Once you get past the counterintuitive controls, Rescue serves as a completely serviceable hop-a-thon for tadpole gamers. [Jan 2004, p.133]

No game will drive you to REM sleep like Rapala Pro Fishing, the greatest sedative available for PS2. [Oct 2004, p.98]

Avatar shows flashes of brilliance at first, but sadly those don't last long enough to sustain the entire game. [Jan. 2007, p.88]

True hunters will see nothing but shortcomings. [Apr 2003, p.87]

While the game may not fully reach its heroic potential, it does competently adapt the greatest sword-and-sorcery epic of all time. [Dec 2002, p.162]

Shallow combat meets nonexistente level design in a battle for FPS mediocrity. [Aug 2005, p.89]

By no means perfect, but it does do a fine job of realizing Bilbo Baggins' Middle-earth adventure. [Jan 2004, p.120]

The game gets unreasonably hard near the end, where you really start to hate the archaic continue system. It frustrates me that I haven't beaten Shredder--I can't even get to him. I feel so turtle powerless.

Its arenas are cramped, flat, and bland, and its gameplay structure is dated, boring, and laughable. [Dec 2003, p.152]

Look, I appreciate a challenge as much as the next guy, but frankly, I'm tired of getting my ass kicked. [Nov 2003, p.142]

The Armored Core developers are celebrating the series' 10th birthday by giving you the same mech game they've pumped out since the beginning. [Jun 2006, p.92]

Monstrous creations that are just scary enough for third-graders make this a good substitute for grotesque grown-up survival horror. [Oct. 2006, p.88]

Graphics are average at best, combat is kind of shaky, and the actual quests are rather uninspired. [Sept 2002, p.117]

Boring fights, easy puzzles. [Oct 2004, p.96]

If you liked the first Way of the Samurai, then this provides more of the same type of play. But don't expect anything new or exciting. [July 2004, p.88]

There's no challenge, and there's no variety. [Apr 2005, p.103]

I have to wonder how well a child could handle the somewhat complex controls. [Mar 2002, p.110]

I want to like The Fast and The Furious, because somewhere under all the excruciating load times and arcade setting menus(I have to load a menu to change my camera angle? Ugh!)lies a solid game. It's a real shame. [Nov. 2006, p.119]

I'd prefer both the look and feel of "Moto GP 2." [Oct 2002, p.150]

Narrow, winding roads take TXR's already bad handling and make it feel that much worse. [Apr 2006, p.80]

What keeps the title afloat is collecting items, snapping pictures, and building up your character. It actually becomes mildly addictive. [Mar 2003, p.103]

The game is one long wave of monotonous, sloppy combat. [Jan 2005, p.102]

The framerate is poor enough to be irritating. [Dec 2001, p.168]

The game is really beatiful... But here's the problem: The game is HARD. [Nov 2001, p.152]

Subject to much refinement, and while it still can't compete with the competition, 989 Sports has created a surprisingly solid all-around basketball game. [Dec 2003, p.183]

A fantastic idea ruined by ugly graphics, a shaky framerate, and bizarre design elements. [May 2006, p.80]

Comes agonizingly close to being exceptional but falls too short in too many areas to be more than average. [Dec 2005, p.121]

Games based on kids' movies are getting somewhat better, but Over the Hedge reverts to the same old beat-up-a-bunch-of-bad-guys- formula. [Oct. 2006, p.88]

But at full price, there's just not enough variety here to justify the purchase for most people.

Beyond atmosphere, ShellShock pretty much, well, sucks. Probably the biggest irritation is the simply horrifying level design. [Oct 2004, p.88]

It's like trying to fly an airplane with no wings, and you can't even tell the passengers to kiss their asses good-bye. [May 2005, p.92]

Overall, it's a disappointing effort at best, and only recommended if you're a sports-,car-,and gun-allergic PS3 owner grasping for something to play. [Jan. 2007, p.74]

Part of the feeling of powerlessness comes from the awful controls. [Nov 2004, p.120]

A limited trick set takes away from the power of the game. [Oct 2001, p.135]

