The crisp graphics hold up fine on the small screen, but the music is standard, forgettable fare.

Your enemies look and sound like people, but the environments seem grainy and uninspired, and “atmospheric” music pipes through like an orchestra with a head cold.

The most distinguishing difference between Half-Life and its PC counterpart is the sharper visual presentation.

A huge, fantastic, creative, and wickedly fun RPG that doesn't seem to care that it's "just" on a GBA. It's easily the best RPG available for the GBA-and may just be the best RPG for any console system this year.

The game’s only real flaw is that Spyro kind of handles like a broken bicycle, and steering him/her/it through the pseudo-3D landscape can get frustrating after the nine-hundredth time you’ve inadvertently come too close to a puddle of lethal water.

Hardly a groundbreaking fighting game, but it delivers a massive lineup of classic characters coupled with a tried-and-true fighting engine. It’s rock-solid fighting, plain and simple.

The gameplay still delivers thrilling combat that’s focused less on stealth and much more on action.

It proves that you don’t need hyper detailed, synapse-sizzling graphics to deliver a great game when ingenuity and solid mechanics will do.

With a massive amount of features to unlock and enjoy, SSX Tricky gives fans a whole lot of tasty treats to chew on.

As long as you don’t mind a slightly more technical feel and a hefty challenge, you’ll find the best thing to happen with jetskis since the N64’s Wave Race.

An absolutely gorgeous game, packing in fantastic animations, lavish player models, and stadiums with cool details like flags waving in the stands.

The arcade gameplay retains the Ace Combat trademarks: tons of firepower and a simple control scheme.

If you were hoping the new management would give Crash a big kick in the pants, however, this is one pair of pants you will find quite unkicked.

Sure, crashing is discouraging, but Burnout’s are quite a show, and you can even save your “greatest hits” to a memory card.

Takes as many steps back as it does forward, and ends up teetering precariously over the brink of being a disappointment.

The utterly perfect soundtrack delivers exactly the mood you want, from the smooth coolness of the Predator’s snarl to the eerie silence of the Marine’s pinging motion tracker.

A great game in an awful—or is it just nostalgic?—package; a title that would be considered a classic if it had been released, oh, seven years ago today.

It’s hard to knock one of the best, most addictive strategy games ever made—but Civ II owners may wonder why they’re paying fifty bucks for what's essentially a decent facelift and a gameplay balance patch.

Essentially, it’s the original Smuggler’s Run, but with video clips included.

This is THPS at its best. More fun? Can’t have it.

Levels are admirably large, but the draw-in distance is pretty dreadful, and sometimes the camera can’t keep up. The new revert move enables massive vert-to-street-to-vert combos, but the controls don’t seem super-precise.

Controls are as sharp as ever, and the opponent A.I. is tight.

So good that it will easily make diehard pocket fighters forget all about the great genre titles on the short-lived Neo Geo Pocket Color.

The gameplay finally matches the graphics, and the result is what basketball fans want and need in a PS2 game.

The keyboard, joystick, and gamepad all work, but this game was designed with a wheel in mind. You’re cheating yourself if you play without one.

If anything, character visuals look slightly sharper with brighter colors than the PS2 game's, and the post-play highlights are still cool.

Though switching weapons with the directional pad and both shoulder buttons takes a little time to get the hang of, the control scheme is tight and simple.

The intuitive controls have been retained, but to enhance the original's sim-like feel, a slice button has been added and the serves are a little more difficult to perfect.

One of the best basketball games ever on any console…period.

The most faithful rendition of the Batman animated series yet. The graphics are appropriately dark and angular, successfully evoking the series’ “dark deco” look, and the animation is fast and dynamic. The end result, however is marred my occasional murkiness and poor collision detection.

Although fairly fun, Sunny Garcia lacks true replay value since the action tends to feel repetitive, and the beaches begin to look the same.

The problem here is that the actual racing isn’t that much fun.

Looks like a shooter, but at its heart it’s a mind-busting puzzle game that transcends its own graphical limitations and delivers an intelligent gamer’s paradise.

