Grumbling aside, Hit & Run is a decent stab at doing something different with a The Simpsons game, but it still can't help being very, very unoriginal and dragging everything down to the lowest common denominator - collect stuff!

It looks loads better, has more objects and Sim-building options; it gives you more freedom and sense of neighbourhood. The trouble is that it's not the giant leap of gameplay that would warrant another £40.

Wetrix is weird, wild and incredibly addictive. It might not appeal to you if you're not keen on puzzle games, although you might surprise yourself if you give it a try.

This game is a tasty piece of eye candy. All the environments are not only huge, but extremely detailed. It runs on the Same engine as Hitman 2, but looks much better.

Coming out of nowhere and with little fanfare, this is certainly one of the genre's better titles. The only problem is that it's hard to identify with a cute robot who makes other cute(ish) robots break apart.

Xbox Live is a timely upgrade, the Konquest mode plays well and Puzzle Kombat rocks, but without any significant improvement in fighting styles or basic playability Mortal Kombat is good but just not good enough.

We've been floored.

Batting on the other hand, is about as much fun as chewing glass. You’d basically need the reactions of a Jedi Knight to be able to rack up a decent hit ratio.

An enjoyable RTS game in the Age of Empire mold that will last even the most experienced of gamers quite some time with the various gameplay and map-making options available within it.

Freekstyle is a solid and often fun game that is sadly plagued by some niggling faults and the knowledge that both in terms of the genre and game style, this has been done better before.

Tecmo has effectively played it safe and delivered a game that while very good, does not offer the same enhancements to the genre that the original achieved. It's definitely worth picking up; just don't expect anything startingly original.

The missions vary between furious dogfights, bombing runs and escort duties, there's even a spot of stealth. The sound is stunning, and visually the game is equal to the best of the genre.

It's a full scale epic that completely engulfs you from the off and squeezes out so many different emotions that after a long stint, you're left wondering whether you really do like it or not. [JPN Import]

EA has decided to make the graphics grainier and more gritty but all this has done is make the game the worst-looking PSone FIFA game so far.

Overall, this is a decent, efficient addition to the genre, with a few good additions here and there for hardcore fans while the game's accessibility makes it a fine starting point for newcomers.

Throughout the controls are frustratingly unresponsive and the difference between a turn and a slide is too often dependant on chance rather than skill.

Games are meant to be fun and Hudson couldn’t have squeezed more fun into Bomberman Generation if it tried.

The most beautifully balanced, well-crafted 2D beat-‘em-up to grace God’s fair Earth.

The extra games are all very nice and shiny but some more work should have gone into creating a level field of play, wherein each character can compete fairly and we aren't left damning Kobra's utter rubbishness as Noob-Smoke kicks seven varying shades of faeces out of him yet again.

You know if you like it already, and you probably know if you're going to buy it already. As for us, we like it, just don't expect us to know where to find it in two weeks' time. [Play UK]

It's very complicated yet highly accessible and features the kind of attention to detail that consoles just have never witnessed before.

This ridiculous level of world destruction becomes infinitely more enjoyable when you play a multiplayer battle.

The same easy scoring from 'sweet spots' plague the game and for some reason it's nigh on impossible to score from five yards out, one-on-one with the keeper. And because of the reliance on motion captured animation and pre-set special moves, you still never feel in complete control of the player. This aside, the improvements outweigh the old problems.

The conversion from the GameCube originals are flawless, and although some may bemoan the lack of Live support, this shouldn't take anything away from this perfect console party piece.

It's easily the best of the series and with enough depth to silence the franchise's many detractors.

The speed, responses, combination moves and array of fighting styles intertwine to present a tactical beat-’em-up with enough edge to coax even the most-hardened arcade junkies out of their smoke-caked games dens.

Beyond the fine-tuning in visuals and updated line-up there is little in the way of new experiences on offer compared to the previous EA F1 games. Sure you’ve got the new cars and tracks, but is this really going to make the difference over F1 2001?

What impresses is the structural coherency of the game world: anything you see and think ‘I ought to be able to stick a bike on that’ will indeed be solid and available for tricks duty, from moving cars to power cables, scaffolding and tree branches.