The gameplay gets old quick. Shoot, scroll, shoot, scroll. Lather, rinse, repeat.

The minigames will wear thin quickly for adults, while the management will prove too confusing for the little ones. If you love building roller coasters or playing party games with your buddies, you'd be better off with Rollercoaser Tycoon or Mario Party.

anything, Colorz serves a purpose reminding players that people suck at multitasking, all while testing their knowledge of the color wheel.

Weighing in at five cases, Miami Law isn't a terribly long game nor is it terribly original, but for what it is -- a rather mindless police point and click -- it's a decent enough adventure.

Urban Chaos tries to be different than other FPS titles, and it manages to get a few things right. But shoddy visuals and generic action bring the game down to the depths of mediocrity. [July 2006, p.78]

Since the controls almost never change from character to character, there's very little difference between all the fighters-you've seen one, you've seen 'em all, in other words.

It's wacky and weird and has some funny moments. It's just too bad that the actual gameplay can't seem to keep up with that kind of creativity.

Even though I am not their biggest fan, I still felt like the band deserved much better than this half-assed effort.

More a mediocre tribute to past games than a fresh experience. Unimpressive graphics, a mundane fighting system, and a slate of characters borrowed from other titles leaves Warriors Orochi a stale appetizer left on the plate as you wait for the "Dynasty Warriors 6" main course.

Worst of all is the repetitive and completely linear feel of every mission.

You just can't help but feel that the project was too ambitious for its own good. Much of Bloodlines works just as well as it did with the original Assassin's Creed, but a number of strange design choices certainly hinder the game as a whole.

Rogue Trooper tries to be a competant third-person action game with attitude, but it ultimately fails. [June 2006, p.74]

Perhaps one of the most boring games to ever grace a home console...The horrendous combat and boring mission objectives really don't take the game in any fun directions. Apparently the code is all about putting you to sleep.

Are the four player mini-games enough to interest those with zealous hedgehog love? Maybe, but it's really too bad that the combat is so annoying, because the game actually looks great, especially the storybook painting cut scenes. Ah well, better luck next time, Sonic.

It's amazing that Mythos made it out at all, even more so considering how solid its core mechanics managed to be in the final product. Flagship's DNA comes through clearly even as you sift through the unnecessary crap. But with so many competent Diablo clones out there already, there's little reason to play through the piles of slapped-together content that Mythos offers.

I had a great time dismembering members of the Empire for four hours, and what little story exists has some great potential, but the hugely missed marks and brutal technical problems really bring The Force Unleashed 2 to its knees. It's tough to recommend this to even the most devout Star Wars fan, since they'll feel the sting of disappointment worse than those who'd simply dislike it as a mediocre action game.

If nothing else, The First Templar is an interesting look at what happens when an established developer moves beyond its comfort zone. Unsurprisingly, the results are mixed: a few glimmering moments of innovation diluted by hours of decade-old design.

A game full of lousy gameplay and poor visual effects that will only make you ask, “Why?!” ... Clearly belongs in the bin of horrendous movie-to-game translations.

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.

The controls fall into the same annoying trap as other touch-control FPS games in that you're always resetting your thumb to look around.

It's like playing Simon Says with a Simon that never attempts to fool you and is really into teeny-bop pop; if the graphics were a person, her ugliness would prevent her from making the squad; controls aren't precise enough.

Character animation is fine, but some questionable collision detection and generic explosions rob it of whatever flash it could have had. X2: Wolverine’s Revenge simply doesn’t feel polished—or even complete.

Really, I don't blame WayForward or Sega for such a boring game -- both companies have had their share of excellent games. But it's like being given a painter's canvas and three crayons -- you can create all you want, but the material you're given isn't the best to work with. But when I think of all the other things I've could've done on my Saturday -- went for a walk, strolled by the beach, gone to see a movie -- I can only gaze up at the heavens and curse Thor's name.

