Battlezone

There's something to be admired about this game's simplicity, but limited play reduces the fun of the arcade remake. Battlezone wants to do only one thing -- sci-fi tank combat -- and do it well. It largely succeeds, but in maintaining such a narrow focus it probably won't satisfy those who expect a game with a $60 price tag to have a little more meat on the bone. With no extra challenge modes or competitive online play, players are forced to eke as much as they can out of the relatively short campaign. Its randomly generated mission tiles are designed to facilitate replay, and the high level of challenge all but ensures you won't beat the campaign on your first, second, or even third try (unless you're lucky enough to team up with some extremely good allies online). With missions falling into only a handful of categories that boil down to variations on attacking and defending, there's simply not much variety.

The good news, though, is that the moment-to-moment combat is often a lot of fun. The interface expertly melds the advantages of VR's immersive first-person perspective with traditional gamepad controls for movement and aiming. It feels great, and the minimalist, futuristic visual design is stylish without sacrificing the satisfaction of big, rewarding explosions. Put plainly, it's fun to blow up towers and tanks. When you're in the heat of battle, you might even forget just how small and simple a game Battlezone is. Then the mission will end, you'll remember there's really not much more to this full-priced game than what you were just doing, and you might wonder whether you should have put your $60 toward something with a little more depth and longevity.