Simplistic combat, trial and error stealth levels and a climax that seems to hit a bit too late all add up to an experience that falls a bit flat. Experience Rome as a solid rental, but all but the most patient will likely feel cheated for a full-price entry.

Random encounters and a turn-based battle system don't make up for what a true, quality RPG offers and CM just can't deliver; a compelling and complex story, deep characters and a real sense that you're making a change in the world you're plopped into.

The problem is, with all the advancements that have gone into 3D fighting games like insanely deep combo trees or ultra-balanced, technique-driven combatants, not to mention multi-tiered environments triggered on the fly or interactive elements, there's nothing here that's terribly compelling, and certainly nothing that would give you reason to play this game over the 2D versions.

Good enough to be a solid rental, but anything else and you'll wonder exactly how many times you can run from room to room smacking broken record-voiced enemies over and over again to make things worth your $50. Trust me, even with the number of times you'll revisit levels and bust out the same combo chain, it's not enough.

The length may be meager by other raging game standards, but what's here packs enough of a wallop to entertain even adults for a while.

Great storyline told through an engagingly interwoven approach with some solid acting can't offset clunky controls and overly-linear gameplay that haven't improved since the first game.

There's literally no real reason to invest anything more than a 15 minute playthrough in the game.

Fantastic movie meets mediocre game and equals... a mediocre game with solid visuals and little else.

This is a story worth telling, but you'll be beaten and abused while you try to listen to it.

DC Studios deserves a pat on the back for at least bringing the game up to the level that the original should have been. That doesn't mean they made a great game, but it's certainly good enough to be entertaining for the window of, say, a rental.

Great idea, poor execution. It's a common story, but this was supposed to be an uncommon game. Hopefully things will turn around should a sequel pan out, but the first Death's DOA.

It's a beat-em-up. You beat people up. If nothing else, it offers the bare minimum of gameplay to meet the name, but all the other claims of deeper gameplay are half-assed.

At best, Samurai Western is a rental good for the first one hundred enemy slaughters, but more or less loses its vigor beyond that. It can be beaten in a day, and even the wealth of unlockables and broken co-op mode aren't enough to warrant a purchase.

Too many changes seek to make the game frustrating rather than something new. The ideas are sound, but the execution just isn't there.

There's an attempt to keep things endearing here, but making the game as tough and frustrating as it is and then aiming it at the young ones isn't a wise move.

A nice value for the price. Getting two games for the price of one stretches the experience out into something that feels console-length, but was made portable.

If there are huge differences between the console and PSP versions of Frogger, I didn't catch them. The gameplay and challenge are still a problem, and as such, I'll happily give them the same score.

Trapt is a novel effort, but it just doesn't try hard enough, and that much is blatantly obvious in the enemy AI, the environments and the translation.

By far the game's biggest fault is the graphics, though. For what it was trying to do, there just wasn't enough detail and subtlety.

It's neither as deep nor as satisfying as any of the games it bites the style from, but it doesn't do them such a disservice that the game is rendered painful either. It's just sort of... there, existing without doing much to give pause or reason to like it.

For as decent as the battle system and item crafting parts of the game are, they simply can't hold up the entirely mediocre or cliche other bits. The game is solid, yes, but I was hoping the first console-level RPG would be a little more, well, engaging.

It's possible that this will end up being the high end of the scores for the game [Ed: not even, Sam!] -- and Lord knows it could have gone lower, but in the midst of realizing I'd wasted as much time as I did playing, I remembered too that, for a time, I had fun doing it.

Boss battles can be incredibly frustrating at times, which contrasts sharply with the rest of the combat, and the overall tone of the game just doesn't quite match the same sort of cheery reverence that the original show offers. Again, it's not a bad game, it's just barely more than average, unfortunately.

I said it in the review and I'll say it again here: this is a Star Trek game in name only, and it's a crying shame. If only a little more attention to the history of the universe had been applied it wouldn't feel like such a wasted license.

