Sound rocks. Literally. Whereas City of Heroes had an inspirational wide reaching soundtrack, City of Villains sounds like a rock festival with a few heavy metal bands. You’ll like it, and if you don’t give it a while. Then you’ll like it.

The new interface may throw a few of the more institutionalised players off the scent, but it won’t be long before they settle down for another few years.

A fantastic achievement. This is full-on, full-size GTA running on a handheld. Something most of us would probably have thought impossible back when "GTA III" originally came out.

It makes a welcome change from all the overcooked WWII games that just won’t stop coming out of the factories, although disappointingly enough, I didn’t catch a single whiff of Napalm. Probably not a good idea in the city. Probably.

It’s not failing to reach dizzying heights of sophistication or refinement; it’s just going straight for the jugular and makes no excuses for doing that – so it can’t really be criticized for not being sophisticated or refined as a result.

All in all, Age of Empires 3 is a top-notch game. Not too hard on the specs either, it’ll let you away with 256mb of ram and a 1.4ghz processor (ugly but perfectly playable).

The true colossus here is the game itself – it just raises the bar for everything that follows to a stratospheric level.

Cross Rally Championship 2005 aims high and falls short, and whilst that's more admirable than simply creating a mediocre game for a quick buck, it's still not enough to garner our endorsement.

While the stealth mechanic is implemented fairly well, and enemy AI at least stands up to initial tests, there’s just far too little excitement throughout the entire course of play.

It won’t start a second coming. What it does is showcase what the DS is capable of for this genre, and does it very well indeed. It’s also a very fun, if short-lived, experience and a very satisfying one. Just don’t be disappointed when you finish it in less than six hours.

If this had come out 3 years back it would have been a top-scoring revelation, but that’s its main problem – it just feels like an older, less refined, game. There are some sound ideas in here, but simply not enough polish to really rate it.

This is one for the collection, deftly using it’s emphasis on character to make it stand out from the crowd.

A well-executed and polished game marred by the fact it is so, so generic and (with the exception of the game save feature) everything is lifted from somewhere else. It’s also tough.

The story behind fable has to be one of the best I've ever come across. On more than one occasion, the plot took me completely by surprise.

Short, cute, enjoyable games created with simplicity in mind and offset by a few bugs and an ultimately empty feeling. As it is you will find much to like here, just don’t expect it to last.

A slightly different flavour to this vintage perhaps - less appealing to some, more appealing to others. But still, unquestionably, the greatest.

The speed at which everything shifts and the level of detail is absolutely stunning. It could easily stand alongside its PS2 and Xbox counterparts without looking like the cut-down ‘diet’ version you might expect for a handheld and full credit to Criterion for pulling it off without making sacrifices in gameplay or longevity.

With so many other exciting games on the horizon, this series as a whole requires a serious overhaul before it truly falls into a pit of mediocrity, something that this latest versions misses by a few inches.

A completely mediocre title, its only saving grace being the sheer complexity of its innards.

The humour is immature and unfunny to anyone over the age of 13 (which negates the game's 15+ age rating). The tennis is frustrating and flawed, and simply not up to the standards of the best of the genre.

This game is a bit like an infomercial. Initially you’ll flick over instinctively, but given a chance, it will grab you and before you know it, you’ll be the proud owner of a manual food processor and a lateral thigh trainer. I’m glad I gave it enough time to settle in.

With its limited playtime and a superfluously slapped-on storyline serving only to hinder the gameplay, Colosseum can only be a hit amongst subligaculum enthusiasts, likely occupying a special place alongside such gems as Conan or He-man: Masters of the Universe.

Darwinia’s action can get repetitive, though no less addictive, and its AI issues can drag it down, but on the whole this is a refreshing game created with a pure love of gaming. Its unique interface and gameplay design set is apart from anything out there. The game’s appeal will no doubt be greatest with retro fans but its reach stretches to every gamer.

So to sum up – it looks like a homebrew net Yaroze demo, sounds worse than a knackered monophonic mobile phone with the Crazy Frog ring tone on it, moves with all the fluidity and beauty of a giraffe trying to control a pedalo and is so shatteringly tedious and yawn-inducing you could mistakenly think you’ve contracted narcolepsy while playing it.

I can't really be too harsh on Pirates as it does do exactly what it sets out to do; it's a huge game, looks pretty enough with it's mix of cartoon animation and overhead map-views, and it doesn't sound too bad either to boot.

For 99% of the game, each and every puzzle feels absolutely wonderfully worked, giving you the right amount of pleasure, for just the right amount of thought and work required. But this concentration on the puzzle aspect has only served to the detriment of the storyline, which is alarmingly simplistic and lacking on that depth that the likes of Still Life and Fahrenheit have in abundance.

The game is still plagued by most amateurish of design blunders, being less than adequate in every aspect save for its "depth" (and even that is put to shame by most of the stat-based Nippon Ichi titles released in the past few years).

The worst part of this game is getting around the hospital. Think track and groove. To get from triage to trauma 1 means a long walk, and a pretty standard route every time – you'd think there'd be a quick skip feature, but it's not there.