A fantastic remake but also a frustrating one, bringing a classic NES title to western shores for the first time and improving upon it, but failing to make sensible use of the DS or implementing a fair save system.

Along with the Engrish translation, ear-torturing voice acting and mindless, lifeless soundtrack, Sonic the Hedgehog is a broken, hideous mess, splattered in the middle of the gaming motorway.

Resistance is very much like the PS2’s Killzone: overtly grey, rather good fun and nothing groundbreaking.

The real downfall for the game is that there simply isn’t enough content in Rayman: Raving Rabbids to keep you interested for a great deal of time.

Only hardcore fans of Warhammer need really apply: there are quite simply too many other RTS games out there which are far better, many of which beat Mark Of Chaos at its own game without even intending to.

Gitaroo Man Lives! is a work of art. It’s Koei’s atonement for "Dynasty Warriors." It’s a masterpiece, one of the greatest achievements in video game history.

The feel of going back for just one more crack at an operation is amazing and there’s always plenty to go back and improve on even after you’ve waded through the six chapters of story.

It may sound bitchy, but the game is stupid in a way very few video games are: a Naruto action-RPG has so much potential, but this can’t even come close to average.

Littered with occasionaly glimmers of hope, Vivendi’s attempt to create a true killer-app sadly falls flat, with most of the game feeling uninspired and largely by-the-numbers.

Littered with occasionaly glimmers of hope, Vivendi’s attempt to create a true killer-app sadly falls flat, with most of the game feeling uninspired and largely by-the-numbers.

Littered with occasionaly glimmers of hope, Vivendi’s attempt to create a true killer-app sadly falls flat, with most of the game feeling uninspired and largely by-the-numbers.

The vast world offers so much freedom that you could easily think you are lost. But you are not, because you can do whatever the hell you want, so even if you’re not able to complete a quest there will be plenty to keep you occupied until you can.

Littered with occasionaly glimmers of hope, Vivendi's attempt to create a true killer-app sadly falls flat, with most of the game feeling uninspired and largely by-the-numbers.

Grand, ferocious and full of drama, the battle elements combine with Medieval’s excellent take on diplomacy to create a fully-rounded experience – one that will pay off for years to come.

Much better than most other games on the DS. In particular it puts New Super Mario Bros to shame.

There’s just no valid excuse for buying Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 when you could just as easily pop down to a sex shop and buy an R18 DVD, go online and scour the adult sites or just spend your money on a proper videogame.

There’s so much to do, so much to see and so many piñatas you can gently tap on the noggin with your mighty shovel it could keep anyone from 8 to 80 occupied until the moozipans come home.

Gears of War isn’t a masterpiece of innovation: it’s a masterpiece of fun.

Call of Duty 3 may not be vastly different to Call of Duty 2, but it is quantifiably better.

Tony Hawk might be contracted for skating games until he’s far too old to be tearing it up on small planks of wood with wheels on, but at least the developers can still keep him going while he’s requiring medical aid to go to the bathroom and complaining about things being better in his day.

Whether running around the Bada Bing nightclub or a casino, the locations are boxy, linear and woefully outdated in terms of texture quality. Frankly speaking, it just isn’t up to scratch.

Newcomers to the series should definitely stick with the first instalment, while veterans should be aware that, despite the title, this is in no shape or form a proper sequel.

Ultimately BattleZone comes across as a futile and dated attempt at bringing multiplayer deathmatch to the PSP.

Sod all the talk of the Japanese original – Elite Beat Agents is a truly superb title that’s a joy to play from start to finish.

Even if you rush through the story you can anticipate spending at least 50 hours to complete it. Rushing through is not as much fun, however, and you should take time to do the extra side quests, hunts, exploration, levelling up, etc.

We’re just counting the weeks until the first expansion comes along.

F.E.A.R. is a game that you’re going to like a lot or you’re not going to like at all, depending on your tolerance for genuinely challenging gun battles, genuinely unsettling creepiness and genuine-looking bland industrial environments.

