Download Games Roundup

It's interesting to observe the tactics of Sony and Microsoft in promoting their respective motion gaming technology. While Microsoft tries to position Kinect as something akin to a full console launch, Sony has taken an altogether less aggressive stance.

It shows in the games released to date, with Sony happy to utilise numerous cheaper downloadable PSN titles to showcase its Move tech, games like Tumble, Flight Control, Beat Sketchers, Funky Lab Rat, Deadstorm Pirates, and, shortly, Echochrome II all proving to be highly entertaining.

But there's a complete lack of Xbox Live Arcade titles using Kinect. Has Microsoft deliberately ring-fenced the launch period for boxed games only, or are developers simply less inclined, at this early stage, to commit?

Eat Them

• PSN - £7.99

'Tis the season to be lardy, ommy nommy nom, nom nom nom nom. And getting into the spirit of intense festive gluttony, Bristol's own FluffyLogic lets us imagine that we're smashing up the Christmas High Street and chowing down on the moronic procession of zombie shoppers.

At least, that's how this gleefully chaotic monster-stomper played out in my head after an afternoon of being manhandled down Oxford Circus. The reality is rather less likely to get them on the front page of the Daily OMG, sadly.

Played out in a beautifully intricate comic-book style, Eat Them lets you use one of the ready-made monsters to smash up the sins of urban life or set about fashioning your own creature of the damned.

Unlocking all the new parts, though, involves steadily earning them from good performances in each of the mini-missions on offer. These test your levels of destructive resourcefulness within strict time limits.

Spiritually similar to Midway's eighties arcade classic Rampage, the idea is to continually smash up as many buildings as you can, while also keeping one eye on your vitality meter. Scoop up fleeing humans as you go and your energy tops up, but with the police and the military determined to spoil your fun, it's a tough balancing act.

Sometimes the formula twists slightly, with the task focusing on, for example, helping prisoners bust out of prison or a simple checkpoint race. For the most part, mind you, it's smashing for smashing's sake, and therefore entertaining in short bursts, but a bit mindlessly intense over the long haul.

6/10