If there's a mediocre idea to be had, chances are Crash has burgled it. [Summer 2002, p.91]

As much of a history lesson as Collection provides, though, you can't help but wan't more. [Feb 2005, p.92]

An eye-catching and compelling shoot-em-up with interesting characters and themes, Yager's hard to pass up at $20. [Oct 2004, p.97]

Shock value only takes the game so far, though. What really keeps you playing to the end is Punisher's scribe Garth Ennis' excellent script. [Feb 2005, p.88]

As an arcade racer set in the rally universe, this ain't half bad. [Feb/Mar 2003, p.87]

The problem with High Roller is that, despite the addition of the new course, the game plays almost identically to the original. [Fall 2002, p.116]

Rescue very nearly outclasses every other cutesy platformer on Xbox. [Nov 2004, p.90]

What ultimately lands Defender in the "utterly forgettable" pile are its bland graphics, twitchy controls, and various technical problems. [Winter 2002, p.104]

A short-lived one-trick pony that's pretty much run its course. [Mar 2004, p.101]

The game does an excellent job of keeping the tension high with plenty of on-screen baddies to pummel. [Aug 2003, p.82]

It just seems to be content to wallow in mediocrity. [Jan 2005, p.99]

The texture quality has been noticeably reduced, but the keen glow effect on all the characters and environments is meticulously preserved. [Jan 2005, p.86]

Criminals hide in the same places every time, so players can memorize the trouble spots and restart if necessary. [Dec/Jan 2004, p.89]

It's surprisingly solid, providing definitively that it's possible to take a fictional sport and bring it to digital life. [Mar 2004, p.82]

As a "Zoo Tycoon" clone, Operation Genesis isn't at all bad, but the fact that it's merely a "Zoo Tycoon" clone is sufficient enough criticism. [Apr/May 2003, p.93]

Xbox Live support would have made this a must-buy, but it's still worht the money if you have friends to share it with. [Mar 2004, p.94]

Sadly, Powerdrome is one time trial after another, and even with a real opponent via Xbox Live, there's not much more to it. [Sept 2004, p.89]

Unfortunately, the game is virtually unplayable. [Summer 2002, p.92]

The real trouble with Ty, however, lies in its camera. Ty dashes at a frenetic pace while the camera does a poor job of keeping up. [Winter 2002, p.103]

Weird and wonderful, Whiplash pushes rebellion to the point where it seems callously unconcerned that its middle finger sometimes is aimed straight at its audience. [Mar 2004, p.87]

The problem is - here it comes - the painfully oversensitive controls mar the nostalgia. [Feb 2005, p.92]

Perhaps the most creatively bankrupt fun game ever made. [Dec/Jan 2004, p.95]

Simply an unassuming, solid, and well-executed platformer. [Jan 2005, p.91]

It's physics are absolutely true to life, and its tilts - a propers smiting for too much cheating - are fairly issued. [June 2004, p.88]

No matter how easy it is to do, kicking someone off his four-wheeler never stops being satisfying. [Apr/May 2003, p.93]

It simply can't contend with the 400-pound gorilla that is Electronic Arts' "NBA Street." [Dec/Jan 2004, p.85]

It's a work-in-progress that makes too many bad choices, and doesn't provide half as much meat as it does flash and spectacle. [Spring 2002, p.90]

The title makes no bones about the unfinished state of the wrasslin' found within. [Dec/Jan 2004, p.95]

It's not that it's inherently a racist game; rather, it simply wields its satire with such a lack of grace and humor that it's difficult to rally behind the attempt. [Apr/May 2003, p.86]

There's no sense of achievement in clearing one of the game's "elite" missions without the faintest effort. [Dec 2004, p.90]

To describe the series of menus used here as "labyrinthine" would be to horribly oversimplify labyrinths. [Winter 2002, p.102]

The intuitive fighting control remains as solid as ever. [Dec 2004, p.86]

The beautiful grass texture made us feel all outdoorsy and sexy. [Fall 2002, p.121]

When playing against human opponents of varying skill levels on Xbox Live, the game becomes surprisingly fun and entertaining. [Mar 2004, p.101]

