Wii Party borrows a similar template to former party-’em-up Mario Party, replacing Nintendo’s infamous cast of plumbers and princesses with your own band of colorful Miis. There’s a standard Party mode, which in one instance sees characters playing on luck with the dice to make their way up a perilous mountain. Along the way they can be hindered or boosted up the board by the likes of aerodactyles or totems who will fling you up the map.

Of course, it’s the mini-games where gamers are tested on their skills rather than their luck. The likes of Derby Dash are bound to bring back fond memories of taming Link’s steed Epona in Ocarina of Time, while Back Attack seemed to borrow a lot of inspiration from the likes of Bomberman.

Another play style is Pair Party, which asks you and a friend to work co-operatively – an example of this being Balance Boat. Perform well as a team in co-op minigames and you’ll be rewarded with smaller, lighter Miis who do little to rock the boat. Perform badly and you’ll be given taller, heavier Miis capable of capsizing your vessel.

It’s the House Party games which are bound to turn a few heads, as they transform the Wii Remote itself into a playing object rather than a means of control. Hide ‘n’ Hunt, for example, requires one player to hide the Remote in the room while others listen out for sounds emitting from its speaker. It’s the sort of gimmick that’s bound to have naysayers up in arms but it’s this kind of intuitive thinking that has us a little intrigued.

Wii Party is bound to be nit-picked at for its simplistic nature, as it’s hardly a polygon-crunching megaton boasting grandiose story-telling and a triple-A status. At the end of the day though, that really is missing the point here, as Wii Party does exactly as it says on the tin and even dares to think a little outside of the box, too. For that reason, we’re willing to accept Nintendo’s invite, even if we’re clearly going to make total fools out of ourselves in Flap Hurdles.

This makes DJ Hero 2 a pretty important game, then. There’s a lot of folk out there with a plastic turntable taking up cupboard space and barely a fresh tune to spin. DJ Hero’s DLC program has been sparse at least, and the wannabe scratch perverts out there need something new to test out their finely tuned rewinds and crossfader crabs.

DJ Hero 2, then, is quite firmly bringing the noise. There are 70 brand-new mashups to get your digits around, featuring the likes of Kanye West, The Chemical Brothers, Lady Gaga, Rhianna and even the mighty Metallica getting in on the mix. There are hosts of big name DJs too, with Tiesto joining Deadmau5 and DJ Q Bert to lay the beat-based smackdown on your speakers. So far, so good then, but is DJ Hero 2 actually bringing anything different to the party? Well, in short, yes it is. Freestyle games has been listening to all the feedback that the DJ Hero community has been spouting since the original game’s launch, and has gone to great lengths to ensure that DJ Hero 2 lives up to the public’s expectations.

The first major tweak is the inclusion of freestyle scratch sections. Whereas before, every part of a tune that involved a record being pushed up and down against the needle was scripted. You had to do it exactly how the note chart demanded, or fail. Now though, all songs have large freestyle sections that let you scratch to your heart’s content and, brilliantly, the software is able to recognize just what you’re doing, and make it sound good. Try it in real life, and you’ll end up with a broken needle, a broken record and the worst noise you’ve ever heard.

It makes the DJing experience feel more organic, because ultimately DJ Hero has very little in common with actually DJing, but it does push some of the same buttons in your brain (well, we assume so, not being DJs and all). The more freedom you have to create new music out of two concurrently playing records, the better. Sampling has been improved too. Not only is there a bigger selection of noises to incorporate into your mashups, but they’re much smoother and match the beats better. Again, making you feel more like a master.

And it’s a master DJ you will be if and when you manage to complete Empire mode, DJ Hero 2’s single-player campaign. You may remember DJ Hero’s rather lackluster effort, which just fed you a series of predetermined sets with little-to-no fanfare. Fine at the time, but Empire mode sounds that bit sexier. You start out as a zero, a bedroom DJ hoping for fame and fortune. With a bit of luck, some vicious scratching skills and bumping into the right people at the right time, you begin to build yourself up to superstar DJ level, eventually creating your own empire. Should add a nice bit of drama to proceedings.

The real drama though, will come when you’re battling your mates in DJ Hero’s improved multiplayer modes. Our hands-on time focused on battling, which splits every song into sections. The better you do in a section, the more points you rack up. You share freestyle sections too, and the first one to activate it gets to keep the freestyle going while his or her opponent just sits there looking glum. Predictably, it’s entertaining stuff, and injects DJ Hero 2 with a much-needed dose of competitive spirit.

