You might not enjoy looking back on the repetitive track design and poor graphics, but you won't recoil in shock or anything. It's more likely that you won't be able to remember anything about this game at all.

Sheep's target audience is the casual gamer who's going to fall for the cutesy box art and admittedly well-done intro FMV. But, unfortunately, they're probably going to come away disappointed and frustrated as well.

Although the two-player mode is entertaining, there's not enough variety to keep you going for long, and the quibbles with the camera and the music are the icing on an unsatisfying cake. Avoid.

The racing in Bandits: Phoenix Rising is not that compelling, and the shooting loses its appeal after the first mission.

A real disappointment.

If you can get graphics this good in real-time, why settle for a shooter-on-rails?

Just too much fluff and not enough fun.

Ballistics is never lacking for a quick, cheap thrill. Unfortunately, the gameplay is actually skin deep, it crashes often, and ultimately doesn't deliver on its eye candy promises.

Polygon counts are noticeably low, for both the characters and the levels, and to have an accomplished developer like Sonic Team not push the hardware is quite a disappointment.

Its Star Wars atmosphere is minimal, and its advancement is riddled with repetitive, boring, time-consuming experience-grind busywork... As it stands, Galaxies is little more than a buggy, incomplete time sink.

Gameplay here packs about as much depth as a thimble, with an offensive mode that rewards you for playing a limited style of game that features nothing but long passes.

Aome awfully big albatrosses around its neck in the way of major bugs, repetitive gameplay and interface nightmares weigh it down.

It might be best just to rent it whenever you're planning to have company, and steer clear of buying it altogether.

This type of game and this type of game system go together like oil and water.

Crazy Taxi’s voices used to be fun...They’ve been replaced with some flat, bored-sounding clips that don’t come close to the original’s amusing, quotable lines.

Only the most desperate deathmatch champion will get their money's worth out of this purgatorial port.

Scratch below the surface, however, and the game reveals its suspect paint job with the actual degree of variation in gameplay terms proving very limited.

While the symbol-drawing controls and cunning elemental system are deep and enjoyable, the rest of the game drags it down to a level of tedium from which even the competent multiplayer can't rescue it.

If this version of Need for Speed: Carbon either looked or handled better, it might have been a worthwhile contender. But this lazy port simply doesn't have what it takes to bring the Need for Speed franchise to the Wii.

When taken in isolation, Black Thorn is a competent, if somewhat uninspiring, add-on. When taken in context, it's overpriced, old-fashioned, and has been released with exquisitely bad timing.

The game mechanics are so badly crippled that it probably doesn't even deserve to be called a strategy game.

Even the parodic nature that was attempted here falls flat after a couple plays, leaving you with a husk of a game that could have been great.

Dreary when it should be light and enjoyable, Monster Force is the videogame equivalent of last year's Time magazines in a doctor's waiting room.

Really just a chip shot compared to its competitors.

Its saving grace might have been the potential it had to provide a more jovial spirit in the "Redneck Rampage" theme, but this is never really accomplished.

Yet another addition to the long line of awful tennis games for the PC.

A game with no surprises and a superficial combat model, but giant robot fetishists and long-time series fans at least have one less reason to complain.

Ultima may have been King of the RPGs once, but it has been standing still for too long in a world that moves at a million miles an hour.

A game painstakingly styled, but so lacking in depth it's almost embarrassing.

Quite simply, Ys isn't good enough to make it worth the pain in the butt of the constant loading. It's designed to play fast and easy, but on the PSP, it's a staccato exercise in waiting before you're allowed to do a few very simple things.

The chief offence is the total lack of any tutorial modes to help flesh out the numerous nuances of the game. Within your first go, the chances of you understanding anything that is happening on-screen are akin to the chances of Mike Tyson giving up boxing to become a ballerina…as disturbing a thought as that may be.

It's one of the better wrestling games available on any platform - except for the one unfortunate flaw that it gets sort of old after only a few hours of gametime.

Extras like a free, waypoint-based track editor add charm. The same thing goes for online car-swapping features. But between a Super Nintendo-era audio-library, limp-wristed vehicular duels, and snooze-inducing stages, it's too little, too late.

