SpecialEffect's accessible GameBase

Available on: Xbox360, iPad, iPod/iPhone, Facebook, Android and Windows Phones- Elite Gudz and 21^st Street Games

Warning - If you have an aversion to flashing images do not play this game, because at certain points it seems like TKA’s sole purpose, it’s raison d’etre, is to give you as large a headache as it possibly can.

You take control of various kittens- kittens with jet packs, kittens shaped like hotdogs and kittens that barf rainbows and the aim is simply to get a high score. Your score accumulates the whole time that you’re alive, so it’s all about staying alive for as long as possible. You have an unlimited amount of lives and the levels are on an infinite loop, but touching any of the cute little twinkly stars, that you come across causes death and your score to be reset.

One of the game’s big draws to me is it’s simple one button interface. You hold the A button (on Xbox360 or touch anywhere on-screen with the iPad, iPod or Android versions) to go up the screen and let go to drop down it. 

The people at Apple Industrial Design are a clever bunch. Through the thin, shiny, clean-lined design of their devices, year on year they have people clamouring to buy, at a premium, an incremental improvement over what they released just a few short months before. What’s even more remarkable is how they convince the masses to buy what is essentially a larger version of an iPod, instead of more practical and powerful laptops or notebooks. [editor: read on... all will become clear]

Xbox 360 – SpiderMonk Entertainment/ SouthPeak Interactive

This is a falling block game that can be played comfortably with one hand. Apart from navigating the menus, you don’t need use of the anolog sticks or d-pad (it is worth noting however, that there’s only one configuration of buttons and no option to re-map).

The game-play essentially consists of guiding different coloured shapes through a series of platforms, by using the left and right bumper buttons to rotate the platforms so the shapes can fit through their corresponding holes. A star won’t fit through a circle hole just like a circle won’t fit through a star shaped hole.

Xbox 360/PS3 - EA Sports

As fans start to come to terms that this won't be their teams 'season,' and the initial (unfounded) expectations slowly die down,  it is just about the right time for the latest incarnation of EA's FIFA to let us suspend our disbelief a little while longer and pretend that our boy's can indeed beat Man U away, whilst waiting for news on that latest tweaked transfer offer for a certain Barcelona number 10.

As ever, FIFA is more than happy to help you achieve your club's virtual targets with it's ever increasing wealth of customisable gameplay options.

Standard settings including the excellant difficulty and speed settings remain, as does the assisted/manual option for passing, cross shot etc Controller wise, the two-button control option which reduces essential controls to just the left thumbstick and two face buttons. Button re-mapping is featured for the standard and alternative layout, but not the two button mode.

Xbox 360/PS3 (tested on XBox 360) - Codemasters

With a strong release in the game accessibility stakes in the form of Dirt 3 earlier in the year, expectations were high for Codemaster's latest Formula 1 installment; F1 2011.

F1 2010 itself had many useful driving assist features to make F1 racing accessible to a wide range of players and F1 2011 retains them with aids such as Braking Assist (which brakes automatically at corners), traction control and dynamic racing line options making a welcome reappearence. Sensitivity settings for steering which could be helpful for some are not included in the options, neither is the 'auto steer' assist featured in Dirt 3, which acted like a magnet to help keep your car near the racing line.

Full button and control stick (including d-pad) re-mapping is again available allowing for personalised control layouts.

XBOX 360 Arcade/PS3 Network -Bandai Namco 

Pac-Man CEDX is amazing. I was around for the original Pac-Man and I recognise what a land-mark in gaming it was, but it never appealed to me, I never really got it. But CEDX is different and suddenly I get it. It’s the same formula- gobble pellets, run away from ghosts, eat big pellet then ghosts run away from you- but now it feels urgent, frantic and addictive. They have taken a game from the year 1980, twiddled with it a bit and I now find myself happily choosing to play Pac-Man over bombastic, modern day, state of the art shooters.

The game is simple it’s essentially just a score attack game. “Free” mode is also available and furnishes you with infinite lives and bombs which is great for brushing up those skills. Yes, Pac-Man can now set off bombs.

I am probably going to have a hard time trying to describe Child of Eden but here I go...

C of E comes from Tetsuya Mizaguchi the designer behind Sega Rally and Rez. The game-play is similar to that of Rez, if you haven’t played Rez before the free trial game is on Xbox Live. This game is a first person, on-rails shooter. You control the aiming reticule and have the ability to move the screen about, but the game always takes you in the direction it wants you to go.

Tested on Xbox 360 (also available on PS3) -Sega

Sega rally can be downloaded from the Xbox live Arcade. It is designed mainly for online mulitplayer. It is an arcade style game that is not like normal racing sims, due to its paired down driving style, such as not going off the track and spining around.

The standard controls are RT or A to go and LT or B to brake and the left stick or the d-pad to steer. Also even though it dosert have a auto brake feature, you can get round tracks with out braking there are two difficulty modes and thay are Casual or Arcade.