Visual shortcomings and questionable first impressions aside, Foul Play is a cheery, bright-eyed, delightful roaming beat-em-up that, through superior, fluid and engrossing combat mechanics, has arguably swiped the crown of Beat-’em-up King right off of Castle Crashers' head.

Make no mistake: this game is beyond heavyweight. In many ways, Grand Theft Auto V is a culmination of the current generation; it’s a summation of everything we’ve seen in the last eight years, a love letter, if you like, to the 360 and the PS3.

Challenging yet rewarding, this is a game that is at its best when the player is experimental with their strategies.

Elminage is not a bad game, but it feels woefully out of place in today’s market. That said, it does have a very specific target audience, and those particular gamers will lap it up. Slow-paced, dated, and under-explained in every department, the less-than-stellar localisation only compounds all of Elminage Original’s issues and ensures that only die-hard genre fans will truly enjoy it.

This anthology is worth picking up for Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix alone – the other items herein are delicious cherries on top of a massive sundae of RPG goodness, sprinkled with Disney magic.

The problems that plagued the original 2010 launch have been all but completely eradicated, and A Realm Reborn has the potential to be a truly stunning MMORPG. While the early quests are too simple, too undemanding and too familiar for RPG veterans, they do serve as a fine entry point to help acclimatise you to the world.

It isn’t a perfect encapsulation of the sport, but it is the best one to have appeared on any handheld in recent memory, and one which makes fine use of the Unreal Engine to generate some high-fidelity looks on the Vita’s OLED screen.

The idea of playing a game from the perspective of both thief and investigator is a fascinating one – especially when the two points of view overlap and interact – but Ancestry of Lies doesn’t manage to pull off this idea with the polish or precision required.

As addictive and accessible as ever, Diablo 3 on consoles is a fit more comfortable than anyone predicted, and proves that Blizzard not only listen to their fans, but are willing to walk the extra mile even for a port. Especially in this day and age, that’s an impressive ethic.

A Machine for Pigs achieves exactly what it sets out to do, and weaves an interesting and engaging narrative around a core of pure terror. It has some shortcomings, and fans of the original may be slightly disappointed with the removal of certain features, but the game is still terrifying, immersive and well crafted.

Castle of Illusion does a commendable job of feeling both modern and old-fashioned at the same time.

There is no denying that the physics and physicality are seriously impressive – if the Infinity 2 engine is able to deliver so impressively, then we are eager to see how the Ignite Engine will make a difference when sports games start to arrive on the next generation of consoles.

The juxtaposition of cartoonish humour with incredibly dark and macabre imagery and story direction means that even after playing for several hours you’ll still find things to surprise and shock you.

Legends is still a wonderful game, and the tight controls work incredibly well on the Vita – I am particularly fond of the sticks. With the challenge mode present and a good amount of content to get through (including the Back to Origins levels), this is still an excellent game, if ever so slightly inferior to the versions that have come before it.

Incredible to look at, to listen to, but most importantly to play, Sony should be pushing this one to the moon as a prime reason to own their excellent handheld.

Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate is the ultimate version of Dead or Alive 5 (to date), but its additions serve more to please existing Team Ninja fanatics than to make the game more appealing to a general audience.

Inexcusable glitches, unresponsive controls, broken combat, bizarre gameplay design (hacking games, really?), unfair enemies and completely unnecessary loading times make for a monumental disappointment.

There is no question: this is the version of Spelunky that you should purchase. Even though the game was released on Xbox 360 over a year ago, the cross save and cross buy interaction between PS3 and Vita – along with the Vita’s ability to deliver instantaneous spelunking – make this the ultimate port of a superb game.

It’s by no means easy, and takes a hefty investment of time to fully appreciate. Even after the tutorial prologue, you’ll have a lot to learn, but it’s a testament to the developers that they were able to create an engrossing game that draws you in even with such a steep learning curve.

Splatter: Just Harder Times is an ill-conceived, poorly made game that has almost no redeeming qualities. Everything about the game screams mediocrity, and it’s hard to recommend it to even fans of the genre.

It’s an old-school, extremely lengthy, extremely difficult affair which harkens back to a time when a game could and would kick your ass and send you crying to your mummy.

Next time I see that Omega Force logo I might just get excited instead of nauseous.

A blissful, almost trance-like state can be achieved when playing Race the Sun, and despite being a game that slowly reveals itself to you, rewarding you for getting better, this is worth shouting about.

Taking cues from its contemporaries, particularly Metal Gear Rising Revengeance, Grasshopper’s hack and slash tale of moon power and misogyny is an entertaining diversion, particularly narratively and artistically, but its gameplay unfortunately lacks the inventiveness or ingenuity to see it mature into a truly timeless action game.

The slow-burning start betrays a really engrossing game, let-down only by its rather repetitive firefights and laborious backtracking.

It’s not perfect, no, but it brings such joy to the player that it’s impossible not to fall utterly, head-over-heels in love with it. Aside from online multiplayer, it’s tricky to know just what else Ubisoft Montpellier could have brought to the table here, as there really is such a high level of detail, care and love for their product.

Dropchord plays much better on the smaller screens of the iPhone/iPod Touch as opposed to the iPad, due to the two thumb control method.

The story could have done with a little bit more fine-tuning and the actor playing Conrad would have done a bit better if he hadn’t been channelling every single cheesy 80′s movie star simultaneously, but the gameplay, the bit that’s most important when it comes to an actual game, is enjoyable from beginning to end.