If you are lucky enough to have 5 friends with copies of the game, then 6-way wireless play is catered for, with the usual selection of races and team-based games making for an excellent diversion.

While some of the set ups and situations are undoubtedly quirky and amusing, there’s nothing this time around to compare to the idiosyncratic psychoanalysis dream-sequence or the sitcom filming from the first and second instalments respectively. And in a game so straightforward, this is a problem.

For anyone with the inclination to be educated in how games used to consist of pure gameplay magic, or for those who wish to revisit their gaming pasts, Taito Legends is a superior collection of titles, some of which are truly classics in the absolute sense of the word.

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.

We want a full-on SSX game for the Wii – one that feels like "SSX 5," not just a very competent spin-off. Blur will just about do until then, though.

Infected is one of those rare PSP games that manages to tick all the right boxes in terms of design, functionality and execution, so it’s no wonder it received so much hype prior to release. Sadly none of that translates to a particularly compelling gameplay experience.

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.

To Avalanche Software’s credit, The Great Juju Challenge represents a valid step towards a final acclimatisation.

Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice still feels like a bit of a shallow showcase title, albeit a less impressive now that over two years have passed.

Only time will tell whether Naruto will become a gaming joke or not, but for now Naruto fans in the UK could do a lot worse than Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 2, though they could also do better.

There’s no getting away from the fact that FlatOut 2 is damned good fun, and will bring you back to the days of Destruction Derby and its ilk. However, as much as we appreciate the tweaks – and that’s really all they are – to the first game, there are still a few too many fundamental flaws which bring out a wail of frustration or a tut as you consider how easily certain annoyances could have been avoided.

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.

There's no getting away from the fact that FlatOut 2 is damned good fun, and will bring you back to the days of Destruction Derby and its ilk. However, as much as we appreciate the tweaks – and that's really all they are – to the first game, there are still a few too many fundamental flaws which bring out a wail of frustration or a tut as you consider how easily certain annoyances could have been avoided.

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.

A pleasant enough diversion that’s unlikely to hold the attention for any great length of time. It’s fun enough while it lasts, though.

Medal Of Honour: Airborne may well be as gung-ho as a cigar-chomping drill instructor and as shallow as the pool of blood left by one of your expendable buddies, but it doesn’t profess to be anything more than an exciting and enjoyable week’s worth of FPS action.

Featuring jumping, gliding, twatting things with sticks, and bucket loads of what some would call "wit", this game has it all.

As a result, this first game can be called 'pretty good', but it’s still a little short on awesomeness.

Nevertheless, we can’t help but feel that it’s all a little on the dated side. An RTS that hasn’t been designed for the C&C crowd isn’t a bad thing, but Rome: Total War has already demonstrated that more tactical offerings are capable of crossing the boundaries and appealing to all sub-sets of RTS gamers.

As far as chess games go, though, you’ll be hard pushed to find anything better.

Those are the game’s main transgressions, but you do get used to them and learn how to avoid most of the major problems. You’ll want to take the effort too, because at its heart Second Sight is a good game whose rewards outweigh its frustrations.

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.

One of the better RTS games we’ve played that at least tries to avoid the clichés that have riddled this genre for so long. Kudos goes to the developers, if not huge profits.

It does manage to offer a good balance of tweaks as well as new content. If you never managed to make it through Sacred, then it has to be said, Underworld probably won’t be enough to rekindle your interest, while if you’re a hardcore fan then it should go without saying that this is a worthwhile purchase.

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.

As far as it goes, Men of Valor hasn't really exceeded expectations, but nor has it failed to live up to them, assuming your expectations were a Medal of Honor clone set in Vietnam.

To put it simply, The Angel of Death is an exceptional 2D point and click title masquerading as a fairly good 3D counterpart. There is simply no reason why George now resides in a new multi-dimensional world, bar entertaining its weakest element – its physical challenges.

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.

Thrillville: Off the Rails is aimed squarely at mid-teens and under, which is no bad thing. The management side can be toyed around with, but it otherwise practically runs itself while you’re off planting rides, indulging in mini-games and trying to turn teenaged guests into your love slaves.

With more than a dozen planets to fight on, plus the space battles above several of them, and the large selection of weapons, kits and vehicles, Renegade Squadron goes a long way to provide you with the kind of variety and longevity you look for in a game like this.

It may not be quite the same as owning a real table, but it’s certainly cheaper and the game feels a lot less cynical than some of the under-polished retro arcade packages that are currently available.

As a game for all the family and friends it works really well.

An extremely robust and well-featured RTS with hours of play stretched out waiting to be dived into. The fact that the usual selling point of such titles – the campaign mode – is rather disappointing interferes with how the game will ultimately be received.

