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.

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.

The third and arguably best Fight Night game is a fantastic fighter, but also stands out as the most flawed in the series, and reprehensible in its commercialism.

You’ll have worked out by now that our earlier reference to the quality of the three parts of the game refer to the space battles being pretty good, the campaign map being reasonable, and the ground battles being a bit limp.

While Age of Empires has been stripped of its frills, the core still shines brightly. Ignoring the ‘limitations’ of its chosen format entirely, The Age of Kings is as competent and enjoyable as any strategy title out there.

Huge-scale destruction is only awesome when used in moderation, not when it’s non-stop for hours on end.

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.

Some slight unresponsiveness and no small amount of trial-and-error do mar the experience somewhat, but as puzzle games go, Exit is definitely one of the better ones currently available on the PSP.

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.

THAW is a step backwards, with its uninspiring Story mode being mostly to blame. The PC version suffers even more thanks to it being the recipient of such a sloppy conversion.

Everywhere that the "WarioWare" series succeeds, Ape Academy fails spectacularly. Where one provides a blisteringly fast succession of well-designed quickfire mini-games, the other serves up a painfully slow collection of loading times interspersed with faulty, bland nonsense.

Number four in the series is one for the hardcore Wild Arms fans; the rest of us will wait for the next Final Fantasy as usual.

It shows off, but doesn’t have the talent to cash the cheques its looks and potential are writing.

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

If you’re looking for an extremely cutthroat head-to-head mode then you should certainly take a look.

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.

Once you’ve played a couple of matches, you’ve pretty much seen everything that the game has to offer, and you’ll certainly have heard everything that it’s got to say.

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.

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.

All the pedigree and ideas are here to make Hammer & Sickle a veritable feast of turn-based feast action. Unfortunately they’re all lost in a flawed and poorly executed example of cashing in on past glory.

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.

A 'merely' very good game that’s addictive, original, relaxing and exceptionally well-designed, and will literally keep you coming back for months.

If you enjoyed either of the first two games, then know that while Two Thrones isn’t revolutionary, it does combine the best elements of both and is still a fitting and worthwhile conclusion to a superior trilogy.

If you enjoyed either of the first two games, then know that while Two Thrones isn’t revolutionary, it does combine the best elements of both and is still a fitting and worthwhile conclusion to a superior trilogy.

If you enjoyed either of the first two games, then know that while Two Thrones isn't revolutionary, it does combine the best elements of both and is still a fitting and worthwhile conclusion to a superior trilogy.

If you enjoyed either of the first two games, then know that while Two Thrones isn't revolutionary, it does combine the best elements of both and is still a fitting and worthwhile conclusion to a superior trilogy.

It’s cause is certainly helped by the price tag, relatively low system requirements and the fact you needn’t have even heard of Chrome to enjoy it. Sadly, though, even if the game did take the series to headier heights, it would still be destined to be ignored and forgotten in a world filled with Half-Life 2, Far Cry and so many other top drawer PC first-person shooters.

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.