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.