Legend of Zelda, Pac-Man (NES Classic Series)
GBA, £14.99 Nintendo,
*****

You could never accuse Nintendo of not milking every drop of its back catalogue. The latest wheeze, designed for the summer holidays, is the release of some "classic" games from the 80s. Originally realised on Nintendo's NES system, these relics are proof that not everything retro is cool.

The range includes the best-forgotten Xevious and Ice Climber. If you are curious to see what games were like when Duran Duran were huge, then try Pac-Man and the Legend of Zelda instead. The former needs no introduction and is an excellent conversion of what remains a uniquely addictive munch-em-up. The main problem is that you can get perfectly adequate phone versions of Pac-Man substantially cheaper. Unless you have the urge to play on the bigger screen of a Game Boy Advance, it makes sense to go mobile.

More relevant is The Legend of Zelda, the first in the venerable series and a far more interesting proposition. It is testament to the original design that this is still highly playable and uses a template that subsequent Zelda games have built on. Players guide elfin adventurer Link around a massive world, as he fights monsters, solves puzzles and rescues the Princess. Progression is drip fed by item retrieval, as previously unreachable destinations - such as islands or mountains - become accessible with newly found objects. Despite the raw graphics, Legend of Zelda is worthy of the title "classic".
Greg Howson

Soldiers: Heroes of World War 2
PC, £34.99 1c/Codemasters,
****

First of all, a warning: Soldiers is hard. No, I don't mean challenging, I mean 60 minutes spent trying to get past the first 60 seconds of the first level - which puts paid to the game's loftier claims of realism.

Undoubtedly, liberating Europe in the mid 40s was hard but storming the German frontlines using only one tank and a Jeep (as you have to do in the very first mission) is so unrealistic you get the feeling the developers are cheating on their own rule book. Of course, you play it at Novice level, but no one likes owning up to incompetence, do they?

Which is a pity, because in other respects Soldiers takes wargaming to new levels of complexity and detail. With 30 large missions, split across German, Russian and Allied campaigns, everything you might expect from a quality RTS is here minus the resources. Most of the buildings can be occupied, all of them destroyed, and you have hundreds of authentic weapons and units to do it with.

You also get a choice of playing modes, allowing you to use standard RTS mouselicks or press the spacebar to take direct control of any unit, moving while firing to negotiate some of the trickier sections.

This (and the attention to detail) creates unique situations and challenges - for instance, searching for a petrol container under heavy fire so you can refuel a sitting duck tank - all unknown territory to wargamers.

So, although Soldiers is not a perfect game, most of its problems could be solved by a patch, and what's left is another impressive Codemasters assault on yet another new genre.
Mike Anderiesz

Rainbow Six 3: Black Arrow
Xbox, £19.99 Ubi Soft,
****

Last year, team-based shooter Rainbow Six 3 was the poster boy of Xbox Live, its exhilarating multiplayer online mode making foamy-mouthed anti-terrorist nutters of us all. Unfortunately, the single-player experience was dull, and bugs did their best to sabotage the online fun. So while we're waiting for RS4, this generously proportioned, standalone update fixes all the minor RS3 grievances and adds some excellent new features.

For the lone player, there are 10 new missions, built around a zeitgeisty terror plot involving war among oil-rich Black Sea states. It's the usual mix of tense corridor roaming and huge set-piece shoot-outs, with you commanding three AI troops as you move through industrial silos and crumbling back streets.

As with previous Rainbow Six titles, the door opening mechanism dominates the action: should you just open it, or perhaps throw in a flash grenade, or - oh, what the hell - lob an explosive charge in, too?

The enemy AI is slightly improved, and there's a split-screen, two-player mode for those who want cooperative thrills without the inconvenience of having broadband installed.

But Rainbow Six 3 is really about multiplayer, and this must-try element has been re-balanced and re-tuned to near-perfection. New maps, new weapons and new Xbox Live 3.0 features (including lots of well-thought-out clan functionality) make Black Arrow an essential.

In short, if you haven't navigated a downtown ambush with a 32-year-old Texan covering your back, and a teenage sniper from Calais scouting ahead, you haven't experienced online gaming.
Keith Stuart