The life of a videogames journalist can sometimes be a bittersweet experience. Sure there are the trips to Los Angeles and New York, but there are also those times when you’re stuck in a room with a PR bod who’s convinced that the rubbish they’re showing off is genuinely going to be bigger than Jesus. There’ll be the odd time when you’re taken out for the odd lovely meal, but there’ll also be plenty of times when someone will pop up over lunch, make you see a game that’s utter garbage and then bugger off leaving you unable to get your favourite breakfast panini because the shop is now shut. Worst of all, though, are the times when you have to review pisspoor efforts like Meet The Robinsons. Oh the humanity.

Okay, so we’re already halfway into the review and we’ve yet to tell you anything concrete about the game. Our reason? It’s not worth your time.

Granted we never expect much from film tie-ins, but Avalanche Software has hit an all new low and managed to deliver a title that’s so dull and generic to play it should come with a government health warning. Now, you’re probably saying that it’s a kids’ game and should be reviewed accordingly, but we stuck a six-year-old in front of it and within five minutes she went back to her DS claiming that she’d rather play Animal Crossing. And let’s face it, who can blame her?

Basically, a purchase of Meet The Robinsons comes down to the following: Do you like dull, tired collect-a-thons that require you to do a ridiculous amount of tireless tasks in order to make the tiniest amount of progress? Do you like playing 360 games that look like they’ve been cobbled together by a blind art student? Do you appreciate highly frustrating and unfair gameplay scenarios that would test the patience of a saint, let alone a ten-year old? You do? Then pop down to Gamestation and pick up a copy in their secondhand section. There were plenty there when we got ours.

Darran Jones