Greatly improved in GTAIII is the stunning visual and sound package.

There’s often little tension, making the game feel less like flying in combat and more like running errands.

Treads familiar ground, but does it well, making this sequel worthwhile for anyone who enjoyed the first game and a must for anyone who hasn’t moved to the 128-bit gaming world just yet.

An intense action/adventure game where technique is king and the challenge level is high. Throw in fantastic graphics and intuitive controls, and you’ve got one of this year’s strongest PS2 titles.

Edges out "NASCAR Heat" as this season’s top stock-car racer. Slick A.I. and a great Career mode make this game addictively playable.

Casual twitch gamers may be turned off by the flying learning curve and amount of strategizing required to complete each mission, but you can’t deny the hedonistic thrill of buzzing over a desolate desert landscape and letting loose!

Despite its setbacks, Kinetica is a decent racer that’s worth trying—it offers a phenomenal visual rush into new age racing.

Boxing Fever isn't just a punchfest, however--it requires good timing and strategizing in order to move through the ranks.

The sheer scope of this game (to repeat it again: 12 races, 33 classes, 3 realms) and its incredible quality level make it a shining star in the MMORPG sky.

A very brief but worthwhile addition to any Castlevania fan’s collection, but the uninitiated may find that the game’s platform-hopping techniques are behind the times.

Has all the realism most gamers will want, plus plenty of mini-games to keep you challenged.

Although its gameplay is derivative, Yanya Caballista’s ludicrous B-movie plot, wacky animation, and cartoon-inspired zaniness give it entertainment value.

The game’s battles look nice and move quickly, but the character animation is stiff, and the menu is too clunky and confusing given the limited number of battle options at your disposal.

Granted, it’s a very short game that certainly won’t mesmerize you for weeks, but the value of its multiplayer side as a killer party game makes it a very worthy addition to your PS2 library.

GGX’s solid and responsive control scheme keeps the fighting exciting, although some moves are difficult to execute and require patience to master fully…if at all.

Succeeds where "Rollercoaster Tycoon" and even "Sim Theme Park" failed—it gives you the true sensation of riding a rollercoaster, the logical tools to build them, and the ability to show your work quickly and easily.

Unfortunately, the game doesn’t maintain any long-term interest: defusing problems and room-swapping tenants are more work than fun and the process becomes tiresome after the third stage or so.

The difference between the sheer energy in the cinemas and the painstaking gameplay is so striking that it feels like you’re fighting battles less to win them than to see the next visual treat.

A virtually arcade perfect port.

SH2 makes more effective use of shadows, lighting, and sound than 99 percent of the Hollywood horror movies made in the last 20 years.

Its lack of depth, bad soundtrack, and easy difficulty level make the game a minor leaguer.

The gameplay mantra of advance, stop, button mash, advance, stop, button mash (think "Final Fight" minus the fun) gets crushingly repetitive.

The butter-smooth controls make the game a joy to play—between the big hits and the player-controlled dekes, you’ll alternate between brawling like Tie Domi and dangling like Pavel Bure.

Great pick-up-and-play, arcade-style fun.

Arcade racers will be quite challenged by the difficulties of true F1 racing, and may run crying back to the muscle cars in GT3 out of frustration. However, if you already know what F1 racing is all about, then you can expect a well-crafted racing experience.

Unique and engaging in every respect—and for highbrow types who crave a challenge, this is as good as it gets.

Sports the best lighting effects you’ll ever see on the Dreamcast. The overall graphic quality is topnotch with sharp prerendered environments and good-looking characters.

The whole experience feels more like a dedicated group of fans got hold of a level editor rather than a fully equipped second effort.

Each web action has its own distinct sound, and swinging through Manhattan on a web line is feels and sounds just right.

Continues to deliver well-balanced pigskin fun with awesome graphics, intuitive controls, numerous options, and lightning-fast onscreen action.

It’s a topnotch shooting game but hardly one that you’ll play for days on end.

The Disney music isn’t quite as infectious as the DDR originals, and some people will cringe at “Chim Chim Cher-ee” and “It’s a Small World (Ducking Hardcore Mix).”

