If you can swallow the pad-mashing mechanics and wince your way through Silicon Knights' ham-fisted attempts at delivering back-story, there's a certain satisfaction to be had replaying to unlock new suits and powers.

The lack of Xbox Live play kills it dead. [Nov 2011, p.107]

As it stands, we've rarely been so bored when travelling at 150 miles per hour, less inspired by a police chase or less interested in the plot of a videogame. In the end, the game's only held together by staples of the series, namely a huge complement of cars and no-nonsense grippy physics. That's just enough to elevate it to the status of competent racer, but definitely not enough to earn a recommendation.

Dull genre-bender with more features than fun. [Christmas 2011, p.110]

Decent game hindered by hidden costs. [Jan 2012, p.98]

We're all for dolled up remakes of arcade classics, and those are some lovely backgrounds, but this one needs to be rescued from the limitations of its own design.

It's abysmal in singleplayer, elevating itself to merely dull and forgettable in co-op and multiplayer. Welcome to a zombie game that's as lifeless and ragged as its primary antagonists.

Speeder Bikes are unresponsive to the point of fury, and the one-on-one duels don't respond to your attacks in anywhere near as satisfying a way as the exploding droids. The assault courses are fine, but easily rehearsed, and there's nothing in this game that convinces me that anyone making it thought it was actually a good idea. There are flashes of inspiration that make it genuinely likeable - but it fails, and hard, as a forty pound game.

Less "more of the same" and more "less good." [May 2012, p.95]

The only thing this is good for is scrap. [May 2012, p.97]

The career mode is a repetitive series of unlocked events and the addition of an extremely rudimentary Trick Battle mode doesn't do much to break the tedium. At the very most, this is no more than an afternoon's entertainment.

The good, the bad, and the abysmal. [June 2012, p.93]

There's nothing super about it. [July 2012, p.107]

Sadly, it runs out of ideas by the halfway point (there's no online play), offering little more than increasingly steep medal targets that put you at the mercy of the game's rather inconsistent physics. Worse still, some levels have very rigid solutions, which sit awkwardly next to the knockabout, anything-goes approach of the early game.

Bang goes the potential. [Sept 2012, p.103]

It's time to stop pedalling this game. [Sept 2012, p.95]

A cheap and cheerful sim at a luxury price. [Oct 2012, p.97]

An average party game regurgitation. Not at this price. [Oct 2012, p.101]

More wet slap than knockout blow. [Oct 2012, p.101]

Without any visible reinvention or revolution, WRC 3 is left looking embarrassingly dated. The WRC license has been recreated with impressive accuracy, and there's a serviceable sim underneath the awkward handling, but the entire package is painfully weak compared to its competition. If this is rally, feel free to count us out

The whole time you're playing Warfighter, just behind the sofa, there's a camouflaged Call of Duty-sized elephant sitting in the room - busying itself by practicing scope kills with its trunk. To go up against that beast Warfighter needed to impress on its own terms, and really deliver something new and exhilarating. Instead we got a cloning experiment that went badly awry.

Time to reassess everything about 2001. [Christmas 2012, p.99]

It isn't entirely awful - even dodgy MOBA games can provide a lot of fun - but the myriad flaws suggests that it's badly misunderstood its audience. It's like being handed a love letter that was written by someone who had Googled 'seduction'. The effort they've put in is clearly endearing, but sorry - we're just not interested.

Looks like Potter has lost its magic. [Jan 2013, p.97]

Sonic works hard, but looked better in the '90s. [March 2013, p.85]

Far from being a knockout. [March 2013, p.87]

How many more filthy, blood-spattered mess halls, garages and control rooms must we trudge through, in search of loot drops and audio diaries? How many more vents and sinkholes must we wearily inventory on entering an area, in readiness for the moment when the soundtrack jack-knifes and the undead pop into view? Awakened doesn't have answers for these questions.

Not as special as it thinks it is. [Apr 2013, p.89]

The sole selling point of Devil's Cartel is the fact that you can blaze through it in a haze of blood and brick dust in the company of somebody else. It's never bad enough to truly offend, but it's never good enough to justify its status as a full-price game.

