From the cheesy plot and dialogue, to the levels that are set out as individual episodes of the show, even the constant snacking - it's all in there.

It's Sonic business as usual, with few surprises. We still love the little guy and the game looks gorgeous, but maybe it's time for the old dog to try some new tricks.

While The Bard's Tale is told amusingly enough, the disappointing combat fails to lift it from the upper end of mediocrity.

Everything is of the traditionally high IL-2 standards and is comparable qualitywise to what was in Forgotten Battles, even if there isn't all that much of it.

If you haven't bought Gates yet, look into the mirror and ask yourself: "How many times do I want to die today?" Seriously, only the insane need apply.

As with all pure action games, FD18 has its annoyances and limitations. It plays like an arcade game, with unfair surprises taking you down at least once, forcing you to play each area to perfection.

It's all pretty simple. Crash collects Wumpa fruit, Spyro collects crystals, and they both jump over lots of spikes.

It's all pretty simple. Crash collects Wumpa fruit, Spyro collects crystals, and they both jump over lots of spikes.

Ironically Worms Forts would probably be a faster and more intense game if worms didn't feature at all. Read into that what you will.

The interface as well as several features have been lifted from ["Championship Manager"], and as such it's a slick affair. And perhaps it's the familiar feel or the hypnotic flashing text, but it somehow drags you in, whatever your knowledge of the sport. That said, the bulk of the tactical stuff can be delegated to a head coach, although that kind of defeats the object of the game.

In real life, Tasmanian tigers have been hunted to extinction, so we're getting our NOM shotgun ready to finish the job and kill Ty off.

With a few more buttons to play with you could have a broader list of moves for the Hedgehog and also a decent amount of control.

It's fun then, but next to the visual magnificence of Cube's Rogue Squadron series, this looks like a clumsy kid's drawing. Flat textures, static backdrops and bog standard explosions spoil a lot of the game's atmospheric potential too.

It's the kind of game that a family can enjoy together, and perhaps is best in that sense. Ironic gen-Xers and urban wiggers probably won't get much from it, but then that's why games like Need For Speed and GTA exist. [PC Zone]

Has a forbidding atmosphere (beginning on a ship and moving to an oil rig), violent blood-letting and superb environmental effects. However, we've seen the same kind of lame puzzles (sodding keycards anyone?) and storylines a billion times before. [PC Zone]

Too basic to appeal to die-hard Madden fans, yet too technical to be of any interest to casual players. What's more, it's filled to bursting with the usual dazzling array of customisable features - those that really do nothing to enhance play at all.

All Stars proved that simple ideas could create a pick-up-and-play WWE title without sacrificing depth for the hardcore, and WWE 12 would have done well to learn from its arcade-focused cousin.

The title simply appears to have been rushed out without any testing, which is a real shame because underneath its problems, Dungeon Lords is a solid and enjoyable, if not ground-breaking RPG. [PC Zone]

Classic horror, average action.

The mash-up idea's splendid and it offers real depth and innovation. In fact, once you get over the control hurdle, you'll find a very decent, challenging and rewarding game.

It's about time somebody grabbed this licence by the proverbials and created something special. Sadly, this game isn't it. [PC Zone]

It's also AMAZINGLY loud. Random battles erupt with an explosive screech sure to stain your sofa and almost every flick of the D-Pad on menus results in a baffling, ear-smashing clang.

A competent and rewarding game worthy of a couple of days blasting. [PC Zone]

There's no multiplayer action and with a fairly short playing time, this is much more suited to a rental.

Superb car handling is the only redeeming factor for GT PSP. It feels great to drive. But that driving needed to be packaged with an actual racing game and that game isn't here.

Dredd fans will enjoy looking around the levels and laughing at the in-jokes - the rest of you will see this for what it is, a bog-standard FPS. [Nintendo Offical Magazine]

In terms of customisable play, varied and never-dull multiplayer along with a decent co-op mode, there's no doubt that Lockdown remains an attractive and enjoyable package - but it just feels old.

Quite frankly it's an insult to have to pay 35 quid for something that starts getting irksome in under half a day and is only genuinely entertaining in 20-minute bursts. Mindlessly fun and manically intense it is, innovative and essential it seriously isn't. [PC Zone]

Squeezed down to small screen size, it loses a lot of what made the Super NES game a classic.

In all, KOH is a studious and elegant RTS that benefits from a smooth interface and a balanced system of game mechanics. But sadly there's only one way to play the game: slowly. It's really quite a sedate experience, in fact too sedate, and after a few plays, only the committed will want to stay with it.

Unfortunately, the conversion to PC is a sloppy affair, leaving it with a number of issues, such as a frame-rate that's at times slower than a bed-ridden sloth, a bizarre lack of sound effects, an option to change resolution that doesn't work and the fact that the game defaults to running in a small window.

This pair of butt-bashing bints may be big in Japan, but we don't see the game taking off here. Some nice touches, but we've seen it all already.

Sure, you can fly a zeppelin on Mars if you want, but aside from slightly more responsive flap settings, blowier wind (to use the technical term) and a guest appearance from Stephen Hawking as the voice of air traffic control (joke), X-Plane offers very little that Microsoft's doesn't already do both prettier and more intuitively.

