It takes roughly 30 seconds, maybe a minute, until Blood Dragon delivers its first fierce punch to your nostalgia gland. You open the game in a chopper buzzing around an enemy base while Long Tall Sally by Little Richard plays. “Predator!” you’ll whine through tears of joy, as you crumple to the floor from your winded nostalgia gland.

If you understand the Predator reference, you’ll understand Blood Dragon is a game that feels like it was made specifically for you. This is a love letter to 80s action movies, sprinkling references to Predator, Terminator, Aliens and Commando throughout. As an added touch, Michael Biehn has been brought in to voice the main character, the Terminator and Aliens star growling one-liners like “yeah, I picked his brain” after landing a headshot.

Some games try too hard with their humour but Blood Dragon manages to consistently hit the mark, poking fun at genre conventions and at itself, to the point where the humour allows Ubisoft to smuggle in loathsome tutorials (“just let me kill people!”), scripted set-pieces (“Why is the lift so slow?” “Presumably to create tension”) and even make the loading screens entertaining.

In many ways, this is the game Duke Nukem Forever should have been. Blood Dragon is refreshingly honest about its love for 80s action flicks and it’s hard to resist that enthusiasm.

But it’s not just the references that make Blood Dragon tick. It also has the right look and feel. Its dark vibe with bright streaks of neon punching through looks incredible but there are smaller touches thrown in that really add to the look, such as the VHS static and distortion after nearby explosions. The soundtrack is a glorious throwback to action movies of that era, meshing synth keyboards with squealing metal guitars. Given it refuses to take itself seriously, it’s surprising how atmospheric Blood Dragon feels.

Blood Dragon - Is It Different To Far Cry 3?

It’s also strange that a game revelling in its humour and references is backed up by such grounded, considered gameplay but that’s why the Far Cry 3 moniker is there – Blood Dragon is essentially a reskinned, slimmer version of Ubisoft’s sprawling island shooter.

The rhythm is mostly the same too. While there’s a main story that’s host to the more interesting set-pieces, it’s all too easy to ignore that thanks to the wealth of distractions on offer. There are garrisons to be liberated, animals to be hunted and side-missions to be found. Both games do a great job of scratching that OCD side of you that needs to find and do everything.

The main difference between the games is the addition of the titular Blood Dragons, the alpha predators in this game’s ecosystem. Dragons have poor eye-sight and you can sneak around them without incurring their wrath without too much difficulty but the fun part is you can pilfer cyberhearts from fallen soldiers, which work as bait for the Blood Dragons. Throw it just outside a garrison and while a shield will prevent them from entering, they can still blast the soldiers inside. While Dragons never dominate the gameplay, they do factor in enough to make this feel different.

Other key difference is how Blood Dragon has stripped back elements. There are no skill trees to navigate as you level up automatically and there’s no crafting to be done, with weapon upgrades earned through completed side-quests. Oh, and unless you’re up, close and personal with something, melee has been replaced with the middle finger.

Another difference – although it’s perhaps more to do with having gotten used to the gameplay following 30 hours of Far Cry 3 – is that Blood Dragon isn’t particularly challenging, especially if you load up on side-mission upgrades before tackling the story in earnest. The only time you’ll feel your gameplay abilities being tested is during Hostage side-missions, where you have to be stealthy – one of the rare occasions where you can’t bludgeon your way to victory with your superior firepower. After all, Blood Dragon is a game where you unlock explosive rounds for your sniper rifle.

Blood Dragon Ain't Got Time To Bleed

Blood Dragon is brilliant. Admittedly, this is coming from a 30-year-old with an unhealthy love for Commando and Predator and therefore exactly the sort of person Ubisoft is targeting with this release, but it’s still backed up by the same gameplay that powered Far Cry 3 to a 9.0 score last year.

Some players may actually prefer Blood Dragon to Far Cry 3, simply because its status as a stand-alone title has refined the Far Cry 3 sprawl into razor-sharp focus. There isn’t a single inch of wasted territory here, the story revels in its own ridiculousness rather than alluding to something deep and meaningful and the gameplay has been stripped back to the core mechanics, meaning there's no bloat. It's just a shame the challenge isn't tighter.

Having Blood Dragon as a standalone release is the right decision so it will find success outside of those who own a copy of Far Cry 3 but we almost wish this was DLC, just so it would serve as a reference point for studios who churn out identikit slices of whatever game it’s for and call it a day.

Well done to both Ubisoft for signing off on a creative spin-off like this and to the devs for pulling off Blood Dragon in a way that's imaginative, refreshingly honest and brilliant fun.

Version Tested: XBLA

Sometimes it's good to go back to basics.

Take Sacred Citadel. This download-only title is unapologetically clean and uncomplicated, pushing Sacred away from its more traditional presentation to offer up this quirky, feisty brawler. Whilst it might not quite strike the perfect balance owing to some sequences falling on just the wrong side of fun, it's well worth a few hours of your time.

The story is... well, nothing new. An ancient evil schemes to take control of the fantasy kingdom. Good Guys swoop in to try and stop 'em. Cue a few moderately amusing one-liners and then hijinx ensue, complete with swarms of enemies, boss fights, looting and plot "twists".

You’ve probably heard this story before.

Sacred Citadel - Classy Game

The classes won't feel unfamiliar, either. Take your pick from a warrior, mage, ranger, and shaman - you know the drill - all of which bring their own unique twist to combat proceedings. Yeah, there's admittedly little narrative innovation here - but don't hold that against Sacred Citadel. Sure, it's an age-old story of good versus evil with swords and spells and potions and stuff, but the tale's delivered with an unabashed self-awareness that - coupled with an infectious score and deceptively simple art style – is undeniably entertaining.

To be honest, the story plays second fiddle to the action, anyway. Citadel propels you through a 2D, side-scrolling world of pleasant but forgettable forests, deserts, ships and swamps that are – very loosely – linked to the enemies about to pounce you. It’s not quite as dreary as it sounds; whilst unmemorable, the backdrops are agreeable enough to carve carnage against, even if the 2D perspective occasionally messes with your ranged attacks. Add in the interactive environmental factors – think pounding stone blocks, swinging logs and puddles of toxic goo – and it all serves to dampen the monotony … which is just as well, given how repetitive the gameplay can be.

Controls are crisp, clear and pleasantly simplistic, although you’ll undoubtedly find yourself recycling the same old combos over and over again. And it’s here where things start to feel just that little bit same-y.

The greatest frustrations crop up at the beginning of your journey. As you get to grips with the gameplay and combos – all of which unlock with satisfying regularity – you may find yourself stumbling into an end of level boss fight unaware and ill-equipped to take on what’s waiting for you. Unfortunately, not even death helps your odds; use up your potions and they don’t come back, even after respawning, and enemies rarely drop anything of value in the boss arena. You’ll either have to slog your way through the battle slowly and steadily in the hope of besting the boss, or  . . . well, exit out, stock up, and then replay through the (mercifully short) level again.

Sacred Citadel - Solo Play vs Co-op

Irritatingly, in the latter half of the game the boss battles offer very little challenge at all, particularly if you head in fully-loaded and stocked with all the Rage and Power potions you might need.

That said, the further into the game you delve, the better you’ll be able to gauge the length of each chapter, and it’s here where the fun really begins. Successful combat unlocks generous XP, armour, combos and weapons, and you’ll find yourself levelling up with surprising ease, even in latter stages.

But just as you settle into a routine, the game switches it up a bit. New enemies with increasingly more complex powers jump into your path, heralding a welcomed change of pace. That's not to say they're not frustrating - they very frequently are - but at least there's no longer room for complacency.

Trouble is, tackling the hordes alone mean it's easy to become overwhelmed, particularly if you find yourself lost in the on-screen scrum or you’re unfortunately clad in colours similar to your foes. When the going got tough, we found that the best strategy was to quick-roll around, smash out a couple of strong melee hits, and roll off again in the other direction. Crass and a little inelegant, granted, but it’s surprisingly effective.

To really wring enjoyment from Sacred Citadel, you need to jump on with some friends. Bringing the different combat classes into battle creates a balance that’s simply not achieveable if you go it alone, and thanks to the plentiful loot and spoil drops, there’s always enough to go around.  

Sacred Citadel’s narrator will have you believe that this is not a place that the sane would travel to willingly. We respectfully disagree.

Version Tested: XBLA

It loads properly. You press start on Double Dragon II’s title screen and the game begins. It may embark on a LOLsome tutorial that tries to tie mysticism into the mundane controls (“Vice meets virtue” croaks a bored voice actor, as a prompt tells you to press X, X, X) but it loads. So there is that. Is that worth 0.5? Let’s say that’s worth 0.5, for the sake of argument.

There is nothing else of in Double Dragon II that deserves even 0.5. Nothing. Not the visuals, not the controls, not the music, the level design, the co-op, anything.

Double Dragon II: Wander Of The Dragons is the worst game on Xbox 360.

Double Dragon II And The Hands Made Of Ham

It begins with that tutorial and then puts you in the shoes of Billy or Jimmy, both of whom have stretched arms and giant hands that look like they’ve been chiselled out of ham. We don’t think it’s a deliberate cartoon look because this has the same pungent ‘make everything gritty’ vibe that infiltrated Bomberman: Act Zero. And if it is deliberate, then well. Look at it. Has it worked? Does it look like it’s worked? No.

Instead of saying “the controls are awful” and leaving it that, here’s how movement works. There’s no auto-lock but a soft-lock of sorts when you’re near an enemy. When you tap any direction, you’ll do a quick dash that way. That sounds like a great idea until you actually want to run, as the recovery following the dash means it’s not that useful for evading, and to run backwards, you have to hold that direction.

So how do you dodge? You have to hold block, tap the direction, then let go of block and hope it works because if it doesn’t, you’ll stand there and take the full attack in the face.

Why. WHY. Why does this have to be so needlessly complicated? It doesn’t add anything to the game. All it does is make you stagger about like a drunk trying to make it to the nearest taxi rank while balancing a kebab and chips. All it does it reinforce why so many developers put dodge on the right analogue stick.

Double Dragon II On The Offensive

Your actual attacks are limited to mashing X (punch!), mashing B (kick!) or mashing the two (a combination of punches and kicks!). No combination unlocks any new animations and holding RT just gives you an enhanced version of your ending move – again, with the same animation. There are also special moves to clear out enemies. Attacking is dull and the controls don’t have the snappy response you need in this genre but they just, just about work.

Because attacking isn’t quite as awful as the rest of the game, attacks are also tied into a stamina bar, which completely ruins it. Stamina recharges but performing any attacks drain it, and when you’re surrounded by enemies, it’s not long before your stamina is gone and you’re left helpess. The only thing a stamina bar adds is an absurb amount of frustration.

This is because Double Dragon II is also stupidly hard. Not hard in the sense that you won’t complete it, because Double Dragon II tucks 20 credits in your back pocket before it boots you into the first level. You’ll just have no idea how to avoid being caught in an endless loop of being knocked to the ground until you die.

Every enemy here has gone to the Playground Bully School Of Combat, where they crowd round you and kick you until you fall over. Get back up and they’ll batter you until you fall down again. Get knocked down, get up again. Get knocked down, get up again. It’s that god-awful Chumbawamba song in game form.

