It's not a game that hums with careful design or thoughtful implementation. Nevertheless, if you can cope with its many flaws it'll reward you with a lengthy and addictive experience.

The few frights it does have lessen considerably once you discern whether the spirit you're dealing with is friendly or not. Repetitive tasks and bland environments keep this one from being an enjoyably unsettling outing.

Ultimately, The Shadow of Aku's excellent controls, just-right fighting action, humor, and easy-on-the-eyes visuals do the Samurai Jack license proud.

One of the major gripes about Frantix is the control; not that it's bad, but rather that it's awkward and inappropriate for timed challenges.

Lacks the sort of innovation or fine polish to make something really fresh or engaging, and it suffers some of "Myth II"'s inherent flaws.

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

Ultimately, The Shadow of Aku's excellent controls, just-right fighting action, humor, and easy-on-the-eyes visuals do the Samurai Jack license proud.

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.

With a quality golf backbone to give purpose to the MMO portions, Shot Online's formula has the potential to be a hole in one, but this implementation turns it into more of a double bogey.

The story may be unique, but the overall game design, as represented by the combat model, is one characterized by laziness masked as tradition. It's accepted that survival horror has lame combat, boss battles and fetch quests, so Rule of Rose has all those things, too.

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.

There are innumerable superior first-person shooters and a good number of top-quality mission-based combat games - AquaNox 2: Revelation combines elements of both, but it's really not a compelling mixture.

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.

The learning curve is considerable. Beginners are sure to be put off by the sheer volume of information presented. The game's interface -- all icons and indicators -- will also be uncomfortable for casual enthusiasts.

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.

The problem is that the innovations seem incomplete, and without them, it really is just another RTS.

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

Unfortunately, no amount of tweaking will result in a set of buttons replacing an analog stick -- the end result is less than desirable.

A fine place to start for younger gamers. In that respect, the puzzles, side quests and overall presentation are just about right.

It's a decent action fighter, but definitely repetitive and has little to increase its short life span. The button-masher crowd should have a good time, but we don't think the heroes in a half-shell deserve too much pizza money out of this one.

Severely limp-wristed, Bloody Roar 4 gets smacked senseless by its immediate peers. It's a crying shame, as fans of the product line might even take offense. Little care or concern was invested in the game, and it shows.

A trip down memory lane for anyone pining for the original, but without strategic and gameplay enhancements, it's just a poor game by 2003 standards.

It's just one extended chair wrecking, box-shoving session. And that's a house of pain, to be sure.

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.

There's a fine strategy game under here somewhere, but the clumsy interface and staid presentation mean few people will have the patience to find it.

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."

What's disappointing is that Lord of the Rings is not really that great at getting you into the action.

If you're a Larry fan from way back, Magna Cum Laude takes the series into a pleasing new direction. But it needs a greater variety of challenges to be more appealing.

Where NBA Live offends most is sadly in its gameplay. A reviewer could literally fill an entire page of notes with criticisms of this nature.

Ignoring the lackluster controls and bad animation, there's a decent action/adventure experience in Headhunter: Redemption, with a lengthy quest punctuated with plenty of gunplay and occasionally interesting puzzles.

A hard game to recommend, but just as hard to universally bash.

Masterfully simple, overwhelmingly addictive.

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.

It's solid-looking, but terribly tedious and irritatingly hard at points. In co-op, it's better, but it's a still a long way from being good.

Not a particularly stellar experience.

You'll run into bugs and questionable design decisions that make it feel rushed, and the gameplay elements themselves are nothing you haven't seen before. It's better looking than you would expect, however, which is probably enough to please movie fans.

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.

Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash is a reasonably solid game of arcade tennis that’s accessible for newbies, yet challenging enough to give more experienced players something to chew on. But despite the glitzy visuals, it’s a predictable serve that lands well inside the line, rather than a decisive, smashing ace. Tennis fans — and Matthew Perry — deserve a little more.

It has too many defects and omissions.

The latest release in this hopelessly unrealistic arcade series that just fell yet another notch on the realism scale.

The hyper-aggressive cops, touchy crashes, and thick traffic all work against the player. They don't heighten the rush. These elements just stop the game dead and make it a chore.

Mindlessly amusing at first, Fistful of Boomstick is ultimately a fistful of monotony and derivative gameplay, saved from gaming's abyss by the humor and life injected from its infamous lead character.

After the bloodcurdlingly imaginative Resident Evil 4, this add-on to Outbreak barely qualifies as a legitimate expansion of the story's classic mode of play. We screamed for voice chat and better AI after the initial release, but those cries have gone unheard.

Despite the lure of naked chicks, at its heart it's a fairly innocuous, and rather derivative "The Sims" knock-off.

Graphics bump aside, little has changed since we clicked the mouse one million times in "Diablo."

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

It plays fine in very brief bursts if you’re accustomed to the arcade, but for anyone else it’ll prove to be source of much anger.

If storyline's more your thing, Drakengard's action is backed up with a plot that's significantly deeper than your run-of-the-mill action game, and the button-mashing gameplay is hearty and sincere.

A fair third-person action beat 'em up, like countless others in the genre, but if you take away all the X-Men trappings you'd be left with something much weaker.

It's an easy bump for 360 owner's GamerScore, but otherwise the full experience is not very satisfying.

Kings' city-building isn't deep enough for a well-functioning settlement to be its own reward, and the combat is confused and equally shallow.