The camera has a tendency to misbehave, leaving your troops obscured by mountains during battles and your workers hidden behind city walls. What's more, the linearity of the missions negates much of the game's strategic subtlety, while selecting troops is clumsy.

Newcomers will get a kick out of it, but old fans will find the new Prince unchallenging and slightly shallow compared to the rest of the series.

Its bargain basement credentials are evident in a lack of visual polish, poor mission balancing and dodgy enemy AI. Character animations are clunky, enemies fail to become alarmed by bullets ricocheting next to their heads, and the stealth mechanics are a little hazy.

Missions generally consist of bludgeoning your way from A to B; sometimes you'll have to retrieve an item, sometimes you'll have to flick a switch. Take away the specifics though and it boils down to walking across an island of hungry corpses and back again nine times out of ten.

Essentially a pornographic playground, it's proof that games don't necessarily have to be about sport, war or goblins.

Then there's the dodgy AI that produces identical breaks if you play the same character again, and super-aggressive play from the big boys with not even a nod to a safety game. All of which adds up to a rushed and amateurish job, albeit one that's surprisingly addictive.

While Chaos League: Sudden Death is an intriguing take on fantasy tactical sports, the effort required to get going coupled with the repetitiveness which starts to creep in after a tournament or two will dissuade many. In all, it's a bit of a missed opportunity to polish up a flawed, but novel, piece of entertainment. [PC Zone]

Basically one big collect-'a-thon.

If you enjoy squandering time away on the original title, you're bound to find more joy and excitement from the additional animals and buildings included in this expansion.

Settlers is far from awful, it's just mind-numbingly dull. Which is far, far worse.

Despite its lack of innovation, Septerra Core proves to be perfectly playable, and at times even quite enjoyable. [PC Zone]

If you absolutely must have Shinin' playing on your telly then this could be worth picking up, if not the Xbox Live Arcade edition is a much more solid and prettier looking version of the visceral puzzler.

Regardless of the decent handling, there's no escaping one of MTX's most annoying flaws: heaps of the objectives are startlingly samey.

Made less accessible by its flagrant lack of polish. A cursory manual, a poor tutorial, terrible animations, weak voiceovers and an unsightly interface immediately count against it.

It's basic, it's clichéd, it's blokey... oh, and it's expensive and short, but Shadow Ops: Red Mercury is still a hoot. If you're after a brainless gun-fest with plenty of blowing-up, give it a few months and see if you can pick it up on the cheap. [PC Zone]

Nowhere near as good as the full-priced alternatives - but you're still guaranteed a pretty good time.

Overly jaunty and a bit threadbare - but by no means an embarrassment for Microsoft.

An unoriginal and slightly dull survival horror in the Resident Evil mould, the brilliant X-Files atmosphere and 20 price tag will save it for fans of the show.

Tasks as simple as wandering around are frustrated by the controls reversing as the camera angle jumps, while during the frequent combat bits you'll spend more time fighting with the clunking movement mechanism than with the denizens of Silent Hill.

So despite a slight lick of paint, especially in the newer areas, AC2 still sports one of the ugliest interfaces in MMO history and has game options that are insultingly simplistic. [PC Zone]

All this violence is undeniably fun for a while and the visuals are decent, but after a couple of hours you'll have seen all there is to offer. [PC Zone]

Sure, it looks like the film on the surface, but you don't have to dig far to find a game that fails to live up to the license. Surprisingly, it's the competitive multiplayer that impresses the most.

A deeply disappointing experience that barely appeals to hack 'n' slash nuts and fans of Kurosawa's masterpiece.

It's got the basics in place, but that just isn't enough. Ultimately there are superior role-playing and swordfighting games out there.

In essence, the game mechanics are as rough as a butcher's dog, yet it remains a game that will make you smile, and one that you'll finish - not least because it's so damn short.

Sticks to the Silent Hill formula like glue. But Homecoming feels clunky and looks old compared to today's horror games.

Eorzea is a beautiful world with huge potential for vast adventures, but it's just a shame that this first voyage into it is such a mis-step.

While not a universally terrible effort, the tense stand-offs and tight urban combat is let down by the weak interface and poor consistency in your squad's AI.

So for all the weak enemy AI and graphical glitches, ABZ remains a decent and carnage-filled team-based blaster, worth checking out when the price drops.

The way I see it, the only reason you might want to carry on playing is because you've already invested so much time in getting to where you are - which sounds like a lot of hard work to me. [PC Zone]

Breathlessly imaginative in everything but gameplay. Only die-hards need to journey down this particular rabbit hole.

DMC4 kicks DW's face off all night long. But, for strategy fans, this could be worth a night's rental.

Obviously not the most groundbreaking title out there, but a solid title that, with a bit more concentration on the presentation front, could have scaled the heady highs of platformers.

A spook-tacular recreation of the Ghostbusters world, let down by dodgy spook-snatching and no-mark characters.

Problem is, if you are serious about your ice hockey games Rivals' online capability is one of the few things to get excited about.

