Should have been great, could have been great; but ends up just being a better than average attempt at doing something a little different.

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.

So. It's GTA. On the GBA. But… it's just not GTA. Not really. Like Max Payne Advance before it, what you're getting is a watered-down experience, but still the closest thing you're going to get on the handheld (if that counts as a plus-point).

It is worth re-emphasising that the core game is still intact, and is still better than you might expect had you not played it before. It’s just such a crying shame that the control system, as functional as it is, does absolutely nothing for the gameplay.

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.

Ultimately Spikeout: Battle Street is a decent and mildly refreshing old school beat-em-up, but it could be better.

A game that falls short of expectations. You can see from the early levels and even a few of the later rooms that a lot of really creative ambition and skill was employed in its making, but for whatever reason it’s as though that particular tap of talent was turned to a trickle towards the end. Combined with some control issues that weren’t in the previous two games, Tomb Raider Underworld represents a bit of a downturn for the series.

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.

You’d expect the first of a trilogy to be the most novel and at least as good as future instalments, but in this case we’re really hoping for a greater effort for the next outing. It’s worth noting that there’s no multiplayer and little replayability, but a Steam version of the original SiN has been bundled with it as a sort of bribe.

The trouble is it’s not especially outstanding either, and lacks the hook enjoyed by the likes of the Tetris or Bust-a-Move games.

The decent visuals and mainstream theme do help things a little, and the underlying complexities of hex-based warfare are pretty well masked, but in the end this is still a game for those who prefer to spend long nights, manual in hand, working towards a distant reward.

Fans of the series will find plenty to do in Shin Budokai 2, although ultimately there’s not been enough progress since the last instalment to make the game anywhere near recommended.

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.

A game that falls short of expectations. You can see from the early levels and even a few of the later rooms that a lot of really creative ambition and skill was employed in its making, but for whatever reason it’s as though that particular tap of talent was turned to a trickle towards the end. Combined with some control issues that weren’t in the previous two games, Tomb Raider Underworld represents a bit of a downturn for the series.

The story is derivative, the aliens are clichéd and stupid and the gameplay is pretty bog standard for the most part.

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.

It’s playable and for a while it’s even fun, but you’ll be surprised just how quickly mindless violence and bloodshed with semi-naked women can turn into a grind.

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.

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.

More like a series of interactive episodes of the show, with the point and click bits amounting to a basic means to get to the next part of the story.

Race Driver: Create & Race is an extremely well assembled racer which falls short of excellence thanks to its handling style falling squarely between two stools, and the niggles relating to the opponent AI and graphical in-game presentation.

Nintendogs is comparable to "The Sims" in the respect that it’s all quite engaging and entertaining at first, but then everything just becomes an aimless chore.

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.

Presentational hiccups aside, such as the graphics that are blocky by even the DS’ standards and the blasted screen which keeps popping up to unnecessarily show you day turning to night and vice versa, this makes a nice alternative to the compelling but flawed Lost In Blue / Stranded Kids games which have come before to handheld formats.

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.

If you’re on the look out for ‘the next big thing’ then keep looking, but if you quite fancy a laid-back shooter that’s best enjoyed with friends, then you might want to give this a shot.

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.

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.

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.

Port Royale 2 is certainly a game of two halves – on the one hand, there’s a dull and tedious economic engine that could suck the life blood out of many gamers quicker than Dracula with a busty virgin. But on the other hand, there’s the engrossing and open-ended combat system that allows you to carve out a career as a buccaneer.

It’s probably the strongest of the two expansion packs to be released, and will prove to be the better buy if you’ve got the original game but haven’t dusted it down for a while.

Shows an obvious fondness by the game’s creators for classic videogames, but that’s not really represented in the gameplay, which has sadly run its course here.

While Juiced does possess some elements of originality, the net effect still doesn't make the game particularly distinctive or give it any kind of edge over Electronic Arts' chart-topping series.

There is a lot of great stuff in Asheron’s Call, period. There is an enormous landmass populated with hidden dungeons, strange creatures and mysteries begging to be solved once more.

Prey the Stars is still an imaginative, good looking game that can be enjoyable in short bursts. Single card multiplayer is a definite highlight, online play not so much.

There’s nothing really outstanding or recommendable about the game. Just like the protagonist Capell, the game itself is nice and well intentioned, but a bit dull and hesitant at following things through.

Shows an obvious fondness by the game’s creators for classic videogames, but that’s not really represented in the gameplay, which has sadly run its course here.

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.

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.

A reasonably well executed dancing game package, and the idea behind it is a no-brainer.

Duel Masters is a fun and fairly addictive game and the GBA version is faithful enough to be worth a look-in if you really want to play it solo on the move.

Overall the third Strong Bad episode is more of a Homestar Jogger than a Homestar Runner. Baddest of the Bands lacks the novelty of the first episode and the imaginative gameplay elements of the second, settling into a formula that fans will most likely find mildly enjoyable at best.

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.

Nintendogs is comparable to "The Sims" in the respect that it’s all quite engaging and entertaining at first, but then everything just becomes an aimless chore.

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

Overall the third Strong Bad episode is more of a Homestar Jogger than a Homestar Runner. Baddest of the Bands lacks the novelty of the first episode and the imaginative gameplay elements of the second, settling into a formula that fans will most likely find mildly enjoyable at best.

