Even if he had brought home the gold, it wouldn't have changed the fact that his skiing game is a shallow cash-in on athletic idolatry.

It disregards almost everything about Vikings that make them interesting. Its graphics are some of the worst on the PS2, the gameplay is dull and repetitive, and its uninspired multiplayer mode adds little value.

Ninjas, ninjas, and more ninjas can't save the technically flawed, uninspired Tenchu Z.

A clunky bargain-bin racer that simply doesn't do enough to keep you engaged, no matter your level of motocross enthusiasm.

Mind Quiz is a shameless rip-off of Nintendo's "Brain Age," only Ubisoft and Sega forgot to clone the variety and occasional fun of that game.

Imprecise controls, shoddy level design, and bland characters spell doom for Death Jr.'s latest adventure.

Those looking for the Frogger they grew up with should probably look somewhere else.

An obvious attempt to cash in on the street racing craze by providing bargain-basement production values, unlicensed cars, and about as much excitement as a half-lit sparkler.

From its bland, generic premise to its one-note gameplay, WinBack 2 does nothing that another third-person shooter hasn't already done better.

The screen size and button layout of the GBA prove to be limitations that this otherwise respectable port of SimCity 2000 cannot overcome.

For Yu-Gi-Oh! fans, the meager options make it less attractive than one of Konami's dozen or so other, more fully featured Yu-Gi-Oh! games, and to players who don't already have an investment in the series, it has about as much to offer as a game of solitaire.

The quick-and-dirty port does everything the DC and PS2 releases did--meaning it looks good for a Dreamcast game but pretty awful when compared with anything else released on the GameCube so far.

The game literally has so many flaws that it is impossible to mention them all in a single review.

While Breakout is a fine starter game for young kids attempting to get a handle on their hand-eye coordination, all others might want to pass on this one.

Unless you're a rabid fan who simply has to be in contact with all things Futurama, this game is playable enough to warrant a rental but little else.

It's just too bad this solid gameplay engine is wrapped in such a shallow, ugly package.

Boasting nothing resembling extraordinary gameplay, it serves, rather, as a vehicle for the license.

Experienced and discerning gamers, however, would do well to steer clear of BLSC, as the game is simplistic and light.

An experience that is absolutely marred by several problems working in conjunction with each other. It's just not a very fun game to play.

The updates really don’t do anything to improve the gameplay and in some cases actually detract from it.

The mobility of a box of trivia cards beats huddling around the TV nine times out of 10.

There's little reward for all the indirect management you have to deal with, and the terrible interface sabotages the whole affair.

The poor AI and the limitations presented by the sole Ford license in particular keep it from being a truly entertaining game overall.

Not a good game. It takes the primary elements of the Pern novels and uses them to fashion a run-of-the-mill adventure game that offers very little actual adventure and too many frustrating mechanical issues.

There are bits and pieces of Eureka Seven that come across as legitimate fan service, but the game is so wildly uneven and devoid of decent gameplay that only the most forgiving fans will be able to tolerate it.

A clunky bargain-bin racer that simply doesn't do enough to keep you engaged, no matter your level of motocross enthusiasm.

Little more than a 3D version of the arcade classic "Ironman Ivan Stewart's Super Off-Road," without the fun.

From its bland, generic premise to its one-note gameplay, WinBack 2 does nothing that another third-person shooter hasn't already done better.

SNK vs. Capcom Card Fighters DS is an often entertaining game, which makes its shoddy production and localization especially disappointing.

RtCW has always been a pretty uninteresting single-player game, and without solid multiplayer to cushion the blow, the PlayStation 2 version of the game is a real failure.

For a game whose main gameplay component is building up your characters, Digimon World 3 makes the process needlessly complicated and annoying.

Playing now will give you a sampling of the game's potential, but unless you are incredibly patient, can tolerate constant lag and design changes, and you have the time to devote considerable attention to your characters, chances are you will simply find Ultima Online extremely frustrating...In its current form, Ultima Online is a major disappointment. [17 Dec 1997]

Pteredon's seminal Vietnam War-themed first-person shooter has been thoroughly retooled by a different design team. Though a few of the changes are constructive, the new developer, Coyote, has generally made a mess of what used to be a good game.