What the series needs is not useless gimmicks and badly rehashed game mechanics, but good, old-fashioned racing fun. We don’t need customisable bells and whistles; what gamers really want is a Need for Speed that uses its strengths, and doesn’t try to shoe-horn in its weaknesses for the sake of bullet points on a press release.

What the series needs is not useless gimmicks and badly rehashed game mechanics, but good, old-fashioned racing fun. We don’t need customisable bells and whistles; what gamers really want is a Need for Speed that uses its strengths, and doesn’t try to shoe-horn in its weaknesses for the sake of bullet points on a press release.

What the series needs is not useless gimmicks and badly rehashed game mechanics, but good, old-fashioned racing fun. We don’t need customisable bells and whistles; what gamers really want is a Need for Speed that uses its strengths, and doesn’t try to shoe-horn in its weaknesses for the sake of bullet points on a press release.

Okay, so there’s nothing majorly new here, but if this isn’t a game to showcase the PSP and spur on other developers, we just don’t know what is.

What the series needs is not useless gimmicks and badly rehashed game mechanics, but good, old-fashioned racing fun. We don't need customisable bells and whistles; what gamers really want is a Need for Speed that uses its strengths, and doesn't try to shoe-horn in its weaknesses for the sake of bullet points on a press release.

What the series needs is not useless gimmicks and badly rehashed game mechanics, but good, old-fashioned racing fun. We don't need customisable bells and whistles; what gamers really want is a Need for Speed that uses its strengths, and doesn't try to shoe-horn in its weaknesses for the sake of bullet points on a press release.

Epic in places, bland in others, Dungeon Siege: Throne of Agony is certainly a premier dungeon crawler on the PSP, but doesn’t quite live up to the PC games on which it is based – not that they were ever true classics to begin with.

It may be no substitute for the real thing, but is by far and away the best stop-gap we’ve seen so far.

Some elements of the game could definitely use a bit more polish, and we’d hope to see some more significant retroactive technical changes for the next inevitable outing, but for now Guild Wars Nightfall represents a perfectly justifiable if not essential purchase.

The single-player is a fun new addition but is plagued by frustrating design choices and idiotic AI, while the multiplayer is very hard to justify paying £6.99 a month for, especially as the game doesn't even come with a free trial period.

The single-player is a fun new addition but is plagued by frustrating design choices and idiotic AI, while the multiplayer is very hard to justify paying £6.99 a month for, especially as the game doesn't even come with a free trial period.

The single-player is a fun new addition but is plagued by frustrating design choices and idiotic AI, while the multiplayer is very hard to justify paying £6.99 a month for, especially as the game doesn't even come with a free trial period.

Like an angry Orc, Dark Messiah of Might & Magic feels unbalanced, with all of the focus going into the melee action and everything else feeling a little forlorn and unloved.

Perhaps most importantly, it’s fun. Repetitive and glitchy in places maybe, but that hook will keep you reeling out those sweary one liners at hostages and putting security guards’ faces through vending machines until the conclusion.

Perhaps most importantly, it’s fun. Repetitive and glitchy in places maybe, but that hook will keep you reeling out those sweary one liners at hostages and putting security guards’ faces through vending machines until the conclusion.

Anyone who has played through FEAR will probably have been starting to tire of the dark and increasingly familiar locations by the time they reached the final (and slightly clunky) scenes of exposition, so a couple more evening’s worth of the same thing is unlikely to appeal to anyone who’s after something more.

Dynasty Warriors Volume 2 at least adds in a few multiplayer modes, but these fall short of justifying the failure to address the wealth of deficiencies the franchise has suffered for what’s now its third handheld instalment.

We liked the idea of Tokobots when the game came out for the PSP and in a way we still do, but with some very cluttered gameplay, a nonsensical story even by Japanese standards, and not much in the way of challenge, the subtle improvements and minor additions to the PS2 version hardly make the fundamental gameplay any more attractive.

Perhaps most importantly, it's fun. Repetitive and glitchy in places maybe, but that hook will keep you reeling out those sweary one liners at hostages and putting security guards' faces through vending machines until the conclusion.

It’s somewhat ironic that by attempting to take a more RTS-led approach, Firefly has robbed Legends of what’s made the Stronghold series so endearing.

