The broader fault is simply that by the time you've spent an hour in Potter's company, you'll have sussed out the rest of the game, leaving you with even less to look forward to than usual - because of course you know what's going to happen to everyone anyway. If you don't, you're better off reading the book.

With some tighter programming, and far fewer invisible barriers and dumb deaths, BiA could have been rather good. As it is - flawed and fun - it's a fantastic signpost.

Niggles aside, Band of Bugs is another solid addition to the increasingly well-stocked Live Arcade line-up, and although it's not the most astounding or original title, it's got the sort of charming pick-up-and-play feel that you want from a cheap, casual game. Definitely one to check out for fans of Advance Wars.

A wonderful package and a triumphant return to form for Codies, DiRT sets a mean precedent for future rally games to match and really manages to capture the excitement, the fear and the challenge of off-road racing. It's, like, totally sick, dude. Killer.

The evolving nature of the gameplay, and its intriguing story structure keeps you going. Not only that, the actual location design and some individual set-pieces are very atmospheric, and it somehow appeals to the old school adventurer in us that used to routinely find ourselves trapped somewhere with one single, set solution.

The characters are funnier, the stories more interesting and the gameworld that little bit more interactive thanks to the hairy companions running around. Let's just hope that volume 3, Castaway Stories, features a smoke monster and mysterious hatches.

While it's obvious that, in theory, SimCity can be done on the DS, in practice it could have been done a lot better with a lot less wackiness and a little more depth.

It's just a shame that one of the best ever action games has become another casualty of the Wii controller. Indeed, for a controller that was supposed to herald a new dawn of inclusive gaming there are a lot of third-party publishers who have yet to get their heads round it.

Judged solely as a collection of such textbook tasks Hot Brain is passable enough, but it pales alongside the original Brain Training.

Everything works pretty much as it should - the controls and camera rarely freak out and leave you confused and defenceless - but it's just utterly uninspired and devoid of life.

It's not quite educational enough, nor entertaining enough. You'd be better off with a good history book, and a better strategy game.

While Go! Puzzle succeeds in so many ways (particularly in its multiplayer battle modes) the bottom line is that none of the core games are anywhere near to matching the fun of, say Tetris or even a 'lower tier' classic like "Lumines."

Survival mode is where it's at in terms of ultra-difficulty - completing all levels without a single death requires a superhuman level of dedication.

Of all the cowboy games in the last few years, Call of Juarez is the one which most feels like it has a soul. Impassioned and imaginative, its velocity of invention can make you smile through any flaws. It's a game which you feel someone actually cared about making.

Movement is on the analogue nub, camera controls on the face buttons. It's a system that has worked okay for other PSP shooters, but there's a stiffness here that makes it feel more like Super Treacle Squad than a simulation of impeccably-trained Special Ops.

This is nineties videogame cliché; an unrelenting gangbang of tired mechanics presented in mostly derivative clothing. The script, dialogue and voice acting grasp for irony but only manage weak cliché.

This is nineties videogame cliché; an unrelenting gangbang of tired mechanics presented in mostly derivative clothing. The script, dialogue and voice acting grasp for irony but only manage weak cliché.

it's an enjoyable plug in the market until number three, and perfectly acceptable for Naruto fans, albeit not absolutely essential for those happy with what they've got, or what they'll get in the future.

It seems churlish to completely dismiss Scarface's many amusements just because of control issues, especially as they can be accommodated with patience and practice. For the bulk of its playing time Scarface remains an indecently entertaining bad taste romp and, for those who don't have access to a PS2 or Xbox, it's still worth having.

As Tenchu Z is already outclassed in every area by last generation stealth games like "Metal Gear Solid 2," it fails almost completely when stacked up against "Hitman: Blood Money," "Splinter Cell: Double Agent" or upcoming treats like "Assassin's Creed."

At best, this might have been a cute piece of original downloadable content on a system that sorely needs some. As a full price piece of software, it's genuinely worth less than forty quid's worth of dog-eared primary school maths books.

Like a lot of grumpy Eastwoods, Juarez treads the line just West of parody with Ray's juxtaposition of gravely scripture one minute, and then little red circles with lines through them hovering over whiskey bottles the next.

What you're buying into is a fantastic celebration of a timeless classic, and one that does something genuinely interesting with the gameplay to make it relevant now. The problem is, basically, is that it's been put in totally the wrong price bracket for what is an impulse buy. A curiosity.

It takes the inspirational level design of the original, improves upon the atmosphere, and makes the whole thing so much more fun thanks to the hugely refined control and camera system. Far from being a tired, cynical cash-in exercise of a brand past its prime, Tomb Raider Anniversary goes back to its roots and shows how remakes should be done.