Double Dragon II And Imperfect Guard

Perfect Guard should have been the solution to this, a parry move that offers your only real defensive response to the barrage of attacks you’re subjected to. It doesn’t work. Not only does a successful Perfect Guard drain stamina but it offers no invincibility as a reward while you recover from the animation before launching a counterattack. Perfect Guard one enemy and

In short – it’s absolutely useless when surrounded and that’s the only time you really need it.

The levels see you go from left to right, with some vertical movement allowed That’s fine – it’s what the originals did – except the originals also ensured this restriction made sense with the design of the levels themselves. Narrow streets, narrow construction sites, narrow rooftops and so on.

This lesson has been lost on Double Dragon II circa 2013, which throws invisible walls around you to stop you exploring. Worse still, there’s an invisible wall on the far left and right of the screen where enemies can attack you but you can’t fight back. Unbelievably annoying.

And the levels themselves! Level 1 sees you running past a helicopter, which then pops up again on Level 3 even though you’re in a new area. One level has a lever that throws a winch across a walkway, knocking the enemies off, except they can (and will) attack you during the cutscene that shows the winch moving. You can't defend yourself while this happens.

Our favourite level is one that takes place inside a plane, which tilts in a cutscene, has you hammering B to hold on for dear life, then another cutscene shows the plane levelling out, at which point you fight more enemies. Again – WHY.

This all plays out at a sludgy frame-rate while a musical loop waltzed straight from hell churns over and over, pushing you a few steps closer to early dementia.

Double Dragon II Co-Op

It’s better with friends! No, it’s not. ‘Better with friends’ may be the usual copout for games with a co-op mode but not here. Firstly, it doesn’t have online co-op. The inevitable comeback to this might be that the original Double Dragon II only had local co-op but it’s 2013 now, not 1988.

Secondly, if you try to put any of your friends through this – inviting them round, forcing them to cancel whatever plans they had that not, forcing them to make the trip to yours, forcing them to suffer this in silence while they wonder why the both of you ever became – they will never play games with you ever again.

It’s just bad on every level. Bomberman: Act Zero, AMY, Hour Of Victoy, Yaris, Kengo: Zero, Discs Of Tron, your new champion is here. Double Dragon II: Wander Of The Dragon is truly the worst game on Xbox 360 and it will take something apocalyptically bad to knock it from its new throne.

Version Tested: Xbox Live Arcade

Don’t play BattleBlock Theater’s multiplayer before you play campaign. Don’t. Don’t.

Because you’ll die. A lot.

The title screen might suggest multiplayer is the best way to go when diving in for the first time, given the background has bearded and fanged toons smacking each other around blocky levels, but playing multiplayer first is a mistake.

It’s not that BattleBlock Theater is a difficult game to understand (it’s not) nor is it a complex game to play (it’s not). It’s that your default weapon is throwing mines.

It might sound impressive but everyone else will likely march into battle with an arsenal of destruction ranging from the ridiculous to the ridiculously effective – grenades, desk fans, fireballs, paper-planes stuffed with C4, exploding frogs and so on.

Throwing mines is BattleBlock Theater’s equivalent of farting in the wind and hoping for the best.

So stop. Reset. Play campaign first and you’ll find that not only is it the mode that yields the currency needed to buy these weapons but campaign is also really, really good fun.

Hatty Hattington And His Army Of Cats

BattleBlock Theater is a 2D platformer that throws you through a series of increasingly difficult levels that contain gems and yarn to collect, in-game currency to unlock character customisation and weapons.

It carries strands of The Behemoth’s previous Xbox Live Arcade releases, Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers. You’ll recognise the art style, the sense of humour, the ease of control.

(You’ll also be rewarded with ‘heads’ from those games if you have a save file on your hard drive for them, so there’s that as well.)

You play a prisoner being forced through a series of increasingly difficult levels by technologically-advanced cats being ruled by your former friend Hatty Hattington, who is only doing this for his own entertainment. Obviously. What this means is The Behemoth can be silly – very silly – with the cutscenes and the dialogue, indulging itself with humour that isn’t too intrusive but makes the game far more fun to play.

Die Again And Again And Again

The way the difficulty scales up means that humour is needed to take the edge off any potential frustration.

It begins as a relatively simple affair. Detonate those blocks to let the paper boat fall into the water, draw the paper boat towards you by splashing the water, sail to freedom. There’s a minimum number of gems needed to unlock the exit, which are almost harder to avoid than they are to collect. It’s an easy ride through simple 2D platforming.

Slowly, and inevitably, this changes. The difficulty cranks up as death lasers, ice blocks and moving platforms are introduced, plus enemies who hunt you down and make your life misery. Gems become harder to collect. Some enemies run away with gems strapped to their back.

There’s no real punishment to dying in BattleBlock Theater thanks to the generosity of checkpoints but for those chasing high post-level rankings, fast times are essential. When you clunk your head against a spiked ceiling and you watch the potential for a fast time dissolve as your body drops to the fire coals below, you realise just how tough the game can be.

Frustration does creep in, mostly due to the enemies who chase you – other elements of BattleBlock Theater’s platforming can be learned, practiced and improved but the unpredictability of the enemies means sometimes you’ll just… well, die.

Frustration never dominates BattleBlock Theater, which is a challenging but breezy platformer. But The Behemoth finds ways to continue pushing your platformer skills.

Battleblock Theater's Weapons

Just as the platforming looks to become perhaps too simplistic, mastery of your weapons is demanded too. Example: one gun fires plastic sucker-darts that can stick into walls, which can be used as temporary platforms to leap to freedom. Another example: boomerangs can nab gems for you, solving that last few minutes of head scratching when you’re beginning to swear it’s impossible to grab those gems.

Each chapter also ends with a timed level, putting your learned skills and weapon use to the test.

There are also hidden gems and secret areas throughout. There’s the occasional clue to where these hidden areas are – why is there a death laser firing in a corner that is clearly miles out of my way? – but we stumbled upon most by accident rather than design.

In short, to make a crude comparison, BattleBlock Theater feels like it’s somewhere between Spelunky and Super Meat Boy. It has the pacing and game structure of the former and learns towards the challenge and level design of the latter. It is, to be shorter still, brilliant.

BattleBlock Theater Multiplayer

You can save prisoners with collected gems in the gift shop, which is a fancy way of saying you can unlock new heads for your character. There are hundreds upon hundreds of them here – bandits, gorillas, vampires, mobsters, aliens and most that defy single-word descriptions. Yarn can also be spent on weapons, and it’s once you have an arsenal to be proud of, that’s when you can proudly march into multiplayer.

While campaign tests your timing and ability to solve platform puzzles, competitive multiplayer is about keeping on top of the chaos as players leap about firing weapons, hitting each other, avoiding the environmental obstacles that drift in and out of play.

What makes multiplayer so enjoyable is there’s a huge wealth of modes and maps to get stuck into. Challenge is a race through levels while Muckle is the traditional free-for-all, or at least as traditional as it can be when played with bandits and exploding frogs.

If those are staples, then other modes such as Capture The Horse (ride a horse to the opponent’s stable) and Color The World (switch as many blocks to your team’s colour as possible) that provide an odd, unique and engaging twist on multiplayer.

Ball Game is a particular favourite. A football drops in the middle of the level and two teams of two have to carry the ball to the opponent’s goal to score, which leads to a weird game of attacking the opponent’s goal and defending your own, albeit it with grenades and uppercuts. Messy, weird but undeniably a lot of fun.

Great Campaign And Party Game Multiplayer

BattleBlock Theater’s multiplayer is more party game than anything else. The weapons aren’t even close to being balanced – hence the problem with the minethrower being the sole choice for beginners – but even that doesn’t stop it from being enjoyable.

The question is how long the multiplayer will last, more than anything else. The sheer wealth of modes and maps will sustain it, plus there’s a level editor to extend its life, but multiplayer will only last as long as the gameplay remains engaging. There’s no real nuance or strategy here, and it’s only the lure of unlocking new heads or weapons and taking them into multiplayer arenas that will keep you engaged.

Even so, BattleBlock Theater’s multiplayer is the most fun we’ve had online in a long time and it’s backed up by a fantastic campaign. It’s hard to say which half of BattleBlock Theater excels as they’re both brilliant but that’s good news for us, as it adds up to a very, very good game indeed.

Version Tested: XBLA

Terraria struggles, even now, to escape its comparisons to Minecraft. Where Terraria built its success alongside Mojang’s smash-hit indie success, now it appears to be porting over to consoles in much the same fashion.

And, just like Minecraft, Terraria has done a fantastic job of arriving on Xbox 360 almost intact. Controls have been reworked, enhancements have been made and a tutorial has been added.

Yet the core gameplay remains untouched. Almost, anyway.

For those not aware, Terraria is a 2D, randomly-generated dungeon explorer. While many of the game’s features are reminiscent of Minecraft – mostly the gathering and utilising of raw materials – it is still a game all its own.

It arrived during the peak of Minecraft’s popularity on PC and that, combined with a fairly low entry fee, made Terraria a huge success for the indie developer behind it.

It’s ostensibly a PC game, however, so there could easily be fears over the Xbox 360’s lack of a mouse and keyboard.

Worry not, though, the controls have been reworked to fit a controller and it’s surprisingly well done.

Just A Port To Xbox 360?

A tutorial has been added to the Xbox 360 version, something of a blessing when there isn’t immediate access to the fountain of knowledge known only as the internet.

It does a good job of explaining the basics to you, about what is required to make a habitable home and the most important information you’ll need to survive Terraria’s harsh (but decidedly pretty) world.

After that you’re on your own, though the in-game Guide – an NPC who will join your world when you first spawn in – will help keep those looking for a bit of direction on the right track.

Controls-wise the game has been ported to analogue sticks and triggers surprisingly well. Not only are menus simple enough to navigate (after a little practice, anyway), but the mining and combat is surprisingly adept.

It’s surprising because unlike Minecraft – which works well due to its nature as a first-person game – Terraria’s 2D plane and point-and-click controls are so heavily reliant on a mouse it’s something of a revelation to have it work so well.

It uses two methods. The first is a simple, contextual cursor that picks the best option relative to your position or your currently selected item. It’s erratic, it’s not always manageable but perfect for when you simply have to mince up all the terrain around you.

Press the right stick in, however, and you’ll have the cursor mode – a precise tool to provide more finesse to your creations, excavations or combat.

Surviving Terraria

It’s not quite as ideal as a mouse and doesn’t fully replace the ease and precision of the PC input, but it more than suffices and rarely frustrates. If Terraria on console should be praised for anything, it’s this.

You’ll be thankful for it as you delve further and further into the abyss too. The deeper you go the harder Terraria’s world will try and stop you, and if you were struggling with the controls it just wouldn’t seem fair.

First it’ll be timid green slimes, then skeletons, then giant mother slimes, then burrowing worms, then demons and lava and brimstone and… well, you get the point.

The Xbox 360 version of Terraria comes alongside a slew of content either already seen on PC (it’s already been updated and updated and updated) as well as a few pieces of exclusive content.

Everything else about Terraria remains untouched. On Xbox 360 there are a few noticeable drops in frame rates as you explore quicker than the game can load in non-visible terrain data, but even this is forgivable and never proves a nuisance to the game.

If you’re a fan of Minecraft – whether on PC or Xbox 360 – then you owe it to yourself to try Terraria. There are similarities in some ways, but as mentioned earlier Terraria is a game all its own.

Compared to the PC crowd, indie games are a hard sell on Xbox 360 and it’s true that elements such as the combat and platforming might feel a little clunky to those not already au fait with Terraria.

