While it doesn't always gel in a way that feels genuinely new, there are enough successful unfamiliar concepts here to make Quantum Break feel like a step forward for Remedy. [June 2016, p.100]

Over-familiarity and stagnation has bred a cancerous apathy among gaming's cognoscenti. FFX-2, like it or not, gives players a reason to take notice again. [Jan 2004, p.98]

V isn't the only one with two souls wrestling for one body. Cyberpunk 2077 ends up being a sometimes-unnecessary exercise in building a better merc, and a propulsive open-world tale about building a better life. If you can ignore the inconsistencies of the former and enjoy the latter, there's a lot to love in Night City. But if Johnny Silverhand teaches us anything, it's that two heads aren't always better than one. [Issue#354, p.98]

A hybrid game of mixed success, Legacy reconciles Ace Combat's past and present while failing to offer enough diversity and features to make the results essential.

With both real-time and turn-based flavours of haphazard carnage on offer, Glitch Tank is willing to mess with your brain at a variety of speeds. Michael Brough's certainly given iPad owners something to think about, then – even if few will have the patience and foresight to feel truly comfortable on this strange new playing field.

This is a puzzle-platform game pared down to its base essentials, with a sweet, simple tale and an artfully imagined world wrapped around that core. [July 2013, p.122]

After eight years in development - initially under PlatinumGames - this long journey has had a happy ending. [Issue#395, p.118]

Despite the familiarity of the characters and the story, this is strange, exotic territory, and quite like anything else. [June 2016, p.108]

The game never judges you, offering no morality system despite the frequent dilemmas and difficult choices its systems organically generate. But it certainly tests you. This is as close as we’ve come to putting our lazily daydreamed zombie survival plans into effect.

The game is full of charm, from the easily-distinguishable block types and hero in dressing gown, to the sequences that detail the game’s story and a delicate hint mode. [July 2007, p.93]

The overwhelming impression Los Angeles leaves is very slick, but it’s ultimately quite soulless. [Dec 2008, p.86]

The result is a game that may not leave you full, but it'll taste pretty sweet while it lasts.

What a pity, then, that the story is the one element that doesn't have the courage to stay true to its narrative successor. [Issue#354, p.110]

The battles, meanwhile, are engaging despite their simplicity, and it's beautiful to watch each turn play out. [May 2010, p.102]

There’s a fantastic combo system at Killer Instinct’s core, but right now it feels like half a game – one full of promise, certainly, but not an especially next-gen one either. The cascade of particles may not be enough to retain player interest until the rest of the game arrives.

You'll soon learn the groove: shoot, dodge, shoot, dodge. It should get tedious, but it doesn't. P.N.03 rewards skill above all else and mastery brings huge satisfaction. Grace under fire has rarely been done better. [June 2003, p.96]

The result is a game that may not leave you full, but it'll taste pretty sweet while it lasts.

Relic seems afraid to let any of its ideas meaningfully vary your experience, in case the result isn’t as satisfying as the scenario it has clearly tested so well. [Apr 2009, p.119]

While the details and relationships are sharply observed, everything around them is a little fuzzy. But then so is the moment it's trying to reflect. [Issue#362, p.122]

There's not as much depth as Tetris or Puyo Puyo, but there's not much that disappoints about Bombastic apart from a rather lacklustre platform game that's been bolted on. The deeply involving puzzle mechanics brilliantly build on the foundations laid down by Devil Dice. [Christmas 2003, p.124]

Rodriguez's bright, resourceful debut is a compact little treasure that's well worth dredging up. [Issue#368, p.120]

No, it doesn't make any damn sense. But consider us compelled. [Issue#354, p.112]

Its game may rarely do anything you haven’t seen done better elsewhere, but the developer knots a slew of disparate elements together with no little skill, leaving the whole feeling irresistibly fresh.

From the pixellated sweat-drops of exertion as Red nudges a weighty block along to the arpeggiated chime that celebrates a stage's completion, its simple pleasures add up to a quietly transtemporal experience. [Issue#368, p.7]

Polyphony has produced a handling and physics model that is unmatched by any other racer, but failed to provide AI competition capable of showcasing it to its fullest.

If not quite a five-star ride, Neo Cab is an empathetic and stingingly perceptive insight into the challenges of freelance life. [Issue#139, p.121]

Add the odd cruelly-placed save point, and you've got an adventure that occasionally explores the agonies, as well as the ecstasies, of gaming's past. At least it's honest.

