IGN

• PS2
• 9 / 10
• États-Unis

• PS2
• 7 / 10
• États-Unis

I'm not sure what the current state of the secondary Dreamcast market is right now, but I do know that a few months ago, at least, you could buy a new Dreamcast on clearance and a copy of Grandia II to play on it for about as much money as the brand-new PlayStation 2 version will cost you now. Maybe it would cost a little more than $50, but you'd get a Dreamcast out of the deal, meaning you could get on with playing Bangaioh (since I know you haven't yet). Viewed purely in the context of the PlayStation 2, of course, Grandia II is perhaps one of the top three RPGs on the system. If you don't want to buy anything for any other system (ya doink), go ahead and pick this up. It has its ups and its downs, and it certainly isn't the equal of its predecessor, but it's a good-looking game and an absolutely great-playing one, which is getting to be a harder thing to say of RPGs nowadays. Nevertheless, Dreamcast fans get to lay down at least this one trump card -- Sega's system did it better. For information on Ubi Soft's Great RPG Giveaway, of which Grandia II is a part, follow the link you just finished reading.

• GBA
• 5.1 / 10
• États-Unis

I've always been a big fan of multi-event Olympic style games, but these six events just aren't designed well enough to make the cut. The three skiing/snowboarding events are poorly thought out, and the bobsled event is counterproductive. The only event worth playing many times over is, strangely enough, Curling. But the package, as a whole, is pretty cold in its Olympic presentation.

• GBA
• 9.1 / 10
• États-Unis

To be honest, I've more been a fan of Sonic the character more than Sonic the videogames...even from the beginning, on the Sega Genesis, the huge turn-off for me was simply the fact that the level designers focused more on super huge levels to get the character up to speed...which unfortunately left me wondering what I'm passing by. The whole feeling of exploration was thrown out the window because of the heavy focus on speed. And that's why I loved the NeoGeo Pocket Color's Sonic Pocket Adventure...the designers included little hidden tokens to collect throughout the game levels, encouraging the exploration element in its game design.

• GBA
• 2.2 / 10
• États-Unis

David Beckham Soccer is a failure on every level. The AI is laughable, the controls are limited, the graphics are muddy, the sound is non-existent, there is no way to save, and virtually any player above the age of six can win the matches without any practice at all. When I picked up this game for the very first time, I won 14:1 without even knowing the controls. It's almost like the goalie in this game discounted the chance that a player would approach the goal at an angle. Perhaps a link-up game against a human player would have provided some much-needed challenge, but since the game is devoid of a multiplayer mode, the only way to enjoy David Beckham Soccer is to not play it.

• GBA
• 9.9 / 10
• États-Unis

Advance Wars is as brilliant as they come on the Game Boy Advance. The game isn't this action-packed button-mashing thumb-buster on the system, but Advance Wars is incredibly intense and amazingly addictive...especially when you learn every little nuance of the game design. Single player mode is a challenge in itself, but when you get another player (or three) into the battlefield, that's when you see just how versatile the game design really is. The learning curve has been addressed with a well-designed and integrated tutorial mode that must be completed in order to gain access to the rest of the game. I hesitated giving this game a perfect 10, and decided to knock a single tenth of a point simply due to a problem in the link cable mode. Since it's turn-based, the players who are not involved sit and watch the player in charge making his move -- it would have been extremely helpful to add a function to let these players check on their troops during the move...especially when enemy forces are moving into their territory. In single player mode, the computer AI moves so fast that you wouldn't have much time to check your stats anyway...but when you're sitting idle after a turn, your mind should be working strategically, and to not have the ability to see your troops' status is a bit annoying. But that's really the only true complaint I can make about the game. Advance Wars is an absolutely brilliant design, and a title that absolutely deserves a place in your Game Boy Advance collection. It will be amazing to see this series continue in the states, simply because the design is near perfect as it is. What could they possibly do to the game to make it better?

• DC
• 8.5 / 10
• États-Unis

• GBA
• 7 / 10
• États-Unis

• DC
• 8 / 10
• États-Unis

• N64
• 5 / 10
• États-Unis

• DC
• PS
• PC
• 8.5 / 10
• États-Unis

• PS
• 2 / 10
• États-Unis

• PC
• 8 / 10
• États-Unis

• PS2
• 10 / 10
• États-Unis

• PS2
• 8 / 10
• États-Unis

• PS2
• 8 / 10
• États-Unis

• PS
• 4.5 / 10
• États-Unis

• PS
• 4 / 10
• États-Unis