A horrible disappointment that not only fails to capture the magic of its predecessors but seems oblivious to what made them popular in the first place.

The problem with the latest Kingdom Hearts is not a lack of new ideas but that almost all of them are awful, and that's before you even consider the script.

For a game that won an amateur game design contest, this lacks in both imagination and implementation.

Every year this moribund franchise goes without a complete overhaul the more obvious and unacceptable its half-decade old problems become.

Another big budget game more obsessed with impersonating its favourite films than creating any genuinely new script or gameplay ideas.

A hugely disappointing side venture from the creators of Pokémon, which barely seems to understand the rhythm action genre let alone try and evolve it.

Another classy retro conversion but Rare's platforming sequel feels older than it looks.

One of the best looking DS games ever made, but the gameplay just dosen't live up to the visuals.

Backwards sequel that sabotages or removes all the best features from the last game and wastes one of the best arsenals in gaming.

There are some great ideas here, with clever use of the dual screens, but the game in which they find themselves is far less entertaining than it should be.

A shadow of one of the former masters of survival horror, that is better equipped to bore than scare.

It may be a good quality racer but this is also one of the most offensively cynical video games we’ve ever played, and despite being ‘free’ also one of the most expensive.

The third round of Dynasty Warriors vs. Samurai Warriors is almost identical to the first two, with more characters, more options, but even less innovation.

For those that don't remember the original this retro remake will likely prove a little too old school.

The laziest HD collection yet, with just two titles from an eight game franchise, neither of which have been recreated with anything like the effort and care they deserve.

Outdated action platformer that despite all its talk of madness is far too mundane in both design and visuals to justify its mammoth playing time.

The Drudge are a sadly appropriate named for the enemy in this artless grind of a first person shooter.

There's plenty of potential and good ideas here but very little fun, in a game that tries to make a pirate's life seem as frustrating and repetitive as possible.

Even committed fans are likely to be disappointed by this lazy and largely unnecessary rehash.

Dumbing down Mario Party sounds impossible, but this strips out every ounce of fun or thought from the concept to create the most vapid Nintendo game ever.

There are some fun ideas here, and Arkedo are clearly a very talented team, but this action platformer is neither as amusing nor as fun as it likes to think.

The cinematic atmosphere is highly impressive throughout, but that's about the only thing that is in this weirdly inconsistent 2D survival horror.

Despite the return of Zipper this repeats all the same mistakes of the last game and seems even more old-fashioned and generic as a result.

The corpse of Symphony Of The Night proves far too putrefied to work as a co-operative platformer.

A game insensitive to both the subject matter and the need to offer any real variety or intrigue.

In summary we don't think we've ever seen so many good ideas in such a bad game. The spell and crafting system really is amongst the best the genre can offer, but everything else is amongst the very worst.

One of the Wii's best-looking games, but this role-playing hybrid is all atmosphere and no substance.

Flawed racer which finds little of interest in its massive open world - least of all the race cars.

It doesn't do anything new, it doesn't fix any old problems and it's not very substantial. There are a lot of better ways to spend £6.80 on Xbox Live.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater in name only, this will infuriate old timers reliving their youth and seem archaically simplistic to everyone else.

Whether you're a fan or not this is easily the weakest of the series, with an unwanted revisit of overfamilar locations and gameplay faults.

Nintendo hobble their excellent old GameCube sports game with dreadful new motion controls.

It looks and sounds the part but this anime tie-in should've worried about more than just presentation.

A beautiful-looking space combat sim with many fine ideas… all of which are almost ruined by horrendous difficultly spikes and the galaxy's stupidest spaceship pilots.

The production values seem to justify the high price but this is an annoyingly awkward mix of third person action and Tower Defence, which never really gels.

For a Dynasty Warriors game this is fairly innovative, but only if you have three friends to play with.

Disappointing sequel that manages to undo the relative successes of the original and dishonour the film.

A peculiar multimedia bundle that features a near worthless HD update, a paid-for demo and a terrible CGI movie. Fighting game fans can do a lot better.

A distressingly old school movie tie-in which instead of making imaginative use of the movie's setting creates only a bland copy of the Lego games.

The last of the Fallout 3 expansions is also one of the worst in this bafflingly dull abduction yarn.

It's all a shame because the central idea of a constantly transforming dungeon is a good one. The actual game that's been constructed around it though is nowhere near good enough.

It doesn't lack for ambition, but in terms of finesse, innovation and execution this remains a poor advert for HD style shooters on the Wii.

The spiritual sequel to Shadow Of Memories has the same time travelling intrigue but less gameplay.

A real misstep for Level-5, with tedious battles and an equally uninteresting plot and characters.

An unbearably bland arena-based shooter that only manages to make the Quake-style action seem more old-fashioned and irrelevant than ever.

One Piece fans will enjoy the novelty but only Dynasty Warriors groupies will be able to bear the typically mindless gameplay.

It’s a genuinely revolting vision of the future, of a games industry that treats its players as enemies to be bullied and manipulated – not customers to be entertained and attended to. If SimCity really was a city we’d realise we weren’t welcome and move out immediately.

Vin Diesel proves not to have the magic touch after all, with this technically inept Driver wannabe.