Driver has escaped near-death with a captivating and colourful return, and one where everything from systems to cinematics is of a quality build. As surprises go, it's a juggernaut. [Apr 2006, p.84]

It's an attractive game, too, its painterly art style and creative enemy design sullied only by the occasional drop in performance and that persistently unhelpful camera. If wrestling with the right analogue stick is no one's idea of a good time, such frustrations are worth enduring for a daring and sometimes exhilarating boss rush.

Only the length disappoints us. Even by the studio's standards, Pilgrims is a slip of a thing. [Issue#139, p.122]

As simple as Alba may be, it's nonetheless a relaxing summer getaway for children and the young at heart. [Issue#354, p.118]

Series veterans may find there's no individual mission that can compare to past highlights like the nails-down-a-blackboard dread of Return To The Cathedral or the emergent possibilities of Life Of The Party, but they remain admirably clever pieces of level design. [July 2004, p.101]

Undisputed can be complex one moment and crude the next, the dominant ‘full mount’ position (the holy grail of ground-and-pound fighters) far too achievable against even experienced opposition.

A gentle joy in a horrible year - a window upon a parallel world that makes life seem a little kinder in our own. [Issue#349, p.100]

When you're playing a Ninja Gaiden game and not dying until the eighth chapter, it doesn't bode well for the future of the series as we know it. Oh, and the camera's still rubbish. [Nov 2009, p.100]

Its hero might be forever wearing someone else's hat, but there's something to be said for a series that's this comfortable in its own skin. [May 2018, p.112]

Tropico is as vibrant and capricious as the setting, and never dry or formulaic in the way that other management games can tend to be. [Christmas 2009, p.106]

Made in Wario confidently sticks two fingers up at an industry that seems to have lost its sense of humour … it displays a refreshing intertextuality that manages to poke fun at and celebrate videogames. [June 2003, p. 103]

It’s an introspective RPG not just in theme, but in the outlay of time and thought it asks of the player to make sense of what’s otherwise a cosmetically unfair challenge. It’s a work of art, but one on such a dauntingly high pillar that only the most dedicated will appreciate it to the full. [Christmas 2004, p.87]

The game occasionally drags, arguably due to representing the bleakness of its environment and the challenges of existing within it a little too keenly. Autosave points are few and far between, which means that on anything above normal difficulty your frequent restarts will result in much repetition. Likewise, I Am Alive's platforming is occasionally cumbersome and inexact. But nevertheless this game offers a journey worth charting, one of physics, social decline and welcome terror in a market overrun by zombies.

Whether you're flipping a fried egg or turning a dial, this is tactile and satisfying, if slight, entertainment. [Tested with Vive; June 2016, p.121]

A bleak meditation on the idea that the most one can do in such difficult times is to keep your head down, and keep moving. [Sept 2017, p.116]

A lender and borrower with a few ideas of its own, Kami Retro's not quite perfect, but is worth a hundred more generic clones.

Crimson Skies really comes to life online. Up to 16 players can duke it out in the skies and the dogfights are terrific. This is better than you'd ever have expected. [Christmas 2003, p.123]

Singleplayer is weak - despite well-worked tutorial and mission modes it always feels like target practice for combat with friends - and the lack of online support disappoints. But despite a potentially hazardous dimensional switch, it remains as appealing a way of antagonising your friends as ever. [Dec 2003, p.108]

Whereas our appetite for entertainment is such that we happily consume similar amusements again and again, we have to ask if we really need to learn these lessons twice. [Sept 2007, p.97]

Through the crush of it all, Viewtiful Joe's pedigree for fusing entertainment and quality is clearly visible throughout the chaos, even if it doesn't necessarily shine. [Dec 2005, p.100]

Despite the sheer, breathless volume of new ideas, there's a sense of wonder missing from the sequel. The well-meaning tale feels a little rote in comparison to the first game's supernatural arc of redemption. [Sept 2017, p.118]

The beginning is a sensible place to start, but rest assured, it gets much, much better. [Feb 2009, p.91]

Siren's grand ideas are to be applauded, but savouring them takes effort. If you can invest the time, and look away in all the right places - such as the genre's trademarks of outrageously bad combat and dogsbody objectives - then there's a uniquely suffocating horror experience waiting to be survived. [Mar 2004, p.99]

Fundamentally, it's hard to bear a grudge against a game with such generosity of spirit and pleasant delivery. But having tangled with mythical sea beasts and alternate Londons, isn't it time for Layton to solve the greatest mystery of all: where does he go next.

