The good news: it's fun to play and nice to look at, and does a fine job of showing off what the PSP can do. The bad news: it's all over in the time it would take you to nip down Blockbusters, rent a copy of the movie and watch it. Skipping the credits.

It is impossible to shy away from the realisation that H&D as a franchise needs a bit of a pep up in several areas and is gradually being left behind in a genre it once dominated.

It isn't broken and it isn't soulless, but it is pretty shallow. It's cute and passably entertaining, but there's nothing here that compels you to return to the game, and it's quite clearly aimed towards the younger end of the market. MySims DS is EA's family-friendly take on an existing idea; the Wii version is the one that innovates.

Come on, SNK, stop churning out ports of stuff we've seen a million times, and give European fighter fans the game they really deserve.

Anyone with RTS sympathies will be able to wring some pleasure from it, but no-one's likely to enjoy it enough to recommend it to a mate, devote a fan-site to it, or have its logo tattooed in a private place.

If you're on a budget, or just don't have access to a DS, then this is a fine way to sample its abundant charms, provided you don't expect anything special in the presentation department.

Some will fall in love with its goofy adolescent humour and sink-or-swim gameplay. If you can wade through those early matches long enough to make peace with the controls, and find yourself in a match with like-minded players (or better yet, actual friends), it can be ridiculously good fun. It too often feels, however, that praise is due more to the game The Showdown Effect is trying to be rather than game it currently is.

Hokey, uneven and janky, Elex is nonetheless a compelling throwback to a time before open worlds became choose your own to-do lists.

SEGA fans, run don't walk to the shops, but be prepared to give Superstars a few hours before the gameplay starts hugging you as hard as the graphics and sound. Everyone else, dust off Virtua Tennis 3 for a more complete alternative.

The melee combat feels laboured, the boss fights repetitive and contrived, while the timed sequences largely frustrate to the point of desperate exasperation.

A relic of a bygone era that Capcom has done nothing to reinvent for modern audiences with this reissue. Yet beneath its off-putting anachronisms there is a worthwhile, menacing game - for those with the eyes to catch it.

Whether you're a Warhammer 40K aficionado or not, this is just the right kind of uncomplicated stress relief to distract you from the BBC News 24 ticker.

If you've always hankered after a handheld version of one of the best puzzlers there's ever been, then this is a serviceable port that does the job, but just be aware that you'll probably want to skip over the new modes very quickly.

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.

Is it that surprising that Joy Ride Turbo seems a little confused? Not really, I guess.

Crazy Golf is hardly a revolution in handheld gaming, but sometimes all you want to do of a day is flick balls across pretend courses, if only to ward off the impending existential crisis.

A bewitching time capsule that transports us to late 80s China, and to turn-of-the-century video games. [Eurogamer Recommended]

So much of this promising collaboration between id and Avalanche is unremarkable - but it's salvaged by bloody, brilliant combat.

Although Harvest Moon DS possesses the same base addictiveness as its forebears, it has no charm, no originality and no ambition.

Overall, though? Aliens: Fireteam Elite is exactly what it says on the tin. Stuffed with guns, gadgets, and plentiful alien goo, it's a frenetic cooperative firefight against some of sci-fi's most iconic monsters in an all-new tale that takes us beyond the original trilogy. No, it's not the most sophisticated shooter, and no, its truncated runtime is unlikely to occupy you for more than a couple of nights, but it's an unashamedly good romp that'll hopefully satisfy your Ripley power fantasies, too.

With its clumsy dialogue threatening to ruin everything at every turn, Lexis Numerique's high-gloss offering is a challenge to play - but perhaps not always for the reasons the developers intended.

It's the best game to emerge in the genre since "Project Zero II." Just bear in mind you'll almost certainly reflect on your time with the game with a few mixed feelings. It's so nearly brilliant it hurts.

We'd like to apologise to Sid Meier - this game, while not terrible, has sullied your good name and brand. Our only suggestion is to never let someone else make a game for you and to make sure the inevitable next game in the franchise explores a less familiar environ and period.

Factor in an exceptionally short single-player campaign, an undercooked tactical squad element and a distinct lack of gameplay variety and it's impossible not to see this as a very big missed opportunity.

