PlayStation Move Roundup

Even if you do put the effort in, the multiplayer mode has its own issues. Shooting the same target as your partner will break your combo, which feels frustrating and unfair.

This is all a bit of a shame because at its core, The Shoot is a fun, accessible on-rails shooter. The levels are good and varied, with plenty of destructible objects and dynamic action to keep you on your toes. But to access all of them and to play the game with a friend requires a lot of time, effort and concentration. That may be asking too much of younger players and those who just want to enjoy a bit of mindless blasting.

What's more, £29.99 is a lot to ask for a game that only offers a few hours of entertainment, and even less if you're too lazy or rubbish to unlock everything.

5/10

Racket Sports

"Only on PlayStation", declares the Racket Sports box. It's a claim trading standards might want to look into, seeing as this game bears remarkable similarity to Wii title Racket Sports Party – also published by Ubisoft, and featuring the same five racket-based sports games.

("For the first time ever, Ubisoft offers the possibility to play Tennis, Table Tennis, Squash, Badminton and Beach Tennis, all in one game," reads the Racket Sports Party press release. Yes, as if this is the game we have dreamt of our whole lives. What next, Ball Sports Party? No, stop, the prospect is too unbearably delicious.)

The big difference is that Racket Sports is played with the Move controller. The idea is this offers the player more control and accuracy over their shots. The reality is it doesn't feel much different. The game is so forgiving it's easy to coast through matches regardless of how much effort you put in. Plus you have to press a button to perform special shots, which seems to defeat the object of having a motion-controlled virtual racket instead of a regular control pad.

The Tennis game is all right unless you've already played Wii Sports tennis to death, which you have. Badminton is Tennis except you can do an overhead smash. Squash is Tennis except the ball bounces around more. Beach Tennis is Tennis except the ball doesn't bounce at all.

Table Tennis is the worst of the bunch. It's the only game to feature noticeable lag between your moves and those of your on-screen avatar, and there's very little in the way of precision control on offer. It's got nowhere near the depth, polish or entertainment value of the table tennis game in Sports Champions.

The environments you play in are cartoony, garish and dated-looking. There's the usual collection of supremely ugly and utterly interchangeable avatars to choose from. Play well and you can win items with which to customise them, which is great if you're the type of person who gets excited by on-screen messages like "You have unlocked Javier's Urban Heat Outfit".

There are Exhibition, Career, Party Play and Online modes to choose from, plus two control systems. Basic is designed for more casual players (you can't perform trick shots) while Advanced is for those who want more of a challenge (you can). It is impossible to care about any of this.

Racket Sports is a cheap attempt to rush out a Wii Sports rip-off for the PS3 by people who couldn't even be bothered to include a boxing game. Different-sized rackets have been cut-and-pasted into the same lacklustre offering five times over, and that's about it.

If you really, really want to play tennis with your Move controller, Racket Sports works well enough to fulfil that function. But think carefully about whether that experience is worth £25 (it isn't).

4/10

Kung Fu Rider

On paper, this game sounds brilliant. It stars a hapless private detective and his hot assistant, a Chun-Li lookalike with independently animated buttocks. They're on the run from some shady gangsters. Rather than a fast car, speeding train or plane to Mexico, their chosen means of escape is a wheely office chair which they ride up and down the hilly streets of Hong Kong.

There's an extensive move-set. You're able to duck and jump, speed up, side-step and swerve, perform roundhouse kicks and pull off kung fu chops. These are all useful for avoiding obstacles such as traffic cones, piles of crates and stick-wielding gangsters. There are all sorts of bonuses to look out for, from wads of cash to turbo boosts to shortcuts.

In practice, the control system just doesn't hold up. The game fails to recognise your attempts to do jumps and dashes consistently enough. The steering feels sluggish and is also a hit-and-miss affair. The side-steps and kung fu moves are fiddly as they involve pressing the tiny shape buttons, often while trying to steer / jump / duck etc. The kung fu is redundant anyway as it's much easier to roundhouse by pressing the big old Move button.

Once the novelty of the game concept has worn off, which doesn't take long, the frustration caused by the controls really kicks in. Odd extras, such as a daft two-player mode that lets the other player interact with environmental objects, aren't enough to make up for it.

You might struggle on for a bit, consoling yourself with the fact that at least the tracks are quite dynamic and there are new vehicles to unlock, such as a pram and vacuum cleaner. And while the controls are fiddly, they don't render the game unplayable.

However, you'll probably be too blinded with rage at the fact you spent £30 on this game to even see the television. While it might have gotten away with being a novelty download title costing only a couple of quid, Kung Fu Rider feels like a rip-off at that price. It's short, shallow and fundamentally wonky, and no amount of wheely office chairs and wobbling buttocks can make up for that.

3/10