Jericho had a lot of potential, and in some ways, like jumping back and forth between squad members it actually does something different. Sadly, all of the game's set-up and backstory are essentially squandered on an over-reliance on the same constantly spawning enemies and too-obvious puzzles.

If not for the fact that the actual driving in Driver '76 is fairly decent, this would be a complete loss. Technical issues, excessive loading and a worthless storyline, however, mean the driving is the only thing that's decent.

Solid visuals and audio, old-school charm and an absolutely huge adventure to slog through are not enough to offset the fact that this a brutally difficult game at the outset and it does nothing to help you along while you learn the ropes.

It's hard to hate a game as genuinely quirky and happy as PaRappa and indeed I don't hate it. I do hate the sticker price and the lack of anything truly new, however, and until this is on the PlayStation Store as a download, avoid it.

Paying a full $40 for something that should realistically been $20 at most is pointless, and why the hell Sony priced the game so high is beyond me.

PixelJunk Racers isn't a bad game, it's just prohibitively difficult, so much so that it's actually a turn-off.

Clank should have been the star. Instead, he's one part of a larger, more disjointed and ultimately very, very disappointing game that just happens to have his name on the box.

Just be forewarned that your hard earned money may be better spent elsewhere.

I would love to say Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2 is an improvement over the original, but it's honestly not -- at least not on the level of a numerically graduated title.

I would love to say Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2 is an improvement over the original, but it's honestly not -- at least not on the level of a numerically graduated title.

Clearly directed at one specific audience, SingStar ABBA, if nothing else, will satisfy hardcore fans of the series. Everyone else? Eh, not so much.

Plenty of old-school classics have held up far better, and while there's still fun to be had, the rest of the game's painful pacing and conversations hurt more than the good parts help.

This is a textbook case of lackluster presentation and a clear sign of a lack of effort dragging down what would otherwise be a very solid game.

Forget the rest of the game, Tackle Alley is where it's at. Rent the game for that and you may find an accessible, different take on football as a bonus, but by no means should you purchase this as a football game first.

The presentation is sloppy and pulls you out of the action inexplicably at times, but there is fun to be had here.

Quantum Theory is the type of game we're going to find in the bargain bin at Gamestop in a few years. And don't fall for it then either.

It's tough to recommend Blood Stone 007 to anyone but the most loyal of Bond fans, and even they should consider passing on this at best very average 007 title.

With The Force Unleashed II, LucasArts has made notable improvements regarding visuals and combat. However, the story is so short and lackluster, you'll quickly wonder why you're playing.

Sadly, even the veteran Naruto fans will find this title to be a dud. You can't very well enjoy a beat 'em up brawler who has a terrible AI and boring battles. What you've got here is a title that had potential but failed.

What we have here is a strange case. You have a fun, unique racing game surrounded by bad ideas. I still can't get over the fact that there is DLC in the box but literally two tracks until you hit level ten. And no, I don't want to pay for more.

The game was rushed, plain and simple. No one expected High Moon Studios to pull off a miracle in a year but I did expect a bit more polish. If you want a great Transformers game, check out War for Cybertron, it's also a fraction of the price.

To be punny about it, the game is mindless fun, but how inconsistent the world's rules are will disappoint and frustrate most people. A lack of online multiplayer severly limits this the replay value. It has potential but it doesn't solidify any ideas.

Payday: The Heist can still be a good time with the right people, but you'd be better off playing a better game with them.

The House of the Dead III's individual components might all be pretty unimpressive, but it's still a fun game for an hour or so and it's perfectly priced for the type of experience it offers.

A budget game through and through, it still manages to tell an interesting story but the whole experience is brought down by technical limitations and uninspired puzzle solving. The game would have felt out of date a decade ago.

Perhaps appropriately, the ending was neither flashy nor particularly rewarding, but the sense of accomplishment I got once I’d trudged through a good 15-20 or so hours of tiresome combat, eye-wateringly low framerates, and a nonexistent storyline was enough.

