The development team have gone all out in the tension stakes and made the game into one of the most palm-moistening titles available for the Xbox today, but the lack of AI and some incredibly shoddy graphical work takes off a considerable amount of sheen.

You can overlook the sloppy graphics, the poor narrative and the occasional rudimentary puzzle, because the design of Penumbra sometimes reminds you how inspired it is, offering the player some genuinely interesting puzzles in a properly spooky setting.

The bottom line is if you can put up with some quirky controls and are a massive fan of the originals then this is probably worth a look. However, if you are a purist and perhaps have a favourite Metal Slug outing, then you should wait for it to appear on the Virtual Console.

The best action game available for the DS today, bar none.

The cracks show very clearly after the game drags you in by providing a trouble-free first mission, and they are enough to completely kill the game for anyone who only has a passing interest.

Despite being set in another dimension, Sudeki feels believable and somehow real.

UGAG can very comfortably be compared to a Rubik’s Cube – it isn’t very pretty or enticing, it’s just an extremely straightforward, ball-bustingly hard challenge. It almost deserves two separate scores. If you like a challenge, then add [30] more points to my final score. If you prefer a bit more of an easier time, then detract [50].

The presentation is nothing short of stunning in places, but is nothing above terrible in others. It hooks you at the beginning with a promising storyline and the popular setting, but just seems to not care if it keeps you on the line or not, sinking into mediocrity way too often to ever draw you all the way in.

In front, it is one of the most beautiful, well presented and solidly put together sports games that you’re likely to see. Then, you get onto the pitch and the game engine lets everything down horribly.

Excellent gameplay is the order of the day here, and the classic franchises will make Dreamcast and Saturn fans teary-eyed just at the thought of them. This is the best EyeToy compilation to date.

Shows very little in the way of innovation, but the limited scope of the game allows it to shine all the more, delivering to its player a refreshing slice of good, clean fun.

For general fans of racing, there are many, many titles available that will satiate your need for speed better than this effort. Not a tragic attempt, but at the same time, IndyCar Series 2005 is as close to average as they come.

A nice looking, functional 3rd person action shooter. But the similarities with existing and even classic titles, plus a lack of any real innovation at all hardly makes Total Overdose stand out a mile for the more experienced gamer.

At times, things look great and play well, but this is all too rare. For the majority of your playing time, you'll be doing the same things over and over again, whilst wandering through what's fast becoming the stock set of urban environments.

I say "incredibly destructible", simply because it is. Should you plough into a tyre wall, the tyres will roll all over the track, making navigation treacherous when you find out that your car reacts somewhat realistically when you try to drive through them as if they aren't there on the next lap, and you inevitably end up rolling the car.

Players that are new to the KOEI party will undoubtedly feel overwhelmed in the first mission, stunned in the second mission, and then ultimately bored by the time that missions five and six rear their blood-stained heads.

A testimony to computer gaming brilliance crippled by a premature release.

Should never have been released in Europe. By removing the co-operative aspect of the game, they've infected the game with a particularly virulent strain of the T-Virus. It shambles purposelessly for your attention, mindless of its origins. Totally dead on arrival.

What can't be overlooked though, is the fact that the game started out as a technical demo to show off what the DS can do. Since then, little has been done to turn it into a fully fledged game.

The seemingly simple process of having a working camera and an enemy lock-on system has been neglected and as a result we’re left with a ‘nearly’ title – one of those ‘it could have been really good’ situations.

Scaler was never going to set the gaming world alight, but if you're looking for something to while away a few more of those cold winter hours, you could do much, much worse.

You can’t help but feel that this is the type of game perfectly suited to the DS; inventive, addictive and something quite refreshing – a genre injected with a new lease of life on a new platform. It won’t take you long to complete Another Code, but the nature of the game mechanic will ensure you will enjoy doing so.

Thankfully, you can turn off the VGS display completely and never see it again. Manabu Akita's system is a clever one, certainly, but did the developers really need to find the most annoying place on the race screen for it to live in? I don't think so. Rant over.

As far as racing games go, Full Auto’s arcade handling provides a welcome change to the rigours of the superb "Project Gotham Racing 3," but the slowdown and – in some cases – downright bugginess means that it won’t ever take you to gaming nirvana.

A fair game that tries to do a little too much. The puzzle, platform and racing genres are all represented as advertised, but none of them are pulled off well enough to provide a particularly engaging experience.

You'll not appreciate the "on-rails" feeling that Killzone provides. You will appreciate the wonderful graphics and score that ' barring the enemy voices ' is one of the best I've heard in a long while.

Absolutely essential twitch gaming, and the perfect way to wear in your new DS.

If you aren’t a Dragon Ball Z fanatic, then you’re pretty much looking at a very average beat ‘em up with some pretty graphical effects and a few aerial manoeuvres. If you are a fan, then I have a feeling that this will fill a portable gap, but certainly not for long. Badly flawed in places, but not a terrible way to pass the time.