An ugly, ugly game. [Apr 2006, p.80]

The fan in me can't help but like this game. Despite some questionable A.I. and repetitive attack animations (surprisingly brutal for a Teen rating), the Stealth mode (activated by awkwardly holding down L2 - another control issue) presents a genuinely cool graphic effect similar to thermal vision. [June 2003, p.108]

Once you master the controls, you'll love it. [Oct 2001, p.135]

It has a few innovations, but these aren't executed well enough to make the game really stand out. [Dec 2002, p.174]

Samurai Warriors 2 doesn't introduce any new problems to the series and corrects a few of the glaring inadequacies of the first game. Nevertheless, it fails to add enough to the series to justify being a full-priced sequel. [Oct. 2006, p.85]

The shifting camera angles almost always lead to confusion. [Dec 2002, p.174]

The absurd amount of effort you'll have to spend to get any substantial results in Fighter Maker 2's Edit mode won't be worth it for 95 percent of you. [Jan 2003, p.124]

A perfectly fun, surreal distraction - but only when playing with live frolfers. If you go at it alone, even the Frolf Referee's entertaining mannerisms won't make up for the frustration caused by the cheating A.I. [July 2004, p.96]

This is one of the least user-friendly gameplay experiences I've had in some time. [May 2006, p.90]

Lobotomized teammates, restrictive environments, and enemies with X-ray vision make it necessary to memorize entire levels. [Feb 2005, p.90]

The game's still shallow, but on the PSP, ease of play becomes a virtue. It's still not fantastic, but it's a passable novelty with a great license. [Nov 2005, p.121]

Suffers from one of the most useless cameras since the advent of 3D gaming. [March 2005, p.101]

Neither heavenly nor hellish. [May 2005, p.94]

Pretty much a Diablo clone with so-so graphics, but a solid action/RPG. [Mar 2002, p.34]

Monster Rancher Evo would've easily succeded in attempting to build a stronger RPG element, but as it stands, the game just falls short of offering a complete RPG experience. [July 2006, p.75]

This could be the only PlayStation game I've ever played that uses almost every button except X. Not a big deal, but worth noting. [Feb 2004, p.101]

Other than the stylish cel-shaded visuals, there's hardly anything new here... Seriously, I haven't seen camera problems this bad since the early days of PS1. [Nov 2003, p.138]

Too much choice, not enough direction, and the characters are really creepy looking. [Dec 2005, p.118]

It's just too bad that the shoot-'em up gameplay setting things up is so generic. [Nov 2002, p.188]

If you want to impart the important skills of twitchily thwaking bad dudes in dungeons on to a younger sibling, SD Gundam Force: Showdown! is a good start. [Jan 2005, p.107]

At its very best, Dirge of Cerberus is an average action game with RPG elements, nice ideas, and a decent fan service. [Sept 2006, p.80]

The moments of inspiration are there to be found, but they're much less common than the moments of wanting to throw your controller in disgust. [Dec 2004, p.114]

As a racing game, it's pretty much par for the course. You race, you win, you open stuff up...seen it before, thank you. [Jan 2002, p.140]

Although its filled with flaws, this is still a very playable on-the-go b-ball game, even with the occasional bugs and an unthinkably bad free-throw system. [June 2005, p.98]

Its cold, sterile presentation and crazy list of components for the armored core itself make it, in reality, a game for veteran AC gearheads. [Nov 2005, p.101]

Oversimplified controls and an atrocious camera. If it were a movie, you'd leave the theater halfway through and not care about the conclusion. [Feb 2005, p.86]

You're contantly shooting the same enemies over and over in rather dull environments, only to come upon completely lackluster bosses. [August 2002, p.107]

Challenges are all over the place, randomly ranging from boringly easy to annoying difficult. [Apr 2003, p.90]

It's not a gamer's game, it's a Corvette fan club member's game. [June 2004, p.96]

A big, fat disappointment...SpyHunter 2 simply lacks any soul.

You know the drill with anime games: They're typically a bit half-assed, and with Gundam vs. Zeta Gundam too much effort was spent on fanboy frills and not enough was spent under the hood. It's a fun ride, but this series is showing its age.

