It's an incredibly original and ambitious project, but the weight of its problems, both old and new, keep it from being much more than a nostalgic love letter addressed to diehard series fans.

While I can see Gravitronix having a bit of appeal for younger kids as long as they play with a group of friends, most above a certain age group won’t have as easy a time getting the group together for an 8-player doubles faceoff. For everyone else, hold onto those Wii Points this week.

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

I'm not expecting every licensed game that comes along to offer a worthwhile gaming experience on-par with Arkham Asylum or any other triple-A heavyweight, but come on -- I don't expect it to undervalue my time, either.

I'm not expecting every licensed game that comes along to offer a worthwhile gaming experience on-par with Arkham Asylum or any other triple-A heavyweight, but come on -- I don't expect it to undervalue my time, either.

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.

With clumsy and downright awkward controls, repetitive missions and mind boggling "who's doing what?!" multiplayer, I can't help but recommend the original Destroy All Humans over this game.

It sports a unique premise, wonderful art direction, and genuinely funny writing, and yet guilelessly hangs itself in the Hall of Shame by botching the camera and controls.

Despite offering a laundry list of moves and button combinations, the game's complicated controls feel shallower than the three-buttoned Capcom arcade classics like "The Punisher" or "Alien vs. Predator." Group battles feel too constricted with the auto target locking mechanics, and the simplistic one-on-one fights are somewhere on the level of "Pit Fighter."

Naughty Bear is a great looking game by iPhone standards, but I found that the swipe controls used to direct the bear's movement are in most cases unresponsive and frustrating.

You can see everything the game has to offer in an hour or two, and similarly, the two-player split-screen mode gets boring very quickly.

This charming shooter packs an endearing visual style and a solid control scheme, but some glaring flaws make it hard to recommend over the App Store's other great action titles.

It becomes especially maddening when you're trying to navigate a heavily developed city where one errant mouse click can banish an otherwise productive structure to the ether.

It’s a driving sim devoid of personality.

If you're a pro wrestling fan, spending two dollars on this game isn't the worst use of your money. It's got the presentation and basic gameplay, but sadly, very little raw ingenuity.

Fans of the Battle Network series will delight in the further adventures of Lan and Mega Man, but everyone else is warned to stay clear. [Aug 2004, p.78]

If you're a Dragon Ball enthusiast or a fighting fan in general, Evolution is at least worth a rental. [Apr 2009, p.81]

Explorers of the Sky proves one thing: Pokemon's a fantastic classic RPG, but it still doesn't work as a dungeon crawler.

The graphics are generic, but the audio presentation is quite nice. The GBA has a large library of average side-scrolling action games, and Revenge of Shinobi is just a slight notch above them.

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.

Any way you cut it, it's just not worth the aggravation to play through what is just another botched licensed movie game. [June 2008, p.81]

An even larger frustration, though, is everyone's inability to recover lobs. In most tennis games, if you hustle you can often find some way to smack the ball back over the net, even if it's behind you. Here your characters just give up even if you are clearly within a reasonable rescue range.

Controls aside, the gameplay itself is nothing to be excited about. The courses are clumsily designed, the races are repetitive, and the characters are unmemorable. In short, Barrel Blast is offensive to all the senses. It feels wrong, looks awful, and it isn't a treat for the ears, either.

Thanks to some horribly generic gameplay and uninspired combat, it ends up continuing the disappointing trend of movie license video games.

Hopefully someone will take the concepts that Conflict gets right and crafts a better game around them. [May 2008, p.81]

Unfortunately, Gas Powered Games forget all the elements that make the games in this genre so damn fun and addictive. It's really a shame because had they done it right, it would have made the wait for Diablo III that much more bearable. But as it stands, this is without a doubt the worst addition to the Siege series yet.

Thanks to some horribly generic gameplay and uninspired combat, it ends up continuing the disappointing trend of movie license video games.

Boogie Bunnies isn't so much bad as it is unimaginative, derivative, and just plain boring.

What's most disappointing, however, is how pitifully the game's "attitude" falls on its face. Every last unfunny quip issued by the traffic chopper, every painful Arnold Schwarzenegger impression, every ham-fisted racial stereotype is so poor that you can't help but wonder "what were they thinking?"

If you took a "Dynasty Warriors" game and stripped away every redeeming quality, you would more or less end up with March to Glory.

Coupled with the terrible combat, the game is only 2 hours long.

The kiddie treatment here is both disturbing and annoying, and the games themselves aren’t all that fun.

Despite some impressive world-map graphics and extremely catchy anime-style music, Digimon World 3 disappoints in countless ways.

It's not that the idea of pushing Ghost Recon into on-rails territory to make good use of the Wii's control setup is without merit -- other franchises have gone a similar route with great success. The problem is that it's executed so poorly that it feels like a cheap cash-in on the Ghost Recon name rather than an innovative twist that brings something new and exciting to the series.