Well-designed platforming bits and clever puzzles remind you of what people saw in the original "Tomb Raider," but the game's dismal controls muck up these potentially enjoyable levels. [Oct 2004, p.98]

Not a bad game - there's just not enough here, and players may find themselves wishing for a match in Britain against and extraterrestrial blancmange, just to add a little bit of variety to the mix. [Dec/Jan 2004, p.93]

Combine this undistinguished feel with the game's pedestrian graphics and lack of Xbox Live or system-link support and you have one of the most disappointing big franchise games in recent memory. [Mar 2004, p.90]

Don't bother with the single-player mission-based mode, however, as the chunks it blows are considerably oversized. [June-July 2003, p.93]

If you love Harry Potter, don't mind that characters talk and whine incessantly, and would like to see Hermione push around an ice block over and over again, Azkaban is good for a few hours of fun. [Aug 2004, p.94]

The combination of solid graphics, cooperative play, and an established format works well here, and Sin Tzu is nothing if not a fun third-person beat-em-up. [Dec/Jan 2004, p.87]

The tracks are fun(ish), the graphics are good(ish), and the controls are responsive(ish), but the outrageous "only in a videogame" components are curiously missing. [Spring 2002, p.93]

Goals are alternately too easy because the bike's brute speed makes gaps and jumps so simple, or too hard because twitchy steering and excess velocity make delicate maneuvering impossible. [Aug 2003, p.87]

What makes an otherwise solid action RPG mediocre is the obscenely slow and tedious beginning. [Mar 2004, p.101]

Mired in repetition and some substantial balancing issues, a good deal of its simplistic charm dissipates after a short time. [Nov 2004, p.100]

Competent, but not innovative. [Oct/Nov 2003, p.93]

Charming and accessible. [Winter 2002, p.105]

As for the learning curve: think of this game as "Splinter Cell for Dummies." [Mar 2004, p.79]

That bane of the 3D platformer, a bad camera, constantly hides fallen-away floors until you're standing where you thought there was solid ground. [Nov 2004, p.90]

Ultimately, the game's strict adherence to realism trips it up. [June-July 2003, p.95]

Just another example of blown potential. [June 2004, p.87]

Ghoulies goes whole hog on its graphics and half-asses everything else. [Dec/Jan 2004, p.90]

It's the gameplay that disappoints. Most notably, the white-knuckle sense of breakneck speed and the tight, responsive controls oh so apparent in "Burnout 3" or "Underground" just aren't matched here. [Nov 2004, p.97]

Mildly amusing. [Dec/Jan 2004, p.97]

Fails dramatically... Severe, fundamental flaws permeate the experience, ranging from wince-inducing run-cycle animations to sloppy, unrefined controls. [Aug 2003, p.78]

Beneath Enclave's pixel-shaded graphics, we find only a trace of a game worth playing. [Fall 2002, p.117]

Dismal. [Jan 2002, p.90]

Past the visuals rests a competent, if uninspired game that’s best savored with four players madly fighting for split-screen automotive supremacy. [Jan 2002, p.90]

Pirates is a kick - swift and painful - to the gonads for all who've claimed the Xbox is no PC... This is a junky PC game waiting to be patched. It should be made to walk the plank. [Oct/Nov 2003, p.90]

A stale and astoundingly pixelated port of a two-year-old Dreamcast game. [Fall 2002, p.121]

Sadly, unlike the game Bandai tried so hard to copy ("SSBM"), 2 has no depth whatsoever. [Nov 2004, p.100]

The same old Cabela's issues - jerky control, clumsy animation, extreme disorientation - rear their ugly heads again. [Feb 2005, p.88]

You can, in practically one extended sitting, blow through the entirety of this dumbed-down, bloodless, sanitized version of America's hard-fought victory. [Dec/Jan 2004, p.88]

The controls are a bit herky-jerky at times. [Winter 2002, p.106]

As good as wrestling gets on the Xbox. [Fall 2002, p.121]

Where the game falters is in the A.I. of CPU players; simply put, these guys fell kicking and screaming from the artificial-intelligence tree. [Mar 2004, p.99]

Like playing the slowest, most dropping-laden tactical FPS of your life. [Dec/Jan 2004, p.95]

Sadly, Vengeance's extreme difficulty and arbitrary save system bleed off any entertainment value. [Dec/Jan 2004, p.89]

