Back in the groove

You might think everything Apple touches turns to gold these days but you only have to look back to 2005 at its disastrous collaboration with Motorola on a music phone for evidence to the contrary - though the phone maker must take most of the blame. For its latest music effort, Moto has gone it alone and the lessons learnt serve the new Z6 well.

Its shiny design and (hallelujah!) updated menu system make for a worthy mid-market contender. Shame Moto doesn't include a standard headphone jack and boo to O2 for not supplying any memory card with it.

Update: 02 tells me now there's a 1GB card in the box - though customer support and their brochure insisted there wasn't at the time of the review.

Read the full Motorola Z6 in today's paper.

In games, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (all formats) successfully recreates the look and feel of Hogwarts but gameplay devolves constantly into repetitive fetch quests.

Mortal Kombat: Armageddon marries bloodthirsty beat-em-up to Wiimote-waving, with slightly unpredictable results. Brothers in Arms DS has little to do with the PC/console versions of WWII warfare and though its first-person shooter schtick is technically impressive, the handholding linearity of its levels sap its enjoyability. Finally, Wartech: Senko No Ronde (X360) feels as if it's escaped from some crazy Japanese experimental lab, melding 2D shoot-em-up with 3D beat-em-up, and none of it making sense.