The ideas were there, but Darkest of Days doesn't deliver where it counts.

Had the battle sequences not been so maddeningly frustrating and frequent, Evil Dead: Hail to the King would at least weigh in as a decent Resident Evil clone, but they work to make the game almost unplayable.

This 3D adventure game does expand on the movie's story, but it's also uninteresting and repetitive.

After the thrill of flying around Metropolis wears off, Superman Returns is nothing more than a below-average, repetitive movie tie-in that doesn't even do the movie tie-in part well.

Deriving pleasure from this dull, monotonous RPG is a challenge that should only be undertaken by the most hardcore Code Lyoko fans.

The sort of game that's unpleasing to every possible audience. The hardcore retro fan base will scoff at the way these games have been shoddily reprogrammed. Fans of the graffiti artists will wonder why all the artwork is so poorly used.

Eragon relies entirely on tedious, unenthusiastic gameplay that's way too shallow to sustain interest for more than a few minutes.

So if you like playing video games to release tension, and you don't care about good stories or online multiplayer modes or any of that stuff, definitely rent this one or something.

A little dumb and a lot dated, yet still marginally enjoyable if you're into retro shooters with lots of kabooms.

Happy Tree Friends False Alarm is clunky, unimaginative, and more like a false start than a fun game.

Babel Rising doesn't rise to the level that you might hope for from a game with such a cool concept.

A competent clone of a competent "Bejeweled" clone that does little to set itself apart.

It's a relic from arcade's past that probably won't appeal to new players, but outside of being able to say "Hey, I remember liking this game back in the day," old arcade buffs probably won't get $5 out of it either.

Slapping some of the dizzy Ape Escape energy over an easily anticipated collection of minigames makes for a mildly entertaining experience, but not a very long one.

The bland and ugly Duke Nukem Forever turns a famous gaming icon into an embarrassment.

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.

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

Those who've seen and played "Madden" on the PlayStation 2 will immediately see the difference and recognize that NFL GameDay 2001 is merely a PlayStation game posing as a PlayStation 2 product.

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

There's no way to break the curse on this staggeringly bad action game.

For fishing game fans that really enjoy simulation-style fishing games with all of the extras like boats and vast areas to explore, the game will undoubtedly fail to please.

Qix++ is a poor remake of a classic arcade game.

An absolute mess, crippled by a terrible control scheme and frustrating missions that wear on seemingly forever. And even with six editions of the series supplying the narrative, it's a waste of a great license, offering very little to anyone looking for a franchise fix.

Confrontation's tactical combat occasionally thrills, but it's pitted against a host of issues too powerful for it to overcome.

Traveller's Tales has perverted Sega's previously charming action puzzle series into a clumsy, frustrating action adventure game.

Instead of filling Alpha Black Zero with fun and exciting action, Khaeon instead serves up a dimly lit, lackluster game that doesn't know when to stop.

Even a merry band of adventurous thanes can't save this quest from ruin.

After the thrill of flying around Metropolis wears off, Superman Returns is nothing more than a below-average, repetitive movie tie-in that doesn't even do the movie tie-in part well.

A few fun minigames don't make the watered-down story and tedious fetch quests tolerable.

Eragon relies entirely on tedious, unenthusiastic gameplay that's way too shallow to sustain interest for more than a few minutes.

It doesn't matter if you're a huge fan of off-road racing, the Wii version of Dirt 2 is best avoided.

Wall-E is overflowing with charm, but the simple gameplay makes the experience fall flat.

The game's problematic interface makes it too complicated to be mindless fun, and the combat itself is too mindless to have any strategic depth.

[It] isn't without its flaws, and ultimately, it falls short of more robust competing products, but it is also a much-improved game with solid graphics and presentation.

A half-baked attempt to combine a combo-based fighting system with some light stealth and puzzle-solving. Unfortunately, no one aspect of the game is done especially well.