Could have been a bit better, had the control been tighter and the tracks more interesting, but as it is, you're better off playing any of the myriad mascot kart-racers out there.

Catwoman commits every action-adventure platform-jumper crime imaginable: lousy camera angles, incomprehensible level designs, and a lame combat engine.

Mind-numbingly simplistic. [Oct 2004, p.92]

The most prominent problem Spider-Man 2 suffers from is its convoluted indoor levels. Oftentimes, you need to search areas for a set number of criminals to bop or hostages to free. But without a map to consult, too much time is spent frustratingly backtracking and combing through every nook and cranny you've already visited.

Airblade’s story-based gameplay, however, vacillates between too simple and ridiculously hard—some levels you’ll breeze through, while others you’ll have to repeatedly restart because of stupid mistakes.

Stronghold might have been great once, but that castle has long since crumbled. Spend your ducats elsewhere.

That's pretty much Breach's biggest issue: Even if it's a cheaper XBLA alternative, everything it does has been done better elsewhere. If it had contributed something new to the FPS landscape, I'd forgive its attempt at imitation, but most folks interested in it already have immediate access to great games such as Halo, Black Ops and Battlefield.

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 almost not Sonic's fault -- 3D games just don't age well -- but this lazy port makes the Blue Blur look slower than ever.

For all the consternation about a gun-toting enigma invading a kid-friendly video-game series, the only thing to fear in Sega's Shadow the Hedgehog is the game's slap-dash excution. [Mar 2006, p.80]

If the game had been as unique as the controls, and it didn't just try to directly map first-person action gameplay onto a less responsive format, Rise of Nightmares could have been something pretty special. This game may not be that great, but it shows that the Kinect itself has potential.

If you're hardcore about your angling, Sega Bass Fishing may whet your appetite, but for everyone else, turn your motorboat around and avoid this game.

The action-heavy gameplay just gets hammered by illogically executed camerawork.

Malice has lost much of its gee-whiz sparkle. Now it’s an intentionally weird, unintentionally uninteresting platform adventure that might have been cool were it a launch title and the bar were still low. In 2004, it looks and feels more like a skippable relic.

Alpha Polaris may drive you mad, but not for the right reasons.

Deluxe has some decent ideas, but they're badly marred by unbalanced, frustrating gameplay. As far as retro revivals go, this is probably for fans only.

In a twisted and cruel coincidence, playing no defense is actually more effective than playing defense.

While there are some cheap thrills to be found in the title's rail-shooter segments and hardcore Terminator fans will no doubt want to rent the title just for the chance to go toe-to-toe with a T-600, I can't recommend Salvation as anything more than exactly that: a rental.

If anything, I can't help but see We Cheer as a missed opportunity. The game is filled to the brim with personality and has something for everyone on its rather impressive track list, but the gameplay itself is simply exhaustive trial and error routines that leave you with a sour taste in your mouth.

What we have in Mage Knight is a poor attempt to hop on the "WoW" gravy train. The developer clearly flayed all the depth and nuance out of the formula that made WoW such a huge commercial success, delivering instead a soulless husk stuffed with empty promises and features that you wouldn't want anyway.

There's no exclusive content, just a new way to struggle with already poor combat.

I can only see this game having use as a cheap and definitely non habit forming method of sleep aid with nightmares as a possible side effect. Or a coaster.

Just like Jeff Hardy, TNA Wrestling iMPACT hides a closet full of crippling inner flaws behind a flashy, colorful exterior.

NFL GameDay is the Detroit Lions of the league.

No multiplayer; extremely shallow feature set; 3D is mostly pointless.

At 500 Wii Points, it's hard to recommend the title to anyone. Sexy Poker is one of those games that would be better served as a 99-cent iPhone app reserved for no more than novelty purposes.

Lord of Arcana is one of those games where the amount of fun you're having is directly proportional to how many people you play with. But there's the catch: if you're playing by yourself, you'll have little to no fun at all, and the lack of online play makes getting a party together unnecessarily difficult. Online play should be standard for this kind of experience, and the game suffers immensely for it.

While many maps have some great design choices, Things on Wheels feels like a dated and out of place title that may have been more accepted in the earlier stages of Microsoft's Arcade platform.

Also disappointing was the lack of any head-to-head or multi-player functionality; there's no unlockable content, either. The games themselves are monotonous and don't really instill you with a need to play them repeatedly.

Oni looks bad, sounds bad, and plays even worse -- all of the anticipation for this game is left unfulfilled.

The game is also easy, and you will have no problem rushing through the eight skimpy levels in a matter of hours. Add in the simplistic combat that becomes repetitious very quickly, level designs devoid of creativity and the fact that you can't level up or gain new moves and you have one disaster worth skipping.

Also disappointing was the lack of any head-to-head or multi-player functionality; there's no unlockable content, either. The games themselves are monotonous and don't really instill you with a need to play them repeatedly.