Does it get frustrating? Oh my, yes...But that's Myst for you. [Dec 2002, p.164]

The graphics certainly don't help any. Really, for a PS2 game, they're an embarrassment. [Dec 2001, p.161]

Buy some legos instead. [Jan 2003, p.120]

A racing game packed with features that you've mostly seen before, hiding behind a veneer of graphical mediocrity. [May 2004, p.96]

Avatar shows flashes of brilliance at first, but sadly those don't last long enough to sustain the entire game. [Jan. 2007, p.88]

It's surprising how much better Invasion is when you're playing against opponents with brains or doing battle in environments where the motorcycle proves userful for something beyond runnning for your life. [Nov 2004, p.132]

With a full year since the original and no majjor changes to implement, this should have been great. Instead, it's just more "Dynasty Warriors." [Dec. 2006, p.134]

A game for zealous fans and gamers with damaged short-term memory. [Jan 2006, p.96]

Anyone who has enjoyed any of the technical, aesthetic, and gameplay improvements of the past decade will probably want to pass this one up [Dec 2004, p.114]

The 20 percent that takes place on foot takes four times longer than it should because of countless design flaws. In brief: The driving parts are awesome, the running around sucks.

TGE effectively mixes a variety of gameplay, from manning a turret in a dogfight over Europe to sneaking through POW camps Solid Snake-style to Steve McQueen's daring cross-country bike escape. [Sept 2003, p.93]

The controls – coupled with the awful camera – hold it back as a whole. [May 2002, p.100]

As bad as the roster is, the game itself is fine, and by fine I mean you couldn't have possibly made it more boring. [Jan 2005, p.109]

It's roughly animation-free. [Jan 2003, p.138]

It's very fast paced and probably about as close as a hunting game will ever get to mimicking a typical first-person shooter. [Jan 2004, p.114]

Yu-Gi-Oh completely blows. [June 2002, p.103]

Scoring opportunities are too easy and mean too little, and the "wow" moments - scoring a goal, beating a defender - serve up more yawns than adrenaline. [Apr 2005, p.109]

I realized five or six hours into it that I was really hooked...There are plenty of hours of gameplay to be had. [May 2002, p.102]

If this game had online play and were a PSP title, we'd be pretty pleased. But it doesn't, it's not - and we're not. [Sept 2006, p.83]

Your typical "Twisted Metal" knock-off, complete with a ho-hum lineup of vehicles, bland weaponry, and uninspired courses. Gameplay's no better. [May 2003, p.97]

It's by no means a spectacular game, but then again, it did make me want to watch the show, so it's done its job. [Feb 2005, p.80]

Goes from merely mediocre to appallingly bad.

I still think a music-customizable rhythm game could be amazing, but Dance Factory falls short of the ideal. [Jun 2006, p.94]

Fun for kids, but you're better off playing "Klonoa." [Jan 2004, p.133]

Though I liked Reign a lot, its horrible collision detection and frustrating later levels must be noted. [Dec 2002, p.164]

YYH's problem is with the controls, which are shallow yet complicated. [Jan 2005, p.107]

The biggest problem is that it all just gets kind of boring, which is rather criminal for a game that's about heated, bloody battles. [Aug 2005, p.83]

More of the same, but not quite as good, with crappy minigames and a framerate that's more offensive than calling your political foe a putzhead. [Jan 2003, p.132]

Yet another pretty--but shallow--anime-based fighting game from Bandai that offers some good fun for about an hour.

A solid, if limited, dance title... If Rhythm n' Groove has another 15 or 20 songs, DDR might have something to worry about. [June 2003, p.107]

But most unbelievable is the fact that there's almost nothing here I would classify as fun. [Jan 2004, p.118]

Those who have no emotional investment in a ragtag team of junior superheroes will just find yet another simple beat-em-up. [Mar 2006, p.87]

The challenge mode makes up for a lot of the shortcomings, since it offers great, classic monkeys-in-balls action that fits perfectly with the PSP's portability, but sadly, it's not enough. [Nov. 2006, p.124]