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.

But if you're in the mood for one of the more cerebral, calming puzzle experiences around, you could do a whole lot worse than fire Hexic up when you're between games - if only to trounce the high scores of your buddies.

A backward step from last year's release. The fact that it's less challenging may make a lot more accessible to the mass market audience that it's so desperate to pander to, but the net result is that it's also, on balance, a slightly less exciting and enjoyable game.

Bugs aside - and indeed notwithstanding the bugs in our case - it's relentlessly entertaining and commands your attention as well as anything else on the handheld to date. We only wish it put up a bit more of a fight, and did more to take advantage of a system that once seemed purpose-built for it. [Import]

If you dip into Assassin's infrequently you will likely question the worth of this self-contained side-story. But for those keen to experience every nook and cranny of the Creedverse, Tyranny offers an enjoyable and different experience - if not an essential one.

One of those games which stands inches away from greatness.

A game that's ingenious but ultimately a little tedious, this puzzle oddity is a brain-teaser that will boggle your mind at least as long as your patience lasts.

While the repetitive nature of the sub-games is what really keeps this away from true greatness, what leads to an increasing sense of the game being a chore is something as simple and ethereal as a wind.

This is a bombastic, flippant, amusingly grotesque game that compensates for a lack of wit with hyperactive energy and overstatement.

This is a robust FPS, comfortably the strongest on its platform and, while derivative of its strongest rivals, it's still able to compete in key areas.

While in terms of accuracy to the world it's the least accurate LoTR licence yet, in other areas it's terribly close to the books. It's slow-paced. It's a little unwieldy. It's hardly glamorous. However, it's also something which wraps you up in its own world for hours at a time.

The shrink from arcade to DS screen in no way cramps the experience, offering the same amount of exacting control as it ever did.

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.

There are some truly magic moments here that transcend nostalgia. Even now, that first time you achieve absolutely blinding speed is exhilarating.

It's a long journey through this huge game and TDU2 offers an unrefined, bumpy ride. Thankfully, if it all gets too much, you can set the grind aside for a long journey of your own – just following your front wheels across the islands, revelling in one of the great videogame open worlds...Unsteady but passionate and ambitious, TDU2 is fantastic escapism. It's just a shame it sometimes needs to escape from itself.

Plenty of people would rather sit on the sofa, thanks, and play a proper videogame with guns, and good for them. But small girls, show-offs and people who are too drunk to care in the first place will have a great time with Just Dance.

The core game is, given a little time and concentration, excellent, if repetitive. Since Sony seems to have long left the Colony Wars series for dead and Nintendo likewise with Rogue Squadron, this game ably fills a gaping whole in one of gaming's most pure and heady genres.

A game designed for people who like the idea of Monster Hunter, but for whatever reason – whether it's sharpening your weapon, eating steaks for stamina, laying traps for captures, being stampeded by an enraged Barroth or failing to bag a Deviljho Gem for the tenth consecutive time – find the game too demanding.

The presentation is flawed and even though SBK 07 looks rough in parts, we can't recall actually enjoying a bike game on PlayStation 2 this much since, well, since PlayStation 2 began.

The haircuts alone make SingStar Abba worth the asking price.

When we finished "DMC3," we wondered what Capcom would do with new hardware. The answer is not an awful lot. The visuals are better, the combat's more accessible, the upgrade system's pleasingly flexible, but in practically every other sense Capcom has passed up the opportunity to do something new and exciting.

Radiant Dawn's core of creamy white strategy nougat does shine through its horribly drab exterior, but only just. We've seen it all before, and this can't help but seem like a wasted Wii opportunity.

True, it all feels more like doing homework than playing a game. But the incentive to keep going is you do find yourself learning new words. If that appeals, My Word Coach offers a stylishly presented, relatively entertaining way of doing it.

The handheld's d-pad cannot be used to move your character (instead it triggers taunts) and the analogue stick prevents precision inputs. Here, stripped of its fan service and joyful chaos the grim truth is revealed: Super Smash Bros. is a mediocre fighting game.

For the thick-skinned (preferably male) gamer looking for some fairly harmless stupidity to amuse themselves with, this resurrection of Leisure Suit Larry is surprisingly good fun, and a welcome change from the constant array of samey me-too sludge that's peppering the landscape this Christmas.

Patapon 3 is, in many ways, a typical third instalment: bigger, prettier, more difficult, and much more complicated. But that often works against it rather than in its favour, diluting that brilliant and unique rhythm-action strategy gameplay.

With its pleasantly non-fascist checkpointing, sensibly compact level design and satisfying combat system, you'll appreciate Soul Of Darkness all the more. It's short, sweet and entirely unoriginal, but for all the right reasons.

Second Assault marks another successful map pack for DICE, although one not nearly as sharp as Battlefield 3's marvellous End Game sign-off. Two excellent maps, one decent effort in Metro, and the perfunctory but underwhelming Operation Firestorm are enough to freshen up the rotation, while the new weapons might sate those who've already (somehow) exhausted the 'vanilla' game's already sizeable arsenal.