Problematic gameplay and run-of-the-mill presentation.

The game's graphics are uninspired and the sound is awful, and those elements in the gameplay that are subtly different from those in other real-time strategy games won't be noticeable to any but the most experienced real-time strategy players.

It's disappointing to see a franchise that had so much promise fall flat, but 4x4 EVO 2's poor track design, uninspired graphics, and shallow racing keep it from reaching the status of its predecessors.

While this version does have a small number of new tracks and trucks, as well as a handful of sundry tweaks, it also has the same unimpressive graphics and inconsistent physics of its Xbox counterpart.

So unpolished that it's far more of a chore than a pleasure to play.

But with so many major flaws, any of the game's strengths are hard to find and appreciate for any length of time.

While the game does a lot of things right, severe graphical issues surface at almost every turn and essentially nullify its strong points, leaving behind a game with lots of untapped potential.

Not only is Alida built around one of the most tired clichés in the adventure genre (the deserted island filled with Rube Goldberg machines), but also Alida's game engine is woefully dated to boot.

Of all the T3 games released this year, Rise of the Machines for the GBA is easily the best one; but once you get beyond comparisons to the rest of the motley Terminator 3 bunch, the game doesn't hold up on its own merits.

This third-person action game might sound like a great idea if you're a fan of 50, Yayo, Buck, and Banks, but with its poor gameplay and worse attention to the G-Unit license, Bulletproof disappoints on all fronts.

The visual performance is poor, the puzzles are drab, and the story mode is laughably lame.

Shadow the Hedgehog fails to live up to its pedigree due to terrible controls, an uncooperative camera, and an overall lack of effort.

On multiple levels, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation fails miserably.

So what did the developer do? It dumbed down the simulation aspects, made the driving portions even less fun and more repetitive, and threw in a gaggle of even stupider ethnic and sexual gags.

Ship-to-ship combat is somewhat exciting due to some fresh options to set and trim sails, but everything else is tedious, poorly designed, or both.

It's not funny, interesting, or particularly fun on any front, and it isn't going to be appealing to anybody without the lowest of lowbrow senses of humor.

Mamodo Fury packs a number of gameplay modes and plenty of familiar characters, but it all feels wasted on this shallow and frustrating fighting game.

The execution is sloppy, and in the end, the game simply feels unfinished.

Despite its attempts to add a unique spin to the genre, Daemonica is generally a tedious and unappealing adventure game.

Mamodo Fury packs a number of gameplay modes and plenty of familiar characters, but it all feels wasted on this shallow and frustrating fighting game.

Poor AI, dull design, and lackluster presentation all add up to make Blade II a game that you should definitely skip.

Unfortunately, after a few hours of play, it quickly becomes apparent that the only thing undone by the Grinch is your own personal satisfaction.

A perfect example of good intentions gone awry.

Pac-Man World Rally is a paint-by-numbers kart racer with almost zero in the way of unique qualities or challenges.

This third-person action game might sound like a great idea if you're a fan of 50, Yayo, Buck, and Banks, but with its poor gameplay and worse attention to the G-Unit license, Bulletproof disappoints on all fronts.

Though it has a few extra features like higher-quality full-motion video and an improved "dinosaur encyclopedia," it's really just an average game that you'd do well to pass up.

Shadow the Hedgehog fails to live up to its pedigree due to terrible controls, an uncooperative camera, and an overall lack of effort.

An uninspiring puzzle game with an equally lifeless plot.

As the title advertises, Crashday has a fair number of car crashes, but the trouble is that it doesn't have much of anything else.

Sadly, like the war it's based on, WWI: The Great War is an exercise in madness, frustration, helplessness, and human folly. This is a mess of a real-time strategy game.

Strings together a bunch of violent novelties without ever constructing a compelling game for them to support.

Knockout Kings 2001 is more of a hitting simulation than a boxing simulation, which is a complete turnoff for die-hard boxing fans who want realism.

Poor AI, dull design, and lackluster presentation all add up to make Blade II a game that you should definitely skip.

Those who are only mildly into the sport will be disappointed by the game's repetitive graphics, steep learning curve, and overall lack of variety or fun.

