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Byline: EWAN ROST

Gunpey (Ban Dai, PSP pounds 29.99)

AS gaming history goes, you can't get more godfather-like than Gunpei Yokoi (1941-1997).

Remember the little Game & Watch LCD games? The Nes Light gun? The Game Boy? He invented them all, and helped create almost 50 of the most playable games to date.

So you can pretty much guarantee that any title that has his name on it will be a huge hit.

As puzzle games go, Gunpey has to be one of the weirdest.

Think Tetris, but multi-directional and you're close.

The idea is simple: lines of light appear on the game board at odd angles. Your job is to rotate and connect them as they mount up and reduce the count.

Although the premise sounds simple, the actual process involves careful thought while working to a time limit.

In many ways, Gunpey holds true to the gaming legend's philosophy of 'lateral thinking of withered technology', ie: cutting-edge hardware can often get in the way of making a playable game.

Gunpey is a polished blast from the past that proves you don't need to amaze the punters with fancy graphics - you just need to keep them entertained.

RATING: 8/10 - Pey off

Ancient Wars: Sparta (Eidos, PC, pounds 29.99)

ANOTHER spin-off to go with Frank Miller's film 300 is Eidos's new Ancient Wars saga.

But whereas Miller chose a little more fantasy than fact in telling the story of bold king Leonidas, Ancient Wars focuses more on the actual events.

Taking control of either the Greek, Egyptian or Persian empires, it is your job to route your enemies and develop a war machine to see you victorious.

Real time strategy games have swamped the market a little lately, so Sparta may have a difficult time in setting itself apart.

One thing that does stand in Ancient Wars' favour though is the simplicity of the game. This is primarily due to the fact that the development team were lead by Torsten Hess of The Settlers fame.

All too often, games in this genre can get way too complicated and leave the player bogged down in details. Ancient Wars overcomes this with a relatively easy learning curve and takes its time in teaching you the basics, which is something a lot of titles tend to ignore.

With heroes aplenty, and the options to customise your own units, this is a good title that will keep any strategy nut occupied for hours.

RATING: 7/10 - History repeating 

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 (Ban Dai, Wii, pounds 39.99)

TIME to get physical again, and this time it's on the Wii and with the latest offering in the Dragon Ball series.

Dragon Ball has been a huge success as a series, and since its upgrading to 3D environment on the PS2, you can pretty much guarantee a damn good punch-up.

The Wii version, however, reguires the gamer to get a little more 'active' than usual. Using the nun chuck controllers, you can perform a variety of moves designed to take your opponents down.

One player mode is a fun and frantic way to expend energy-but two player is just bananas and reguires a little flailing room between contenders.

Good fun, and with over a hundred characters to play as - it's a whole new way to look at combat games.

RATING: 6/10-On the ball