Expanding the environments, fixing the controls and camera, and allowing an easier matchmaking setup in the next game could mean a seriously fun online experience, but right now, what we have can hardly be called even an experience.

There's so much failed potential here that it makes me sick. Sure, Ecko and The Collective may have a stiffy for 1984, but there's really nothing wrong with that. It's the forced stealth and the hideous combat that killed the game, not the atmosphere.

Fancy graphics can't distract from the fact that this is a rather boring, repetive game after a few hours. A shoddy framerate and unbalanced sound don't help matters either.

You can tell the development team dug the source material, and in some ways they did it justice, but overall, the levels are too uneven, the difficulty spikes to pronounced and the action a bit too repetitive to stay fun for long.

Piss poor visuals and gameplay that doesn't hold up post the double digit hour mark mean this is a game that's not only crippled on the PS2, but rather stunted to begin with.

A game aimed squarely at the hardcore SRPG fans out there, misses out on capturing the mass appeal by a LONG shot. It might be the PSPs first RPG, but it seems to echo the first efforts on the PS one and PS2 in that it's only mildly amusing.

This is not a game worthy of the Splinter Cell title. It feels rushed, forced and, worst of all, like a quick cash-in on a franchise that's move into the next-generation of consoles.

Tomb Raider Legend is an amazing game, and EVERYONE should own it. They just shouldn't own it on the PSP. Though Buzz Monkey tried valiantly to replicate the console outing, either the programming staff or the hardware just wasn't up to the task.

Little more than an illusion; it looks pretty, but you can't peek at what's beyond the view you're given, and that view will happily allow someone to stick a katana in your eyeball.

The board game concept is novel, and perhaps with a few less randomization events, it could have been more engaging, but with AI that's absolutely relentless on the upper settings, mini-games that fail to deliver the basic premise on the first play-through, and a general sense that things were rather slapped together, Pirates' Carnival lacks the kind of fun you'd expect when you put those two words together.

Even more bland and unappealing than its console cousin. If you're a psycho fan of the series, the PS2 version will probably sate you for a while, but I can't think of anyone that would actively enjoy the pared down experience of the PSP port.

There's a lot of content to be had for the sticker price, but you'll have to fight some horrid controls to enjoy it, which pretty much ensures that you won't enjoy it, doesn't it?

Throwaway combat, a horrid indoor camera, frustrating missions and a general lack of respect for the characters and comic source material mean you have a game that looks fairly good, but doesn't really do justice to the property it's all based on.

Though it fares better than the last PS3 SingStar release (but only barely), the PS3 version of the game simply shouldn't exist outside of the SingStore

It fares no better than the last PS3 SingStar release (save for perhaps offering a little more widespread appeal), and the PS3 version of the game simply shouldn't exist outside of the SingStore.

Unless you have never played a twin stick shooter before, or never played a zombie game, I can't imagine you would have any reason to play through Zombie Apocalypse, unless you have 3 friends online and you are really, really bored.

This is a poor PC port that is in no noticeable way optimized for the PSP.

I appreciate them trying to extend the longevity by allowing easy access to user made content, but they forgot to put the party in this party game, and what's left without that is nothing more than a bland trivia game.

The lack of story, bland feel of the characters and overall lame fighting system condemn Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2. And it does nothing for the franchise unless you're already a raging fanboy.

This may even be a bit generous given all of the problems. Eutechnyx is trying to fix things and I commend them for that; unfortunately it just feels like a beta test and that's just unacceptable. We'll just have to see how they build on this next year.

Hopefully this is Duke's swan song. No matter what happens next it will never top Forever in terms of hype and discussion. It doesn't deserve the venom it got from reviewers and message boards, but it probably doesn't deserve your cash, either.

I wanted to like The Run and early on, I genuinely did, but things quickly started to fall apart, culminating in some courses that were nothing but pure frustration. A few bright spots and interesting online aren't enough to escape mediocrity.

