There is no doubt in our minds that this is the finest 3D beat-'em-up we have ever played on any system, but as massive fans of both Soul Edge and Soul Calibur, we can't help but be a little disappointed. [Import]

But of more importance to fans will be the array of movies, cast interviews and behind-the-scenes footage, which pads out the back end of the game. This isn't just squeezed in for added value either.

As the TV show succeeded by placing fun above logical reason or technical accomplishment, it seems fitting that the game followed this ethic to the letter.

The gameplay is sumptuous, and is helped along considerably by a smooth learning curve and a constant 60fps update. The biggest surprise of all, and one which we've mentioned several times, is the depth the game has to offer.

Obviously there is a definite audience ready to lap up the action herein and they will enjoy the chance to explore various areas of Sunnydale, all of which have been recreated perfectly.

Movement is achieved by moving using a massively cut down version of Dance Dance Revolution (press buttons on cue) that if done correctly results in a Manga-esque cut scene of destruction. Effectively then, Time Dilation is an elaborate smart bomb. Like its name implies this game is merely a varied echo of what once was original.

The combat flows nicely, the graphics are bright – if never really revolutionary – and the gameplay defines the term solid. It’s hard not to like Alter Echo, but by the same note, it hard to get truly involved in it.

It's not a Metroid or a Zelda that you’ll plug away at solidly to completion, but it's a great way to let off steam and something you can dip into for a quick blast with the promise of something new always around the corner.

We happily sat and wiled away the best part of a day with this. No complaints. The reason? Because Futurama is funny. No matter how average, generic or banal the gameplay gets, it’s still Futurama, and it’s still funny.

All the belly laughs in the world can't save such a shameful game. Perhaps it's a lack of pace, or the fact that the puzzles seem more of a chore than a challenge, that makes Futurama such a tame title.

Despite the lack of smashes, it’s sill a fun game to play thanks to the undemanding and bouncy handling of the R/C cars.

We've had a great deal of pleasure at the hands of evolution, even those of us who still swear quite vehemently that Tekken is The Daddy (Bonjour Chris) admitted that it’s a damn fine game. [Import]

With all the new franchise options Madden 2004 is a definite must for anyone who likes to get into the nitty-gritty of the game, but otherwise you might be better of waiting for the rather nifty-looking "NFL Street." Overall though, this is the best American football game you can get.

To say that Madden 2004 is challenging would be a massive understatement. It has an uncanny ability to leave you shouting at the screen when your opponents seemingly know what you are going to do even before you do it.

This is a shame as the idea behind the Masters Series mode offers great depths, it’s just a shame the core gameplay is found wanting.

Underneath the gloss and overblown script, behind the limited tactical use of the Legions, Chaos Legion is an old-fashioned hack ‘n’ slash adventure. Just like "Devil May Cry 2," the next-gen visual wizardry and slick character design hide a game that isn’t quite as original as it thinks it is.

Eight missions, plenty of multiplayer maps (including the most popular four from Ghost Recon) and the promise of at five downloadable desert missions means this is worth your cash.

It is fun, but certainly won't last for long and will soon crash and burn into the pile of games ready for trading in.

It is a hell of a lot better than the previous incarnation of Silent Hill but if you’re planning on getting the third tale, you’re going to have to be a real survival horror fan.

The only problem is, just as the visual style has been ramped up and reduced to looking like an episode of an anodyne Saturday morning cartoon, the gameplay has been reduced to fit.

There’s "MTV Music Generator" and there is this. Personally (and from the viewpoint of this particular reviewer) eJay is the better program purely because it is so user friendly. And we’ve already got a PC thanks.

Of course, if you put them in a dreary real-time strategy with wide-open environments that drains away all the tension and replace any hostile encounters between the species with tedious combat, then perhaps the game would fall short. But no developers would be daft enough to do that right? Right? Oh dear.

If you can forgive the fact that this isn’t a first-person shooter, the premise is good enough, but the execution tastes like xenomorphic acid on the tongue.

