With a frustrating yet easy single-player mode that can be exhausted in less than an hour, it falls to multiplayer to improve the score - and it's true that playing with other people does liven things up a tad.

Both the unwieldy control scheme and the bafflingly forgiving nature of the game count against it, which is a shame because for the most part it's a thoroughly satisfying and meaty shooter, blessed with some stunning backdrops and a blistering frame-rate.

It's a solid adaptation of a fun card game, and at 400 Microsoft Points it's priced just right.

Creating your own army, and then constantly improving it with the spoils of skirmishes against live foes, is what will keep players coming back for more. With a more streamlined control system, and some tidier graphics, Battle March could be one of the best console strategy games. As it stands, it's strictly for the hardcore.

At its best Infinite Undiscovery is just another standard action JRPG following a strictly linear route through the same predictable story about another reluctant young hero overthrowing yet another evil empire. In its worst moments, it's an unwieldy collision of ill-conceived ideas and sloppy technical implementation that will test the patience of even the most hardened player.

The whole is deep, compelling, personal and capable of so much incidental humour and charm.

It's a guess-the-drawing parlour game for all intents and purposes, though, and there's always a nagging feeling in the back of your mind that there's far better things to do on a DS than this. As long as the likes of Professor Layton or Picross exist, it's easily overlooked.

The reason this game and its predecessors perch atop their genre is they make every sweet passing move, crisply negotiated corner and shaved second feel like a podium finish.

I'm certainly not averse to this sort of thing appearing on WiiWare but My Aquarium feels like half an idea, lazily executed. If you like the idea of a virtual fish-tank, and don't mind that your input is minimal, then the price is about as right as it'll ever get for this sort of thing.

Off Road is not as hateful as, say, RealPlay Racing, but you still shouldn't buy it.

The usually reliable Pandemic has produced a game that not only fails to compete with any current-generation openworld, but somehow takes a backward step from the original. With uninspiring combat contributing to a succession of desperately poor missions, the only remaining question is whether the developer will get a third chance to rectify matters.

The Last Guy's another decent example of a simple, slightly risky game perfect for PSN, even if it seldom feels particularly essential.

A hidden gem in the PSP catalogue. Beautiful, understated and relaxing, this is to normal "marble puzzle" games what ICO was to normal platform games.

It's a big, bright and bold dollop of irreverent fun, and it could have been truly phenomenal with a little more attention to the finer details. As it is, it's brushing against greatness but falls frustratingly short of its true potential.

Though the Spore catalog is stuffed with useful creations, we still found it quite slow to load and not very easy to browse. Searching by tags is fine, but the mass of content (which includes a high proportion of mediocrity) means it can be hard and mind-numbing to find the best model for your job.

Namco is to be applauded for updating the series with no small amount of consideration and flair, an effort that has resulted in the strongest entry to the aging series yet, and one which makes up for its lack of polish with an abundance of detail, character and, dare I say it, soul.

This is yet another solid improvement over its predecessor that nudges the series back into "must buy" status, even if it sometimes feels more like the game is taking steps forward rather then leaps.

Even with the dreary visuals Tiger Woods 09 is certainly the best golf game on the Wii so far.

But for series veterans who want to drill down to the bottom, upgrading weapons by slogging through 100-level grinds in the item world, balancing Evilties, managing clubs and alliances to create a squadron that is literally the gigantic sum of its creator's decisions, a blanket recommendation is harder to make.

Dedicated followers of the brand will obviously find much to enjoy, as will those who like their racing dry and technical. It's just a shame the game doesn't do more to win over everyone else.

If you can get used to the nunchuk and remote as a surrogate wheel then the experience is passable, but nothing more.

Overall, it's a very entertaining low-tech drive and demolish racer, but with one caveat for veterans of the series - they'll have seen much of the game already in FlatOut 2.

Much like its robot host, it's a bare bones facsimile of something with a lot more soul. Samba de Amigo may cost four times as much but even in its slightly disappointing Wii incarnation, it's still four times as much fun as well.

Quest for Booty is a solid, funny little platform game with good camerawork and controls so long established that their pristine execution scarcely warrants mention, but it feels so much like a regular Ratchet & Clank game that it's jarring to discover it ends so quickly, leaving us to damn it over and over again with faint praise.

Toppling "Geometry Wars 2" from its throne is now the goal for any stripped-down Live Arcade shooter, and Namco Bandai deserves praise for delivering a game that comes within grasping distance of this lofty aim.

Perhaps biggest problem with the game: it's too short.

Ultimately this is soulless and boring with almost no redeeming features, and the worst tennis game of this generation by some margin.

As always with Gameloft's efforts, the mostly solid gameplay is simply undersold by some rough edges that betray the title's Java and/or Flash roots. It's certainly not the best pool game you'll ever play, but for the price it should prove more than enough for most people's needs.