There may well be gamers for whom this approach is too substantial, preferring instead the quick-fire charms of the iPhone's throwaway, two-minute-blast games. But where those titles often wither under sustained attention, Rolando 2 blossoms, and in doing so maintains the series' position at the very top of the handheld's library.

Although very different from the Japanese veteran's usual ferocious output, Mushihimesama soon grows into the kind of exacting, gleefully sadistic experience you expect from this lot.

With 200 of the blessed things to face (of which 140 are evil user-created levels), public transport delays will be positively welcome.

It's just so devastatingly addictive - and the fun doesn't even truly start until you've got some competitive friends on the in-game leaderboards.

Game Dev Story is easily the best thing I've ever played on the iPhone.

The important thing, above all else, is that it's extremely good fun, a fantastic showcase for the technology (particularly on iPhone 4) and comfortably the most rewarding mobile driving game money can buy right now.

For a while, Papa Sangre is a wonderful novelty. Unfortunately, the further you get, the more trial-and-error annoyance starts to put a crimp on your enjoyment.

I found Flick Golf brilliantly stupid; as a representation of badly dressed men hitting balls with skinny sticks, it's completely terrible, but despite its nonsensical mechanics it's impossible to put down.

Drop in a handful of bugs (including one proper braincooker, whereby the game refused to let my character pick up an explosive charge required to destroy an objective until I appeased it by flinging myself off a cliff), and you've got something I can't imagine someone choosing to play over any of this generation's excellent shooters. The bar's too high and it's still rising, way above Breach's reach.

Considered in isolation, Dead Space 2's ambience, brute frights and player toolset are good rather great. But in combination, these three elements prove as irresistible as the pull on Isaac exerted by a malfunctioning airlock. For once, you'll want to let go.

Considered in isolation, Dead Space 2's ambience, brute frights and player toolset are good rather great. But in combination, these three elements prove as irresistible as the pull on Isaac exerted by a malfunctioning airlock. For once, you'll want to let go.

The simple upgrade system makes you bigger, more resilient and faster, but there's only so long its simple, twisting, turning formula can keep you amused before the urge to move on kicks in. Mercifully, the price is right, but don't expect much more than a quick fix.

It's a short and rather insipid slog that simply doesn't have the charm or ambition to compensate for its wonkier aspects.

The fact that Surfacer + is also out for iPhone for pennies makes the DSiWare price even more laughable.

If you're a huge fan of the mobile game, by all means pay the extra, but everyone else should be mindful of the competition before slapping their money down.

But if you can break through the periodic pain barrier that comes with such exacting physics-based challenges, you'll be able to bask in the warm glow of manly gaming satisfaction. And with around six hours' worth of it to roll through, it'll put hairs on your chest. Not so good if you're a lady, obviously.

While it may be the best implementation of a console MMO to date, PS3 owners should still ask for more.

PC gamers accustomed to feasts of content and polish will likely feel short-changed from their subscription fee once the initial 30 day rush is over.

The game 999 most reminded me of was the similarly dark – and bafflingly underrated – Lux-Pain, which was equally inconsistent and suffered from a significantly weaker translation, but arguably blended shocks and laughs a little more skilfully than this does.

It's one of the freshest, most original and genuinely funny games to hit the DS since a certain lawyer raised his first objection.

Because it's scientifically impossible to have too many match-three videogames in your life, here's another one to salivate inappropriately over.

All you're left with is a game that costs almost three times as much as the original, isn't as pretty, and still has all the frustration intact. What a shame.

If you can persuade your friends list to join in the time-shifting fun, Zeit² threatens to become another score-chasing obsession.

As long as you're all in the same boat, Top Darts is fun in its haplessness, and a cheap bit of Move-related throwaway entertainment.

Camera and pacing issues aside, there are few real flaws, but equally there's very little you'll remember once the credits have rolled on the 15-hour campaign.

There are two sides to SBK X, really. The Arcade mode is probably too laid back - if you just want to dabble with bikes without putting much thought in, MotoGP 09/10 is a more gratifying game - but the Simulation is extremely flexible.

There are two sides to SBK X, really. The Arcade mode is probably too laid back - if you just want to dabble with bikes without putting much thought in, MotoGP 09/10 is a more gratifying game - but the Simulation is extremely flexible.

There are two sides to SBK X, really. The Arcade mode is probably too laid back - if you just want to dabble with bikes without putting much thought in, MotoGP 09/10 is a more gratifying game - but the Simulation is extremely flexible.

Puzzle games often sound complicated when you try to explain them to people in text, but Spin Six quickly becomes one of the ones that gets under your skin.

For a game that's entirely happy to plunder the past and repackage it all with a nod and a wink, this cheery portion of nostalgic blasting is well worth dusting off your neglected PSP for.

A beautifully original game that in another era would have been much-admired at triple the price.

This is yet another quality downloadable shooter that deserves both your money and your love.

This is yet another quality downloadable shooter that deserves both your money and your love.

