Ultimately, this was an ambitious game for the DS, and it's reaching just slightly too far.

The sad thing is that every once in a while you get a brief sense of what this game could have been. The trick-based gameplay shows occasional flashes of potential, and the board peripheral could have worked. Maybe somewhere in a parallel universe there's a reality where Robomodo pulled it off; unfortunately, we're stuck here - and in this world Tony Hawk: Ride falls on its arse, big time.

A mess of a game in all senses of the term. Its gameplay is at least one generation behind the competition, its presentation is like a collection of every graphical effect thrown into a mixing pot and poured onto the screen and the online implementation leaves a lot to be desired.

Incredibly, this is an in-house attempt and a £40 launch window title. If Steel Diver is an example of how the Big N is planning to treat first-party 3DS games in the months to come, the future is bleak indeed.

Total War Pharaoh is a fun game, but one that lacks ambition. It squanders its potential with meagre gameplay, story, soundtrack, and performance, and fails to add anything of note to the Total War series, or leave an impression of its identity.

It’s messy, it’s stale, and traces of it will linger with you for days. And the worst part of it all? You paid for this garbage.

It's really hard to understand how anyone thought such a meagre selection of mini-games and a lacking single-player component warranted such a high price tag.

While We Happy Few's story contains some genuinely wonderful twists and turns once it gets going, it's dragged down by frustrating survival systems, shoddy combat, and an empty world.

With this winter full of high profile shooters it's almost certain that Midway felt a summer release for Hour of Victory was essential, but what's been released is hugely disappointing - especially on a console that has been relatively dross free.

For all its promises of representing a change from the usual (supposed) shoot-bang zeitgeist, Beyond is just as nonsensical as any Call of Duty. It's a thriller without any intrigue, a character study bereft of character, and a game short of actual gameplay.

If you want scripting and performance, go see the movie, and unless you are a Marvel devotee, you'd be wise to steer well clear of this friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man.

It all handles as you'd expect – although it has a tendency to be finickety and difficult when trying to manoeuvre precisely - and being in the Lego mould tries to give as much leeway as possible (in this instance you can 'lose' and have to start a level again, mind). However, it's all so boring.

With the core gameplay being dull, the mini-games uninspired and the presentation severely lacking, this is a game that only the most die-hard Nintendo fans will find any worth in.

If you want to work up a sweat pretending to be a superhero, you're probably better off dressing up and running around the local park saving endangered squirrels. Ubisoft's Kinect game means well, and will certainly appeal to younger gamers, but its execution is sadly what we've come to expect from Kinect titles - a bit too messy.

It's not an offensive-looking game, but the brief CGI character introductions are the only area where the game looks to be making an effort; the actual character designs are fairly annoying, although there is at least the option to use your LIVE avatar.

The sad thing is that every once in a while you get a brief sense of what this game could have been. The trick-based gameplay shows occasional flashes of potential, and the board peripheral could have worked. Maybe somewhere in a parallel universe there's a reality where Robomodo pulled it off; unfortunately, we're stuck here - and in this world Tony Hawk: Ride falls on its arse, big time.

All in all Who's Watching Who? is another disappointing video game entry for Scooby and the gang, but this fact is unlikely to affect sales to the kids that lap up anything with Scooby's face on it.

Problems with the reload system and a general lack of excitement or surprise mean this is a shooter almost as lifeless as the zombies you're shooting.

Licensed games can get away with a lot, but this doesn't even reach mediocre quality, with its core mechanics becoming woefully boring a fraction into the campaign.

Despite such audiovisual wizardry, all the technical sheen the PlayStation3 can muster can't mask a dud game, and as a result Lair is little more than verisimilitude.

It's really hard to understand how anyone thought such a meagre selection of mini-games and a lacking single-player component warranted such a high price tag.

ooka-Laylee would fit right into the late 90s with its vague puzzles, wakka-wakka voices, and confusing levels. Time has moved on since the N64, and while there are a handful of bright spots, this sadly isn't the catalyst for a 3D platformer revival.

It's just...so...boring. Go here. Get this. Wait a while. Come back. And when it's not being dull, it's being infuriatingly imprecise.