Asphalt Injection isn't quite a terrible game, but it isn't a good one. If Gameloft had upgraded more than just the visuals when they brought the franchise over from the mobile platforms, this could have been a fun racer. As it stands, it isn't.

A neat toy for your Move, it's hard to justify even a budget retail price for a game that belongs on the lower rung of the PSN price scale. The frantic minigames evoke a few hours of fun, but things don't change enough to keep it fresh.

Capcom continues to thumb its nose at long time series fans. Not only have they abandoned any pretense of tension and fear, they've dredged up tired old storylines and shifted the game solidly into Gears of War territory. Let the series die!

A shoddy sequel that does nothing to honor the original, Midway’s second Spy Hunter remake should’ve been handled by Paradigm, or at least another developer that was willing to do the series justice.

The core gameplay is just too tiresome and frustrating to be entertaining for any extended length of time, but the story and cinematic presentation is a nice bright spot.

An utterly average RPG gets an average score. Fantastic visuals and killer sound effects can't hide the fact that this is a marathon most gamers won't be able to finish.

An above-average RPG experience loses all the things that made it entertaining and in the process makes it purely average in nearly every way. This is a horrible way to reuse the assets from a game that was legitimately entertaining.

A novel idea that failed in executing the stuff surrounding the running and jumping and shooting, Coded Arms could have been a great, immersive cyberpunk tale, but instead it ends up skimming the surface of what could be a very cool world.

Utterly mediorce in every way, this is a game that does absolutely nothing to debunk the claim that licensed games are rushed, shallow pieces of crap.

It's a blah fighter with only a passing reference to most of the InuYasha source material. There's no reason to experience this game if you're a fan of the show, and far better fighters out there if you're a fan of the genre.

It's a squad-based shooter/puzzler without the squad. As such, it's only half a game, and that half isn't very good.

Entirely average in all but the cutscenes (and even those are a little too plentiful for my tastes), Teen Titans just doesn't feel like the kind of game I know A2M can make, and it ends up feeling like salt in the wounds of fans of the cancelled show.

Unless you're dying to drive around in a reasonably well-crafted digital version of New York at 20 frames a second, there's just no reason to force yourself through this storyline. Too many things are broken from the outset, and the rest aren't any fun.

There’s some neat stuff here, and it’s easy to see how the application of the EyeToy itself could very easily lead to a kind of "Minority Report" interface for games with the next-gen EyeToy on the PS3, but the concepts arrived a bit too early here.

So it all boils down to how long you can stand to button mash and devote points to basic character growth, and little else. The storyline never really picks up, your chosen character never becomes interesting, and the gameplay never evolves past the original premise.

Brain-dead enemy AI, a story that does nothing to recall some of the better arcs from the comics -- especially around this, perhaps the most powerful storyline the comics ever saw, and an experience that isn't befitting of the development team all add up to something that's wholly underwhelming and reeks of missed potential.

I would have loved to see this as the sort of ReVolt-style update that nostalgic gamers could go nuts over. The concept of taking little racers and placing them in the real world is so rife with good material, but MMv4 never pulls it off convincingly.

With only the puzzles of Challenge Mode and the Party Mode games to save it, SMBA would have been better off as just another puzzle game -- except it's not nearly as good as the puzzle games.

Slightly better controls, slightly worse framerate and equally blah adventure and mildly distracting party games leave this just as middle-of-the-road as the PS2 version. But hey, at least it's the same thing only portable, right?

Unfortunately, more often it's a frustrating experience that often muddies what would have been an atmospheric, wildly imaginative peek into the darker side of misguided children.

Purely average, sadly, despite some slightly promising ideas. Accordingly, it gets an average score.

This is not the Dynasty Warriors that you've played on consoles. It's better than the first PSP game, no doubt, but it still has a long way to go before it feels at home on Sony's little wonderportable.