A perfect example of how exaggerated sports games can often be more fun that their realistic counterparts.

The in-game graphics are as primitive as ever – simply doing their job of representing the positions of your various units around the map – and the basic turn-based concept won’t be every gamer’s cup of tea, but there’s surely enough depth and engrossing potential here to bring hardcore adventurers back for more while enticing a good number of newbies.

With up to four players racing together, Downhill Domination offers plenty of adrenalin- pumping action and if you are looking for a different and rewarding racer then this is one mountain worth climbing.

Sadly, this promising variety of stealth, third-person shooter and vehicle-based gameplay rather predictably sees each element being delivered half-baked. A distinct vein of average runs throughout proceedings – from the lacklustre visuals to each mission’s overly linear string of objectives.

There's the excellent AI, providing plenty of intense situations wherein you must outwit your enemies. The intelligence of the game’s often tricky challenges make their completion all the more rewarding.

The good things: The ten thousand-odd lines of spoken dialogue. The choice-driven story. The sheer number of quests and mini games. The ability to construct your own lightsaber: green, blue, purple or yellow; double-ended, single blade or even a short and long lightsaber in each hand. This is a game made by Star Wars fans for Star Wars fans.

One for the novice, or those more interested in ‘larger than life’ gaming than the real sport.

A sham, and doesn't stand fit to carry the logo of such a stunning film. Once past the multiple loading screens required to start the game, the real waiting begins, as the low-octane action jerks more than a shoe fetishist in Clarks, even in one-on-one combat.

The twitchy controls mean that instant death is just a flick of the analog stick away, and even though we’re not psychic, we can guarantee you’ll die many, many times just trying to either work out where you’ve got to go or nab yourself a handful of bonus items.

The learning curve of Ape Escape 2 is damn near perfect... If you’re looking for top-flight platform entertainment then you really cannot go wrong with Ape Escape 2, it’s brilliant.

The bikes handle brilliantly, with a real sense of momentum and a transfer of weight to the front and rear wheels under acceleration and braking.

Get past the visuals, the levers, the stupid bloody water sections and you’ve got a game that doesn’t get anywhere near the high potential of the worlds greatest action hero, but still manages to provide some guilty pleasures.

The rather twitchy controls don’t help matters either, forcing you to persevere through, rather than enjoy, the game.

If you’re looking at IndyCar Series as an alternative to EA’s F1 games or simply as a detailed simulator then don’t. You’ll be exceedingly bored, frustrated and dizzy before you’ve even finished a race. If you like driving in circles, then buy yourself a Scalextric kit.

It's a Japanese RPG in the truest sense and conforms to all the clichs of the genre. It has its misfits, its central (male) character with a mysterious past (and a strange birthmark on his shoulder) and a turn-based battle system with magic and hit points. It has its world map.

With some perseverance to get past the initial stages, Naval Ops develops into a fun blaster.

Although some of the later missions are very hard, it has a well-pitched difficulty curve, where most missions will require a few goes to crack and will require you to learn the road layout, which you’ll quite happily do.

This is possibly the best Formula One game we have played for quite some time and provides a totally entertaining experience.

Aside from [the stunt mode], there is absolutely nothing else that could make this game interesting. To anyone.

The game appears to be a little confused as to what it is. Action, adventure, stealth and puzzles all play an equal part in The Angel Of Darkness. Core seems to getting unsure what to do with the franchise, either that or the developer is simply trying too hard.

A few hours later and with huge smiles on the faces of the whole team it was obvious that Empire’s racer is actually something very special – an original idea which actually works.

Unfortunately hampered by some annoying glitches and imperfections, the whole experience does remain fairly enjoyable while it lasts, but also leaves a decidedly bitter aftertaste.

The attack patterns are pedestrian, the level designs confined and the environments repetitive. The third-person adventure side to the game fails to progress beyond ‘find-the-key/unlock-the-door’ business end of the genre.

