Who doesn’t love a bit of Bubble Bobble? Unlike the disaster that was Bubble Bobble Double Shot on DS, this version sticks to the endearing basics, and is all the better for it. ...

R2 is a tougher game to play than R1, which is hardly surprising as it’s little more than a continuation of exactly the same game. While a new set of character classes is introduced, they’re basically the ones from R1 with new skins and new names. ...

Here’s the thing: Crystal Defenders R1 and R2 have already been released for iPhone and Xbox Live Arcade as a single game. This of course begs the question “why the bloody hell are we paying 1,600 points to play both games?” No one likes being taken for a ride, and Square Enix is laughing in our faces while it lifts the cash from our wallets. ...

So, a real baseball or a digitised one? It’s really a question of circumstance. A sunny park and a few mates and you’ve got yourself a catch on. But what of rainy days? Or the friendless? Or those banned from public places after that misunderstanding with the dog last March? Developer Prope’s buoyant catch-’em-up is a year-round remedy for a grumpy face. ...

Time constraints meant that it was a toss-up between reviewing either this or Cocoto Platform Jumper, and it’s a damning indictment on Cocoto that Fish ’Em All! won out. Whereas Icarian (NyxQuest) and Let’s Catch are shining examples of what we love about WiiWare, this insipid, joyless, pointless nonsense makes us want to weep. ...

It couldn’t have gone worse for Activision if he had vomited at the mere mention of it. Quizzed on the Wii version of this very game, Transformers star Shia LaBeouf scornfully replied that the Wii was an “amateur console” and that he didn’t “mess” with it. Fighting talk! ...

“My eyes! My poor eyes!” This is what you’ll be crying after ten minutes of playing this superb reinvention of Pong. It’s unashamedly retro in all departments, from concept to sound and graphics, but the sheer speed of play and required concentration once you get a few levels in, coupled with the explosions of primary colours, issues you a one-way ticket to Migraine City. ...

Perhaps more than any other genre, puzzle games can be made or broken by seemingly superficial details in presentation. Little things, like the satisfying shatter of gems in Puzzle Fighter or the painful-sounding zap of matching skulls in Puzzle Quest, can really take a puzzle game from pretty good to fiendishly addicting. Recently, Peggle is an extreme example of this; what makes Peggle fun is literally everything except the actual gameplay ...

Sometimes a game comes along that we desperately want to like, even when all there is to go on is a handful of screens and a teaser trailer. Icarian (now NyxQuest) was one such game. We fell for its charming premise – a winged girl from the halls of Mount Olympus searching for Icarus after he fell from the skies having flown too near the sun – and we loved its delicious art style. ...

Oh cruel game, how you mock this poor baldy reviewer with your hairdressing theme. A grade one clippering for every person who worked on it. Personal affronts aside, this is really rather good. They say there’s a fine line between genius and madness and Zoonami are tip-toeing along it with what is surely the world’s first game where you style vegetables’ hair. Yeah, you read that right. ...