The final battle
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Xbox, PlayStation 2, £39.99
The Collective/LucasArts, ****
Episode III: Revenge of the Sith takes an arcade-style, populist third-person action-adventure approach, but backs that up with superb graphics and plenty of cute touches. You begin by alternating between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, taking on the evil hordes with your light-sabre and The Force, in a series of missions based on film sequences.
All the moves from the film are possible - you can use the force to repel enemies or perform enormous jumps, open doors by inserting your light-sabre and jiggling it from side to side until they shatter, use it to bat laser-blasts back at baddies and solve puzzles by chucking your light-sabre at, for instance, generators that power force-fields.
Close combat is excellent: there is an element of button-bashing, but you must learn to chain moves together (timing is important) when facing more imposing enemies. Then there are the boss battles, the first of which sets the tone: a full-on, multi-stage light-sabre duel with Count Dooku, which demands impeccable judgment.
According to how stylishly you dispatch enemies, you earn points at the end of each mission that can be used for character development. A Versus mode also lets you challenge mates to duels.
The game could be longer, and the absence of a cooperative play mode is mystifying. But this well-executed effort will delight Star Wars fans.
Steve Boxer
Back in the cockpit
Star Fox: Assault
GameCube, £39.99
Namco/Nintendo ***
The latest Star Fox game sees you taking off into space again, although this isn't the masterpiece fans may have hoped for. The main problem is the ground-based levels. Here, the action descends into even more simplistic blasting, as you guide Fox around bland arena environments. It can get exciting, especially when you have to blast off to protect your wingmen, but running around on terra firma quickly becomes tiresome.
The airborne action, however, is good fun. Your aim is to blast anything that moves, with plenty of targets. The combat quickly gets frenetic, but the controls allow you to swiftly manoeuvre out of danger. Although it can get frustrating at times, especially later in the game, the compressed action never outstays its welcome. Multiplayer adds to the longevity and fans of the series will be keen to re-enter the cockpit. But flawed ground-based sections mean that Star Fox: Assault is only a partial return to form.
Greg Howson
From attic to screen
Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars
PC, £34.99
CDV/GSC Game World ***
Like the original, Napoleonic Wars feels as if the developer, GSC Game World, has waved a magic wand and brought a model war-gamer's attic to life (albeit a virtual one). It is surprising that the era of the short, megalomaniac leader hasn't really been given the gaming recognition it deserves.
A fair few of the features from the original game have been carried over. You still get to control large numbers of troops at once, although this time you can only really control them as formation blocks rather than individual soldiers. However, the economic side of the game has been refined somewhat, which won't please those who like their micro-management. Rather than using peasants to facilitate every area of your economy, the game introduces the idea of conquering nearby villages to bring in supplies to your army. This adds a new layer to the gameplay, and these villages become important strategic areas to control.
The graphics are pretty and detailed, especially the buildings, if rather dated in places. Battles often become a mishmash of colours and tiny body parts, meaning that it is not always visually obvious how well a fight is going. The developers have assigned morale bars to each troop formation, but you end up watching these intently, rather than the actual action.
The video-clips of Napoleonic re-enactors engaged in realistic warfare is a nice touch, although why the developers decided to use stilted, unemotional American voice-acting for a predominantly European conflict is a mystery. Cossacks II seems to have been created with fans of the original firmly in mind. Consequently, the complexities and steep learning curve of the original are still in place, which doesn't make it very accessible for newcomers to the series.
Rhianna Pratchett
Keep up with the latest from the gaming world with our Gamesblog at blogs.theguardian.com/games