Now I'm off to dust off my most recent copy of Tetris and play a real arcade puzzle game for a while.

It's fun for all of 20 minutes, and then you'll either be ready to delete it forever or will have moved on to a better fighting game. Either way, don't bother. You'll have more fun watching the brilliant-but-awful TV show and then playing something - anything - else.

But by attempting to generate its cash by making progression a slow grind, by repeating the same boring levels over and over again until you a) delete the whole thing, b) use real money, or c) die, Glu Games has made sure you'll likely choose the former and latter before you open your wallet.

Another Wii game that seems content with offering little more than a series of half-baked mini-games, with the lure of motion controls seemingly being enough to draw in users. But when those controls are clunky and only work half of the time, the game as a whole falls down.

The fairly generic presentation and cheating AI could be overlooked if the core gameplay was great, but it's not. The motion sensitive controls are fiddly and at times completely broken, making Jet Race mildly fun for about an hour at most.

If you're looking to dabble in a bit of retro gaming I'd advise looking at the far more entertaining "Capcom Classics Collection," which includes superior games and has been created with far more care.

Below’s moody gloom and atmosphere is spoiled by mechanics that really cramp its central quest.

Between a dire campaign, samey multiplayer, and a pervading sense of stagnation, Call of Duty Black Ops 7 is a disappointment and serves as, perhaps, the worst Call of Duty title in years. Save yourself some money and play Battlefield 6 or Arc Raiders instead.

Madden 25 is the latest game in a series that appears to have either run out of ideas or simply has no interest in coming up with new ones. Small new additions do little to inspire excitement and a major overhaul feels desperately needed, and is the least that fans deserve.

Shrek the Third's main problem is its complete lack of spark.

Golden Axe is the latest classic franchise to disappoint on new hardware, and we can't help but think it's a huge wasted opportunity. Beast Rider even fails to include multiplayer support, something that was core to the original game, confirming its fate as a sub-par hack 'n' slash.

The two-player cooperative mode may keep a duo of youngsters quiet for a handful of weekends, but otherwise this mismatched game has very little to offer.

Time Crisis: Razing Storm does a splendid job of being a bit of throwaway fluff you might be able to pick up on the cheap a couple of months from now, but anyone expecting something more than yet another tired throwback will be sorely disappointed.

On the one hand it's a bold attempt at creating a real action adventure game using your body as a controller, but on the other it's an awkward, ugly mess that doesn't use its horror setting nearly as well as it should.

The experience as a whole is entirely forgettable.

A maddening example of a game that was ruined by a lack of focus in its design stages - had it been released with a wider scope it may have made a great RPG, or had it been a little faster paced and involving it may have made a mediocre RTS.

More serious are the numerous bugs: players are often forced out of shadow form for no reason, making the platforming and puzzle-solving a chore, and Dawn frequently gets stuck on boxes, in walls, almost anything. Infuriating, and so common as to be inexcusable.

Kingdom Hearts III is overflowing with heart, and mostly unconcerned with the head; as such, it’s in dire want of wickedness.

It looks and feels terribly dated, has next to no creative spark, completely lacks imagination and is certain to be forgotten very quickly.

It looks and feels terribly dated, has next to no creative spark, completely lacks imagination and is certain to be forgotten very quickly.

A mess of a game in all senses of the term. Its gameplay is at least one generation behind the competition, its presentation is like a collection of every graphical effect thrown into a mixing pot and poured onto the screen and the online implementation leaves a lot to be desired.

It's an experience that only lives up to its name in one way; it makes you want to get in and out as quickly as possible.

Worst of all, for an endless runner there’s no sense of momentum – your avatar keeps a constant pace throughout and it lacks a sense of urgency.

With its dodgy narrative, interchangeable characters and distressing lack of variation, PlayStation Move Heroes does little more than sully the name of otherwise respectable characters.

The wait goes on for a quality Devil May Cry, God of War or Ninja Gaiden clone on Wii. Only consider picking this up if anime bikini-clad zombie killers turn you on, or you don't have the internet in your bedroom.

