Easy to pick up and damn fun to play.

The graphics are horribly bland, the freeways never end, and apparently all of Tokyo's traffic is represented by a single yellow van. [Feb 2004, p.91]

Eight-bit "Double Dragon" was more fun and more complex than this ostensibly 32-bit outing. What are they doing with all those bits, anyway? [Dec 2003, p.104]

Should have been the next glorious chapter in that game's story. Instead, it's a mildly disappointing epilogue.

When it comes to online play, PGR2 knocks it out of the park. [Jan 2004, p.76]

But POP's only really significant flaw lies in its adventure/action ratio: Both aspects are thoroughly fleshed-out but rarely intertwined.

What it does do well is capture the back-and-forth flow of hockey, especially during odd-man rush situations, neutral-zone navigation, forechecking, and power plays around the goal. [Jan 2004, p.84]

Holding back the fun are severe slowdown and scripting problems; hectic firefights and complex rooms often crush the game's framerate, and some event triggers can be irrevocably hung up, forcing a restart. [Dec 2003, p.92]

Tongue-in-cheek humor and mindless, cathartic bashing of things keep the proceedings from getting overly dull. [Jan 2004, p.92]

What could've been crap on a DVD turns out to be a game that's easy to pick up and damn fun to play.

One of the better 5-on-5 basketball games we've played. [Jan 2004, p.82]

Your opponents are unbelievably excellent shots who almost never miss...A clear case of style over substance, XIII is pretty to look at but a bitch to play. [Dec 2003, p.100]

Flight-sim purists will be horrified by SWON's simplicity, but everyone else will be too busy having fun.

With too much style and not enough substance, this one can only Go! Go! so far. [Dec 2003, p.88]

But POP's only really significant flaw lies in its adventure/action ratio: Both aspects are thoroughly fleshed-out but rarely intertwined.

What holds Fire Warrior back is some rather uninspiring gameplay. You play the entire game as a single lowly Tau warrior and must fight your way through legions of increasingly difficult enemies. Pretty standard stuff. [Nov 2003, p.77]

But what holds Fire Warrior back is some rather uninspiring gameplay. You play the entire game as a single lowly Tau warrior and must fight your way through legions of increasingly difficult enemies. Pretty standard stuff.

With great dialogue, beautiful art direction, and generally high-quality puzzles, it's worthwhile to indulge the designers' crate fetish just to see what comes next.

Combining the reckless, breakneck speed and high-impact collisions of "Burnout" with the neon-tipped street culture of Fast and the Furious (and, more specifically, "Midnight Club II"), Underground is the new definition of white-knuckle.

Combining the reckless, breakneck speed and high-impact collisions of Burnout with the neon-tipped street culture of "Fast and the Furious" (and, more specifically, "Midnight Club II"), Underground is the new definition of white-knuckle.

The emulation is solid, delivering sound and gameplay that's up to par. [Jan 2004, p.86]

If you're gonna buy one college game this year, buy March Madness.

There are a lot of things about HM:FMT that make it ideal for GBA, but the main thing is the bite-sized chunks of time that the game is broken up into. [Dec 2003, p.104]

This poor man's "Spy Hunter" is the part of Everything or Nothing in which nothing is, in all honesty, preferable. [Jan 2003, p.93]

One of those games you cherish playing - and avoid completing because you just don't want it to end. [Jan 2003, p.93]

If the NPC A.I. were a little more fully realized, CIMA would rank as one of the best GBA games out there. As it stands, it's merely pretty darn good. [Nov 2003, p.90]

Combining the reckless, breakneck speed and high-impact collisions of Burnout with the neon-tipped street culture of Fast and the Furious (and, more specifically, Midnight Club II), Underground is the new definition of white-knuckle.

If you're gonna buy one college game this year, buy March Madness.