In my experience, it is usually the GBA title that pales in comparison to the sophistication of its elder sibling. Not so with Monster House. The GBA RPG-like game is the clear-cut keeper.

Your best bet here is to wait until the Monster House movie is released on DVD. With extras, it'll probably be about as long as the game and you and your kids won't have to put up with design problems or frustrating controls.

What could have been a run-of-the-mill shooter is elevated by an interesting plot, wild environments and shifting gravity that sometimes makes you wonder which way is up. Not for the faint of stomach.

It's hard to imagine how this epic strategy game's control scheme could be any better on a console, but it's still not quite a match for the precision of the PC version.

Legend has some charm, thanks mostly to Depp, but gets repetitious very quickly.

Fans of modern flight sims will enjoy the game, but its bare-bones presentation and slightly technical nature won't win any followers among action gamers hoping for Top Gun-style dogfights.

It's simpler than a deck swabber what's spent too much time in the sun, but this one is surprisingly fun and charming for a game-to-movie tie-in.

Its easy controls, addictively simple game play and variety of game modes are likely to appeal to all but the hard-core soccer enthusiast.

This game has everything a Sudoku enthusiast could possibly want – namely, hundreds upon hundreds of puzzles ranging in difficulty from quite easy, to frustratingly difficult.

Although, Naruto has a lot of unnecessary elements, it still is one of the most enjoyable fighting games I have played in a long time.

This really is only for a defined group of hardcore football fans, but those fans won’t find anything close to this anywhere else.

The Alpha titles offer a dramatic battle setting which pits two against one and a survival mode, where a character fights battle after battle until he or she dies. Fun times.

Performing the special moves becomes boring quickly as it slows down the gameplay as you stop shooting baskets in an attempt to raise your respect points.

Except for die-hard GTA fans who don't own a PSP, I wouldn't recommend 'Liberty Cities' to anyone, even those who have never given the GTA a series a shot.

And the expansion pack is a step in the right direction. It's a good upgrade if you're willing to shell out for it.

While Cars is fun and inventive at times, it does manage to stay a cut below most of the competition.

Younger racers won’t really care too much about the auto-reset and lack of sliding all that much and should be engrossed in the unfolding storyline.

If you absolutely love the movie (or your kids do) then get the game, but if you want a good racing game, get something better (i.e. Burnout, Wipeout, Race Driver 2006, Ridge Racer, OutRun 2006 or even Need for Speed Underground).

What most definitely works for mini-game compendiums like Wario Ware or Mario Party certainly doesn't work for Cars, because of its complete lack of variety and quantity of individual levels, not to mention the wild variation in difficulty.

What really leaves all the other modes in the proverbial dust though is the free-roaming aspect of 'Cars'.

Besides some lazy moments where characters show up repeatedly and say the same things over and over, some clunky controls on the main map and some overly-long load times between races and minigames, Cars does the trick.

Let’s face it. Minigame extravaganzas like ‘Brain Academy’ are not made for the hardcore gamer. They are for the casual market whose hardcore gaming experience consists of playing solitaire on their computer.

The biggest problem with a game like Magnetica is that whilst a puzzle game is supposed to be the kind of thing a casual gamer can just pick up and bash through, because of Magnetica's often seemingly impossible levels, the frustration of the lack of progress hinders its long term appeal.

But given that we gave Half-Life 2 one of our very rare five-star ratings, it would be pretty tough to improve upon perfection. The mere fact that Episode One comes close to matching the greatness of the original is impressive.

Players new to Texas Hold 'Em poker will learn the game, get to play without losing their shirts and have some fun. Experienced poker players also get a half-hour session with a pro.

Trigger-happy players and those who prefer stealth will both be able to enjoy this game, though those opting for stealth will get a lot more enjoyment in the long run.

There's nothing radically new here, but it's got the best variety of missions and the best storyline of any of the Hitman titles.

A decent but pretty run-of-the-mill RPG.