The skin to your left which has irrevocably already grabbed the attention of at least 50% of the people visiting this site is bought to you by Daphne in the Brilliant Blue. I'm not going to make excuses here; Daphne in the Brilliant Blue is a show that sells itself primarily on sex appeal, which is never a good indicator of quality. Heck, even Evangelion has been guilty of that, so who knows? Click the link below to find out!

On an unrelated note, this is my first update in quite a while but we're not planning on stopping any time soon. In fact I hope to give the site another overhaul in the near future which might bring back some of the more community driven features such as user reviews. We'll see.

And we're not the only ones who are back - regular contributor Shabbir has given Simple Gamer a lick of fresh paint so give that a look when you're done here.

It's Sunday, there's skiing on TV and if you're British and of a certain age you probably have a particular TV theme tune in your head right now. And hoping that nobody falls. Oh no.

So allow David to take you back to Ski Sunday's glory days with a well timed review of Lillehammer ‘94 Winter Olympics for the Mega Drive. Ski Sunday's glory days maybe, but good lord were these games awful. Thankfully there's better fare to be had with the likes of Dragon Warrior/Quest 3 for the Gameboy Colour and demo reviews of Monsters Deluxe and Crystal Defenders. Full list below.

I honestly had no idea.

David could be on to something here, because there are just so many games that revolve around cooking and food that they could legitimately warrant their own genre. Cooking Mama was just the beginning (well, not technically, but who's counting?). Here David takes a look at a myriad of cooking related games including several Cake Mania games for a variety of platforms, Burger Shop, Pastry Passions, Iron Chef...the list goes on. And once you've decided which games tickle your fancy, you can even read up on the accessories you'll need in his handy cooking related travel guide below. Serious business!

In our last update of 2009, David takes a first look at one of 2010's most anticipated games, God of War III. There's already a demo available to those lucky enough to have bought the presumably excellent God of War Collection on PS3, which sadly isn't available in Europe (and won't be unless you buy the overpriced God of War III SE...gee, thanks SCEE!). There's also reviews for a couple of oldies, Siberia on the Xbox and the oddity that is Castlevania's first 3D outing on the Nintendo 64.

Enjoy, and see you next year!

It's almost Christmas, so which new releases will we be recommending for your Christmas stocking? Modern Warfare 2? Final Fantasy XIII? Nope. Try Ms. Pac Man and Retro Game Challenge.

David has been looking at some classic games for the Sega Genesis (or Mega Drive as we know it round these parts), pictured to the left emblazoned with that classic shiny gold '16-bit' badge. And continuing with the retro Christmas theme we've also got reviews of Midway Arcade Treasures Extended Play for the PSP and the excellent yet sadly neglected DS gem Retro Challenge. Hope you have a great Christmas, and keep an eye out for more updates before the new year.

Anyone unfamiliar with his Tekken 3 outing won't feel the same mix of rage and nostalgia upon seeing Gon. On the one hand he's a familiar face from an excellent game, on the other hand you will have horrible memories of trying to sweep kick the little b'stard in to submission as all your combos and tactics went out of the window.

When he's not being a cheap little so-and-so, he's usually the star of his very own comic. And if you can put aside the urge to punch him in the face for long enough, you'll find that it's actually very good. Besides, if you did try to punch him in the face I don't think you'd be around long enough to regret it. This guy sleeps on a bear.

No, this isn't a post about the admittedly excellent Arkham Asylum, but rather the plethora of puzzle games that David has been working his way through recently. From Puzzle Quest to My Kingdom for the Princess and TWO editions of Luxor, that's quite a lot of head scratching and colour matching going on there. Let's hope he isn't all puzzled-out by the time he gets to the new Professor Layton game...

Hidden under the floorboards in my dusty attic is a secret so shameful I've buried the memory deep down at the back of my mind...until now. It's time to admit that I've collected some truly dire anime over the years, and I'm here to share that burden so hopefully you can avoid making the same mistakes I have.

And we'll start with the most heinous of my crimes - the inexcusably awful Digital Devil. This is an interesting one, because it's based on the increasingly popular Persona/Digital Devil Saga series of RPGs that actually date back to the 80's despite only coming to prominence in the west recently. Well, that doesn't stop it from sucking something rotten! Enjoy...or not.

Playing through the faux-retro Guadia Quest in Game Center DX made me realise just how much I disliked RPGs when I was younger. As excellent as Game Center DX is, it's almost authentic to a fault. I just can't bring myself to play Guadia Quest for another minute. Which is why I'm glad it's not me but David who is playing the genuine Game Gear retro RPG Defender of Oasis and the retro remake of Star Ocean on PSP. Luckily he's got some other stuff like Mario Party DS and Echochrome to keep him from the tedium of level grinding for too long, so check out the links below for impressions, previews and reviews of games new and old.