What's that awful noise? A horrendous, mangled shrieking. A wailing and groaning punctuated by explosions of mocking laughter. Is some horrible torture taking place? No, unfortunately that's the sound of me playing the Pop Idol game very, very badly and being soundly ridiculed by a roomful of teenagers. Damn.

Every now and then a game comes along that is so original that it defies easy categorisation. Herdy Gerdy, developed by Tomb Raider creators Core Design, is one such game. You have to make controlled jumps like a platform game; likewise you need to collect items to progress to the next areas, again like a platform game. But the actual meat of the game is much more similar to that of a puzzle game. In fact at its heart, this plays very much like a glorified version of that early nineties classic,...

WARNING: This game is completely barking mad!

Dragon Tales - Dragon Seek is part of an evil plot by the powers that be to distort the fragile minds of children and turn them against videogames for good. You see Dragon Tales is a game aimed at very young kids, a cutesy, wutesy hide and seek game where you play either a nauseating boy or girl who go to the land of dragons to play with their little cute dragon friends.

Broken Sword for the PlayStation is a terrible game. It contains all the faults of the PC version with plenty more added due to it being such a terrible conversion. This was one of the first games to come out on the PlayStation and it is sure showing it ages. Clunky gameplay, horrific loading times, stupefying slow pace and unforgivable levels of frustration caused by lazy, glitchy gameplay all contribute to make this one of the most overrated and boring games ever.

I have to confess something. Disney films have always left me cold. While I can appreciate the stunning technical achievements and superbly crafted storylines, the actual end products have never really appealed to me even as a youngster. I like cack-handed, shoddy ''oh the kids will buy it'' licensed games based on Disney films even less. In fact I could go as far as to say they are probably the genre of game I like the least. So having put my biased cards on the table early on you probably won'...

First thing I want to clear up is that this game goes by aother name in the United Kingdom, over here it is known as Wu Tang: Taste the Pain. Just wanted to make that clear OK!

Ah worms, where to begin talking about a game so close to my heart? This simple, some might say primitive game that still exerts such a pull on gamers supposedly more into the million polygon delights of games like Shenmue, or long in-depth rpgs like Final Fantasy 9. Where then in this world for a simple 2D delights of Worms? A game that doesn't even support simultaneous multi player action. Surely it is better left to gather dust along with other relics of the PSX's early days.

After playing the dismal beat 'em up, Primal Rage I swore that no good fighting game could be created with dinosaurs in. Well on reflection, I was kind of right and kind of wrong. Jurassic Park Warpath is in no way a great beat 'em up in the traditional sense (ie. Measured against the likes of Tekken or Streetfighter). But it is an entertaining; slick and fun beat 'em up with added educational value. The game is based on the Jurassic Park films, which tell of a mad (ish) scientist who brings bac...

Tekken 3 is in my opinion the greatest fighting game ever on any system including its PS2 sequel and the migty Soul Calibur, yes I love it that much! Why?