Full of uninspired backgrounds, bland water effects, and collision detection that will make your skin crawl. [Spring 2002, p.92]

Where most licensed brawlers feel sloppy and half-finished, Turtles is smooth and cohesive. [Dec/Jan 2004, p.81]

Episode-sized chunks linked by a central plot break up the game nicely, and although Mayhem clearly comes built for kids, its breezy gameplay and goofy sensibilities—ghosts can be fooled by sheets draped over the protagonists—win both adult hearts and minds.

It's not a good sign when a game's replay mode outdoes its interactive sequences. [Mar 2004, p.90]

This giant cat that wants to pinch mommy's ass is one ripe for the highway and an oncoming truck.[Mar 2004, p.79]

Here was a game with real potential to be what everybody had basically hoped for: "Grand Theft Auto" with really good graphics. Instead, what's here needs an air bag.

The game's mutants are ugly and lifeless. [Feb/Mar 2003, p.88]

The multiplayer games are banal, and while Zapper offers cartoony kid-graphics, it's nothing that can't be done on inferior systems. Yawn. [Winter 2002, p.102]

An exercise in sheer frustration. [Fall 2002, p.121]

Forget the wonky camera and intermittent sputters when a new room loads - hell awaits, and it's genuinely desirable. [Apr 2003, p.93]

The same-old, same-old: the same static screens, decrepit point-and-click interface, crushingly slow pace, and confusing layout. [Winter 2002, p.105]

If Strike gets its mechanics brashly right, it fudges the details. [Feb 2005, p.93]

Blowout's dialogue and overall production value are sufficiently self-aware so that they're oddly amusing. [Mar 2004, p.98]

This game quickly strays into "Hogan's Heroes" territory, with comically stupid enemy A.I. and an endless string of overfamiliar formulas and cliches. [Oct/Nov 2003, p.85]

The game isn't even remotely balanced. [Winter 2002, p.102]

With no map to guide you, these missions are as much fun as trying to solve a Rubik's Cube in the dark. [Aug 2003, p.86]

Joins the ranks of rushed movie-to-game conversions, with drab visuals, repetitive gameplay, and a lack of style. [Feb/Mar 2003, p.85]

Although Hero's high concept borders on the brilliant, the game itself is poorly executed and seems as out of place on Xbox as a rump roast at a vegan restaurant. [Aug 2003, p.89]

Flawed but solidly fun, deep as a dime, and airy as a zeppelin. [Summer 2002, p.93]

Multiple game types add some much-needed variety: skins play, challenge, and golf modes exhaust all possibilities for ball-pin interaction. [Aug 2004, p.83]

Your $40 buys you nothing but a video version of the standard, real-life trading card game.

Something that's competent, but nonetheless the racing-game equivalent of shaved, unflavored ice served in a wooden bowl. [Oct/Nov 2003, p.87]

There's no solidity to the knight's movement, and the camera is usually twitching around like a plague rat on crank. [Aug 2004, p.87]

Playing the game simply feels too much like work. [Winter 2002, p.104]

Inexcusably awful. [Fall 2002, p.115]

It's not that Carmen is a failure - it just aims low in the first place. [Mar 2004, p.95]

The biggest disappointment is the game's multiplayer mode; there's now way to send blocks or any manner of taunts to your opponent. For shame. [Fall 2002, p.121]

Riding feels "real"... In short, Barbie's first foray onto Xbox is not a stinker. [Dec/Jan 2004, p.100]