There are a few moments in Musashi Samurai Legend that’ll raise a smile or even make you laugh out aloud, and it’s generally a fun game to play.

If you are looking for a tycoon style meal then chow down on this because you won’t find a better restaurant management game out there.

A backward cousin that tries but fails to live up to the previous achievements of the series. The blame cannot be placed with Amaze Entertainment, as these issues are suffered by other FPS titles on the PSP. The lack of a second analogue stick really impedes the control capability of the machine, and is the main downfall of such titles.

But poor storytelling, dull mission structure, lack of variety in the location and a lack of polish left me wanting much more.

It’s little more than a clone of a more successfully designed game, produced as a good idea for garnering a license respect rather than a good game in itself.

As a single player experience C&C 4 is a complete failure and should be avoided like the plague. If you enjoy RTS multiplayer then you might squeeze some fun out of this.

A huge letdown for a franchise that is yearning for its reinstatement at the top. EA really should have done so much better. Why not just use the Burnout Paradise engine, create a new city, slap in the NFS gameplay and call it...Most Wanted Hot Pursuit Porsche Unleashed? I'd buy it. In fact I'd buy two copies out of unadulterated joy.

There’s just nothing there to recommend, beyond a reasonably decent plot. Best thing I can suggest, then, is to find a detailed guide somewhere online and read the story there – you’ll have more fun and won’t waste time and money on the game.

I have to say that for all the minor bad points, and they are minor, I am really enjoying this title and EA has turned out a well presented game which will keep you amused for hours on end.

Legend of Spyro is a game that you just want to love for its admirably lovable story line, but as a gamer, you feel compiled to surrender to the obvious – it’s strictly average as an overall package.

With such an accomplished and unique cinematic source, we really did deserve better.

A decidedly average title which doesn’t really try to reach beyond that. Everything about it feels, not rushed or not completed, just poorly designed, almost as though it’s been designed for the budget range.

There's plenty of potential in the Officers franchise. Few games manage to capture WW2 this well at the tactical level. But a few problems with friendly AI and stability do drag the score down somewhat.

The final levels positively encourage you to achieve zen-like levels of concentration as you determinedly edge your way carefully through without losing a life because failure means having to play it all again and the rage meter bubbling over.

While it may be a fun little jaunt with the appearance of a clever strategy/action game, if you attempt to play it that way you soon find out that it is fundamentally broken. A lesson from history, one hopes.

It's a shame really as EA could have done a whole lot better. The control system could be a lot better, the animation could be better and the cut-scenes could be better.

A very amiable game. You really want to it to be better than it is, and with its flashes of brilliance it's easy to get deceived into thinking it's far more playable than initial appearances.

Unless you are a big fan of the original and you yearn for more mission based combat then you’d better off saving your money. There isn’t enough new content here to justify the price tag.

With age, tends to come more gaming aptitude, which will mean you’ll make quick work of Lemony Snicket’s and a yearning for a bit more of a challenge. By all means though, give it to your toddler and they’ll go wild.

The game is good fun if a little frustrating. Fans of the original might be a little miffed by the drastic shift in dynamic, but as long as you recognize that this isn't just a side-scrolling beat 'em up, you should be pleasantly surprised.

The visual swagger of Red Steel is that of a been there, done that affair.

If you like a game that rewards teamwork and strategy as well as hair-trigger reactions and steady nerves, then SOCOM becomes immensely rewarding. Take the game seriously, learn quickly and bring a headset. This package will keep you entertained for a long while.

A story that took you into twisted, deranged, decrepit worlds that just yearned for some fantastic art direction and varied, interesting level design - you didn’t get any.

“Oddly not as compelling as it sounds” is an apt summary for it all, to be honest.

Okay, the gloves are off. I really dislike this game. The titular fury is so apparent after just one race.

The actual gameplay itself is pretty good and does reward skill unlike EA Sport's recent golfing output.

On the one hand it offers reasonably entertaining action and a good mix of strategy and battling, with some excellent music and a strangely compelling story mode to play through. On the flip side, dodgy AI and a feeling of being detached from the game at times can raise the question of whether you’re really having fun, or if you just think you are.

A big bonus is that the game doesn’t take itself too seriously.

It feels rushed, it looks dated and it’s filled with annoying glitches that should have been ironed out during play testing.

It has nothing new to offer an already crowded genre. Practically everything it does has been seen before, and the parts which haven't are too limited and clumsy to save the rest. The story is difficult to care about; the characters are generic and combat is repetitive and flaccid.

If you manage to at least enjoy killing hundreds of people in Drakengard’s world, you can enjoy killing thousands to make it to its end.

It isn’t perfect, and the repetitive nature of the combat really can grind at times, but if you liked Rare’s Kameo but thought it was let down for being too shallow and not enough platforming then you really shouldn’t be looking any further.

It might come as a surprise, but I would actually have preferred a direct conversion of FIFA 06 to this.