[A limp arcade action game amidst a sea of mindless references, Travis Strikes Again fatally lacks the style of its predecessors. [Eurogamer Avoid]

Harmony of Despair isn't a failure of concept but a failure of ambition, one that leaves Koji Igarashi still waiting for his next great discovery.

Next comes across as a game that's embracing the Vita wholeheartedly on a surface level while being much more reserved in terms of Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity.

The all-star fighter returns via the arcade for a deep, characterful game that struggles to endear itself to fans and newcomers alike.

It lacks the style, glossy finish and gunslinging simplicity of Max, and particularly its unadventurous but hugely enjoyable sequel.

It's a tribute act: one that initially delights through recognition, but ultimately feels hollow and counterfeit.

A moreish snack of a game that's a bit thin, a bit lacking in nourishment.

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

It's this basic lack of thrill or challenge which limits Tycoon City's appeal, at least to the gamer audience. It's entirely possible that Tycoon City will find an audience for the more casual player with its less stressful lifestyle, but that's the sort of design decision which gains sales not marks.

All the effort in the world won't make up for a lack of vision. This game is blind to imagination and focus.

The best mini-game collection we've played on the Wii.

A miserable cocktail of ideas from other action-platformers and the worst parts of Rick and Morty. [Eurogamer AVOID]

In fact, if, like me, you find yourself the victim of a game-breaking glitch, which requires you to hold down the SELECT button the whole time you're in the air, you'll definitely be disappointed.

Lacking both a challenge and soul, and failing to even engage on a narrative level, what you're left with is an overly forgiving shooter with weak strategy elements, which only serve to make it even easier for you. Having played right to the end, I wish there was something I could point to in its defence, but all I'm left with is the empty realisation that they've managed to somehow make this even less entertaining than the flawed original.

A solid core could provide some great competitive match-ups, but the dreary, generic campaign will fail to impress solo gamers.

It’s one of the most detailed, old-school RTS titles we’ve come across since "StarCraft."

The gripes are really mainly relating to the individual games, which for anyone remotely experienced will quickly become far too familiar and untaxing to warrant extended interest.

In other words, it's just like all those other racing games you read about but never buy. Except, in this case, it's a tacit reminder that Namco has slipped so far down the field that it's actually being lapped - by games we bought almost five years ago. Oh sod it: ARGH!

This is a game, though, that is so explicitly geared towards mayhem it awards you a trophy for getting through a mission without accidentally shooting a team member in the butt. World War Z doesn't take itself too seriously, and I appreciate that.

It's infuriating that the adventure feels so rough around the edges, then, but a range of annoyances are not quite enough to detract from the madcap brilliance at the core of the whole thing.

Love is perplexing, challenging, and confusing. Thus, the cold, calculating puzzles should complement the emotional relationship parable. Hazelden wants it to work. We want it to work. But the sad truth is that in this instance the two simply don't have enough in common. Sometimes love just isn't enough.

It's fun, I think: a budget Kirby about rolling around and annoying your friends, an amuse bouche, which may or may not be how that phrase is spelled. I worry it won't be too long before this sinks down the rankings in our house and disappears from the main Switch screen, but it will leave some lovely sugary memories behind. And the subconscious desire, perhaps, to eat an awful lot of strawberries.

Full Auto feels dead in the water. It's okay - not awful enough to slam, and not good enough to recommend. But with a year to build on its predecessor, it needed to be a lot more than "okay".

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.

Tequila Works' teen-rated horror might surprise you with its shocks and creepy atmosphere, but it's a little thin.

There's no denying Asobo's achievement in building such a daring, beautiful landscape on such a vast scale, but the core of any good racing game is falling in love with its vehicles, the things you can do with them, and the places you can take them, and by that measure FUEL is distinctly average.

There are some real gems to be had here - just not enough.

It could and should achieve so much more - but frankly it achieves enough by making a specialist subject matter and a specialist genre as fun and accessible as it does.

If you like slashing and hording within intelligently structured worlds and have no problem sinking into the non-conformity of Japanese manga, then Blood Will Tell may well surprise you.

SEGA fans, run don't walk to the shops, but be prepared to give Superstars a few hours before the gameplay starts hugging you as hard as the graphics and sound. Everyone else, dust off Virtua Tennis 3 for a more complete alternative.