Simply speaking, for $9 (which is under a fiver in proper money), even if you’ve already bought BS4, there’s no reason at all not to get hold of this. As far as we’re concerned, we’d rather have had an updating of Monkey Island or Day Of The Tentacle. Until – or even if – that day arrives, Culture Shock will more than suffice as a reintroduction to a world of gaming that has long since past.

Admittedly there are no truly grave punishments in the game, but the violence is often more comical than serious anyway.

What we’ve seen here is a more-vulnerable Sam Fisher rather than the near-invincible super ninja of the previous games, which certainly gives Double Agent a distinctive feel.

Even if EA does use its nefarious in-game advertising system to find your precious information/porn/illegally downloaded music and movies and try to sell you similar items, Battlefield 2142 is undeniably a new and enjoyable step for a franchise that has so far not strayed away from historical or topical content.

Railroads! is way more fun than the subject matter suggests it ought to be, which is a credit to its design team.

An unfortunately aimless and inadequate sequel: a game that somehow manages to improve many areas but makes others worse in the process.

The game’s RPG spin is a positive one, and the potential for multi-player missions certainly lifts Snowblind Studio’s effort above the banal, but the superheroes that the developer has attempted to honour here deserve much more bang for their buck.

Depending on how you look at it, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 on Xbox 360 is either fantastic value and the best golf game on the market, or it’s a somewhat less-than-fantastic value update to a game that, while undeniably good, hasn’t gotten a great deal better.

While the PC expansion version is a decent way to expand the life of the game, on console it’s nothing more than an awkward, ugly and pointless update to the original Sims 2 on consoles, which itself wasn’t that great.

There’s a few hours of play in it, but no real fun. L.A. Duel is blander than a petrol station sandwich, but thankfully less likely to leave you blowing chunks by the side of the road.

An incredibly deep and complex game. The problem is that to really get your hands on the deep and complex stuff, you have to go through gameplay hell and we’d be surprised if many people had the stomach to do that when there are so many other games out there that do it better.

We don’t care if it’s a kids game that parents will buy anyway, that’s no excuse for churning a pile of badness like this. It’s lazy, sloppy and one hell of a bad game.

Solid and dependable, Scooby’s latest outing on DS almost acts as a training game, slowly introducing the player to rules and concepts games have thrived on for generation after generation.

It’s just too hardcore for the light-weights and too light-weight for the hardcore.

An anthology of washed up ideas and concepts seen in almost every non-Nintendo platformer post 2D.

By dropping some of its heavier elements, Amaze’s attempt at straightforward play is not without merit on a console designed for just such a purpose. It’s just a shame that it’s entirely undermined by the need for those playing to have three or more hands.

An anthology of washed up ideas and concepts seen in almost every non-Nintendo platformer post 2D.

With more characters than anyone could possibly master in one lifetime and plenty of variety in the form of Motor Kombat (we’re still laughing after playing this) and the Konquest adventure mode, not to mention the scary number of unlockables to be found, it’s enough to make you start daydreaming at what they could do on the next gen consoles.

Widely available for about fifteen quid, Dark Crusade is a ridiculously attractive prospect for RTS gamers.

Scarface the game is not a classic befitting of the film, but it’s an edgy, uncompromising, sometimes humorous and overall positive offering, which makes the blatant cadging from a superior game series just a bit more forgivable.

Scarface the game is not a classic befitting of the film, but it’s an edgy, uncompromising, sometimes humorous and overall positive offering, which makes the blatant cadging from a superior game series just a bit more forgivable.

Scarface the game is not a classic befitting of the film, but it's an edgy, uncompromising, sometimes humorous and overall positive offering, which makes the blatant cadging from a superior game series just a bit more forgivable.

Archlord is a case of seen it before, seen it better, and the stuff we haven’t seen is going to end up more frustrating and hassle than it is worth.

Perhaps more of a focus on cerebral maze-like levels and less on the ‘gotcha’ high-wire acts might have helped this unique game series reach its full potential.

The tweaks to the existing feature set and gameplay have certainly raised its game and will make you feel like you are close to experiencing a real football match.

