Taken as a rousing aerial shooter, it's easy to recommend - and sadly rather too easy to complete. There's a ton of content, at least, and it's all presented in a whiz-bang style that draws you in with heart-pounding action without belittling the history behind the explosions. It's just a shame that for such a venerable simulator series, it's the more serious game modes where Birds of Prey feels most compromised by its hardware.

It's almost too playable and satisfying for its own good, or in other words, not quite annoying enough to lure you back endlessly. Perhaps there really is only enough room for one game as annoying as Angry Birds.

Everything in Dragon Commander (aside from these bosoms) is slightly underdeveloped. Still, what Larian has created is a coherent and idiosyncratic game that's remarkably enjoyable if you're a strategy fan who wants something less po-faced than the Total War series.

The primal joys of a perfect parry followed by a killing blow against a hulking monster mean that Infinity Blade 3 was always going to be good fun where it counts. But between distracting feature creep and the inclusion of in-app purchases just because everyone else is using them, it feels like a game that exists more to serve a publishing agenda than an essential closing chapter in a coherent trilogy.

Despite these reservations, Skullgirls is a welcome addition to the genre's bustling roster. While Street Fighter 4 has acted as the catalyst of a fighting game revival, for the most part Japan has led that charge, with few Western studios chancing their hand at the genre and next to none of their games featuring on the tournament circuit. So an American-made game that not only understands the fundamentals but is able to build upon them in interesting ways is a welcome sight, even when the execution around the core is lacking.

There's none of the track furniture that shined "FlatOut" or the general gloss and roundness of "Burnout." This shallowness in gameplay is honestly the only thing that lets the game down.

Where TNA loses marks is in its rather featureless presentation. Multiplayer is decent, but the no-frills framework doesn't leave you with much to do. The story mode is fun, but no replacement for a genuine career mode, while the available options can't help but pale alongside SmackDown's over-stocked buffet.

The presentation is of a high quality, there's enough data to please fans of the TV show and they haven't mucked about with the classic Top Trumps gameplay. It's a shame none of the modes really make the most of the fact you're playing on a DS, and grown-ups are likely to memorise the cards and find it gets repetitive rather quickly. Still. Dr Who Top Trumps!

If it had a decent checkpoint system, Babylonian Twins would be excellent, so let's hope future builds respond to the feedback.

Another good map pack.

It's hard not to feel a little underwhelmed by what Virtua Tennis 2009 has to offer. While the online multiplayer facet has undoubtedly been improved, the disappointment over what's been done to World Tour mode and the general lack of ambition in certain areas leaves me wanting.

The handling is much more basic than the spongy physics used in the PS2 version, and it probably makes it an altogether more playable game as a result.

Aarklash: Legacy takes the player back to the world of the tabletop RPG known as Confrontation in a second attempt to propose its fantasy universe to PC gamers. The game in itself is a good, party-based RPG, with a nice combat system and many interesting ideas. Unfortunately it’s not a masterpiece and, after a while, the hybrid turn mechanics become a little boring. Dedicated to the fan of the genre who are in search of a fantasy game at a budget price.

While it probably won't get the adrenaline pumping for long, AiRace is certainly high-octane fun while it lasts. (Am I fired yet?)

Overall, NBA '08 is not a bad game. It just tries to make up in presentation what it lacks in depth.

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.

If you've already played Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Blue/Red Rescue Team, the improved Wi-Fi functionality is the sole reason that it might be worth playing Explorers of Time/Darkness.

Despite the questionable long term appeal, Gitaroo Man Lives! is one of those games that you'll cherish while it lasts, but only truly get the most out of if you're lucky enough to be able to engage in multiplayer. [JPN Import]

So the only niggle is not that this doesn't sufficiently differentiate itself from previous games in the series. No, the only niggle is that the combat camera angle is too low.

The marginal improvement on display here is happily eclipsed by rival extreme sports titles which do take steps to reinvent themselves, and partly because there are four other Tony Hawk games out there and they all do much the same thing.

The voice acting in the game is downright awful - especially painful after hearing the excellent voice acting in "Tales of Symphonia."

If EA wants people to buy these games year in, year out, then it has to fight for those high marks, and Tiger Woods doesn't know how to do that any more.

Going hardcore again feels like a narrow interpretation of what made this part of the game good.

Stop and peer too long into Outlast's gloom and you'll see the zips on the monster costumes. Take it at at speed and you'll find a haunted house worth visiting.

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.

Overall, Vegas 2 feels like an incremental expansion, despite the success of the character-creation feature.

Perhaps the main selling point is the presence of four-player co-op - especially given its online and local credentials. A bit of Gauntlet-style adventuring isn't something to sniff at, and far more enjoyable than button-mashing solo forays, where death results in having to replay entire missions from scratch. Nein, danke.

As a less in-depth alternative, to Madden, you can't really fault Blitz. It stands somewhere between the feature bloat of that immensely popular series and EA's own faux-urban NFL Street games. However, whichever way you put it, Madden still comes out on top.