The initial reaction when Happy Tree Friends was fired up was "rubbish", "stupid" and "why are you playing this?" It looks bland, boring and slow...Yet for the person playing it, it's endearing, addictive and surprisingly fun.

A game most of today's gaming fraternity can waltz through. Its an overhead shooter for first-timers, yin to Ikaruga's bullet-laden yang.

Fork out 40 quid for Hellboy? Hell no! [Sept 2008, p.90]

A bot-standard, rusty platformer for kids. [Sept 2008, p.86]

A third-person action-adventure with the beating black heart of a survival horror, Alone in the Dark is a game that needs to be experienced by everybody. Its novel approach of applying shocks into an episodic structure, eight hourly segments in all, is a masterstroke.

It's accessible, it's fun and its destruction is novel enough to keep players entertained. If this was about breaking up the Rainbow Six Vegas and G.R.A.W. stranglehold on the squad combat genre, it hasn't quite pulled it off. It's not bad company for the night; it's just not memorable company either.

Superb tennis sim, but where's Wimbledon? [July 2008, p.85]

Nothing really new. [Aug 2008, p.92]

Pretty ugly, but it has a nice personality. [Sept 2008, p.84]

A fun concept, but the lack of depth turns it into a snorkelling trip rather than an undersea odyssey. [Aug 2008, p.95]

Definitely not worth the ridiculous 800 MP asking price. [Aug 2008, p.94]

It represents the sport in a grittier light than the super-polished Fight Night series.

But if you are one of those four ardent fans, you'll find this is a remarkably faithful representation of NASCAR and a vast improvement over last year's edition. [Aug 2008, p.88]

A great little fighter though a bit repetitive. [Aug 2008, p.78]

Seriously, there's nothing incredible about this. [Aug 2008, p.79]

There's enough frenzied destruction to entertain for an afternoon - just leave your brain at the door. [Aug 2008, p.94]

Well designed and addictive. [Aug 2008, p.95]

But their utter linearity wears the patina thin as the same ground is covered again and again; the really exciting scenes wilt into mindless reaction games, and even the best part - the fistfights - become stale after a few repetitive bouts.

Still, there's no denying that Ninja Gaiden II has tons going for it, and when the combat works, which it does for most of the game, it can be a beautiful ballet of blood and steel with you at the centre, devising and scrapping split-second plans as you rip your way from alamo to alamo. If you've got the stomach for it, Ninja Gaiden will reward you. They just could have been a little less mean.

While GRID's a nice game, it's ultimately a new selection of cars and tracks for Colin McRae DiRT. You might want to bear that in mind when it comes to buying it.

That rare thing: a film tie-in that's not bad. [Sept 2008, p.87]

By permitting Traveller's Tales to parody the movies to such an extent, they've allowed the developer to create something above and beyond the standard movie tie-in. [July 2008, p.86]

What doesn't work this time out is Throttle Monkey mode, Atari's way of separating the casual from hardcore gamer. In other titles speeded-up gameplay can be an endurance test; here, it's just unplayable.

One of the best team FPSs to date.

Probably the best budget game we've ever seen...You'd have a frozen heart not to love it. [July 2008, p.95]

Those gamers who check out Penny Arcade daily will be playing to see the reappearance of iconic characters and to laugh at the in-jokes dotted throughout the game. But even they would have a hard time swallowing the 1,600 MP price tag (around £15) for five hours of gameplay - gameplay that isn't heavy on replayability.

Pretty much "FIFA 08" with a new front end and 571 teams removed. [May 2008, p.80]

It's not entirely run-of-the-mill. [Aug 2008, p.85]