But among the worst of it all is the lack of presentation. Nearly every football player looks the same. Their uniforms look like they're made from plastic. Referees have been transformed into Jumbotron cut-scenes. There are no coaches or players on the sidelines. And the crowds are comprised of the same four people copied a million times over.

It straddles the line between little kid game and hard platformer in such a way that I don’t think anyone will like it. I guess The Hobbit makes these strange concessions to game-play to make it a friendlier game, but it’s still frustrating as hell.

Spectral Force Genesis is pretty deep, I suppose, but being deep to the detriment of the gameplay is never a good idea.

Join me as I pour my cheap beer all over this game. Though a few nice tweaks put it on the right street, it's still going the wrong direction thanks to bad gameplay mechanics, awful graphics and sluggish control.

A game with a great premise such as time-traveling problem solvers with futuristic guns could, no, should have been done better. So pass this one up, unless you want to feel shame, despair, and regret the morning after.

Had it been given a little more depth pretty much everywhere, this may have been a sleeper hit. Instead, it’s just a sleeper.

There's nothing here that will really pull new players into playing Adventure Island: The Beginning, other than nostalgia for an audience who is familiar with the name.

You have to commend Way of the Samurai 2 for trying something different, but its myriad design flaws, weak delivery and repetitive nature serve as a reminder that different doesn't necessarily mean fun.

If this is supposed to be a realistic simulator, in any way/shape/form of actually going out bird hunting (which the real rifles, bird types, and what you're allowed/not allowed to shoot might suggest), why can't I shoot anything else? The one thing I've wanted to do for years is shoot the dog that pops up to heckle me when I miss, and I can't do anything of the sort here... it just resets my multiplier. Dammit.

The possibilities for some genuine bounty hunting fun are in there, but too many kinks exist for this particular mercenary to make it to the big time.

While you die-hard MotoGP fans might eke out some brief enjoyment, you’d be much better off if you went out and bought a bargain-priced copy of MotoGP 07. That three-year-old game has more heart, soul, and chutzpa than either of its lackluster follow-ups, and it makes MotoGP 09/10 look like a snapshot of a series spiraling quickly into oblivion.

There are certainly some good ideas here, but its attempts at cinematic effect undermine themselves through sheer repetition, while the story goes from creepy cool to Fox Kids' Club silly faster than you can say "WTF."

Spider-Man 3 features the series’ worst combat yet.

There’s some charm to the cheesy interviews and the upgrades like the fold-down barbecue grill, but Pimp My Ride is such a flimsy game - so plain, so bare. It's catchy enough to play once or twice, but it can’t hold a candle to Burnout.

Vampire Rain feels like the raw prototype of a fleeting idea. Extra modes and collectibles are all accounted for, and the game isn’t broken, but such a bare, simple title it isn’t worth all the frustration.

At least you won’t have to play this weak game for very long because it’s short, linear, and has no multiplayer. Even a drunken sailor knows what to do when faced with this kind of fool’s gold. Anybody got a plank?

Where an ordinary RPG would give you 60-100 hours in a single release, this game forces you to buy one-third of a game at full price. Once you shell out for all three games, you’ve bought a full-length RPG at triple the typical cost. And, much like the .hack tetrology that preceded it, each game in the trilogy is exactly like the others.

But among the worst of it all is the lack of presentation. Nearly every football player looks the same. Their uniforms look like they're made from plastic. Referees have been transformed into Jumbotron cut-scenes. There are no coaches or players on the sidelines. And the crowds are comprised of the same four people copied a million times over.

I really wanted to like Naughty Bear, but there are too many faults that either disrupt the gameplay or are just too unbearable to ignore. The experience, unfortunately, bears no fruit.

A terrible football game with some good ideas surrounding it, and a marked tendency to make me wish I wasn’t playing it. If you enjoy football games, stick to Madden; Blitz is not a serious competitor, unless you enjoy getting a bit squeamish.

Anybody who has experience with platform games will beat Rayman: Arena like a redheaded stepchild. So, it can be inferred that the game is probably not meant for experienced platformers.

You'll find more arctic thunder around an outhouse in Antarctica than you will in this entire game. Don't bother to thaw.

From a value perspective, you're dealing with a feature-film's worth of content for fifty bucks. Independently wealthy, rabid fanboys might want to check it out, otherwise we'd leave this fox to the dogs.

