As an arcade blaster it does a reasonable job, but repetition ensures that even the ridiculous-but-fun Ace Kills get old quickly.

A blast for the afternoon you'll spend ploughing through it. It's not the longest game, but everyone knows it's what you do with it that counts.

Listen, it’s a Worms game. It’s the same as every other Worms game. It has exploding sheep and comedy regional accents. That’s the joke, take it or leave it.

For Splatterhouse to be a good game it needed to have more depth. For the majority of the game's 10 chapters I simply button mashed until I could activate my special attack, and repeated that over and over.

It will be an incredibly dividing game though, with many people unable to forgive its considerable flaws, others completely taken in by the technology and others unsure what to think either way. We certainly felt the earth move but not in the way we'd hoped.

Deadpool is a great character wrapped in a standard (and short) action experience. It can be fun in quick bursts, but the lack of a real challenge until the very end means it tires quickly.

While a crippling lack of ambition serves to dampen any fledgling hopes of entertainment, even the cutthroat aspirations of Katie Waissel couldn't hide the fact Blood Stone is a product built on shaky foundations.

It's just about good enough to entertain kids who must see more of the characters from the movie, but everyone else should stay well clear.

WWE 2K15 has made a lot of sacrifices for little gain. The depleted roster, stripped-back creation suite and restrictive wrestling all in the name of a visual upgrade fail to capture the most important aspects of the real-world franchise: excitement and entertainment.

Spider-man: Friend or Foe is another title that clearly isn't made for experienced gamers, and certainly won't please anyone aged in their teens or older.

Worth a punt - especially as it's initially free. Just be prepared, for once you've used your power-ups, the game's momentum will grind to a halt. Unless you're willing to cough up the dough. And the game's not worth it.

Overall, while there have been some improvements to the series, and the load times mean that you can get through rounds much quicker, the shocking lack of content across the board means that Rory McIlroy's PGA Tour is a disappointment.

With five extra achievements and 11 new assignments to chip away at, there is enough for experienced players to sink their teeth into, but you can’t help but feel that it’s simply more of the same, and it's still blighted by technical issues.

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 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.

Surprisingly enjoyable. I say surprising because at the ripe old age of twelve, you'd expect the mechanics to be grey and riddled with arthritis. Despite a camera that often refuses to behave itself, Rayman 3D is as robust as it is enjoyable.

While the core mechanics of Order of the Phoenix are verging on excellent, the game that's been built around them is basically a series of chores in disguise.

Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires isn't terrible, it's just totally uninspiring.

Outside of the first-person shooters designed to work with Move, this is one of the better non-mini-game collections, but things start to become increasingly less interesting the farther you progress.

A game crippled by its archaic save system. No matter how much fun the game is while you're battling hundreds of on-screen enemies, nothing can balance out the sheer frustration experienced when you die for the fifth time at the hands of the end of level boss.

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.

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.

What's most galling about the whole exercise is that you find yourself wanting nothing more than a graphically-enhanced version of the Mega Drive originals.

Lethal Alliance is not a total dud and, if you can forgive its repetitive nature, there is a fair amount of entertainment to be had when played in short bursts, but fans still deserve much more than that from a Star Wars game.

It should provide an entertaining ninja experience for the under 10 market but in doing so can't be recommended to more experienced gamers. If you're old enough to remember the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on pre-32-Bit hardware, you'll sadly fall into the latter category.

Ninja Blade has no right to be as entertaining as it is. It's nowhere near as accomplished as the genre's heavyweights, but anyone able to see it as the roller-coaster ride it is should have a great time.

A far bigger problem is simply the fact that the game gets boring all too quickly.

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.

With a license that seemed tailor made for the video game treatment and a competent developer (Grin, makers of the PC GRAW titles and the forthcoming Bionic Commando) in charge, there was a chance this would be something really rather good. What we ended up with is a perfectly passable, often enjoyable game, but not something that will be remembered once you've beaten it over the course of a few evenings.

It's not a bad game by a long stretch - just a game that's over in a flash and almost entirely devoid of any memorable moments.

The controls and lacklustre level design are the biggest problems you'll have to overcome in order to enjoy Revenge of the Fallen.

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.

F1 2014 feels like something that needs to exist while Codemasters works on rebuilding the foundations for next-gen.

In short bursts it’s a lot easier to get on with too, as prolonged play leaves it feeling very tedious. It’s atmospheric, although oddly nowhere near to the extent of the first game, and there’s no place as unique as that game’s holiday resort.

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.

ProStreet isn't a bad game, it simply doesn't hold a candle to its competition, and Need for Speed fans will be left wondering where all the fun has gone from the illegal, turned legal, street racing series.

Kinect Adventures' set of five games was never designed to innovate, but it clearly fails to do the bare minimum that is necessary for mini-games to have a purpose. Mini-games are fun in small, pint-sized, easy-to-play quantities, and while Adventure succeeds in offering pocket-size entertainment the gameplay is nowhere near interesting enough and fails to capitalise on the novelty of Kinect.