Admirable though the attempt to port the console experience to a handheld may be, there's just not enough compelling action here to warrant anything more than the most average of scores.

This is a definite pass, even for those casual game junkies out there.

Heatseeker isn't a horrible game, it's just very, very average, and when there are games out there that do everything this one does better, there's really little reason to check it out. If you're absolutely plane crazy it's a rental, but that's it.

Letting enemies beat on you while your block window is closed until you’re a bloody pulp or laying endless unblockable attacks onto a character that lacks neither the agility nor the grace to combat enemies that seem built only to make players cuss like drunken sailors.

While it might seem like this is a better game than the first, it's really just as broken. It's better programmed to be sure, but the insanely deep gameplay is still just as muddled behind clunky menus and brain-dead battles.

Atelier Iris 3's biggest problem is just that it doesn't have any glaring mistakes. Instead, the game is so painfully mediocre that it's a struggle to keep going, not because you're hating the game, but because you're just plain bored.

Unless you're a hardcore Tales fan, there's no reason to pick this game up; there will be plenty of great RPGs hitting in the next few months, so save that cash and trade it in soon for something a little more worthwhile.

A solid foundation and pretty walls aren't of much use if there's nothing inside to actually make the place habitable. That's precisely what Hot Shots Tennis is; pretty from the outside, solid, but without anything on the inside. Shame, really.

MotoGP 07 just plain looks limp next to the better games.

Dragoneer's Aria is simply average in almost every way, there's no getting around it. Parts of the storyline can be entertaining, but only as much as the localization gave the characters a little pop. Otherwise, it's a purely paint-by-numbers game.

Requiem isn't a particularly bad game, oh no; it's something quite worse: a patently mediocre game.

Ultimately, it would be best for Sony to probably ditch the PS2 version and concentrate on making the actual basketball game solid for the PSP and PS3 versions next year.

Unfortunately, the feeling that it was also a portable Ratchet game is inescapable, serving as a constant distraction and turning what was previously a "wow, this is an honest-to-goodness Ratchet game that I can take anywhere!" experience into a "ew, people actually thought this was on par with the Insomniac Ratchets?" one.

There's honestly no reason to pick up this release short of getting the songs in HD.

I hate to say it, but this is not a good game. Not in a "for a Jak game" sense, but in the most all-encompassing way I can mean it. To see this franchise fall so far after redeeming itself with Jak 3 hurts.

It's hard to decide what's more offensive, the massive changes made to the core gameplay that kept this series different or the complete lack of options outside of the useless online play. Either way, fans of and newcomers to the series both lose.

Cross Edge, amazingly, pulled content from several outstanding games and managed to end up with a mediocre experience in return.

A golden opportunity to really expand on the back story of Mars pre-Guerrilla feels tragically wasted here.

As a reminder of what came before Armored Core 3 Portable is effective. As an actual game though, it's far less so. We've simply moved on, leaving this a relic of the past that lacks the hooks it once had. Time for AC4 Portable.

If you absolutely, positively must have your F1 and can't get it anywhere else, F1 2009 is worth a peek. For everyone else, though, there's simply not enough here to really make a lasting impression.

Without the online part of things, this would be an utterly irredeemable experience, one that gets old well before you'd even realize nothing has actually happened. There are some interesting building blocks here, but they're better left for the sequel.

Unless you are in the icy grasp of nostalgia, you will be doing yourself a service if you just ignore the fact this ever got released and wait for Power Stone 2 to get ported over to start your Dreamcast collection. It just is not fun.

It's an average maiden voyage for the series on the PlayStation Move. When taken together as a whole package, however, the bad outweighs the good. It can be salvaged with a friend, but you have to cherry pick what to play to enjoy this title.

A fairly decent jigsaw puzzle simulator wrapped up in a dull, difficult quiz game. Terrific if you are a Life Sciences obsessed teen or retired zoologist, but a waste of time for the rest of us.

Not really worth even the $15 price tag. You are better off putting that money towards a higher budget FPS title.