The worst part about my experience with Godzilla is the fact that it didn't provide laughs or enjoyment because of its poor quality. Instead, I just sat there bored for much of the time as I endlessly destroyed cities and fought other monsters in terribly unbalanced fights. On top of all that, the game costs $60 despite its lack of meaningful content

Let's hope that updates can better Ice Mechanica's UI and design and that developer Blindspot Creative can do better next time. At least a socially conscious game would have had more of a message, but Ice Mechanica kind of undermines the label "time-waster" by taking the player's attention for granted.

Shadow of the Beast is as dull as it is brown, which is to say extremely. The platforming is clunky, the AI is bad, the story requires multiple playthroughs, the game defies its own logic, and it reeks of other laughably awful design decisions. Don't bother with this beast.

Betrayer is a game that suckered me in with its alluring visuals, but once it had me within its grasp it outright refused to let me enjoy myself. This is a game that is far below the standard of quality one would expect from the creators of F.E.A.R., and further proof, if we ever needed it, that presentation shouldn’t take precedence over gameplay.

Unlike Nintendogs, Little Friends isn’t a meditative game in which you joyfully play with and e-cuddle a bunch of adorbs animals. Instead, it’s a laborious slog in which strengthening your bond with your virtual pets takes too long, and the end results aren’t worth the time invested.

For every spark of a neuron, there’s a cluster of dead cells threatening to snuff it out. The entire enterprise feels like a bundle of great ideas that mix together into something that’s less than the sum of its parts.

I suppose if you absolutely have to buy Bloodforge because you're dabbling in a unique form of economic S&M, you might find some guilty pleasure here.

It's a shame too, because with four-player local and network options, it could have been a blast if the core elements had been strong. But every system in Fable: Heroes is dreadfully executed. There isn't a single element within it that elicits a smile, which is ironic because of how hard it tries to get you to.

I assume that double-Os 1 through 6 died horribly painful deaths and that Eurocom is trying to give me some sense of that misery in 007 Legends. While a tie-in to this November's new Bond movie was too good to resist, I'm disappointed that the franchise has to follow up a moderately successful remake like Reloaded with a shoddy patchwork of first-person shooter set pieces and broken stealth gameplay.

Urban Trial Freestyle steals the core gameplay of the Trials series but fails to do anything interesting with it. It’s a brief and utterly forgettable experience, one which only those who are willing to overlook its tedious gameplay in order to see their name in lights on its leaderboards will enjoy.

Perhaps Necropolis’s worst sin is that it doesn’t motivate you to keep going. Sloppy mechanics can often be forgiven if the game has something compelling going for it; just ask Deadly Premonition. Here, however, players have no incentive to continue. The unfunny humor exists solely to mock the player. Every twist and turn, you’re greeted with another joke that undermines your quest and the importance of it. Your quest never feels purposeful or epic. Instead, it just feels like an insignificant afterthought.

Mighty No. 9 tries to hold onto its legacy, resting on its laurels while the rest of gaming world has left town a long time ago.

The problem isn't with Operation Raccoon City's premise. There's plenty of excellent games that came before and are very worthy of mimicry (Left 4 Dead), but the execution here is all off.

It’s not difficult to see why people would seek a more relaxing game after having their senses barraged with endless gun-toting violence, but this game doesn’t offer the video game equivalent of a week spent dozing in a hammock on an Aruban beach; it’s an exhaustingly dull weekend in the Scandinavian countryside with only chickens and low-poly civilians for company.

It’s completely cynical and not engaging in the least. I’m trying honestly to follow a story that doesn’t want to be told, and I’m playing a game with accessible game mechanics of little value in the end.

It is as if someone sat down and made a list of 'what is popular with the kids these days in games' and tried to shoehorn pieces of them into this game...Aside from the graphics, everything here stinks, which makes sense because a lot of the game takes place in the sewers, and also because this game is crap.

Deadliest Warrior: Ancient Combat does not prove its mettle. Whatever fun you might have ends as quickly as the matches do. It has a glimmer of potential that flickers out in an instant, much like a single-arrow KO that can send you reeling right back to long loading screens.

The game was meant to put players into a spooky kind of mindset, but everything about it is just frightfully boring.

