I love Men In Black, I really do. I even dig the cartoon on which this game is based, which is why it's so painful to see it disrespected in a video game. It starts with, and has interspersed, FMV movies featuring J and K. They've taken the liberty of displaying these scenes with computer graphics instead of staying with the true hand drawn animation, which I think is unfortunate. On the bright side, it does convey the feeling of being in and around the MiB universe. The missions, the aliens, the weapons, and even Zed all help bring you into the series.

Right from the get go I'm let down by the decision to make Crashdown a first person shooter. You've already taken out one of the only reasons to play the game in the first place, J and K. Instead of seeing our heroes, it's nothing but aliens sprinkled throughout horribly pixilated, claustrophobic environments. The colors are drab, and the textures really are bad enough to make you wonder if you're really looking at Doom on the SNES.

If you aren't already bent about having to play a first person shooter on Playstation, then you have to put up with the touchy control as well. If the control and the frame rate make it difficult to walk and aim (which is the case), then what good will it bring to us gamers? You can't add enough extras to make up for that. Crashdown has interesting missions, which are always available for review on the pause screen, and like I said, there are a fair amount of FMV movies thrown in. Bottom line, though, the game is boring and irritating to play, and no license or extra feature can save it.

I'm down with releasing budget titles late in the life of a console, but it has to be for the right reasons. They should be decent, maybe shallow, games for casual gamers or people with a strict budget in mind. They should not be half-ass attempts to capitalize on a marketable name. Crashdown surely falls under the latter.