This truly is a game wallowing in the mire of generic, insipid, uninspiring platformers, and unable to see any easy way out. Whenever there is an opportunity for it to do something interesting or different, it disappoints by not doing it and returning to predictable form.

It's a crude and unappealing game, marred by at least three design decisions (the scrolling, the time-limited weapons, the long-winded upgrade system) that immediately make the gameplay a grind rather than a blast.

However, at its marked-down price it does offer a low-risk introduction to the series for anyone who's not yet experienced the undeniably satisfying feeling of cleaving a path through an entire army of foot soldiers.

The fantasy armies really do provide a fun twist, and the castles that are rapidly erected in Stronghold's clever building system are stunning. Ultimately though I wish this game had been Sandcastle: Legends, but it completely wasn't.

A severely flawed game. Yet somewhere - hidden underneath a terrible combat system, weird AI and an untrustworthy camera - there lies the frail skeleton of a good stealth game.

The presence of three subtly different modes (Dodge, Juggle and Infinite) twists the rules a touch, but its lustre soon diminishes. What you're left with is the skeleton of a cute idea, but for the price, that's probably fair enough.

It's not remarkably stylish or memorable - although it never looks less than charming as it sashays in rich cartoon fashion across the Vita's luxurious high-resolution screen - but it's a splendid ambassador for the console's many functions, and among its better mini-games has the potential to save you from a boring train journey every once in a while when more addictive smartphone games desert you.

All the confusing yet irresistible energy of early-noughties double-A gaming, marred by awful writing and a core gimmick that doesn't ignite.

Wrecked offers a tissue-thin single-player mode, poor frame-rate and camera, bland track design and clumsy online multiplayer, all for a premium price with expensive community-splitting day-one DLC.

Despite all these valid complaints, we still have a lot of affection for what Vietcong's trying to achieve, but the sorry truth is the console version just doesn't deliver on the promise of the PC original.

It's a straight port, with a few minor alterations, and in this day and age it just can't stand up to the competition.

Should you want to, you can almost play Monopoly, Boggle, Yahtzee and Battleships on it. Just in a really tacky, and depressingly lonely way. And you might want to take advantage of the wireless multiplayer, but really that just makes you weird. Play proper board games if you're in the same room, for goodness sakes. It's a lazy mess, and you deserve better.

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'.

Just like the PSP version, the inability to choose which characters to take into battle in single-player rather limits the potential of its fifteen missions.

Just don't expect quality, consistency, coherence, or any kind of worthy challenge to the head muscle, or the trigger finger.

It's got charm to spare and - if you don't mind wrestling with controls that occasionally leave you gritting your teeth - this is a groovy little romp.

Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown's technical issues, both online and in performance terms, do a disservice to a novel, detailed game world.

It's a wholly unoriginal game, devoid of interesting play options and mostly inaccessible for the multiplay ambition around which it was designed. Nevertheless, even the most average things can still be enjoyable, and in this regard Battlezone is not an unpleasant distraction.

The sad truth is that there are better looking, better designed twin-stick shooters on the Indie Games channel for a fraction of the price, produced by inspired individuals who have moved on from Beat the Blockoids. Give them your Microsoft Points instead.

To some extent it suffers from selective authenticity. Ten two-minute rounds against a tough opponent can be tight, tense and technical, but the skills you're applying are arbitrary.

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.

It's too hard, it's a bit feebly constructed in places, and it plays too much like real driving, which, for a game laden with UFOs, is a bit of a contradiction.

In what's turning out to be a regular Kinect refrain, then, try not to think of this as a flawed game so much as one that's been quietly and consistently undermined by its hardware.

Competent in its own right, playable even, but deep down as nutritionally void as the popcorn you'll scoff while watching the movie.

With a slow burn opening that lays the groundwork for a potentially brilliant sci-fi thriller, Fort Solis initially shows plenty of promise - but its story loses momentum in its later chapters, and fails to stick the landing.

Recommending a game as satisfying and substantial as Disciples III is easy. Recommending it over other satisfying and substantial titles encamped in the same neck-of-the-genre-woods is a little trickier, especially when those titles are now as cheap as, say, Heroes of Might and Magic V.

Fun and challenging swordplay can't make up for bland and repetitive action between behemoths, making this far from the epic adventure it wants to be.

A frustrating gaming experience.

A solid little action game that works beautifully with the 400-Point price-tag.

Unless you're some kind of creepy time-rich retro masochist who actually enjoys having to start over from scratch every single time, Xevious is likely to provoke nothing but buyer's remorse.

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.

There is nothing to set this apart from every other mediocre first-person shooter you've ever played, and nothing to make it worth recommending.

Although it looks like Rustin Parr and uses the same technology, there’s none of the flair and precision of its big brother, and it’s decidedly shorter, which isn’t great since "Rustin Parr" was over too quickly to start with.

Thanks to a quite absurd damage system, you can find yourself downed in three or four hits, usually meted out with all the precision of a Friday night drunk in Basildon.