Trite and laughably cliched in screenshots, Tao Feng simply falls apart in motion. [Apr/May 2003, p.82]

You're not going to get a much plainer-looking Xbox game. [Jan 2005, p.99]

It sits in the same stagnating pool as every other generic 3D platform title. [Dec 2004, p.89]

There's the sense that the grandiose has just gone average, the superhero equivalent of the Justice League of America battling a jaywalker. [Jan 2005, p.86]

Embarrassing show tunes notwithstanding, it's the game's artificial difficulty that puts this bird in a nose-dive a third of the way through. [Aug 2003, p.81]

If anything, this game sounds precisely like "Alias." Looking and sounding like the show isn't really enough, though. Alias also needs to offer thrilling gameplay...and, well, it doesn't.

Had it cooked a bit longer, however, this could have been a classic. [Fall 2002, p.118]

The game's first few hours are dreadfully boring, full of genre cliches and pointless firefights. [Apr 2004, p.84]

The game is just boring. [Jan 2002, p.90]

As ugly as a Tim Wakefield knuckleball. [Spring 2002, p.91]

Movement from left to right is way too slow, which screws up everything. It takes three full seconds to turn 180 degrees, so death is guaranteed in cramped quarters. [Aug 2003, p.85]

It looks great, runs smoothly, and is certainly polished. The closest thing to an issue is the trick system. [Mar 2004, p.90]

The game sinks in the perilous minefield that is RTS convention and its de rigueur level design. [Aug 2003, p.84]

It's the brawling gameplay dragging things down. [Jan 2005, p.88]

Surprisingly fun. [Aug 2003, p.87]

The major malfunction here: busted level design. Many missions suffer from unclear objectives or load you up with tiresome chores - such as seven minutes of formation flight - only to have you repeat these tasks ad nauseam if you foul up. [Mar 2004, p.79]

The game's title perhaps best describes the taste left in one's mouth after playing it than anythihng else. [Fall 2002, p.118]

The slightly clunky controls and contrived level design - with its faux open-ended gameplay - leave the impression of a hack job. Paint-by-numbers puzzles and stolid A.I., sadly, only dig the pit deeper. [Dec/Jan 2004, p.92]

Environments are often so big Van Helsing and an antagonist do not appear onscreen together. [July 2004, p.92]

A Scenario mode provides enough challenge to kill a whole weekend, and drivers can opt to play one of two distinct clans, each with its own furiously branching storyline. [Aug 2003, p.87]

Charming yet flawed, Zoo might be too much of an acquired taste and too little of a worthwhile experience. Consider this duo hardly dynamic. [Dec/Jan 2004, p.89]

If you're reading this text at above a second-grade reading level, you don't want to play Hot Wheels: Stunt Track Challenge. Everything from the cutesy design to the zany (read: irritating to anyone above the age of 6) announcer screams baby game. [Feb 2005, p.90]

It's just genuinely unfortunate that the cartoon consistently scores touchdowns whereas the game fumbles like a man with melted butter on his fingers. [May 2004, p.91]

If you thought shooters needed more Stetson hats and Winchester rifles, you can't go wrong with this one. [May 2004, p.96]

Stupid A.I. ensures that computer-controlled fighters will ignore the grapplers they've supposedly developed a hate for, and stand idly by while pins are being made. [Feb/Mar 2003, p.89]

Pack up this game's troubles in your old kit bag and head for the glorious Live-enabled "Crimson Skies" instead. [Nov 2004, p.96]

Heartily mediocre. [Mar 2004, p.90]

For casual players, Challenge provides all of the tedium of fishing with little of the pleasure, such as napping in the boat. Napping in front of the Xbox doesn't have the same appeal. [Oct 2004, p.95]

Gorgeously cel shaded, sharp, and smart, but ultimately too difficult for the game's intended audience and certainly a little too generous in its repetition of sound samples. [Fall 2002, p.121]

The camera never quite gets it together during combat, and the animations are stilted and choppy. [Oct/Nov 2003, p.99]

No matter how many coats of polish they put on it, this is still the same game that's been around since Mikhail Gorbachev ruled the Soviet Union. [Oct/Nov 2003, p.87]