Supreme Ruler 2020 is a big step on from what has gone before in the series. It doesn’t stand head and shoulders above the pack, but it certainly rubs shoulders with the big boys and doesn’t come off looking cheap and a little embarrassed. It makes the job of being a psychopathic dictator just that little bit more fun.

If you enjoyed Catan and Carcasonne then you'll be right on track with this.

It’s mildly entertaining, mildly disappointing, mildly challenging and overall just mild.

Final Fantasy Tactics A2 carries on the fine tradition of the series and, a couple of stylus issues aside, is a natural fit on the DS.

Roogoo is a strange creature, combining cutesy childlike design and whimsical story with fiendish gameplay and a steep challenge curve. Stripping away the fluffy exterior reveals a meaty core that will satisfy even the healthiest of gaming appetite for the time it will take to finish.

Alone in the Dark will surely come to be known as one of the biggest let downs of the year. Impressive set pieces and an initially compelling opening are horribly betrayed by a diabolical control system and frustrating glitches that strongly suggest the game would have benefitted from at least another six months intensive development and testing.

It’s not as often as we’d like that a shooter comes along in which can you plough through the single player and then spend many more hours in the multiplayer without feeling like you’ve seen and done it all before. Battlefield: Bad Company is definitely one of those games, and the tongue-in-cheek tone and dialogue of the game is perfectly matched to the intense and chaotic action.

It’s not as often as we’d like that a shooter comes along in which can you plough through the single player and then spend many more hours in the multiplayer without feeling like you’ve seen and done it all before. Battlefield: Bad Company is definitely one of those games, and the tongue-in-cheek tone and dialogue of the game is perfectly matched to the intense and chaotic action.

A brave but ultimately over-ambitious waste.

As a fairly cheap (fifteen quid) racer, it’ll probably do until Motorstorm: Pacific Rift and floaty-ship-racing-game-beginning-with-W turns up, although the futuristic trappings and weak techno soundtrack do it few favours in terms of comparison to other, better, racers out there.

Space Invaders Extreme is easily one of the best games we’ve ever played on the DS and it has some competition. As far as DS shooters go, it is king.

As a modern update to a classic and as an example of neo retro presentation, Space Invaders Extreme works and it works well. Taito has walked a tightrope between faithful and contemporary gameplay without the need for a safety net.

When placed in the context of the Metal Gears before it, Snake’s latest and last adventure feels a touch diminutive and hollow.

The AI falls prey to cheap tricks consistently; almost all of the characters have to be unlocked through the single player and to unlock all of the drama scenes you need encyclopaedic knowledge of the series itself.

Roogoo is a strange creature, combining cutesy childlike design and whimsical story with fiendish gameplay and a steep challenge curve. Stripping away the fluffy exterior reveals a meaty core that will satisfy even the healthiest of gaming appetite for the time it will take to finish.

It’s not that the game doesn’t look great – it does. It’s not that it doesn’t control well – it does. It’s not that it has bugs or camera issues – the camera never presented a problem and, aside from falling through the floor a couple of times, the game ran smoothly. It’s just that this is a short game, and yet still not short enough to stop the gameplay from wearing thin.

It’s not that the game doesn’t look great – it does. It’s not that it doesn’t control well – it does. It’s not that it has bugs or camera issues – the camera never presented a problem and, aside from falling through the floor a couple of times, the game ran smoothly. It’s just that this is a short game, and yet still not short enough to stop the gameplay from wearing thin.

For the die-hards who take their games like they take their women – angry, violent, unforgiving, underdeveloped and occasionally gratifying – Ninja Gaiden 2 is a fine follow-up, especially with its punishing achievements and four difficulty settings (Very Hard, Insane, Chuck Norris, Double Chuck Norris). For everyone else Ninja Gaiden 2 is an exercise in futility that’s just not as polished, balanced or enjoyable as its predecessor.

If Colin McRae: DIRT was a sign of Codemasters regaining a foothold in the racing market, the latest Race Driver is evidence of the publisher taking full control. GRID makes the high points of its rivals feel like false dawns, and if what’s on offer here is a sign of things to come, we’re all in for a remarkable ride.

If Colin McRae: DIRT was a sign of Codemasters regaining a foothold in the racing market, the latest Race Driver is evidence of the publisher taking full control. GRID makes the high points of its rivals feel like false dawns, and if what’s on offer here is a sign of things to come, we’re all in for a remarkable ride.

