Not even half as crazy and daring as it likes to think, but instead a dispiritingly conservative collection of bland third person action and missed opportunities.

The comedy is an acquired taste but the presentation is an unqualified success. However, it's the gameplay that's the real problem in this tedious 2D actioner.

In six months’ time it may well make its mark, but for now Battleborn’s mix of genres suffers from too little content and too much repetition.

Another amusing look behind the veil of role-playing conventions, although it’s a shame the experience feels so slight and insubstantial.

It always put nostalgia first and gameplay second, but 10 years on and Ghostbusters: The Video Game just feels like mediocre fan fiction.

Not the return to form that the SteamWorld franchise needed but still a fun and unusual strategy game, even if a lot of the newer features work against it.

Whether you know it best as Puzz Loop or Zuma this is an imaginative variation of the puzzle formula, even if it's a self-consciously weird one.

The games are historical touchstones more than they are all-time classics, but nostalgic fans will still enjoy these entertaining riffs on the work of Rare and Rockstar.

A disappointingly trivial expansion in terms of gameplay, story, and new features; although more Metal Gear Rising and Jetstream Sam was never going to be an entirely bad thing.

The best WWE game of the generation… but only because it successfully pulls upon your nostalgia strings, helping you forgot how mediocre the gameplay is.

The change of publisher has not yet ensured a change in quality for WWE games, although the 30 Years of WrestleMania mode is definitely of interest for long term fans.

Wonderfully surreal and revelling in its Germanic roots, Lichtspeer starts with the god of light replacing your puny human fists with a light spear to hurl at the faces of a relentless onslaught of winged horses, penguins, giants, zombies and, in the case of the first boss, an insane biker Viking. You’ll earn plenty of LSD, which apparently stands for Licht Standard Denomination, to spend in the shop in order to expand your ‘uber fantastisch Lichtpowers’. Despite never taking itself seriously, the action quickly gets hectic, your accuracy with the lichtspeer and its various upgrades is strenuously tested, revealing some limitations in the touchscreen controls.

No doubt a dream come true for fans, but with so little innovation in the core gameplay the boast of being an interactive cartoon seems more like a liability than a positive.

A stunning technical achievement and a mesmerisingly addictive one, even after you realise how simplistic and repetitive it really is.

An effective tech demo but it struggles to be anything else, not least because for the majority of the time it’s just a fairly vanilla climbing simulator.

A slight improvement on the disappointing Bangkok level, but the lack of traditional Hitman thrills don’t make this a mission to remember.

In pure gameplay terms this is one of Suda51's most accessible and entertaining games for years, but it's badly devalued by its extreme brevity.

An aggravatingly poor sequel that insists on changing things that didn't need changing and refusing to fix those that did.

A competent Metroidvania but although Shantae and her friends are as charming as ever the franchise is beginning to seem aimless and overly repetitive.

A technical masterpiece with some of the best swordfighting combat in years, but the storytelling and puzzle elements come across as muddled and awkwardly mismatched.

A classic example that sometimes less is more, as a deadweight of mini-games and side characters dilutes an otherwise fun, if unambitious, platformer.

It gets most of the mechanics right, and it certainly looks like Sonic, but this new episode doesn't have the heart or the imagination of the originals.

With infinite continues and no ads, it’s a friendly user experience, and even though some of the level design is a bit iffy, the art style is unusually good for a freebie.

The camera technology can't keep up with the game's ambition, but at least this Pokemon clone has some.

Competent but personality-free third person shooter that's another good demonstration of the Vita's ability, but an instantly forgettable playing experience.

An amiable but underwhelming homage to the forgotten majesty of Uridium, that adds some welcome new ideas but removes too many of the old ones.

A great technical showcase for the 3DS but also one of the least substantial launch games ever seen for a new console.

The combat is a lot of fun and the visuals are dynamic and exciting, but repetitive missions and dire storytelling ruin what is otherwise a mechanically superior giant robot game.