Xiaolin Showdown is a bad game, plain and simple. In a genre where speed and chaos is an important part of gameplay, Xiaolin Showdown's fights are out and outright tedious.

With such a drastic difference in features and entertainment value between Stewie and the rest of his kin, one wonders why he didn't just get his own game. As it stands, you'll have to play through some pretty irritating nonsense just to get to the good stuff, and it's just not worth the effort.

If you love the idea of playing an interactive commercial for Ford Motors and own both an Xbox and a PS2, then go with the PS2 version. The graphics are about the same and the slightly longer load time on the PS2 will give you a much needed break from this monotonous racer.

Don't let the Live Enabled packaging fool you - there's no online racing, only a few limp content downloads and local four-player split-screen.

With the failure of its flagship story mode, Super Monkey Ball Adventure becomes a rather dull product that has little reason to exist.

To its credit, WarPath does contain some of the cheesiest weapon and vehicle names this side of an '80's Dolph Lundgren flick-we're guessing this is the only game where you'll arm yourself with the Tyrant, Judge, Violator or Wolverine before driving off in your Maverick, Hornet or Razorback.

You know the drill: games based on movies tend to bite.

If you're a fan with your heart set on a dragging video game (in whatever sense of the word), you'll probably find enough to keep yourself amused for a short time, even as you hope for something a whole of lot better in the future.

Maybe it's a good thing that there's no online play - it's best to keep these ugly player models, awkward animations and irritatingly short sound loops away from the internet, where they might breed and multiply.

The actors (not from the film cast) sound utterly bored throughout their lengthy speeches; the only thing that trumps the highly questionable French accents is a guy who actually says "woof woof" on behalf of a virtual dog.

Even for kids, Over the Hedge is absurdly frustrating with its busted camera and indoctrinating logo-storm.

Even for kids, Over the Hedge is absurdly frustrating with its busted camera and indoctrinating logo-storm.

The Hustle might aim to be an affordable budget diversion, but even a bargain price can't make this deeply flawed game worth buying.

If you have 127 friends who also hunger for 2D fighters trapped in a 3D world, perhaps you can all play Neowave together. You won't have to worry about the rest of us interfering.

One more thing: the swearing. Normally we don't mind, but the script for Streetwise sounds like it was written by a grade-schooler who'd just discovered cursing. Foul language is overused to the point where the effect isn't gritty at all. In fact, it's just laughable.

Plays more like a kind of arcade light-gun shooter with legs, and feels like it needed a better script and about six more months of development time.

Totally devoid of fun for any age. Non-existent level design and about three ideas repeated endlessly. Steer clear. [NGC]

Batman Begins feels more like work than fun. Look at Spider-Man 2 to see how superhero games should be done. [NGC]

If not for the board game pain, this would have been OK. But as it is, it's just another lifeless Mario Party to sling on to the slowly growing pile. [NGC Pocket]

It's hard to imagine anyone splashing their moolah on Ninty's new handheld and being happy to entertain themselves with pedestrian ports of antique titles such as Rayman DS.

We like guns, we like city envirnments, and we like laughable drugs and violence references. AND we like arresting people. But we don't like Narc. No. Sorry. [PSM2]

Atari should be shamed and ashamed for having the sheer gall to release something this broken. To do it twice is inexplicable. [PC Gamer UK]

The new isometric view makes even the simplest of tasks extremely annoying, judging jumps is painfully tricky, Rayman has strangely forgotten how to swim and combat is, frankly, a mess. [NGC Pocket]

A run of the mill platformer that does nothing we haven't seen a thousand times before. It also makes little effort to take advantage of DS's unique interface.

A game that will appeal to easily-impressed foetuses, but alienate the rest of us by being incredibly simple and simply unfulfilling. [PSM2]

Graphics are heavily influenced by "The Sims" but with fewer animations, while the repetitive gameplay makes playing the missions unlikely despite bosoms. The exposed pixels do not make up for a simplistic and tedious game - invest in the real thing instead. [GamesMaster]

Shallow and void of any kind of challenge, if you like games, steer well clear of Sprung - it's one date that you definitely want to stand up.

Perhaps the most stinging criticism we could hurl at Ridge Racer DS is that it makes Need for Speed Underground 2 look half-decent - and that is just plain wrong. [GamesMaster]