Non-games are definitely the 'in' thing at the moment, but Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 has gone so far into obscure territory that very few people will find much to enjoy, and that includes the bounciness.

If you enjoy all the exploration and stats building that the series is known for, then trust me, you're not going to find what you're after here. Similarly, if you're NOT a fan of the Final Fantasy series, then you don't want to touch this one either, not unless your idea of great gameplay is random button hammering broken up by really badly-acted cut-scenes.

Tekken Hybrid is an interesting experiment in marketing, but it's also an overpriced, vestigial product released in a digital age, and its confusing trinity of titles simply cannot justify its existence as anything more than a shallow, gluttonous attempt at cashing-in on the series' most devout fans.

The two-player cooperative mode may keep a duo of youngsters quiet for a handful of weekends, but otherwise this mismatched game has very little to offer.

Shrek the Third's main problem is its complete lack of spark.

It's hard to hate a game that doesn't do anything particularly badly, but Wii Music also fails to do anything especially well.

So, let's sum up: lag so frustrating you want to gouge your eyes out with a spoon, tiresome deliberate disconnections that make a mockery of the ranking system, and a d-pad designed to make you jump around the screen like some deranged monkey on speed. Not particularly positive.

Despite the whopping size of your new stately mansions, Hearthfire feels cold and empty.

Rainbow Islands Evolution is a disappointment, and more of a devolution than its title would have you believe. It will likely only succeed in frustrating fans of the classic retro game, and confusing newcomers to the once joyous world of Bub and Bob.

Detroit: Become Human wants to move you. It wants to elicit an emotional response through its story. The thing is, it really doesn't. The flowchart is a nice inclusion and adds some variance, but when the narrative is as cringey and ham-fisted as it is you won't want to play through it multiple times.

I just find the whole thing to be a terrible gameplay experience with the exception of the dancing.

As a bizarre curio of video game history, Duke Nukem Forever's appeal cannot be denied, and there is some entertainment derived from overlooking the end product of one of history's most troubled productions. The main thing we can learn looking backwards, however, is that no game should be like this going forward.

Golden Axe is the latest classic franchise to disappoint on new hardware, and we can't help but think it's a huge wasted opportunity. Beast Rider even fails to include multiplayer support, something that was core to the original game, confirming its fate as a sub-par hack 'n' slash.

We're all for multiplayer sports games that follow the Track and Field mould, but Vancouver 2010 offers none of the classic game's gratifying gameplay. Stick to watching this year's Winter Olympics on the TV.

Most of the games are dull.

As a bizarre curio of video game history, Duke Nukem Forever's appeal cannot be denied, and there is some entertainment derived from overlooking the end product of one of history's most troubled productions. The main thing we can learn looking backwards, however, is that no game should be like this going forward.

As a bizarre curio of video game history, Duke Nukem Forever's appeal cannot be denied, and there is some entertainment derived from overlooking the end product of one of history's most troubled productions. The main thing we can learn looking backwards, however, is that no game should be like this going forward.

RICO has a cracking central idea, but it's strained by awkward mission design, shaky performance, and a whippy aim that often misses the mark.

Devil's Third is impossible to recommend as anything other than a curio. Coming from Itagaki, this is a huge disappointment.

A mess of a game in all senses of the term. Its gameplay is at least one generation behind the competition, its presentation is like a collection of every graphical effect thrown into a mixing pot and poured onto the screen and the online implementation leaves a lot to be desired.

Shrek the Third's main problem is its complete lack of spark.

If only House of Ashes were possessed with something malevolent enough to actually scare us; sadly, it commits a litany of sins, none of them original.

Stop playing, though, and it melts away: there's nothing memorable about Alekhine's Gun on its own terms, because it doesn't exist on its own terms.

It's seriously lacking content and of those included only two of the sports are worth bothering with for more than one match.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance has some nice ideas and pretty countryside, but is ultimately still buggy, broken and, perhaps worst of all, boring.

This is yet another cash-in designed to pull the wool over your eyes. Poor games don't deserve your attention, no matter how much you liked something in the past.