Hospital Tycoon tries to inject a bit of drama into its by-the-numbers tycoon game formula, but ultimately ends up dead on the operating table.

If you strip away the patently silly drug effects and the forced attitude, NARC is an unimpressive mission-based third-person action game. It's also short, rife with bugs, and basically not a lot of fun to play.

Even a merry band of adventurous thanes can't save this quest from ruin.

It's easy to appreciate the conceptual twist Crusty Demons puts on traditional extreme motorcross games; it's too bad that the game never really rises above its promising concept.

The entire game is so unpolished and full of bugs that it's unfathomable how it ever passed quality assurance in the first place.

Ultimately, though, Serious Sam Advance comes up short because there just aren't enough levels to play.

Die-hard action-game players will find the game far too easy and much too tedious to be of any real value, but children and Dr. Seuss fans should be well satisfied.

Playing Appaloosa's ultraviolent and ultrastupid take on the titular killer shark is about as much fun as having your legs chewed off.

Daylight makes for an interesting experiment in audience participation, but no crowd of online viewers can make the poor writing any better or the themes any less hackneyed. In creating a game designed for return visits, Zombie Studios ironically forgot to make a game worth playing in the first place.

It gets points for its unrelenting pace, but the action in Spy Hunter: Nowhere to Run is too derivative and mechanical to matter.

It's a fairly simple and repetitive action RPG experience that's rough around the edges, yet it's not without a certain homegrown charm that should appeal to fans of the genre who don't expect too much.

Considering the talent behind the game, it's disappointing that it could be so utterly devoid of positive traits, but no matter how hard you look, you won't be able to scrounge up much of anything to really like about Nano Breaker.

Extinction shoots itself in the foot time and time again. It's so frustrating to see its good ideas buried under repetitive missions, a forgettable story, and embarrassing production values for its AAA price.

The severe shortage of things to do and an embarrassing lack of insight keep Brooktown High from being a fun or interesting look at high school life.

Wing Commander Arena has the right idea, but the gameplay and presentation come together to form an extremely dull experience.

Gratifying, gory combat contends with aggravating design flaws in this intriguing adventure.

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

Sometimes software is released in such a wretched state that the developers may as well just come to your house and kick your dog for $40...This is a blatant and insulting instance of a game released too early to the detriment of the people who buy it.

Blade lacks the energy of the film, the feel of the comic, and the standards set by other games in its genre.

Doesn't possess anywhere near the level of polish or charm of its Genesis namesake.

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

The premise may be rather cute, but the game is certainly not. Medabots Infinity exhibits aggravating gameplay and presents an imprecise camera, and the results are anything but fun.

Explosive action and incentivized gunplay fail to heat up in Bodycount, a tepid and short-lived shooter.

Gomo is a short, stylistic adventure that has some interesting features, but ultimately its brevity and lack of challenge keep its charms from being lasting ones.

Entertaining combat and quirky puzzles save this game from belonging in a museum.

A great-looking remake of a classic game, but playing it is an exercise in confusion and frustration.

The DS version of X-Men misuses its characters, controls poorly, and is otherwise utterly generic.

The story mode provides five missions that can be completed in 20-30 minutes each, and the unlockable training and boss modes don't provide too much more entertainment.

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

Between all the tedious downloads, sorry gameplay, and weak audio and visuals, KumaWar simply can't compete.

The collision problems outlined above, however, are what ultimately transform this average attempt at nostalgia into a frustration for all but the most devout He-Man admirer.

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.

An undeveloped plot, derivative gameplay, idiotic enemies, and boring presentation.

Neither a good action game on its own merits, nor quality fan service, Reservoir Dogs is an out and out failure.

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.

Battlezone is a relic that should have stayed in the past.

The only suspense in The Final Cut is the fear that one of the numerous bugs will make it impossible to continue through the game's easy puzzles and nonsensical story.

Uneven presentation and its incongruence with the spirit of the movie make it just another bad licensed-property video game.