Even with expectations duly lowered to allow for the usual make-do approach taken to most licensed kids games, the sheer hideousness of this title still crept up and sucker-punched me right in the soul. There's not a single element of this game that is fun, even in the most tangential use of the term.

Spaceforce can't be recommended despite some interesting ideas.

Execution is near-flawless throughout, and while the presentation's a bit on the garish side (and seemingly influenced by Q Entertainment's Meteos, which is a sort of hyperactive sideways space-based Panel de Pon anyway), you can stick to the graphical layout you like best by tweaking options pre-game.

As the Story Mode can be cleared in a couple of hours you're left to find fun in one of the game's simple multiplayer modes (download play or Wi-Fi) but these do little to enliven the repetitive and staccato move, stop, point, shoot, flow of play leaving a meagre and shallow title that's difficult to recommend.

Fresh, but slightly sanitised, Rock Legend isn't a game you're going to play intensively for months. However, note the price (GBP 12.50), and purchase anticipating two or three weeks of quirky, leather-trousered amusement, and you shouldn't be disappointed.

It's too old, and too dull.

Obviously the game is targeted with a marketing sniper's precision to appeal to a certain type of young girl, but it's well crafted enough to interest a wider, inquisitive audience.

Seen through adult eyes, it's a sweet but slender surfing game that's consistently amusing.

If you want to play with chums, you're going to have to reselect your gang for every two-minute game, as the interface will dump you all back in the wild as soon as it's over. Easier is jumping in with strangers, but none of the tracks/games hold enough allure to inspire much of this.

Expertly put together and able to cater for both those that want a quick and simple race and those that want a true to life racing experience, Forza 2 is unquestionably one hell of an achievement. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got things to calibrate. So, so many things...

A well-designed, well-conceived game.

A well-designed, well-conceived game.

Mario Party 8 is a "would have, should have, could have" kind of game. With such an depressingly long list of wasted possibilities, and so many other mini-game collections available for Nintendo Wii (The excellent Rayman Raving Rabbids, for one) It would be wrong of me to say you should pick this up.

There's a genuine sense of achievement and enjoyment when a seemingly impossible level suddenly clicks (or crushes) into place, and the confident way the game uses its central conceit as more than just a gimmick is undeniably reassuring and appealing.

Fan of the first two games will initially feel at home here but, under prolonged scrutiny it reveals itself to be the weakest of the set.

Most importantly, it's got that utterly absorbing hypnotic je ne sais quois that all the best games have, and it's that which will keep you coming back for more and more, checking out all the characters and all the play modes, and devoting an unhealthy amount of time in the quest for dominating other players, both online and off.

It's brilliant because it presents a slick and fast-paced management puzzle within firm boundaries and rules that manages to teach the player all of its lessons before he or she gets bored and moves on.

Xevious has been bettered hundreds of times over down the years, and only the most diehard retro fiend will want to part with their cash for this now.

Charming little platform riot, but not a game that has aged well at all. Perhaps one for curious Spectrum owners to download - if only to check out what the original looked like.

Artistically Odin Sphere is one of the most marvellous videogames we've yet played. The inimitable character designs, varied and exquisite backgrounds, glorious soundtrack, considered voice acting and engaging storyline pull together in a consistent way few other games manage. However the game they clothe fails to engage in a similar way.

The combat's inexcusably awful. The duelling is absolutely mind-numbingly uninspired. The platforming and exploration feel tacked-on, overly basic and adds little variety, and the fetch quests plumb new depths in their tedious pointlessness...One of the most dreadfully vacuous and uninspired movie tie-ins in recent memory.

The games are irritating and forgettable, the scoring system is bizarre, the play modes make no sense and the constantly shrill urban-cartoon-hipster presentation feels like some ninja chav just injected a pint of boiling hot Red Bull into your eyeballs.

Weighing in at little over the price of an XBLA download (about a tenner from the right shops), Art of Fighting Anthology is a rare bargain - especially from new.

This particular package has much better presentation than the last one, with all games sorted into chronological order (a small but valuable point), and various useful options that make the experience far better than most retro collections. Nice one, Taito.

Graphically bland, the game still manages to create some tension through its rudimentary presentation with some clever pacing.

Etrian Odyssey succeeds in making some aged and usually uncomfortable RPG conventions feel fresh, thoughtful and engaging and is thoroughly recommended to DS owners with even a passing interest in the genre.

