Murder In Venice has a great story with plenty of twists, but doesn't provide decent enough puzzles and gameplay to back it up.

It looks and sounds great, but the dire AI, weak combat, and a lack of online multiplayer leave Ancient Trader HD's strong premise all at sea.

There's certainly roads, but the only insanity you'll find in Madness Road is the floaty controls and shallow gameplay.

An imaginative, lovely looking game that somehow conspires to render godhood dull and repetitive.

There are some nice moments in Rogue Aces, but in the end it's too repetitive for its own good.

A very average Korean RPG that isn't worth the button-bashing hassle.

Full of edgy humour, but the designers forgot to add an actual game.

A dodgy script and some absurd puzzles dent the appeal of Secret Files 2: Puritas Cordis. Fans of the original game will lap this up, but everyone else should look elsewhere for their point-and-click fix.

While it certainly looks the part and controls well enough, Violet Storm's lack of variety - not to mention challenge - puts it at the back of the iOS shooter pack.

Despite solid controls and presentation, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 lacks any sort of heart and soul, and its repetitive missions lend this open-world adventure a pervading sense of dullness and drudgery.

A truly dumb endless-runner with a gimmicky heavy metal theme and sluggish, limited gameplay.

It has its moments, but Solar Flux gets frustrating a little too quickly.

An interesting exercise in re-designing the fighter for touchscreens then, but ultimately an exercise that fails to solve the issues of the interface.

If you're still catching them all in Pokemon Black/White, there's no reason to jump the gun with Super Rumble. Only fanatics need apply.

A charming and competent brain testing game on the surface. But with only ten mini-games and a dubious method of testing your intelligence, Brain Assist doesn't do anything to better its many rivals.

Not a game but an interactive exercise manual. My Health Coach: Weight Management might help shed the pounds if followed to the letter but it won't do very much to entertain you along the way.

It may be mildly diverting and moderately entertaining, but this latest entry in the Mystery Dungeon series sadly fails to improve on its already disappointing predecessor.

There's a neat idea here, but Battle Group 2 doesn't add enough to that core to make it worth your while.

After Burner Climax is appropriately named. It's an excitement that just doesn't last long.

The story it tells still has the ability to intrigue, and I certainly felt compelled to see it through to at least two of its endings. But when I turned over the final page, 999: The Novel felt like a rough first draft of a promising story rather than an expertly polished final edit.

The decision to withhold consumable items as optional extras makes it feel like you've only bought half the game and ensures that Drawin' Growin' is more of an ordeal than entertainment.

A shallow turn-based strategy with an admirable level of backstory, but poorly thought-out game design.

Great Battles Medieval has history and accessibility on its side, but in the end its weak points are too visible to stand up to stronger opposition.

A nice looking game that's thwarted at every turn by controls that just don't do the job.

If you've played a card-battler in the last year or so, you've seen everything Heroes of Camelot has to offer, aside from some spectacularly beautiful art.

Rope Rescue HD is an average Angry Birds-style game with few new wrinkles.

A quirky, intriguing endless-floater that's simply far too shallow to captivate for long.

For all its many deficiencies, Trigger City is a fairly enjoyable retro beat-'em-up as long as you have a high tolerance for nonsense.

This Wesley Snipes-driven adventure manages to be both boring and frustrating.

Seemingly unfinished and with glaring technical issues, PureSkate 2 isn't ready for competition just yet.

Irony Curtain is a competent successor to the point-and-click adventure games of yore, provided you can bear its finicky gameplay and tepid satire.

This old skool casual puzzler is functional but lacklustre.

An attractive tunnel racer marred by dodgy swipe controls and a confusing perspective.

While it starts off brightly, Ring Run Circus quickly loses its sheen and descends into mediocrity.

The PSP has been crying out for a brand new classic Japanese RPG for a long time now. Dragoneer's Aria, as a wholly average expression of the genre that's of interest to super-fans only, is not the game to answer its melancholy call.

If you're after Backgammon, you're in luck. Just don't expect anything more.

A good premise that falls a bit flat, Team Monster might be worth a few hours of play time but lacks the depth and polish necessary to make it an easy recommendation.

Like a sliding puzzle meshed with Rubik's Cube, Art Style: NEMREM is thought provoking but dull.

A reasonably playable twist on a few old ideas. Zombie Puzzle Panic has its moments, but it's not engaging enough to sink its teeth in all that deep.

ModNation Racers on the Vita is a boring, unfair, and wholly unnecessary release that manages to be worse than its previous handheld outing despite the Vita's technical superiority over the PSP.

Too short, too easy and suffering from technical stutters, A.C.E. Air Combat Elite crashes and burns before it can enter the fray.

This is by no means a bad game - it's just an entirely average title in a genre that's crowded with entirely average games. Worth a look if you absolutely can't get enough tile-matching action.

A merely adequate approximation of any number of iOS arena blasters, Call of Mini Zombies 2 lacks that crucial vibrancy and flow needed in such an oversubscribed genre.

A decent enough freemium-builder crossed with a puzzler becomes wholly less palatable thanks to some obnoxiously long timers and so-so presentation.

Attractive, but a little too simple for its own good, Golf Battle 3D is a skirmish, not a war.

Roswell Fighter Reloaded isn't actively offensive, but it's far too flat and easy to recommend.

Controversy aside, Manhunt 2 doesn't deliver gameplay entertaining enough to justify its sophomoric sense of humour. A lack of technical polish and censored elements prevent it from being anything more than a fleeting talking point.

