Dr. Wily has seen the error of his evil ways and has resumed working with Dr. Light to produce their robots. In order to prevent future problems, they build Gamma, a large battle robot designed to keep order. However, their latest batch of robots go haywire and the scientists need Mega Man to retrieve eight power crystals them.

Once again, the "blue bomber" is faced with eight themed platform shooty levels which can be tackled in any order. New abilities can be gained from defeating renegade robots, and this time he is also joined by Rush, a robotic dog who can transform into handy vehicles. The game also features cameos from MM2 bosses and a new friend, Light's original creation Proto Man. Top Man, Hard Man, Gemini Man and Snake Man make an appearance here, among others.

Dr. Wily, believed dead after Mega Man 3, is back to take over the world, and this time he's being sneaky about it. He has kidnapped the daughter of robotics expert Dr. Cossack, and is blackmailing him into creating robot masters to attack Dr. Light. Light calls upon the services of his modified lab-bot Mega Man once again.

Eight robot masters, each with their own platformy level and weapon, are again to be faced by you as the titular hero. Jumping and shooting through the ranks of bad guys, Mega Man must utilise his plundered armaments and other modifications (such as a grappling hook and the ability to summon a robotic dog companion) to fell the masters and confront the evil doctor. New additions to the series include the Mega Buster, a modification that allows the hero to charge up shots for his standard arm cannon. The fourth in the series contains such gems as Dust Man, Skull Man, Pharoah Man and Bright Man.

Proto Man, Rock's (Mega Man's) "brother" and Dr. Light's prototype for the blue guy, has turned renegade and gathered a force of eight robots to destroy Light's work and take over the world. Shocked that his own flesh and blood (so to speak) could do such a thing, Mega Man nonetheless sets out to stop the rogues and bring his brother to justice.

So begins another Mega Man, with him venturing through the robot masters' platformy stages toward their guardians, disposing of monsters along the way with his cannon arm or weaponry adapted from previous encounters. Taking them in the right order can make life easier, as he can use abilities in one level to bypass or simplify parts of others. The latest addition to the Mega Man universe is Beat, a robotic bird thingy that can be called upon to peck hard-to-reach baddies to death. Gravity Man, Crystal Man, Stone Man and Gyro Man are just four of the bosses he'll have to face.

Robotics has spread to a wider audience, and a mysterious man known as Mr. X (hmm) plays host to a robot design competition. After selecting the eight most powerful bots, he reveals his true side and steals them for his world domination plans.

Mega Man must save the day again by defeating the eight robots in whatever order he sees fit, then tackling the final stages to face Mr. X. He can make use of his usual equipment (cannon arm, weapons taken from bosses) and Beat (robotic bird ally) to dispose of the things he encounters in the 2D platform worlds, but this time Rush has been given a bit of a makeover. The former robodog can now become an exoskeleton, imbuing our hero with extra strength or even allowing him to fly. The varied array of robot masters includes Plant Man, Tomahawk Man, Centaur Man and Yamato Man.

Many years have passed since the original Mega Man series, but Dr. Light had left a legacy for the future: X. An entirely new form of robot, one capable of having its own thoughts and feelings. Unsure as to the safety of such a being, he put the project on hold and left to be unearthed when proper testing could be done. But X's capsule was accidentally discovered by Dr. Cain, who used the technology to develop the next generation of robots, known as Reploids. Light's fears were realised when some went "Maverick" and started attacking humans. A squad of reploids was formed, the Maverick Hunters, to track down and neutralise the threats... until their leader Sigma turned Maverick also.

Now Sigma is holding the world to ransom in much the same Dr. Wily used to in the original series. As Mega Man X, you must face the eight Mavericks at the end of their stages, gaining a weapon from each as you do so. X's latest abilities include wall-climbing and dashing, skills which will help against the likes of Chill Penguin, Boomer Kuwanger and Armored Armadillo. Other than the fact that the bosses are no longer called "___ Man," it's the usual story: leaping about themed side-on stages, blasting robots with your chargable X-Buster arm cannon.

The universe was in chaos. A relentless force of coloured bricks fell across countless planets, destroying all that lay below. Salvation was at hand when three similar bricks accidentally aligned and exploded, inspiring the survivors to fashion a counterattack...

...That's why puzzle games generally don't do stories. Meteos is a classic coloured brick puzzler with a manic twist. The meteos descend at an alarming rate and cannot be moved horizontally or even at all while falling. Instead they must be slid vertically with the stylus in an attempt to create rows or columns of identical colours. When aligned they ignite, turning black and launching into the sky. More often than not gravity takes over again however, and further meteos must be launched into the airborne blocks to push them towards the safety of space. Different planets have different ignition styles and gravitational pull.

The world of Tallon IV was the ideal place for the advanced bird-like Chozo civilisation to settle and return to nature. There they lived in peace until one disastrous day when a meteor crashed into the planet, polluting it with radioactive phazon. Realising their predicament, the Chozo sealed the impact site away and left for pastures new. Many ages later, the massive source of valuable phazon was rediscovered and a research base set up in orbit around the planet. Bounty hunter and galaxy saviour Samus Aran receives a distress call from the facility, arriving just in time to see it destroyed by space pirates and the ominous form of Meta Ridley.

Now crashed on the surface of Tallon IV, Samus must track down Ridley and find a way off the planet. Exploring the world via a first-person viewpoint, Samus must find the equipment lost in the destruction and fight off the constant dangers of the mutated wildlife and the pirates themselves. As she progresses through the areas (including Chozo temples, magma-filled caverns, and vast ice plains) she finds both new and familiar equipment, such as extra blaster modes, navigation techniques, and the classic morph ball suit powerup. Other new discoveries include infra-red and X-ray visors with which to track and hunt her quarry.

A series of circuit boards are slowly being destroyed by bugs; the metal tracks are disintegrating. As Micro Mouse, you must navigate the circuits and escape via an interface cable at the bottom of each level, but you cannot leave if the board is damaged. The broken bits of circuit can be repaired by running over a red cross to pick up a piece of track, then running over the broken piece. Time is of the essence, as the track will continue to deteriorate until it becomes ruined.

A board of dice has been scrambled, and your task is to sort them out into order. One problem is that you can only move the dice by rotating a group of four, and only certain groups can be rotated. Another problem is that you have tight time and moves limits in which to sort out each board. Yet another problem is that some levels have two or three boards, and groups of dice have to be swapped between them to sort them out. The final problem is that there are one million levels to solve...

When information doesn't want to be free it sometimes needs a little push. In a sterile near-future utopia knowledge is a commodity, carefully monitored, filtered, and controlled by an omnipotent government. If somebody needs data transmitted safely and securely they have to turn to more traditional methods: couriers from the underground, operating beyond the scope of the law. Runners. This was Faith's chosen path, but when her sister is framed for murder she has to use her talents to clear her name.

Those talents being an intimate knowledge of "freerunning" and the athleticism to back it up. Mirror's Edge is an unusual mix of conflicting ideas. Everything is viewed from Faith's eyes and she can collect guns, making it technically a first-person shooter, but ideally she will use melee attacks to disarm and subdue. Each of the sprawling stages is effectively a point-to-point race, but there is no set path and no time limit. Faith must find her own route across the rooftops and environments of the city, running along sheer walls and leaping over obstacles that get in her way. The city is presented in a stylised mix of pure white and just one other colour per stage, with key items like pipes and vaultable objects highlighting in red as Faith draws near. Stopping for breath is not an option, so instead she must find the "flow" using these items and discover possible pathways in mid-stride.