A fundamentally broken game, riddled with graphical glitches and bizarre bugs, that doesn't even have the good grace to be a fascinating failure. For all its yelps and screeches, it's deathly dull to play and so there's no incentive to suffer its idiosyncrasies.

The presentation is so poor, with the board and tiles constricted to an area around half the size of one of the DS' screens, that it's almost impossible to see the detail on each tile.

EA has shoe-horned a PS2 game onto the Wii with little thought for what the platform is actually meant to do, and lo and behold - the result is a distinctly below average, derivative, boring and badly implemented mess.

As an excuse to spend another mildly diverting evening in Ferelden, Witch Hunt does its job, but it's a functional offering rather than an inspiring one. Hamstrung by the piecemeal nature of Dragon Age DLC, and squandering a lot of the brilliantly constructed narrative from the full game, it's for completists only.

Seriously, it's hard to justify Bakushow in a world where Pictochat exists for free, as every critic in the world will probably point out.

It's all a bit too wholesome, and I'd sooner be singing along to The Sound of Music if I had a choice. Start waving your jazz hands in the air in protest and demand a proper Singstar Musicals package instead.

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.

And viewed as what it's meant to be - a game for kids - Jambo! Safari isn't too bad. It's simple to understand and there's plenty of stuff to do. You get to drive a big car and throw ropes about and pat lions. There are no guns or scary bits. You might even learn something, although nothing you learn will be very interesting.

So once again, we have here a modern day Sonic game devoid of the elements which made olden days Sonic games so good - speed, simplicity, a decent control system, that sort of thing. Sonic Riders Zero Gravity is not hateful, just pointless. A complete waste of time, effort and the planet's resources.

A characterful, frequently charming sequel that doesn't quite match up to the original - and somehow performs worse.

Regardless of how great it was considered back then, Spelunker HD is the kind of shoddy remake best ignored. The download scene is hardly short of platforming fun, now is it?

It wasn't appropriate to make a GBA Dynasty Warriors, and the inevitable disappointment of an already extremely tired series has been fully realised.

There's nothing terribly wrong with all this in theory, but the game's shocking lack of polish makes even this rudimentary gameplay a real chore to get through.

On a console that's hardly lacking in excellent on-rails shooters - Darkside Chronicles and the soon-to-be-released Sin and Punishment 2 among them - and interesting, lovely-looking downloadable games, 530 Eco Shooter has no place.

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

David Jaffe returns with an obnoxious, sketchy shooter that packs a surprising - if not entirely pleasant - punch.

All quibbles about presentation and content aside, the game is simply incapable of delivering the sort of fluid gameplay the concept demands.

This is the kind of game you'll only get out when you've got people round who want to play the Wii cos they've seen it on the telly, and you'd rather eat soap than play one more round of Wii Sports baseball.

For the most part, it's overly complicated, and dominated by things designed to stop it being fluid and exciting.

The mere running around, pointing the crosshair, shooting... it's all just drained of life. Not even the option of mercenary sidekicks makes much difference, they just happen to be the chaps you can't shoot. And they die without consequence. Poor fellas.

There's very little challenge or strategy, and very little imagination has gone into anything besides the visuals, which were done by other people anyway. Xbox 360 wasn't a good system for kids and families before this came out, and nothing's changed. Teach them to play Viva Piñata instead.

RF Online is like playing an endless game of slow-motion whack-a-rat, without the entertainment of the fairground surroundings.

The simple, unpalatable, grisly truth for everyone connected to this important summer blockbusting title is that it's so far away from being the title it deserved to be, it could well be reflected upon as one of the biggest disappointments in the history of videogames.

This isn't a great game, it's not even a good game, but it is the closest thing we've got to a cops-and-robbers MMO - which is, I suspect, one of the all-time great video game concepts. One day, somebody's going to do it right, and they're going to become very rich indeed.

While the simple structure makes it compulsive, it also leaves it unsophisticated.

The real gem, though, is Mutant League Football, which more than makes up for the absence of any of the Madden titles because it's better than all of them.

What could have been a mildly enjoyable platform excursion swiftly degenerates into one of the worst adverts for motion control I've ever seen. Suffice to say, we won't be rushing out to check Mission 2.

A predictably grim spin on a legendary action license that really deserves better, Predator: Hunting Grounds is unworthy prey.

An exercise in extracting value from its players rather than providing it, the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is what happens when this industry is at its worst.

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

It was always clear that Supreme Commander would be divisive on the 360 - and if you're expecting it to be hard, complex, and unforgiving, then you won't be surprised. But sadly, you're likely to find it ugly and a little unreliable too: you can fight your way through it if you want, but you may not enjoy it as much as you should.

Super Pokémon Rumble is, at best, a simple and straightforward addition to the Pokémon saga, but in no way a match for its main series brethren.

If you forget about the campaigns - and God knows, you're going to try and forget about the campaigns - the skirmish is an entirely competent example of its genre, and its inclusion enough to make this not actually an actively worthless game per se.

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."

