It isn’t without issues, and it doesn’t do anything particularly new or special, but it’s that doesn’t stop it being a fun, charming way to spend a few hours.

Tragic in unused potential and perplexing in design, Hydrophobia never becomes more than the sum of its parts.

If anything Super Monkey Ball: Step & Roll is the simplest in the series if played with a Wii Remote and possibly the most difficult if using the Board, for all the wrong reasons.

As a self-contained music game then, Guitar Hero: Van Halen really isn’t substantial or appealing enough to warrant extended play.

As a whole, Pokédex 3D Pro is a nice little device, however the biggest problem with it is the expense. At £13.49 (or $15), it's at least twice as much as it should be. This isn't a game, despite the quiz elements. It's a 3D viewer at best, and all the useful information is more accessible in Bulbapedia or Serebii or one of dozens of free (or cheap) Pokédex apps on mobile devices.

The tale is muddled and poorly executed, the action is unremarkable, and yet, for all its issues, Blade Kitten is still a playable game with enough sugary-sweet style to appeal to a younger audience – or indeed those with an interest in all things cat-girl.

The worlds have a vibrancy that recalls the original PlayStation games, special effects are suitably dazzling and the whole affair is efficiently produced whilst making the most of the host hardware. It's close to being the sort of Spyro game that, judging by their PS3 Ratchet & Clank adventures, series creators Insomniac would have made had they still an active interest in all things purple dragon, and an appropriate way to mark Spyro's 10th anniversary.

The challenge/reward loop will simply not click for many, with the touch-screen controls being little more than a clunky irritant attached to a slow-paced and slightly directionless game.

The game exceeds our expectations in nearly all areas and certainly rates highly in our minds-own check-list of movie cash-ins.

For all its shortcomings, we still quite like Front Mission Evolved, especially as it manages to imbue a feeling of power in the player with its well made shooting mechanics better than many other shooters. While it is unlikely to be remembered for having any particularly remarkable features, it does what it does mostly very well.

Both Spider-Men deserved better than this, but avid fans might want to consider a weekend rental if only to hear the performances. Everyone else should flush this particular spider away.

For all its shortcomings, we still quite like Front Mission Evolved, especially as it manages to imbue a feeling of power in the player with its well made shooting mechanics better than many other shooters. While it is unlikely to be remembered for having any particularly remarkable features, it does what it does mostly very well.

The game exceeds our expectations in nearly all areas and certainly rates highly in our minds-own check-list of movie cash-ins.

The pros of Hotel Giant 2 are outweighed by some of its cons, most notably the repetitive and non-engaging nature of the gameplay.

The tale is muddled and poorly executed, the action is unremarkable, and yet, for all its issues, Blade Kitten is still a playable game with enough sugary-sweet style to appeal to a younger audience – or indeed those with an interest in all things cat-girl.

There’s little here to recommend, even for the most loyal of fans. Instead, don your best shell-suit, hook up your mum’s old telly to the SNES in the loft and play out your childhood battles with the original. It’s far better.

This very much makes Datura a game of two halves; on the one hand it's imaginative, beautifully rendered, and strives for a rare degree of uniqueness. On the other, it's an experience marred by mechanical shortcomings and over-ambition, with Move implementation that frustrates as much as it inspires awe.

The game exceeds our expectations in nearly all areas and certainly rates highly in our minds-own check-list of movie cash-ins.

As it stands, Ghost Mania is a diverting but non-essential 500 point purchase.

It may struggle to satiate the hunger of the solo gamer, but the multiplayer offers enough content and variety to make it a title well worth dipping into; and for 500 points, that’s not a bad deal at all.

Though Pokemon Rumble's simplicity may have been easier to overlook when it was released as a Nintendo WiiWare title, this full price follow up should be seen as little more than a stop-gap that fails to advance the series in any meaningful way while delivering a gameplay experience that is forgettable as it is monotonous.

Unfortunately, Way of the Samurai 3 left us bored, uninspired and desperate to play something or, rather, anything else. The game fails to live up to even the most basic standard of quality, offering an archaic play style that falls short of even the most charmless of current-gen titles.

This decision further cements the idea – given that the 1980s series has been localised in English in the past – that this is a very niche game, for an audience expected to have some attachment with the series, and that it is a very barebones package with all extraneous content cut for more characters and levels. As a result, it is difficult to recommend to audiences outside of fans of the series; nostalgia, or familiarity, will likely forgive many of the shortcomings.