As such it takes a bit of learning to adapt, but once you do you’ll find a compelling game regardless of if you play it alone or with friends – which is highly recommended.

Is Terraria Better Than Minecraft?

It’s more RPG than open world explore-‘em-up. A large part of the game is iterative progress into the depths of the world, but all the while you’re improving.

Whether it’s gathering the necessary resources to craft a new piece of armour or special equipment for your home, finding a chest with some unique and entertaining piece of weaponry or simply searching that little bit further into hidden caverns and dungeons, there’s always something new to experience.

And this is why you should play Terraria. It’s not better than Minecraft, and it’s not worse – it’s just different. It’s equally absorbing and just as rewarding. 

There are few games on Xbox Live Marketplace that are safe purchases, and with the hours of content, unique approach to discovery and the originality of Terraria’s gameplay this is easily one of them.

Sure it’s not quite as manageable as the PC version and it doesn’t have the immediate appeal that Minecraft has, but by bringing something new to the table Terraria remains its own beast that needs to be played.

Version Tested: XBLA

At long last, it’s here. It’s finally bloody here.

Darkstalkers has been the one Capcom fighter notable for its absence in recent years, while the likes of Marvel vs Capcom: Origins and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure have found their way onto Xbox Live and PSN (Capcom vs SNK 2 is still somewhere further back in the queue, snivelling and wiping its nose.)

Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono has been banging the Darkstalkers drum for several years now, dropping hints and teasers at a full-blown revival that never. Worse still, there didn’t seem to be any real reason for Darkstalkers being held back, given it’s one of the more interesting fighting games in Capcom’s back catalogue.

But there’s no point going over all that history now though because Darkstalkers is finally here. And it’s really good. Really, really good.

Chain Combo System

If you’re new to Darkstalkers, what seems like a typical 2D fighting game starring monsters instead of Ryu and Ken actually has plenty of unusual mechanics under its surface to match the eccentricity of the cast. Like we said, it’s one of the more interesting fighting games Capcom has.

The main method of comboing is to use chain combos, which is to tap moves in a sequence from lightest to hardest. Roughly translated, that means you can do sequences like light kick, medium punch, medium kick, hard kick. It’s an easy combo system to grasp even if the timing is more demanding than you might expect (as with all fighting games made in the mid-late 90s).

Not all characters rely on it – B.B. Hood is more about tight links, Victor is more about throws and so on – but chain combos are often the easiest way to inflict damage. They are the fundamental core of attacking in Darkstalkers.

When you knock someone down, you can follow up a pursuit attack by hitting up and punch, leaping after them to do more damage if timed correctly. Another change from the expected formula is that ES attacks replace traditional supers, the key difference being that there’s no pause to signal an incoming super.

Darkstalkers And Its Odd Moves

The commands also wonder into unusual territory for a Capcom fighter, with some moves pushing you beyond what has been committed to muscle memory by thousands of hadoukens over the years.

For example, Demitri initially seems like the typical shoto character but he has a dash-cancel dragon punch (towards, towards cancelled into SRK + P), grab super (down, towards, down/towards + PP) and a raging demon (LP, MP, towards, MK, MK). Felicia can charge meter, Sasquatch has a down, down + P move that seems him blast ice and Hsien-Ko has a super activated with LP, HK, MP, MP then up. Which is… bizarre.

Even dashing isn’t straight-forward. There are air-dashes, diagonal air-dashes, ground dashes that allow for air moves and teleporting dashes. Individually, those moves aren’t particularly awkward but collectively, they add to Darkstalker’s unique edge.

Capcom was already experimenting with a Custom Combo system in Street Fighter Alpha 2 by the time Darkstalkers 3 had released, and so the latter title saw something of an equivalent with Dark Force. Initiated by hitting two buttons of the same strength, it temporarily powers up characters in different ways – Felicia summons a cat helper, Rikuo can move freely around the screen with super armour, B.B. Hood can fire endless missiles and so on.

Matches don’t centre around Dark Force like they did with Custom Combos and later V-Ism in the Alpha series but again, they add an extra touch to Darkstalkers, helping it stand out as unique.

Darkstalkers' Defensive Options

Just like attacking is unusual, so is defending.

Pushblock is a familiar concept nowadays but the way it’s done in Darkstalkers will challenge you. You have to drum punches while in blockstun and the more punches you hit, the more chance you have of activating pushblock.

What this means is unlike the press-two-punches-and-activate-pushblock we’re all used to now, where the only consideration is if your opponent will cut his blockstring short to bait and punish a failed pushblock attempt, merely doing pushblock in Darkstalkers requires dexterity and skill. It’s the cornerstone of defensive play.

Guard cancel moves are another unique element of defending yourself. Each character has a move that can be used to cancel out of block stun, without having to spend any meter to do so unlike an Alpha Counter or suchlike. The drawback is that these moves can be baited (and some guard cancel moves are useless) and again, keeping with the fact that Darkstalkers comes from an older fighting game era, the input timing is quite strict. You can also roll on wake-up, so you can avoid pressure as you get back to your feet.

Yet for all the bizarre mechanics, Darkstalkers never descends into the sort of anarchy you see in, say, Marvel vs Capcom. The fighting remains grounded and mostly plays out as an extremely fast-paced fighting game that favours rushdown.

With modest combos in comparison to most fighting games and limited defensive options, the priority here is shifted onto overwhelming your opponent with fast mix-ups, mostly forcing guesses between overheads and lows.

Where's Donovan?

For the sake of completion, Darkstalkers 2 (or Night Warriors: Darkstalkers’ Revenge, to give it its full and official title) is also included. There are subtle differences between this and its sequel – the lack of Dark Force, the slower speed and ‘proper’ rounds being the main ones. There are also some characters present that were dropped for Darkstalkers 3 – Donovan, Pyron and Huitzil are the unlucky names that weren’t brought back.

There’s a tutorial mode across both games that’s not hugely comprehensive but does a good job of covering the basics such as movement, anti-airs and staple combos. The descriptions are user-friendly and have a healthy dose of personality injected into them. They’re useful too, going right up to advanced 1-frame link combos for characters, ensuring most bases are covered.

Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution is still the standard for teaching players the basics and intricacies but for a tutorial mode, this tutorial will still go a long way to helping those new to Darkstalkers find their feet.

Darkstalkers Visual Filters - Scanlines And Cigarette Burns

If you’re familiar with Darkstalkers, you’ll be pleased at the wealth of options available here. You’ll know what to expect from Iron Galaxy simply by looking at what it did with Street Fighter III: Online Edition, because a lot of the options crossover.

There are various visual options, ranging from the awful child-like potato print colours of the smoothing to the scanline filters that recreate the smoky atmosphere of arcades. You can manually set how many frames of delay there is for the GGPO netcode and a series of in-game challenges are ticked off as you play (pulling off a certain amount of EX moves, winning with a timeout and so on).

Most importantly, this is an excellent port. We’re told there are two frames of delay in comparison to the arcade version but it’s impossible to tell in-game. The only notable differences are aesthetic considerations such as the inclusion of remixed music or the lack of an attract mode.

Training mode is as comprehensive as Street Fighter III, allowing you to record and playback so you can work how to punish certain attacks or practice against certain moves. New players will be annoyed that move lists involve calling up a character select screen and selecting who you want, adding an annoying (and needless) layer of hassle when trying all the characters out for the first time, but that’s the only real complaint.

Darkstalkers Resurrection Online

Get over the abundance of Talbain and Lillith players and online play holds up extremely well, a reflection of Capcom’s generation-long trial and error in getting the netcode right for its fighting games. Unsurprisingly, given they share GGPO roots and the same studio, the Darkstalkers netcode is remarkably similar to how Street Fighter III: Online Edition performed.

That means online play feels remarkably smooth and seamless and the ability to tinker with the GGPO frame delay – the better your connection is, the closer to zero you should set it – means that matches within your region (Europe, America, etc) will run as well as they possibly can. The GGPO magic has been talked about by PC players for years and Darkstalkers is another title that shows it works just as well on console.

One issue is that rage quits seem to incur disconnection penalties for both players, which is why the leaderboards are peppered with players who have a 1% or 2% disconnection rating. It’s unlikely to matter too much in the long-run, when the community shrinks down to the hardcore and the majority of online play moves towards Player Match, but it does render the disconnection rating useless for Ranked Match if it’s not an accurate portrayal of how likely a player is to quit out of the game.

Like Fighting Games? Get Darkstalkers

It may have taken a while but there is no denying that Capcom and Iron Galaxy have had enough trial runs to figure out the perfect way to re-release older fighting games. The upside to Darkstalkers taking so long to hit Xbox Live and PSN is that it’s benefited hugely from this long wait, as the package works on a nostalgic level for fan service and it also has an online mode to be proud of, which may not have been the case had this been released a few years ago.

Those new to Darkstalkers will find the pace of the series thrilling and frightening, and the lighting speed is almost certainly a bigger barrier to entry than the occasionally awkward commands and strict inputs.

Even so, while Darkstalkers fans will obviously be pleased by this release, those who haven’t yet tried the series will find themselves won over by how well put-together the overall package is.

It feels fresh and relevant even today, while the eccentric nature of its characters and design ensure that even with the genre feeling somewhat bloated, Darkstalkers Resurrection belongs with the best fighting games have to offer.

Version Tested: Xbox Live Arcade

It's 2013 and we've seen every shooter imaginable.

We've seen first-person shooters and third-person shooters, military shooters and cel-shaded shooters, horror shooters, light-gun shooters, multiplayer shooters, abstract shooters, retro shooters and even portal shooters.

If you're a shooting game in 2013, chances are we've been there, done that, bought the t-shirt, shot the t-shirt.

And if you're thinking a game called Special Forces Team X doesn't bring anything new to shooters, you're right.

But It's Really Good

That's our concise, why-we're-paid-the-big-bucks counter argument. It's really good. Special Forces Team X doesn't have a single original bone in its body, nor does it offer any ideas you won't have seen done several thousand (possibly) times before in the genre.

But Special Forces Team X is put together with such confidence and such style, you'll ignore feelings of familiarity and find yourself drawn into it anyway.

It's described as a cover shooter but rarely plays out that way, with players often racing about the maps and only snapping to cover when a prolonged battle over distance beckons.

Special Forces Team X is one of the speediest, fastest third-person shooters we've played, with the cover system only really coming into the equation for objective modes as both sides dig in deep.

Unleash The Dogs

The one mechanic that sets Special Forces Team X apart from its genre rivals is that it'll randomly generate map variations before each game. These are picked from tilesets voted for by the lobby, with the resulting map loosely adhering to some vague sense of logic and structure - you won't have three buildings floating in the sky or anything abstract or weird.

But it means you always have that 'learning the map' freshness you do when you first learn a multiplayer map, as leaderboard positions are dictated by the speed with which players learn maps as much as their speed with the trigger finger.

There are other interesting mechanics too, though these riff on well-established genre motifs. Attack dogs for one. Team Bonuses (and team respawns) for another.

There's also customisation powered by your character's level, with weapons and aesthetic items unlocked.

Add these elements together and the resulting game is an interesting mix of Borderlands-lite visuals (including numbers appearing when you shoot enemies), Counterstrike-style map design and Ghost Recon-esque shooting. It's a familiar mix and yet, despite that, it's undeniably engaging.

This is all backed up by sturdy netcode that rarely had any hiccups while we played, so you're focused on fighting the other team rather than fighting lag.