While the presentation is great and the combat generally enjoyable, the missions leave a lot to be desired - and there's little of the sense of wonder that the movie promises. Had the two campaigns been packed with superbly entertaining moments, the missions been more diverse in their structure, and the "vehicles" been more fun to man, then yes, Avatar the Game might have reached the heights its source material looks set to achieve.

In its own battle between Good and Evil, Infernal's evil side shines through a little too often.

Its excellent weapon set should make for some fantastic and skilled online gaming, and for now it fills a gap on the Xbox 360, which is undernourished in terms of both futuristic and combat racers.

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

While I didn't bond with my horse as much as Molyneux may have liked, I fell head over heels for Albion.

For now this stands alone as something a bit different from the norm. It's brief but discovering everything will take considerable time and effort.

Despite these signs of a slight rush job and the mixed presentation, I couldn't help but have a good time with Captain America.

As disgusting as it is of me to say, if you're reading this and have a family to play this with then sure, you'll probably enjoy it more than most. With that said, having kids doesn't make you a moron, and even you shall eventually tire of what's here. There's just not very much depth.

KSR is fun in short bursts. Any session beyond 20 minutes and you’ll be frustrated by the long load times, feel self-conscious because you look like a pillock, and get bored by the lack of challenge. The tech is there. Sadly, the game isn’t yet.

As an Xbox 360 RPG, even as an Xbox 360 fantasy RPG, it's so unpolished, so devoid of the oomph demanded by current gen games, so inaccessible and needlessly punishing, that it's offensive.

Despite the niggles the main thing to say about Rivals 2 is that it's great fun. And fun, lest we forget, is what it's all about. The whoring of Sonic the Hedgehog continues of course, but the Sonic Rivals series continues to do its best to stem the flow of blue-skinned cow dung.

Fight Crab shares a lot of similarities with the glorious gladiatorial battles of Ancient Rome, which were what made primary school history lessons actually fun. Though, like the sporting spectacle, it might not be everyone's cup of tea.

It's clear that Ubisoft had some big ideas for Shaun White Snowboarding, but many of these have been hampered by an overly difficult control scheme, cumbersome navigation, a terrible map, too much collecting and a disappointing frame rate. The recreation of the four ski resorts is excellent, the online functionality is well thought out, and at times the views are magnificent, but the game just isn't as much fun as it should have been.

Despite these signs of a slight rush job and the mixed presentation, I couldn't help but have a good time with Captain America.

While the presentation is great and the combat generally enjoyable, the missions leave a lot to be desired - and there's little of the sense of wonder that the movie promises. Had the two campaigns been packed with superbly entertaining moments, the missions been more diverse in their structure, and the "vehicles" been more fun to man, then yes, Avatar the Game might have reached the heights its source material looks set to achieve.

It'll vanish from your brain as soon as you've finished it, but before that, Ryse is oddly fun.

Buy this, and the only shooting you'll be doing is to yourself: in the foot.

In an odd way, then, Glass Bottom Games has captured the truth of the situation; contrary to its mission of cuteness, it has made a game that feels hollow-boned, caged by unflattering mechanics.

In the last nine months we've had Batman: Arkham Asylum, Bayonetta and God of War 3 – all blockbuster titles that have raised the bar for action gaming. In the shadow of these juggernauts, this is a decidedly tame offering.

The werehog levels reek of an idea born out of trying to turn Sonic into something that kids like, instead of just giving them the Sonic many of us grew up with. We didn't need gimmicks back then and we don't think kids need them now either. Ultimately we can't help but feel disappointed... yet again.

Beijing 2008 isn't doing anything all that new, but there's just something undeniably addictive about going for high scores and fastest times. If you've got an urge to twiddle an analogue stick faster than any human knew was possible you can do a lot worse.

While the control scheme for the PSP version of ProStroke Golf is a great attempt to bring the console game to the handheld, it doesn't quite feel as intuitive, and ends up being a little over complex for a PSP game.

But the goal of a port whose appeal is laden in nostalgia is to bring that nostalgia on board, and unfortunately it's very apparent what is missing in this game.

Beyond Eyes' story and experience come nowhere near to making up for the boredom delivered by the gameplay.

It's not as if there's an intriguing plot to motivate you to soldier through, either. Nothing is explained.

The mission structure is repetitive, the story’s utter wallop, and the baddies are there for shooting practice. But, damn it, it’s fun being an over-powered superhero scaling a building in Crackdown 3.

PS3 owners have access to what is essentially the same game, but it's just nowhere near as polished, and as such can't be recommended above the console's current online multiplayer leaders.

Overall, Space Siege is a game with a catalogue of both major and minor flaws, sloppy, derivative or rushed design, which is uncharacteristic of a developer with this pedigree. Whether you judge it as an RPG or as a third-person action game, Space Siege fails to pass muster, yet despite all the flaws, the game is hard to utterly condemn.

Don't take those goggles off just yet. Some things change, but some things stay the same.

Spider-man: Friend or Foe is another title that clearly isn't made for experienced gamers, and certainly won't please anyone aged in their teens or older.