While Backyard Wrestling certainly has qualities that could make for an interesting wrestling game, Don't Try This at Home is so unpolished that it's far more of a chore than a pleasure to play.

Shadow the Hedgehog fails to live up to its pedigree due to terrible controls, an uncooperative camera, and an overall lack of effort.

Rainbow Six Critical Hour's brief campaign, poor presentation, and broken multiplayer make it almost impossible to recommend, even to longtime fans.

Don't go into The Secret of the Stolen Drums thinking you're going to get an educational game or an enjoyable platformer, as you'll find neither here.

Only die-hard fans of Acclaim's long-running series should bother with this title.

A decent driving model is spoiled by uninspired, unbalanced features in this budget street racing game.

Sure, the Wii version throws in some new motion-sensing controls, and you still get to swing around inside a giant, open-ended version of New York City. But everything else about these iterations of Spider-Man 3 is ugly, clumsy, or utterly boring.

While there are some decent ideas in And1 Streetball, it feels like the game wasn't refined nearly enough as it should have been. Everything, from the core gameplay to the presentation, seems very roughly executed, so it's difficult to recommend this game to anyone.

While the unusually small levels keep the pacing of the game fairly brisk, you'll also find that it takes about two hours of casual playing time to finish the entire game. Unfortunately, the game has little to keep you interested once you've finished it the first time.

The expansion's scenarios, and the ideas behind them, seem tired and overused, and the expansion itself is overpriced.

As a way to get a Wii Remote into Aunt Ethel's hands, Wing Island might work, but this is a pretty dull ride for anyone with more discerning tastes.

All the wonder of the Bionicle universe has been bled dry by a vapid design and an atrocious camera system.

The racing is bland, the destruction is minimal, the excitement is nonexistent, the presentation is mediocre, and the content is lacking.

It was more compelling on the PSP since no one else had even made an attempt to represent the game on the system up to that point, but with dozens of different pool games available for consoles at a near-universal budget price, many of which are vastly superior in terms of gameplay quality, The Hustle: Detroit Streets becomes thoroughly unnecessary.

Controls that fluctuate between touchy and unresponsive, a short list of gameplay modes, and a poorly realized multiplayer all conspire to bring down the already well-tread puzzle action in Bust-A-Move Bash!.

An incredibly dated port, and the fact that it retails for as much as a game made within the last year is quite despicable.

Max'd gets the basic mechanics right, but it's marred by game-stopping bugs and a generally sloppy execution.

To the game's credit are the tracks: They're well designed, and they get progressively harder as you reach higher levels.

While some unique gimmicks and solid gameplay have made other god games fun to play, these elements are curiously absent from Heaven & Hell, leaving it a short, and otherwise dull, experience.

Tries very hard to capture the atmosphere and style of the Dinotopia books, but for the most part, it just isn't a lot of fun to play.

Beyond the control issues, Alien Resurrection is gruelingly hard.

All the wonder of the Bionicle universe has been bled dry by a vapid design and an atrocious camera system.

So the big question is, "Does Trivial Pursuit Unhinged improve upon the actual Trivial Pursuit experience?" The answer is a resounding "No."...That there are far fewer questions in Unhinged than in your average Genus Edition doesn't help.

While the game does a good job of telling the story of the film through the still photographs and text dialogue that appear between certain levels, it doesn't deliver much in the way of hands-on thrills except for a few instances where you can leap across rooftops and jump back and forth between walls.

Excellent atmosphere notwithstanding, this third-person action game is hobbled by tedious combat and a number of dubious design problems.

Excellent atmosphere notwithstanding, this third-person action game is hobbled by tedious combat and a number of dubious design problems.

Don't go into The Secret of the Stolen Drums thinking you're going to get an educational game or an enjoyable platformer, as you'll find neither here.

The least exciting NFL game on the Xbox.

While there are some decent ideas in And1 Streetball, it feels like the game wasn't refined nearly enough as it should have been. Everything, from the core gameplay to the presentation, seems very roughly executed, so it's difficult to recommend this game to anyone.

For some reason, World Series on the PC is a completely different game from the console versions, with worse artificial intelligence, a completely different (and in some ways worse) interface, next to no character customization options, and no online play.

Excitement quickly fades, leaving you with a game with unresponsive controls and lackluster action.