Somehow less than the sum of its parts, Fragile Dreams fails to match its ambition with its systems and imagination.

It marries the Wii's control system with good old-fashioned puzzle-platforming; its scope isn't exactly broad, and not everyone will love the controls, but any fan of this endangered genre will find something to like in its reflex-testing level geometry or amusing puzzles, if not its gaudy looks.

A charming novelty game, well presented and simply and effectively executed. Just don't go expecting anything more than your thirteen pounds' worth.

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.

Even with regular shopping trips ArmA veterans will chew through RF in a couple of longish evenings.

There are much better retro compilations available - not least the first two incarnations of Midway Arcade Treasures, which both feature some all-time classics.

Turok is at its best when you slow down and make use of your surroundings and arsenal. The reason it loses so many points is that it can be at its absolute worst ten seconds later, and that while its lows are paralysingly dreadful, its peaks are never much more than competent, or fleeting novelties spoilt by cliché, repetition or sloppiness.

Epilogue doesn't even have the grace to live up to its literary title. There's no closure here, just a finite story extended by transparent and clumsy means. The conclusion, when it comes, so blatantly leaves you hanging for Prince of Persia 2 that you wonder why the game itself couldn't have ended this way.

The absence of any truly teeth-gnashing puzzles means that experienced players will rattle through this tropical romp in short order, but the experience will at least be an overwhelmingly enjoyable one.

There's a slight disappointment that the tale it tells isn't as smart as the idea that powers it, a blot on an otherwise wonderful game. Scanner Sombre is a remarkable experiment, its only downfall being that once you've shed some light on your surroundings you realise there's not really that much to it at all.

This is a meaty (ten hours!), funny and very well-presented adventure title with superb aesthetics, and despite its zany-for-the-sake-of-it puzzle design, it will find a place in the heart of any fan of the genre.

A middling racer in a dreary package that contains one of the finest achievements in the racing genre in years. [Recommended]

When it comes to cutting-edge WW2 strategy there are other worthy options besides the highly-decorated "Company of Heroes."

It's a game that can startle you, for sure, but one that more often bores, the gunplay a low thrumming drone rather than a high-pitched screech of rage.

In short, Mario & Sonic's London outing is much like their Beijing sojourn of late 2007. It'll keep younger children in particular amused and entertained over Christmas, and it's a safe bet for festive family fun if you have enough controllers to go around.

You know what to do: if you want an arcade perfect, no frills port of Galaga then that's what you'll get, but you can probably get your fix by simply downloading the free trial. The lure of global leaderboards (and a succession of largely identical levels) in the full version adds something of a gloss for the retro obsessives, but that's about it.

It's very easy to win races, even on the Hard difficulty setting, the platforming sections offer no real challenge, and the fun to be had from blowing up opponents when you've clashed your kart wears thin after a while.

Despite some visual delights in its cybernoir, pixel-art vision of Singapore and some strong characters, Chinatown Detective Agency's let down by lightweight mechanics and bugs.

It's still a disappointment to see that, after so long, Age of Mythology doesn't quite hold up to modern RTS standards, but there's enough here - and likely enough coming - to warrant a look regardless.

That's what's most disappointing; there's absolutely the spark of a really cool whatever-this-genre-is game in Among the Sleep, and for a while it looks like it's going to get there. Too bad it ends barely a quarter of the way in, passing the baton to something both much less interesting and perpetually trapped in its shadow.

A short, disappointing downhill slide through clumsy and frustrating renditions of more modern, characterless stages. Drooping from joyous classic to dissatisfying mediocrity in just a few hours of gameplay, Generations on the 3DS provides a surprisingly handy microcosm of Sonic's decline over the years. Not the best anniversary present, then.

Hammers of Fate adds a lot of material for HoMM5. But to warrant a better mark, it would have to actually deal with the basic weaknesses of the game. As it is, despite the Caravan's efforts to streamline one aspect, it just doesn't.

It's not big or boisterous, the characters don't squeak at you in comedy accents and you don't get to unlock Bowser or anything (at least I should hope not), and that's what high-end golf is often like: quietly dignified, a sport of concentration. The occasional lucky chip-in is satisfying, but the real pleasure comes from getting it right because you thought about it.