With only the core game mode and two mild variations based on the same levels there's just not enough game here to warrant a purchase.

It seems that Omega Force either can't be bothered to breathe fresh air into the franchise, or it feels it doesn't need to because anything in a game box with Dynasty Warriors on the front is guaranteed to make money.

There's little to no challenge present throughout the entire game, the story only makes sense if you already know the plot and there's a lack of things to do outside of the three main gameplay mechanics. Buy if you're a mega fan, but avoid if you like your games with even a tiny amount of depth.

And once the brutally short campaign is over, Dark Void is over.

It should provide an entertaining ninja experience for the under 10 market but in doing so can't be recommended to more experienced gamers. If you're old enough to remember the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on pre-32-Bit hardware, you'll sadly fall into the latter category.

Other than the odd set-piece, Blacksite has nothing to warrant recommending it above the other big hitters and some severe technical issues drag it down considerably.

The shooting is top notch, but poor pacing and bland environments ensure you never engage with what's going on, and technical hiccups and formulaic game modes sour the multiplayer. This game proves the potential power of the genre on its device, but not the potential excellence of its own franchise.

On one hand it's a near-broken video game, packed full of so many gaming no-nos that it ought never to be spoken about again, but on the other it's original, atmospheric and sickeningly good fun.

After EA's recent run of quality, it came as quite a shock that Undercover simply doesn't feel ready. The in-game performance is frankly terrible and one of the main event types is deeply flawed. We can't deny that there's still fun to be had here, especially in the highway battles (and with some of the dialogue), but we simply can't recommend a game that performs so poorly that it's at times unplayable.

But the goal of a port whose appeal is laden in nostalgia is to bring that nostalgia on board, and unfortunately it's very apparent what is missing in this game.

Tactics is for those who’ve watched The Dark Crystal, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the depth and richness of the show. You should give that a go, though. I know it’s got Muppets in it. It’s still good.

A disappointment but perhaps my expectations should have been lower in the first place. It's short and lacking in gameplay depth, but has moments where you'll be fooled into thinking it's all right. Visually it at least has style if not technical excellence, but underneath is a fairly typical licensed title.

It's not a bad game by a long stretch - just a game that's over in a flash and almost entirely devoid of any memorable moments.

And once the brutally short campaign is over, Dark Void is over.

Even clearly noticeable repetition and developer laziness can't fully erase what is in essence an almightily addictive and emergent base structure.

Without any online modes though, and a lack of visual polish, it's a game that will struggle to appeal to players wanting more than a basic racing sim.

The mission to defreeze Javik is short, and you can beat it easily within about half an hour. If you're looking for a chunk of content as substantial as Mass Effect 2's Lair of the Shadow Broker you'll probably come away disappointed, and Javik doesn't really dramatically affect anything about the Mass Effect 3 campaign.

If you're after a game on a par with the likes of Resident Evil and Silent Hill, you'll find Saw severely lacking.

At least in terms of being faithful to the source material, it retains a similar level of simplicity, except that in 2006 that just isn't enough.

For Splatterhouse to be a good game it needed to have more depth. For the majority of the game's 10 chapters I simply button mashed until I could activate my special attack, and repeated that over and over.

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.

A wholly loathsome experience drowns out the potentially impressive water physics; Dark Energy Digital should focus on turning their water into a piece of middleware. Maybe then we could finally see something good come out of this mess.

Movie licensed titles are often less than satisfactory, but The Spiderwick Chronicles manages to pair decent gameplay with impressive production values.

Bionicle Heroes does little to make a name for itself, with repetitive and overly simplistic gameplay, and some rather uninspiring visuals.

Super Monkey Ball: Step and Roll might be marketed as a game to play using the Wii Balance Board, but it's a much better game when played using standard Wii Remote controls.

A curious game that will seem a little uncomfortable to some factions of both the shmup fanboys and casual players. Still, it is a great piece of software that manages to offer plenty of variation through well-designed level objectives, and at a price you can afford with pocket change.

What is truly disappointing, though, is not the end of nuclear warfare in puzzle games, but the fairly heavy graphical reworking that Lemmings has become victim to. Good graphics don't make good games; so bad graphics shouldn't necessarily make bad games. But what defined the success of the original Lemmings was the enormously irresistible character your tiny sprites projected.

The racing is competent, the game modes are plentiful and it's an impressive technical achievement, but that doesn't make it a fun game to play.

Again, it’s a shame, because there’s good here, but it’s often buried beneath a quagmire of frustration...So, yes, this is a better game than its more powerful counterpart, but Lost World on the 3DS, despite a few excellent asides, remains a largely average, occasionally frustrating outing for Sonic. Again.

Such is the disappointment of Epic Mickey 2 that fans of the original will feel that the entire soul of the game has been ripped out and replaced with a cheerier but gormless imposter, while anyone who didn't rate it will find even less to enjoy here.

Snow Day’s moment-to-moment slapstick humor and inventive combat are undermined by unfulfilling progression and an acute lack of content.