Neat gameplay is marred by a tough camera system and the lack of interesting toys is a letdown, but the game is a solid appetizer for another certain espionage game that's on the way.

Its mix of brains and brawn come together for some truly fun gameplay. But for a game that's a year old, it would have been nice to see a little something extra.

The new graphics are less distinct than the old 2D ones. It's just plain harder to see things like weapons and smaller creatures.

There are a few wonderful new items added to enhance the lives of us Sims, but they're novelties rather than staples and they won't exponentially increase your Sim's appreciation for their environment or your appreciation for the game - and for $29, it should.

While Zone of the Enders is very arcadey and lacks the depth that will lead to much replayability, it does offer some very good and nicely-rendered mech mayhem.

It's the sort of game that comes around once every few years and totally changes the gaming landscape.

The solid story, decent backgrounds and cool gadgets just aren't enough to offset the lame animation, awful control and bland action.

The relatively decent graphics, fine character animation and easy gameplay make Sarge's Heroes 2 a surprisingly playable Army Men game, but that isn't saying much.

The extra missions would have really helped flesh out the original. But it's not really worth a second price of admission. Wait for this one to hit the bargain bin, or if you don't have the original, wait for the inevitable "bundle."

While hardly as bad as its PSOne predecessor, this one seems content mired in utter mediocrity.

This game could get a recommendation if the price was right...but it's not. The game is worth about 10 bucks, but it sells for a whopping $30. That's just a brutal rip off, considering what you get - a subpar pinball game. But at least it's a great extinction theory.

Plays a lot like "Doom," but with more enemies. Way more. Like, the most EVER. And they just keep coming and coming, like roaches to a donut.

Someone needs to recycle this plastic and make something more useful, like a toilet paper holder.

This one's okay, if you just get into the excellent mood, the environmental detail and the strategic puzzle-solving of it all. If you try to get too rogue or off the beaten path, however, you'll end up phasering yourself in the foot.

A real gem. It offers carefully balanced, elegant gameplay that will challenge your brain rather than your double-click speed.

Many strategy fans will appreciate the depth and Fallout groupies will love the continuity, but some things like control in CTB mode or the pace in the classic style may drop bombs in the wrong places.

While visually the worst in town, the sim gameplay and depth raise High Heat 2002 above the pack.

Its amazing graphics and fun gameplay make this one of those games that you need to experience. Just watch out for those damn zombies.

A good choice; just remember, it's not the whole enchilada. I like the difficulty level of the bots within single player as well as the possibility of 8-player network play. And where else can you find a chance to put those damn dirty robots in their rightful place?

ROR offers decent strategy elementis and is easy to understand, but the gameplay crawls and may be a turn-off for even the most hardcore strategy buff.

Everything you've seen before.

One of those great arcade games that doesn't make the journey home very well. Although the Dreamcast version does have most of the features of the big arcade machine, it's missing the essential multiplayer fun. I think I'll save my quarters and pay a visit to the local bowling alley instead.

If you're an "E2150" vet, you can't wait to start cranking out more of your customizable-chassis units; if you're relatively new to the 3D RTS thing, all you can think is I've gotta get the hell out of here!

Even with its shortcomings, Battle for Naboo is pretty fun.

The lack of action deals a heavy blow to this otherwise polished adventure.

While The Bouncer cam puts on a good show, it chooses fashion over function every time. Dramatic camera angles produce awesome screen shots, but as a result you'll spend half the time wondering what's sitting right in front of your face.

Admittedly, it does end up my favorite of the Toy Story games, but that isn't saying much.

Makes you chuckle and drives you to keep playing. I would have liked some deeper action or at least a longer experience, but this is still certainly worth the investment. Now where did I put that Bloody Mary mix?

It might do a great job at raising the hair on the back of our necks, but it doesn't do much to raise the gameplay bar. Who knew mediocrity could be so scary?

A kick with its sharp visual style, crisp sounds, and thousands of tasty, violent, obscene morsels which are sure to stimulate your psychic sweet tooth. A strong game to be sure, but not the sequel it could have been.

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.

While Starfighter is without a doubt a solid game, I can't help but wish for a more dynamic storyline or level structure. The ability to progress in the game without complete success would definitely boost the depth by leaps and bounds.

I just wish it wasn't so mediocre.

The game is obscenely generic, wildly frustrating and simply not worth the time. Kids will throw tantrums and adults will pull out their hair. I fear Kao is headed straight for the video game character wasteland, populated by such notables as "Aero the Acrobat," "Bubsy" and "Michael Jackson."

Too many technical problems and not enough fun drive this bike straight into the ground. You'll have more fun playing "Hang On" again with "Shenmue."