The most frustrating thing I found with it was an autosave that occurred just as I destroyed the engine on my plane right at the end of the first mission.

At the end of the day the experience, despite how crooked it can appear in parts, is absolutely entertaining. From a budget game, that’s about the best you can ask.

The overall impression is of a game which was created in pieces like a puzzle, and then put together by someone who didn’t quite have the full picture on the front of the box.

As much as this game would like you to believe it's suitable for all ages, I believe it's been made with kids in mind and at the same time, someone in the Quality Control department at Jowood has thought that low quality will be fine for said same children.

The Marathon fan base out there who played the game over 10 years ago will most likely be the only ones to get any real enjoyment out of this one.

Sitting, uneasily as it does, between pure bred sim and arcade flyer, it should serve well as an introduction to the genre for those who've yet to reel through their first barrel roll, while the more hardcore player should find some challenge with the difficulty level ramped up.

It’s always a shame when a game arrives perfectly playable and pleasant enough to glide through without too much in the way of frustration, while at the same time being devoid of actual thrills or jaw-dropping moments.

If you love 24, you’ll get a kick out of the game. If you don’t know 24 from 10, then you’d better drop a couple of points from the score, start from series one, then decide if it’s your thing.

Your girlfriend might like it, your mum might even like it, but with all of the excellent games coming out on all platforms over this holiday season we reckon it’s only worth a quick play through to justify to yourself why you spent the cash to buy the newest version of the EyeToy.

What's up with having an analogue controller that can only aim in the old style 8 directions? What's up with the huge loading times and rubbish user interface design? All these failings could be solved in patches in the future but they really shouldn't need to be.

Three decent puzzle games with plenty of modes, options and even an online and offline multiplayer.

It was always going to be a struggle, but EA didn’t help itself with poor controls, a visually horrendous game and the need for a more varied and challenging racing game.

It's not perfect, but there’s a lot of fun to be had here and it’s something a bit different from the usual Wii titles.

Let’s be brutally honest, the Olympics is nothing more than a repetitive set of action events compressed, in this modern world, into tedious technical fine tuning of human machinery, buoyed only by ancient tradition rather than entertainment value.

The game is enjoyable and has some great stand-out moments, but it’s very much a case of the more of the same here.

An incredibly disappointing and frustrating experience.

Despite its annoying flaws, Dynasty Warriors 5 Empires isn’t a bad game. It's just a pitifully bare improvement over its predecessors when it should be hitting its oft-teased promise.

It’s boring, dull and yet still somehow oddly compelling.

If you like deeper, thoughtful fighting then skulk on by, like a shadow in the night.

So, the movie and the game have something in common: they try hard and have some cool, fun moments, but lack the necessary substance or flare in order to make the time between each thrill worth enduring.

But don’t be looking for any semblance of a story here despite the developer’s claims and attempts to infuse one. And don’t be looking for something deep.

Everything about RA is average: the weapons, the levels, the graphics, the controls. In fact, this game should be the new benchmark for average.

Elite Forces is a bit of a strange game really, somewhere between a RTS game and an arcade shooter, it's certainly more accessible than most RTS games, so maybe could be an introduction to the genre for beginners. The games flaws do let it down though, and coupled with the fact that there are only twelve missions, and no multiplayer game it may not hold your attention for too long.

There’s plenty of modern retro arcade games out there that don’t pander solely to misguided nostalgia for you to get coaxed into buying this.

The game's saving grace is that Pandora is a beautiful world to explore, and the graphics are of a higher quality than the gameplay. The design work is attractive particularly the vehicles.

The action is very well done, sometimes enthralling, but never progressing beyond the 'shoot him, find key, open door, shoot him...' formula makes the game just a tad too empty to proficiently prosper.

That's one of the main problems with Fatal Inertia, it feels like a half-baked mod to Unreal Tournament rather than a proper game in its own right.

It's not that it does anything wrong particularly, it isn't adult enough to be an adult game and get the market that way, it isn't simulation enough to get that market and it isn't a good enough Sims clone to get at that market.

By letting you explore the mansion and other location at your own discretion, we could have had a brilliant title on our hands.

I have to admit that I enjoyed Crash: Mind Over Mutant, and really wrestled with what overall score to give. However, take away the dialogue and the voice acting (they get an easy 11 out of 10) and I really would not have stuck with its frustrating inconsistency.

This is adequate entertainment that does nothing terribly wrong, but never manages to shine in any one particular area.

The game's saving grace is that Pandora is a beautiful world to explore, and the graphics are of a higher quality than the gameplay. The design work is attractive particularly the vehicles.

Under the Ashes is immediately framed as being little more than build up to Tomb Raider Underworld: Lara’s Shadow. With spokespersons from Crystal Dynamics clearly more excited by Shadow than by Ashes, you’re maybe going to be left with a sour taste. Did you just spend seven quid for a quite enjoyable jog to a cutscene? Quite possibly.