Like we said - Special Forces Team X is really good.

Where The Players At?

The biggest problem Special Team Forces X faces is how long it'll last as a game. There's no single player here, which is probably the right move, but that means it's entirely dependent on the multiplayer component and an online community sustaining the game.

We jumped in a week after launch and had no problems finding matches (although we rarely had more than one or two games before a disconnection to host message kick us out) but the list of open lobbies was worryingly short.

Compared to the high-profile launches of Gotham City Impostors or Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Special Forces Team X seems to have been lost in the mix, squeaking onto Xbox Live Arcade without any fanfare or buzz.

Will this last one month down the line? Six months? A year? We're not confident Special Forces Team X will have the long life it deserves and it's a shame. While wholly unoriginal, there's a lot of fun to be had here.

Our advice is if you're sitting on the fence, jump in now and make the most of the community that's there because it could be that sooner rather than later, the lack of community will make your mind up for you.

Version Tested: Xbox Live Arcade

The Cave has been gestating within Ron Gilbert’s mind since the days of Maniac Mansion, but despite the vast amount of time between the two it doesn’t quite live up to the popular point-and-click adventure despite offering a few giggles of its own.

In many ways the latest outing from Tim Schafer’s Double Fine harkens back to the point-and-click games Schafer and Gilbert built their careers on, but The Cave manages to stumble into a few of the genre’s obvious pitfalls making for something of an uneven experience.

The Cave itself is a mystical, labyrinthine structure that lures in seven unsuspecting characters, each with their own story to tell. The Cave itself narrates the experience to the player in Double Fine’s customary humour-filled manner and asks that three of the cast are chosen to explore its dark depths, as well as the dark depths of themselves.

Each character is a vital piece of the puzzle and choosing who you initially take into the depths, while not hindering your progress (as each of the characters you leave behind will provide the replay value) will dictate the sort of experience you’ll have.

The Cave is about puzzles, though you'll go through traditional platforming hoops to get to them. Each character has a unique ability and figuring out how to proceed is usually a matter of logical lateral thinking, but considering Gilbert’s history, you'd think things would rarely be that simple.

Each of the caves areas are visually distinct, but are still very... um, cave-y.

Characters:

• Knight: has the ability to turn invincible meaning he can survive long drops and pretty much anything else, too.

• Hillbilly: For some reason the Hillbilly can hold his breath underwater for as long as he likes making him perfect for exploring the cave’s deep waters.

• Scientist: The Scientist can hack into computer terminals.

• Adventurer: The Adventurer has an Indiana Jones style whip-hook that means she can traverse deadly pits of spikes as long as there’s something to hook onto.

• Twins: Just like the twins in The Shining these two can freak you out by grabbing switches and then leave a shadow of themselves before wandering off to do something else.

• Monk: The Monk can use telekinesis to levitate objects.

• Time Traveller: The Time Traveller can ‘phase’ through bars blocking entrances or certain smaller objects gaining access to areas the others can’t.

You’re only allowed to take three characters into the cave, with the experience appearing to mould to whoever you take past the first stage presenting character-specific levels interspersed with some general hub-like puzzle areas.

The Cave itself continually reminds you that everyone has the capacity for darkness and depending on how you solve certain problems you’ll eventually be presented with ‘good’ and ‘bad’ endings. But, it’s invariably easy (and a lot more obvious) to discover each character's evil side.

Exploring the personal worlds of the cast allows that character to come to the fore. With an obvious ability to use in certain areas puzzles are enjoyably logicial, often forcing you to think about the bigger picture and how each cahracter can contribute.

There are times when characters can be at opposite ends of a level (even across different time zones) and answers to the problems are rarely easy to come by.

But, and this is an inherent problem with the sprawling structure of The Cave and the puzzle structure itself, it requires an unhealthy amount of back-tracking.

The Cave isn’t really built around experimentation to figure out its problems, but that’s usually what’s required of them. Discovering how a problem can be solved needs each character to moved around individually and this can take its toll.

Moving different characters around the same location becomes tedious very quickly. There are moments when the two characters you’ve left behind will catch up with you, but these seem restricted to the times that you enter a new area. Other than that you’ll spend much of The Cave's playtime backtracking across the same area as you attempt to discover the answer to a practical puzzle.

It’s an irritation that can’t be avoided and it can begin to grate, especially on multiple playthroughs. What doesn’t grate, though, is Double Fine’s trademark glib humour that takes full advantage of the characters (or the players) situation.

It might be character psychology 101, but discovering each tale and the good and evil outcomes gives The Cave an interesting edge. It’s just a shame that the laborious puzzles will eventually wear your resolve down.

Further issues arise through a slightly stuttering framerate, sometimes glitchy character movements and a few other graphical problems that gives The Cave a ‘rough around the edges’ feel to it. There were a number of times we found that our characters became stuck and one instance of them falling through the world entirely.

These niggles detract from what is a genuinely funny game that stretches an interesting concept over head-scratching puzzles. It might be easy to gloss over such issues in Maniac Mansion, but we have the benefit of hindsight and forcing players through such awkward and strangled designs belies how far we’ve come.

Version Tested: Xbox Live Arcade

One does not simply walk into Console Land with complicated controls and a steep learning curve.

And thus it was written that the MOBA genre, which specialises in both complicated controls and a steep long curving, was forbidden from the world of 360 pads and DualShocks.

DOTA 2 and League of Legends have proved more popular than Jesus with PC owners but the MOBA genre – or multiplayer online battle arena, for long – didn’t seem like it would find a happy home on console. As with RTS before it, there would be too many concessions to make, too many corners to cut so the genre would be a comfortable fit.

Lord of the Rings: Guardians of Middle Earth proves that theory wrong. It’s a typical example of the MOBA genre, being a mix of fighting game and RPG played out from a RTS view. Except, you know, with Gandalf and Sauron causing havoc.

The idea is that you destroy the tower lurking in the enemy’s base and you can only do that by pushing the other team back into their spawn point through killing them, capturing shrines for defence bonuses and smashing defensive towers in the way. It’s a game of whittling the enemy down and pushing them into a corner.

It is, quite simply, a battle.

You level up as you defeat the smaller mobs and players on the other team. Levelling up grants you skill points that can be spent bolstering your special moves. Because of this, getting off to a quick start is important, before the other players level up to a point where it’s difficult to get a kill and get your own experience points momentum going.

We know all this because we died roughly 8,000 times before getting a grasp on what’s happening. There are extensive tutorials but Guardians Of Middle Earth is top-heavy with clutter that makes it difficult to pick out the nuance underneath. The interface is cluttered, the menus are cluttered and the tutorials are split into categories and sub-categories which suggests even more clutter.

It’s tough. Really tough. If you’re new to the genre, you understand what you’re supposed to do – kill opponents, destroy towers, take control of the map – but you won’t understand how you’re supposed to do it.

It takes a lot of dying to understand the nuances. A lot of dying.

If you misjudge effective ranges when fighting against another character, you die. If you don’t know how to safely retreat, you die. If you don’t understand what every move in your arsenal does, you die. If you don’t get off to a good start and level up quickly, you get caught in an endless loop of dying again and again until the match is over.

Each character has specific tactics and techniques to use. Gollum is a hit and run character with limited range who specialises in escaping combat when in trouble, thanks to a Coward move which escapes stun and grants a speed boost. Galadriel has an area-of-effect healing spell and ranged attacks, making her formidable back-up for tanks. Legolas works from extreme ranges thanks to his arrows, allowing him to pick off players trying to hide near a tower.

The novelty factor of what each character does help dull the pain of constantly dying, as does the feel of always having something to do in the battlefield. The controls have been smartly designed around the controller, so the four face buttons correspond to four special moves,

Eventually, it all clicks and that’s when Guardians of Middle Earth becomes a brilliant, absorbing multiplayer title. You understand how to work best with your team-mates and to support them, about which lanes through the map to hold and attack, also knowing when to attack and when to retreat.

The beauty of the genre, and by extension Guardians of Middle Earth, is that you constantly have to adapt to how the match is playing out. If your team is pushing forward, you might want to support team-mates in smashing towers. If your team is being pushed back, you might want to break off from the group and sneak around the back of the enemy team, cutting off their retreat lines so you can get the kill. You’ll also spot opportunities to help team-mates out when they’re stuck in 1-vs-1 battles.

It takes time to understand the intricacies – a lot of time – but you’re rewarded for your patience with a deep, engrossing multiplayer title that’s easy to recommend to others.

Or at least, will be easy to recommend to others when one problem is eventually (we hope) fixed – the netcode.

For a game where single-player is nothing more than a token inclusion with little to recommend it, Guardians of Middle Earth has serious issues running online. It’s often laggy to the point where characters stutter and teleport around while walking and makes messy fights unplayable exercises in mashing triggers and face buttons through the lag, hoping for the best.

Other times, you’ll be disconnected for no apparent reason and have to face another long matchmaking period before you can start playing again.

Bots will fill up a lobby to replace players, which is a good idea in theory, but sometimes leads to one player with four bots versus one player with four bots. If you quit back to the menu when you realise what’s happened, you’ll be temporarily locked out of matchmaking – even if you did this before the game starts.

It’s typical of the online problem with Guardians of Middle Earth. Bots replacing human players is a neat idea but when the netcode stumbles, it becomes an irritation rather than a boon, as you presume (rightly or wrongly) that you’ve been matched up with bots rather than matchmaking seeking out human players.

It’s a shame because when it runs smoothly, Guardians of Middle Earth is a game that’s deep, rewarding, engaging and fun. But that doesn't happen frequently enough, not for a game that depends on it. We’re reviewing it for what it is right now, not what it might possibly become, and right now Guardians of Middle Earth has done the hard work by bringing MOBAs to console yet finds itself let down by wobbly netcode.

Version Tested: Xbox Live Arcade

Let's get the obvious out the way first. There are two groups of people Fighting Vipers will appeal to. Fighting game veterans who remember playing Sega fighters back in the day and achievement junkies, who will feast on all 400 gamerpoints here in minutes.

Everyone else? It's a little too hard to recommend. That sentence is said with the saltiest of tears welling in the saddest of eyes because there is one redeeming factor that could have saved Fighting Vipers.

Turn Back Time

Fighting Vipers was released in an era when 3D beat-'em-ups were running rampant thanks to the likes of Tekken and and Virtua Fighter, and so it needed to set itself apart from the competition.

It's immediately obvious how Sega did this and by that, we don't just mean how Sega their slung characters into the game via the nearest fancy dress shop.

Instead, it's the gameplay tweaks that stand out. Each fighter has been bulked up with heavy armour while each arena is walled in.

That sounds gimmicky rather than interesting but it adds extra layers of depth to the brawling. Armour has to be softened up and then destroyed with a power blow, leaving opponents vulnerable in that area.

Walls combine with a looser sense of gravity to allow for combos as you juggle opponents until they choose to recover in the air, although this opens them up for even more damaging blows.

It's funny to laugh how Jane looks like Vasquez, Raxel looks like Randy Rhoads and Sanman is just a fat guy in a helmet but get playing and you can see how thought has gone into the actual gameplay design.

Fight For Your Right

The fighting is of the Virtua Fighter mould - Punch, Kick and Guard with low, mid and high attacks. There are sweeps, there are throws, there are attacks on downed opponents. So far, so 3D fighting game.