I really hate to do this. I love NIS. I'll say that until the end. But Hyperdimension Neptuina was just plain bad. There's no real positive to this game unless you like big breasted anime chicks in completely boring situations.

Mediocrity is a death knell for a game that is very shallow to start with. Lord of Arcana copies a lot from the Monster Hunter series, but failed to understand that the depth of combat was always the focus and thus fails at being fun.

Rush N' Attack: Ex-Patriot is proof that some game franchises are best left forgotten in a dusty warehouse somewhere. If developers insist on reviving these games, they need to at least do something innovative. Keep trying, Konami.

Codemasters would be best served choosing to make their games either realistic or fun, and stop trying to find a balance between the two. Right now we are left with a game that alternates between frustrating and boring, but one that is never enjoyable.

At this point an "enhanced" edition (or editions) of a Ninja Gaiden release are obligatory, but none of the enhancements make this game any more viable as an actual game to enjoy playing. Let's hope the series can bounce back one day.

A game that could've been so much more has turned into a pile of... well, crap.

Quite simply a bad game. Period. There’s just not enough variety in the combat to make the action entertaining, and poorly designed jumping puzzles, sloppy combat and unresponsive controls all add up to a game that won’t even keep Spawn fans entertained for more than a few seconds.

Simply put this is a bad game. Scratch that, it's horrible. To think that some of the talent working on the Castlevania series (including producer Koji Igarashi) actually had a hand in this isn't just scary, it's successfully put into question how well the next Castlevania may turn out.

Level designs that literally force you to try and retry an incredibly difficult section while fighting the controls and camera instantly suck any fun out of what could have been a nice attempt to mix "Prince of Persia" exploration and free-form 360 degree fighting (a la SCEA's "Rise to Honor").

If only to reinforce that this is not the way to treat a 2D game, don't buy this game. If that means Sony kills off 2D entirely here in the States, it will be a horrible thing, but if this is the kind of game that's going to get through... we'd be better off just remembering the good ol' days with the rose colored glasses of nostalgia.

Torino's biggest problem is just that it doesn't try very hard. When it does, like during the speed-skating or downhill skiing sections, you get some nice graphics and a solid framerate. It's just that whole gameplay thing is lacking.

I debated not even mentioning that the game has a nicely implemented two-player mode (if you're flying solo, you can switch between characters with a shoulder button press) because I didn't want a parent thinking, "oh, hey, I can play this game with my kid." No, no you can't, and nobody should be forced to even try.

God help the kid that gets this as a present when they should have gotten one of the LEGO Star Wars games instead. Seriously, just avoid this game and pick up one of TT's better efforts.

There's just no excuse for this. When the previous SpongeBob games have bucked the trend of crappy licensed games as well as they have, to see things fall this far is just that much more depressing.

Ranging from moments that made me want to chuck the system out the window because of crushing boredom or infuriating rage, no part of this game demonstrates something that hasn't already been trounced by a better offering somewhere else.

It made an impression all right, but it left such a sour taste in my mouth that I never want to slip the disc into my PS3 again.

It's hard to know what to be more pissed about -- that this lackluster port was brought over in the first place or that it will still probably sell due to the sheer number of PS2s out there. Don't be one of those people that gets suckered, though, please?

A cheap cash-in that not even fans could love, Napoleon Dynamite just doesn't offer anything worthwhile.

Daytona USA was the pinnacle of arcade racers in the early 90's. Translated into today it sadly doesn't hold much of its appeal, especially without a sweet cockpit and steering wheel setup. Leave this one parked on pit road.

I don't want to beat a dead horse here; just avoid Arctic Thunder, and maybe Midway's next port won't fare so badly.

Poor controls, poor camera, poor combat... Poor us for having to suffer through this dreck.

There are some rare moments where things are fun, but uninspired boss fights, repetitive corridor crawls and obvious puzzles (water = time to take a trip to Deviland) rob this game of any of the fun the source material could have provided.