All I can do, and it kills me to say this, is advise you don’t get this game. Simply because it’s a poor game, with a score propped up by a better, more traditional Sonic available to play. Sadly it’s not available to play with enough.

Constantine the game is supposed to be in the horror genre just like the movie, but it simply fails to scare even just a little bit.

My advice: wait for the PC version, where you will have a fighting chance of playing the game with a better framerate and refined controls (and hopefully Activision will issue patches to cover its holes).

Maybe it's time for this addition to the videogame genre stable to start uttering that often resented yet ever-powerful f-word. That's "fold", by the way.

When you're making a game that's purely designed for online play, you have to make sure the basics are in place, and the frame rate is the fundamental factor in all shooters, but in Quake Wars it's all over the place, which is a shame.

While the visuals don't exactly push the envelope, the audio is one of the better aspects of the game.

Dynasty Warriors 6 is a hard game to recommend to anybody that hasn’t enjoyed the series before or expects a bit more depth from their gaming, while at the same time unlikely to disappoint those wanting more of the same.

If you’re after something to play with your mates after the pub, or are looking for a short burst of knuckle-cracking violence, Urban Reign might be worth looking at if found going cheap.

Carter is such a boring character it's hard to see his appeal. Unless you like playing gungho simpletons that congratulate themselves at any given opportunity for things as banal as successfully popping a guard in the head with a rubber bullet.

As a grizzled and scarred veteran of the original this expansion pack offered a satisfying challenge to get my teeth into. Anyone who enjoyed the game will enjoy this expansion.

What could have been a really excellent horror game, perhaps the first actually based on a film license, is sadly rendered mediocre by the design work.

A better game is lost inside the presentation and ultimately fails to exploit the fun and potential of faster-paced matches, especially in the case of a sequel.

Four aside in tiny pitches, no matter how variable, loses its charm rather soon. So even if you get bored of the main beef of the game the prospect of throwing ten minutes into a friendly is a little out of the question.

Overall this is a fairly solid title, nothing awe inspiring yet nothing dismal, and unfortunately for a movie tie-in that is quite an achievement.

The pathfinding, especially in tight environments, can also be quite bad and the game is really in need of a lick of paint in just about every department except the music, which is an impressive mix of contemporary and classical compositions.

The game looks good, but is let down by a poor camera control system and the music is simply woeful.

If you have a little Turtle fan running around at home, or if you want a trip down memory lane, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comes heartily recommended. You get exactly what the game promises and in this case that is a good thing.

It’s certainly not the most incredible PS3 experience out to date, and if you’re going to buy just one PSN game, I’d say unequivocally go for Super Stardust HD, but if you’re a fan of that kind of shooter and fancy a challenge, Nucleus remains a unique, challenging, entertaining if simplistic shooter.

And there are some hilarious one-liners, but most of the time it is a lukewarm mix of outdated pick up lines and dialogue which tries to be funny, but fails. And again there is too much repetition.

The main culprit here is the bad voice acting and bad Japanese-to-English translation. It’s like playing cowboys and Indians except that there’s one noisy kid who never really gets into character.

Line Rider is immense simple/complex (simplex? Comple?) fun if you’re the right kind of person, if you’re the target audience. If you’re not, you’ll be baffled as to what all the fuss is about, while the rest of us will justifiably mock you for the knuckle-trails you leave behind you as you walk.

Without any identifiable storyline or single-player incentives, the various challenges on offer simply fail to motivate, and can become tiresome as a result.

Yes, I’m still disappointed by the lack of opportunities for the creation of chaos, and yes, the graphics do reek of things from ye olden times of management sims.

The control method is an interesting take on the usual styles, and helps make things challenging, like real golf.

Numbing repetition and combat that is chaotic and often unfair (sometimes in your favour, sometimes not).

So playing through File 2 with its linear, claustrophobic levels, constant backtracking, awkward controls (despite the full use of analogue movement this time) and limited menu space does more harm than good.

There's little imagination, little independence inside their tiny minds and this makes looking after them a joyless activity. Micromanagement leaves no time for voyeurism.

If the difficulty levels were sorted, the turn-based combat system rehashed and the player was told with reasonable conviction what the hell is going on, Hired Guns could be quite enjoyable, but as it is it's a frustrating, indecisive, low-level strategy game.

So if you’ve always dreamt of playing golf with frogs, you probably need some kind of therapy, but are likely to enjoy Ribbit King in the meantime. The rest of us will probably find it an amusing curiosity.

It offers no challenge for the solo player and is unplayable online, even after the hefty patch. If it wasn’t already hard enough for KoF to compete with Street Fighter, this release has made it even more difficult for it to do so in the future.

Those difficult extra missions unlocked one by one after finishing the main game are certainly going to keep me occupied at least until Final Fantasy XII appears in the UK.

If you’re a Dragonball Z fan this comes recommended, as knowing the characters and understanding the plot will only add to what’s already a decent game. For the rest of us, it’s a fun card-based game that’s only let down by its lack of difficulty and length. Worth looking at.