Aliens are invading, and it's your job to stop them! Well, OK, I'll be honest. The Galactic Plague is a version of Galaga, itself a version of Space Invaders in which the aliens could swoop down towards you. The set-up is familiar: A wave of aliens slowly descending while moving horizontally at the top of the screen, and you at the bottom, firing up at them. At any time they may attempt to dive-bomb your ship, looping back up to the top of the screen if they miss.

Once again it is you vs the world in a space fight to the death with lasers and explosions. Hordes of alien fighters swoop and glide onto the screen in various twisting formations, and must be avoided and ultimately shot down before the next wave arrives. You are not alone, however, and can place two autoturret drones anywhere on the screen and rearrange them on the fly to create a wall of death. Each assault is preceeded by a stream of neon trails showing how and where the enemy will appear, allowing you to tactically arrange the drones moments before they are needed.

A full game release of the minigame from the Project Gotham Racing series. Geometry Wars is a played on a large grid viewed from the top down, and is a pure arcade blaster; death is inevitable, and all that counts is the pursuit of a high score. You play a ship capable of independent firing and motion (e.g. with two analog controls) while simple geometric enemies constantly warp onto the battlefield, increasing in number and frequency as time goes on. Any collision is fatal. Different enemies behave in different ways, such as green squares avoiding your shots and white circular "black holes" sucking everything in before exploding. The glowing neon styling and way the background ripples under the effect of gravity and explosions increases the visual complexity.

Games made to cash-in on a profitable film are often difficult to classify, featuring a mish-mash of different play styles. Ghostbusters is no different. First and foremost, you have to manage the Ghostbusters' finance, paying for traps and upgrades to your car with the fees you get from busting. Then it's off to an overhead view of the city, where you can find places under attack. Also on the map are an ever-converging set of ghosts. Should they meet, they will wreak havoc on the city. Busting consists of controlling two characters viewed from side-on, trying to coordinate the proton beams (don't cross them!) and set the trap to catch the ghosts. Undoubtably the best thing about this game is the karaoke-style rendition of the theme tune when it starts.

The PS2 rhythm action game compacted to PSP, with the addition of two new songs for the added Duet mode.

A very unique game indeed, and very difficult to boot. Your task is to destroy all ten of the reactors dotted around an isometrically-viewed island. Within an hour. To help you get around the place, you ride a combination motorbike and hang-glider. To get airborne in order to bomb the reactors, you have to ride down a two-square-deep hill to get the speed to take off. Unfortunately, while in the air you will be prone to attack from the laser turrets that guard the reactors. There is no way to cure the damage that they deal, the time is ever ticking, and there are never enough hills around when you need one.

Six levels, spread over three cities, await you in this violent and controversial arcade racer. Each level has a simple goal: to make a lot of cash. Exactly how this is accomplished is up to you, but it will involve breaking a few laws. Carjackings, hit-and-run "accidents" with the pedestrians, and homicidal "kill frenzies" with sub-machine guns will all help boost your cash, and a visit to one of the payphones dotted around the city will provide you with a high-profit mission. Viewed from overhead, the emphasis is on speed as the missions often feature tight time limits and the police will not tolerate your actions; frantic chases through the traffic and down the sidestreets are never far away.

Welcome to Liberty City! Double-crossed by the Columbians during a bank raid, you were left for dead until the police found you. Convicted and sentenced, you were on your way to prison when the escort was hijacked and you broke free. Now you have your liberty and an entire living city in which to enjoy it. So what are you going to do?

The Grand Theft Auto series is expanded into a fully 3D and coherent environment. No longer made up of distinct levels, the city is divided into three large districts which "open up" as you progress, and the whole thing flows to a sped-up day/night cycle. The missions which you run for gang heads are in a much more linear and scripted style than in previous outings, with only one or two open to you at any one time. Ultimately, however, it is up to you what you do and how you do it - as long as it's illegal. New opportunities include drive-by shootings, sniping from rooftops, or stealing a public service vehicle and moonlighting as a taxi driver or vigilante cop.

Liberty City: land of opportunity where the streets are paved with gold. Enter Niko Bellic, a war veteran quite literally fresh off the boat from eastern Europe to live the life of luxury with his cousin Roman. However, Roman's letters back home may have exaggerated a little bit and nothing is quite so simple. The real Liberty City is a hive of villainy and thick accents, where the golden streets are littered with the bodies of those who weren't careful.

Thus begins the cycle of violence and corruption, chronicling the exploits of Niko as he descends into the city's quagmire of random mayhem and organised crime. The experience is traditional to the series; exploring the city, preferably in someone else's car after dragging them out of the door, you alternate between causing chaos and leading the cops on city-wide chases and shootouts, and undertaking missions for the city's various low-lifes. Typical missions involve high-speed vehicular shootouts, gang warfare assaults, pickup and delivery of hot goods, and fleeing for your life from the LCPD the wrong way down a one-way street in a European import. Usually all at the same time. Enhancements to the play style let you take cover during firefights and navigate via GPS. The map also plays a crucial role in police pursuits: The fuzz search a perimeter around your last known location, so losing the tail means successfully escaping the search area without being seen. Many features were cut since San Andreas (there are no RPG elements, for instance) but the all-new Liberty City is a living, breathing entity with considerably more depth and detail than previous GTA outings. You can take time out from the story to cruise the city, visit an internet café to meet new people, and then take them out for drinks and a stand-up show. Or maybe take part in a street race and then celebrate by circling the Statue of Liberty in a stolen police helicopter and crashing in a fireball in Middle Park. Y'know.

Vice City, circa 1980. By day, bikini-clad rollerbladers weave through the crowds of pastel-suited yuppies lining the beachfront. By night, the rich and famous cruise in their sports cars through the neon-flooded streets. There's a lot of money out there, if you know where to look, and Tommy Vercetti knows where to look. Fresh out of prison, he was sent to Vice by his boss Sonny to close a major drugs deal, only to be set up. Now he has lost the money and the gear, and he's in major trouble. The only solution is to take control, and take over the city for himself.

So you, as Tommy, start off on the streets of Vice with little more than the shirt on your back. Fortunately, in true GTA style, anything else you want is there for the taking. As you pound the fully 3D streets (or preferably, steal someone's car and drive instead) you'll make new friends and enemies in the underground. These open up nonlinear missions featuring plenty of high-speed chases, police shootouts, assassinations, and general sociopathy. Using an expanded version of the GTA3 engine, Vice City features a much larger environment with a rich selection of vehicles (including bikes and helicopters) and enough weaponry to put the army to shame.

You play a criminal, striving to get noticed and make enough money to progress to the next of the three areas of city. Like its predecessor, the game is viewed from overhead, but this sequel introduces gang warfare. Each zone is populated by three gangs, as well as scores of innocent pedestrians and drivers, and increasingly powerful police forces. Quick cash and transportation can be gathered via carjacking or generally running amok, but the big money lies in playing the gangs. Missions can be attempted for each, and respect earned and lost by your actions. Whatever paths you take, there will inevitably be police inteference; expect citywide car chases, roadblocks, SWAT teams and even the army to get involved.