This is a nice game that may well turn into a great game: if the players continue to stick around, if the developer doesn't let the micro-transactions take over, and if the design team keeps its eye out for bugs and exploits that emerge as people start to get really serious.

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.

It's all just a bit sad really, and while devoted Jackson fans will find more reason than most to gloss over the practical shortcomings of the game, they run the risk of being left even sadder.

It's hardly an arcade classic, in other words, but if you're after nothing more than a friendly and frantic fifteen minutes of action every now and then, Choplifter HD just came to the rescue.

Switching effortlessly between sadistic punishment and boundless freedom, VVVVVV provides more moment to moment pleasure in its scant two or three hour campaign than most games do at four times the length.

Amy fails on all counts. It's plagued by jerky movement, poor scripting, weak puzzles and shoddy checkpointing, but it's also a characterless mess of themes and ideas swiped from a dozen better horror titles. Neither quirky enough to be forgiven its unfinished feel nor polished enough to satisfy the base gaming itch, Amy is a crushing disappointment with little to recommend it.

Love is perplexing, challenging, and confusing. Thus, the cold, calculating puzzles should complement the emotional relationship parable. Hazelden wants it to work. We want it to work. But the sad truth is that in this instance the two simply don't have enough in common. Sometimes love just isn't enough.

Boom Street's left, then, to capitalise only on the love and appreciation we all feel towards our global banking overlords.

If you have the speedrunning bug, be warned: Mighty Switch Force's taunting clockwork worlds are going to be a dangerous, and possibly fairly maddening, compulsion. Even if you don't, this is still clever, personable, and beautifully made.

All Zombies Must Die takes a timeworn premise that should be fun and cathartic and seemingly goes out of its way to make it repetitive, fiddly and annoying. If you have a trio of friends close to hand, the co-op aspect might just be enough to rescue it from the depths of mediocrity, but if you're planning on playing solo you'd be far better served by trying one of the dozens of other zombie blasters on the market.

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.

It's always tempting to be lenient where indie developers are concerned, and if nothing else Afterfall: Insanity makes for an eye-catching calling card for Intoxicate's graphical skills, but as a game in its own right it's as middle of the road as they come.

Its ideas for first-person puzzling mechanics are original, and when it starts combining them all into larger and more baffling setups it has great moments with a chilled-out pacing all their own. But that creativity is smothered under slavish imitation of the aesthetics and structure of the Portal series, and such a large influence is malign.

It is not bad in the way that a game like Boiling Point is bad, where things coalesce into a kind of awful greatness. This is a tacky and technically incompetent production with no redeeming features whatsoever, devoid of fun and an insult to the name it bears. Flatout once burned bright, but now is gone - and if there is a driving hell, this is surely it.

Super Crate Box may not be new, then, but on iOS it's not to be missed. This belongs up there with Drop7, Solipskier and SpellTower as an example of the very best that the App Store offers. It's endlessly cheerful, and cheerfully deadly, and it's the perfect digital companion for the month of January, with its frosty clarity and new years' resolutions. Here is a piece of design that offers a path to true mastery through careful practice. Here is a game that provides unceasing opportunities for self-improvement.

BioWare has done what many thought might be impossible, and delivered the world's second ever triple-A MMO. That is a mighty achievement and a huge relief. But it may yet turn out to be too little - or rather, too much - too late.

While the absence of multiplayer means it won't last you as long as previous instalments, new control options have allowed the developers to line the seams of Drake's adventure with flashy tassels and detailing that make for a varied and entertaining outing - perhaps even more so than its big brothers.

The selection is definitely more hit than miss, although there are a few stinkers.

There is no doubt that this is the definitive version of a little-known, much-loved title. Sega's humility in collaborating with Whitehead, and artistry in bringing the game's strengths to the fore, is a striking achievement in 2011. For that reason, for the first time in a long time Sega, deserves its richest asset - and for the first time in a long time, those fans deserve Sega.

In many ways, Pullblox is Nintendo's answer to Portal. Both are budget puzzlers released to little fanfare that exhibit the finest qualities of their respective developers.

It's possible you might be picking up The Doctor Who Cloned Me in order to get a glimpse of what Gearbox is planning to do with the franchise for its inevitable reboot. If that's the case, you'll be disappointed: this campaign is the work of Triptych Games, a studio formed to help finish Forever back in 2009. While the new content's got the odd decent joke and the occasional smart encounter, it's lacking the sharp design wit that characterised Gearbox's own download work on Borderlands.

Where ilomilo felt like it was created by rosy-cheeked elves beckoning you to snuggle up to it with a warm blanket and hot cup of cocoa, English Country Tune is more akin to Futurama's smarmy Professor Wernstrom. Rather than being off-putting, its priggish demeanor motivates you to rise to the occasion and show it up. As creative as it is maddening, English Country Tune is an acquired taste.

a stuttering start for F1 on the 3DS.

Assault Horizon Legacy is mediocre, but what's worse is you feel it never even aimed for the stars in the first place.

Charming and witty.

Paid or free, as map packs go, Back to Karkand is hard to fault. The maps themselves are excellent, tried and trusted classics that (Wake Island's diminished scope aside) have been thoughtfully reconstructed for modern FPS play.

Sustained by the strength of the moment-to-moment play, this add-on packs a punch. While Raam's abilities are arguably too straightforward to sustain a full game, they fit a shorter DLC mission perfectly. Meanwhile, the structure that has you switching between two warring sides as they close in on one another is interesting and well executed, resulting in a strong, worthwhile expansion.

£6.99 is unbelievably good value for a near-perfect refinement of what many of us want from a football management game. It has more or less all the leagues you could conceivably wish for, a simple, uncluttered interface, all the transfer and strategic depth you need, and just enough media, player, staff and board interaction.