You may be a glutton for punishment, and for that you may have a need for a quick rental, but even with the Tekken characters as unlockables, this is not a fighter worthy of the Namco name.

A poor showcase for the hardware and a sloppy attempt to cash in on the pick-up-and-play fun of mini-game collections like Wario Ware, AAA is anything but a top-tier game. Stay away from this one.

Do not buy this game. Period. Your money is better spent on The Two Thrones, trust us.

The PS2 version of Project 8 is a joke. Online was removed -- let me say that again: online is missing.

Ranging from moments that made me want to chuck the system out the window because of crushing boredom or infuriating rage, no part of this game demonstrates something that hasn't already been trounced by a better offering somewhere else. Stay away.

Fracture is disappointing, because it is immediately apparent that a lot of good ideas went into it. Unfortunately, the experience of playing it is generally not fun.

I don't even want to think about the visuals or audio long enough to talk about them. Both are offensively bad, from the Xbox-quality graphics and level detail to the frequent and pointless use of stereotypical comments and ham-fisted injections of "edgy" cussing. Even if the entire game was meant to be taken as satire, it still comes off as shoddily executed. Don't play it. Don't rent it. For the love of all that is good and holy in the world don't buy it.

Handing off the game from Rainbow to Incinerator Studios was a bad idea. A baaaaaad idea. If you must play the games, stick to the PSP or PS3 versions. No, really.

Mahjong Tales: Ancient Wisdom is not good.

The very definitely of wasted potential, Unbound Saga is quite simply a beat-'em-up where it's not fun to beat them up.

A genuinely good satire would be a joy to play and a sign that the medium is maturing further. At the moment, however, all we have is crude parody.

Mad Moxxi's Underdome is far from a riot: it's a dreadful slog

I like old-school RPGs on the PSP, I really do, but even games released over a decade ago have more going on in terms of gameplay and inherent charm than Mimana Iyar Chronicle.

Dead Space: Ignition competently expands the series' fiction but fails to deliver in any other department.

Unfinished, unpolished, and broken. If not for the online co-op this would be a complete dud. They put in a lot of features that are great in theory but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. Have I mentioned that I can't stand the main characters?

It's a mixture of bad decisions and rush jobs. The only way it could be worse is if the disc punched you in the face every time you opened the case. At least it's not completely broken, I guess.

As the title says, the best part of the game is its ending. It's not just because the game is over but the credits offer the gameplay I hoped the actual game would have. As it is, though, it's an uninspired, bland brawler with little going for it.

Spider-Man: Edge of Time is a sloppy game that feels rushed - and with the short amount of time between it and its predecessor, Shattered Dimensions, that's not very surprising. Let's hope Spidey's next outing is better.

At least it's pretty to look at. I went in with low expectations and this game somehow tripped and fell over the bar before crashing and burning in an explosion of terrible. I don't know who thought this was fun but the DBZ cast deserves a lot better.

Though embracing the Dynasty Warriors style of gameplay could have yielded something with a lot of depth, Ultimate Ninja Impact instead seeks out the path of least complexity and falls well short of telling a compelling Naruto tale.

A few high points in the story don't make up for overly simplified and very repetitive gameplay. Any veteran of flight games will be bored senseless, and the plain look of the game will turn off casual players.

ModNation Racers: Road Trip has a ton of content, but quantity doesn't beget quality. Obviously rushed out the door for launch, it captures little of what made the console release so charming. Steer clear, there are far better racers on the market.

One can feel the touch of the void on every aspect, the faint droning echo of sick, tuneless piping for an inscrutable and alien corporate master. The end product serves no one.

Many niche JRPG fans will find this to be exactly what they're looking for but to the casual gamers out there, steer clear.

I don’t imagine myself as a gaming whiz by any stretch, but I’m good enough to stay in the running most of the time, and when I started to crack the 20 retries, then 30… then 40… then 50… I stopped having fun and started hating the experience I was being subjected to.