A game that is not only at its best when played with other humans, but is critically dependent on them. [Issue#344, p.112]

Though generous with its ideas, Flexile can't quite make them stretch across 60 levels, and while the controls are as good as virtual buttons can be, some challenges are too fiddly to be fun, with a curious fussiness when it comes to triggering your blob's powers. Even so, this is a bright and attractive puzzler that is, thankfully, far smarter than its title would suggest.

Despite the grim subject matter, Before I Forget isn't just about the pains of living with dementia; it's a deeply emotive tale that highlights an extraordinary life. [Issue#349, p.105]

Messy but oddly mesmeric, Bad Hotel is perhaps more successful as a curious plaything than a game, but it's no less essential for that.

At its worst, however, Galaxies has some big problems. The biggest is that it is remarkably fond of spawning enemies behind your ship too quickly for you to move away... It can be incredibly annoying – enough, in fact, to slightly taint the whole experience. [Feb 2008, p.92]

It’s not even surprising,? ?despite all? ?this,? ?that Resident Evil? ?5? ?is a good game.? The surprising,? ?and sad,? ?thing about? ?Resident Evil? ?5? ?is that it feels old.

Next Encounter is one of the grandest and busiest console battlefields yet created. This is a spiritual update to Space Invaders, a one-trick pony that kicks harder than most FPS thoroughbreds, making the "Medal of Honour" series seem like a vain diva by comparison. [June 2004, p.109]

As an open-world game, Second Son feels emaciated. There’s little to do in the way of side missions, and what is here becomes repetitive, unlikely to sustain interest beyond a single playthrough. Approach it as an action game that just happens to be set in a nonlinear environment and it makes more sense, but its not-inconsiderable achievements take effort to uncover.

Despite its paucity of detail, Jade Empire is still many, many things, some are fine and some poor, but for a game to contain so much is a testament to its breadth, and the reason why it'll remain a worthwhile expedition for many. [June 2005, p.80]

While it ties its narrative strands neatly enough to work as a standalone story, Mizrahi and Scout would be well worth a sequel. [Issue#344, p.114]

The only black mark is for the controls: the on-screen buttons feel reasonably responsive most of the time, but you'll experience a definite stickiness when things heat up.

For dedicated Ghosts GRAW 2 is a no-brainer. For the rest of us it's just the exact game "Advanced Warfighter" should have been and would have beeen if the clock wasn't watching; Ubisoft rewriting history and charging us twice for the privilege. [May 2007, p.89]

It refreshes with its purity of purpose and ambition, even if, as a mechanising of the grieving process, it’s a game few will wish to return to once completed.

Ubisoft has taken a flawed game of boundless promise, destroyed some (but not all) of its appeal, fixed some (but not enough) of its problems, and jeopardised the whole endeavour by making the same mistake twice and rushing it to market before it was steady on its feet. Prince of Persia is strong and supple enough to survive this with many of its immense virtues intact. But it deserved so much better. [Christmas 2004, p.80]

This is a game that’s as riotously entertaining as it is viciously random... It’s gleeful automobile slapstick, but not for anyone who values skill and achievement more than taking a wrecking ball to their opponents’ racing lines. [Dec 2005, p.114]

In taking away direct control Miniland Mayhem has intensified the appeal to players' protective instinct which exists at the heart of the series. [Jan 2011, p.103]

The single-player campaign is fast-paced if rather unforgiving on occasion, and the online community is refreshingly vibrant given the game's steep learning curve. Recollection's only real problems exist in the form of a handful of irritating crash bugs and server disconnects, along with an unwelcome over-eagerness to drive you towards in-app purchases as you seek to bolster your sickly starter deck.

Epic Mickey may not always be entirely satisfying to play, but it's still enormously interesting to wander around with an eye open for the detailing. [Jan 2011, p.92]

It's the tutorials that stick in the mind: Skullgirls' real win is via Zaimont grasping that fighting games needn't be easier to play, but should be easier to understand.

It hangs together because its distinct strands feed into one another just enough, even if that relationship is as crude as a dialogue tree leading to you gaining a stat-altering card that you can play during the campaign phase.

Conan is a genuine surprise. It’s not innovative in its entirety, but it does almost as much as it can with the central conceit, and thus proves one of the better examples of the hack’n’slash genre. [Dec 2007, p.93]

This is a good expansion, a solid foundation for the next year of updates, and a lousy place for newcomers to start. [Issue#370, p.108]

For its dramatic and cinematic flair, its lovingly crafted chaotic destruction and above all its network of interconnected personalities, it's an adventure that shouldn't be missed. [JPN Import; June 2006, p.92]

What’s left is, while smartly streamlined, a thoroughly orthodox game within a well-established type, a niche within a niche that’s getting smaller all the time.