Quite the insult to PS2 hockey fans. It's certainly not as good as NHL 2001, and that wasn't a great game..Poor 989 seems to be falling even further behind with old injuries and rusty skates. Someone definitely needs to check these guys.

Vanishing Point suffers from fatal conceptual flaws. Complete reliance on unlockable features, limited choices of starting vehicles and tracks, and staggered opponent start times have taken what could have been a good game and ruined it.

The story is delivered with a good dose of humor, taking occasional potshots at Mario's past. The familiarity of the world is one of the game's greatest assets, and Nintendo does a great job keeping its tradition alive.

A fun game. It's classic Mega Man, a formulaic game that sticks to the same ground rules, but still works. And getting back into the familiar 2D groove just felt really good, especially with the gameplay refinements.

Oni manages to compensate for dull graphics, empty interiors, lengthy load times and unfriendly saves with intense action and impressive enemy AI. The game is fun, challenging, worth the frustration and is a splendid addition to your PS2 collection.

An unforgiving game that demands precision and perfection from its racers. The pure joy of racing has been lost in the equation. The racetracks provide nothing that hasn't been seen before, the graphics and music are a step backwards, and like I said, I just didn't have fun.

The story wasn't much of a story at all. So for all you readers out there that are hoping for a whopper of a tale, I hope you can be satisfied with a mere kid's meal.

Manages to compensate for dull graphics, empty interiors, lack of a multiplayer mode and unfriendly saves with intense action and impressive enemy AI. The game is fun, challenging, and ultimately worth the frustration.

If you're losing sleep at night and are in need of some real-time combat, get Vagrant Story. If it's too late and you already own this atrocity, just break it up and try to feed it to ducks or something.

Worth a look. Even if you are not a fan of the period or prefer more traditional RTS games, you will probably find that the challenges offered by the diverse campaigns will suck in more of your time than you expected.

Without a doubt, this is the most fun you can have while increasing your typing speed. Zombies make good teachers.

A solid if unspectacular start for EA Sports' next-gen hoops. Fans of the series will be genuinely pleased. But compared to what Visual Concepts is doing with the "NBA 2K" games, Live has a long way to go before it makes it to the Finals.

Hardcore adventure types might enjoy it only because there are so few options these days, but anyone else will find the irritating puzzles, well, irritating, and will want to heave the CD out the window.

If the taste of orcs and humans battling on a 2D plain while gathering gold and other resources hasn't become stale to your senses, then by all means dive into this feast of rehashed mediocrity. I'm looking for something with a little more kick.

One of those games that coulda, woulda, shoulda, but didn't. It introduces some great ideas and lets them fall flat.

I was hoping for depth and ingenuity. I wanted "Seven Samurai," but got "Samurai Deli."

The only things that aren't very confusing are the graphics and sound. Aqua Aqua shows off clean and colorful visuals along with decent sound.

Decidedly different from what you are used to in an RPG. You'll either eventually take to it or you'll just be put off by all the unfamiliarity. There's a true sense of creepiness to it - the ever-rising number of casualties really gets under your skin. It sure got under mine.

Not only is the movie a copy of another movie, it's now a game which copies a movie which copies another movie. Too much copying means no innovation.

Tries hard with a macho attitude, but there isn't anything satisfying underneath. Instead, you get a mish mash of tired game concepts thrown into an industrial blender, fingers crossed that the pulpy results will come out a tasty brew.

If you're 12 years old and Mom won't buy you the game with the guns, then this is a relatively nonviolent and enthralling adventure that I think even adults can sink their teeth into.

A solid mission pack, adding a whole new team element. Team organization is something that is evolving in online multiplayer gaming, and it's nice to see Quake join the fray.

In the crowded first-person genre, this one barely makes the grade.

The game is worth the attention of Trekkies, due in part to the fact that the multiplayer action quite simply kicks alien ass. When two players of relatively equal skill go at each other, each carefully bringing their ship's unique abilities to bear, each misering the last nanojoule of energy for best effect, the experience is unparalleled...and oddly, very faithful to the tense, armrest-gripping feel of a Star Trek duel.

To add insult to injury, when Batman gets hurt, his animation is to fall over like a domino. Here you've got a fully equipped destroyer of crime, and he takes punches like an inflatable 'punch-em' clown. This speaks pages for how poorly the rest of the animation fares.

As bad as this game is, young scooter fans will eat it up. After all, it's got a monopoly on the scooter game market and is really simple to understand.

There's nothing brutally wrong with Championship Surfer, but there isn't really enough to keep the non-surfer interested. It's just wave after wave after wave.

I would have liked a bit more story to the game, and a bit less of killing things, and quite a lot less jumping, thank you.