Decent idea, but far too fussy to be fun. [May 2013, p.85]

Overall, though, with its fundamentally flawed handling, glitchy physics and a tendency for the game to just play itself, Sonic Riders is a huge disappointment. [April 2006, p.84]

A by-the-numbers budget shooter with very little in the way of spark. Not a total stinker, but hardly worth your cash either. [June 2006, p.69]

Football without rules equals a mess. Add some crap gameplay and annoying animations and it's a complete joke. [April 2006, p.94]

It's cheap, but so is Jodie Marsh and we wouldn't shuffle her deck with yours. [April 2006, p.93]

There comes a time when you start to hope that the Circle of Doom in the title is actually the red ring of death so you won't have to play it anymore.

Fork out 40 quid for Hellboy? Hell no! [Sept 2008, p.90]

The problem that this and indeed any retro shooter has nowadays is Bizarre Creations 2D tour de force, Geometry Wars. Still one of our Xbox Live download favourites, Galaga by comparison is a poor substitute.

But Despite the artful simplicity of the game we just can't justify paying money for this. Throwback kudos and nostalgia value aside, the game involves too little skill in comparison to the likes of Joust or the aforementioned "Geometry Wars."

The gameplay is riddled with bug-induced frustration, uninspiring combat and a sluggish control system that lacks any kind of invention. [Mar 2007, p.88]

Movie tie-in unable to flourish because of a by-the-books approach. [Jan 2007, p.94]

The most frustrating thing about Xtreme 2 is thinking about all the time super-developer Team Ninja wasted making it. Every day it pissed away creating this nonsense is an extra day we have to wait for it to release its next proper game like "Ninja Gaiden 2." For that, we curse DoA Xtreme 2 to HELL.

Painfully lacking in every area, lacking any thrill factor, excitement or variety. [Jan 2007, p.90]

A miniscule improvement over the original. [Feb 2007, p.100]

This is something we expect to see available on Xbox Live Marketplace as a pricey download, not a full retail release. Disappointing. [Apr 2007, p.89]

This hasn't moved on from the last generation of Tetris at all. [July 2007, p.102]

It looks and plays like a budget title, and doesn't really offer anything new aside from curiosity value. Best left dead and buried.

Contender for the dullest game ever made. [May 2008, p.93]

A dated and repetitive shooter. [July 2007, p.105]

Thoroughly average. [Aug 2007, p.93]

Plenty of modes, but still overpriced. [Aug 2007, p.100]

One for hardcore collectors only. [Aug 2007, p.101]

Score whores will be entertained for a while. [Aug 2007, p.100]

If you really must satisfy your bloodlust, then "Conan" is the slightly better option. [Jan 2008, p.91]

While Lost tries to encapsulate the spirit of the series, it ends up smothered by it, restricted from being anything more than a shiny tourist guide to the set and characters. [Apr 2008, p.84]

We say the gameplay is 'deceptively simple', because there's effectively two buttons. [Nov 2007, p.106]

Old, tired and uninspired. [Jan 2008, p.99]

More failed conversion than touchdown. [July 2010, p.102]

It's the 'fin' end of the wedge for Tetris fans. [Christmas 2007, p.106]

Compared to the heavyweights on the scene like Puzzle Quest and Zuma, Boogie Bunnies is nothing more a crisp packet fluttering past in the breeze, temporarily catching your attention as it twists past your face with its trumpet blasts of cute noise and Haribo colour before it disappears forever, lost down the back of the Xbox Live Arcade sofa to hang out with Word Puzzle.

One for board game veterans only. [Feb 2010, p.109]

Don't be seduced by the trendy soundtrack or gnarly subtitle; there are already too many fantastic racing games fighting for space on the pre-owned racks.

For all its promise, this is another entirely superfluous superhero game. [June 2008, p.70]

Pretty annoying. [Christmas 2008, p.97]

What doesn't work this time out is Throttle Monkey mode, Atari's way of separating the casual from hardcore gamer. In other titles speeded-up gameplay can be an endurance test; here, it's just unplayable.

With the hilarity of multiplayer locked until you finish the solo missions, and a slightly too-high price, this is one to miss. Shame. [July 2008, p.94]

A game most of today's gaming fraternity can waltz through. Its an overhead shooter for first-timers, yin to Ikaruga's bullet-laden yang.