If some activities are variants on familiar parlour games, they’re enlivened by creative twists and side objectives, while others are brimming with invention.

Magic Pengel isn't, by any stretch of the imagination, a rounded and satisfying videogame. But it is, without question, a rounded and satisfying stretch of the imagination. [Nov 2003, p.92]

If you share director Ragnar Tornquist's view that being engaged in dialogue is a form of gameplay, then there's a richness here that few other titles have the ability or luxury to create. [June 2006, p.86]

It feels more like a yearly update than a sequel, a new campaign with old multiplayer. The game isn't distinct from its predecessors in any important way, and fatigue sets in quicker than before. [Jan 2011, p.94]

This is a game you'll complete, chuckle at and show off. [Sept 2010, p.98]

Its keen sense of drama is as authentic as it is exhilarating: arcing a 40-yard free-kick around the wall and into the top corner in the last-minute of a cup final is as thrilling a moment as you'll witness in any FIFA match. It's hardly the beautiful game – its visuals are perfunctory at best – but Simon Read's creation smartly captures the capitalism, the artistry and the sheer, glorious unpredictability of its subject.

It looks great, and the boosting system means that, as a time-trial game, it's fantastic. If your progress wasn't so easily sabotaged by a thoughtless collision, it would be a fantastic racer, too. [June 2004, p.104]

An incredibly solid universe with barely a technical glitch to be found, but it’s soulless and almost bereft of plot or character. This is a sandbox game that’s begging for a purpose. [March 2005, p.80]

It feels more like a yearly update than a sequel, a new campaign with old multiplayer. The game isn't distinct from its predecessors in any important way, and fatigue sets in quicker than before. [Jan 2011, p.94]

Zombie Gunship obviously has its influences, but it works them into something surprising: a slow-mo high-score shooter, a grainy panorama of survival horrors, and a greater sense of an undead horde than the rest of the App Store's zombie shooters put together.

As you might expect, such breadth comes at the cost of a little finesse. [Issue#372, p.104]

It's undeniably a one-trick pony, then, but it's a good trick, performed with flair and polish. Those inclined to correct grammatical howlers in friends' Facebook missives will find this a far less confrontational way of sating their inner pedant.

While Snowblind never truly escapes the feeling of being a well-dressed, derivative run’n’gun shooter, it never fails to get the running and gunning right, and in that respect, at least, it’s a sound success. [March 2005, p.86]

The biggest narrative crime comes right at the close, where what feels like the approach to the conclusion turns out to be, in fact, the end - a sour taste that's hardly helped by the naked sequel set-up that follows. [May 2018, p.122]

It feels more like a yearly update than a sequel, a new campaign with old multiplayer. The game isn't distinct from its predecessors in any important way, and fatigue sets in quicker than before. [Jan 2011, p.94]

Rematch, especially with friends, is an immediate, exhilarating caricature of football. Its pared-down mechanics inject joy back into a sport that's been hollowed out, both in real life through surrender to capital and geopolitics, and as simulation, in the gears of service-game profit-making machines. [Issue#413, p.118]

We hate its impotence, its utter lack of a scare beyond an aversion to getting shot. And with its market-led features and Skinner-box mechanics, we hate that a series that began as a lesson in horror – of the B-movie kind, admittedly – now feels so afraid of the competition.

If Rock of Ages eventually runs out of variety, it never runs out of charm. The game has a magnificent sense of momentum throughout, tugging you downhill towards the enemy's gates and upwards through the strata of Western culture. It is an oddball offering in every sense.

Salt and Sacrifice shrewdly builds upon its forerunner's groundwork - offering enough depth to enthral the most ardent admirers of the Soulslike genre, while its robust 2D platformer fundamentals make it much more approachable than many of its peers. [Issue#372, p.108]

Opoona has enough character that, combined with its innovative combat and leisurely pace through an interesting world, it is comfortably its own experience. [June 2008, p.93]

Masterful controls aside, Corruption sees Retro lost for a while, like Samus, down some mystifying and convoluted dead-end of its own making, populating a universe that should have stayed desolate and dead. [Nov 2007, p.84]

Fast, engrossing and perfectly attuned to the needs of a handheld, Lunar Knights addresses the previous games’ failings without feeling like a retreat, providing refinement without too much dilution. [Apr 2007, p.86]

The most satisfying stages give you a generous toolset with which to experiment, but one too many involves painstaking repositioning of a few items.