The gameplay is fundamentally broken, the presentation is average at best and there is never a challenge; in fact, I don't think I've ever played an easier game.

It's obvious that adult gamers should avoid Republic Heroes. But, more damning, it's also impossible to recommend it to anyone wondering whether they should buy it for a young fan of The Clone Wars.

Throw in some truly dreadful writing (the newspaper clippings that tell the story are so nakedly expositional and poorly delivered as to be laughable) and an enemy that actually runs away from you at times and you've got a stinker.

Apparently existing only to serve as a strawman for future arguments against the whole genre, Elder Scrolls Online is a game of exposed weaknesses and failed potential. If you’re hankering for Scrolls, I recommend modded Skyrim. If you’re after an MMO, I recommend any other.

Fallout 76 is an ambitious game that’s burned by it. The online features hamper what could have been a great Fallout game.

What we have here is a developer that is happy to nudge us with knowing jokes, but who doesn’t dare to frighten us. We might call it a Craven effort. As for the ending, there isn’t one—just a montage of postscripts, detailing the fates of the various characters. Only, we already know their fates, having been at least partially responsible for them. As the credits rolled, the sweetness of the humour had grown stale, and I felt distinctly unsated, though hardly hungry for more. I hate to say it, but Supermassive has made a Butterpop.

The problem with the new Saints Row is not just that the characters are boring, or that the combat is by-the-numbers and benumbed by unempowering perks, but that the brief snatches of fun—the wingsuit deployed from a high rise, the hand-brake turn through a curtain of tyre smoke—are nothing new, and are done better in other games.

Credit must go to Bloober Team for setting a different course for its sequel; it's just a shame that it didn't bring the chills and scares that littered the last outing.

Football Manager Classic is anything but. It’s simply made me want to go back and play the PC version rather than sit around bored for what feels like ages waiting for a single Vita match to end. A great simulation might still be running behind the scenes, but the Vita doesn’t present it in a way that you’ll want to experience.

We're all for multiplayer sports games that follow the Track and Field mould, but Vancouver 2010 offers none of the classic game's gratifying gameplay. Stick to watching this year's Winter Olympics on the TV.

Launch titles are often rushed and not representative of what the console can really do, but Asphalt is poor even by these lowered standards. Of all the early 3DS games I've played, this one is a dead cert to be filling bargain bins in a few weeks.

A confused and confusing shooter which can't capitalise on the famous franchise it leans on.

It's obvious that adult gamers should avoid Republic Heroes. But, more damning, it's also impossible to recommend it to anyone wondering whether they should buy it for a young fan of The Clone Wars.

Sadly, Red Steel is nothing more than a rushed launch title that will inevitably end up in bargain bins across the globe, and that's unfortunate. Why? Because Red Steel has a ton of potential.

Never a challenge, never that exciting, and never really that good, Yoshi's New Island is the first blip on the 3DS' radar for some time.

It won't please fans of the series, nor will it appeal to the casual iDevice audience. The game can be fun and entertaining but there are far too many hoops to jump through to get there.

Just. Under no circumstances, though, should you go anywhere near this alone. When tackled with three AI buddies and a prayer, never has the name Biohazard felt more apt.

It all boils down to one simple fact - it's just not fun.

Upgrading the various cars on offer with money earned through races or in-app purchases (which aren't needed) is something you’ll want to do early on to make handling more bearable. The price-to-content ratio is excellent, but that means nothing considering you’ll get bored long before you reach the end of the road.

If you see this going cheap, buy it for the included Wii Remote Plus, otherwise avoid.

Scarily close to being a complete failure. There's so little here of worth that someone must have known the project would end in disaster.

A lot of care and attention has gone into recreating the Mega Drive original's stages for a new generation, and the structure has been changed akin to Super Mario 64's hub world. But the platforming and control mechanics on offer here wouldn't cut it in any era.

Although the basic gameplay is serviceable, Murdered barely moves past standard point-and-click fare.

Though RPG fans will happily devour another game from their favourite genre, especially on a platform starved of top class role playing titles, all outside the hardcore will tire of its charm long before the closing credits begin to role.