Quantum of Solace never manages to be a Bond game: at the tiniest of nudges, it panics and starts unleashing gunfire. It's clumsy, it's messy, it's not much fun and most of the time, it's not even the right film.

It's too agonising to play through - and while that might be intentional, it's not in any way enjoyable. [May 2009, p.86]

This is a way to acquire the entire set at a lower price, but only hardcore retro collectors need apply. [June 2009, p.93]

Do yourself a favour and pick up a decent shooting game, or a head injury, anything's better than this - because otherwise you'll only encourage the creators to churn out another similarly disappointing movie license in six months time.

New ideas, but the payoff is disappointing. [Nov 2009, p.94]

The game was over faster than this review. [July 2009, p.89]

An amazing new low for platforming games. [Christmas 2009, p.102]

With IL-2 asserting impressive air superiority in the last month or so, there's no reason to pick up this ropier and less satisfying interpretation of the same conflict. Technically unimpressive and snooze-inducing, it's less "chocks away" and more "chock this in the bin".

Entertaining in small doses but that's about it. [Feb 2010, p.111]

The most boring natural disaster you'll ever see. [Apr 2010, p.107]

Feels unfinished. [Dec 2009, p.94]

You'll have more fun watching the cartoon. [Apr 2010, p.106]

Definitely hazardous, but not funny or fun. [Mar 2010, p.114]

Here's a puzzle: tshi egma si orbnig. [Apr 2010, p.111]

Fun in really, really short bursts. [June 2010, p.103]

Strips football down and takes its soul.

Truly "sub"-standard. [Aug 2010, p.105]

Naughty bore more like. Yeah. [Sept 2010, p.88]

The story and comic feels light-hearted where it should be dark and disturbing, and the games lack longevity. [Issue#67, p.105]

"Quotation Forthcoming"

The introduction of the flow system early in the game seems innocuous at first, but it will quickly become the bane of your boarding existence. [Issue#67, p.88]

And it's a testimony to their patience and kind-heartedness that they didn't punch us in the face for wasting an evening of their precious, finite life.

Clunky, frustrating and irrelevant.

A disappointing interim chapter.

Stylistically bland and clearly confused, the game's initially slick descent quickly twists into a belly flop. Floundering in a mush in ill-advised ideas, Moon Diver drowns itself in a paddling pool of tedium.

We genuinely can't help but feel sorry for the art team, who've done a fantastic job of bringing the world and characters to life. These guys have clearly poured a lot of love into Lucha Fury, and it's a great shame to see amateur game design decisions kick this bucket of charm so ruthlessly down the gutter.

Ropey adventure with semi-redemptive co-op. [July 2011, p.96]

Tracks are boring. [Aug 2011, p.96]

The wobbly plot and hateful characterisation could be forgiven were The Cartel's shooting superlative. It's not. Guns feel flimsy, and enemies stick fastidiously to cover, hopping up and down and waiting to die.

Such a painfully dry business - especially with the new lack of multiplayer - that you'd be better off just getting on a bike. [Sept 2011, p.102]

Rubbish. [Oct 2011, p.103]

Developer Kylotonn has crafted the least appealing fantasy brawler imaginable, its stillborn mechanics drenched in over-compensatory cutscene-driven storytelling, its charms limited to the lure of unlockable combos and abilities.

Functional, uninspiring tie-in. [Christmas 2011, p.109]

Teeth-grindingly frustrating platforming. [Christmas 2011, p.111]

This should have been better. Rebellion has done likeable banter in Rogue Trooper, Shinta Nojiri has made better stories, and they've all cracked jokes that don't fall this flat. But NeverDead honestly feels like a game whose creators gave up on it half-way through. It's a tragedy that it fails on so many levels.

More a case of sink than swim. [Feb 2012, p.91]

The Winter of our discontent. [Feb 2012, p.101]

Not really worth investigating. [March 2012, p.91]

The additions are enticing, but they're also insulting. If you're the kind of person who's easily enraged, steer well clear of this cheeky cash-grab.

The problem is that such a brilliant editor just makes you wish it resided in a better racing game.