While not devoid of charm and a solid visual showcase for the PlayStation 4, Knack is best described as a PSOne title in shiny modern clothing.

Don't buy unless you have Pokémon Black 2 or White 2, but if you do, it's a great addition to your arsenal.

From its ship-based hub to its mythological roots via its highly linear attempts at non-linearity, Rise of the Argonauts is very much a case of ’seen it all before, done much better’.

As a package Black Knight is competent: the frame rate is consistent while the visuals, taking their cue from Secret Rings, suggest that Sonic Team’s capability with squeezing results from the modest hardware is more successful than their understanding of how Sonic should feel as a game.

Amazingly, EA are still surprising us, but for all of the wrong reasons. Who knew that they still had the capacity to deliver such awful, creaky, shoddily-constructed software? Once a seemingly forgotten page in EA's coloured history, we can only hope that this disgrace to the near-legendary universe that Tolkien crafted is simply an anomaly.

By removing any sense of strategy and skill EA has broken the two most fundamental rules of a fighter. Instead, FaceBreaker is nothing more than a mere exercise in button-bashing.

It’s not for everyone; if the idea of a tribute to hard-as-nails adventuring turns you off, then walk away.

Deathly dull and completely without purpose, it’s an alien piece of software that appears to have crash-landed in from another, entirely more forgiving era.

Ultimately, it’s a shame to see a game with such an intriguing concept go to ruin.

The tale is muddled and poorly executed, the action is unremarkable, and yet, for all its issues, Blade Kitten is still a playable game with enough sugary-sweet style to appeal to a younger audience – or indeed those with an interest in all things cat-girl.

It's not enough to save Operation Raccoon City though, which ultimately is a title that feels too rushed to warrant any great investment on the part of the player. That it's sold in such high numbers (at time of writing it's number one in Japan) says a lot about the strength of the Resident Evil brand which, if ORC is anything to go by, is in danger of being fatally diluted.

Groove Heaven is a relatively good looking game, there are some good ideas here and if you approach it expecting ‘My first rhythm action game’ you won’t be too disappointed, and maybe in this it has done its job. However, it is disappointing that it fails to reach the euphoric heights hinted at by that title.

Duke Nukem Forever is a strange enough novelty all on its own, but when all is said and done, it is a vastly aged shooter that is left trailing in the dust of its modern contemporaries.

With a short, linear and derivative campaign plus a multiplayer offering unlikely to distract for long, Bodycount just doesn't have enough going for it to warrant a purchase, even at a bargain bin price.

In fairness, there is some fun to be had here, and Supermassive Games do show a degree of competency in utilizing the PlayStation Move, but sadly competency really isn't enough to get a party jumping.

Yoostar 2's developer Blitz Games got it right by calling their game a 'movie karaoke' experience – and in all senses of the word, it truly is best defined this way. Having your bodily image projected into film and TV scenes is as charming as it tedious in practice. But more so than many other party games, the on-disc limitations of choice on offer as well as the brevity of each film's clips might spoil the experience for some.

As a game, Kung Fu LIVE is by no means a great one…in fact, it's barely even a good one –the technical demands and lack of immediacy in the controls can be frustrating, and underneath the technical showboating is a fighting game of the most rudimentary kind.

From its tired mid-1990s 'cool kid' chic and offensively putrid design; to the slipshod quality of control that consistently fails to map proper movements into the game's on-screen action, it's fair to say that Crossboard 7 is not the 'system seller' show-piece for Microsoft's intensively technical Kinect hardware, but more of a case study for developers to learn exactly what not to do with it.

Duke Nukem Forever is a strange enough novelty all on its own, but when all is said and done, it is a vastly aged shooter that is left trailing in the dust of its modern contemporaries.

Creative Assembly deserve a fair amount of praise for at least attempting something new (the whip select system could have worked well with a smaller Full Spectrum Warrior-type army) and for some of the neat ideas lurking beneath its derivative post-apocalyptic trappings – most notably the ability to command units on different levels, as opposed to a flat playing area. But unfortunately, Stormrise quickly degenerates into a war of attrition.

It may be time to close the saloon doors for good on this one – we've just witnessed the fall of Juarez.

