Just as it did with Modern Combat: Domination, Gameloft has provided another high-quality, no-frills alternative that might just surprise you.

For Xbox Live Arcade it's not quite the return to last summer's form, and there are more substantial falling-blocks puzzle games with comparable production values elsewhere on the service (Lumines Live, for instance), but if you can look past its slender framework and online issues then Meteos Wars is a decent death blow to a few otherwise productive evenings, and more proof from Q that there's life in the old blocks yet.

Vanguard's created a decent blaster which offers a couple of moments of genuine bullet-dodging glory: Halo's touch-screen debut is good-looking, colourful, and fun.

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.

Cassia and co's deep-seated issues and baggage make them an entertaining bunch and while they won't set your world alight, they eventually prove capable of providing many hours of surprisingly amiable companionship.

There are loads of gameplay modes for your money - including online multiplayer for up to eight players, specific puzzle-style challenges, and a classic survival mode where you have to nosh as many balls (wahey etc) as you can before you gobble your own tail (wahey etc).

The fact is that wandering through the plot of Long Live the Queen, blithely making mistakes on the assumption you'll do better the second or third time, is wonderful. Trying to actually do better is a byzantine process involving either heavy use of a guide or incredible persistence.

It's a shame that SEGA opted for a simple port rather than properly updating the series, but this is still a fine game - if extremely niche in its appeal.

Hellgate: London is filled with gorgeous artwork and dripping with atmosphere; it's got a delicious sense of humour and finely tuned combat systems that will be keeping action RPG nuts happy for a long time. Despite this, we've got vast reservations about key aspects of the game; the randomly generated levels feel increasingly hollow, pointless and gimmicky as you progress, the user interface is clunky in some important areas, and there are clearly some hefty bugs here that need patching.

If nothing else, Age of Empires DS provides a title that will appeal to those Discovery Channel Dads who picked up the stylus for Brain Training, and proves that Nintendo's flip-top toy can supply grown-up depth as well as giddy frivolity.

At 60-80 hours in length, and given the fittingly near-infinite customisability of your fleet, Infinite Space offers a massive chunk of fun for those who can forgive its foibles, but many will find the barriers to real enjoyment too high due to poor usability. A solid game for many rainy afternoons, then, but be prepared to work for your reward.

The studio's happy knack for punting out charming little retro platformers continues with this moving tale about a monster and his desire to digest big-headed baby boys.

Personally, it feels a little unbalanced to me. I like adventure games because of the "adventure" aspect, the blend of a compelling story, immersive dialogue and logical deduction. This game favours the last element at the expense of the first two, and therefore left me somewhat unsatisfied.

Moon Diver is one of those divisive little numbers that you'll either love because of its repetitive, twitchy bombast, or want to drown in its own spittle. It's here. It's queer. Get used to it.

However, MotorStorm: Arctic Edge has inherited a few too many of its predecessor's weaknesses as well: a lumpy single player campaign, some arbitrary physics made more noticeable by the less sophisticated engine, and a tendency for the less inspired tracks to merge into one grimy muddle.

It’s fun while it lasts, but requires relatively little skill – just an iron will and determination to progress through 16 lavish, on rails, scripted levels.

While it never struggles to be entertaining, it never really stands out either, and ultimately proves rather forgettable. Worth a go, then, but you wouldn't write songs about it.

The huge time investment required to make anything that resembles progress means that this is hardly the best place for newcomers to start but by stark contrast, there's no better Yu-Gi-Oh! title on the market in terms of card lists, AI and sheer longevity.

Although there's not a great deal of substance to this downloadable chunk, it's nevertheless a pleasant bonus for those of you who've already shelled out for PlayStation Plus.

The constant changes in scenery and obstacles also help to lift the tedium of endlessly chasing sheep around brighly coloured mazes, and while the game is best handled in small doses it is addictive enough to keep you coming back for more.

The individual stories are crafted with the same level of care as the main series, but divorced from a larger, more personal tale, these scattershot scenes show their hand as unused B-sides. More ambitious, but less focused than Season One, 400 Days feels like its setting: a serviceable pit-stop on the way to a (hopefully) brighter future.

The Sims 4 is both fresh and yet also predictable, pleasant, comfortable and rarely overstimulating. It's wobbly, and you can still see some of its joins, or hear the creaks as new parts settle into place. It's not likely to win over any new players, but it will satisfy a lot of its old ones.

The only things that stop it reaching higher are that the combo system seems to be pitched a little bit above the average gamer's skill level, and could have been more inclusive, and that despite getting the basics very right it doesn't build on that as excitingly or inventively as some of the genre's best.

Perhaps more significant are the advantages of mouse-based control, which offer not only more precision but a far better camera system to boot. But while no one will have any complaints about the quality of the port, charging almost twice as much for the privilege is a little optimistic.

Just as enjoyable as the previous Buzz! titles - or just as tedious, if you're that way inclined. And that's assuming you're not expecting to be seriously tested if you're a real film fan.

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.

Aquaria's certainly prone to leaving you disorientated, some of its puzzles are quite oblique and it's in no hurry to tell you what to do, and its mechanics lack the inventiveness of a game like Zelda, but then the fact it's two friends coding together over the Internet shouldn't be overlooked when taking note of the fact that they come surprisingly close.

It's a simple enough formula, but for those of you looking for an uncomplicated reminder of a forgotten era, Captain Sub is a fine waste of time and money.