The good implementation of the strategy makes up for what would otherwise be a pretty unimaginative and uninspiring game that would at best be described as a homage to a much loved aging genre.

If you’re a fan of The Punisher, Max Payne or good old violence in general (and let’s face it – that list covers pretty much the majority of games players), there’s a good chance you’ll get a kick out of what’s on offer here.

With its slow pacing and detailed puzzles, Rhiannon: Curse of the Four Branches is definitely a game for confirmed adventure fans rather than casual players, but aside from the spookiness factor being somewhat hampered by the low budget aesthetics, the story does a great job of pulling you in thanks to its intimate nature and everyday setting. A minor gem, but a rough one to be sure.

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.

Gamers who want to see for the first time the origins of the long-running series will have a decent enough reason to check out Final Fantasy on PSP: its high resolution visuals and distinctly retro gameplay set it aside from modern RPGs. However, for everyone else it’s just another cheap cash-in for Square Enix.

Unsurprisingly, it’s a hit and miss affair. That’s just the internet for you.

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 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.

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.

Considering the game is too dissimilar to appeal to Civ fans, too simplistic to appeal to SimCity veterans and too bland to appeal to gamers looking for a Roman epic, it’s tricky to pinpoint who exactly will want to buy CivCity: Rome. It’s not irredeemably broken, but it is repetitive and a little on the dull side.

Kane & Lynch is very much a case of what could have been. With a little more time for polish and tweaking Eidos could have had a game worthy of the hype and its British Academy Video Games Award nomination (which was somehow secured before the game’s release).

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.

The reason not to like it, namely that it’s a compromised version of a two year old game that itself was a pretender to Virtua Tennis’ crown, is pretty strong too.

It’s certainly addictive enough to draw in even expert players for a decent number of hours, but where it shines (whether intentionally or otherwise) is as an introduction to the genre for less experienced players.

The gameplay had the potential to be really quite good, but its limitations – i.e. the interface – seem to be borne of the PSP’s shortcomings, which rather defeats the purpose of this being a handheld game. The best feature of Squad Command we have found is the multiplayer.

Blood Will Tell is a fantastic game poorly put together.

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 Sims: Pet Stories is, for our money, more interesting than Life Stories in that it contains the relationship elements of the latter while adding in the extra dimension of training up a pet.

As point-and-click adventures go, Runaway 2 is a decent effort with good art direction and relatively high production values.

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.

It’s a little simpler to play than the 2K series, and more fast paced, but it’s also just not as good.

If you can derive entertainment from this then good for you, but just don't get your hopes up T3 fans.

After a while it’ll begin feeling like you’re playing the game in auto pilot, but that won’t last long because, well, the game doesn’t last all that long.

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.

If VT's controls are too simple for you, then Top Spin is waiting in the wings to take your money.

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.

This is a game that has been made to promote the film, no doubt in tandem with cereal box promotions and official merchandise coming to a supermarket near you. It’s just a shame, for both their sake and ours, that it simply isn’t very good.

Despite being a new, full-priced release, F.E.A.R. Files already has a bit of a Bargain Bin feel about it. We’re not saying don’t add it to your wish list, but unless you’re a huge fan of FPS games and Japanese-style horror, we’d suggest it go somewhere close to the bottom.

Unfortunately, Rumble Roses is just stuck inside a teenage boy’s fantasy about Anime and the WWE, with no ambition or revolutionary features even attempted.

Judging by Square-Enix’s immense standards, unbeatable by most developers on their very best day, then Last Remnant is a disappointment. It’s not the epic life consuming RPG we were expecting and falls a long way down the list of top RPG titles for the 360, which is saying something.

Personally, we’d probably rather pick up the Rome DVD box set – there’s more than thighs exposed in that little number.

There’s a magical quality to the characters and to the way the narrative progresses with its humour and warmth, and it’s this that makes the experience probably the most unique RPG the PSP has.

As a combat swansong for the PS2 it holds no merit whatsoever and shows how bad games can get when a company just doesn’t seem to care any more. It’s not the worst fighting game ever, but it’s certainly close.

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.

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.

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.

A pretty basic combat flight game with some nice graphics; but a lack of focus in the single player game, annoying voiceovers and features that deserved to have been pushed a little further spoil what could have been a really manic and exciting shooter.

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.

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

Longevity issues aside, Duel Masters is still one of those games that are great to play if you only have 10 or 20 minutes spare at a time.

They're all fun and all eventually devolve into button mashing murder, so is Dynasty Warriors 5 worth buying over Dynasty Warriors 4? No. Is the Xbox's version better than the PS2's? Not much.

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.

Even with the adapted controls, Ape Escape: On The Loose is a splendid version of the enjoyable original.

Somewhat annoyingly, the game often requires you to tackle each level a multiple number of times in order to collect items such as shields before the next area is unlocked.

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.

Heroes of Mana does have its moments, but they are few are far between.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Kane & Lynch is very much a case of what could have been. With a little more time for polish and tweaking Eidos could have had a game worthy of the hype and its British Academy Video Games Award nomination (which was somehow secured before the game’s release).

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.

For £20 we’d hope for a few more games, with greater variety and a slightly slicker presentation. Definitely one for Capcom nostalgists.

Series veterans will love the endless customisation, four-on-four multiplayer battles and blindingly fast combat, but even the most loyal fan will wonder why Armored Core 4 couldn’t have been so much more than it is.