The incredibly slow pacing and monotonous puzzles will override the Disney entertainment factor for the young as well.

Spryo: Shadow Legacy is a watered-down action role-playing game that isn't challenging or engaging enough to sustain its brief campaign.

Divide stretches on for a bit longer than it probably should, but the strengths of the story are heightened by decent writing and voice performances throughout. Conversations feel organic and real, line deliveries have a satisfying amount of emotion, and each character comes across as genuine. But the strength of the story is undermined by a game that poorly communicates necessary information and is built on repetition to the point that it loses the personality contained within the characters. If there’s a second meaning to the title, it describes the division between a strong narrative and mediocre gameplay that would’ve been better served with more variety and direction throughout.

This Japanese role-playing game is made of equal parts dull combat and insipid story, A Witch's Tale isn't worth the time it takes to play.

Tao's Adventure: Curse of the Demon Seal is a simplistic dungeon crawl that is hampered by a plodding pace and frustrating controls.

X-Blades is a competent action game, but it lacks the fine touch that could have made it something special. It just cannot seem to make the most of its solid backbone.

This remake of the Atari classic Haunted House leaves the scares and fun gameplay in 1981.

Double Dragon IV isn’t a good game in a modern sense, but it certainly is an honest trip back in time that will, if nothing else, offer a heavy dose of nostalgia for anyone with a fondness for the Lee Brothers' 8-bit adventures. Frankly, it mimics its source material perfectly. It’s a worthwhile historical artifact if nothing else, but absolutely cannot match the vast improvements in gaming since those early days.

The dark and creepy Afterfall: Insanity is let down by its tedious combat and slow start.

There's no reason to jump into Cyberpilot if you're looking for another avenue to explore more of Wolfenstein's world. This straightforward shooter lacks the punch to make its action exhilarating and breaks up combat with even more repetitive and slower-paced interludes where you'll do the bare minimum with motion controls to achieve simple and mundane repair tasks. Beyond looking striking for a VR game in some places, there's nothing about Cyberpilot that warrants your time.

A frustrating mess of a game.

Not only a surprisingly difficult game, but it's also a fairly boring one... With a little more polish, Galerians: Ash could have been something special.

The small-screen version of The Incredible Hulk won't make you feel like the world's angriest superhero, but clever level design and tight controls make this the best Hulk game this year.

A few great ideas aren't enough to make Gods & Heroes more than an unexciting, by-the-numbers online role-playing game.

Rather than resolving what came before it, Awakened simply shrugs its shoulders for a couple hours before throwing another cliff-hanger ending your way. Sure, it still plays perfectly well, with plenty of intense dismemberment and a pleasingly varied selection of necromorph enemies to fend off.

Novadrome offers a glossy-looking take on the tried-and-true concept of futuristic car combat, but fails to do anything interesting or noteworthy with it.

While it may be a lot smoother and simpler than its predecessors, Empire Earth III has been dumbed down to the point of irrelevance.

The problem with RYL: Path of the Emperor is that it represents a throwback in the current market, offering mostly lackluster visuals, a staid player-versus-environment game, and a standard sort of guild-versus-guild, player-versus-player system.

Blandly go where no Star Trek game has gone before in this unexciting multiplayer shoot-'em-up.

Ninja Gaiden Z is crass and stupid but rarely funny. It's mean and dumb but never witty or subversive.

A wrestling game shouldn't be about wrestling with the controls.

Despite the title, there's nothing bold about this boring, vanilla racing game.

A few cute moments can't disguise this movie tie-in's biggest problem: its criminally short length.

If you strip away the patently silly drug effects and the forced attitude, NARC is an unimpressive mission-based third-person action game. It's also short, rife with bugs, and basically not a lot of fun to play.

The game can be fun at first, but that fun quickly dissipates as the same basic formula is reapplied again and again, and you'll soon realize that if you've played the first level, you may as well have played the whole game.