Linear. [May 2012, p.97]

Your moves are clumsy, and unresponsive. Arenas wear you out, rather than challenge you. Boss battles are overwrought and underwhelming. The God at the climax of the Land of the Dead is defeated by a drawn-out process of ranged health-whittling and dodge-rolling.

Nothing we haven't seen before. [June 2012, p.101]

Stagnant and lacking in substance, Battleship is a bit of a floater. [June 2012, p.105]

Babel Rising has a seed of a good idea, but someone got the wrong element, and instead of watering that seed, they blew it.

It's a waste of some fairly pleasant graphics. [July 2012, p.105]

A tragically neutered experience. [Sept 2012, p.103]

Like the goblins - it swings and misses. [Oct 2012, p.101]

At times, the experience of play manages to feel even more dated than the camp innuendo of the movies...It becomes a begrudging joke, particularly in the stealth sections.

Enough to make Blackbeard retire. [Dec 2012, p.97]

A game so scary, even it doesn't know what it is. [Dec 2012, p.101]

About as basic as a wrestling game can get. [Dec 2012, p.101]

Dull-witted and directionless. [Dec 2012, p.103]

Feels empty and faintly depressing. [Christmas 2012, p.93]

All things considered, Sam's been seriously shafted. [Christmas 2012, p.99]

The paper-thin strategy, piss-weak story, and miserable appearance are compounded by an insulting lack of polish.

A monotonous one-note brawler. [Apr 2013, p.87]

It's so much easier to forgive glitches, outdated visuals and flick-book framerate when you've got a friend laughing at them too, but this doesn't mean we should forgive them. Should Riptide wash up on your shore, you'd best throw in back in.

Let's hope this failed attempt doesn't deter other people from trying. [May 2013, p.85]

Way of the Dogg is a squandered opportunity to fill a genre gap in the Arcade. It's a quick hour's job to mop up 300G, though. So there's always that.

The done-to-death concept and boring missions don't do the game any favours. [July 2006, p.67]

An amazingly limited game - so basic that you can't quite believe it's not free on Xbox Live Arcade. [Nov 2006, p.102]

Aged, dated, decrepit and repetitive! [Nov 2006, p.107]

Dull and predictable gameplay. Avoid. [Oct 2006, p.90]

It looks like it's been lazily ported from the PlayStation 2 because, frankly, it has. [July 2007, p.103]

A tired bit of space trash. [Jan 2008, p.98]

Transforms children's dreams into tears. [Sept 2007, p.107]

A wasted opportunity. [Sept 2007, p.109]

Its shear randomness and awfulness is a remarkable sight. Take it from us that its not a spectacle you need to witness first hand, nor have staining your Gamertag forever more.

For fans only. Fans of masochism, that is. [Oct 2007, p.95]

Shrek the turd, more like. [Sept 2007, p.106]

Advanced video chat...and same old games. [Oct 2007, p.96]

The overriding problem is that the central character doesn't fit the environment.

One to avoid like Crypto's anal probe. [Mar 2009, p.93]

CSI: Hard Evidence isn't a game that can be summed up by a single numbers. Instead, it's best summed up by two words and two numbers - five hours, 1,000 gamerpoints. If you buy this, the only thing that needs investigating is your head.

The gaming equivalent of a massage, so unchallenging that your mind can rest up, recharge, and be in good mental health. [June 2008, p.73]

It's not 'Big' and it's certainly not clever. [June 2008, p.76]

Zany, but this price is just ridiculous. [June 2008, p.79]

Confusing, annoying and frustrating. [Nov 2008, p.97]

Definitely not worth the ridiculous 800 MP asking price. [Aug 2008, p.94]

You'd be a Raven lunatic to buy it. [Oct 2009, p.90]

We'd rather be hit by lightning than play Bolt. [May 2009, p.95]

It's tempting to praise Oxygen for tackling the tricky job of turning this pub sport into an enjoyable videogame but instead, all Oxygen proves is why darts is better off as a novelty mini-game rather than the main attraction.

Nowhere near clever enough to bother with. [Dec 2008, p.100]

More revolting than it is a revolution. [May 2009, p.87]

Quirky but not worth the asking price. [Apr 2009, p.90]

Dull, frustrating and deeply dated cash-in. [Jan 2010, p.113]

This game originally came out on PC back in 2007, and it really has no place on Xbox 360 in 2009.