Raskulls' crazed, crafted combination of platforming, racing and puzzling always promised to be something worth paying attention to, and so it has proved.

A dreamily pretty and astonishingly compulsive puzzler that's a good deal more polished than many full-price retail releases.

A World of Keflings feels more like an enhanced remake rather than a true sequel, and anyone who played through the original will quickly get déjà vu from the identical journey from basic houses up to an ornate game-winning castle.

Strip away the relentless good looks and the generous open-source playpen, and the bare, underlying platformer's shortcomings may hold it back from classic status. But as a package, as a concept, as an unfinished story, LittleBigPlanet 2 is a world apart.

A cynical and frustratingly abrupt ending that quite deliberately leaves too many unanswered questions and story threads dangling is about the only real sour note struck by another accomplished downloadable release from Capcom.

Although there's not a great deal of substance to this downloadable chunk, it's nevertheless a pleasant bonus for those of you who've already shelled out for PlayStation Plus.

As you might expect, continual death loops start to chip away at your initial fondness for Intrinsic's stylish attempt, and once you get snagged on a particular problem, the temptation to part ways grows strong.

But even if the controls did work properly, the level design and enemy AI are so stultifyingly generic that it feels like the last 12 years of game design didn't happen.

Cataclysm doesn't just make WOW better. It does something even more valuable than that; it renews it. It fires your excitement at starting on that long road one more time, and invites you to relish the journey just as much as you'll lose yourself in its ending.

Despite the number of maps on offer, 1200 Microsoft Points (£10.20 / €14.40) is too high a price for what has become, sadly, a niche title.

While Dead Money justifies its 800 Microsoft Point price tag in terms of quantity, the quality isn't quite there.

Somewhere out there, there is a player this game is perfect for. But he or she would still be advised to wait another six months before even thinking about Final Fantasy XIV, because Square Enix hasn't yet got its head around its own players.

But the swell of Alan Silvestri's score with the firing up of time circuits and the rev of the DeLorean's engine caught me unawares and genuinely made me feel like I was seven again: seven and filled with dreams that I too could listen to Huey Lewis and the News tapes on my Walkman and tit around on a skateboard. An authentic tribute.

Look beyond the famous name, however, and Ivy the Kiwi? is a fresh, if limited, spin on the 2D platformer. If you're a leaderboard junkie, there's plenty of replay pleasure to be had as you chase down the best times for each level and find all the secrets.

It's the best portable Harvest Moon in quite some time, and the multiplayer is a promising development, but we're still waiting for another Friends of Mineral Town.

Even if GTi Club Supermini Festa was a tenth of the price you'd be hard pressed to justify buying it. Its existence in 2010 is entirely redundant.

I do like Gratuitous Space Battles. I think it's a great concept, beautifully presented. I just wish it would let me like it more.

After its unnecessarily basic opening run of levels, the excitably named Go! Go! Island Rescue! begins to justify all the exclamation marks with some furiously taxing levels.

Initially haunting and lonely, then blossoming into something joyous, Drawn: Dark Flight is a triumph of creativity and imagination.

For some, the game will be a chance to get a bit drunk and mess about singing Gold Digger while pretending to be the wiry-haired teacher off of Glee. And to that end, the game satisfies rather than dazzles.

While it's undoubtedly fun for a few rounds, developer Tons of Bits' debut WiiWare effort feels like it lacks a little substance to make it worthy over the longer haul.

Once the novelty of the game concept has worn off, which doesn't take long, the frustration caused by the controls really kicks in.

If you really, really want to play tennis with your Move controller, Racket Sports works well enough to fulfill that function. But think carefully about whether that experience is worth £25 (it isn't).

£29.99 is a lot to ask for a game that only offers a few hours of entertainment, and even less if you're too lazy or rubbish to unlock everything.

The mini-games do work, and if your idea of a good time is indeed struggling to put on clown make-up on or saw a virtual plank in half you might enjoy them. But I have no idea who you are.

Even throwing in all the other games on the Razing Storm disc you're not looking at more than an afternoon's worth of entertainment here, and that makes it poor value for money.

One day, Gaijin Games might make it possible for mortals to play its games, but until then Fate is one you're probably best off spectating rather than getting smashed up by.

The only reason to buy Sonic Free Riders would be if it was actually free. And even then, only if you just really liked the box.

Once you're onto the medium levels and beyond, you'll be cajoled into smack-talking the level designers and laughing like a drain when it all slots into place, as if you're exacting some strange form of revenge by solving their unseemly riddle. It's that kind of game.

Recettear is one of the best indie games to arrive this year.

Once you slip into the mindset and embrace Puzzle Bots' lo-fi charms, the initial clunkiness dissipates into a cloud of goodwill, and chipping your way through 17 stages of point-and-click puzzling seems like a fine way to occupy an evening.

To say that this is a must-buy is doing it a disservice; it's a game you'll want to instantly evangelise to anyone with even the vaguest sense of what makes a game good.

Hopefully this is the last we'll see of the human d-pad experiment. I spend enough time under the thumb as it is.

