This is a good adaptation of Monopoly, but it really would have benefitted from some touch ups. The “speed” of the game is too slow, and that makes it a chore to get through. Although all the “character” pieces are nicely animated, they’re just not appealing enough to deal with how long the animations are go on for. The game board itself is well done, with dynamic lighting and all. But you’ll probably noticing how the controls are also awful too. I mean the D-Pad is right there but it’s just... never used. Instead you have to rely on the C-Stick to navigate menus, which makes for a cumbersome experience.

As for the game itself, it is pretty self explanatory. It’s standard Monopoly, and I can appreciate the variety of options you can tool around with to make it your own kind of Monopoly. Also, bonus points for allowing multiplayer with one controller.

As it stands, unless you’re trying to build a N64 collection, or relive some nostalgia, there’s little value in this version of Monopoly. Although it’s better than it’s PlayStation counterpart, you’d be better off trying the newer iterations or well, playing it in person like it’s always meant to be.

Burnout suffers from "first game syndrome". It's easy to overlook for those who wish to go through the highlights of the Burnout, and by extension, arcade racer peak. On the other hand, it's a bland slog that shows points of promise for the more historically inclined. A glorified tech demo, that it's been often described as, is just about sufficient to determine whether you wanna experience these frustrating beginnings.

The RenderWare engine, in it's sixth-gen infancy, still looks quite nice. The cars sheen, and the detailed and tight race corridors are all quite nice to look at... but the game suffers from some emptiness. Perhaps it's the boring music, or the maladjusted audio mixing, but it's hollow, and it makes the racing a bit boring at times.

The rubberband AI here is the worst, it discourages driving like you'd expect from a Burnout game. If you crash often but stay fast, you'll never be able to get to first place. The game contradicts itself by rewarding following racing lines and staying on the right side of the road (or cheesing your way to the end of the opposite end). There may be times where it all clicks together, and you find yourself chaining up Burnouts, but it's too rare to really get you to seek out this title. The hit detection is dumb. A slight nudge and you're done. The lack of damage you can take is such a major oversite. The racing itself, for whatever is worth, is okay at best.

Once you clear all the GPs, you can unlock some additional cars in "Face-Off" but I found myself too bored with the title by then to really go through the tracks again with my new fangled hardware.

Burnout, at this point, is better served as a historical capsule to be observed and maybe lightly played. You'd be hard pressed to find anyone saying the OG was better than the numerous sequels.

The Force Unleashed (talking about the PS2 version from here on out), is like video game junk food. It has a nice story you don't have to concentrate much on, it has easy to learn and easy to master combat, and you do cool stuff like fighting giant monsters and robots and dealing with a boss fight at the end of each level. Easy on the eyes, light on thumbs.

If you have experience of playing the seventh generation versions ("Next-Gen"), expect a slightly different experience. The story of Starkiller is slightly more fleshed out, with the additioanal ambiguity adding some meaning to the through-line of the story: Is there good in this clone of a murdered Jedi? Knowing Star Wars, the answer is in the question itself, and although the story still does very easily prefer you become a Jedi, I appreciated the slightly more fleshed out moments that are in modified backdrops. The difference between the versions does increase as you go along the game. I wouldn't say it's better or worse, it really comes done to personal preference.

The combat, when in sync is your typical beat 'em up/hack 'n slash. You deal with normal enemy cannon fodder, some brutes, and the cannon fodder become stratified as the game moves along. There's not much strategy involved, but the sense of progression is nice as your increase in abillities. If your a Star Wars fan, there is innate fun in swinging your lightsaber around and killing bad guys, and the game is aware of it. Your journey as a Sith apprentice progresses from weak, one two way lightning to eventual crowd control lightning storms. You'll move from small crowd control repulse to eventually becoming a mini-moving tornado. As you collect orbs from killing enemies, the upgrade tree makes being able to roleplay whether you wanna be "good" or "evil" with your force powers. The combat encounters eventually become repetitive, but the short length of the game makes up for it.

As your roam from Imperial destroyers, to the tropical Felucia, or to the deprecated Jedi Temples, you'll find a variety of collectibles that are at-times, frustratatingly hidden. The game doesn't have a replay feature (just a New Game Plus), or ability to track how many collectibles are in each level, so you're left to your own devices if you really wanna play this to 100%. The Jedi Holocrons showcase some neat concept art, and the lightsaber components give some welcome customisation.

For a late-PS2/Wii cross-port (that somehow is best on the PSP), the game looks great, albeit muddy at times. It's certainely ambitious when trying to go for open-vista battles, however I do feel the game looked best when going for smaller environments with attention to detail. The character models and cutscenes are all in-game, but they do look good for the hardware at hand. The highlight here, are the animations. The way Starkiller twists and turns as he strikes contact with anyone in his way, with whatever clothes he has swinging around in the background, is immensely satisfying, even though the actual game skill required to get there isn't much. By the time you're at the end, and just about to go for New Game Plus, the hybrid combat and force power combos are just plain fun to perform. Enemies will ragdoll around and although it may not be at Euphoria levels like it's next-gen counterparts, it's nothing to scoff at either. Also.. Star Wars music. Need I say more?

The Force Unleashed is through-and-through for Star Wars fans, but if you like a fun action game, I think you'll get your mileage out of this one. It's a decent game to sit down for a weekend on and just plow through.