Essentially, Mario Party 9 is a great leveller. No matter if you play games for a living or only touch a controller when one is forced into you hand, chances are you'll be in with a shot of winning come the end of the each game. The Wii has always been about bringing people together to play, and Mario Party 9 does that considerably better than I thought it would.

It's not quite as whiz-bang as LEGO Star Wars III and feels quite formulaic at times, but there's no denying it has charm and widespread appeal.

Its narrative is fractious and slight, compared to Sledgehammer’s previous work, but the chance for a chaotic, target-rich experience with friends exerts a stronger pull than usual.

There's no denying that GUN Showdown is an entertaining game, but you'll have to overcome the incredibly awkward controls in order to get any enjoyment from it.

The level designs vary from excellent to poor, enemy variety is non-existent (ok, the gang members where masks, but still), the aforementioned rescue missions become tedious, and the end arrives a couple of levels too soon.

Lumo could have easily been another retro inspired title that did little other than revel in old-school visuals. If anything, the reverse is true here. While visually a little unappealing, the isometric adventure and platforming gameplay are great, with a smattering of hair-pulling moments not enough to irrevocably damage what is a lovely trip down memory lane.

Titan Souls is one of the most interesting titles I've played this year. Some issues aside, this is a unique and memorable experience.

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.

A game with visuals this simple really doesn't have any right to look this good. It might be a trickier experience than fans are used to, but it's still a joy to play. It's not as good as the previous two games, but at a budget price it's still a game few PSP owners will be disappointed by.

You can sense, in Weird West, a developer both returning to his obsessions and toiling on a fresh frontier.

It's not quite as whiz-bang as LEGO Star Wars III and feels quite formulaic at times, but there's no denying it has charm and widespread appeal.

After the slump of the second episode, the drama picks up its pace and the central relationship is tested in some interesting ways.

Bold, thrilling and immense, and deserves every success. The Action RTS has arrived and let's hope it is here to stay.

Although it is never great to aim low, I can't help but think the reaction to Return to Arkham would have been better had both games simply been 1080p, locked frame rate versions of the originals, running on Unreal Engine 3.

Unlimited may once again frustratingly fail to reach the potential of Scribblenauts’ terrific core conceit. But if any game this year makes my son and I laugh as much as this has over the past week or so, I’ll be absolutely delighted.

A perfectly serviceable DLC offering.

Tidy controls and some classic retro styling, along with a great soundtrack straight from the chips of a Mega Drive assure this is everything a Sega classic should be.

An extremely competent hack 'n' slash that achieves exactly what developer Raven set out to do: deliver a real Wolverine experience. This isn't the feral X-Man as family-friendly super-hero, but a full-on blood thirsty killer.

MUA fans may bemoan the lack of change, and they'd have a point. Bar the Fusion Powers there's little new going on here. But it's still a fun, albeit brainless romp that's sure to please Marvel fanboys.

It's a rather chaotic mix of excellent gameplay and flawed finishing, but as the beginning of what should be a continuing series of RTS games, it's by no means a bad start.

Enjoyable enough, but overall it adds little to Revelations 2.

The mini-games here are far better than those in last year's disappointing sequel and the Balance Board support gives it some unique novelty value.

Fun, but a little shallow.

There remains about Pokémon Brilliant Diamond the glint of something far gone, and there is something warmly reassuring about the place.

It's hard to be down on a game that, when judged on its own merits, is great fun and addictive, but it's equally hard to look past the fact that this is essentially the same game we've been playing since it belatedly arrived on the GameCube.

Sarcastic gripes against weird game elements aside though, Juiced 2 is a more than satisfactory racing game that offers some fun car stuff, all packaged up in a presentation featuring lots of busty girls in small amounts of tight clothing, which - speaking as a hot blooded male - is never a bad thing.

It certainly won't be for anyone who doesn't first and foremost enjoy the tower defence genre as a whole. It's great value, offering 12 levels and online leaderboards. The fact that there's no multiplayer, locally or online, is a criticism, as are the quality of the environments, which are a bit bland, but otherwise Savage Moon offers a unique and refreshing counterpoint to the cutesy tower defence games the market seems to be flooded with at the moment.

Available for less than £10 online, the many great physics-based puzzles and unrelenting feeling of fear are well worth the asking price, but don't expect a game that will compete with multi-million pound projects.