This alternate-history shooter is proof that an interesting premise can't compensate for boring and broken gameplay.

Double Time gives you double the frustration for half the price.

The troubled real-time strategy dungeon sim Impire fails to recapture the charms of its inspirations.

A frighteningly flawed action-heavy spin-off that withers in the shadow of its superior alternatives.

Problematic controls rain on this whimsical, yet shallow, parade.

This platformer based on the Clone Wars TV series tries to copy the Lego game formula but gets just about everything wrong.

A frighteningly flawed action-heavy spin-off that withers in the shadow of its superior alternatives.

Both the past and the future look dreary in this bizarre and unsatisfying time-travel shooter.

There are better ways of spending your time during the cold winter months than playing Winter Stars.

No amount of Xzibit influence or ride pimpage can save Pimp My Ride from its god-awful minigames and lousy driving mechanics.

Aggravating combat overwhelms the elements that could have made Sorcery enjoyable.

Proof that simplicity isn't always a good thing, this cutesy baseball download is so vapid you’ll lose interest well before the 7th-inning stretch.

This shooter is a painful exercise in pattern memorization plus frustrating trial-and-error gameplay.

Jet Set Radio was interesting in the year 2000, but the game needed more than a fresh coat of paint to make its awkward design worth revisiting.

The Sims 2: Pets for the DS feels limited and repetitive, and it lacks the heart that any good pet-care sim must have.

Cute critters fail to keep this medical-themed puzzler from flatlining.

The game would perhaps be visually palatable if not for the substandard frame rate, but alas, it's a little too jerky to really be pleasing.

Alien Spidy's cool momentum-based platforming is both unique and uniquely infuriating.

You're in the Movies is a box-office bust, despite featuring your own recognizable stars.

Lousy controls hinder almost every attempt Sonic Free Riders makes at being a fun racing game.

What starts out as a simple but entertaining aerial jaunt quickly becomes monotonous and shallow, making it hard to justify its price tag.

Though Tornado's core gameplay is based on a solid foundation, its few major drawbacks are too severe to ignore.

The War of the Worlds adapts H.G. Wells' classic novel into a visually appealing platformer that unfortunately falls short in a number of key areas.

Bolt's superpowers can't save anyone from a poor camera and dull gameplay.

The Phantom Fortress is full of lame minigames, occasional fights, and tons of repetition. Enter at your own risk.

You won't want to come out to play with this clunky beat-'em-up.

Floating adrift in the middle of the Pacific would rival the entertainment value of this strategyless strategy game.

3 Dimensions of Murder is a thoroughly unnecessary port of a PC adventure game that wasn't very good to begin with.

The production values and overall presentation certainly fit this cut-rate title, and you'll soon get bored if you're playing alone.

Judged against the higher standard imposed by your potential $20 investment, Betty Bad is seriously lacking in gameplay and quantity of content.

Shallow, mindless hack-and-slash action makes this a crushingly tedious slog through an anachronistic version of 16th-century Japan.

Supreme Ruler 2020's steep learning curve and micromanagement will turn off all but the most fanatical strategy gamers.

Shallow, mindless hack-and-slash action makes this a crushingly tedious slog through an anachronistic version of 16th-century Japan.

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.

While this all may sound like a great value, every single one of the ports is incredibly poor, resulting in nothing but disappointment for anyone looking to replay any of these classic games.

This alternate-history shooter is proof that an interesting premise can't compensate for boring and broken gameplay.

The new content in this World in Conflict expansion is short and not so sweet.

Though Pop can be fun in short bursts, it isn't worth 700 Wii points ($7).

It's got plenty of cute Tamagotchis, but it's short on depth and is seriously lacking in the fun department.

In setting out to make a wrestling game for people who don't like wrestling games, THQ has turned in a game that nobody will like.

This shooter is a painful exercise in pattern memorization plus frustrating trial-and-error gameplay.

The interface and poor control are bigger enemies than the game's Iraqi soldiers ever are, and in the end, this is a game you can surely live without.

Varied track design isn't enough to save Wheels of Destruction from a trip to the junkyard.

Its average gameplay and uninteresting levels create a game that doesn't warrant attention.

World Racing 2 makes a couple of key improvements on its predecessor, but it's still a substandard effort.

When the first wave of frustration passes, you'll realize that Conflict Zone is a subpar RTS game whose few good ideas just don't add up.

Brutal difficulty is the only thing that sets this WWII real-time strategy game apart from its predecessors.

Mage Knight Apocalypse is a sloppy attempt to adapt the collectible tabletop miniatures game to a dungeon-crawler format.

Easy to learn, easy to play, and easy to afford, Ford Mustang: The Legend Lives is a barely tolerable, exceedingly temporary fix for the financially restricted racing beginner.

Easy to learn, easy to play, and easy to afford, Ford Mustang: The Legend Lives is a barely tolerable, exceedingly temporary fix for the financially restricted racing beginner.

Hard Truck: Apocalypse takes an interesting premise and strips away all but the most mundane elements, leaving you to drive down a long and unexciting road to nowhere.

Over the years, the series has shown its flashes of playability, but Sarge's War isn't one of them. This game never shows anything above the most minimal of efforts, and even then, it seems as though you're being entertained as if by accident.

Regardless of the validity of the license, D.I.C.E. the game is a dull, repetitive, and often frustrating experience that should be avoided.

Its graphics are at the bottom of the Game Boy Advance totem pole, none of the hardware's interesting features like multiplayer are utilized, and the one-player mode can be finished in one day.

