Rating: 
Summary: Suprising
Review: A friend got this and forced it down our throats. After giving it a try all of us in the gaming group bought a copy. Once you play it and get the hang of it, it is very fun and addicting. Well worth giving it a try.
Rating:
Summary: "d20" supers done well
Review: As a professional adventure game designer and reviewer, and a long-time fan of superhero roleplaying, I've been waiting for a game to come along which featured full implementation of the concepts in the d20 System engine while still engaging superhero play in a fair and balanced way. Steve Kenson has done a marvelous job of that in Mutants & Masterminds, bringing the best of the Open Source rules, losing the worst, and adding new rules that are at once rational, playable, simple and fun. The book design by Super Unicorn is easy on the eye and enhanced by art provided by a dozen current comic book professionals. The book feels small and intimate for all of its 288 pages, and the value received is exceptional, certainly better than those heavyweight core books from Wizards of the Coast. If you love superhero gaming, or if you love D&D but are thinking of a change and yet don't want to learn a whole new game... BUY THIS BOOK.
Rating:
Summary: Look no further for your superhero roleplaying needs...
Review: Forget Hero, forget GURPS Supers, heck, forget Silver Age Sentinels: Mutants and Masterminds is THE superhero RPG to get. Not only does it use the innovative d20 system, but since it doesn't have the d20 logo on it (which would place further restrictions on what they can or can't publish), it's d20 done right! All of the familiar game mechanics are there, along with excellent character creation, letting you create any hero or superhero you can possibly think of! But don't take it from me; get the book and find out for yourself why it's the best d20-based superhero RPG out there.
Rating:
Summary: A superhero game with amazing potential!
Review: Green Ronin Publishing has done something remarkable with this game. The book just looks fantastic, and Mutants & Masterminds manages to use the d20 rules to create a genuine comic book feel. The lack of classes and hit points may seem strange at first, but it opens the game to almost limitless superhero combinations. And if you don't like the rules that are provided, the book is literally filled with tips and optional rules to tailor the game to the gamemaster's specific tastes. Think attacking should be a skill? A power? It can be done, and M&M tells you how. It's hard to find a Superhero RPG that is flexible yet streamlined. Mutants & Masterminds really pulls it off. A single d20 is the only die you need to play the game from start to finish. The writing is often very clever and appropriate to the genre. It was especially refreshing (I myself being an experienced gamemaster) to see them deliver constant reminders that the key to the game is enjoying yourself. The rules are simplistic and versatile enough to let the players' imaginations run wild while allowing the gamemaster to deliver some good, old-fashioned, four-color fun.
Rating: 
Summary: Great design, flawed execution
Review: I hereby submit to you Mutants and Masterminds as a great example of power design philosophy. Yes, the list of powers is fairly short, but each power is very customizable in and of itself. For example, want to build a speedster? The Super Speed power not only includes the usual effects (increased running speed, added initiative, etc.) but also allows for effects, such as vibrating your molecules to become Incorporeal or creating a Sonic Boom, as well as suggested power stunts, such as running on water or creating a whirlwind by running in circles. Furthermore, clear no-nonsense advice allows you to build new superpowers relatively painlessly, by combining general effects into a cohesive whole. The examples in power creation show a character creating a new power called "Machine Control" by combining effects from the Animation, Shape Matter, and Transmutation powers. Combat is similarly well designed. Using the Open Gaming License, Green Ronin has tweaked and modified the system to handle super-heroics. The most innovative design is the Damage Save. Rather than track hit points, characters roll a d20 against the damage done. A successful save results in no damage, while an unsuccessful save can result in a bruise, stun, or unconsciousness, depending on the degree of failure. Minions (think thugs or mooks) are simply knocked unconscious following a failed Damage save. This mechanic nicely bypasses two of the downfalls of many superhero games: the "gobs-o-dice" syndrome and tedious recordkeeping. Other OGL concepts such as Attacks of Opportunity have likewise been stripped from the game. Combat moves fast and furiously in