Nintendo Wii, £35. Age 3+

This game brings together more than 35 characters from Nintendo games over the years. It is the third edition of Smash Bros, Nintendo’s popular beat-’em-up series. It mainly eschews the Wii’s motion-sensitive gimmickry in favour of the traditional gaming technique of bashing joypad buttons. This makes the controls simpler, athough some of the jumping moves are hard to execute. What really makes the game soar, however, is its imaginative touches – the endless new weapons and special powers make you want to come back to it again and again.

In common with many games there are two distinct modes: story mode, where each fight is linked by a narrative, and nonstory (or classic) mode, where the fights are one-off showdowns. In the former you must team up with the characters you have defeated to repel space-borne enemies, and this adds an extra dimension to the gameplay. You can also play online against up to three other real gamers.

Sega’s rival Sonic the Hedgehog is featured in addition to favourite Nintendo characters. It’s really no surprise to find that Mario and Sonic end up fighting.

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