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

So little has been done to jazz up the game's presentation that only those who long to hear more abuse spew from Anne Robinson's curled lips will find enough here to justify spending 20 bucks.

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

This version of the game takes what should have been a wide-open, tactical experience in a massive metropolis and turns it into just another run-and-gun shooter that ramrods you through narrow corridors.

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.

Meant to be dark and atmospheric. It's set in a strange amusement park. And when it makes sense, it can be fairly creepy. Unfortunately, it doesn't make sense very often.

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

The action here is a complete mess that can't be salvaged, even with copious amounts of fan service and esoteric references to the Gundam universe.

This concept itself obviously isn't a terribly original one, and Shattered Universe's gameplay mechanics are equally pedestrian in design, hopelessly trying to mirror bigger, better space combat games.

Has absolutely no significance for anyone but hard-core Bust-A-Move completists.

Unlike the entries from Microsoft and Rockstar, though, The Italian Job is almost completely devoid of both flavor and interesting gameplay, and the whole thing feels like it was slapped together in a supreme hurry to cash in on the release of the film.

Sonic the Hedgehog may share its name with the Genesis original, but this game is even more broken than most of the other recent Sonic games have been.

This traditional adventure game offers a few attractive scenes, but otherwise it's an exercise in tedium that will disappoint even avid adventure gamers.

A pretty weak game. With poor control, counterintuitive level design, and drab graphics, X Games Skateboarding is best suited for skateboarding fans looking for a quick fix in the form of a rental.

Unlike the entries from Microsoft and Rockstar, though, The Italian Job is almost completely devoid of both flavor and interesting gameplay, and the whole thing feels like it was slapped together in a supreme hurry to cash in on the release of the film.

Beneath the sharp sprite-based graphics and Manga-style cutaways, which admittedly do look very nice, this is just a poorly designed fighting game that even the show's youngest fans are likely to laugh at.

Almost completely devoid of both flavor and interesting gameplay, and the whole thing feels like it was slapped together in a supreme hurry to cash in on the release of the film.

Succeeds on some levels and fails on others, but on the whole, it does a good job of being a party game.

This concept itself obviously isn't a terribly original one, and Shattered Universe's gameplay mechanics are equally pedestrian in design, hopelessly trying to mirror bigger, better space combat games.

The combat is overly simplistic, the cel-shaded presentation is unattractive and unrefined, and the game is brimming with collision-detection and physics bugs.

Fans of the original Spy vs. Spy games won't find anything worth playing in this Xbox update. But even if you don't know what the series is about, you aren't really missing anything.

On the Game Boy Advance, Disney's Meet the Robinsons is a straightforward action game that's clearly aimed at younger players.

Every aspect of the game, from the combat mechanics to the movement to the technical execution of the graphics, is lacking in some regard, and when you add these elements together, you get a game that's simply unpleasant to play.

At best, D-Day offers up a tepid serving of cookie-cutter RTS gameplay. At worst, it makes you descend into micromanagement hell.

You'd be better off staying away from this botched attempt to translate the great ninja stealth action series to the DS. Almost nothing good about Tenchu made the cut.

A fair adventure in button pressing, but that's as far as it goes.

The racing is boring and way too easy, the physics are bouncy and unrealistic, the rubber-band artificial intelligence is ridiculous, and you can easily beat every race in the game in a couple hours.

An incredibly slapdash and barren game that has absolutely nothing to offer you beyond monotonous, almost-broken fighting mechanics, tiny environments, and a bunch of lame unlockables.

Ghost Rider steals liberally from several major action games, yet somehow avoids stealing the parts that made those games fun.

This exotic pedigree gives Torrente the game an air of intrigue that eclipses the final product, which turns out to be a typically rotten movie-licensed budget shooter.

Whiteout's technical and creative deficiencies keep it from being recommendable to anyone.

Dance Factory's main feature is the ability to generate dance steps to your own music CDs. There's just one problem: It doesn't really work.

A dull and largely forgettable experience, which, considering the quality of the previous three Digimon World games, really shouldn't be too big of a surprise to anyone.

There is a good deal of potential here, but Top Gear Dare Devil's deeply flawed physics engine, lack of gameplay variations, and frame rate issues keep it in the shadow of "Crazy Taxi" and make it a game that you should avoid.

Drift racing is supposed to be fast-paced and exciting and it's neither of those things in D1 Grand Prix, a lifeless and frustrating PS2 racing game.

A host of problems can be found in almost all facets of the game, so there simply aren't any good reasons to buy it, especially with better alternatives already available.

Thanks to poor controls, a paltry list of game modes, and a lack of real-life players not named Rafael Nadal, Rafa Nadal Tennis double-faults in its Nintendo DS debut.

Falls flat in just about every way a Corvette or racing fan enthusiast could hope it would succeed...it's difficult to recommend it to even the most devout Corvette enthusiasts.

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

The other serious problem with Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure is a holdover from the original: its horrible boss fights.

It may well offer you the chance to take your favourite team through the qualifying stages and into the World Cup finals, but the game's poor animation and simple tactics make it a completely lackluster experience.

"PGA European Tour" lacks the needed bells and whistles to get a good rating, while the game's tired, sparse graphics and gameplay glitches prevent it from breaking even.

It's buggy, the gameplay modes are shallow, and the graphics don't save it.

Looks solid visually, but the game has lost some of its gameplay speed in the transition to Sony's 128-bit console.