It’s too short, it can be too easy and there isn’t a great deal of variety in the gameplay.

Yes, it’s funny, and it does crack a few good observations about the genre. However, by making the same mistakes that the games it’s laughing at make, it shoots itself in the foot a bit.

Link’s Crossbow Training does an excellent job of throwing in an entertaining couple of hours to start you off with your brand new peripheral.

Technically solid throughout, the game provides a severe test for those dedicated enough to see it through.

Get over the interface and the steep learning curve (even beyond the tutorial, which is a bit light) and this is a stylish strategy game that, while hardly threatening to take over your life, will certainly provide a lot of challenge and reward for the time you invest in it.

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

Tacking on the motion controls has really weakened Enchanted Arms’ improved outing on the PS3, shoe-horning completely out of place and unfocused pad-shaking into an RPG and forcing players to accept it as necessary.

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.

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.

Overall, Mutant Storm Empire is a good solid shoot-‘em-up and it is definitely worth the 800 points if you’ve had your fun with Mutant Storm Reloaded and Geometry Wars.

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"?

A pretty standard affair. If you’re a connoisseur of block games or are just on the market for one and don’t particularly care which, then this one is certainly as good as the next.

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.

To its credit, Escalation has certainly improved the Joint Ops experience – just not tremendously.

More typical of the PS2 (so knock a point off), but more suited to the Wii – if only for the short-lived novelty value – Heatseeker is definitely a game for the already initiated into the genre.

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

The combination of RTS and RPG works well, each having its very distinct place in the overall feel of the game. Throw in that multiplayer bonus and developer Phenomic is in danger of having a hit on its hands.

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.

There’s more substance behind Syphon Filter than in most of the style-obsessed trash-talking third-person shooters out there. Dark Mirror is thankfully without agenda, unfortunately without a bit of much-needed fine-tuning, but comes with a whole bag full of good intentions.

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

Quite why this wasn’t released as a budget title is a mystery, because while it is a good game, it’s not a particularly broad reaching or good value one.

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.

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.

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.

A competent if unspectacular stealth game.

With up to 50 hours of gameplay and the option of having rather straightfoward online battles, you’ll at least get your money’s worth; we’re just not sure that most Xbox 360 gamers have refined enough tastes to fully appreciate it.

Of course, we wouldn’t change the core gameplay for the world, and we’re glad it hasn’t been messed with here, but more options for tweaking and a few more game-modes wouldn’t have gone amiss.

A competent if unspectacular stealth game.

A game that (probably) does as much justice to the cartoon series as you can expect, and while fans of ‘proper’ fighting games will overlook it – with some justification – it’s not without its merits. The visual style, special effects, damageable arenas and, we understand, proper voice actors all lend themselves to a fairly well rounded experience.

There isn’t anything to say about the multiplayer mode apart from “avoid”. Single player though is still good fun, and perhaps more importantly it is simple, which should help it appeal to the masses who can look past the sickeningly cute graphics and sounds.

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.

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.

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.

There's nothing specifically wrong with First to Fight, it's just that the single-player simply doesn't do anything more than provide you with terrorists to shoot.

Nintendogs is comparable to "The Sims" in the respect that it’s all quite engaging and entertaining at first, but then everything just becomes an aimless chore.

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

Dead or Alive 3 is the better game overall, but for fans of nostalgia and those desperate to beat each other up over Xbox Live, Dead or Alive Ultimate is as good as it's going to get right now.

The strategy gets more complex and the fights more intense, but the one thing you can’t escape in this game is the sense of sameyness that creeps in soon after you’ve completed the introductory missions, from the gameplay, from the environments and from the NPCs that populate the game.

Mistaken assumptions aside, the Xbox 360 doesn’t exactly have a lot of new, colourful, non-shooty blood and gore type games, so if that’s what you’re shopping for then while you couldn’t do much better, you equally couldn’t do much worse right now.

The whole game just sticks far too rigidly to the over-worn gameplay of the originals. Without much of an effort to harness the PSP’s power or even stretch for a physics-based dynamic, it’s really surprising that this isn’t a straight-to-budget title.

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.

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.

When playing Pariah you may find yourself pausing to scratch your head either because the story doesn't make much sense, or because you're simply wondering why the game was so blatantly pushed out the door without even half of the polish it needed to live up to the hype.

Offers neither the palm-moistening, heart-racing action of a really great arcade racer, nor the challenge and satisfying controls of a decent simulation. It seems that Namco has seriously misjudged the level of challenge in the game.

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.

Highly stylised, dark and immersive, Manhunt 2 is a study in brutality, depravity and the spiralling descent into madness. In terms of content, it’s no worse than the original, but it’s not really any better, either.

While control frustrations take the edge off the competitive element of the game, it’s still possible to have plenty of fun. Samba de Amigo is part rhythm game, part dancing game and part social game – you tend to feel more silly playing on your own than with others.

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.

Highly stylised, dark and immersive, Manhunt 2 is a study in brutality, depravity and the spiralling descent into madness. In terms of content, it’s no worse than the original, but it’s not really any better, either.

Black lasts only eight hours, has no extra modes and no multiplayer. Not even split-screen; not even co-op. Granted, multiplayer FPS games are a two-a-penny these days, but it leaves wide open the question of what exactly you're paying for here.

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.