We're at the point in the Game Boy Advance's lifespan where publishers can offer up a huge assortment of bargain-priced handheld games for the system. And bargain prices on the GBA usually mean bargain development budgets, too, and that, in turn, more often than not converts into bland, substandard gaming experiences. Blades of Thunder definitely falls into this category. Oh, this action title starts out rather promising, what with an ambitious, pseudo-3D engine to drive the action. But the whole package is only half-baked, as if most of the resources went into the technical side during development. The actual game design lacks any real substance and comes of amazingly bland and repetitive, and any interest left over after the first level won't last long because there's absolutely no variety from mission to mission.