The power blow moves, which your fighter charges up a punch or kick, absorbs a hit before the attack comes out. Beyond the armour and the walls, that's the real key to Fighting Vipers' gameplay, when it comes down to the nitty gritty of players battling for position in the middle of the stage.

But you won't get a sense of this strategy in single player. Arcade is a standard romp through a series of opponents, with no storyline or sense of progression besides how difficult each fight is getting. There's almost no other single player content.

And if players aren't put off by that, the dated presentation is an even bigger hurdle to overcome. Fighting Vipers is stuffed with clumsy, awkward animation that's reminiscent of a genre just getting to grips with 3D while the droning soundtrack doesn't help endear you to the game.

Achievement hunters can grab all 400 gamerpoints within 15 minutes and for that, they'll be thankful it can almost all be done in the meagre arcade mode. For everyone else, it's hard to find a reason to persist given how dull single player is and how ugly everything looks.

Playing Online

Multiplayer should be the saviour and yet it's hard to see anyone sticking with Fighting Vipers to encourage an online community to blossom. Yet the cruel irony is that the netcode here is almost flawless.

Fighting Vipers seems to use the same netcode as Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown, which makes sense as both games share the same user interface, same publisher and same platform.

Few matches we played had any lag spikes or notably laggy response times and even though the majority of players online right now are Japanese, the netcode mostly survives the UK-to-Japan trip. That's impressive those global connections is where a lot of big name fighting games stumble.

Yet it's hard to imagine there being much of an online community beyond the initial honeymoon period. Even now, there are waits of almost 10 minutes for a single match and this is right after Fighting Vipers has been released.

This is when it should be thriving. Instead, you feel like a stranger poking his head into endless empty saloons in a ghost town. There's simply not enough people playing.

Boom Boom Pow

Online shows the strengths of Fighting Vipers more than fighting against AI ever can - the desperate battle to attack and protect armour, to avoid being caught against a wall and to use power blows to absorb opponents attacks. It develops layers of strategy you simply don't experience in arcade mode.

But Fighting Vipers doesn't have the immediate appeal or the presentation to draw in players brought up on the likes of Tekken or Street Fighter this gen, where those games trade on spectacle as much as they do gameplay.

Even for the low price of 400 Microsoft Points, Fighting Vipers understandably can no longer bring the same explosiveness to fighting games, which has reinvented itself as a far slicker, sexier genre since Sega AM2's glory days.

Which is why this is still best recommended for fighting game veterans and achievement junkies only, but at least they'll be pleased with the flawless netcode and the hit-and-run gamerpoints on offer.

Version Tested: Xbox Live Arcade

Naughty Bear isn't very naughty. He won't poo on your carpet. He won't put boxers in the sock drawer. He won't even unwrap the cheese in your fridge.

But he's a stealthy little git who murders people, sort of like an ursine Hitman. And that's naughty, see!

Except he's not really stealth or murderous either, thanks to the fuzzy (Like a bear! HA!) mechanics here. He sort of waddles about, accidentally stumbling into sight, button-bashing his way out of trouble.

Slightly Mediocre Bear Who Waddles About And Doesn't Really Do Much: Panic In Paradise isn't the kind of title marketing departments are paid to come up with but alas, it's more accurate.

The goal is to murder your 'hit', the target bear, by using bushes, disguises and the environment to stealth your way safely through the level. We say level, it's more an arena - a small area that's fairly circular in design.

But with the need to steal disguises and pick off guards in your way, level size isn't an issue.

If anything, having them larger would be slightly tiresome, as the gameplay is clearly designed for short, snappy bursts of stealth-'em-up kills.

Adding extra spice is a large number of possible environmental kills, where you can drag a bear over to a BBQ to set his face on fire, or impale him on a cactus, or stuff a phone down his throat, and so on.

It sounds like OTT comic book violence but, bar a few kills, they're mostly underwhelming. Despite that, it's amusing uncovering them all, and it does keep your mind from drifting.

There are further objectives on each level where you might have to scare bears into committing suicide or destroy party invitations and so on.

There's also a hidden secret in each level, which can only be found by grabbing a golden key and legging it to the right area within 20 seconds. It's tougher than it sounds.

You can also unlock different items to wear, from leather pants to police hats. They have their own attributes but you'll find more joy in wearing a 70's police tache with a chrome thong than you will +50 health.

This all feeds into Naughty Bear: Panic In Paradise's biggest strength - it is stuffed (Like a bear! HA!) with content. The main game clocks in over 10 hours.

Add in the extra objectives and the unlockable items and there are a few more hours to consider. It easily outweighs its predecessor and that was a full price retail game. 

If you played the original, this scene will likely look very familiar.

The problem is Naughty Bear is neither one nor the other. It doesn't have the smart level design that encourages patience, nor does it have satisfying combat mechanics when you break cover.

You're supposed to stay hidden - secondary level objectives ask it, the scaled difficulty later demands it - but it never feels like levels have been designed with this in mind.

It's almost as though everything's been plonked together and you're asked to pick through the mess, if it's even possible. 

The best stealth games are those where experience and experimentation slowly reveals the best path to pick through a level. There's never that sense here and often successful stealth feels like lucky opportunity rather than the result of smart planning.

It doesn't help that stealth is simplified to running for the safety of nearby bushes when you're spotted, which resets the situation.

It might negate potential frustration when you're gingerly trying to creep past the vision cones of nearby guards but it also robs the stealthy of any drama or urgency.

It's a real shame because Panic In Paradise is a far more interesting, thought out effort than the original Naughty Bear was. But the dark humour isn't funny enough, the stealth isn't slick enough and the combat isn't strong enough.

Version Tested: Xbox Live Arcade

The launch of the first Trials Evolutions DLC has us sparing a thought for our poor old Xbox 360 controller. As aficionados of RedLynx’s platforming racer already know, Trials requires you to precisely control your trial motorbike, Kickstart-style, across all manner of fiendish terrain by maintaining your throttle/brake triggers and balance (right stick), in perfect harmony at all times.

It’s our controller’s ‘back’ button we’re worried about though. It resets your bike to the start of the track - a necessary evil in pursuit of those elusive gold medals, which require a flawless run. You’ll be mercilessly hammering that button at even the slightest hint of your rider falling from his bike, which he will again and again. We also find throwing your controller at the wall is a worthy alternative.

Yes, Trials Evolution is back in all its infuriating glory, and peripheral abuse aside, the Origins of Pain DLC offers a decent suite of content for the measly cost of entry. Arguably, Trials Evolution’s Track Central hub of user-generated levels renders level packs like this somewhat moot, but a couple of tracks into Origins of Pain’s 36 new levels veterans will recognise a certain level of punishment that could only have come from the masochistic minds at RedLynx.

Origins of Pain offers a few events, but they're not as track-heavy as the main game.

Highlights include new circus-themed content, a number of ‘rollercoaster’ tracks which essentially requires players to hang on for dear life and land ridiculous jumps, and new in-track objects such as steam pipes and fans which float and buffer you up to new levels, or magnetic track which sticks your rider to any surface.

With its own stats and comical animation, new BMX bike the ‘Gecko’, also adds a bit of variety, and even gets a few bespoke tracks - although isn’t compatible with all of the existing Trials Evolution content, bizarrely. There are a few misfires; the ‘Gateway’ track is a clunky advert for the new teleportation objects, while other sections seem unfairly dark, making it almost impossible to traverse the terrain without toppling from your bike – more than annoying when pursuing those all-important gold medals.

This may look like a bread-and-butter track, but they get harder. And weirder.

DLC pack or not, that compulsion to first complete, then perfect a track remains Trials Evolutions’ greatest trait, and Origins of Pain does nothing to take away from that, slotting in nicely as a simple extension of an already high-value package. On top of the key stuff above (did we mention more gold medals?), you’ll also find ten new Supercross tracks to extend the fun-but-throwaway multiplayer-racing mode, while creators are treated to a new playground in which to construct new levels from their twisted imaginations - Paine Island.

They can also populate their new creations with over 100 new objects, themed around the circus, coastal-type buildings and more. Then there’s the grappling hook, which promises to inspire even more innovative/ridiculous (delete as appropriate) user-generated tracks in future – which is, perhaps, the most exciting thing about Origins of Pain. Best get saving for that new controller.

Version Tested: Xbox Live Arcade

The only two certainties in life are death and taxes, or so the old saying goes. Whoever coined it was talking rubbish, though, as Worms is clearly just as reliably omnipresent.

Consoles come and go, franchises crash and burn, but if there’s one sure thing in this industry, it’s that we’ll always have Worms.

Worms Revolution, the latest from the wriggling, warmongering invertebrates, will be immediately familiar to anyone who’s spent even a little bit of time flinging kamikaze sheep at friends and family over the last 17 years.

You commandeer a small battalion of war-hardened worms and take turns slowly chipping away at a rival faction, using all sorts of fun weapons in order to destroy the opposition.

Revolution sticks pretty resolutely to the tried, tested and trusted formula, but there are a few welcome deviations and upgrades.

First things first, there’s a class system present. Heavy worms have a penchant for heavy weaponry but are naturally slow, and scout worms are a bit quicker and more agile in the environment despite having less health, while the scientist worms are generally useless in a skirmish but provide backup in the form of weapon strengthening and health for the rest of your crack team.

Forts mode is back, built with the new engine in mind.

While a nice addition that perhaps adds some gameplay depth, it doesn’t add too much to the core worming experience.

What’s more interesting is the use of water physics. You no longer need rely on firepower alone to despatch enemy critters. A few well-aimed shots with a trusty old bazooka and you could find your quarry being overwhelmed by a miniature tsunami.

The sense of satisfaction one gets, especially in multiplayer, after taking out one or two enemy worms at once with a well-aimed rocket to a reservoir is quite immense.

Being able to manipulate the water to your advantage – or, indeed, to your detriment – is a nice addition to the franchise, even if it feels somewhat overdue as a feature.

Reassuringly, it retains the very silly, British sense of humour. Despite the different engine and gameplay enhancements, Team17 has thankfully decided against the modern day penchant for gritty, humourless, harrowing reboots, and has gone to extra lengths to make Worms Revolution the most entertainingly daft in the franchise yet.

Enter actor Matt Berry, the modern day Brian Blessed best known for his booming, golden-voiced characters in Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace and The IT Crowd.

The game has a crisp, colourful look that’s neither shamelessly retro nor overly complicated.

He plays a fictional documentary filmmaker called Don Keystone and constantly ribs the player, regardless of progress. Having him take the mick and fire quips at you adds a lot to the relaxed, fun atmosphere of the game.

On the whole, Worms Revolution proves that there’s life in the old worm yet, its enhancements giving the franchise a fresh set of… uh… legs?

In some ways this new version of NiGHTS shouldn’t even exist. The original game may have been lauded as one of the Saturn’s most creative titles, but it certainly didn’t shift units the same way Sonic did.

It’s enjoyable Wii sequel, NiGHTS: Journey Of Dreams fared little better, while Sega’s excellent PS2 remake didn’t even make its way outside of Japan. Surely that’s all the proof needed to realise that NiGHTS is a dead franchise?  

Sega USA (who handles all of Sega’s digital updates) clearly didn’t get the memo, as it has just unleashed a superb version of NiGHTS at a highly attractive price point. Clearly based on the impressive PS2 version, this is a fantastic package that effectively offers you two games for your money, as the original Sega Saturn version is also included in the deal.  