Speedway GP looks great, but bad controls and anally retentive gameplay make it mediocre.

Lacking any sense of character or creativity, Rugby Nations 2010 fails to grasp the real drive behind Rugby Union.

City of Secrets is attractive and welcoming to newcomers, but the plodding story, forgettable characters, weak puzzles, and atrocious voice-acting ensure it's destined to stay a secret.

Monster University barely scrapes a pass with an underwhelming and repetitious duo of endless-runners. Could do better.

Pac-Man's ears may be burning, but Rally-X Rumble is no threat due to its iffy controls and dated unoriginal gameplay. It's all been done better elsewhere.

Even as a Hello Kitty game for young kids, this mini-game compilation leaves a lot to be desired.

A perfectly solid but ultimately disappointing tap-to-tilt arcade experience.

Death Mile delivers a good amount of entertainment for free, but misses the 'good game' mark by a mile.

Bethesda Pinball shows initial promise, but its single player price points and two-dimension gameplay let the game down overall.

A shallow and uninspiring multiplayer title, Angry Birds Friends doesn't have the spark that made the series so important in the first place.

Despite its appealing premise, Fancy Cats isn't particularly fancy, nor is it much fun.

It wastes a good concept, and Knock-Knock is a bizarre and bewildering experience that will happily alienate all but those most dedicated to experimental games.

Gamevil's deranged freebie aims for 'quirky', but hits 'annoying'. For nutters only.

It might be Amore for Namco, but our love affair with Katamari is all but over.

Flip Riders is a ferocious challenge, but rarely an enjoyable one.

While initially promising, Dot Zone quickly becomes stale and repetitive.

Ultimately, The Top Spot resembles a stylish screen testing app as much as a mobile game.

It's cheap and easy to get into, but Table Top Tanks is just too shallow to really enjoy.

With its ropey physics and irksome controls, Jar on a Bar fails to capitalise on what is an initially engaging premise.

Far too easy and dreadful value for money, but a lot of people are going to buy it for the cards anyway.

Heroes and Castles 2 makes a mess of both its genres, offering mushy action and brainless strategy that rarely merge in a satisfying way.

Another creature firing also-ran, Cannon Cat isn't the worst example of the genre, but it won't keep you entertained for very long.

Doodle God looks and sounds great, but the charming graphics soon give way to dull repetitive gameplay.

Too simple for its own good, Duckers just isn't exciting enough to become as addictive as it wants to be.

With Nascar: Redline, Eutechnyx reduces high-octane wheel-to-wheel motorsport to a rather uninspiring series of mini-game events sprinkled rather sparsely over a dull race management simulation.

It might have a nice body kit and some go-faster stripes, but Mini Motor Racing drives more like an old banger than a sleek, sporty number.

A mediocre shooter lacking basic options and gameplay fun enough to entice replay.

Intensely frustrating strategic military shooter, which could do with being massively simplified.

Devoid of content and far too easy, even for younger gamers, Ice Age 4: Continental Drift - Arctic Games is over almost before it's begun.

Although the endearing visuals do an excellent job of replicating the look of one of the world's most popular MMOs, the lack of human interaction, awkward controls and uninspiring quests render MapleStory Thief Edition underwhelming.

Age of Tribes follows the Lemmings formula, but fails to lead it into a new generation with poor controls, frustrating elements, and buggy execution.

A clunky and clumsy attempt at something a little different, Golfinity has too many problems to really recommend it.

An initially quite nice one-thumb balancing game that rides too close to the edge and then repeatedly smacks its face into a wall.

As tired as the soldiers it represents, Take Cover is the same strategy game you've played before, with little to set it apart from the rest.

A fine idea, but technical flaws, uneven difficulty and an almost total absence of logic ruin what could have been a great strategy game.

FarmVille 2: Country Escape is a true time waster. Despite plenty of content that could last weeks, it boils down to watching progress bars fill up.

An enjoyable cliché while it lasts, but ultimately this is an average package that few players will be able or willing to justify shelling out for.

There is some enjoyment to be had with Chill Out! Zombies, but frequent technical problems and an increasing sense of dullness mean it's hard to recommend.

A stylish, well-intended hidden object game, Time Geeks: Find All! undercuts its attempt at innovation with fundamentally misguided design.

A pretty but repetitive puzzle-based adventure, Shrek the Third feels more like completing a series of chores than having monster-sized fun.

Poor controls and inconsistent level design badly hamper MaXplosion in its attempt to replicate the 'Splosion Man formula on iPhone.

A polished tie-in for pre-teens but it's singularly lacking in ideas, imagination or depth.

While it might have sky-high aspirations, Fishbowl Racer is a mundane, frustrating experience at the best of times.

Hello Kitty Music Party's clunky design prevents it from being anything more than a middle-of-the-road clicker, despite its fresh ideas.

50 Classic Games 3D is far from a 'classic', on account of its distinct lack of high scores, multiplayer, or variety.

An ambitious game that for various big and small reasons fails to deliver on its considerable potential.

One-note combat and some bland settings combine to make Pacific Rim more miss than hit.

An interesting idea that falls a little flat, Mega Dead Pixel doesn't have enough going for it to really recommend.

Sega's latest DS effort is ebullient and eye-catching but sadly the entire experience is mired by a questionable combat mechanic and a thoroughly disappointing lack of new ideas.

It's reasonably well put together, but Breakfinity isn't anything more than another copy of a very old game.