Mutants and Masterminds, with rules for bending, breaking, and throwing items, resulting in comic-book style slugfests. What else is there to like about Mutants and Masterminds? A lot, actually. In addition to the power creation guidelines, character creation is fairly straightforward. Power points are allotted to attributes (Strength, Dexterity, etc.), skills, feats, and superpowers. A character's Power Level-most heroes start at PL 10-caps how much the player can put into individual super powers. This cap is a simple but effective way of discouraging one-trick pony characters. The villains listed in the back are all intriguing, from the Atomic Brain to the puppetmaster-like Gepetto, to the power-stealing Damocles and the doomed Hyena. These aren't paint-by-numbers villains as found in those other books; these are interesting, well fleshed out characters that can be dropped into a variety of campaigns. Bad parts? Well, yeah. The sample character templates in the front of the book were apparently built on the wrong number of points, and many of them have their saves and bonuses figured incorrectly as well. There are errors on the character sheet in the back. Some aspects of building your own powers aren't explained very well. These shortcomings are annoying, and most could have been fixed with a little attention to details. All in all, Mutants and Masterminds is a fun little game that captures the rock-em, sock-em world of comic book heroics, and handles exotic powers easily and well. A few tweaks and some good editing are all it needs to be a major player in the superhero gaming realm.
Rating:
Summary: Four Color Fantasies
Review: I've been having a blast with this game system, and I'm going to go over a few reasons why I think you might also.
1. No Hit Points
Hit Points have long been a sort of thorn in my side. I never could figure out what they represented. Why can Cure Light Wounds bring a first level mage back from the brink of death, but barely mends a paper cut on a high level fighter? Not a problem in M&M. Whenever you are damaged, you make a save. Fail, and your saves get a litte harder to make next time. Fail by a lot and you might be stunned or knocked out. Sounds harsh, but it isn't when you take into account point number 2
2. Hero Points
Randomness, doesn't it suck? You're all set up to do something cool, and here pops that 1. Now that's not so big a problem. Hero points let you control that die to a degree by allowing you to reroll any result you don't like. It also guarantees you at least an avarage result. If that isn't cool enough for you, you can use Hero Points for other things as well. Increasing your powers' effects, giving them new effects for a short while, reviving from knock out status, recover from stun...
3. Flexable character creation
Luck won't bamboozle you here, either. Everything is point driven, and everything is an option. Believe me, no matter how many points you get, you'll wish you had more. The game sets only what limits it must to preserve game balance. If there aren't enough options for you, there is a fairly decent power creation system explained.
4. Professional Help
No, I don't need a psychiatrist. What I mean here is that the mutants and masterminds website has a forum where you can ask the author to clear up your rule questions. He answers whatever is posted about once or twice a week. It's not like having him in a bottle at the gaming table, but it's better than I ever got from anyplace else.
5. Ease of Play.
For this game, all you gotta bring is one d20, a pencil, and your character sheet. Buy a copy of this book if you can't borrow one from time to time, but you won't need it often. For GMs, there's the "mook" rule to make your life easier. All those little minions hanging around the bad guy don't have HP. One hit and they're gone, freeing you up to concentrate on your real villans instead of keeping 15 HP totals straight. Quick and easy rules for battle keeps tension high, and keeps a single battle from eating up all your role play time. It's much easier to role play when your roll play goes smoothly and quickly. If rough and tumble is your game, hey, just fight more stuff in a night. ^^
5. Variety
We've built 12 characters out of our imaginations, and no two of them play the same. Fighters are fighters, clerics are clerics, mages are mages. Your role is decided when you picked which of those you wanted to be. In M&M, You're free to do what you want more often without rules getting in your way.
In closing, I know some people are put off by this system because it is different, but I think it deserves a chance to stand on its own as something new and exciting. Some people may never warm up to the changes, and that's just fine, but it would be worth your while to at least give this a try.