Our brains just shut down after a while. [Nov 2009, p.99]

Makes us feel deathly cold inside. [Apr 2010, p.109]

This one's probably best left undetected. [Feb 2010, p.108]

One of the worst examples of this genre. [Mar 2010, p.115]

The worst DW game of this generation. [Mar 2010, p.109]

If you're a fan of Prison Break, why not consider assaulting some strangers and being sent to a real prison? You'll end up feeling marginally less violated than if you played this dog turd tie-in.

That ambition is hamstrung by a development budget that would struggle to cover a six-pack of crisps and an engine that is best at simulating the mid-point of cataract formulation. [Apr 2010, p.109]

Awful - a crushing disappointment. [Oct 2010, p.102]

A total snooze cruise of a car combat game.

Nobody in their right mind should buy this.

Playing Zathura is like being force-fed Saddam Hussein's skid-marked underpants. And we find that kind of thing really upsetting.

Like being trapped in a barrel of monkeys. [June 2011, p.103]

A well deserved hammering. [July 2011, p.103]

Five hours of playing this game will kill the entire genre for you, too. [Aug 2011, p.99]

The lobotomised, slash-block combat is the final straw. Rise of Nightmares offers nothing in the way of action, puzzles, intelligence, or maturity. It's a heartbreakingly lame way to kickstart the adult Kinect genre.

It's Trials HD, but it's also rubbish. [Dec 2011, p.105]

"it's for fans" isn't a good enough excuse. [Christmas 2011, p.105]

A laugh-free and miserable undead slog. [Christmas 2011, p.111]

A sweet idea, hobbled by the hardware. [Jan 2012, p.99]

Passable idea with no charisma or presentation. [Feb 2012, p.99]

Some of the ideas at the core of it are brilliant, but the same thing could be said of the atomic bomb. Blades of Time is slightly more pleasant than a nuclear explosion, but that doesn't make it worthy of your money or your time.

Don't mourn this roadkill. [Oct 2012, p.99]

Angry Birds Trilogy just feels like simple cash-raking from a franchise that's displayed little-to-no creativity since the first bird was fired.

As a box set it's just over-packaged and over-priced nostalgia. [Dec 2012, p.97]

Frustrating and counter intuitive. [Dec 2012, p.101]

Fun for none of the family, sadly. [Christmas 2012, p.93]

Sails beneath already low expectations. [Jan 2013, p.91]

Once you've stabbed one, run past one, and been killed by one, you've played enough. And that two minute process is not worth any amount of money.

The unkindest cut of all is that you only rarely get to actually command the Enterprise, and when you do, the implementation would disgrace the average Call of Duty turret sequence.

Deals a very poor hand. [Aug 2007, p.84]

Pointless - for the two minutes you'll bother. [Nov 2006, p.107]

Everything about this game smacks of a half-arsed Xbox Live Arcade title that's blundered into the full retail schedule by accident. [Apr 2007, p.93]

Like a train wreck - can't help but look. [Aug 2007, p.103]

Without even a two-player mode, this won't last you ten minutes. [Aug 2007, p.103]

Makes you want to jump off a cliff.

A black mark for the History Channel. [June 2008, p.72]

Neither monstrous nor jammy, just tedious. [July 2008, p.84]

X-tremely poor in every respect. [May 2009, p.95]

This really is absolutely shocking.

Dismal in just about every possible way. [Feb 2010, p.110]

It's not very good. Who'd have thunk it? [Aug 2009, p.93]

A boring, brain-dead waste of time. [Oct 2009, p.82]

Nothing but a cynical movie cash-grab. [July 2010, p.99]

Sure to drag your party in a depressingly non-sexy direction. You'd have an edgier evening playing Monopoly.

A mercifully brief battle. [June 2011, p.103]

The worst game on Xbox 360 to date. [June 2009, p.93]

Amy is a travesty from start to finish, a game that plainly admires but fatally misunderstands its peers. Save yourself an infinity of soul-crushing distress, and forget you ever heard about it.

Why punish yourself? [Sept 2012, p.105]

A disaster even by movie-game standards. [Nov 2012, p.107]