That’s not the only way to jam together though. There’s full microphone support this time too, so if you have a USB mic left over from your We Sing sessions, you can plug it in and MC like a trooper. The words will hover at the top of the screen in classic Guitar Hero style, although they might sound a little strange considering they’ll be from two different songs. Should make for some rather amusing YouTube clips, though.

So, there’s plenty there to get stuck into, providing you already have the kit. Is DJ Hero going to be enough to convince nonbelievers into the fold, though? Well, it should be. Those who’ve lost faith in music gaming due to the oversaturation of Rock Band and Guitar Hero shouldn’t be put off – this is a very different animal indeed. It’s far more technical and demanding than the strum-happy guitar-based games, and you feel like far less of a loser when you’re playing it on your own.

It also works very well as a party game, just because the songs themselves are so well suited to gatherings. DJ Hero 2 will be no different, unless someone decides to get on the mic and unfortunately ruin it for everyone, of course.

DJ Hero 2 is shaping up to be the most essential music game this winter whether you have a turntable or not. Don’t let the ‘Hero’ moniker fool you, it’s very much a gamer’s game, full of score challenges and deep, technical wizardry. And of course, it’s the closest most of us will ever get to spinning the wheels of steel.

It’s a feat that has been surpassed only by the likes of Halo and Modern Warfare, simply for their contributions to gameplay and, of course, the staying power of their multiplayer hooks. And so here we are, over a decade later on the verge of a seriously compromising remake of the N64 classic, with Activision in at the wheel and original developers Rareware left gagged and handcuffed in the boot.

A few things to grin and bear, though. The original GoldenEye bond Pierce Brosnan has been replaced with Daniel Craig, the original story has been ‘modernized’ (albeit penned by the original writer Bruce Feirstein) and we’re slightly cautious to report that it’s all gone a little Modern Warfare.

From the mission briefing sequences, the in-game companion issuing orders (like a made to order Soap McTavish) and context-sensitive actions, Activision’s grubby mitts can be found all over this shooter. Even the target assist feels similar to Modern Warfare’s signature snap-targeting.

Of course, there are still some remnants of the original left intact. The dam level which opened the original now takes place in the dead of night, and a lot of the on-foot work has now been replaced with a truck ride completed with drive-by shooting and even a quick-time event. We even did a little bit of spy work, snapping pictures of a grounded helicopter. Ultimately we weren’t given much of the ‘disarm this’ or ‘apply proximity mines to that’, giving us the impression GoldenEye will be more of a hands-off rollercoaster ride than the original.

Single-player campaigns aren’t everything and for GoldenEye 007 that couldn’t be truer – the multiplayer was a time sink. Perhaps our memories of being crowded around a small TV, each sharing a quarter of it are faded but after a few rounds of traditional four-player deathmatches, we’re convinced it’s worth your time.

It serves as a testament to how far the multiplayer shooter has come. There’s no sign of trained army troops or well-oiled mercs, just spies and agents running around ruining their well-pressed suits. Deaths were a little too easy to achieve, and the small map we tried out meant there was rarely a moment where blood wasn’t dripping down the screen. Unbalanced? Maybe, but it still retains some of its former charm, and the promise of eight-player online matches, an XP system and an abundance of classic modifiers should seal the deal that Activision are cutting no corners with this one.

The good news is that those dreading the thought of using the Wii Remote and Nunchuk control method need not worry, as classic controller pro and Gamecube controllers are supported, along with the Wii Zapper if you’re feeling a little crazy.

GoldenEye 007 will be a sure-fire hit based on the name and promise of nostalgic gratification. There’s something of the N64 original still intact but built around it is a modern-day shooter. It’s not a bad thing. In fact, it has the potential to outshine others who have attempted to wave the shooter flag for the Wii before. But is it worthy of the GoldenEye name? The jury is still out on that one.

Yes, the Prince is indeed going back to Persia, and he’s taking his sands with him. And despite the upcoming movie, this is no tie-in. Ubi is adamant that The Forgotten Sands is brand-new original experience ‘built from the ground up’ (whatever that means), which utilizes both the Wii’s exemplary motion controls and the Prince’s new-found elemental abilities – it’s not just time that the Prince can manipulate.

Many puzzles and environmental hazards require you take control of water and wind as well as mastering your considerable athletic prowess. One devious puzzle sees the Prince having to actually freeze large bodies of water in order to progress.

