The controls are flat-out bad, but at least the stages are animated nicely. Maybe taking your own real life dog outside and tossing the ball around with it is a better option if you're up for a good round of fetch.

Supermarket Mania seems like something you'd be likely to find in a free Flash game, but it adds plenty of stuff to warrant its 500 Point price tag. If you're looking for a simple, fun game, then you might be at the right address here.

The numerous modes and options may not be hot across the board, but the strong campaign and bountiful multiplayer options provide a memorable blast through the Cold War.

Aimless and slowly paced – yet also soothing and very pretty – this might be the perfect diversion while spending an actual snowy day trapped indoors. But if you were to find something else to do, you wouldn't really be missing much.

This is a great way to express your creativity if you already possess the necessary skills, but if you need something just a bit more user friendly, the Music On versions of pianos and keyboards might be better suited to your needs.

Frenzic's a decent game, but with many other, better 200 Point alternatives available, it's kind of hard to recommend.

Cave Story is full of charm and personality, and its eccentric world draws you in from the moment you begin playing, with its ever-increasing intensity and action helped by the game's enjoyable gameplay scheme.

Airport Mania: First Flight is absolutely everything a WiiWare game should be: easy to pick up, deceptively deep and urgently addictive.

Its unforgiving nature and inherent repetitiveness can deter some as well as make for a bit of tedium, but those looking for a good and long-lasting challenge should definitely pack their backpacks and head out to take on this puzzler.

Spontaneously hopping from maddeningly difficult to mindlessly simple stages and providing a somewhat dull experience all around, Despicable Me: The Game – Minion Mayhem is largely tedious and frustrating, though with some spots of fun and imagination.

At a mere 500 Nintendo Points, JellyCar 2 comes with a lot of content to chew on, from hefty main courses to long distance jumping and multiplayer.

Greater options for customisation would have helped a bit, as would options for differing control styles, but ultimately Deca Sports 3 is flawed enough at its core that no amount of additional features would help it much. Sorry, sports fans.

A cumbersome name, confusing instructions and unintuitive controls all conspire to hide this genuine gem of a puzzler.

Surfacer+ is a rare breed: a DSiWare game that completely catches us off-guard, surprises us with its unique charm and gameplay and gets more entertaining the longer we play it.

If you played the first game then you pretty much already own this one, and if you weren't compelled to try it before then then there isn't enough different here to change your mind.

The experiences are undoubtedly unique and worth paying a small amount for, if only to support the continued creation of medium-exploring software, as there is nothing else like it on the handheld.

Robox is a game with some good ideas that unfortunately aren't capitalised on nearly enough.

It's not going to set the world alight but if you have even a passing interest in exploring the stars, and have always been frustrated by light pollution and cheap telescopes, this is well worth a shot.

Donkey Kong Country Returns is almost the perfect continuation of the series in many ways. It manages to offer the perfect balance of old and new elements to form what has to be one of the Wii console's finest platforming experiences and a game that should challenge even seasoned fans of the genre.

Around the World quizzes players over a limited set of information in a somewhat interesting way, ending up with a very basic and average experience.

Music On: Drums takes a different approach than previous entries, and although it doesn't offer the power or flexibility to defeat Rytmik: Rock Edition it's still a good alternative that's fun to tinker about with from time to time.

Ghost Mania provides its audience with a charming visual presentation and some admittedly catchy music, but the gameplay experience is subpar, and the puzzles are not all that engaging.

Midnight Mysteries: The Edgar Allan Poe Conspiracy presents a decent seek-and-find adventure with an enveloping storyline, but it doesn't take you into enough of Poe's stories to provide as enveloping an experience as it could.

For a 200 point side-scrolling shoot-'em-up, Z-ONE is not bad, but it lacks anything to make it stand out as a must-have title.

The game is accessible, imaginative and of a decent length, though the graphics aren't anything to write home about and the atmosphere could have been helped by better or more plentiful aural effects, outside-of-riddle object animations and detailed textures.

Cosmo Fighters shows some promise with its solid gameplay, but its lack of any kind of charm, personality or innovation makes it a difficult game onto which to latch.

It was a pretty simple game before, but tons of bits has turned chick chick BOOM into a very hectic and enjoyable download title.

Raving Rabbids Travel in Time is another solid mini-game compilation offering funny flights of four-player fancy. Single-player is lacking and multiplayer is hampered by unnecessary toilet roll tethering, but get some agreeable people in the same room and this game can be fun for all the family.