As a fighting game fan, I’m disappointed by the simplicity and small-mindedness that seems to have gone into Dragon Ball Z: Extreme Butoden. As a fan of the animé series for so many years, and having played many, many versions of this story over my years as a professional reviewer, this attempt at a cash-in just hurts my feelings.

Fable: The Journey is just a jumbled bunch of nonsense. I believe the intentions for making this game were good as far as the Kinect technology, but the poor controls coupled with the weak storyline really hurt this title.

Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel is an underwhelming third-person shooter that is a clearly a half-hearted cash-grab by Electronic Arts. If you're looking for a game in this genre, I suggest you turn to Gears of War or any number other titles of this ilk. Seriously, this game isn't worth your time. It isn't broken, it just isn't good either.

Even diehard Resident Evil fans should save their money, as I can't think of a single reason anyone should buy this.

The fighting is repetitive and dull, the infrastructure is more annoying than entertaining, and it’s a gigantic disappointment from start to finish. Not only do the franchises represented deserve better than this, but it’s an awful way to celebrate the manga giant’s 50th anniversary.

Few levels provide much of a challenge, so breezing through the entirety of the game in a short period of time is more than likely, though for sub-15-buck price, it’s not much of a lost and can be worth it if you’re looking for a quick downloadable fix. But surely this blended concoction has sorely missed the bull's-eye of arcade perfection.

An unfortunately hollow universe is troublesome but ultimately a low-priority concern in the grand scheme of The Surge 2’s more pressing matters. Its multiple failings are almost bewildering because of how closely it copies much of its identity from its spiritual predecessors. But those similarities to much better games just point out how little imagination The Surge 2 has and how inadequately it has attempted to implement those popular mechanics.

L.A. Rush tries to keep up with the street racing scene, but it’s all show and no go. Repeating races over and over isn’t exactly a draw and the lack of customization is unforgivable.

The online mode is there as it is with nearly every fighting game to come out in the last five years and it serves its purpose just dandy. Unfortunately, the broken gameplay immediately removes any gold starz DBZ would have eared for online functionality.

Bryan Singer built his movie around an emotional core; Superman Returns is an empty gaming experience that needs tuning, heroics and a conclusion worth fighting for.

And Alicia is hot, though not sexy as one might expect. Whoever they hired to do her voice work sounds hot, in that she sounds stupid. All of her lines are read woodenly, like a teenager reading aloud in class.

Concepts and premises like this whimsical survivor tale are fresh at least; now EA needs to escape from Suck Island and find fun gameplay.

7 weak mini-games do not make for a good game. With only 2 out of the 7 warranting continual play, I'd say that's a pretty pathetic batting average.

It's a dated PC game ported to a next-gen console instead of a totally revised, retooled product. The folks at Cinemaware may have had their finger on the gaming pulse 20 years ago, but now they're just living in the past.

Inarguably, it’s a sucky game. Once you’ve taken Marvel Nemesis through its paces, you’ll pierce its glinty armor with your newfound eye beams of license abuse and try to toss it into the local penitentiary for the rest of its unnatural born life.

Crusty Demons is a pretty bad game, folks, one that blindly robs from plenty of better games and only avoids the GR toilet because it lets you hurt yourself a lot.

Blue Rescue Team lacks most of the content that made Pokemon so popular in the first place. Instead, it features the ancient failings of Roguelike games, including dungeon restarts, level grinding and no versus play. Frankly, we’d rather catch a cold.

What it has gained in control it has lost in style and pacing.

From instantly spawning enemies, to their mindless A.I., to control that misses its mark, State of Emergency 2 is a study in bad developmental decisions.

No tension anywhere.

You'd be better off just going back and watching the animé instead.

Most of the game is as tedious and exciting as burning ants with a magnifying glass.

Other than plenty of cockpit bleeps and bloops, the sound is also lackluster. Bad, generic metal loops dominate the soundtrack, making you actually wish Kenny Loggins was back on the scene.

It’s like an ironic mustache or mullet. Like having a Steven Segal DVD in your collection. You’ll never get any real use out of it. You just have it in with your other games to show you friends you have a sense of humor.

It's got some nice CGI and a few neat lighting effects here and there, but with control issues, lame multiplayer and boring level design it's pretty obvious that the curse has struck again.

No tension anywhere.

The online mode is there as it is with nearly every fighting game to come out in the last five years and it serves its purpose just dandy. Unfortunately, the broken gameplay immediately removes any gold starz DBZ would have eared for online functionality.