The tweaks to the existing feature set and gameplay have certainly raised its game and will make you feel like you are close to experiencing a real football match.

The tweaks to the existing feature set and gameplay have certainly raised its game and will make you feel like you are close to experiencing a real football match.

The tweaks to the existing feature set and gameplay have certainly raised its game and will make you feel like you are close to experiencing a real football match.

Just plain dreadful...There was only ever a faint hope it wouldn’t be as bad as "The Simpsons Skateboarding" or that "Futurama" game, but it is.

Everything about the game is over-the-top, including the story, and in our book that’s no bad thing. Like diving around and shooting bad guys in slow motion? Buy this.

In GTR 2, the casual gamer still doesn’t have a game that will easily cater to them, but the hardcore racing fans have a new benchmark for racing sims on the PC to play with, even if the slider has only moved slightly on from the original GTR.

By far one of the most understatedly atmospheric games of the year, DefCon has cornered the market on the kind of strategy that tenses the buttocks to sphincter-alarming proportions. Death, destruction, brains and beauty – who the hell needs a nice game of chess?

Just Cause does have the qualities of an addictive game, but there isn’t enough substance to keep you interested for very long. And for all its fancy stunts and gun battles, the nannying controls take away the element of skill, making the whole experience feel a bit shallow.

Thanks to its clunking interface and reluctance to be inventive in pretty much any respect, it’s tricky to describe it as little more than SimCity 4 in a Roman toga.

This type of game has been done better, and on top of that, the genre has moved on to the next generation where murky and jaggy graphics are a thing of the past.

The visuals push the PS2 to its limits, the combat system is incredibly unique and enjoyable, and there are countless hours of gameplay to be had in reincarnating every Einherjar during Silmeria and Alicia’s wonderfully written adventure – even if you never really get to know them.

In the end, NBA 2K7’s biggest accolade is a result of its triumph in communicating a passion and love for one sport so completely.

It’s a sad state of affairs when games as majestic and perfectly constructed as Okami are ignored and world-class development studios such as Clover find themselves closed down after poor sales of their critically acclaimed titles simply because their games don’t feature enough guns or licensed music.

A huge, lazy and sometimes glitchy disappointment of a game.

It remains a weak 3D fighter, crippled by balance issues and an inferiority complex.

It’s hard for us not to come away from a session of Samurai Warriors (or frankly any Warriors game right now) without the words ‘time’, ‘of’, ‘waste’, ‘fat’ and ‘big’ crossing our minds, but there you have it. The words ‘boring’, ‘repetitive’, ‘uninspiring’ and even ‘ugly’ are not far behind.

The new flag-bearer of a genre. Superbly paced with a supreme balance of thoughtful strategy and frantic firefights, the game stands up to repeated play even if you never touch the multiplayer or skirmish modes.

An interesting addition to the genre at best, but is only an average example of what’s available that, apart from its looks, offers little that hasn’t been done before and more importantly, done better.

The game is every bit as cute and niche as ever, but it’s not even pretending to be anything new or innovative for fans – it’s just the same old slog once again, with only a few new faces and a few new things to see.

Just watch out for that evil installer. And don’t forget the hefty patch. And try not to lose patience with the micromanagement. Oh, and… did we mention you’d have more fun playing "Company of Heroes"?

It trumps the already brilliant original by being based on the classic trilogy of films and, in terms of gameplay, is the multiplayer co-op game of the decade so far.

It trumps the already brilliant original by being based on the classic trilogy of films and, in terms of gameplay, is the multiplayer co-op game of the decade so far.

2K Sports insistence on cramming new features in every instalment of this long-running series is admirable, but hopefully next time they will focus on tweaking what they currently have and making the offensive side of the game more fun.

It trumps the already brilliant original by being based on the classic trilogy of films and, in terms of gameplay, is the multiplayer co-op game of the decade so far.

It trumps the already brilliant original by being based on the classic trilogy of films and, in terms of gameplay, is the multiplayer co-op game of the decade so far.

We really do have to implore you, don’t let your curiosity get the better of you. Bad Day L.A. is dire.