All in all, Wanted: Weapons of Fate isn't so much a game for fans of the shooter genre, but it's a game for fans of Wanted.

NHL Arcade falls short in too many areas to be highly recommended. Unless you're a diehard hockey fanatic you can pass up this title. It's a shame too, we needed a good hockey arcade title for PSN/XBLA, but we haven't gotten it yet.

The mechs are highly customizable--a franchise hallmark--but the environments are sparse and the gameplay experience itself feels ultimately soulless.

While Xbox 360 and PS3 owners get a slick upgrade over Madden '07, Wii owners get a mediocre and lackluster version. Diehard fans and series n00bs alike should avoid the Wii version, as it's inferior in just about every single way.

If you own any wrestling game from the last five years, I can almost guarantee it'll have more match types, story lines, and custom moves than this one.

It’s the execution that lacks. Laboriously slow gameplay leaves little to get excited about—there’s no real sense of speed.

Because the PSP buttons (including the shoulder buttons) are in such close proximity to each other, your fingers are constantly tumbling over each other to pull off the right stunt.

It hopelessly mires itself in technical problems: frame rates drop and stutter precipitously and unpredictably; characters move through, and get stuck in, solid objects; there's often tangible lag between moving the joystick and seeing the result; collision detection and vehicle physics are spotty at best; and heck, the game even freezes entirely on occasion.

If you spent time jamming quarters into Samurai Shodown 2 in an arcade somewhere back in the day, this game is worth a look. But if you're looking for a classic, fun 2D fighter on XBLA, you could do better.

A lot of folks are looking for a slice of Japanese otaku life as a video game, or just some anime fan-service, and if that's you, you won't be disappointed.

And with all this fixing, adding, and rearranging, you get the sense that Dark Energy Digital desperately wants you to like their game, going as far as including an in-game "Dev Feedback" menu, letting players vote various aspects of the game up or down, as well as citing the reasons for those votes. But it reveals Dark Energy's focus on fixing the individual components of a fundamentally broken game, and while Prophecy's improvements make for a better experience, they only serve to make a bad experience into just another disappointment.



You may have a modicum of fun with Slam Bolt, but with its short length and unbalanced mechanics, you're mostly in for a bland experience.

By dumbing it down with WWF-style presentation and mindless gameplay, 3DO has created a PS2 update of the BattleTanx series that turns what was a fun mission-based adventure into a silly tournament-style game show.

Graphics are decent, but the sound is obnoxious.

While the overall control scheme works well enough, kicking long range field goals through the notoriously tight uprights is far too simple. The limited playbook also gives the game a stale feeling and the half baked telemetry system fails to save the gameplay with largely unimportant statistical minutia delivered in eye-straining small fonts and obnoxious menus.

Those intrigued by the esoteric nonsense of this year's DVD release, Final Fantasy: Advent Children, will likely relish the incoherent sci-fi narrative.

A competent PC wargame with some neat features, but it's just not enjoyable enough to justify the $40 price tag.

At best, Evolution is mediocre. While it's far from busted, there just isn't much to merit your attention past a handful of matches in each play session. Why, it's almost like it'd be better as an iPhone game or something instead!

The game itself quickly bogs down into a long, repetitive walk-and-punch beat-em-up game.

The graphics are obviously improved over the PlayStation predecessors, but even fans of that trilogy will be disappointed by the comparative dearth of traps to choose from. Ultimately, mediocrity ensnares Trapt with it's own lack of gameplay meat.

Run, don't walk, in the opposite direction of this one. With its boring collection of mini-games and cheap presentation, this one will only appeal to the littlest of tykes.

Simple strafing would have been preferable to Obi’s clumsy acrobatics, and the sloppy, inaccurate controls require too much work for a game so shallow.

