It also has an interface that seems designed to shield you from actually playing the game.

A few unique touches are overshadowed by crushingly dull gameplay in this perfunctory animated movie tie-in.

You'll start seeing repeats of the same questions far too soon.

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.

A deep character-creation system and sharp graphics are wasted on this dull, repetitive dungeon crawler.

Its inelaborate gameplay and terribly dated graphics and sound absolutely scream for it to be a PlayStation game.

A few unique touches are overshadowed by crushingly dull gameplay in this perfunctory animated movie tie-in.

Mage Knight DS is based on some good design ideas derived from an interesting tabletop wargame, but they're drowned out by a poor interface and weak presentation.

Delivers on the throwback headstrong-ninja motif, but its graphics are lacking, the level of challenge isn’t up to snuff, and the whole experience is over way too quickly.

The Egyptian palette swap and minuscule formula changes aren't enough to prevent Luxor 2 from feeling like the inferior Zuma rip-off that it is.

Parents whose kids have Scooby-Doo hot on the brain from the movie can safely rent this one, or not, without worry of missing much.

A few unique touches are overshadowed by crushingly dull gameplay in this perfunctory animated movie tie-in.

It's ultimately too simplistic, too short, and far too prone to bumper-car madness and pinball-like ricochets.

After the initial "wow" wears off, you'll be stuck with an empty experience.

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

The simplistic gameplay and the lack of both difficulty and any real pressing motivation to complete the game severely limit any appeal.

It features some attractive visuals and a few particularly dramatic scenes. Still, Black Hawk Down is a deeply flawed shooter that has a moment of disappointment or frustration for every moment of fun.

All the clever animations, amusing sounds, and pretty battle graphics in the world can't replace an interesting combat system.

The technical limitations of the PlayStation 2 rob the original of most of its visual style and slow the pace considerably, resulting in a mediocre mission-based driving game with poor handling.

It's not that it's entirely broken, mind you, but X-Men's missions are entirely generic and devoid of captivating content, and there are enough annoying little glitches and other obnoxious things prevalent throughout to give the game that thrown-together feel.

It's a clumsy port, but what's even more disappointing is that it's a clumsy port of only a middling console game.

A few unique touches are overshadowed by crushingly dull gameplay in this perfunctory animated movie tie-in.

Something like a comfortable old shoe that's finally starting to fall apart. Revamping some of the graphics and switching the player ratings system from letters to numbers make this seem like more of a remake than a sequel. Gameplay has been allowed to stagnate.

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.

Beatmania's long-overdue release outside of Japan shows off its many weaknesses, with the most egregious of which being its unimpressive song list.

BloodRayne may feature the va-va-voomiest bloodsucker in gaming, George Romero-style gore that includes lots of decapitations, and everyone's favorite goose-stepping bad guys, but gameplay is so predictable that you'll be stifling yawns even as you tear open jugulars.

Haemimont Games takes such a casual approach to everything, from the ancient Roman setting to the quickie campaign scenarios, so that many players will find little here to latch onto and really enjoy.

It fails miserably at providing any sort of interesting story or characters that you care about. The levels are huge, but they're often bland or repetitive, and the game is riddled with design problems and bugs.