As much as n-Space tries to do things a little differently, and as fun as it is to walk around in bodies that don't belong to you, too much of the game plays it by the same old rules.

By refining the elements which made it fun, granting you all the toys and stripping away almost all of the laborious tasks, Volition has served up something more in line with what we expected in the first place. If your appetite for destruction remains unsated, it's well worth diving in - just don't expect anything too revolutionary.

You know that moment in a good roguelite where you've overextended yourself, but you've also won riches that you don't want to lose before you can bank them? This is what Loot River is built for, ultimately: I race around the world, dashing from one tile to another, breaking off from a little continent, an archipelago of burning wood and then searching, searching for the level's exit as I eye my tiny health gauge with fear. A procedural dungeon-crawler where you can rescramble the once-scrambled levels? Gary Chang would be proud. [Eurogamer Recommended]

Those who own previous incarnations of the game won't find it a worthwhile upgrade, as it merely adds some new scenarios (which aren't much different to the old), a fresh dollop of buildings and an editor that allows for importing satellite maps. Nothing to get too excited about, really.

Sometimes, though, familiarity and simplicity are exactly what's called for, and for those of you that just can't get enough of these dumb-arsed shooters, Crisis Zone has a certain cultish appeal that's just on the right side of admirable.

Judged purely on its own merits on this platform it looks like it might be vaguely interesting, but all too soon you're dragged into the real world and forced to acknowledge that despite its warm touches of humour, the hackandslash action is nowhere near the standard we expect from a full-priced game these days.

This gorgeous microcosmic mech game just about survives its more frustrating moments. [Eurogamer Recommended]

For all the things Gat Out Of Hell could or ideally would do though, it's important to remember what it is - a standalone expansion. Go in remembering that, and knowing about the lack of missions, and it's a pleasant surprise how much it at least tries to offer within its limits. Just don't expect it to be a sequel, or even a full slice of Saints Row 4 at its best.

A well-designed, well-conceived game.

Even hardened FF fans can't escape the fact that this is little more than a solid, functional port of a four year old game. As potentially enjoyable as it is (if you put the hours in), and as much content as there is in this all-encompassing release (if you really put the hours in), things have moved on considerably in the MMO scene in the intervening years.

It's sociable rather than solitary, and there's not a single nasty or brutish thing about it. The good selections of courses and events mean it's not too short, and it's an ideal alternative to real winter sports if you're poor. But most importantly, it's not rubbish.

I love crime fiction. On principle, I will, to paraphrase one of Death on the Nile's main characters, go absolutely bald-headed for an Agatha Christie game, with the full understanding that reimagination and reinterpretation are crucial parts in keeping stories alive well beyond the existence of their creators. But while there is eccentricity and tension and vitality (however subdued and English) within the pages of Christie's decades-old books, my first lesson in playing Death on the Nile is to accept comical lifelessness in the modern world's most interactive media form. And it is a different creature entirely.

Duck Amuck is a title that does its utmost to show (a lot like Rub Rabbits) what the DS can do with all its gimmicks, but it fails to live up to its qualities on the game side.

Whether you're playing on your own, online or with a friend it's liable to offer even more hours of fun than that poster of that lady tennis player scratching her arse - though possibly not the Kylie remake.

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead takes some very usable source material and fails to do much with it.

It makes some small progress in freeing point-and-click from the needless bonds of tradition but is it really a compelling, imaginative experience that proves mouse-based adventuring isn't dead? Nope. Not even close.

Visuals aside, the game ultimately gets too repetitive too soon. It claws back some respect by providing additional challenges for each map and offering different characters with slightly different abilities for replay value, but the mechanics never really change enough to capture your interest for long.

Putting both expansion packs in the same package, though, is a sensible idea, though given that neither are actually as good as their parent offering, perhaps it should have been a mid, rather than full-priced offering.

For now, those prepared to invest the necessary commitment, ignore the blandness and live with the game's failings will find that – once on the dirt, gravel, snow or asphalt – WRC FIA World Rally Championship delivers moments that are indisputably thrilling.

The art style is very appealing, with lots of crisp cartoon sprites, but the core gameplay feels truncated and shallow.

So drink some Tequila at the bar and have a think about whether a slow-paced tactical squad RTS set in the Wild West is really for you.