If Colin McRae: DIRT was a sign of Codemasters regaining a foothold in the racing market, the latest Race Driver is evidence of the publisher taking full control. GRID makes the high points of its rivals feel like false dawns, and if what’s on offer here is a sign of things to come, we’re all in for a remarkable ride.

While not a bad game, our overriding feeling while playing Lego Indiana Jones was that we really wanted to play through Lego Star Wars again. The game works, for all its glitches, and will undoubtedly provide a good few hours of co-op fun with a like-minded second player. Nevertheless, the painful fact is that Lego fatigue has set in far sooner than we had expected it to.

While not a bad game, our overriding feeling while playing Lego Indiana Jones was that we really wanted to play through Lego Star Wars again. The game works, for all its glitches, and will undoubtedly provide a good few hours of co-op fun with a like-minded second player. Nevertheless, the painful fact is that Lego fatigue has set in far sooner than we had expected it to.

While not a bad game, our overriding feeling while playing Lego Indiana Jones was that we really wanted to play through Lego Star Wars again. The game works, for all its glitches, and will undoubtedly provide a good few hours of co-op fun with a like-minded second player. Nevertheless, the painful fact is that Lego fatigue has set in far sooner than we had expected it to.

As simple as Toki Tori is, its cheerful presentation coupled with a well thought out difficulty curve make for a puzzle-platforming treat that is more than the sum of its parts.

The graphics are worse, joypads are a poor substitute for keyboard and mouse control, online play is laggier and there aren’t enough people playing. And to rub it all in, you can pick the PC version for a good deal cheaper.

The graphics are worse, joypads are a poor substitute for keyboard and mouse control, online play is laggier and there aren’t enough people playing. And to rub it all in, you can pick the PC version for a good deal cheaper.

One of the best point-and-click adventures we’ve seen in a very long time.

If you're a Penny Arcade fan then Episode One is an enjoyable if overpriced and short-lived experience.

If you're a Penny Arcade fan then Episode One is an enjoyable if overpriced and short-lived experience.

It’s bold, brash, visceral in nature and for the first 20 levels it’s highly compelling. It’s also unfinished, somewhat unpolished and requires a fairly hefty PC to run.

Coupled with alcohol, SingStar is definitely an improvement now that it’s on PS3, even if that’s simply because it’s all shiny and new and you can pretty much create your own collection thanks to the SingStore.

If you’ve always fancied getting one of those home gym kits that are always in the Argos catalogue and Sunday supplements, then Wii Fit would make an ideal substitute. Without will-power, though, you might want to consider waiting for the inevitable clutch of games to appear that’ll use the potentially excellent balance board in a way that’s just more fun.

Playing the game is fun defined. While Pro Evolution has managed to slowly botch its own previously stellar system with each release, EA’s FIFA has been making steady progress over the last few years, culminating in this climax.

Playing the game is fun defined. While Pro Evolution has managed to slowly botch its own previously stellar system with each release, EA’s FIFA has been making steady progress over the last few years, culminating in this climax.

Fresh, quirky and original – and better still, only seven quid. What are you waiting for?

Overall, Speed Racer is a very solid F-Zero clone with a few niggles dragging it down. Mainly, it’s the lack of a real sense of speed that disappointed us, which is something we adored about the F-Zero series.

Littered with slowdown, needless cut-scenes and droll monotonous play, Iron Man is as disappointing an effort as Sega has published in its entire history.

Littered with slowdown, needless cut-scenes and droll monotonous play, Iron Man is as disappointing an effort as Sega has published in its entire history.

Grand Theft Auto IV is not a perfect game, but it is fantastic through and through, from start to finish and beyond. It is so massive, vast and impressive that it is almost mind-boggling to imagine how much work must have gone into the game to come up with so much detail.

Grand Theft Auto IV is not a perfect game, but it is fantastic through and through, from start to finish and beyond. It is so massive, vast and impressive that it is almost mind-boggling to imagine how much work must have gone into the game to come up with so much detail.

Nintendo have managed to make the Wii-wheel work – something we were very sceptical about – and they’ve managed to bring Mario Kart online play to our TVs. Besides a few niggles with unfair A.I. and some average tracks, this is a valuable addition to the series.

It may offer a richer gameplay experience than Uno, but Lost Cities just doesn’t have the fast, fun and addictive quality of that particular social card game.

