I'm beginning to think that Gamespot reviewers live in a parallel universe in which games that suck actually rock, and vice versa. I just rented Kameo, which won all sorts of praise from Gamespot for its gameplay and "thrilling" boss battles. Granted, it was pretty neat at first, but as I kept playing it became obvious that the boss battles were not only the worst parts of the game, but completely ruined the experience for me. One such encounter involved an electricity-spewing squid, who would fire lightning at you every few seconds, forcing you to keep moving. Your only hope was to change into Major Ruin, a coked-up armadillo whose only means of transportation is to roll around in his shell, and knock bombs into the squid. Sounds pretty straightforward, except what with having to dodge electricity bolts while trying to find a bomb and line up your shot before the bombs explode,I almost never got an opening, and I had to just run around in a circle until the opportune moment. Finally I saw a chance, aimed carefully, and WHACK! the bomb went rolling sideways at almost a 90 degree angle from the trajectory of my character and completely missed the target. Then it was time for 5 more minutes of tedious rolling around aimlessly while trying in vain not to die. Well, I finally hit the damn thing, and it sank under the waves, forcing me to engage it as Deep Blue, a character whose specialtywas swimming...badly. Controlling him underwater was unnecessarily clunky and awkward, as was his aim. Hecould fire torpedoes, which did little good since the tentacles I had to hit were flailing around wildly. It also didn't help that I absolutely COULD NOT AIM the freaking guy at anything smaller than Mars. I was alotted only a small amount of time to damagethe squidbefore he resurfaced and I had to perform that stupid tedious bomb ritual again. I eventually died...of boredom, and after about a half an hour I just gave up and punched the nearest pillow for another thirty minutes.

On the flip side, Gamespot utterly butchered Tenchu Z, the newest installment in an admittedly lagging stealth action series. The first Tenchu was received with great aplomb, but its sequels did little to improve or expand the experience as the AI never became any smarter although the systems they were featured on grew more advanced. It did have problems, but a "poor" rating? That's way too harsh. At the very least it was a step forward, finally taking into acount such things as how much noise your footsteps were making, as well as a "Thief"-inspired light meter which showed how visible you were. Those familiar with Tenchu know that hiding on a rooftop or ledge above your opponent was a sure way to evade detection, but in Z enemies could spot you on a roof even from an unaware state. They could also hear you if you didn't creep quietly, or even smell you if you were drenched in blood or something even nastier, like samurai pee. They could even hear the sound of your sword being drawn, which is pretty sweet since the previous Tenchus just had your character brandish his weapon(s) the entire time while his sheath decayed from neglect. Also, the series has almost done away with contrived boss fights (something Kameo could definitely have benefitted from), making it possible to stealth-kill bosses if you so chose. Still, even though the enemies were better at spotting you, they still didn't linger in "anger" mode very long after you dropped out of sight. Personally, I think most stealth games coddle players too much, and should have the foes continue to search for you until one of you is dead, especially on the harder difficulties.

Tenchu boasts fifty missions, but the count was actually much less than that. Many of the missions were just different layouts of previous levels, which previous Tenchus were honest enough to admit to. Still, the missions were fun enough to warrant more than one playthrough, and many of them could be skipped if the player wished. Also, the game has a feature whereby you can create your own ninja. You can't beat that with a bo staff.

To conclude: NEVER TRUST REVIEWS. Much of this stuff is subjective, I know, but I draw the line when the reviewer is wrong about the plain facts of a game. Trust your own instincts instead, and your local rental store. :)