If you're looking for a mindless way to rack up Achievement Points, go ahead and rent Ninety-Nine Nights II, but be warned -- it's like watching the first 10 minutes of the Battle of Helm's Deep on repeat for 30 hours. After a while, you won't even care who's winning the fights, and only periodic bathroom breaks will break up the monotony.

While The Chase certainly shines in its addictive and innovative gameplay, it has the misfortune of just becoming too much and too hard too fast.

Sadly, the controls in the Battle screen are totally counterintuitive, making it a slow, tedious chore to command your units.

For what it attempts, the tower-defense aspects are not well explained enough, or implemented simply enough, to raise Dungeon Defenders above the slew of similar games out there.

For the most dedicated puzzle fanatics, Cubixx HD will likely become a quick favorite, with an abundance of levels, modes, and leaderboards to compete on. However, due to some unfortunate design decisions, the majority of its players will likely never see all that it has to offer.

Perhaps one of the most boring games to ever grace a home console...The horrendous combat and boring mission objectives really don't take the game in any fun directions. Apparently the code is all about putting you to sleep.

On its own, this game brings little to the table. Past its chuckle-worthy "Welcome to Die" and "Master of Magnet" moments, outside of your nostalgia for your arcade days or your enthusiasm for the comic, there's very little game to be had.

Military Madness: Nectaris needs better graphics. It needs more grab-you-and-suck-you-right-in sounds and background noise. It needs to brush up the controls as well. Everything put together equals a real stinker in the long run.

Missions get yawn-inducingly monotonous after awhile, and the game's final motorcycle chase sequence is one of the most frustrating ever designed.

This game just lacks in too many ways to cost this much. Should have just been a 400 point game.

Does the basics right—sound effects and control—but is also completely uninventive.

NHL Arcade falls short in too many areas to be highly recommended. Unless you're a diehard hockey fanatic you can pass up this title. It's a shame too, we needed a good hockey arcade title for PSN/XBLA, but we haven't gotten it yet.

Mediocre. It lacks in overall game play and its weak multiplayer offering and brief amount of game time will leave players wanting.

All of its many options are hampered by muddy graphics that are hindered even more by the GBA’s low contrast LCD screen.

As an overall experience, Medieval Moves: Deadmund's Quest was a lot of fun, but the rigid precision of its motion controls forced me to take more breaks than I would have liked, and the on-rails style gameplay left me feeling bombarded way too often.

Between sloppy design (only a few encounters with spirits and skeletons keep the in-between interesting), a lackluster boss encounter and utterly no resolution as to the game's fantastically out-of-left-field post-credit sequence, Resurrection isn't worth its $10 asking price -- and with the rest of the game as good as it is, average just doesn't cut it.

The levels are sparse and yawn inducing, and the storyline just isn't that attention-grabbing.

It's clear that the Need For Speed series is in need of a GPS unit so it can get back on track.

Between sloppy design (only a few encounters with spirits and skeletons keep the in-between interesting), a lackluster boss encounter and utterly no resolution as to the game's fantastically out-of-left-field post-credit sequence, Resurrection isn't worth its $10 asking price -- and with the rest of the game as good as it is, average just doesn't cut it.

It could have been a great board game tie in to the Wii, similar to Xbox’s Hasbro game night. But with the lack of some much needed content to the overall package you could just as easily go grab the board game off the shelf and have more fun.

Across the 2nd Dimension has a lot going for it in terms of production values, a witty script, and varied level design, but it's so fleeting and dumbed down that even children will find its power fantasies pandering.

You'll have more fun cruising third class on a no name charter.

Trioncube doesn't offer much for a puzzle game. There's little depth or difficulty to be found, and while the odd story is surprisingly entertaining, it isn't enough to keep you playing for long.

With its defining features only partially living up to their potential, it's reduced to a barely average third-person shooter.

Casual gamers might be able to overlook these faults but longtime Sims fans shouldn't let the brand name fool them into investing in it. [Nov 2007, p.96]

It's a passable single-player experience but if you can find some friends to play with, it just might help you kill an hour or two here and there.