The game mechanics are so badly crippled that it probably doesn't even deserve to be called a strategy game.

Control is also woefully imprecise, to the point where combos can seem time-delayed a second or more.

Rather than working with the many strengths of the GBA system, EA Canada has tried to shoehorn impossible content into SSX 3, and the strain shows from moment one.

The swordfights, which seem to promise the ability to jump around and swing your Wiimote like a living room ninja, are a profound disappointment.

If you’re going to remake a venerated video game, then for god’s sake, do it right.

The lack of competitive or cooperative multiplayer modes, decent AI, and sense of fair play will keep you away like everyone kept away from Ice-man in the movie.

The paper-thin kid's game with all the heart-pounding first-person shooter action of a "Diagnosis Murder" episode.

Worlds' unappealing characters, boring gameplay and woeful presentation make it one that probably even the hardcore should skip.

Only the Sabotage online mode, where teams attempt to interrogate rivals for parts of a six-number code, stands out as unique. One mode won't win the war, much less our gaming money for the month.

Only the Sabotage online mode, where teams attempt to interrogate rivals for parts of a six-number code, stands out as unique. One mode won't win the war, much less our gaming money for the month.

It's hard to comment on what type of game Age of Sails 2 is, simply because most of it doesn't appear to function.

You know you're in for a hair-raising experience as soon as the race starts. Unfortunately, the hair that's rising will be on the back of your neck as you realize just how horrid the controls are.

Ultimately, Divided Ground is brought down by broken campaigns, a wealth of bugs, poor play balancing, lackluster AI and lack of a decent, printed manual.

Unfortunately, we didn't quite get the sensation of frantic frustration and glory we usually do with pinball games.

A mediocre sequel.

You can be quietly gnashing your teeth for almost a minute on occasion for all the loading to be completed.

More of a tech demo than a solid game. The engine is pretty and the characters look great, but it's sorely lacking in the gameplay department.

If you are looking for a playable, original strategy game then you're best off looking elsewhere. And if you want ants, well, just buy an Ant Farm.

While the developers have done a good job of crafting a simplistic strategy game, it lacks the depth that most players require today.

Even in the face of the irritating gameplay and lack of functionality, it's the liberties the game takes with its source that hurt the most.

When these sorts of loaded odds are all you get in lieu of a competitive computer player, the whole thing feels like you're being cheated rather than challenged.

Hardened "Sims" fans already inhabit a virtual world they would loathe to leave for such a pale imitation, and management aficionados will decry the lack of depth and flexibility within the gameplay.

Superior graphics...but its poor interface, repetitious campaign modes and unchallenging AI has relegated it to just another also-ran.

Why not make a game starring Sonic and only Sonic, where he's running around on his own two legs, without any weapons besides his own body, in an action/platformer? Crazy? Yes, but it just might work.

The game fails on the fact that it's faaar too simple.

It's another throwaway shooter with bad AI, forgettable single player levels, and glib unremarkable multiplayer options. Here lies Rainbow Six. Rest in peace, while we go reinstall "Raven Shield."

They've apparently tried to recapture the magic of "StarCraft," but in this case the spell has fizzled.

Not to say it's a bad game, but each of the elements - RTS and Action/RPG - are only shadows of the best of breed in their genre.

The storyline features such ridiculous contrivances as diving to find the ingredients to make aspirin for someone's grandmother, who has back pain. Ugh.

Only the Sabotage online mode, where teams attempt to interrogate rivals for parts of a six-number code, stands out as unique. One mode won't win the war, much less our gaming money for the month.

It's a by-the-numbers zombie romp that fails to improve on its less than illustrious predecessor, "The Devil Inside"...disappointing.

It has too many defects and omissions.

The general lack of thought and polish is obvious in almost every aspect.

While Super Duper Sumos might be aimed at kids, that's no excuse for this kind of uninspired and dull gameplay. The length, frankly, was one of the better things about it, as the end came as quite a relief.

Extras like a free, waypoint-based track editor add charm. The same thing goes for online car-swapping features. But between a Super Nintendo-era audio-library, limp-wristed vehicular duels, and snooze-inducing stages, it's too little, too late.