NiGHTS Into Dreams comes from a time where games expected you to experiment and discover things for yourself, instead of simply leading you by the hand. As a result, those new to the NiGHTS universe may simply race through a stage (which is fun in itself) finish with a D ranking then struggle to understand what they’re doing wrong.  

The crux of NiGHTS revolves around chasing high scores, and it’s done in a way that offers a surprising amount of strategy. NiGHTS’ seven stages are called dreams and are shared between two children, Claris and Elliot.

Those of a certain age will remember Christmas NiGHTS, and probably weep with joy.

At the beginning of each Dream, which is divided into four sub stages and a boss fight, your selected child’s Ideya (representing Intelligence, Purity, Hope and Growth) are stolen and you must regain them by overloading the Ideya Capture found on each sub stage.  

Ideya are overloaded by collecting 20 chips, which are spread throughout each stage. While it’s possible for Claris and Elliot to collect chips themselves, it becomes a lot easier when you control NiGHTS, who is gifted with the power of flight.

Once 20 chips have been collected all future chips turn gold, which offer even higher bonuses when collected. Grabbing chips, stars, killing enemies and flying through the many orange rings found on each stage will trigger a combo mechanic called linking.

Needless to say, the more links you collect in a single chain, the higher your final score and grading will be. Fine, except you're doing all this against an extremely tight two-minute time limit, meaning that NiGHTS becomes a great game of risk verses reward.  

Even if you never master NiGHTS clever scoring mechanics, it’s hard not to be impressed with Sonic Team’s imaginative game, mainly because it remains so much fun to play. While it appears to be 3D, NiGHTS’ action takes place on a 2D plane, with camera angles giving the impression of a vibrant 3D world. It’s a clever move on Sega’s part as it allows you to simply concentrate on NiGHTS’ sublime controls.

NiGHTS was originally built around the Saturn’s new 3D controller and it shows in every small loop and movement you make. It’s sounds clichéd, but NiGHTS really does give you the impression of flying, so much freedom does it offer, as you gracefully fly around the beautifully constructed worlds.  

Lead designer, Takashi Iizuka studied all aspects of dreams (including those of his staff) while creating NiGHTS and it really does show in the final product. A lot of NiGHTS really doesn’t make sense – one minute you’re riding on a Toboggan, the next you’re bouncing off mattresses, or getting shot through cannons.

Yes somehow this randomness works,creating a beautifully surreal game that’s full of abstract dreamlike imagery. Coupled by an incredibly uplifting soundtrack, NiGHTS is simply an utter joy to play, and even if you never master it, it’s hard to not to enjoy your time playing it.  

A new HD coat brings NiGHTS visuals to life like never before.

Sega obviously feels the same way, because this new update has been handled with deft kid gloves. It’s effectively the PS2 version given a high-definition sheen, meaning you get an excellent new version of the game with remodelled 3D polygons, greatly detailed environments and numerous extras that range from a gallery of promotional art to videos, including an insightful reflection from Iizuka about the game’s original creation.

Christmas NiGHTS is also included, although it does lack the ability to play as Sonic and a smattering of other little extras. There are also numerous subtle differences between the two games, meaning you can’t always pull of the same runs that you can in the Saturn original, but as a near perfect version is included it becomes something of a moot point anyway.

The inclusion of online leaderboards is also a massive bonus, giving high score fans something to continually chase.

Joe Danger 2: The Movie is old-school in both its gameplay and the way it communicates its world and rules to players.

If you remember the days when games merely started, handed you a gun/skateboard/sword and told you to get on with it, then you’ll be right at home.

If you’re more accustomed to being babied through the openings of games however, then there’s a very real chance the opening 20 minutes might culminate in more violence outside the screen than in it.

It’s infuriating in the way that only videogames can be. ‘Come on’, you think, ‘it’s just Tony Hawk via Trials with some wacky vehicles’.

Then you start, you die, you restart, you’re not told how to do any tricks, stuff keeps killing you ALL THE TIME, you finish the level and see your friends’ scores and weep softly.

How did they get 45 million on a level, when you can’t break a single million? You cry, then you get better, or you quit. Just like old times. Screw Joe Danger 2 The Movie, screw its stupid name, I don’t know what I’m doing and it’s not helping me. It’s the game’s fault, not mine.

In a way, that’s true. Joe Danger 2 could really do with a dedicated tutorial mode, just to ease you in. Stretching these lessons out across 2-3 hours of play time seems like a good idea, but really it is confusing and irritating.

Especially when you consider that unlike the original Joe Danger there’s a multitude of vehicles, each with different handling and even gameplay styles to pick up and learn. 

And then you realise that the game actually is babying you in, it’s just that your friends are better than you and that burning hatred of the game is in fact an unstoppable desire to better them if it takes your forever and a day.

Like we said: old-school. Not perfect, nor particularly elegant, but there is some logic there.

Because Joe Danger isn’t about finishing the six chapters that comprise movie mode (and the even more difficult 'deleted scenes' that follow), nor getting big scores as you do so. Those levels are your lessons, in both how to play the game and understand its layers.

Prepare for some sleepless nights and the odd broken pad with Joe Danger 2: The Movie.

The little reminders you get at the end of the stage about how insignificant your score is are to be ignored, for now. It’s about beating your friends, and user-unfriendly as it is to get essentially no assistance at the start of the game, soon you’ll have learned the ropes and be ready to challenge.

Most new games are about constantly going forward. Joe Danger is about going back, learning the rules and then challenging, not having it all handed to you on the first run. 

Each of the movie mode chapters comprises a different theme (Indy-style minecart races, futuristic jetpack jaunts) and each has a different set of levels and vehicles to suit.

And then each of those levels has different rules to adhere to and insta-death pitfalls to avoid.

This initial complexity is bewildering, frustrating, and then finally freeing. Because, like the old Tony games, the best runs are about mixing both your individual flair with the rules of the game.

Once this penny drops the game becomes infinitely more enjoyable, and those high scores, once gargantuan and unattainable, are up for grabs if you’ve got what it takes.

This being a sequel, Hello  Games has added more features, for both good and ill. The upside should be that there’s more variety in the levels you play and how you approach them: after all, isn’t skiing away from an avalanche about as far away from riding a unicyle as you can get?

In theory yes, but in practice some of the new vehicles dilute the experience. The jet pack doesn’t really suit the game’s style, hilarious as it is, and it’s inherently floaty handling coupled with the close camera doesn’t tally with a game that’s all about control.

 Other vehicles fare better. We’re fans of the unicylce and the constant battles to stay upright, but functionally there’s no real difference between the skis and the minecart.

Aesthetically it’s a nice change of pace, but we’d have preferred to have stayed on the motorbike to be honest, and we’d also have preferred more straight out trick fests, without the environmental interruptions and constant deaths.

Your mileage may vary, but we know that when it all comes together and you’ve learned the stages, the pitfalls, the jumps, the grenade bounce heights and the best trick spots, when you’ve learned how to keep a combo going for an entire level and get all the mini stars, and when you’ve realised that the game isn’t purely about pace and never really was, that’s when Joe Danger starts to sing.

If you’re buying it to play on your own, we’d be tempted to tell you not to bother: global leaderboards are featured of course, but this is a game about competing against friends.

Like illustrious forbears in the Score Attack/Total Frustration genre, Joe Danger 2: The Movie will annoy as much as it delights. Don’t be fooled by the cutesy graphics and sound, Hello Games wants you dead and the levels it built are happy to oblige.

There and there are times when you'll consider that maybe, despite your endless improvements, the deck is stacked against you too much, and we can't help but feel Hello has gone wide when it could have gone deep, adding more tricks rather than more vehicles. 

If you're the competitive type however, then meet Joe. He's a right bastard, but you'll warm to him.

Remember when games were fun? Remember when you didn’t need to destroy the Eiffel Tower to make something exciting? Remember Jet Set Radio?

Of course we can reminisce all we like, but as you’ll find out in our Jet Set Radio HD review, if a game was great then in all likelihood it’ll still be great years down the line.

The trick is knowing the difference between classic gameplay and a rose-tinted dream of days gone by.

So it helps that Jet Set Radio is still an extremely enjoyable experience. Sega’s combination of quirky characters, catchy tunes and bright visuals hasn’t dulled at all over the years and is still as playable now as it was then.

For those who don’t remember the glory days of Dreamcast gaming, Jet Set Radio still remains one of Sega’s most popular franchises, sitting alongside Shenmue and Panzer Dragoon as games in desperate need of a sequel.

But what makes Jet Set Radio so important? Well, at the time it was fresh – it provided a whole new type of gameplay, utilised a then new cel-shading engine and pumped in a mixture of noise and colour rarely seen in videogames these days.

See Jet Set Radio HD in action.

Jet Set Radio HD is largely unchanged, which is as much a blessing as a curse. Can we praise a game for being exactly the same? Should we?

Turns out we can.

This is mostly thanks to the work done on Jet Set Radio HD’s fantastic high-def conversion, touting widescreen HD-tele compatibility, higher-res UI elements and spruced up textures. It helps, too, that Jet Set Radio’s unique cel-shading style keeps it looking fresh, even after all these years.

If you recall the Dreamcast original, however, you’ll likely remember its awkward camera. Mercifully – with the addition of a second analogue stick – those worries are long gone.

This is perhaps the most important new feature of Jet Set Radio HD, resolving those frustrating rotating camera issues of the original in favour of something more fitting for a game all about movement and style.

Admittedly character control can still feel a little clunky, which was always going to be a problem for a 12 year-old game, but get back into the groove, however, relearn the tools Jet Set Radio provides and you’ll soon be tearing up Shibuya-cho once again.

Fans will already know the feeling of a perfect extra large tag.

Best of all – and this is no understatement – is the full inclusion of the original soundtrack. While it encapsulated a lot of the music culture of Japan at the time, it still remains one of the most inventive and original setilsts for a videogame yet.

It’s impossible not to enjoy a game when the likes of ‘Bout The City, Sweet Soul Brother or Let Mom Sleep are blaring out alongside the gorgeous cartoon visuals.

It’s a collection of songs that’ll be bouncing around your head for weeks after hearing them again, especially Humming The Bassline – which you’ll recognise from the character select screen.

In other words: Jet Set Radio is back. Everything that made it a classic remains: the sounds, the visuals, the characters – it’s all here, and now in HD.

Existing fans perhaps won’t have that sense of originality they had when they first played it all those years ago, but nostalgia is a powerful feeling. For everyone else, however, it’s every bit as fresh and playable as it was way back when, and there’s little more praise to offer than that.

With a fantastic HD conversion, almost every tune from the superb original soundtrack and oodles of intriguing bonus videos with developer commentary, this is perhaps Sega’s greatest HD remake yet.

Now we just wait for Shenmue HD...

Back when Harmonix first came up with the idea for Guitar Hero, its plastic guitars felt like the rhythm-action genre had finally found its logical conclusion, while the evolution to Rock Band only cemented the idea by putting every conceivable rock instrument in the hands of the player.

Amplitude and Frequency, as much as we loved them, were a thing of the past. Or so it seemed. With Rock Band Blitz, Harmonix has thrown away the plastic instruments, returning to an Amplitude style of gameplay that, crucially, draws upon your existing Rock Band song catalogue for a gargantuan pool of music from the moment you start the game.

For Rock Band purists, the removal of instruments might seem like a step backwards at first and, in fact, the game is certainly much easier to play than its bigger brother.