It doesn't possess the same can't-put-it-down addictiveness as Friends of Mineral Town, the series' greatest portable success, but I have found myself coming back to it day after day, moving the story along at an unhurried pace. The setting and ambience are captivating and entirely unique, its presentation is undeniably excellent and the gradual exploration of the island is compelling.

Yet another middle of the road film license that survives by dint of being as average as they come.

So while nothing substantial has been added to the SpellForce cauldron, the sequel's focus on smaller battles and quality questing has been refined, and the end result is a palatable expansion pack. With dragons.

It's difficult to overly criticise Calling All Cars! because it's cheap, looks and feels good (native 1080p at mostly 60fps does make a difference) and in multiplayer mode you definitely get a decent return from the impulse purchase price tag. It's just hard to avoid the sensation that some select gameplay tweaks, a couple of extra maps and a wider range of weapons could've made Calling All Cars! a minor classic as opposed to a promising but ultimately disposable game best sampled in small doses.

A very short, and very dull, brawler. Double Dragon does include some nice "extras" - configurable controls, and some arcade flyers, which should be worth an extra point, but throws the point away with quite possibly the worst (unstoppable) menu music I have ever heard in my entire life.

In its better moments it's a guilty pleasure, in its worst it's embarrassingly retrograde. By being consistently fairly slick with it, it easily avoids skimming the lowest depths, but really it's the kind of game we've all long since grown out of. Or so I like to tell myself, anyway.

It's just that it hasn't really addressed the chief failing of Parallel Lines, which is that, as polished, and competent as it is, it still feels a bit like a soulless GTA clone.

There are enough flaws in it to stop recommending it to anyone but real X-com fans - who, it seems, are busy trying to mod it into something closer to their desires.

An essential purchase for anyone interested in war simulation or tired of the contrived drama that fills mainstream military shooters.

Yes, you'll find sleeker interfaces and more engaging gunfights in titles such as "Silent Storm," "Faces of War," and "Jagged Alliance 2," but none of those games come with anything half as involved or absorbing as Afterlight's amazing strategic layer.

And if the button-mashing, combat-heavy missions aren't underwhelming enough, or the under-use of web swinging doesn't deliver enough disappointment, then the often-iffy technical side of the game rounds off a less-than-stellar package.

Perhaps the biggest flaw though is that the controls never stop being cumbersome. With several important information screens requiring more than one button to be held to be seen (never mind a strange and convoluted "emoticon" system for multiplayer matches).

While the lack of absolute control has the unfortunate effect of making Super Rub'a'Dub a repetitious annoyance when you reach its hardest levels, there's more than enough fun overall to warrant the game's GBP 3.49 introductory price tag.

Centipede and Millipede are the sort of simple, repetitive, no frills shooters you can get more than enough fun out of by playing the free trial version of, so we should be grateful to Microsoft for allowing people to find out why they probably shouldn't bother with this one.

While the narrow theme inevitably limits replayability, longevity, and appeal, I've found the challenge of pulling off a peace deal at the toughest difficulty level keeps drawing me back for an hour or two's play every so often. Call me soft, but I want to taste those hopeful tears again.

Combine this ruthless beating with the ugly stick with the essential lack of variety inherent in these arcade air combat games and you have a title only really worth considering once it's in the bargain bins.

Heatseeker feels like a step back, a simpler, uglier, dumber but friendlier jetfighter that plants you firmly in the role of the one man army. To put it another way, "Ace Combat" expects you to be upset at the scripted, drawn-out death of your wingman and Heatseeker lets you fly into the ground and bounce off with a bit of damage.

With nothing like 42 All-Time Classics' meta-game structure to compel you through each game at increasing difficulties, there's no greater purpose to scoring victories in the single-player 'campaign'.

The cinematic cut-scenes are poorly voiced, the characters unconvincing, and the plot is so-so at best.

It's one thing staying true to the beloved gameplay that we all still cherish, but that heady whiff of nostalgia only gets you so far - especially when the limiting episodic structure itself makes the actual puzzle solving such a horribly basic part of the game.

Eets is of most value to players who enjoy experimenting. In much the same way that it's fun to replay the same level of "TrackMania" or "Mercury Meltdown" over and over to find a better solution, finding a way to complete a level in Eets without using up all of your available tools is satisfying - and the game credits players who use their imagination, too, with a range of achievements reserved for players who can get through without exhausting their inventory.

A fantastic virtual pinball engine, the practical application of which is slightly hamstrung by the restrictions of the (old) Live Arcade regulations and by the shape of modern TV sets.