The gene-stealing and blood-drinking theme makes for an interesting concept with great gameplay implications. But the bottom line is that as a game, Genesis Rising sucks, both literally and figuratively.

The real fun should have been doing bad things to other people while rising to power.

Looks like a tremendous mistake.

The idea is good; a sort of modern weapons-based update to the old-school brawler genre, but the implementation is poor, riddled with camera and control issues, resulting in a less than enjoyable game.

The overall effect is of the track moving around and past your horizontally-locked vehicle, much like that seen in archaic arcade games like "Pole Position."

It's all dull and straightforward, except for the moments where the designers pad things out with annoying quests that make you backtrack in order to open a blocked door. All of these "puzzles" have obvious solutions, too, so that you're really just putting in time and walking around a lot.

Why not make a game starring Sonic and only Sonic, where he's running around on his own two legs, without any weapons besides his own body, in an action/platformer? Crazy? Yes, but it just might work.

Typically, poor graphic performance is just a sideline to how a game performs, but here the lousy shadows and contrasty scenes detract from the action just as much as the dreadful AI and thin premise. As a result, Bullet Witch should be completely avoided.

Our expectations have been comprehensively destroyed by what is a truly mediocre title. Save the world from a race of parasitic aliens? We'd rather have a nice cup of tea, thanks all the same.

Gameplay in The Elly Kedward Tale feels even more linear than either of the first two volumes (is that even remotely possible?).

A game about nothing...a dungeon crawl so formulaic as to be forgettable.

In the spirit of generosity, we'll offer that there's about 30 minutes of entertainment to be had. Any fan of "Grand Theft Auto"'s goofy violence will grin as the shark tears people limb from limb. Hours of doing that and little else for hours, however, will dull the enthusiasm of even the most bloodthirsty gamer.

Bad taste and bad execution that ranks up there with the worst racing games and the most unfunny Benny Hill sketches make it a truly awful experience in every way.

Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza sucks. All that follows is exposition thereon.

Even if you're absolutely infatuated with the Cars premise, this is no way to show the love.

A passing diversion, totally bereft of the addictive zeal of the original. In this case that's a step forward, if only a very tiny one.

And while the game generally looks and sounds just fine, you'll come away thinking about the interminably dull dialogue passages and unconvincing characters.

Despite its relative good looks, Dead to Rights: Reckoning is more an exercise in frustration than an enjoyable diversion. Not even the four player WiFi deathmatch mode is enough to save this one from the bowels of the budget bargain bin.

The lackluster visuals, an unsophisticated setup, and tepid pacing render it more curiosity than keepsake, even for series die-hards.

Despite what high-school productions of Macbeth may illustrate, swordfighting is actually pretty hard work. So is making a good movie-based video game. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End for Wii fails at both of these tasks, and leaves you with a metaphorical pain in the neck and an all-too-real pain in the shoulder.

It's a shame that the whole thing seems so rushed and inexpertly executed.

Team Ninja has headed in exactly the wrong direction: more throwaway minigames, the same frustrating friends system, less focus on the volleyball. Instead, it winds up seeming just as superficial as the bosoms of its stars.

Never more than a cheap imitation of something great, thanks to a host of technical problems and an overall lack of polish.

The adventure boldly promised by the title is lacking, leaving only a half-hearted tale that's trailing dozens of frustrated players and broken controllers in its wake.

Like many games of this style, there is some vague, half-guilty pleasure in the mechanical repetitiveness of the game's combat. But ultimately, X-Men is in the time-honored tradition of licensed games -- rushed, derivative, and well worth avoiding.

Creature Labs has decided to create a Pac-Man game that not only bears no resemblance to the original but is an absolute travesty of a title that certainly wouldn't have got a release without the Pac-Man licence.

It's a schizophrenic game that tests poorly as both a brawler and a fighter. 80 percent of the game is too easy, and the balance is cheap and simply not fun.

A game which is wholly unsatisfying and verging on unplayable.

In the spirit of generosity, we'll offer that there's about 30 minutes of entertainment to be had.

A dull game. Even if you've always wanted to know what managing a casino might be like, Casino Tycoon will likely fail to keep you occupied for more than a couple of days, even counting the game's challenge mode.