Moderately enjoyable with good replay value, but its many flaws really hinder what could have been a great romp in the snow.

The controls are still the most frustrating part of the game: They’re sloppy, inexact, and derivative of Street Fighter's with a dash of Tekken's thrown in.

Surprisingly solid and fun.

Unfortunately, the game shows not only its age, but also the console’s age and its considerable weaknesses.

With rough textures and flat prerendered backgrounds, Portal Runner looks like a late-generation PlayStation title rather than a second-generation PS2 effort. It plays even worse.

It’s the same exact game as the PlayStation version with little more than cleaned-up graphics and faster load times—not good or bad, just the same.

Like "Mario Party," "Bomberman," and "Super Smash Bros." before it, the amusement level in this ridiculous frenzy increases exponentially with the number of people in the room.

An engaging story, colorful graphics, a fine soundtrack (including solid voice-acting), and responsive controls means this sequel easily delivers the kind of solid adventure that fans of the genre crave.

The character designs are awesome, the soundtrack is solid, and the controls are perfect... It strikes the right balance between pick-up-and-play and in-depth strategy.

A refreshing surprise—it puts back the “miracle” into the Miracle Boy’s reputation by being a top-notch freestylin’ cyclist for the PS2.

It would be wise to send ShootOut 2002 to the showers unless you simply must have updated player rosters and the questionable touch-shooting feature.

While it’s possible the casual gamer may be enchanted by the presentation, Panic’s high difficulty level will delight only hardcore players.

Overall, Super Circuit handles like a front-runner, but sometimes the windshield needs cleaning.

This is the best kind of game: easy to pick up, hard to put down; simple to learn, difficult to master.

While the game immerses you in an enormous, compelling saga, its sheer complexity will scare off all but the most dedicated space-combat aces.

There truly is a deep, rewarding, and splendiferous RPG behind Arcanum’s dated, clunky machina…but only the most intrepid RPG fanatics will have the patience to dig it out.

An intensely addictive, if not particularly innovative, racer.

The visuals and sound are the major sore spots of Le Mans. The graphics are grainy and not very sharp, especially when you’re driving at night or in the rain.

Far from the best entry in the "Resident Evil" series but is an entertaining fright-night nonetheless.

Despite its now trademark addictive gameplay, THPS2 just doesn’t cut it anymore—on an aged system Tony just looks and sounds awful, and there aren’t any new features to redeem it.

The sequel to one of the best fishing games ever unfortunately delivers nothing but a fishy stench instead of a prize catch-of-the-day.

Don’t enter Another Age expecting a full-fledged sequel to Agetec’s giant-robot fighting franchise. This AC2 expansion pack adds about 100 missions and new multiplayer options…but not a whole lot more.

This year's real highlight for Madden madmen is the buffed out A.I.: On defense, the game reacts more rapidly than ever to your offensive tendencies and in particular makes tough half time adjustments.

When will ESPN learn the difference between a game worth endorsing and one that’s utter garbage? Not soon enough, apparently.

In this case, though, it’s better to travel with a legend in a book than play as one on the PlayStation.

Even restrained by the PlayStation’s limited horsepower, the player models look reasonably good, and they move incredibly smoothly and with lifelike realism.

Despite a few structural flaws, Fortress is a fun way to kill little chunks of time.

There really should be a full ten decathlon events in the game; seven leaves you feeling hungry for more variety.

Brainless action-shooting doesn’t get more engaging than AFO. But without depth, the destruction eventually gets repetitious and tiring to the eyes.

Limited button-customization, poor object detection, and sloppy beam-saber execution add to the frustrations. Still, Journey to Jaburo is an enjoyable alternative for fans of giant-robot games.

Though this year’s GameDay is extremely fun and playable, Madden gets the nod for better graphics and more authenticity.

The puzzles can be especially frustrating and there isn’t a whole lot of action, but cerebral brainteasers and humorous interaction between the brothers makes the gameplay refreshing and fun.

A prime lesson on simple yet addictive gameplay with awe-inspiring visuals—a blend that no gamer should miss.