It's absolutely no exaggeration to say that this is far and away the best game for anyone who hasn't played an MMOG before to cut their teeth on. Even more than the familiar universe, the excellent interface and gameplay design Turbine have crafted turn this into an experience which those who have previously avoided the lure of MMOs will find tough to resist.

It's an exercise in frustration and annoyance, and the payoffs aren't worth it - nothing you unlock makes this game any fun.

It is broken in the literal sense of not working as sold and, as such, must be scored appropriately. That the game underneath the bodged localisation is also, figuratively, a broken shell of what it once was and absolutely nowhere near as good as it should have been, is more than anything, deeply, deeply sad.

Instead of the kind of solid, varied combat which the RTS genre has been steadily evolving towards over the years, Ancient Wars: Sparta falls back on resource management for its core gameplay. Distressingly, this is a sub-"Age Of Empires" affair which rapidly becomes a chore.

While you could argue that it's relatively short, it has variety: new enemies are introduced on almost every level and each boss is distinctive, differing in size, strength or attack pattern to the last.

It's not so broken it's completely unplayable, but it's not even basic enough to warrant trying to satisfy an hour's curiosity.

Whatever anyone tells you, you're never too old to enjoy Pokémon. Anyone who says otherwise is an idiot, a liar or possibly both. No, the immense depth, inescapable charms and boundless personalisation found here is enough to put most other commercial releases to shame, with the new battle mechanics making Diamond and Pearl even more covertly complex than the series has previously been.

Whatever anyone tells you, you're never too old to enjoy Pokémon. Anyone who says otherwise is an idiot, a liar or possibly both. No, the immense depth, inescapable charms and boundless personalisation found here is enough to put most other commercial releases to shame, with the new battle mechanics making Diamond and Pearl even more covertly complex than the series has previously been.

The overall experience tends to favour the functional over the thrilling. It's adequate amusement for the price, perhaps, but still falls short of the gut-busting potential presented by online crazy golf.

Some of the most renowned old games ever have a terrible knack of ageing horribly. Take Gyruss. By virtue of the fact that it was created by Yoshiki 'Street Fighter 2/Final Fight' Okamoto in 1983, it appears to have been granted a disproportionate level of historical interest, despite not actually being anything special in its own right.

The only shame is that, when you finally manage to master the game with a single credit (and we're getting close), the only person around to show off in front of is probably a bewildered friend who's just popped round for a friendly game of Pro Evo.

Remember how it once was in its proud mid '90s heyday, not what it's become: a relentless, lazy cash-cow to lure in unwary souls drunk on memories.

There's a hellish amount of "...", even by J-RPG standards, and many sentences don't quite make sense - it's either a poorly written game, a crap translation to English or, probably, both.

While it never struggles to be entertaining, it never really stands out either, and ultimately proves rather forgettable. Worth a go, then, but you wouldn't write songs about it.

It uses the Wii tech so cleverly, remembering that simple is best, but letting it play in a way impossible on any other console. It's non-stop hilarious, and utterly adorable. If only it had been more inventive with the 3D potential, it would have been a stand-out classic.

Ultimately, Cake Mania is too expensive, too slow and too limited to excel in this overcrowded field.

But the chief difficulty is simply sustaining your interest. It's boring and easy, and it takes too long.

And with the improved mechanics of the second game, the old songs work even better - Bark At The Moon's once nigh-impossible solo is now made a hell of a lot easier while Frankenstein goes from being a chore to an absolute delight.

While the Wii version is a good game and takes to its new control scheme well enough to justify the port, it's just not sufficiently different to recommend a purchase, especially if you can source it elsewhere.

A simple videogame built from a slew of diverse but relentlessly derivative building blocks.

Pop Hits, by comparison, feels like a loosely thrown together collection of what the charts say is cool, with little regard for what will make for a fun karaoke party.

Playable within its faulty parameters, yet at the same time, something we've seen a million times before, and in many ways better. Roll on the next one, please.

Honeycomb Beat just isn't as addictive or substantial as it needs to be to make it a classic.

If you're interested in a serious relationship with gaming rather than purely out for a good time, please do take a look at Penumbra. It does some truly clever stuff, has an effectively creepy atmosphere and there's a few signposts in it that action and adventure games alike would do well to follow.

So if Konami Arcade Classics was a bag of Revels, I would happily munch my way to the bottom of the bag with very little spitting and surreptitious dog feeding. With far more good than bad, plenty of variety in the titles and some nice extras this collection sits proudly at the top of the DS retro compilation pile.

It's not the easiest game for newcomers to approach (the tutorial's dreadful), but even stealth virgins will see the light after an hour or so in the dark, and probably ought to add another mark to the score. Make ours a double.