The Prince has to use levers to activate water jets, which he then freezes to use as poles to spin on and then get to higher ground. It’s fantastically inventive, and the exact type of thing that made the modern Prince of Persia games so appealing in the first place. That, combined with the time-rewind mechanic that single-handedly eliminates the frustration associated with platforming, means that the Forgotten Sands is shaping up like a real return to form.

The final thing to get excited about is combat, which is where the motion controls start to come into their own. Unlike the previous Prince of Persia game, which featured solely one-on-one battles against strange beasties, The Forgotten Sands goes back to the Sands Trilogy’s multi-enemy battles, with even more enemies on screen than ever before, and a slicker, smoother system for moving between them and slicing them up. Motion control is tight and intelligent too, so you won’t be hindered by inaccurate swings of your Remote.

Ultimately, our initial impression is that The Forgotten Sands could well be everything that dedicated Prince of Persia fans have been clamoring for, and there’s not a bare-chested Jake Gyllenhaal in sight…

Ready? We bet you performed a slashing motion, didn’t you? No? Then you probably pointed it ahead of you as if you were firing a gun, right? We could be wrong of course, but chances are that you performed at least one of those two actions, and it’s Red Steel 2’s task to capitalize on your instincts, fusing the player’s primal sword-slashing urge with some rootin’ tootin’ gunplay.

The original Red Steel did this too, of course, and look how that turned out. But Red Steel 2 is a product determined to make amends for any misgivings found in the first game, something helped considerably by the game’s very welcome support for Wii Motion Plus.

Red Steel 2 has been designed from the ground up to work with MotionPlus, so if you’ve chosen not to upgrade until now, you’ll need to pick one up if you wish to play this. Of course, the reasoning behind this isn’t just to get you to splash out more money, but the tech behind it allows for an unparalleled level of control over your sword (or as Ubisoft would rather put it,, ‘cold-blooded accuracy’), allowing you to pull off a tone of moves, counters and combos as you navigate through the ‘Wild Wild East’.

And it makes a huge difference. By comparison, there were only eight directional inputs available for the sword-swinging combat in the original Red Steel, but here every subtle twist, turn chop and stab is accurately realized on screen, engaging you in the game world like never before.

You’ll get to take on up to six bandits at a time, and if your reactions are quick enough, even be able to deflect bullets with your sword. New moves and combos will also gradually unlock as you progress through the game, including the Dragon, which sends an enemy-crushing burst of wind flying out of your sword, and you’ll also earn cash from objectives with which you can purchase upgrades for your existing weapons.

So, Red Steel 2’s looking to be every bit that the original game promised to be and then some, and from what we’ve seen so far, shows signs of becoming the Wii’s finest first-person adventure.

Ignoring the crusty plot (as we like to do) and getting straight into the meat of this gaming pie, it’s clear from the start that one of the major things that Square-Enix have changed since that first tentative announcements is, well, everything. Gone are the role-playing game aspects we originally saw, to be replaced with a game that’s far more of an action-adventure (with, admittedly, the odd RPG-type element in place). This isn’t a genre that Square-Enix have always been comfortable with, but we have to say that they’ve obviously learnt wisely from their previous mistakes.

Crystal Bearers is very much a sandbox game, so you have a large map to explore and plenty of characters to meet (with symbols hovering above their heads, giving you a clear indication of their mood).

Combat is, as you’d expect, an important part of the game. There are no turn-based battles to deal with here, so if you want to attack something then all you have to do is run up and hit it. Control is mostly through waves of the Remote, and there’s a distinct pleasure to be had from picking up an object and lobbing it at your foe with a slash of your controller.

The inclusion of mini-games also does a lot to add weight to the adventure-style gameplay. These vary wildly (from Chocobo racing to building up a garden) and are well designed and were always welcome inclusions when we stumbled upon them.

Graphically, it’s the usual Square story, and it’s fair to say that rarely has a game on the Wii looked better. The world your character (who’s called Layle, by the way) inhabits may be set 100 years on from the one in the original GameCube Crystal Chronicles game, but it’s still very recognizable as part of the Final Fantasy universe. And thankfully, that familiarity extends to all parts of the game, as despite the fact that you’re not playing a role-playing game heavyweight (like the upcoming Final Fantasy XIII), there’s no denying that you’re playing something that clearly has the quality and attention to detail that Square-Enix games have.