Two RTS classics that are still worth playing today, even if the greatest enemy of both Warcraft armies still ends up being the humble tree.

It's a musical game that makes you feel like applauding.

For genre fans, the educated, the talented or the time-rich, Makai Kingdom represents a rich and deep pasture with almost limitless ways to play. It's clever, expansive, funny, well made and beautifully translated and, if you are committed enough, could be one of the best videogame investments you'll ever make.

It doesn't, however, fulfill the task of being absurdly entertaining. The failings in the campaign mean that for all its incredible fireworks and visual splendour, its not interesting enough.

Between the multiplayer modes and the Challenge Rooms, there's more than enough innovation to make up for the minor irritations of the retro controls.

It’s as cryptic to begin with as any game ever conceived by Square, and it lures you in with some tremendous combat mechanics and a unique selling point (Disney), but it also tries to piss you off with a vacuous opening zone and the Chipmunks.

Fun, cheeky and irreverent, Death of the Reprobate prances through art history with a wicked twinkle in its eye, and is one of this year's most memorable adventure games.

Two RTS classics that are still worth playing today, even if the greatest enemy of both Warcraft armies still ends up being the humble tree.

What we have here essentially is an exceptionally polished product with a smattering of new additions that, Xbox Live aside, don't make an especially significant leap forward after last year's return to form.

More elegance in the interface, fewer lulls in activity and a better way of gently directing you towards its hidden delights would have carried the score higher, but even with its flaws Viva Piñata is a game that deserves to be played and refreshes your belief that games can be friendly as well as fun.

While none of the games are as polished and well-balanced as Gradius V (surely, prayerfully being held back for a single-shot PSP release) this package is nevertheless essential playing for twitch gamers.

Maybe it's just because we're remembering that the best games aren't the best because they've got the biggest polygon counts, or the most multiple paths through levels, or the largest number of murderable prostitutes - they're the best because they're the most fun to play, and that's what counts.

But overall, it is a very nice experience that exudes a certain Disney charm and - with the exception of minor performance issues - plays almost perfectly on Microsoft consoles.

Bold, raw and effortlessly stylish, Sorry We're Closed uses the building blocks of survival horror to tell a compelling and hard-hitting love story to brilliant effect.

A highly polished, mostly highly enjoyable hackandslash romp with only occasional lapses into tedious gaming by numbers same-old-same-old object hunting and respawning enemy laziness.

HD Remix is a worthy stop-off on the road to Street Fighter IV's console release next February, and a good training ground for anyone who wants to learn or relearn the Street Fighter fundamentals before then.

The novelty of repeated bucket-kicking has dampened a little. And towards the end, the game just starts throwing high-level bastards in your face to see how many you can take. The core formula that defined Infinity Blade and made it so interesting has been tarnished in the move to write an App Store description with some higher numbers than before.

It's not the future of PC gaming, but a glorious slice of the recent past. This may be the last adventure like this you'll ever go on. And there's a certain style and grandeur to anything like that.

There's still some basic things it lacks, most obviously a decent in-game auction house for trading items, and a better teaming system for locating people interested in grouping, but it does keep a count on how long you've been playing and after a long session pops up a "You've been playing for four hours. Take a break".

Taken in isolation, it's easily the best handheld Tennis game.

There are no standout battles - save, perhaps, for the grim final encounter - but the cumulative effect of its fights, puzzles and secrets is memorable.

It won't come as anything new or inspiring to anybody who's tackled a DK title before, but it engages the brain in ways that we enjoy being probed, and for all its age the formula is still as sound as ever.

The only thing that raises CVS2 up and above the likes of "Dead or Alive 3" or even "Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance" is its online element, and I'll only really recommend it until a beat 'em up developed <I>within</I> the last three years makes its mark on Xbox Live.

Gyromancer has longevity, it's fearsomely addictive, and it's more absorbing the more you play it.

Would be an impressive game even if it weren't based on Lord of the Rings. It's a clever and well-constructed strategy title with plenty of innovation of its own, and a genuinely great use of the franchise. Easily the best of the Lord of the Rings games to date.

There's really nothing here that truly deserves great reward. But I had legions of fun. And, for this game at least, that counts for, oooh, pretty much everything.

With the swimming graphics engine in particular being superbly done, I would have liked for more events based around this.

Even at 800 Microsoft points (so, six-quid-eighty), it offers a lot of value compared to some of its fellow test-subjects, and while it does occasionally frustrate or bore, the urge to keep going remains.