Badland is a lightweight time-waster at heart, and it shows. It's perfect for a bus journey, out of place on a console that's about as portable as the Himalayas.

Sonic works hard, but looked better in the '90s. [March 2013, p.85]

The game's ultimate wrong turning is that it looks and plays like something released several years ago. [May 2008, p.88]

Far from being a knockout. [March 2013, p.87]

A nasty game through and through. Not in terms of its gore, which just comes off as childish, but in most other respects. [Feb 2008, p.100]

Fun while you're causing mischief around the house, but it doesn't rise to the occasion. [April 2017, p.90]

A fascinating break from the RPG norm let down by terrible performance problems. [April 2017, p.92]

Venetica is a neat idea for an RPG hamstrung by an engine that can't do the maths quick enough and some terrible production values.

Decent game hindered by hidden costs. [Jan 2012, p.98]

The controls are easy to manage, but the game has too many hangovers of the past - enemies that respawn as soon as they go off screen, an irritating lack of direction and largely repetitious segments. [Nov 2007, p.106]

Takes all comers in a stand-up fight, but somewhat flounders on the ground.

Not Nierly as much fun as we'd hoped. [July 2010, p.96]

The result is that the game's flow shudders and starts - a ponderous affair punctuated by sudden bouts of extremely messy and imprecise combat.

A loose kids' game that could do with some titaning up. [Dec 2007, p.90]

Easy to play, but not a whole lot of fun. [June 2008, p.79]

It's hard not to feel sorry for Dark Void. It feels like all it ever wanted to be was a popcorn B-movie blockbuster, and there are plenty of moments where you can see how it might have managed it. But they're all so disparate, so badly arranged, that its latent charm is completely lost.

Hardly the feel good hit of the summer. [Aug 2012, p.110]

No amount of lovely art can prevent this statfest from causing chronic yawns. [June 2016, p.83]

Overall, though, with its fundamentally flawed handling, glitchy physics and a tendency for the game to just play itself, Sonic Riders is a huge disappointment. [April 2006, p.84]

A by-the-numbers budget shooter with very little in the way of spark. Not a total stinker, but hardly worth your cash either. [June 2006, p.69]

Football without rules equals a mess. Add some crap gameplay and annoying animations and it's a complete joke. [April 2006, p.94]

It's cheap, but so is Jodie Marsh and we wouldn't shuffle her deck with yours. [April 2006, p.93]

Tries to address fans' wishes, but wobbles under the weight of its hollow generosity. [June 2016, p.86]

Entertaining in small doses but that's about it. [Feb 2010, p.111]

Do yourself a favour and pick up a decent shooting game, or a head injury, anything's better than this - because otherwise you'll only encourage the creators to churn out another similarly disappointing movie license in six months time.

Paper armies are all the rage these days; this is just enraging. [Jan 2015, p.89]

The problem that this and indeed any retro shooter has nowadays is Bizarre Creations 2D tour de force, Geometry Wars. Still one of our Xbox Live download favourites, Galaga by comparison is a poor substitute.

It's a waste of some fairly pleasant graphics. [July 2012, p.105]