Horrid audio, a cookie-cutter storyline, mediocre graphics and gameplay that gets more and more tired the longer you chug through it all add up to a game that simply does not need to be experienced. Ever.

Nothing about 35 To Life makes it stand out -- save for perhaps the fact that we had to sit through a delay to get this product. It's not terribly fun, the storyline is pointless and the gansta tone is utterly unnecessary.

Avoid this game like the plague. There's just no reason to even get into the changes that were made because they all deteriorate into needless tedium. Go buy a copy of "MR4" instead; it's infinitely more fun.

It's crap. Don't buy it, since you'll probably never find someone else who has the game to enjoy the multiplayer, and there's literally no reason to suffer through the single-player at all. The visuals are blah, the voice acting merely passable (much like the PS2 game), and the controls are weak sauce. Trust me, you want to pass on this one.

Given away as a free tech demo, this probably would have been a modest bit of amusement and a placeholder for a proper SIXAXIS demonstration. Instead, it's horribly overprices and woefully under-realized.

Wonky controls, a lackluster presentation and generally confusing core gameplay mechanics are just a few of Wakeboarding HD's many issues.

This is the video game equivalent of waterboarding. Unless you need tips for training your IRL dragon, stay away!

But if you’re looking for a poorly-assembled gimmick of a game that serves as a friendly reminder of the good ol’ Celebrity Deathmatch days on MTV, all for a discounted price of $19.99, then CD just might be for you. If you’re not looking for authenticity, though, stay far, far away from this one.

Lair is, in no uncertain terms, a colossal disaster. The offenses are numerous and the explanations unneeded. I would say the game needed more polish, but it's pretty evident that the main problems were more than just a lack of dev time.

I hate to mention it again, but "Puzzle Quest" flat-out did the match-three concept better. 7 Wonders is a poor, lifeless "Bejeweled" clone with far, far better competition on the PSP.

Here's a dumb idea: rushing an expansion by regurgitating nearly all of the original game and delivering minimal compelling content. Here's a dumber one: charing $10 more than normal so unsuspecting consumers will pad your fiscal third quarter.

Rent it if you absolutely must, but there are better JRPG options on the PS3 right now... and that's seriously saying something.

Thanks to its disastrous mess of a user interface, DCUO is unplayable for anyone lacking superheroic patience. SOE, SCE and DC Comics have colluded in an attempt to foist a dreadful and amateurish product onto comic book and MMO enthusiasts.

Dungeon Hunter: Alliance is more than simply a bad game. It's a cynical act of greed and apathy on the part of its publisher and developer. Avoid it at all costs and advise as many people as will listen to do the same.

A pretty perfect example of how licensed games can go horribly wrong.

An abomination of a product that wasn't really all that solid to begin with. When a game that depends on a lock-on system and camera to deliver compelling action can't even get that right, it's just not worth playing, and Reckoning is the very definition of wasted money. Stay far, far away.

Developers, let this be a lesson: a hastily-slapped-together port will not fly.

Reality Fighters is an unmitigated disaster. It begins with a questionable concept and meets a fiery, disastrous end at the hands of poorly implemented AR and botched fighting mechanics. If you are looking for proof that AR is the future, look on.

Pointless loading EVERYWHERE means the game just comes off as coded by monkeys rather than being something different. Stay away.

The controls are crap, the storyline nonexistent, and the whole game just feels like a giant slap in the face of Gundam fans who were hoping for an honest-to-goodness next-gen entry into the series.

No amount of skimpy girls can save this abortion of a game. It fails at pool, it fails to titillate save for in the most basic of ways, it just plain fails. Period.

Hold this up as one of the worst examples of rushed, pointless licensed efforts out there. Just don't play it.

Who actually thought this would be a game that people want to play? Everything about it, from the dialogue to the story to the action are so wholly worthless that I'd be surprised if it didn't outright piss fans of the series off rather than service them.