You could label Tasomachi a "wholesome" game - a label I'm wary of myself. If it's wholesome, I would argue this has less to do with its baby-faced character models or delicate furnishings, and more, again, with its sense of its own unimportance. It understands that there are bigger things in life than games, however consoling games can be. It doesn't want to be more than an interlude. It's a sumptuous realm, evoking memories of various continent-straddling adventures, but one devoid of grandiosity and happy for you to spend as much time within it as you need. [Eurogamer Recommended]

A smudge of systems from other Ubisoft games fail to coalesce - and sometimes are plain crippled - in this weak open world shooter. [Eurogamer Avoid]

It's nice to be reminded of where games started going wrong back in the '90s. It wasn't 3D, it wasn't FMV; it wasn't anything like that. It was when we did away with big stupid smiling still photos of sportsmen gnawing on trophy handles as background graphics, with preposterous guitar music playing over the top, like a sort of hungover Sunday morning TransWorld Sport nostalgia vomit fantasy.

But as much as I'm certain I should be warning you off this bizarre, broken thing, I can't quite bring myself to do it. Clearly, if they'd localised it properly, fixed the numerous bugs, and made it in an engine that remembers John Major as Prime Minister, the score would go up significantly.

Arkane's vampire thriller is muddled and deeply compromised, but has moments of real charm.

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

The world did not need this Leisure Suit Larry game, and it does not need any more.

Yes it's simple and probably meant for kids, and you can get a small amount of fun out of Wrestlemania 21 for a relatively short period of time, but behind the shiny superstars it has a pork pie for a brain. That's the most positive thing we can say, sadly.

Another hour that just offers the bare minimum of gaming, another shrug of disappointment.

With a bit more humour behind it and some slightly more adventurous mission design, Payback could have been a must-have. As it is, it's a perfectly enjoyable way to spend a few hours and it certainly does a decent enough job of emulating "Grand Theft Auto's" media-baiting exterior.

An incoherent and clumsy compilation, one driven more by brand synergy than any creative imperative.

Where "Gregory" and "Joe" were as often inventive and ingenious as they were incomparable to anything else on the shelves, Under The Skin's clever thinking dried up before it even made it off the blackboard.

Nine unspectacular turn-based mini-games, none of which you're likely to play alone or on a long-term basis. No matter how much you've been drinking.

With a more refined combat system, BGT would be a fine prospect at its slim price tag. As it is, it doesn't quite live up to its title, but then Fairly Good Time doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

The multiplayer mode is more a case of surviving the longest than exhibiting any competitive skill (in which case, why not just play Survival mode?), and while those who get stuck in will find plenty of stages and difficulty levels to work through, it's all still quite basic even after a few tortured hours, and the occasional lazy design decision (like refusing to accept chains bigger than those asked for in "get 4 chains of 4" style scenarios) conspire with the general lack of urgency to turn you off completely.

As it is, Genji is undercooked. It's not terrible, but it's not good enough to rise above the baggage of ridicule hanging over its shoulder.

Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 is a great sniping game let down by a mediocre open world, poor voice acting, technical hitches and terrible writing.

This kind of release does the publisher no favours at all. If content is king, then Super Monkey Ball 3D is very much the Prince Andrew of the 3DS launch.

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.

A short game painfully elongated by mindless repetition, there maybe a half-decent melee game somewhere in the midst of all this movie propaganda, but you'll need super-patience to find it.

If you're looking for a slick, tactile contraption puzzler, then you're far better off looking to the mobile scene for the many superior (and cheaper) offerings. By comparison, Crazy Machines Elements is a step into a murky past best forgotten.

The combat's weak, the storyline's excruciating, it's technically deficient - Haze really is this year's most significant gaming disappointment.

What does make it a poor game is the crappy driving, ridiculous shooting, cackhanded interface and nonsense story.

Humans Must Answer comes from a place of honest passion and enthusiasm for the shmup, but feels torn between recreating the feeling of hammering coins into a cabinet in 1987 and doing things differently just for the sake of being different. The two never find an equilibrium, leaving the game's best ideas underdeveloped and its mistakes awkwardly exposed.

It's only shortcomings are its dated design, repetitive nature and visuals that could pass for a re-mastered PS2 game, but if you're looking for a hardcore experience with solid shinobi substance, this ranks as a viable christening for your shiny new Vita.

The Staff of Kings certainly has all the ingredients for a cracking action-adventure, but somewhere along the line the team ended up making arguably the most forgettable Indiana Jones game to date.

It's a thin and troubled tribute to the original Panzer Dragoons, slim on the ambition, vision and art that made its predecessors what they were - and some way short of the invention and execution in the games they inspired.

Solid, but uninspiring.

There's been a backlash brewing for some time against the bombastic direction military shooters have taken, but it would be wrong to assume that Medal of Honor: Warfighter is simply the game unlucky enough to bear its brunt. The truth is far simpler and more depressing: it's just not that good.

It's a game that's just not clever enough by half. Modelled, shamelessly on a game that's too clever by miles. So it's not necessarily bad. It's just not good enough.