Metareview - 50 Cent: Bulletproof

We missed this one back when it released in November, but seeing as how Christmas is nearly upon us, and since we know that many of our readers are wallowing in the financial vacuum known as college, it's our sworn duty to steer you clear of those tempting games at the bottom of the bargain barrel. How tempting is it, you ask? As far as this game is concerned, not only is 50 cent the main character, it's also the MSRP (or at least it should be, any way). Think of this as Joystiq's Holiday Anti-Gift Guide:

IGN [6.5] - "Unfortunately, as the game is basically a straightforward shooter all the way through, the fact that the battles can be boring, if not frustrating at times, makes most of the general gameplay rather uncompelling."

GameSpot [4.8] - "Once you've finished Bulletproof's short and ridiculous campaign, you can go back through the levels in arcade mode, which gives you a score based on how well you can shoot people in the face. But with the shooting as bad as it is, it's tough to imagine that most people will even bother to finish the campaign mode, let alone enjoy it enough to go back through the levels for a high score."

GameSpy [1½ out of 5] - "Bulletproof is a violent hip-hop fantasy come to life. Fittingly, it's got a mess of music video flash editing instead of a plot and shell casings where the brain should be. And a soul? Forget about it. The game's vision of 50, endorsed by the man himself, makes a lie out of any claim that his music is street poetry. There's no metaphor here. 50 Cent has been plugged, his crew has been wronged, and the only way to make things right is to blow the hell out of everyone."