Fans of historical RTS games will be far better off with Rome: Total War or any number of other, better alternatives. While nowhere near as awful as Heroes Hour, Alexander is nevertheless glitchy, and feels unfinished.

Dynasty Warriors is as stagnated as ever and now carries the weight of a niche franchise upon its back. An overhaul is long overdue.

The tired fashion in which the action is delivered is almost as old as the stuttering visuals that blight it at every turn, making this a monster for all the wrong reasons.

The game’s back-of-the-box claim of ‘Mega Instant Fun’ is somewhat misleading, as the mini-games are neither mega-instant nor mega-fun, but they are certainly pretty speedy and usually enjoyable and challenging on some level.

The DS simply doesn’t need games like this, especially with no touch-screen control.

The nucleus of a good game is there, but its ambition is married to an apparent lack of expertise with the result that, like a crudely cut gemstone, it has few if any redeeming features.

It is definitely lacking in the accuracy department and suffers from the same style of tactics working time and time again, with the AI never seeming to learn, which will spoil it for more experienced RTS players. But hey, if Blitzkrieg 2 lit your fuel depot then this expansion certainly won’t douse the fire; it just fails to recruit the necessary reinforcements to entice in new players.

This game is an unchallenging space shooter made a little more difficult with frustrating design and a terrible camera angle. Even if you’re a fan of the TV series, we really cannot recommend a purchase.

As a rental, Lost: The Video Game might entertain a handful of die-hard fans for four or five hours, but it has no replay value.

CSI: Miami may not be much more than a glorified interactive story book, but it’s still easy to recommend.

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.

Night Watch has plenty of big ideas, but the overall execution is lacking.

Well made and fun for kids newcomers, Boogie Bunnies still sadly amounts to little more than a handy Puzzle Bobble clone for Live Arcade – one that will ultimately be superseded when Taito decides to make the most of its own franchise.

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

As a rental, Lost: The Video Game might entertain a handful of die-hard fans for four or five hours, but it has no replay value.

Sadly, like most other movie tie-ins, this is marketed at fans of the film, not at gamers, and like Johnny Blaze himself, the whole thing feels a bit soulless. If only it also had the same level of flair.

The whole thing takes about 10 hours to play, and with little to no replay value, this doesn’t exactly represent fantastic value for money. Overall, the Da Vinci Code game is like a disappointing pleasure cruise, with one or two sunny islands floating in a big, grey sea of tedium.

The idea behind it is good and there’s a lot of polish in the presentation, but the gameplay is just so shallow and unevolving that it’s really hard to recommend as a full-price purchase.

The music’s nice though, and at least it looks good.

Without that little marketing ploy, this is a boring and ill-conceived collection of ‘games’ that just aren’t worth your time of day.

Every aspect of the game design has been mishandled in some way or another.

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.

If this was on a PS2 (which it is) it would look dated. On an Xbox 360 it’s a travesty. If the game was actually any good, the flaws might be just about forgivable, but with gameplay that’s so loose it’s practically dangling off the screen, and a main mechanic that becomes so deeply tedious you almost want to use surrender as your main strategy so you don’t have to go through yet another button mashing hack-and-slash session, this really has very little to offer.

The idea behind it is good and there’s a lot of polish in the presentation, but the gameplay is just so shallow and unevolving that it’s really hard to recommend as a full-price purchase.

While the decision to expand upon the Super Monkey Ball franchise is to be applauded, the fact that the execution is so lacklustre conspires to make Adventure a less than essential purchase.

As it is, X-Men: The Official Game is "officially" a horse's turd of an experience that's approximately as painful as Wolverine's claws inadvertently sliding out while he's wiping his arse.

Considering the combat by itself is so inelegant, propping it up with a cardboard narrative and banal set-pieces inflicts upon Samurai Warriors: Katana a far more serious wound than any of the in-game arsenal could manage.

The whole thing takes about 10 hours to play, and with little to no replay value, this doesn’t exactly represent fantastic value for money. Overall, the Da Vinci Code game is like a disappointing pleasure cruise, with one or two sunny islands floating in a big, grey sea of tedium.