It doesn’t matter if you're a fan of the movie, comics, or action games in general. Iron Man has little to offer but the pain of aneurysm-inducing frustration and disgust for the greedy underbelly of our lifestyle.

989 should just stop with these crummy sports games already. They can't currently compete with the folks at Visual Concepts and EA Sports. If this is next-gen basketball, then I'll stick with the good old days.

An awful, bland "story."

You can turn down the volume, but you’re better off turning down this game. That’s harsh, but so are the graphics, the A.I. routines, the missions, the gameplay, and the characters.

If you want a detective story that's told in an interesting and thoughtful fashion, there's always Phoenix Wright and Sam & Max. The folks on Baker Street just ain't what it used to be.

Playing The Art of Fighting Anthology is a little bit like rediscovering your 6th grade journal. It’s entertaining to relive those days and marvel at how far you’ve come, and certainly it has too much sentimental value to get rid of, but ultimately it’s too painful to look at for long, and really belongs in a box somewhere where you can forget about it for another fifteen years.

Other than a ton of moves, this baller has zero street cred.

Seven hours of virtual failure. The end result is empty, hollow, and more like a free demo download than a solid retail seller.

As cute and as endearing as Squeeballs tries to be, it just never hits the mark.

British culture is certainly responsible for some fine works, like Shakespeare, David Bowie and Elizabeth Hurley. But as The Getaway: Black Monday proves, it’s also capable of some very bad ones, like the Spice Girls, blood sausage, Prince Harry's Nazi costume, and now Black Monday. Despite the name, we're pretty sure this game sucks every day of the week.

It appears, at a glance, that Asphalt 3D is an incredibly strong launch title. Local multiplayer, plentiful maps, decent graphics, and fast-paced gameplay should all mix together into something worthwhile. It doesn't take long for everything to fall apart, though, and before long the scratches on the surface turn to full-blown gashes.

The game really doesn't offer anything interesting aside from the whole shape-shifting thing, which is does poorly. With empty battles and bland side-quests, the point of it all is lost.

Ultimately, though, the biggest blow against the game is its brevity. You shouldn't have trouble clearing its single-player mode in two or three hours.

But beyond the novelty factor and that one Clapton song, there's not much to Power Gig: Rise of the Six String.

If you really want to play Chaos Theory, go find a used copy of the superior original at a fraction of the price.

The level design and flow of the game grows tiring quickly.

It was a chore to finish the slim four-hour campaign, and if I weren't reviewing it, I would have tossed the disc-along with more than a few controllers-through my window in frustration within the first hour.

Ultimately, though, the biggest blow against the game is its brevity. You shouldn't have trouble clearing its single-player mode in two or three hours.

But beyond the novelty factor and that one Clapton song, there's not much to Power Gig: Rise of the Six String.

Rumor has it that GameDay 2002 is superior to GameDay 2001, but that's sort of like saying a bop on the head is better than a punch in the nose. I wouldn't pay for either of them.

A big disappointment. Though it uses a decent RPG system, its poor balance, repetitive action and somewhat lame stab at rewriting history leads to a game no one should invest time or money in.

This virtual version of the Land just isn’t worth saving.

It manages to stumble all over itself from the second you turn it on and never manages to recover. Simple control functions are handled clumsily, changing weapons is a chore and someone actually thought the dumb melee-exclusive levels would be a good idea. Like the rest of this stinker, it is not.

Mayhem isn't a guilty pleasure. It's just painful to look at, painful to play.

A big disappointment, a shoddy port that suffers due to both the limitations of its new platform and its technical pitfalls.

Mayhem isn't a guilty pleasure. It's just painful to look at, painful to play.

Occasionally seems bad in a good way thanks to some unintentionally funny B-movie schlock and ridiculous dialogue. But make no mistake- this is a bad game and isn’t worth your attention unless you simply must run around as a stripper and taser people.

Combine the fact the game just isn't engaging with the same four or five environments for battles, the constant flow of graphical glitches and the bland dialog between characters, and I have no idea why anyone thought this would be a good game.

Children of Mana is repetitive, tedious, dull, monotonous, and boring. The only good thing about this game is that it will actually make you want to do something productive, just to stop playing it.

Ultimately, though, the biggest blow against the game is its brevity. You shouldn't have trouble clearing its single-player mode in two or three hours.