Certainly improves on the original PSP game and in many ways ends up being a better game on the PS2. While it comes much closer to fully capitalising on the ingenuity of the core concept, there’s still a feeling that the series is not quite there yet, with the PSP version lacking refined controls and the PS2 version requiring a little more depth for a home console game.

What Storm of Zehir does best is in bringing a little bit of Forgotten Realms to life without going too over the top on the story.

A flung together collection of sub “Now That’s What I Call Music!” tracks doesn’t really make for an enticing prospect.

It shows that there is huge potential for games that let users create more than just a standard character – if only other companies would grow a set and let their developers use their imaginations more.

The fact that the game can be enjoyed by adults (provided you don’t mind playing through an extremely easy game) as well as kids epitomises just how strong Madagascar is, particularly as it’s a movie licence.

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.

All of the mechanics for a great game are there, yet the more intangible aspects of great game making seem to have been overlooked entirely.

A competent and enjoyable blaster and a great way to while away some time with friends. It's far from sophisticated, but does strive – and largely succeeds – to keep things fun.

If you're just after an unmemorable shooter you can fight through that doesn't put you in the shoes of a bullet guzzling maniac, European Assault has its advantages, but to anyone who wants a decent first person shooter: abandon the Medal of Honor franchise now.

We may not call Bunjigai a classic, largely thanks to its less-than-refined story and level design, but as an action-packed hack and slash experience this game has it where it counts.

Even with the sheer volume of stuff to do in the game, there have no real improvements over the last game in the series, aside from the inclusion of the ad-hoc multiplay – they’ve even taken a step backwards by forcing players to team up in order to take on half the quests.

The package is, as a whole, rather rough around the edges. You know you’re in for trouble when even the publisher admits that the tutorial is “a pain and a little time consuming”.

Sadly what we get is some very cluttered gameplay, a nonsensical story even by Japanese standards, and not much in the way of challenge beyond that which arises from the fiddly method of controlling the tokobots during combat.

If you really want to have a crack at more cerebral online strategy, you should have a look at the splendid DefCon first. It may not have anywhere near the scope or variety offered in MAN2’s maps and random-ally allocation, but it’s a fair bit cheaper and, dare we say it, requires less work to enjoy.

Mercenaries 2 is arguably a bigger and more ambitious game than the original, but it feels less polished and less satisfying.

If you ever played Ecco The Dolphin on the Mega Drive, or its conversion on the DreamCast, and you spent some time just happily swimming around on that first level doing flips and jumps while enjoying the simple delights of the whole virtual-swimming experience, there’s a good chance that Endless Ocean is going to be right up your watery boulevard.

In the end Sudeki is not without its disappointments, but it also has its moments. Unless you take particular objection to the stylistic setting, it's still worth a throw of the dice.

The game has style, variety, originality, plenty of content and bags of fun – but let’s face it, when you’ve seen one mountain, you’ve pretty much seen them all. The same goes for a good deal of the other unlockable content.

This is not a bad diversion for a few hours, but Boing! Docomodake feels like a very short game that could actually have done with exploiting its unique features further. In conclusion, there is still mush-room for improvement.

With the amount of in game advertising that is all over the place, EA probably don’t need to sell many copies to make enough money to guarantee the next instalment in the franchise. We just hope they make more of that opportunity to evolve the series than they did with this somewhat lacklustre effort.

If you can live with the fact that there are no expansions aside from a minor collection of downloadable extras, and that, unless you’re somehow immune to the boredom which strikes after playing any instalment of The Sims for more than a week, it probably won’t last you very long, then Life Stories might make for a decent introduction to one of the most over-exposed series of all time.

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.

The story and puzzle solving elements work really well, but Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened is badly let down by this insistence on making some clues as obscure as possible.

With a bit more clout in the technology and art departments, the lack of compelling gameplay could have been forgiven, but as it is Wild Earth remains more of a curiosity.

Overall Juarez is not a bad FPS, with its unusual setting and unique approach; it’s just not as good as it could have been, suffering as it does from some real wasted potential.

Developers Slant Six have done a good job fitting a new genre into both the PSP itself and an existing series: it was about time the third person tactical action sim made its way onto a handheld.

Purely from a gameplay perspective, it works.

Mercenaries 2 is arguably a bigger and more ambitious game than the original, but it feels less polished and less satisfying.

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.

On the multiplayer side, things come together nicely, and the toing and froing that comes from the defender-biased jostling serves to keep possession roughly even between players who are similarly skilled, while giving more creative passers a definite advantage.

The lack of initial on-screen prompts aside, it’s entirely possible for anyone to throw themselves into Tiger’s 2008 outing and have both a rewarding and entertaining time, be they a golf fan or not.