Hey, we liked the hordes of emotionless cyborgs with nothing better to do than march towards certain destruction, but expect many to tire of the simple AI.

An impressive tool and game that will dazzle some, and bore others to death.

Just plain fun - nothing more, nothing less.

If we hadn't spent so much time recently with the superb "Syphon Filter," maybe the deficiencies wouldn't be so glaring. But once you've seen PSP stealth done right, there's no going back.

Imperfects, as a pure one-on-one fighter, is better than the clumsy home console versions. It provides some entertaining and authentic-looking super-hero combat that Marvel fans will enjoy.

It looks good, offers action-packed gameplay and is beautifully animated.

About the only thing Fatal Shadows does well is the rooftop sneaking, and that's nowhere near enough to carry the game on its own.

Depressingly average in almost every respect.

If the controls were tighter and the targeting system sharpened up, Mega Man X7 could have been a killer update. As-is, the game is a lethargic has-been.

The non-stop, thumb-numbing combat you suddenly find yourself engaged in seems weirdly at odds with the deliberate emotional build of the cinematics, throwing into stark relief the differences between the original and current game-visions, but the experience nevertheless holds together.

Cerberus doesn't come close to capturing the timeless appeal of FFVII, although if you're desperate for more insight into Vincent's background you'll probably struggle through it.

Even in its familiarity, it brings unique style and an incontrovertible Japanese creep to a game market too often overrun with generic zombies and mutants, and too often rooted in the soulless present.

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.

A trip down memory lane for anyone pining for the original, but without strategic and gameplay enhancements, it's just a poor game by 2003 standards.

Most levels feel more like a carnival duck shoot than a gritty peek into London police work. Enemies stand still no matter how close Mitch is to them and it's often child's play to dive-roll under a gun barrel to slap on the cuffs. This isn't merely unrealistic AI -- it's bad.

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 series' simplified gameplay takes a step backwards with Total Destruction, and the overall experience is decidedly mediocre. But sometimes, after a hard day of work, you just want to knock over a skyscraper.

Not that simple-minded action isn't worth some time, but Spawn just feels like it's mired in the past, with simple platforming, basic attack combos and a few collectibles to string you along. After a while, with eyes blurry from too much same-y destruction, Spawn just felt like "Bad Dudes" dragged kicking and screaming into 3D.

Is SpyHunter a fun, playable game? Definitely. Is it an improvement over the last one? Sure, but it's still too "samey" overall, and it's certainly a better success on the single-player front.

There's a very limited, repetitive number of enemy types (whose quickly depleted voiceovers get annoying), and the core combat is solid, but uninspired (circle-strafe, reload, repeat).

Is SpyHunter a fun, playable game? Definitely. Is it an improvement over the last one? Sure, but it's still too "samey" overall, and it's certainly a better success on the single-player front.

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.

There are moments of controller-throwing frustration, but also many flashes of true craftsmanship and design excellence.

The enemy AI seems to be a mixture of wunderbar and dumkopf - they frequently rumble you when you're convinced you're well concealed, yet sometimes you can swing a punch at them from one foot away and they totally ignore you.

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."

A rather uninspired tome, which is bogged down by obscure puzzles, slow story development, and even slower and unvaried gameplay.

Dawn of Mana looks the part, but fails in most other aspects. If you're hankering for some role-playing on your aging PlayStation 2, pick up "Odin Sphere" -- which released the same day. It's even more beautiful, captures the essence of old-school, and you'll be having too much fun to feel the need to convince yourself that you're having fun.

The idea of a pirate RPG with naval combat and basic economic functions is such a good one, but here it's largely obscured by the awkward interface, strange design decisions, and poor attention to detail.

It ends up below the quality of "Dark Cloud 2," and right around the level of Sega's "Blood Will Tell." Whether that's enough to get you to hop on this train is up to you.

Not that simple-minded action isn't worth some time, but Spawn just feels like it's mired in the past, with simple platforming, basic attack combos and a few collectibles to string you along. After a while, with eyes blurry from too much same-y destruction, Spawn just felt like "Bad Dudes" dragged kicking and screaming into 3D.

As a single-player quest to gather robots and unlock secrets, Gotcha Force can get a little tedious. As a game to make you scream at your friends, however, it's perfect.

Dance Factory is a clever concept, though it doesn't quite hit the bullseye. Its feature set would really do better on a machine with a built-in hard drive, so you could burn tracks to it instead of endlessly swapping out CDs. That said, it's still impressive what the game does with the PS2's memory and technology -- poor graphics notwithstanding.

There's a very limited, repetitive number of enemy types (whose quickly depleted voiceovers get annoying), and the core combat is solid, but uninspired (circle-strafe, reload, repeat).

Sorry, RF Online: Life's too short to play a mediocre MMOG.

There are moments of controller-throwing frustration, but also many flashes of true craftsmanship and design excellence. DRIV3R is a game for those who love the feel of the wheel, but only for those with the patience to slog through the rough patches.

Despite its long, long list of lazy omissions it's still a game that Trek fans will enjoy -- if only for the voices, fire-photon-torpedoes ambiance, and graphical effects. They'll just have to grit their teeth while they do it.

Without a more dynamic AI and combat model, each event seems like a pale recreation of the last. Eventually, it's tough to remember why you're still fighting.

Gameplay just hasn't changed enough. You feel like you're playing a throwback, or a golden oldie, not a new release.