It's an engaging scrap that just about manages to keep you hooked. Worth taking a chance on if you like fight-heavy action adventures with a seedy, skuzzy undercurrent and plenty of face-smashing. [PSW]

It's the Versus mode which stands out - hurling streetlights and taxi cabs at Captain America is no end of fun. [PSW]

The result looks well tasty, but is hard to swallow. [PSW]

Everybody's Golf invites comparison with the similarly cartoonish "Outlaw Golf 2." Sadly it comes off second best again, thanks to that game's wealth of tournaments and play modes, and its attractive 19.99 price tag. [PSW]

Genji is such a shallow and easy game to complete that it won't keep you busy for more than six or seven hours. And that's only if you can stomach the long-winded cut-scenes. [PSW]

So while Sniper Elite is tense and fairly riveting, it's never exciting or completely satisfying. The game feels like a chore to play through and the concept is just too limited to be truly enjoyable. [PSW]

Nano Breaker degenerates into a slew of mindless button-bashing encounters. It's fun in a retro kind of way, but it isn't quite intelligent enough to keep you coming back for more.

There's just not enough here to warrant a score of your hard-earned readies. [Official UK Xbox Magazine]

There's just not enough attitude to elevate the standard gameplay above average and after the style and sheen of "SSX3" and "THUG" this looks second rate.

Unfortunately, the cut-scenes throughout the game just rub salt into the wound, their slick animations contrasting with the clunky in-game action. Yes, From Russia With Love creaks like the 75-year-old Connery's knees, but it still has style. [PSW]

As ever, it's a case of 20 minutes of quick-fire fun at best, another lesson in how games from the past should just stay there at worst. [Official UK Xbox Magazine]

Graphically speaking, Fantastic 4 is tired and ropey and depressingly familiar to look at. There's plenty going on, sure - the game copes well with teeming armies of bad guys - but the character models are basic and the arm-through-wall style glitches and wobbly camera are just embarrassing. [Official UK Xbox Magazine]

A game that feels vaguely like chewing an endless pile of cream crackers. The cream crackers of vaguely interesting turn-based combat, interspersed with the odd sultana of story and the out-of-date marshmallow of film footage. [PSW]

It's great when it sticks to the story, but too often it gets caught up in a seemingly pointless loop. Even so, it's still the best looking Spider-Man game yet. [PSW]

It's not an exciting, adrenaline-pumping game and it does border on the easy side, but with multiplayer options (online and offline) for up to eight players, we could soon see the birth of tomorrow's generation of FPS warriors.

Retro purists will like it but most will find the gameplay too basic. The graphics and technology behind the game have obviously improved and grown over the years; it's just a pity the same can't be said of the actual gameplay. [PSW]

It's a shame then, that the Franchise mode omits goals, mini-camps, morale, and spring training. Want even less? You can't challenge calls after a play, and the promised 'hard-hitting' animations during a tackle turn into a weird and glitchy dance. And tragically, there's no Superstars mode. Once you've done feasting on the visuals, you've got a bargain-basement Madden at a real-world price. [Official UK Xbox Magazine]

It's just a pity about the lacklustre responsiveness of the characters, as that downfall makes this a decent game as opposed to a good one. Hopefully Shrek will triumph in the next, inevitable tie-in. [PSW]

Offers lots of cars to unlock, and plenty of challenges and game types to keep you amused - it's not by any means the worst driving game ever made, and it's a snip at 20. But, much like the Ford brand itself, there isn't really much in the way of glitz or glamour to it either. [Official UK Xbox Magazine]

Sure, you can save up energy and then turn into a bloody great beast, but it's just a gimmick really. Bloody Roar isn't original enough to innovate and isn't polished enough to epitomise the genre like "Soul Calibur II" does.

If you can put up with acting which is more wooden than Pinocchio with a semi, and want a simple but entertaining strategy game to help pass the long winter nights, then SpellForce may be your vial of poison.

Sadly, The Warriors is never more than running about smashing people's heads in to cool 1970s music and listening to clichéd gang speak. We demand more these days. [PSW]

We've all got a soft spot for SpongeBob here at OXM towers (Ben T in particular), but our osmotic obsession can't mask the fact that this is a by-the-numbers platformer, albeit a charming one. [Official UK Xbox Magazine]

Looking past the nostalgia, you realise a lot of the games are a bit wank by today's standards, but Taito Legends scrapes being worth it for the first games listed alone. [PC Zone]

Not bad, then. And cheap. And sometimes actually funny. While still being massively predictable, though.

It's ironic that a game featuring a jawless, semi-putrid swash-buckling skeleton is essentially the re-animated gaming carcass of a 1999 PSone title.

The whole package is undermined by the same problems that afflicted our RoboJordan. It looks stunning and has all the moves, but if you're in the market for a long-term basketball experience you're better off with the old Xbox version. [Official UK Xbox Magazine]

Solid iPad racer let down by a lack of content and poor weaponry.

Overall, the multiplayer game modes are far more engaging than the story mode, whose biggest failing is a lack of variety. One for Xbox Live maniacs only.

If you're enough of a fan to forgive its frustrating moments, Dark Motives' five cases will give you a few evenings' worth of semi-interactive intrigue, but not much more.