Re-releasing an existing product with a new twist is by no means a new idea. If demand is flagging, adding a small amount of extra value to an old item is an easy way to invigorate sales. Manufacturers have been doing it for years.

Video games are no exception. Shops around the country are replete with repackaged titles, perhaps with a 'free' soundtrack or metal tin thrown in for good measure. No sooner had Batman: Arkham Asylum triumphed at the video game Baftas, for example, than a Game of the Year Edition hit shelves. After all, how else can you get consumers to pay £39.99 for a game that's almost a year old?

Unfortunately for a narrative-driven game like Arkham Asylum, it's pretty tough for developers to cohesively add-in new content. An extra level, after defeating the Joker (apologies for the massive spoiler there) wouldn't make much sense. A few extra challenge maps are thrown in but the appeal of those is fairly limited, especially considering they were already available as downloadable content.

Left with little else to work with, Square Enix took the unorthodox step of releasing a 3D version of the game.

Now, I'll come clean and admit that I'm not a fan of 3D in the first place. It hurts my eyes and quite often, judging by others' excitement, I'm not too sure my eyes are experiencing exactly the same thing.

Still, I was excited at the prospect of seeing what Batman would look like using cutting edge, Avatar-like 3D graphics. The press release speaks of state-of-the-art TriOviz technology, 'leveraging the depth-of-field ... allowing console players to dive deeper into the gothic world of Arkham Asylum'.

You can imagine my disappointment, then, to find red and green cardboard glasses, the likes of which once came free with issues of the Beano and early 90s breakfast cereal, inside the box.

The 3D experience does sort of work. In some cutscenes for example, at times Batman's arm seems slightly closer to you than the rest of his body. But wearing red and green lenses drains all colour integrity out of the game, which is hardly a good trade-off. Colour problems aside, it's often hard to tell that anything onscreen is in 3D at all, particularly during combat.

Thankfully, the game gives you the option of turning 3D on and off as you choose - and I'd be surprised if anyone makes it through more than the opening ten minutes without putting this to full use.

The appeal of using 3D as a marketing ploy is obvious - it's the big, exciting consumer fad of the moment. But to use it to flog copies of a game for which it obviously hasn't been designed seems like a remarkably poor idea, especially once 'proper' 3D games come along later this year.

What makes it especially galling is that it's not that hard to think of features for Arkham Asylum which really would have added something to the game. 'Making of' documentaries, commentaries, new Batsuit upgrades - perhaps with these included, it could have justified it's hefty RRP.

What, then do we expect from repackaged releases? Are they intended to woo gamers who had missed out on the title when it was launched? Or are they targeted at hardcore fans who are willing to shell out forty quid to play a game they loved through, a second time, with a few tweaks and add-ons?

Games companies can't be blamed for trying to cash in when they have decent new content to offer with an old release. Fallout 3 Game of the Year Edition, for example, is hard to criticise given how many hours it adds to the game.

Often though, when the new release offers little value, it seems pretty exploitative to trick ignorant consumers into thinking they're buying a new game, or into buying one that offers considerable advantages over its previous incarnation, when all it has is a shiny new box and half an hour's worth of added extras. Oh, and 3D glasses.