Enjoyably whipped through in three hours, And Yet It Moves finds rare extra pull in unlockable modes.

Above all, it's funny...If anything, this is the most bizarre game in the series to date. [Jan 2007, p.72]

The Sexy Brutale's world is a delightful place in which to immerse yourself...This assured adventure will draw you into its world, and keep you there. [June 2017, p.100]

The most comprehensive and involving driving simulator we've seen on consoles in years. [July 2015, p.106]

Treyarch has taken just enough from COD4 to make World At War a broad success, but it remains firmly in its shadow. [Christmas 2008, p.90]

Runic Games has created something bright and punchy, if a touch aimless, which makes up for the lack of personality (and multiplayer) with a beaming smile and lots of encouraging pats on the back. [Feb 2010, p.90]

Learn its quirks, however, and Prison Architect's sandbox permits a dizzying breadth of options for establishing for-profit penal facilities. [Christmas 2015, p.120]

Netherrealm has taken a number of welcome steps forward with Mortal Kombat X, but no momentum is gathered, because it's stopped in its tracks by an avalanche of needless distractions, some miserable netcode and - oddly, for a game so obsessed with death in all its grisly forms - poor execution of decent ideas. [June 2015, p.106]

There’s more to be got out of this new kind of play than Nintendo has found this time around, and some of it could be better implemented. But, for now, it offers an experience that can’t be matched. [July 2005, p.89]

It doesn't quite match the out-of-nowhere brilliance of the first game, not is it as bold as the daring, but flawed, follow-up. Still, those seeking a game large and enveloping enough to carry them through the holiday season and beyond will find that particular box well and truly ticked. [Issue#314, p.108]

Its fortunes rely on satisfying a burgeoning community of simulation racers, for whom authenticity is the top priority, and in that respect it’s a success. [Dec 2007, p.94]

Gravity Rush might not always live up to the promise of its tutorial, but it's exactly the kind of original game that a fresh-faced system such as Vita needs, taking subtle, thoughtful advantage of its control inputs while showcasing its power.

These are the most generous entries since HeartGold and SoulSilver. [Jan 2014, p.123]

Team Ninja's finest, most intelligent game since Ninja Gaiden Black, it leaves high hopes for the imminent 360 sequel. [June 2008, p.92]

Above all else, it's an infectiously cheery game that marches to a very different tempo. In that respect, Beat The Beat might just be the perfect swansong for Wii.

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]

There may not be anything eye-catchingly bold about Rocket Slime, but there’s close to nothing to criticise: this is the work of masters of their craft. [Dec 2006, p.92]

Is there any need, on vertically scrolling levels, for your character to die when they touch the bottom of the screen, despite the fact you know there are platforms there? Do bosses have to seem impossible, and then prove tedious when their patterns have been learned? [Jan 2008, p.89]

You'll find well-executed entertainment here, some moments worth fighting for, but without the glue of a good script or the polish of a blockbuster to hold its disparate parts together, Sleeping Dogs feels as trapped as its hero. It's incapable of committing fully to the action movie thrills it seems so enamoured of, perhaps due to the resources that have been siphoned away to fuel its open-world obligations and scale.

It's delightful stuff in full flow, and while there's not much to it - just ten levels are available at launch , each lasting only a few minutes - there's significant replay value in committing level and spawn layouts to memory. [Issue#341, p.122]

This clever, funny, hallucinatory head trip may leave you frazzled, but Tholen's wonderfully singular vision will be burned into your brain for a long time. [Issue#331, p.120]

Stacking's best qualities are its eccentricity and ingenuity. The puzzles lack the tortured bite of Double Fine's early work, but in broadening the narrative-led puzzle game's scope and carefully choosing which elements of tradition to keep and which to discard, Stacking is a bold and charming reinvention.

The fifth in the Colin McRae series is still a fine game if - and here's the major caveat - you didn't play last year's update. Those who did will get more fun out of playing spot the difference. [Nov 2004, p.107]

It's perhaps because the title benefits from such a high production spend … that the average design and execution becomes more pronounced. [Mar 2004, p.101]

It's a game from which you'll find yourself needing to consciously unclench, its rhythm of tension and release proving borderline irresistible. [Issue#352, p.118]

The open levels are fantastic and are complemented by a great storyline with dialogue that's immediately engaging, yet Tribes can feel slightly primitive and the indoor missions are a letdown.

