Mortal Kombat: Armageddon - Nintendo Wii

The lowdown:
This isn't another roaming beat `em-up, like Shaolin Monks, but rather a one-on-one beat `em-up that works as a sort of 3D Mortal Kombat Trilogy, with the main draw that it contains 60 different playable characters from throughout the series' history. In part this is to make up for the fact that the game hasn't really changed much from 2004's Deception - although there are new aerial combos and an improved parrying system. Oddly the number of different combat styles for each character has been reduced from three to two though and the once impressive graphics are starting to look a bit long in the tooth. It remains the most accessible 3D fighter around though and still does better at carrying on the original's legacy than many other franchise sequels.

Most exciting moment:
In order to make up for the lack of gameplay changes, Armageddon includes a huge range of extra options and game modes. The best is Konquest which is a lot more fun than the similarly named game mode in Deception, with a great little arcade adventure containing mountains of unlockables to use in the main game.

Since you ask:
Few of the other new options work as well as Konquest, with the Mario Kart style Motor Kombat being particularly dire. The Kreate-A-Fatality option is also a bit of a damp squib and the Kreate-A-Fighter is only slightly more interesting - and seems somewhat redundant considering how many characters are in the game already.

The bottom line:
An unnecessary sequel but one that's still hard not to have fun with.-HARRISON DENT