Oh yeah, if you can motivate yourself enough to finish both characters' stories, a secret, you unlock a chess game and secret character. Whoop-dee-doo.

Coupled with the terrible combat, the game is only 2 hours long.

Throw in some very uneven game presentation - nice graphics, poor instruction manual and plug-your-ears-annoying soundtrack - and gamers are presented with a title that not even the in-game appearance of Wesley Snipes could make appealing.

The video game equivalent of a local theater production—it aspires to be professional but just can’t deliver a high-quality experience. Trouble is, the ticket still costs just as much.

The PSP version, however, has this incredibly unfun, dual-pronged fork-in-the-eye problem of too many pokey load breaks paired with one...h-ell of a...won---ky, fra-me...rate. There were so many times until I got used to it that I thought the game was just going to crash altogether.

Since the game is fairly reasonably priced, players shouldn't be too discouraged that they are basically purchasing a Wii tech-demo.

With horrible graphics that look like something an owl regurgitated, broken controls that must be wrestled with at every turn, and level designs that could turn the undead, Robotech: Invasion is an utter waste of money.

If you're looking for light-hearted racing action that's not only affordable but fun, you've come to the wrong place. A disappointing title that doesn't reach its minimal potential, Monochrome Racing is a game best avoided.

The game's graphics are murky, blocky, and uninspired, while the soundtrack, filled with monster groans and quiet music, is just as bad. Controls are thumb-numbing and plain.

It seems to be nearly devoid of any sort of fun whatsoever.

Even dedicated role-players are better off with a pencil and some paper.

It's too bad, because Cursed Crusade has fleetingly interesting ideas, like forcing you to push a very slow-moving mantlet towards an enemy's defensive line, or the way the timing of tapping out combo strings actually encourages thoughtful player response. Co-op can actually be fun in short bursts with a friend, and even the detailed aesthetic is surprisingly competent.

It's too bad, because Cursed Crusade has fleetingly interesting ideas, like forcing you to push a very slow-moving mantlet towards an enemy's defensive line, or the way the timing of tapping out combo strings actually encourages thoughtful player response. Co-op can actually be fun in short bursts with a friend, and even the detailed aesthetic is surprisingly competent.

Quotation forthcoming.

Those who have been waiting for a quality role-playing will be sorely disappointed, and anyone brave enough to search for the positive aspects in Two Worlds may find something to satiate their appetite, but finding those good aspects takes far too much effort than it should.

MLE: The Game is extremely shallow in both gameplay and modes available. The only people who would have any fun with this game are youngsters who cannot stop laughing at bathroom humor.

It's like every other mission-based helicopter shooter, except that it lacks a personality. Fireblade? Firebland.

The slow, unintuitive controls underlie awful, slapped-together graphics and a bargain-bin soundtrack that features MIDI-rock sound-alikes of the wrestlers’ classic themes.

Add in tired and repetitive level designs, a lackluster story and the general absence of fun and you have a title that isn't worth playing. [Dec 2008, p.95]

Ninjamurai's sense of speed doesn't last long enough to get you through the waiting room at the doctor's office, nor does it compare to other offerings on the PSP Mini lineup.

Overall, Air Traffic Chaos's controls are simple enough, but that doesn't mean that they're not a pain to navigate.

If you needed an excuse to pick up another Wii Remote and you have an extra Hamilton in the wallet, then by all means pick up Wii Play. Just don't expect to fully get your money's worth.

Double D Dodgeball should be skipped. Certain gimmicks like skill shots and a variety of arenas do not add enough to warrant a purchase.

Moon is a decent time killer and is great for anyone looking for an interesting sci-fi adventure for their DS handheld.

I was amused by Bloons TD 4 at first, but after a while the game's nagging balancing issues became more and more apparent.

Games shouldn't reach retail in this condition, and while I'd love to give Venetica a higher score, Atari should've never allowed Venetica to reach the market in its current state; if I wasn't required to finish the game for my review, I would've put it back in the box after a few hours because of the save bugs.

Fans hoping for a worthwhile update to one of gaming's most revered hack-and-slash franchises will be sorely disappointed by this poorly designed and utterly mediocre title.

Unfortunately, Kya is a very difficult game to play as the controls are not particularly intuitive and the camera seems to delight in going haywire during delicate jumping situations.

This sickly 3D adventure is plagued by endless repetition, frustrating controls, bland graphics, and just plain boring level design.

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

Carnival Games may look cute, but it doesn't translate into gameplay you'll come back to, and in the end, is just a novelty Wii game that wears out it's welcome way too fast to be worth any price.

Largely an awful shooter. And instead of trying to do everything and failing to deliver virtually anything worthwhile, Bodycount probably would have been much more successful if its design was simplified by focusing on one or two key features it could attempt to do differently. But it didn't, and the end result is not pretty.