Rating:
Summary: Point by Point, Why the Veterans Like M&M.
Review: I've tried Marvel's FASERIP system, Palladium, Champions, GURPS, d20 as D&D, Modern, Star Wars, Cthulu, and M&M remains my favourite system to deal with superpowers. Why? Flexibility, and simplicity. Make the power you want. The book gives you a bunch of common powers, and you can easily add and subtract to get what you want. Want to personalize your energy blast? Is it pure force? Fire? A handful of ball-bearings? Whatever you want. Want to use your powers in an unusual or clever way? You don't have to buy a whole new power. Hero Points and Extra Effort are simple game mechanics that allow you to play smart, or give 110% in those critical moments! No hit points. Damage, from being hit by a granny with an umbrella, to getting a battleship dropped on your head, is the same system, using the same number of dice, just one. Combat don't take longer at higher levels. The collateral damage just increases ;). Visuals. The book is beautiful with great art throughout. It give an excellent comic book feeling. Options. The base rules make it pretty hard to kill someone accidentally. Don't agree with that? The plethora of sidebar options give you choices in lethality, power restrictions, even put hit points back in, if you want. Support. The supplemants aren't necessary, but they are all good. The Annual gives a wealth of campaign and rule options. Freedom City is an excellent city sourcebook with heroes, villains, and important and interesting people and places. Crooks! contains a wealth of insane, diabolical, greedy, or just plain miscevous opponents for your players. And the forums are a great place to ask questions, put out ideas, and generally get a bunch of friendly useful feedback. We want to help you! One important warning to players and GM's: CONCEPT. Don't try to squeeze the most damage and defense out of every last point. That leads to less fun. Make heroes. Don't make wacking machines. My gaming circle, some nine people, started with one copy of this book. Within two years, over half had their own copy, and I own two! We've had three M&M campaigns since the book came out, and they've never fizzled. They ended, and people had a good time along the way. M&M. Less math. More fun.
Rating: 
Summary: Good game...too bad this is a first draft.
Review: If you can get past all the typos and mistakes in the book it's a great system. The power level approach to the d20 class problem(for supers games) is just great. The system is one of the most versatile I've ever seen, I've yet to see a character that couldn't be created using these rules. Unfortunately the game appears to not have been proofread. Most of the sample characters are wrong(they don't add up to how much they should cost, don't have prerequisites for certains feats, etc), many of the power descriptions are incomplete and entire sections of the rules are missing(such as whether or not your super strength bonus applies to grapples). If someone had actually taken the time to look the book over before shipping it to the printers I bet it would have easily been a 5 star system. As it is, however, it'll take a healthy dosage of errata to make this game playable.
Rating: 
Summary: It May be Your Preference...
Review: If your favorite thing about RPGs is the aspect of rolling dice, and all the numbers on the paper, then this might be the d20 superhero RPG for you. However, if you prefer good role-playing, character design, and story-building, then you might want to try Silver Age Sentinels. Sure, neither of them are "pure" d20, but I spent quite a bit of time deciding which of the d20 superhero games that I'd be interested in, and after borrowing this book from a friend, and reading it entirely, I bought SAS. Then, I bought the Tri-Stat version, then the Stingy Gamer Edition for the rest of the players to share, and three of the other great sourcebooks for the game. I have never purchased more than one or two supplements for an RPG, with the exception of D&D - and now, SAS. Our entire gaming group agrees. But hey, if your (and your group's) thing is monty-haul, kick in the door, kill the monster and steal it's treasure type games, then give M&M a try. Leave SAS to those of us to like to role-play.
Rating:
Summary: Short and sweet - It's worth buying if you like RPG's.
Review: It's an interesting example of how far you can take a system, it's a well-done RPG on its own merits, and having played it now I can say it's easy to run. I enjoyed it and recommend it.
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