While we found Obscure to be a very reasonable addition to the genre, it has to be said that there isn’t really a great deal to get excited about.

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.

A by-the-numbers hack’n’slash – technically competent but emotionally void.

A decent purchase for the little ones if you’re expecting dross from the adventure mode (which by now you surely are), and you can pick it up at a decent price.

It’s not an awful game by any scale, but it is tepid and flawed in its execution.

A painfully routine affair then, and a missed opportunity to boot.

M.A.C.H is a sad waste of potential that feels like no one actually cared to deliver anything innovative or even competent.

Other than its repetitiveness, disappointing draw-distances and dodgy camera, Dynasty Warriors 4 Hyper isn’t actually all that bad. In fact, despite its attempt to look tactical and thoughtful in its objective screens, the entirely unexpected bombastic soundtrack makes it clear that, at its heart, there’s no pretension of it being anything other than a cracking little arcade fighter.

As standalone PSP games go, Revelations is still among the most enjoyable you can buy, but those technical issues don’t do any favours for a game that may already be too confusing and challenging for total newcomers.

While it's true that Secret Files: Tunguska does get one or two brownie points for being in what’s currently a very sparsely populated genre on the Wii, the fact that it’s so middling in just about every respect hardly justifies a purchase.

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.

The concessions are noticeable enough to affect the game adversely, which means you’re only really going to consider buying this if you’re already a huge fan of the console games.

A series of unlockable wardrobe items do little to massage the questionable value for money factor of what is ultimately a short game that puts an interesting, er, ‘spin’, on the classic Sonic gameplay, yet fails to live up to such past successes.

Despite its problems, Runaway: The Dream of the Turtle is still playable on the DS, and fans of the genre looking for some portable point-and-clicking will find themselves with a game to really get stuck into. You’re going to have to forgive a lot of minor annoyances, though.

As a game it's fairly average, but the presentation is top notch.

As an RTS it’s as entertainingly humdrum as any of the sixteen billion others, but the Hero Command innovation is so wretchedly underdeveloped it mostly serves to annoy and all but ruins the game’s single player campaigns. It’s fun in multiplayer and skirmish modes for a while, but Rise & Fall is far from the classic game that it could have been.

Sonic CD is a title worth purchasing on pure merit, and whatever their standard, the sheer number of games on the disc make Gems an economical acquisition.

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.

Kane & Lynch is very much a case of what could have been. With a little more time for polish and tweaking Eidos could have had a game worthy of the hype and its British Academy Video Games Award nomination (which was somehow secured before the game’s release).

Perhaps the most damning evidence in the case against bothering with this game (as if AI that sees your allies forever flying into your plane and bafflingly unresponsive speed controls aren’t quite enough) is that the whole experience feels reminiscent of a dumbed-down version of Crimson Skies.

It’s really the co-op mode that saves the game from utter mediocrity. Nevertheless, the abject blandness of pretty much every other facet of the game holds it back from being decent enough to purchase.

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

If you want an inept and hurriedly put together version of an old classic, this is where it’s at. We suspect that’s one quote they won’t be sticking on the box.

It’s hard to really dislike Need for Speed Undercover simply because the core game is similar in many ways to the excellent Most Wanted. But it under-aims, underperforms, underachieves and does so while practically throwing a begging bowl at you in the form of purchasable unlocks.

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.

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

A competent if unspectacular stealth game.

All the ingredients for a nice simple and playable game are here, it’s just that carelessness and an unpolished roughness drags the game down to mediocre levels.

Worms Forts has some of the best features straight from the old games, but you can’t help but notice that a few good things are still missing from the transition to 3D.

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.

Spectrobes is a suicidal endeavour by Disney, a fool-hardy exercise in boardroom cynicism resulting in little more than a way below par, under-funded attempt to cash in on Pokémon’s “Gotta catch ‘em all” legacy. Of what little enjoyment there is still left inside the DS cartridge, it’s left for the obsessive gamers who can stand the constant fruitless searching, endless digging, piss-poor combat, the rarity of finding something new, the barely existent storyline and even the feeble character designs.

A deeply confused game. It tries to pander to both of its rivals’ fans, but falls well short of satisfying either court. It doesn’t have enough gameplay options, the ball play is slick but unbalanced, and no matter how regularly updated or different it feels, it’s a disappointing exclusive title for Sony.

A few minorly successful party games aside – namely Golf and, to a lesser extent, Bowling – Super Monkey Ball just doesn’t work, and is almost true to its title: It’s not super, but it does have monkeys in, and it’s mostly balls.

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.

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.

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.

Jericho is definitely a case of inventive design married all-too-unhappily to old school thinking, and the result is a game that is almost fatally broken.

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.

Many will lap up the opportunity to get to business tweaking and customising every shot, while players who might more often reach for the likes of Mario Golf or the Monkey Golf mini-games will be repelled.

Jericho is definitely a case of inventive design married all-too-unhappily to old school thinking, and the result is a game that is almost fatally broken.

It’s just too simplistic to hold the attention of any serious management fan.

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

All in all Hasbro Family Game Night is not without niggles and annoyances, but it still represents decent value given the cost of the physical games and there are a number of nice touches to keep your interest, such as the unlockable items and customisable game room.