But there is something undeniably satisfying about the joypad-only control scheme. Note charts use only two buttons, one on the left of the controller and another on the right, so tapping out a rhythm with two thumbs feels as natural as table drumming to a favourite tune.

Tone-deaf tune-murderers who traditionally shy away from the mic will also be relieved that vocals now play out with button presses, so you can play to the singer’s rhythm rather than trying to hit the notes.

Perfect for those of us who can’t help dancing to the lyrics. Once you’re in the swing of things, you’ll be zipping flawlessly along the note tracks in no time, though it does take a while to get out of the typical Rock Band mindset of ‘perfecting’ a track.

Yet neither does it really play like Amplitude either. While the latter game was about constructing a song by effectively plate-spinning track sections, Blitz plays the entire song no matter what, and it’s your job to play along, with successful notes boosting the volume of the track, and there’s no fail state.

The real game, then, isn’t about completing a song but is about scoring as many points as possible. Each note track has its own score multiplier that is levelled up by hitting a certain number of notes in a section, but there’s also an overall level cap on the multipliers.

So if you get to a checkpoint in the song and one of your tracks is on a low multiplier, the overall level cap will only increase by a minimal amount. Successful Blitz players therefore have to jump between tracks frequently to keep all of the multipliers topped up, which certainly goes against natural Rock Band instincts but does make sense after a while.

This being a leaderboard game, Rock Band Blitz is all about the pursuit of the high score, and there are a number of strategies for how to crack that on the basic level of simply learning a song’s nuances and knowing exactly when to concentrate on one note track over another, but then there are also power-ups to contend with.

It's been a long time since we dusted off our Rock Band gear, but it was well worth it.

For each tune, players are able to equip up to three power-ups that introduce new subsets of rules to the game. Some are simple score multipliers while others are a little more extravagant, such as a pinball that wipes out any note it hits and can be kept in play by catching it at the bottom of the screen.

There’s no right or wrong way to choose a set of power-ups, though it largely comes down to your own playstyle as well as which combination seems best suited to each song, so there are tons of tactical approaches to every single tune, adding an almost endless replay factor, which Harmonix capitalises on exceptionally.

Using more than just the Xbox Live friends list and leaderboards, Harmonix has linked Rock Band Blitz with its Rock Band World Facebook app so that friends can easily send each other challenges or even engage in co-op missons set by Harmonix itself. Multiplayer is handled asynchronously, so score attack challenges can be tackled at your leisure and repeatedly within the given time limit.

The way Harmonix encourages community play – by placing an in-game currency charge on the use of power-ups and offering the biggest coin payouts to those who engage with other players – is sure to rile a few traditionalists, but there’s no denying that it does motivate players to connect with others more than they normally would and this, in turn, increases the enjoyment.

It's just like old school Rock Band.

If proof were ever needed that social gaming features can both exist without ripping off gamers and be used to enrich an experience then Rock Band Blitz is it. When the motivating factor of the social functions collide with obsessive high-score chasing and the tactical possibilities of Harmonix’s game design, Rock Band Blitz really becomes something special: compulsive, rewarding and utterly enthralling.

Just as the original Rock Band sapped hours of time away as players became lost in music, so too does Blitz, tapping into several primal parts of the brain at once. The combined result is dangerously addictive, and is more potent the more Rock Band songs you already have sitting on your hard drive.

Such is the extent to which it breathes new life into your oldest tracks. After a rocky couple of years for rhythm-action, in which Guitar Hero came to an end and Rock Band 3 failed to repeat the retail success of its predecessors, it’s fantastic to see Harmonix back on top with a game that reinvigorates the genre in new and interesting ways.

But, more than that, it’s just great to have an extremely playable reason to return to some old favourite songs.

Screenshots really don’t do Dust: An Elysian Tail any justice whatsoever. Take a quick glance at this page and you’ll more than likely come away with the impression that Dust is a slightly up-market Flash-based platformer with shoddy characters and dull gameplay.

This couldn’t be further from the truth and if you’re willing to go out on a limb, and we seriously suggest that you do, you’ll find something a game that’s incredibly special.

Dust: An Elysian Tail has gathered quite a following over the course of its development and for two very good reasons.

Firstly, in motion it’s one of the most striking and beautifully animated games you’ll see on XBLA and secondly, it was developed pretty much single-handedly by one man, Dean Dodrill.

Dust’s animated movie past is clearly evident in Dean’s character design and voice acting. It might be the usual story of an amnesiac hero on an unknown quest joined by a perky sidekick and a talking sword (maybe not that last one), but Dust is filled with charm, knowing dialogue and laughs that make it difficult not to fall in love with everything about it.

It’s an action RPG, though, and that means you’ll spend a lot of your time engaging with the world’s foes in some of the most spectacular and frantic combat we’ve seen for a while.

Completing quests, finding chests and killing enemies all reward you with XP that can be spent upgrading your abilities, but it’s the way Dust: An Elysian Tail focuses the bulk of its action on the screen-busting attacks that draws you in.

Combat here is intuitive, fun and easy. In fact, on the Normal difficulty level, we’d hazard to say it’s too easy, but Dust’s huge playtime more than makes you work for those rewards.

It’s hard to find fault with Dust’s early levels. They’re interspersed with colourful characters, funny dialogue and some excellent battles, but fatigue does settle in and its action becomes samey and stagnated.

It’s testament to Dean’s writing and characterisation that it’s Dust and Fidget (the little orange flying thing) that you’ll want to return, just to spend time with them. And it’s time very well spent indeed.

Hybrid splits players into red and blue factions who then battle it out for reasons neither clear nor important enough to go into.

Its gameplay hook is that, rather than do the straight-up third-person shooter thing – small walls, shoot from cover – 5th Cell has attempted to inject some dynamism by gluing cover points to walls and ceilings, and provided players the means to rocket-pack between them using a single button.

It demands some rather unusual controls. Controls that took a bit of getting used to. Meanwhile Hybrid has a tendency to shaft you with enemy players who – and bear in mind this is on day one of the game’s release – are already level 29 and have unlocked all manner of dickish shooters to torture you with.

Slowly, but surely, you'll learn how to win even with so many experienced players in the room. We just hung back at the spawn and steered well clear of the crossfire, which, though killing some of the excitement, was preferable to our heads rupturing 20 times in a row without a kill.

On paper, with a huge amount of weapons to unlock and some fun killstreak awards, Hybrid’s certainly got the nads to provide a lasting challenge. But that’s not going to be Hybrid’s problem.

Hybrid’s problem is that with so many other deeper, longer-lasting experiences out there (and though some people might take a chance to spend 1200 MSP for a quick COD-holiday), few players are likely to stick around for more than a week or so, giving Hybrid a very definite shelf life.

Ultimately, problems for an XBLA multiplayer shooter begin as soon as boredom creeps into the general population – something which doesn't look to be happening quite yet, but is only a matter of time.

During these, its sprouting days and weeks, its population is at zenith and yet soon it will be relinquished to the ownership of the type of enduring and slightly weird fan who still makes regular posts on the Naughty Bear Facebook page.

Like tuna salad in the sun, Hybrid is good to go as we write, but it’s a case of eat it now or eat it never.

No matter how far zombie mythology shuffles into the mainstream, it seems it will always have one foot firmly planted in the past.

Though George A. Romero’s Night Of The Living Dead skulked into cinemas in 1968, the full force the walking dead would have on the public conscious would not be felt until the Seventies and Eighties, and in many ways the films that were released across those years would go on to define the flesh-eaters that Romero created.

The nightmares they induce, even today, are palpable and as scary as they have ever been, but there’s just no escaping the nostalgia they carry.

Deadlight, from Tequila Works, taps directly into this nostalgia by setting its zombie outbreak back in the Eighties. Perhaps it’s because we grew up watching the classic horror films of the time, but there’s something eerily fitting about placing zombies and Eighties Americana alongside each other.

It's something Tequila Works attempts to get a lot of mileage out of too, showcasing familiar scenes of zombie destruction. Deserted city streets, burning buildings and the creepy quiet of an empty suburb, all go a long way to making Deadlight feel an authentic zombie experience.

They’re not called zombies, though. They’re called Shadows, which is rather fitting as Deadlight’s side-scrolling platform action utilises light and dark to create an evocative silhouetted experience.

Tequila manages to squeeze a lot of huge vistas out of its 2D gameplay, but it could have really pushed Deadlight’s design.

It works as if Prince Of Persia and Limbo were crossbred, but the resulting gameplay isn’t nearly as impressive as that combination implies.

It’s an art style that suits the sombre tone of Tequila’s game perfectly, but it comes at a cost. With only two directions of travel, left and right, Tequila’s three-dimensional environments are often deceptively complex. Enemies can shuffle onto the player’s plane; only it’s rarely clear when they’re a danger.

Deadlight wants to think of itself as the Flashback of XBLA, mixing survival horror gameplay, complicated action and a heavy character focus to pull players into its world.

It just about succeeds in doing this, but the experience stumbles in a few key areas. As we’ve said, the perspective Deadlight forces you into plays a big part in this.

It’s generally offset by a number of fantastic moments of panic, as the Shadows slowly make their way towards you while you struggle with a puzzle, but these are scattered far too thinly.

After establishing such a depressing setting, true to zombie lore, Tequila drags players underground and into the sewer systems below Seattle.

It’s a move that sees Deadlight lose focus as it attempts to force players through intricate puzzles. The major issue that muddies what should be a really enjoyable experience is the way in which Tequila’s setting limits the side-scrolling gameplay.

Zombies are hungry and want to eat your face, body and every other bit that’s got meat on it.

There are only so many times you can jump through a window, or over a rooftop or a car before you’ve exhausted most of your options. Fans of the genre will be more accepting of the logical inconsistencies that the side-scrolling world throws up, too.

Getting stuck in a corner and eaten alive right next to a staircase that’s inaccessible because it’s in the background highlights the limitations of genre.

The problem is, Tequila fails to fully explore the possibilities that its setting does have and by the time the game wraps up, you’ll be left wondering why it bothered to establish some of its mechanics at all.

What does work, and what raises this out of average platformer territory, is Deadlight’s manipulation of its style and setting. Games like Flashback and Prince Of Persia worked as well as they did because their platforming went hand-in-hand with the design of their worlds.

The same is true of Deadlight. With its Eighties setting, bleak locations and wonderfully dark scenarios, it feels more at home with the Romero zombies of the past and follows in Limbo’s footsteps, only just falling shy of hitting the same highs.

Tequila’s art and platforming really do elevate the whole experience. Puzzles remain simple, but it’s the constant threat of flesh-eaters bursting through a door that keeps the pressure on.

Deadlight’s a dark game, but things don’t get much darker than this.

You’re never truly safe and one zombie can take you out easily if you find yourself unarmed and unprepared. Weapons include axes, pistols and shotguns, but ammo is, quite rightly, scarce.

Deadlight forces you to think around the zombies in front of you instead of tackling them head on. And that’s the beauty of distilling the zombie experience into a platformer.

Though it really should have pushed its gameplay and setting harder, Deadlight’s adherence to zombie lore and classic platformin - that’s not often seen these days - makes this one of the few zombie games on XBLA worth your time.

Xbox Live Arcade has become a breeding ground for twin-stick zombie shooters that consistently go for the headshot rather than building on the tension and scares that are inherent in any true zombie experience.

It’s refreshing to see Deadlight offer an alternative, and it does so with obvious care and attention. That it stumbles slightly shouldn’t put you off, this still has more than enough bite.