Just don't expect a welcome return after frolicking with today's less punishing fighters, because this KOF is far from forgiving.

It's fun for a while, but by no stretch of the imagination is it worth £35.

With a lengthy central quest and plenty of side missions, there's enough Golden Sun here to illuminate many a long winter evening.

The sum of FM 2011's parts is the most organic but more importantly, most believable man- and team-management experience the series has provided.

There's a slickness to the combat, an intelligence to the map design, and a sense of atmosphere worth exploring, all wrapped up in a fast, fun, progressive experience that drip-feeds you goodies as you go.

The greater focus on third-person sections is also a pleasant diversion (especially when you're outside of the ship) but, realistically, the real problems are the drudgery of constant waypoint-following and the inability to play the campaign mode with a pal.

The greater focus on third-person sections is also a pleasant diversion (especially when you're outside of the ship) but, realistically, the real problems are the drudgery of constant waypoint-following and the inability to play the campaign mode with a pal.

It's a game that dares to tear up the rulebook and start over in the quest for a better sequel, and is all the better for venturing beyond the boundaries established in the previous game. The sort of old-school puzzle game that demands patience and dedication, it repays both in abundance.

It's a measure of how far we've come that just over 20 years ago the sight of blood alone was enough to shock and offend, whereas now it is nowhere near enough.

Some people have nightmares about taking out their zombie wife with a sniper rifle. Me? I'm spinning through 3D space at high speed fretting about getting shapes to fit through narrow gaps. Horses for courses.

Meanwhile, it serves as a sharp reminder that, regardless of how pointless the skills are that some videogames imprint upon our minds and hands, some of life's biggest thrills are to be found in their mastery.

So it's up there with Just Dance 2 and Dance Central as a fun, accessible, well-produced dancing game. But none of them could be described as the ultimate dancing game.

The creativity and daring invention of the designers should be applauded in no uncertain terms. But by the end of the game, it's clear that the studio was unable to bring its patchwork quilt of mechanics together into a coherent whole.

It's tricky and exacting, but in all the right ways.

Two decades after my first virtual encounter, he may no longer be a system-seller, but Jacko's still got all the right moves.

But this game is also clunky, burdened with terrible songs and much too weird for most people. It's a quirky alternative to Dance Central, but not a competitor.

But if you're looking for a Kinect fitness game which provides more motivation than Your Shape and is technically sounder than EA Sports Active, and if you can put up with the relentless cheeriness, Ultimate Loser is a decent choice.

Game Republic's effort lacks polish and elegance, but, thanks to charm and the in-built strength of its setup, it is an experience worth partnering with.

Game Republic's effort lacks polish and elegance, but, thanks to charm and the in-built strength of its setup, it is an experience worth partnering with.

As it is now, LEGO Universe starts as a pleasant distraction but promptly ferries you straight into a fierce, ludicrous grind that leads nowhere. That's one brick wall I could do without.

The game that kept coming to mind as I played through Kirby's Epic Yarn was not any of the past Kirby entries, but rather Little Nemo The Dream Master, an NES game from 1990.

The comic book presentation is enthusiastically funny, the freeform action concept is commendable and the technology itself, when it works, is promising.

Another boarding game! And yes, it's just like Sonic Free Riders! Except Sonic and the stupid albatross have been replaced by a weird green wolf thing and an annoying surfer dude monkey. And the tracks aren't as good. And the power-ups are duller. And it looks horrible.

What was a wonderfully intuitive and thoroughly relaxing process on iOS (especially the iPad version) is a bit more of a challenge when you reduce it to mouse control, though.

Don't expect an RPG of depth – it's heavy on the action, light on customisation, and rewarding loot is rare. It's also in desperate need of more time in the womb, and the results of that are felt all over. But by and large, the sense of location and the constant weft of combat meant that I spent much of the fifteen hours it took to complete in a state of gentle enjoyment – and that definitely counts for something.

With 15 levels to romp through, gorgeous, irreverent cut-scenes and various challenges, WTF? proves that talented developers haven't completely deserted the Minis scene. Just most of them.

It doesn't always succeed in finding a balance between its chilled-out exploration and OCD completist tendencies, but when the formula clicks, the result is both charming and visually stunning.

It's expertly paced, with bite-sized levels that walk a tightrope between pull-your-hair-out maddening and knowingly easy – and while it can be overwhelming and cause you to doubt yourself, it's always worth it for that moment of relief where it all slots into place.

With numerous unlockables and online leaderboards to fight it out on, this is a fine first attempt from developer Binary Takeover, and well worth losing a few hours to.

FlingSmash's title might be short, snappy and to the point, but the game itself only manages the first of those three.

If you have any love for the manga, feel free to add the final scar to the tally. For everyone else, this is just an old-school brawler that's partial to shouting ATATATATATATA. Because you're already dead.

To make matters worse, you get sent back to a tedious menu screen every single time you learn one of the hundreds of thousands of stupid moves.