Dark Arena - Game Boy Advance

The plot is indescribably poor, involving a special forces agent, a large maze and a bunch of mutated organisms, but at the end of the day the truth of a good FPS is in the shootin’ and Dark Arena offers it by the bucketload.

Graphically the game is a little below par. Much of the scenery is bland and lacks any real definition (but maybe this is to be expected from a machine like the GBA?). But this shortcoming doesn’t detract from the shooting action however, though the use of the word "horde" on the back of packaging seems a little excessive--perhaps the phrase "medium-sized knot of monsters" would be more adequate.

Being a derivative of Doom means it’s always going to draw parallels to the older game and of the two on the Game Boy Advance, Doom has the edge in terms of gameplay--even if it’s only because the older game feels more comfortable than the newcomer. That said, for short bursts of high quality gun-gaming action, Dark Arena will certainly deliver.--Chris Russell