Turok is far from a revival of the series. Aside from having dinosaurs and lots of frantic fire-fights, it doesn’t offer a great deal of new stuff or even good stuff for shooter fans.

Battle of the Bands is disappointing in many respects despite the promise held by its central premise.

Actually worse than "Ankh" in many respects.

Interesting content, ease of use and the ability to remove huge chunks of your life combine to make one of the best historically accurate strategy games out there.

It’s the interface, audio and visuals that make this an outstanding package, although even here there are things that are not quite right.

Teenage Zombies feels a bit like a normal platformer made in a haphazard fashion with slightly dodgy, sluggish gameplay, that has had the whole zombie thing tacked on afterwards in an effort to pretend it was meant to be dodgy, haphazard and sluggish in the first place.

This is by no means a stellar adventure game, being too strict and occasionally lacking atmosphere, but it does some justice to the license and has enough unique elements to make it at least stand out from the rest, if not tower above them as it probably ought to.

As a finale, it’s far superior to last year’s effort. As an adventure game, it’s quite simply one of the best you’ll find on the PC today.

Overclocked’s complex and rich setting is ultimately just that – a setting. Too many things let the game down for it to be truly recommendable, like stiff animation, poor audio editing and a lack of insight into your own character’s agenda.

Yes, technically it’s a port of FlatOut 2, and a pretty belated one at that, but just because it’s the least visually impressive version of the game doesn’t make it the least technically accomplished.

It’s such a shame to see what could have been a splendid old-school RTS with mostly decent presentation (aside from the fact that the camera doesn’t zoom out enough) and three imaginative and well-balanced factions being ruined because of so many niggling problems.

Ultimately Viking: Battle for Asgard is almost a complete waste of Norse mythology. It’s bloody and epic, but the boring, repetitive combat and hours you spend doing un-Vikingly menial tasks leaves a sour taste in the mouth, washed down with a swig of bitter, pointless stealth idiocy.

Ultimately Viking: Battle for Asgard is almost a complete waste of Norse mythology. It’s bloody and epic, but the boring, repetitive combat and hours you spend doing un-Vikingly menial tasks leaves a sour taste in the mouth, washed down with a swig of bitter, pointless stealth idiocy.

It's incredibly hard not to spend hours just wandering about the beautiful rooms that form the foundations of Opoona's play, but it's just a shame that most of the time there's little to do in them.

Every aspect of the game design has been mishandled in some way or another.

Crisis Core has everything a Final Fantasy VII fan would ever want: reams of backstory and exposition about Zack, hours of fun gaming in a familiar universe for a handheld console that causes horrible hand cramps, and most importantly of all, a decent excuse for everyone to revisit Midgar.

One of the nastiest experiences you are ever going to have in a game, but in a good way.

There really is no excuse for the workmanlike presentation though – if Sony are going to keep releasing these games, they should at least put something new in them.

The 10 year old PC game is better looking, easier to control, has more weapons and features; it doesn’t have average mini games and it has online multiplayer. What’s more, it can be had for 99 pence on eBay.

If you have aspirations to be a virtual Tiger Woods then the cheesily cheerful presentation might be off-putting, but look past that and you’ll find a game of golf as able to please veterans of the game as complete newcomers.

Sega Superstars Tennis offers some interesting diversions, but the main meat of the package is lacking the bite it requires to be a great game.

Sega Superstars Tennis offers some interesting diversions, but the main meat of the package is lacking the bite it requires to be a great game.

The great multiplayer and co-op are worthy of the price alone, and as familiar as it feels, the single player game is still a tremendous experience, albeit a little short.

George of the Jungle is basic at its best and irritatingly flawed at its worst, relying almost entirely on its license to sell to an audience perhaps unaware of the genre’s past glories.

Basically, using the time elevator is enormous fun – far more so than clicking on the Desoto, which may pose Telltale with an interesting problem in deciding how to keep the quality rising in future episodes.

One of the nastiest experiences you are ever going to have in a game, but in a good way.

The multiplayer really does save this latest Final Fantasy game from suffering the indignity of a bad score due to incompetent AI.

So, if you have friends, you like movies and you’re in the 25-35 age range, this game is pretty much tailored for you and about five million other people. Clever Sony. And as for that rivalry, well sometimes you just have to know when to throw a fight.

It’s huge and ambitious, but you run the risk of losing the will to live in the process of playing.

