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Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
Xbox 360 £40 Activision

Team up with Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Melman the Giraffe and Gloria the Hippo on a madcap quest to save the African savannah.

Over 12 action-packed levels you can jump into the skins of all your favourite characters and relive memorable moments from the film, plus dive into a few situations concocted specifically for the game. 

All the characters have their own abilities and combat skills and you can pick up new and special moves as you go along. 

Alex is strong on the jumping front and well able to look after himself in the face of oncoming foes by chucking mangoes and unleashing his mighty roar. 

Melman has special healing powers and some funky dancing moves and can also chuck objects mighty far and fly through the air helicopter-style. 

Marty is super speedy, is an ace at long jump and has a mean kick attack and Gloria uses her size to take out enemies and clear areas when needed and also has superb swimming and diving skills. 

Featuring bold, bright environments and some excellent animation you can choose to play in single-player mode or, if you fancy some company, you can play with or against your mates in the multiplayer tournament mode. 

Although largely platform-esque in style the game includes a number of mini-games to add a bit of variety. 

These throw all sorts of challenges at you that could see you driving, racing or playing soccer one minute or indulging in a little dancing, mini-golf or safari photography the next. 

Add in the great looks, decent sounds and a great dollop of humour and what you have is a decent package that will appeal to gamers of all ages.

Celebrity Big Brother — The 11 housemates, including singer Mutya Buena and TV host Ulrika Jonsson, have entered the Big Brother house. 

Musicians — Duffy and Alexandra Burke were the UK’s top-selling musicians of the year. X Factor winner Alexandra sold 888,000 copies of her version of Hallelujah to be the year’s biggest-selling single. Duffy’s debut album Rockferry came top of the year-end chart, with 1.685 million copies sold. 
Mamma Mia! — The movie is the biggest-selling DVD in the UK ever. It’s the first to sell more than five million copies. 

School bells — A group that represents teachers in Scotland has warned school bells which ring too loudly could be bad for kids’ hearing. There are fears that some schools are buying one very loud bell instead of lots of smaller ones to save money.

Monster Mob 

by John Pickering

© All copyright D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd., 2009