An example to developers the world over that just because there is gratuitous violence, the game is not necessarily a winner. A great PC title can still flop on the Xbox, even with the addition of Live gameplay.

A total disappointment. It certainly has all the bells and whistles that you'd expect, so we have to commend SEGA for that; however, with the quality of the main game being lower that we've come to expect from Sonic's homestead, it's just not enough to justify the asking price.

If anything lets the game down it’s this combat system, which really doesn’t need to be there.

There is little here to sparkle the imagination and the best we can say is that it’s a fair time-filler. If only the developers had the nerve to try out some fresh ideas, or even implemented old ones in exciting ways then we’d be looking at a much healthier product.

To choose, of all games, one so heavily geared towards style, presentation and music for a GBA conversion does tread that famous fine line between stupid and clever and, rather frustratingly, falls mostly on the former.

The space-flying gimmick surely doesn’t warrant a purchase on its own. This should’ve been a very decent shoot-‘em-up. What happened?

The good thing with Midtown Madness 3 is that it doesn’t take itself at all seriously.

Fans of the movie series do not want to be solving complex puzzles – they want to be slaying the dead – and A Fistful Of Boomstick gives constant opportunity for this.

This is as straight a port as you’re likely to see. Whatever Eidos were doing over the last six to eight months, it certainly wasn’t improving the package.

Rather than just create a lazy racing game and throwing in a load of huge rigs, Big Mutha Truckers has RPG elements, which mean that every player will have a different trucking experience and you’ll need to be a successful businessman as well as a good driver in order to succeed.

A very accomplished and well presented title, which although not exactly innovative, it does have that little something extra to make it stand out from the pack.

It looks good, it sounds good and it features enough action to keep the most demanding of adrenaline junkies happy.

The Midas touch that has served so many Rockstar games has found its way into Midnight Club II, and although the game is by no means perfect, it is the breath of fresh air that should lift it above the glut of average racers that have wormed their way onto the console recently.

From the balance between crashes and near misses to the graphical detail and track progression, Speed Kings always trails Burnout 2. If you’re a bike fanatic then Speed Kings is the game for you. Everyone else should stick with Acclaim’s other arcade racer.

If there were a little more meat on this, we’d be looking at one of the best pinball games around, but as it stands, we can’t help but want for more.

Sure, some of the textures could do with being of a higher resolution, there’s no multiplayer option and… nope, that’s pretty much all that’s wrong here.

If you can forgive the faults, love bikes and have the patience of a saint, then you will enjoy Speed Kings. The game’s major failing is to borrow so much from the real king of speed, Burnout 2, and never innovating in the process, merely imitating.

The races are slow and one mistake can mean the difference between first and last, but that’s the addiction, and whipping your horse to a slight, nosed victory is a mighty satisfying feeling.

Then you meet the game’s other personality, the ‘stealth’ bits, thrown in to remedy the aforementioned mindless repetitiveness. And it’s an unpleasant little turd whom you won’t be wanting to spend much time with.

An empty shell of a game that revolves around non-stop action. Which is great, if that’s your favourite flavour of jam.

The implementation of ideas fell to the lowest common denominator, and the end game is a shallow and childish experience.

The main problem is that, aside from some rather nice visual effects, everything about the game feels out-of-date.

Given the subject matter we can’t knock the developer for this but the relative limitations set by the cast of characters makes this the perfect microcosm for The Hulk: bludgeoning, loud, unthinking and very occasionally, as soft as muck.

A well-presented, bland, unforgiving and ultimately undesirable game that’s best avoided amongst an infinity of better racers on the market.

Hit top speed on a lengthy straight and the world slips into a stylised flat-out blur that offers an impression of unblinkable speed almost unparalleled since the original "WipEout" on PlayStation.

Walks a middling line between being a straightforward RPG and an action explorer but unfortunately excels at neither style.