Horribly disappointing spin-off that replicates the formula but not the soul of the low budget rentakill shooter.

A brave mix of RPG, action game and spy thriller, brought down by too many design and technical faults.

The limitations of the PSP and a wrong-headed emphasis on combat ruin an otherwise promising spin-off.

Rock Band's first band specific release is the epitome of dirty deeds done (but not sold) cheap.

The fake game hero stars in another fake parody, which hits neither its comedy or gameplay targets.

SOCOM suddenly feels very old, with a shabby, low content sequel that can't compete with modern shooters.

There are a few points of interest here but the greatest accomplishment of this lacklustre role-player is making Dragon Quest IX seem even better by comparison.

Despite a few interesting ideas this never manages to relive the glory days of top-down racing.

A clever use of head tracking tech is sabotaged by a game that seems specifically designed to subvert it.

The laidback atmosphere and gentle flower tending hide a game that is far too predictable and frustrating to offer any lasting entertainment.

ModNation Racers was never top draw but this drags a previously competent franchise into the bowls of low budget cash-in hell.

This doesn't fix the flaws of the original it simply finds more to keep them company, in a game that's as banal and repetitive as its protagonists' vocabulary.

Pikachu has probably had more exciting adventures visiting the men's room, than in this boring spin-off.

The Wii U game was just a few flaws short of a minor classic, but this joyless companion piece is only a couple more problems shy of a complete disaster.

The free web toy gains little from its transformation into a retail game - or in its move to the DS.

A return to the mini-game collection formula proves predictability disappointing, with slightly more complex games but even less variety.

Hopefully the future of Fable won't be any more downloads, as this is another waste of both time and money.

One of the least worst Kinect games this year, which although it suffers from all the usual control issues is at least mindless fun while it lasts.

Cheap, obvious, and unambitious but the zombie theme does at least help to circumvent the technical problems of the original, and offer up some novel co-op options.

It might be okay on a mobile phone but you'll want to reverse the charges for this on Xbox Live Arcade.

The Lord Of The Rings is yet again denied a decent tie-in, with this desperately uninteresting and half broken action role-player.

The motion controls work well enough but this is an unambitious and needlessly simplistic on-the-rails adventure that does nothing to help Move's cause.

An inexplicably bland shooter from the usually reliable Insomniac that has no personality and no sense of purpose beyond a few hours of empty co-op action.

Unquestionably the best Dynasty Warriors style game so far, but at its core it's still just as shallow and repetitive as any of Koei's games.

Gears Of War meets Diablo turns out not to be a classic pairing after all, or at least not when it comes to this low rent hotchpotch of other people's ideas.

It's good to see Assassin's Creed having a positive influence on game settings but this historical would-be epic has little else to recommend it.

A step in the right direction, but still nowhere close to being the ideal Transformers game.

3D graphics may be the future, but this dull beat 'em-up is unlikely to convince you of the fact.

Spore hits an evolutionary dead end, as the "everything sim" becomes just another dull platformer.

A more noble failure than most Kinect games, but a failure all the same. And even beneath the control issues not a particularly good on-the-rails shooter.

Red Dead Redemption is a great single player game, but this only emphasises the mediocre multiplayer.

Probably the least surprising game on the 3DS, but even if you do like Dynasty Warriors games this is still one of the lesser spin-offs.

The most disappointing Mass Effect 3 download so far, which once again emphasizes overfamiliar action instead of meaningful storytelling.

An interesting script and missions can't save this miserable morass of repetitious role-playing.

Mama's sideline in gardening proves to be just as shallow and repetitive as her cookery courses.

All its best bits are clearly stolen from Batman: Arkham Asylum, but for a movie tie-in this still counts as above average.

One of the worst introductions to Pokémon - and gaming in general - a small child could suffer. The video games equivalent of corporal punishment.

The trailers may make the film look like a live action Halo but the game plays nowhere near as well.

A very poor first person shooter buoyed up by the promise of things to come, and an impressively ambitious attempt at a cross-format connected universe.

The original god game will find itself short of worshipers, with gameplay that's as old as Methuselah.

There's a real lack of magic in what is essentially Harry Potter And The Half-Hearted Mini-Game Collection.

A mix of low budget, (relatively) high ambition, and mediocre execution, Defiance is a hard game to hate but an easy one to lose interest in.

First person shooters clearly do work on the PS Vita, but proving that fact is the only real achievement of this otherwise insipid portable experience.

Innerspace meets Smash T.V., except retaining only the worst elements of both in this slow-paced and tedious dual-stick shooter.

A 3D platformer so bad it brings to mind Bubsy 3D rather than Super Mario 64, in what is a considerable step down from the already mediocre original.

The real mystery here is why Nintendo continues to allow such a minimum effort cash grab to dilute the Pokémon name, in yet another bland and repetitive dungeon crawler.

There’s probably no way to make After Burner interesting again without turning it into a completely different game, but there was no need for Sega to prove that fact yet again.

There are some interesting ideas and visual effects at play here, but they're not nearly strong enough to support such a monotonous adventure.

As repetitive and predictable as any movie tie-in, but the core combat is sound and Green Lantern's powers are handled well.

There's barely enough time to rail at the missed opportunities in one of the least substantial games ever.