If you've found yourself thinking Pokemon has been showing its age of late, Pokemon Legends: Arceus proves, like members of its playbase, it's more than capable of maturing, too. [Issue#369, p.114]

Blood Money feels only slightly closer to the series’ ideal of a gameworld that’s both complex and cogent, and is more accessible and entertaining with it. [July 2006, p.80]

Guitar Hero has one of the most intuitive and subtle control systems of any game, but here it becomes increasingly subservient to making the game – yes – rock hard, and for the average player will often descend into button-mashing. [Christmas 2007, p.98]

Ultimately, Alan Wake is every bit as compulsive and satisfying as the fiction on which it riffs, but it also runs the risk of being equally forgettable. It’s a game that delivers the requisite number of twists, turns and thrills, but the only real revelations take place on those scattered manuscript pages.

The mission finale is climactic; a frantic last stand awaiting your dropship, enemies pulled in droves towards the beacon, palpable relief if you and your buddies dive through the boarding hatch before your saviour jets from the landing pad. [Issue#396, p.110]

TR-49 is may things simultaneously, to the extent that it can be overwhelming, causing the brain and heart to race - a remarkable feat for something so apparently simple. [Issue#420, p.103]

The killing is enjoyable, but we'd have happily done much more of it. [Issue#333, p.122]

Between the extra sparks of mechanical invention and visual humour, Mortal Kombat 1 offers perhaps NetherRealm's most persuasive argument yet to take the plunge. [Issue#390, p.128]

Cairn, then, is an awe-inspiring journey and a careful character study that captures the thrill and torment of climbing. Yet its flaws are central to that core act. While assist modes and optional visual aids help, the complexities behind the intuitive surface can grind together with unpredictable results. In creating such intricate systems, the developers gave themselves a mountain to climb, and almost reach the peak. [Issue#421, p.100]

It's a testament to the strength of the core concept, then, that The Plucky Squire remains as entertaining as it does. [Issue#403, p.108]

One of the smartest dumb games since Super Time Force. [Christmas 2015, p.121]

In truth, when it does attempt to tug firmly on the heartstrings, Neva is never as effective as we might have feared. But the images it leaves behind are indelible. [Issue#404, p.114]

Perhaps, though, the reason A Highland Song stays in the memory is because of those bumps and scraps rather than in spite of them. [Issue#392, p.110]

Midnight Suns deviates from the XCOM format in many ways, the biggest of which is eschewing dice rolls in favour of a deck of cards. [Issue#380, p.100]

As vivid and memorable an evocation of a place as any hyper-detailed triple-A fantasy universe. [Issue#377, p.106]

There’s more to be got out of this new kind of play than Nintendo has found this time around, and some of it could be better implemented. But, for now, it offers an experience that can’t be matched. [July 2005, p.89]

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]

It occasionally uses those worn tools to achieve something profound. [Issue#421, p.120]

Ms Splosion Man might have done little to fix the 
first game's flaws, but it confidently follows up on its raucous appeal.

Fair, competitive and, above all, relevant. [Nov 2012, p.100]

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

The game's fusion of rhythm-action and RPG never quite fits as neatly as you'd hope. [Nov 2014, p.115]

Boktai re-invigorates almost every aspect of the tired dungeon-and-items formula. The light-sensor technology works flawlessly and opens up a host of possibilities for future games. A beautiful game in almost every respect. [Oct 2003, p.92]

It also commits a few of the same sins: in particular, the deluge of gar drops feels vaguely insulting, conditioning the player to lust after items exclusive to the in-game store. It's lifted, however, by the relative wit and intelligence of its quest design, and the delicate notes of uncertainty and curiosity introduced by Exploration mode. [Christmas 2018, p.108]

During Tropical Freeze’s most exacting sequences, you may yearn for Mario’s reliability, but the bludgeoning force of Retro’s presentation is enough to carry a powerful, if traditional, platformer over the finish line.

Thanks to the feel, the car collection and the online toolset, FM achieves a victory by a fine margin. [Issue#391, p.110]

Its battle system still provides an excellent alternative to the rigid chess boards of many a strategy RPG, but one which feels compromised rather than optimised for its new setting. [Oct 2010, p.88]

The sequel may have sacrificed a little of Maximo's knife-edge aura, but there's so much new here that it would be rude not to call Army of Zin even better. This is a sequel that stands up, and often glitters, on its own terms. [Dec 2003, p.96]

THUG 2 Remix stand straight and tall, offering the series’ trademark open-ended combo blitzing in the form of a solid repackaging, albeit one that’s more a testament to the PSP’s potential rather than a true exploitation of it. [June 2005, p.94]

That the game’s numerous niggles don’t ruin the experience sooner is testament to its unusual artistic coherence which creates a compelling world. But familiarity does eventually break the visual spell to reveal a mostly average and repetitive game underneath. [Sept 2007, p.91]

This is ballsy, brash, confident gaming at its best - a lesson in how games don't have to be perfect to be brilliant. [Christmas 2003, p.102]

We're filled with a sense of unease as our thumb slides upwards, but there's something else here, too: doomscrolling with a side of voyeurism. [Issue#352, p.119]

It's a high-stakes heist simulator with no time for malice aforethought. Stealth's just one tool in your roll bag. [July 2015, p.112]

For those of us with purer nail-hitting, dog-poking and badger-stomping in mind, the pleasure will have to remain in the doing.

