Meritless in terms of taking their genre forward or, worse even, invoking the warm glow of nostalgia. Spend £15 on a NES and the original games instead.

The fairly simplistic gameplay mechanics may not appeal to rallying purists, but anyone looking for an accessible, if somewhat unorthodox, racing title will find much to enjoy here.

The one aspect of the presentation that does warrant attention, however, is the camera, which true to third-person shooter form, manages to make the game far less enjoyable than it really should be. Where action is concerned, this isn't such a problem, but when solving puzzles the camera can prove a greater enemy than Dracula and all his undead minions combined.

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?

Feels like a rushed and unpolished version of a game that, while good, will never be able to hold a torch to the original N64 games.

That’s not to say X-Squad is hopelessly flawed – if taken as more of a no-brainer than intended, it provides a serviceable blast, and the well-spaced restart points do dampen the almost random battle outcomes fairly well.

Had the develop[ers] only thought about what it was doing a little bit more it could have made an astonishingly good game using the source material provided.

This game is quite good. It’s quite addictive, and takes more than an hour to complete, really marking it off from previous efforts.

It's a great shame, but playing Carve is like playing Paint Dry Simulator on Xbox... all the wall textures are there, the gloss of the emulsion - you can even see the brush strokes in the drying paint - it just doesn't add up to a hell of a lot of fun.

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.

This game rocks the party like it's 1996 for all the wrong reasons. It's a PSone game with sharper graphics.

Colours throughout are horrifically gaudy and are totally at odds with the sombre nature of the game. Overall, there's little to commend about this insipid and limp title.

Sadly, Shadow Of Apokolips just isn’t adventurous enough and offers little new or fun to both the Superman fan and game fan alike. More games like this and he could find himself back in the grave.

Relies a little too heavily on the creativity, imagination – and popularity – of the licence, without adding much in terms of innovative gameplay. However, for younger gamers, it is a simple and enjoyable game, and a perfectly pleasant walk with the dinosaurs.

While any petrol-heads who are starved of a racer would do well to get this – as it’s not a bad game by any means – everybody else would be wise to sit on their hands and wait until something a bit more ‘special’ comes along. "Colin McRae 3" will be here in March.

You'll find yourself sailing aimlessly for hours - the watery setting of Suikoden IV is ridiculously vast and barren and to make matters more exasperating, your boat's top speed and handling would embarrass most tugs.

Any improvements to the fun factor given to a multiplayer game is mostly down to all humans suffering from the same level of confusion given by a game that could do with being more like worms and less like a squeaking game of Crossbows & Catapults. More annoying than fun and not funny.

The game's balance is all wrong. The controls are overly simplistic and you seem to take more damage from the little helicopters that flit around than you do the other monsters.

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.

The mentality behind it is decidedly 32-bit, and this isn’t just limited to the models either.

The name is the game's only standout feature, and that's all the summing up you need.

Playing the game is a bittersweet experience. It’s strangely diverting, but all the time you’re thinking of what it could have been with a bit more testing and tweaking.

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.

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.

A great arcade game that doesn''t quite hit the target.

All the young pretender could do was look prettier, and show off his facial damage. No contest. He got a damn good beasting that day, and every day there after.

The game feels very much like a third person version of "Command & Conquer."

Rogue Ops doesn't ever better what we already have, so why should you spend forty quid on it? Well the answer is you shouldn't. This is one stealth game that is largely unnecessary, unless you can't use your thumbs.