It's a pity such an immersive and gorgeous endeavor is plagued by so many unnecessary bugs.

High-quality graphics along with a new action doused combat system that's bound together with a solid story make for one hell of a game.

There's just not enough innovation to bring this stale serving of grey matter to the table for a second helping.

This is just a smart, well-made racer. Props to Codemasters for putting out the two best rally games ever. If you like video games and have two opposable thumbs, I recommend that you buy this game.

That's the basic problem with this title; it is built on an outdated 3-D fighting engine. This leads to frustrating control issues and limited types of attacks you can perform.

A mixed bag of great ideas and poor implementation.

While JA2:UB's combat is unique and rewarding, nearly every other aspect of the game lacks vitality and originality. The graphics are weak, there's no story, no character development, and the villagers never say anything but "They're watching you."

A movie rip-off perpetrated by greedy execs who are certain that the people who enjoyed the movie will be intrigued enough to shell out for this stinker. No doubt the true Imhotep is presently trying to kick a hole in his sarcophagus lid to get at the Konami programmers who have blasphemed his name by attaching it to this abomination.

A fun hour or two and worth renting if you've got the flow and a lot of food, but otherwise it's just another rehashed old game.

A solid racer. There is a slight adjustment period while grasping the concept of racing on snow, but that's the premise here and the physics are really done well.

A lot more work than fun. When I play it for long stretches, I feel like I deserve a nap on a bale of hay.

The new battle system and improved graphics mixed with solid features from the past make for a seriously addictive game. Great for old school vets and newbies alike.

A great game for anyone who likes space COMBAT: it's fun, fluid, and well done.

Xtreme Sports offers pretty graphics and varied gameplay, but the individual events are simply too limited for this to have a long shelf life. However, the new events really sets XS apart from other sports titles.

Comes out just slightly better than your average ho-hum kart racer. It's got sweet graphics and the Looney Tunes, but not a much beyond that.

Blair Witch 3 makes no effort at an atmosphere of foreboding and danger. Instead, they made it dark. But the dark isn't scary if you know there isn't something in it to be afraid of.

It is redeemed by its attempt at varied and balanced play and the fact that, compared to its siblings, it's shorter than a legless dwarf caterpillar after a confrontation with the business end of a shoe.

When you add in the fact that the camera seems to have a mind of it's own, then factor in the slowdown, compounded with the fact that you can barely see your opponents because it's so freakishly dark, you have to wonder why you're wasting time on this painfully inadequate, near crap game.

While Spider-man for the N64 has some of the snazzy spider's super skills down pat, it falls prey to some boring gameplay design.

The addictive gameplay along with clean textures and smooth animations produce a rock solid game. The lack of a level editor is something of a letdown, but I guess we'll have to just wait for "Dave Mirra 2."

While Gunman Chronicles looks a lot like Half-Life, it lacks the personality and creativity that made Half-Life such an epic game.

A great game, but having to stand around backstage and watch the other characters perform is maddening. I guess that's what any rookie wrestler goes through.

There's something very magnetic about this game that keeps pulling me back to grab more jiggies... The framerate drops can be bothersome, but it's still a fun 3D platformer.

Die-hard R6ers might get a kick out of it, but I don't recommend it to newbies unless you're just itchin to play dress up with some big bad army men.

A relatively fresh, stylish new variation on the sneaking man's shooter, and goodness, is it fun.

Blowing stuff up in Demolition is definitely fun in all its Star Wars glory, but the more you play, the more you'll notice the imbalance in gameplay.

Some gamers can look past gritty textures and stickmen for the decent gameplay and variety, but the poor control that plagues 007 Racing is hard to resolve.

A really good wrestling game. However, its superiority over "Wrestlemania 2000" is marginalized due to technical limitations.

The game is really, really hard, but that's the nature of this genre. I just wish that there were more rewards for my efforts; it feels almost pointless to try so hard.

A masterful adventure game. Although not incredibly impressive technologically, it encapsulates all the elements of a good adventure and is an absolute must-have for any adventure gamers out there.

I got a plate of old brains, stale brains, brains that had been stuffed in Tupperware, stored in the fridge and briefly reheated in the microwave.

If you're a DS9 fan, this is a good one. Heck - even if you're new to the series, the game can be entertaining.

Without a decent framerate, the control suffers, and without decent control, the game becomes a LOT less fun. As it stands, this game feels more like a beta than a final, and fans of the original should just go play the first one again.

a horrible beat-em-up, but as a shooter it seriously applies pedal extremities to hindquarters... This is a really fun game once you play it the way the developers intended.

This is not a game for the impatient, and some gamers might find the slow pace and long battles to get a bit boring. But ruling all of Japan should take a while, right?