A huge, lazy and sometimes glitchy disappointment of a game. The character progression really doesn’t provide a strong enough excuse to keep playing after the initial joy of the combat has dissipated, and the number of times you find yourself going through the same old motions during missions smacks of padding of a magnitude normally associated with the corpulent Don.

Sega Superstars’ many minigames may be of a decidedly variable quality, but those that are decent easily make up for the duds. All the Sega hallmarks are there, from the robust and colourful graphics to the faithful and sometimes nostalgia-inducing soundtrack.

2006 is an unforgiving time for online gaming, and a game as mixed up and inconsistent as this simply cannot make an impact, as hard as it tries with its meaty combat and awesome-looking vehicles.

If you know your laser flips from your rocket airs and don’t mind enduring a little hand cramp while you train your brain to skate and draw at the same time, then Skate It on the DS packs an impressive simulation of skateboarding.

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.

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.

More of a step forward than a revolution, Rail Simulator is still undoubtedly improvement over the previous generation of train simulation.

It’s novel, it’s a good fighting game and it’s extremely well presented, but Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi is still one for the fans.

Overall Legend of Kay is a decent quality platforming title that successfully combines several entertaining ideas. It is let down a little by poor voice acting and slightly linear RPG elements, but at least benefits from a mid-range price-tag.

Ultimately though, the move to the Wii has done much more harm than the game could really take, with the control issues tearing what was a solid and enjoyable game apart mercilessly.

As Myst-style adventure games go, Secret of the Lost Cavern is certainly one of the better ones, and some may find the puzzles a little more approachable than in that venerable series, even if the visuals are a little less fantastic.

Nanostray is great fun to play. Unfortunately, the “nano” part of the title seems to be indicative of it having the lifespan of a gnat, and the gulf between the extremely easy (but great) Adventure mode and the overly-hard Challenge mode (which will put off all but the most ridiculously hardcore) is baffling.

Overall UFO: Afterlight provides a very worthwhile time investment as the reward you reap is a deep and intriguing strategy game with the kind of RPG elements that add a less geeky feel to it - a surprise hit with us.

The fact that the game can be enjoyed by adults (provided you don't mind playing through an extremely easy game) as well as kids epitomises just how strong Madagascar is, particularly as it's a movie licence.

The graphics are of a very good standard, with sharp crisp colours and lots going on at the same time.

With high production values, good attention to detail and well executed gameplay, it should appeal both to fans of action-platform games like Prince of Persia and people who actually know who Marc Ecko is.

The gameplay itself is still in relatively good health, and with a good deal of thought and tweaking could be as enjoyable as it ever was, but if Worms is to once again be a post-pub game of choice, it needs to regain its sense of humour.

A neat combination of cool single player match options and a brave crack at doing cricket multiplayer that surprisingly works really well. As a sports simulation it does a respectable job of jazzing up a historically dull sport, but we doubt there will be long term appeal for anyone not already obsessed with it.

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.

For the two or three evenings that this will last you, there’s enough going on to keep you pushing forward to the end.

With care and consistency, Cars encases the player in memorabilia lifted straight from the cinema screen. For that, the developer should be commended. It’s just a shame they forgot to ship a game with it.

As great as it is to be sliding down a banister firing off both guns before holding out your blades to slice into two anyone unlucky enough to be standing near the bottom as you pass, the sloppy controls and quirks in the design do prevent BR2 from being anything more than a reasonably-decent third-person action-slasher.

A brave but ultimately over-ambitious waste.

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.

The rigidly linear levels with obvious trigger points, the failure to evolve the basic gameplay and the newly random nature of the effectiveness of cover all conspire to devalue what was a novel and rather fun original.

The greatest shame is that developer Saber Interactive wasn’t bold or ambitious enough to really capitalise on the one or two good ideas they actually had, and that’s ultimately the difference between a game that is just good and a game that is great.

Once you get around the slightly muddled menu system there is quite a lot of content between the full & mini games within this package to keep you entertained for many an hour, either playing against pretty decent AI controlled teams or over Xbox Live.

Featuring jumping, gliding, twatting things with sticks, and bucket loads of what some would call “wit”, this game has it all.

With the exception of the first hour or so, in which you are constantly scavenging for ammo, the gameplay is pretty solid throughout, but never highly engaging, having neither interesting puzzles nor a large variety of enemies.

It’s great if you want a chilled out, thoughtful experience that’s slow paced almost all the time, but if you fantasise about pursuing a life of white knuckle action and adventure against those great looking backdrops, you’re SOL.

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 a nice game, but not an outstanding one. Try it with that in mind and you won’t be disappointed.

The gameplay is nowhere near as original as the setting, nor is it particularly spectacular for that matter, but just as you could do better, you could also do worse.

Please, THQ, we know you can do decent wrestling games, so stop insulting us with these annual updates to a flawed and bug-riddled game engine.