A mixed bag, then. The new weapons and vehicles are cool, but no co-op and a uninvolving, short main campaign hampers enjoyment. Let's hope for better in episode 2.

The ship battling multiplayer game is a lot more fun than I had imagined it would be, but this alone isn't worth shelling out for.

Regardless of how much you like the Mega Man series, in Mighty No.9 you're unlikely to find a game that comes close to that legacy.

The idea of giving the player three fairly unique characters to play as is good one, but the game design verges on plain stupid at times.

A surprise and a disappointment at the same time. The in-game visuals far exceeded what I was expecting, but the arcade racing soon becomes rather dull and repetitive.

It's obvious that sweat has gone into translating all of Sims 3's features onto a hand-held device, but beyond the core game - the eating, buying, working, cleaning Sims - the game feels too lightweight and its features too incidental.

There's no denying that Dark Messiah has a certain bloody charm, with battles against numerous enemies being both challenging and rather gory. By the end though, things do become a little repetitive, and this prevents the game from being anything truly special.

The idea of giving the player three fairly unique characters to play as is good one, but the game design verges on plain stupid at times.

The idea of giving the player three fairly unique characters to play as is good one, but the game design verges on plain stupid at times.

The top-down perspective tries to make it seem like Gauntlet for the gangsta generation, but moronic gameplay, insipid level design and tacked on multiplayer work together to cripple the experience.

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

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.

The game's main problem, everything considered, is that it makes what should be a test of skill and patience into a series of shooting galleries that require little skill. Instead, it's a woeful Call of Duty with a telescope.

If only Naka, staying true to form, had given the whole thing a dose of high speed; his work only holds together when it hurtles past our eyes, growing vivid with velocity.

A game that simply doesn't feel right on the PSP. It's slow (and even slower when played wirelessly with a friend), lacks a quick play mode, and has an uninspired story mode.

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.

Eat Lead simply isn't a good enough game to make the most of the brilliant script. While you're likely to enjoy Matt's many one-liners and smirk at the sheer absurdness of what's going on, you're not going to enjoy the clumsy combat and generic gameplay.

The gameplay works, but the simple presentation and general lack of polish unfortunately relegate the game to something only a very small minority will enjoy.

A brain numbingly dull title that is only partially saved by its above average presentation.

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

Headspun is intriguing and takes creative risks by blending genres together. It's a shame about those few missing links.

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.

It's nice to look at it and is amusing for a short while, but as soon as the presentation gloss wears off you're left with a dull hack 'n' slash that makes use of an overly simplistic control system. Without the substance to go with the game's amusingly twisted appearance, Fairytale Fights never really gets past the opening chapter.

It's just run-of-the-mill game design. Bar the occasionally impressive combat, Beowulf doesn't have enough to make it stand out.

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.

It's just run-of-the-mill game design. Bar the occasionally impressive combat, Beowulf doesn't have enough to make it stand out.

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.