Wreckateer is Kinect’s version of the incredible iPhone success story, and soon to be rulers of the world, Angry Birds. Unfortunately, Wreckateer isn’t anywhere near as good, despite showing some genuine promise with Kinect’s motion control.

Here, those dastardly pigs have been replaced with the far less irritating Goblins – the true victims of the piece. The charming stone and wood huts have been replaced with fully realised 3D castles.

What could possibly go wrong? Angry Birds’ formula is so simple, not even Kinect could mess it up, right?

Well, while Kinect isn’t the sole issue faced by Wreckateer, its fussy implementation of motion control does go a long way to exacerbating the few problems that are present.

First things first though, Wreckateer does manage to surprise with some clever twists on the Angry Birds template. As you play, you’ll unlock a substantial number of projectiles each with unique abilities and, like the different kinds of birds, each one has to be carefully considered.

Problems arise with Wreckateer’s basic physics system that make the castle demolitions feel perfunctory and never quite as reliant on the random post-shot success that makes Angry Birds so much fun to play. Destruction never feels quite as organic as it should, too.

It seems like a waste of time to destroy an entire castle just because some Goblins have moved in.

Wreckateer is also annoyingly insistent that it holds your hand. Two irritating characters fail to ever shut up and it can often feel like it has a misplaced sense of duty to offer a game with more production values than necessary.

A simple game like this really doesn’t need a fleshed-out medieval world. The gameplay is also frustratingly stifled, too, with the HUD constantly updating you on your progress after each shot making every level a drawn-out affair. Nothing like the quick, instant, thrill of Angry Birds.

When Wreckateer does let you play, though, you’ll find a perverse joy in smashing down those castles and discovering the most efficient way to cause the maximum amount of carnage.

Kinect’s implementation, rather surprisingly, isn’t the defining factor that drags Wreckateer into irritating territory. That has to be a first for the motion controller, but it’s nothing to be applauded.

Man, we’ve missed Tony Hawk. The retired skater’s digital doppelganger might have spent the last few years languishing in peripheral Hell but things started to go wrong long before that.

The Underground games strayed too far into Jackass territory with their stunts, pranks and half-naked fatties; Proving Ground got bogged down in unnecessary complications; American Wasteland was just too punk for its own good.

In fact, pretty much every extreme sports game after Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 lost sight of what it was that made those early games so amazing: purity.

So wave goodbye to natas spins, spine transfers, reverts and the like, because Robomodo has dialled back the core mechanics of Tony Hawk HD to reflect the simpler time in which these skate parks were first released into the wild.

Veteran players will miss a few such features to begin with, of course. But once you start learning to play by the game’s rules rather than crying over the loss of those that have been established since, you’ll find there’s still oceans of potential for leaderboard-busting scores.

The game’s critics have suggested that this streamlined approach is bad for the combo system, but the opposite is true – it makes you scout for lines that work with your limited toolset and constantly think about what you’re doing rather than just relying on a safety net of ‘easy mode’ features that basically play the game for you.

Hawk's famous 'The 900' move returns, naturally.

Skilled players can still post scores in the millions and find combo lines that span entire levels so for those critics, we have a counter-suggestion – you’re just rubbish at Tony Hawk's.

And the combo potential isn’t based purely on what tricks you can or can’t do, anyway – it has as much to do with where you can or can’t do them.

The seven levels are the supposed highlights from the first two games, contained skate parks expertly designed to offer countless lines and paths that can be exploited with deft combinations of vert tricks, grinds, manuals and wall-rides.

It’s an odd selection, truth be told – Venice Beach is quite a bitty stage and Downhill Jam is, frankly, a mess but the likes of Warehouse, Hangar and Marseille hold up just as well today as they did back in the day.

Bullring or Roswell would have been nice additions over the weaker levels, but there’s more than enough life in the stronger ones to keep you playing… well, forever.

You’ll have to unlock them all first, mind. A reasonable quota of the ten goals per stage must be cleared to unlock the next, with progression also dropping extras in the form of play modes.

These are as close as Tony Hawk’s HD comes to innovation (not that creativity was ever going to be the strong point of a remake), and all three are surprisingly strong.

There are few purer tests of gaming skill that Tony Hawk at its best.

The obnoxiously-named Big Head Survival curses players with perpetually inflating heads, forcing them to trick and combo in order to quell the swell and score big, while Hawkman lays down paths of coloured pellets that must be collected with the relevant trick types under strict time limits (and ideally in one combo, for ultimate kudos).

But it’s Projectives that wins out, a super-tough encore after clearing all the regular goals that slashes the regular two-minute timer in half and blasts score targets into orbit, asking much more of your fingers and thumbs than anything that comes before it. Much more. You’ll see.

In some aspects of its design, though, there’s certainly an argument to be made that Robomodo has stuck a little too faithfully to Neversoft’s original formula.

Physics are maybe even worse than they were first time around, bail animations often sending skaters on gravity-defying flights or glitching them out of the world entirely, plus the engine is strict as they come – fall just too far or land at a slightly jaunty angle and the game will ruthlessly send you for a tumble, but it wouldn’t be a Tony Hawk game without that kind of risk and potential frustration hanging over every combo.

It’s a game about greed, basically. A game about pushing yourself and taking risk after risk in search of a score to wear with pride. A game about restarting seconds into a run because something wasn’t quite right. A game about restarting seconds into a run even when everything is fine out of habit. A game about showing your mates who’s boss with numbers so high that they sprain their necks just trying to look up at them.

Collectible objects litter each Career lever, often laid out to suggest combo lines you should try.

And while local multiplayer is sadly missed in that regard (Horse mode in particular), online options and addictive leaderboards do their best to make up for it.

Get ready to swear at the God-awful 360 D-pad and work your thumbs to the bone protecting your leaderboard dignity, then – the Birdman is back, baby.

Puzzle games have had a rough ride these last few years. Back in the day, a decent puzzle game could justify the same asking price as FIFA or Need For Speed. But as soon as download services came onto the scene, the poor old puzzler felt the pinch worse than any other genre.

The very idea of a game like Bejeweled releasing at full price became laughable almost overnight and now, even the notion of paying around a tenner or less for simple games is starting to grate.

Free online games, indie bargains, iPhone and Android greats that cost less than a bag of crisps… the climate has changed once again and while a great puzzle game might still be able to command a fair price, Zuma’s Revenge isn’t one.

No, it’s a port of the three-year-old PC sequel to match-three ball-blaster Zuma, a Live Arcade veteran whose brutal difficulty spikes and random colour sequences mean we still haven’t finished it some five years after release. Revenge, on the other hand, was put to bed with no supper in under five hours, all seen.

It’s been brewed to pretty much the same recipe, just with all of the challenge siphoned off and game-breaking new power-ups and abilities sprinkled liberally into the mix.

The end result is not so much a game you play as one that just happens while you hold a controller and while the original challenged you to simply reach the credits (which precious few of us ever did), Revenge seems to think that players will want to approach it as a score attack game.

The new laser power-up is useful for eliminating single annoying orbs.

But in truth, the mechanics and gameplay just aren’t strong enough for that to add lasting appeal, or to even work properly.

For starters, score bonuses at the end of each level are largely based on completion time. Which, in turn, depends almost entirely on the starting colours both on the board and loaded into Mr Frog.

Get lucky and there’s a huge bonus in it for you; get screwed over by a useless chain of single colours and you’ll be lucky to even beat the target time.

Similarly, Spirit Animals add abilities that can help boost your score but with no skill or strategy – it’s just a case of grinding Adventure mode until you’ve got them all.

Devoid of challenge and with next-to-no lasting appeal, Zuma’s Revenge is worse than the original in pretty much every way. And twice the price. Hop along now, Zuma. You’ve had your day.

Death comes often and quickly in Spelunky. Bitten by spiders, crushed by boulders, eviscerated by arrows, blown-up by bombs, spewed on by mummies, chewed to death by piranhas – the list of ways you can die is as long as they are funny to watch.

Indeed, just lasting for just five minutes in Spelunky is an achievement to be proud of – it can be finished in eight if you’re good enough – and it’s a testament to Derek Yu’s skill as a designer that when you do die in Spelunky (and you will) you never feel cheated over it.

If you are unaware of the original PC game on which Spelunker is based, allow us to give you a brief breakdown. Your aim is to simply explore numerous environments ranging from Ice Caves to Mines and Temples, while hovering up as much treasure as possible.

Each area is split into 4 levels, while numerous items can be found and bought along the way, which will make your survival in the dank caverns that little bit easier.

Aside from its extremely tight controls (which have been greatly improved over the PC original) Spelunky’s brilliance lies in its randomly generated levels, meaning it feels fresh and challenging every time you return to it. And it certainly is a challenge.

There are no save points in Spelunky, no respites, and even the ability to unlock level shortcuts is a double-edged sword, as you’ll rarely have the equipment to handle the tough challenges found on them.

Like Demon’s Souls though, you’ll learn from those many deaths, and will get ever closer to Spelunky’s end every time you return to it.

Should you get stuck in Spelunky, dropping a bomb will give you an alternate new route.

And you’ll certainly want to reach its end, as exploring the always-changing levels of Spelunky is a joy unto itself. Mossmouth has hidden all sorts of amusing and useful secrets in Spelunky’s cavernous innards, and it’s this discovery of the unknown that keeps you pressing ever forward; even when you’ve died for the fortieth time in a row.

Add in an enjoyable multiplayer mode that allows you to explore the caverns locally with friends, and Spelunky easily becomes one of the best platformers of recent years, and certainly the best on Xbox Live Arcade.

The new visual look lacks the charm of the PC original, but it’s a small quibble when you consider the utter brilliance found underneath. An essential platformer that sets exciting new standards for the genre.

Side Kick’s latest game wants to be a fast-paced action game. Unfortunately, it’s been released on Kinect…

Make no mistake there’s actually a fun, if admittedly simple, game lurking beneath Mini Ninjas’ cute and colourful exterior. What a pity then that Kinect just isn’t able to offer the frantic chaotic experience that Side Kick was obviously shooting for.

The aim of Mini Ninjas Adventures couldn’t be simpler: you must negotiate 21 levels, while taking down as many adversaries (along with the occasional boss) as possible.

The action takes place across three distinct planes, and you’ll use three different weapons in order to beat the ninjas found on each. Your bow manages anything in the distance; throwing stars take out any enemies on the middle plane; and your sword will dispatch anyone found in the front row.

It’s a clever system, as new waves of enemies will constantly appear and you’ll have to switch between weapons in order to bring them all down.

The problem though is that Kinect just isn’t fast enough or accurate enough to do this as efficiently as the game requires. We lost count of the times we couldn’t hit ninjas in the back row because our arrow gestures would suddenly go undetected and even recalibrating the controller made no difference.

Kick an enemy to either stun them, or send them to the back of the playing area.

You also need to make slow deliberate gestures to ensure the best possible results (particularly when sword fighting), which goes against the frantic pace that the game wants to be played at.

This in itself is something of a pity, because the core concept of Mini Ninjas Adventures is actually a lot of fun. Yes it gets repetitive, but there’s a lot of charm in the characters you encounter, while Side Kick has done a good job at introducing different types of magic (our favourite being the screen-killing Earthquake move that’s activated by jumping) enemies and power-ups to keep even the youngest gamer entertained.

Side Kick has even added mini-games, but they’re bland and throwaway, asking you to do little more than repeat the base moves ad nauseum.