Only hardcore annelid lovers need apply. [May 2012, p.116]

A festering corpse given an unnecessary kiss of life. [Aug 2016, p.93]

Any environmental message (or fun) that might be hidden within is scorched by the fury of having to pay an astonishing 7.99 quid for the privilege. [Apr 2010, p.113]

A shallow package that you might buy as a PSN download: there's fun here, but only the sort of amount you'd pay two pints'-worth of money for. [Oct 2008, p.102]

Play time is kept to a minimum, with most of the development effort put into designing reams of menus for you to navigate...ensuring that you never start to have actual fun. [Issue#51, p.118]

One afterlife that's plain hard to enjoy. [Aug 2016, p.94]

The puzzles are simple but require the exact kind of precise control this doesn't provide. [June 2008, p.106]

This might have seemed enjoyable 14 years ago, but then again so did MC Hammer. [Feb 2008, p.91]

It’s got passion but is far from having all the answers. We can’t recommend what we played but hope that a patch has addressed the bugs obscuring its bright ideas. [Issue#170, p.90]

It's a nauseating barrage of flattery, hand-wringing commiseration, and toothlessly apologetic joshing. [June 2009, p.103]

There's simply nothing here to justify you buying it ahead of 2K's b-ball champ. [Jan 2014, p.84]

This, however, shamefully for a PS3 game, has all the grace of Honda's Asimo trying to climb a spiral staircase. [Sept 2007, p.104]

It's exactly as fun as it sounds. [Feb 2010, p.105]

Mastering hard games can be supremely rewarding, but overcoming a punishing encounter in Knack more often draws a sigh of relief rather than a loud whoop and fist pumps.

Well-intentioned training minigames don’t really help, and nor does the multiplayer mode. There’s always something in the environment that seems more interesting than the game itself, such as a Japanese garden you can’t explore, or arcade cabinets that you can’t use. Give the table tennis experience this game serves up a miss. [Issue#170, p.92]

There's only so long you can spend looking at this piss-poor running animation before you start seriously wondering "What if I just looked out of the window for a few minutes instead?" [Jan 2014, p.95]

Poor signposting is a problem throughout, compounding frustration in by-the-numbers stealth/chase sequences (though each of these is mercifully to the point once you figure out what you’re supposed to do). Bright spots, such as the early story’s compassionate portrayal of childhood bereavement and some genuinely unsettling sound design, are too often overshadowed. We’re not leaving the light on for this. [Issue#177, p.156]

The 40 levels are deliberately built to be played in fast bursts against the clock for the kudos of scoring high on the online scoreboard, but none are challenging or interesting enough to keep you going back. [May 2007, p.103]

Special moves are simply executed but look feeble, so you never get the sense that you're shellacking the snot out of your opponent. [Aug 2007, p.114]

Worst of all, it never feels even vaguely scary. [Aug 2008, p.102]

As big a letdown as Tim Henman's efforts at Wimbledon, it does a huge disservice to Top Spin's legacy. No amount of Pimm's should sanction you buying this. [Issue#151, p.96]

Ice Age 4 isn't all bad. [Sept 2012, p.113]

There's a sense of satisfaction to slogging through each challenge in normal mode, but with only six levels to beat even this proves to be a hollow victory. [Aug 2007, p.109]

No frills? No thrills, more like. [June 2007, p.105]

When the game does slip into heavy narrative - which is infuriatingly often, creating a horrible stop/start pace - the story is a mess. [Nov 2015, p.107]

It's these impossibly dull missions that let Crash Time 4 down so severely. [June 2012, p.113]

We just can't help but feel incredibly bored by it. [May 2008, p.115]

Tedious. [Feb 2012, p.112]