I felt like I could have developed some sort of emotional connection with Kane and Lynch if only they had been presented in the right light, but ultimately, the only thing I felt at the end of my time with the game was a vague sense of relief that I didn't have to spend any more time in their company.

This WiiWare adventure may appeal to younger gamers, but an older audience will likely be turned off by its repetitive nature and unappealing presentation.

If you're going to pick up Shadows of Almia, just keep in mind that while it can be fun, there's nothing compelling or new enough to impress a hardcore Pokemanic.

X-Men: Destiny isn't a bad game -- it just plays like an unfinished one.

Thematically brain dead.

What saves this title is the nostalgia factor you get from playing it. While the love for this genre is the redeeming factor, it still doesn't give it enough oomph to justify downloading it.

Might be smartest to buy while the price is still cheap, and then hold off on playing until it's patched for steady play sessions.

X-Men: Destiny isn't a bad game -- it just plays like an unfinished one.

Sadly, the execution simply falls well short in this case.

Adventure's six party games and puzzle-based challenge mode are the best this game has to offer. With multiple players, Adventure flies in the face of its weak story mode and becomes a genuinely fun experience.

In the end, though, the gameplay is repetitive and sadly uninteresting.

Shrek himself is a visual marvel. The thing is, once you’ve taken your jaw off the floor, you’re stuck with a dull and frustrating game that’s too difficult for younger players and not engaging enough to hook older gamers.

Trying to hit balls through rings or paint a canvas with colored balls by accurately aiming your shot is now frustratingly impossible. And since playing a standard set is crazy enough with the new controls, adding turtle shells and banana peels to the mix makes the matches unmanageable.

Save your money for "SmackDown 2" or any of THQ's other upcoming wrestling titles.

Frequent glitches and game engine freak-outs contribute to an overall less-than-mediocre graffiti/fighting/platforming hybrid.

Frequent glitches and game engine freak-outs contribute to an overall less-than-mediocre graffiti/fighting/platforming hybrid.

A poor fighting system + awkward cameras + endlessly respawning, cookie-cutter bad guys = (it turns out) hours of frustrating, ruin-your-day gameplay.

Wolverine's Revenge also has some haggard camera work and sluggish controls, not to mention retarded collision detection and counter-intuitively mapped commands (have fun trying to readjust the camera while in stealth mode).

I would recommend this game to experienced RPG fans who want something light to play on the side but anyone expecting a worthwhile journey through Dorothy's adventures will walk away disappointed.

Strip away the camaraderie, competition, and character interaction of the online experience, and Ragnarok DS simply sticks you with all the hardcore monster-slaying and loot grinding of an MMO without the payoff of being able to crush other human opponents under your mighty battle-hardened boot.

Between its arbitrary puzzles and dreadful controls, Dead Cyborg often feels like a chore.

Empires gets old quick. While it is fun to use your superior skills against giant mobs of enemies, game play and skill boil down to your ability to hit the buttons as fast as you possibly can.

If you were hoping for a game with the personality of Parodius, look elsewhere -- there may be a decent, if flawed, Gradius design somewhere inside Excellent, but finding it may not be worth the trouble.

Unfortunately, the enjoyment can't keep up, likely resulting in a premature ejection of the game from your console... but remember: It happens to nearly every gamer at some point.

The 4-player multiplayer and the inclusion of the use of the balance board certainly add to the life of the game. Unfortunately, it just isn’t enough to keep everyone entertained for a long period of time.

Each fight is punctuated with some of the worst metal music I've ever heard, and fights generally end in unrealistically gruesome finishes. Really, I haven't seen this many broken necks and snapped limps in a fighting game since Mortal Kombat​.

Even if your suspension, brake, and gear ratios are fixed for maximum handling, the controls are just way too sensitive -- the slightest touch on the analog stick makes your car careen into walls and run off course.