Saw II outstays its welcome after a couple of hours and keeps on forcing the hackneyed plot on you when you want it all to end.

It’s artistically weak, lacking in substance, and as a result is somewhat cut adrift from the rest of the battling pack.

Saw II outstays its welcome after a couple of hours and keeps on forcing the hackneyed plot on you when you want it all to end.

Sanctum of Slime is ultimately a missed opportunity that deserves to be missed.

Lacking in depth and diversity but not completely devoid of charm, the game is a playable yet troubled effort that warrants little more than a one-night rent.

Lacking in depth and diversity but not completely devoid of charm, the game is a playable yet troubled effort that warrants little more than a one-night rent.

The visual novel-esque method of storytelling could work for a game based on a comic strip – games like Comix Zone have experimented with using comic-panel based graphics – but Romance Dawn does not feel like a comic despite using the aesthetic. There are not enough of the full-screen images to depict key scenes of the plot, and too often important developments are reduced to screen shakes and sound effects.

Sanctum of Slime is ultimately a missed opportunity that deserves to be missed.

With a little more love, Way of the Dogg could have be a pretty cool rhythm game. Even if its framework is a silly attempt to pasteurise Snoop’s waning branded image and cultural relevance, the basic pitch is still solid and curiously inspired. But in practice, Way of the Dogg’s lifeless rhythm styling and maddening technical hiccups join forces to forge something truly ghetto.

There’s no good reason to play Scourge: Outbreak. It functions (sort of), I’ll give ‘em that. But realistically, and even at a cheaper asking price, why would anyone ever want to play this game? Even the most middling third-person shooter is more desirable, and thankfully the last eight years has got your back pretty well covered in that regard.

Otherwise The Eternity Clock is a buggy, forgettable game. Although this is the first in a proposed trilogy of new Doctor Who titles commissioned by BBC Worldwide, it feels as though it would have been better to focus the entire budget and creative ideas on just one, more refined game, than to release such an uninspired, tedious insult to the great Doctor's name.

So Rock Revolution isn’t quite the revolution it claims to be. Quite the opposite, in fact. It’s a game that cuts every corner possible to create a soulless, low-cost venture that happily plays second fiddle to its competitors.

It's a sad truth to report, but the great ideas of Steel Battalion: Heavy Armour have been laid on some considerably crooked foundations. If anything, it's an indictment of the Kinect's over-promise, as its unresponsive method of control ends up drowning out any potential of its ambitions coming to life in a truly satisfying manner.

Blue Omega certainly has the vision, but evidently lacks the talent to do it justice. Damnation indeed.

With insipid art, painfully boring gameplay and a lack of any sense of professionalism or class, Star Raiders just can't come recommended to anyone, even to those with more time and money than they know what to do with.

It may have something to offer to destruction derby fans and the low price point means it's hard to be too critical, but most players will still want to avoid a collision with this one.

Another day, another game about the horrors of conflict. For the six of you that still care about wanting to trudge through a true Vietnam War setting, the choice is simple – you either play Shellshock 2, or sit through the four hour cut of Apocalypse Now whilst daubed in body paint and playing The Doors on the stereo. Here’s your last clue – it’s not the first suggestion.

More Game Party is a casual game aimed at a casual audience, for whom the insipid, dull and unengaging mini-games might provide the type of minor distraction they were looking for. For everyone else, it's best avoided.

Definitely one to avoid.

The hidden object aspect of the game is solid and never falls on the side of frustration, but the minigames could do with being more varied and taxing. Ultimately, Death in Scarlet comes highly recommended for those looking for a game light on difficulty but heavy on intrigue.

Best played in short bursts, Battle Group is a fine example of how to make a game designed to slot into short lulls during your day, with each level supplying a snappy and quickly finished slice of naval carnage.

Bubble Jets is an understated game inspired by a gentle toy that provides an equally gentle, yet strangely addictive experience. It is also well pitched for the App Store and its audience, being strangely heart-warming for older gamers (giving them a twinge of nostalgia,) while younger games will be instantly at home with the easy to understand controls and immediacy of the on-screen action. The biggest frustrations it provides will likely for other iOS developers across the world who may well be left slapping their foreheads and exclaiming – 'Why didn't I think of that!'?

Its ambitions may be modest, but there's no doubt that Dead Hungry Diner succeeds in delivering an intelligent and entertaining experience that's worth of your attention.