawed but entertaining approach to the Back to the Future license left me hopeful for the developer's take on Jurassic Park. Despite some early reservations, I still felt like that goose-bumped 13-year-old boy as the game's opening theme started and Jurassic Park's logo popped on screen. Unlike my younger self, however, I was in for a disappointment.

Even the most patient of strategy nerds will be hard-pressed to maintain interest in Spectral Souls. [Nov. 2006, p.146]

Beating the entire game takes less than two hours, but it still somehow manages to drag. You can return to the game’s six stages to try and get higher scores, but I had zero interest in doing so. The arcade games of yesteryear sometimes lacked depth, but they at least had a hook that stuck with you and kept you itching to return to pump more quarters into the cabinet. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants strives for the greatness of the influential arcade hits of the past but falls well short. Thanks to uninteresting and annoying gameplay, repetitive enemy and boss encounters, and grating audio design, Wrath of the Mutants is little more than a shell of the series’ glory years.

Combat just plain sucks. [July 2005, p.120]

I can't put my personal feelings on crarpy games aside enough to recommend Don't Try This At Home to anyone but people who think that getting thumbtacks stuck in your ass and scalp are a fun way to spend a Saturday. [Dec 2003, p.148]

With unresponsive skating and stickhandling skills, NHL 2K10 is a troubled hockey prospect. With so many red flags, we recommend passing this prospect over.

For all of the shock and hullaballoo following its path toward release, Hatred is nothing special or particularly egregious in the world of video game violence, except for the fact that it relies on that violence alone. The game takes itself extremely seriously and has plenty of extremely violent content and murder, but it ends up feeling more like camp.

Pulling off tricks is frustrating at first, and boring and simplistic once you get the hang of it. [Dec 2001, p.109]

For the very young, or serious Harry Potter collectors only. [Jan 2002, p.88]

With choppy play, no strategy, and an asinine betting system (bet on the most dunks and you'll win every time), Street Hoops is a tall guy paper doll simulator at best. "NBA Street" wins in a rout. [Sept 2002, p.81]

If robots ever do take over, I hope the human race doesn’t succumb to a force this stupid.

Metal Saga is like a bastard mash-up of Mad Max and Lawrence of Arabia...tanks, deserts, and a post-apocalyptic future that manages to be super boring. [May 2006, p.101]

The strategic elements are painfully shallow and are accompanied by archaic visuals. Sadly, a crayon drawing from a five-year-old shows more detail and realism than the military units in this game. [Oct 2003, p.122]

The cutscenes are great, making an episode's worth of good animation here for the viewing, but I wouldn't want you to pay $50 and suffer through this hack-job of a game just to get to it. [Sept 2003, p.109]

A decent shot at motion-controlled rhythm gameplay aside, this shameless cash-in game of a shameless cash-in TV show is what it is. What is it? Stacy Keibler is in this game!

This is a brawler. It allegedly has stealth, too, but it's the most pathetic, poorly done sneaking around I've seen. [Jan 2003, p.96]

The graphics can only be described as awful, missions are boring, and combat ranges from dull to frustrating. [June 2004, p.123]

With levels that redefine “linear,” there is no need to collect objects in a game like this, but that’s mostly what you end up doing.

But the list of shortcomings is so long that you wonder how the company has the cajones to charge $10 more for this version over the current-gen titles. Those are some big brass basketballs.

The graphics can only be described as awful, missions are boring, and combat ranges from dull to frustrating. [June 2004, p.123]

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

A jabronie, but it could've been worse. [May 2003, p.83]

The isometric view means that you can frequently get stuck behind things or die because you misjudged distance and/or height. [Nov 2003, p.177]

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.

Games like this make defending the adventure genre harder work than it already is. [July 2006, p.109]