Animation of the beautifully rendered characters and unit models particularly livens up the screen, and the attention to detail is often quite remarkable.

If you’re a fan of the movies, don’t own Evil Dead 2 on DVD, and you’re not expecting too much from this amusing but shallow game, then shop smart, shop S-mart. Groovy.

Less of the ‘groundbreaking title’ Infogrames claimed it would be and more… well, crap. We’d suggest renting it at best – and that’s only if you’re absolutely desperate to see what you’re not missing.

When we hear the words “movie” and “license” we automatically start sharpening knives. In this case we were to busy moistening to the sight of total and unashamed gun-porn to want to draw blood. Yes, we feel ashamed.

The music, sound effects, cool fight scenes, bullet time and being able to fight an Agent. It's all good. This is the very nature of a license – you love to hate them and hate to love them. They bring as many problems as they do solutions but every once in a while the good stuff outweighs the bad.

Maybe if it actually looked better, if more of the levels weren't so sparse or uninspiring then we'd be able to forgive the shallow gameplay and the fact that combat is too straightforward.

For a kids game it can suddenly leap from being simpler than tying your shoes to being tougher than tying your shoes - if you're a fish.

It's not very complex or original, with little to the action beyond simple objective completion and ABC linearity, while more mature players may gag at the cutesiness of it all.

A pleasant game, surprisingly tough in places and if you're over 13, probably likely to be the cause of quite a few broken joypads in its flawed glory.

Merely more of the same, which is good enough as the original kept us enthralled to the end.

DOD irresistibly draws you back for more time and time again. The level designs shine above so many other team-based shooters and provide the perfect stage for some unbeatably tense shootouts.

This was already a fine game on the PC but we’d go so far as to say that this is the best version of Wolfenstein we’ve played.

Akin to a dirty secret, such as catching your best mate's mother in bed with the dog, Stake is a something that is best forgotten for fear of some sort of mental trauma a few years down the line.

It looks a hell of a lot better, runs smoother and feels faster. So there’s no confusion here then: this is not a straight port. Got that? Good.

There’s a clever smattering of Challenge modes, various original and well-handled Stunts for you to master and enough tracks and vehicles to give the game decent longevity.

In other words: You best get yaw white-boy, tea-drinking, mummy-kissing ass down to the staw – bitch.

No other bball game comes close.

We’re amazed that Splinter Cell is as good as it is on the GBA. It’s almost as if Ubi Soft took the original Xbox game and siphoned away all the superfluous elements (such as the oh-so-pretty lighting effects, shadow-casting and highly-detailed graphics) until all that was left was the GBA version.

This game just isn’t finished. The frame-rate drops at the smallest suggestion, the mainstay combat is as orchestrated as band practise for the stillborn. Quite honestly this is a shambles of a magnitude that astonishes.

Although it could have been improved even further — the graphics and vaguely cumbersome feel of the movement still need more refinement — as a tactical squad based shooter, this is easily the GameCube’s best.

The general feel of the game is a very slow and clunky fighter – a feature that ironically does suit the whole Godzilla setting quite well, but sadly does not work for the beat-'em-up genre. Perhaps the two were never meant to meet.

In what has to be a first for rally titles, much of the scenery, which should be breakable... is! No more bouncing off seemingly solid tape barriers - they now snap and even flap in the wind.

The story following McKane and his fictional personal battle in the real TOCA environment not only makes this stand out from other racers but it also opens the racer up to a wider mainstream appeal.

Some shoddy game design and AI, proves Wolverine’s Revenge to be more Thomson and Co than Marvel; that interactive comic just isn’t interactive enough.

While Phantasy Star Online Episode 1 & 2 is a fantastic game in its own right, the fact that its takes such little advantage of the hardware it’s running on prevents us from being truly ecstatic.

One of those rare games that is beyond criticism. It plays beautifully, and gives you the opportunity to become at one with it - provided you're willing to put the hours in. Try playing this one at 3am and you'll see what we mean. The best shooter in years.