The developers totally misunderstood what makes The Sims so appealing. There is little opportunity for creativity (furnishing your apartment is tedious), no drama and a mistaken emphasis on conservative conformity.

Some levels are ridiculously arduous, such as negotiating tricky leaps in a hurricane.

A trip to Thrillville takes you on a long, unnecessary detour through Dullsville.

Children of Mana is beautifully presented but it's too childlike to satisfy serious gamers.

Many kids will have fun whizzing around the colourful courses, but some will be frustrated when the difficulty rises sharply after the initial races. The highlight is wirelessly competing against up to eight remote friends.

The visuals have now lost much of their shine, which isn't helped by poor collision detection. Wireless multiplayer racing can be enjoyed by up to six DS owners in some events with just one copy of the game.

Hand-held technology may be perfectly capable but this game has little of the humour, adventure and excitement you would expect from that galaxy far, far away.

It was radioactive ooze that spawned the Turtles, but it's your brain that will turn to ooze trying to get some decent entertainment out of this sludgy beat 'em up.

Rogue Agent ticks all the boxes on the shooter checklist, but lacks any of the oomph needed to make these worthy of note. Unlike the beautiful set pieces of other Bond games and movies, the levels within are about as exciting as a visit to your local public library.

You'll have to be bad to be good but Infernal is sometimes so bad it's difficult to see what good can come of it.

Most will find life at Cook County General Hospital surprisingly dull and too much like hard work.

Most missions follow a monotonous pattern of car chases and shoot-outs against dim-witted opponents that lack the variety of the GTA series.

Rogue Agent ticks all the boxes on the shooter checklist, but lacks any of the oomph needed to make these worthy of note. Unlike the beautiful set pieces of other Bond games and movies, the levels within are about as exciting as a visit to your local public library.

Rogue Agent ticks all the boxes on the shooter checklist, but lacks any of the oomph needed to make these worthy of note. Unlike the beautiful set pieces of other Bond games and movies, the levels within are about as exciting as a visit to your local public library.

Apart from being tediously simple and lacking variety, the challenges have absolutely no tension, because failure just means you have to try again.

Most missions follow a monotonous pattern of car chases and shoot-outs against dim-witted opponents that lack the variety of the GTA series.

Ferocious opponents and brutal unblockable attacks ensure the challenge is punishingly difficult, but there is little reward for investing the necessary time to master the fighting system's nuances.

It was radioactive ooze that spawned the Turtles, but it's your brain that will turn to ooze trying to get some decent entertainment out of this sludgy beat 'em up.

Most missions follow a monotonous pattern of car chases and shoot-outs against dim-witted opponents that lack the variety of the GTA series.

The Top 100 does a good job of collecting and remastering a large number of minigames from across the entire series, but neglects to tie them together in any meaningful way. By focusing almost wholly on the minigames, the game tends to become a relentless slog of loading in and out of overly simplistic challenges over and over again.

There's no option to edit the keyboard layout; the way your soldiers navigate the terrain can be erratic; tight map designs feel tactically restrictive; building armies is a slow process; and the overall presentation is extremely rough around the edges, including clumsy dialogue and grainy cut-scenes. "Total War" or "Supreme Commander" are better options.

Lacking the various vehicle types, long list of stages and single-player Challenge mode of the older games in the franchise, World Series bets it all on multiplayer and doesn't deliver. There's a kernel of a good idea in transforming Micro Machines into Overwatch-style personalities that each have their own special skills they can use to work together, but if there's a way to jam that complex, strategic online play into the zany, top-down design of 26 years ago, this game isn't it.

Sweet, simple fare that children will fleetingly enjoy, but play soon becomes work in a sweatshop.

Sadly, where the game fails to excite most is behind the wheel, due to poor physics and handling. Drivers will rarely find the need to take their finger off the throttle or cease driving recklessly, as cars never suffer damage.

Sadly, where the game fails to excite most is behind the wheel, due to poor physics and handling. Drivers will rarely find the need to take their finger off the throttle or cease driving recklessly, as cars never suffer damage.

More frustrating than fun.

It was radioactive ooze that spawned the Turtles, but it's your brain that will turn to ooze trying to get some decent entertainment out of this sludgy beat 'em up.

Fans will enjoy creeping around and using the wonderful grappling hook, but in a post Splinter Cell-era it is disappointing that light and darkness still have little bearing on the ninja's visibility to foes.