As a community, we must save the children...from mediocre cartoon-based cideogame adaptations like this one! [Holiday 2006, p.76]

You're better off slamming something in a car door....and that's free. [Holiday 2009, p.80]

Unless you're gung-ho to get 600-plus gamerscore in six hours, you're better off just revisiting the TV show. [Jun 2010, p.82]

Flick the fanboy switch off, though, and you're left playing a game in bad need of a little more technical polish and a whole lot of more variety. [Jan 2011, p.73]

The problems start with control. The response isn't razor sharp, the special moves aren't spectacular, and the Netbuster specials are too easy to pull off. [Jan 2004, p.73]

Predictably, you’ll have a much better time blasting away in by-the-numbers deathmatch, team deathmatch, and capture-the-flag engagements — well, if you can find any other players in the ghost town that passes for Scourge’s multiplayer lobby. Given the game’s crippling problems, it’s hard to blame folks for staying away in droves.

Spend your $50 on something--anything--else. [Jan 2011, p.81]

Moderately challenging and entertaining, Acme Arsenal is nevertheless far from memorable. [Nov 2007, p.99]

Real Steal's fisticuffs are a half step above the usual movie-based dreck, but the constant rattle of a beggar's tin cup in your face only grows more distasteful over time.

Battle: Los Angeles is a slapped-together shooter that'll take you less time to finish than it does to watch the movie it is based on--and it'll cost you almost the same amount of money. [June 2011, p.81]

Crusade sports some solid ideas (a "cursed realm" you can switch to on the fly is a neat concept that doesn't quite work), but sadly, it suffers most from ho-hum pacing and rinse-repeat gameplay.

The result is a brutally slow pace and a game that doesn't pack much of anything for anybody. The AI is horrendous, the control is abysmal, and the announcing... [Jan 2004, p.73]

When Multiverse is at its best, you'll enjoy its clever quips and competent shooting. Unfortunately, these highlights are all too rare.

This third-person adventure had a lot of potential, but the bugs and overall sloppy design make this sweet treat leave a bad taste in our mouths. [Oct 2005, p.102]

Put your $10 toward a newspaper subscription instead. [Oct 2008, p.85]

Do yourself a favor: leave R.I.P.D. in its grave.

Horrendous camera and targeting system. [Apr 2009, p.79]

An entertaining experience in short bursts - assuming you can overlook the occasional misstep.

Though the real world environments aren't ugly, this Cabela's, ptarmigans and all, is simply pterrible. [Jan 2008, p.69]

You might well opt to buy stat upgrades or temporary performance-boosting items instead, for the sake of simple one-on-one multiplayer confrontations. But because stat upgrades make little difference in the field, and you can carry only a single boost item at a time, you're probably better off just playing something else altogether.

Poor value is the real deal-breaker, though. Because Battleship weighs in at just seven single-player missions and zero multiplayer (seriously???), it's only a few hours of mindless fun, and you can easily beat it in a long afternoon. For $60, we deserve a game that sinks battleships, not wallets.

Less than 60 minutes of uninspired gameplay for $30. [Aug 2010, p.81]

Endlessly bashing dim-witted hordes becomes mind-numbing almost to the point of hypnosis. Unless you’ve got some oddly strong hankering for scatological silliness, it’s probably best to simply flush twice and not look back.

Some subjects will just never translate well into videogames--like anything related to proctology, Paris Hilton, or, yes, MTV shows. [Feb. 2007, p.79]

The game does have a few bright spots. Its cel-shaded art style is fun to look at, and the level designs — which include a museum with a huge medieval-castle exhibit, plus an artificial forest inside a skyscraper — are unique and memorable. But that’s not enough to recommend what’s otherwise a stiff, banal mess of wasted potential.

Despite the brevity and repetition, plenty of bugs plague these turtles. From low-level quirks like characters getting caught on objects in the environment, to high-level issues like A.I. partners abandoning us or a hacking minigame causing freezes, the amount of glitches in Out of the Shadows is pretty alarming.

Watching a B-movie can be cheesy good fun. Playing and paying money for one...that's a nightmare. [Sept 2007, p.79]

With a great story and production values, that might've been enough, But everything about the game is less-than-heroic, including Thor himself. [Aug 2011, p.77]