The gameplay is very basic and badly dated and, with all the top-end city building sims out there now, that makes it doomed to failure. With very little in the way of redeeming features, it is only going to have any kind of appeal to the most hardened of Roman history vets – ones who don’t know games very well so won’t know better.

It's an absolute must for any fan of the genre, and whether you think it is value for money or not is purely down to how much you enjoy shooting zombies in the face, again.

At its best, Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters is a half-arsed port of a decent PSP game that owners of the handheld should give a try if they can catch it at a reasonable price.

The astonishing array of imaginative and well implemented characters, along with the hundreds of unlockable items to discover, ensure that SSB Brawl is easily the most definitive Smash Bros yet, and the best game you can buy for the Wii. But forcing you to unlock half of the characters and stages, not to mention the unbelievably botched online options, only serves to frustrate everyone who foresaw the greatness that could have been.

The game is short and sweet but with little to offer any replay value. It’s a mishmash of good ideas that have been thrown together with only some success. It bodes well for a sequel, though.

The game is short and sweet but with little to offer any replay value. It’s a mishmash of good ideas that have been thrown together with only some success. It bodes well for a sequel, though.

The beautiful animation, the brutal, unforgiving and incessant combat and the raw badass-ness of Kratos are things we just can’t get enough of, and to have it all on the PSP gives us more reason to love Sony’s widescreen brick even more.

To the less than fanatical, the drawn-out story, poor pacing, terrible script, crappy acting, plethora of typos, repetition and badly designed game engine will see to it that the most chilling prospect of The Lost Crown will be the thought of sitting through it.

What is important is the difficulty to distinguish between things you’re supposed to collect and things you’re supposed to avoid, especially when the screen fills with lasers and power ups. Even after several hours of play, dying because of this was fairly common.

As a rental, Lost: The Video Game might entertain a handful of die-hard fans for four or five hours, but it has no replay value.

Avoid Turning Point, even if it means running in front of a taxi.

As a rental, Lost: The Video Game might entertain a handful of die-hard fans for four or five hours, but it has no replay value.

As a rental, Lost: The Video Game might entertain a handful of die-hard fans for four or five hours, but it has no replay value.

Patapon is far more than just a unique new mix of genres – it’s just so damn charming it could tell you kill a puppy and you would.

Balance and a few physics issues aside, guns are really satisfying to shoot, and the vehicles – including tanks, helicopters and planes – are great to take a joyride in.

It shows great aptitude for minimalist design and strikes a good albeit controversial balance between steep difficulty and steady progress. Joyful and infuriating in turns, it comes well and truly to life as a shared experience and, if nothing else, is perfect for masochists.

What they have done is filled a gap in the current console market we didn’t even know was there. They have made a video game that is an essential purchase for anybody interested in arcade shooters. It’s outstandingly good fun for the first weekend or so that it will take to peek at what it has to offer, and it’ll be outstandingly good fun for the next couple of years when you dip into it from time to time in order to have a breather from "Gears of War 5" or some other interactive movie.

When a game is this easy, predictable and limited, hardcore gamers are too busy praying for DS versions of the original Dragon Quest games to be bothered with it.

Offering little in the way of innovation, it will keep fans of the series very happy and is definitely an essential purchase if you have ever enjoyed a DW game in the past.

Offering little in the way of innovation, it will keep fans of the series very happy and is definitely an essential purchase if you have ever enjoyed a DW game in the past.

FIFA Street 3 is about taking all the superficial and superfluous things about modern day football – from the overhead kicks to the pop-culture that surrounds the beautiful game in the 21 st century – and placing them centre stage.

FIFA Street 3 is about taking all the superficial and superfluous things about modern day football – from the overhead kicks to the pop-culture that surrounds the beautiful game in the 21 st century – and placing them centre stage.

All we can say is that this certainly ought to please hardcore RPG players and veteran nostalgists alike.

While the game at its heart may be simple, and the presentation equally so, AudioSurf’s near perfect melding of music and gameplay guarantees your fiver will be well spent. That’s right – a fiver.

This could, and indeed should, have been a market leading game, blowing people away with clever tactical shooting action. Instead, it’s flawed and with the exception of the co-op mode, has nothing to make it shine.

This could, and indeed should, have been a market leading game, blowing people away with clever tactical shooting action. Instead, it’s flawed and with the exception of the co-op mode, has nothing to make it shine.