Sure, it’s another great instalment of Wipeout, but under the gloss it’s little more. [Dec 2007, p.90]

All these transgressions against convention add up to the most engrossing deck-builder of the past couple of years. [Issue#420, p.96]

Some may argue over what the series should have become, but what's important is that it has made that tough decision for itself, and established a rock solid foundation for inevitable, now justified successors. [May 2006, p.86]

If Spellsword's enemies are disappointingly generic, there's a tactile joy in dispatching them: slimes and bats explode messily as blasts of wind launch them into walls, and it's possible to enjoy a brief game of swingball with the laser-shooting eyes that dangle elastically from the ceiling.

It's almost tempting to say that this feels like the combination of pinball and platforming that Sonic The Hedgehog wishes it was. [Aug 2018, p.108]

Roll7's latest is its best game to date. [Aug 2018, p.116]

The game's greatest achievement is its setting. There's a distinct whiff of a Rockstar production to Watch Dogs 2's San Francisco, with its scale and polish, its savvy skewering of popular culture in general, and Silicon Valley's tech fetish in particular. [Jan 2017, p.106]

Race Driver 3 understands that a processional win from pole is less fulfilling than a hard-fought, championship-saving fifth place from the back of the grid. And though it can’t exactly engineer those situations, it does everything in its power to make them more likely and leave them unpunished. [Mar 2006, p.87]

When Dance Central works, the feeling is borderline euphoric - in the blood-pumping, serotonin-inducing way that only dancing can be - as you find yourself stringing moves you learnt individually into coherent routines. [Christmas 2010, p.94]

These are the most generous entries since HeartGold and SoulSilver. [Jan 2014, p.123]

Nuclear Throne's hook is disarmingly simple but blisteringly effective. In short, it gets a move on. [Feb 2016, p.112]

There are moments to savour throughout Hitman 2, and they all have a corpse lying somewhere. [Jan 2019, p.112]

All Activision's teams needed to deliver the best Call of Duty in half a decade was proper support. It's not V2 rocket science, after all. [Issue#405, p.112]

The constant flow of new content makes it a game that will last as long as Sony’s console does – that is, if you’re prepared to make the financial investment required to maintain a song library. [Nov 2007, p.95]

Accepting the inevitability of bad things happening helps prevent this from descending into suffocating bleakness. [July 2016, p.116]

Playing Not For Broadcast for the first time is akin to having a waking nightmare. [Issue#369, p.121]

Extraction is not just a gun game that happens to work on Wii; it's a gun game that couldn't work on anything else. [Nov 2009, p.90]

It takes the best and worst of Resident Evils past and present, and spot welds them together unevenly. If the designers had committed wholeheartedly to either polarity of action or horror, Revelations may have been a headshot, but what we're left with is more like a glancing blow. [Feb 2012, p.112]

What begins with a potential murder, then, may end with the deconstruction of a way of seeing the world. [Issue#409, p.114]

Persevere, however, and you’ll find the kind of charmingly intelligent design that makes us hope Ambient can eventually realise some of its grander ambitions.

The inclusion of a food journal, detailing the ingredients you've used and those that haven't yet been found, will be manna for completists in another sparky, generous and amusing offering from Adult Swim.

It's a victory for style over substance, in which style smashes substance's head into a million pieces. [May 2016, p.116]

Not bad for the unlikely sequel to a game hardly anyone played. [Sept 2010, p.96]

Ruby/Sapphire is probably the most intricate and detailed console RPG available. Staring into it will make many players woozy. [Sept 2003]

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.

It’s ostensibly an action game, but much more slowly paced than that term would suggest. It’s not quite an RPG either, although there’s levelling and grinding involved. And while its world isn’t open – each area is segmented into numbered zones – it’s a sandbox game in every other respect. Guild quests offer a skeletal structure, but there’s no pressure to stick to it.

The final third of the game abandons grubby criminality for altogether more lurid, excessive and enjoyably silly climes, testifying to the fact that Saints Row is at its best when it rejects the expectations of the series and the strictures of the GTA format.

With Delta, Super Stardust has found a pulse. Perhaps all that's missing now is the soul to go with it.

So, yes, their irreverent take on the medium may have a few technical shortcomings, but you’ll usually be grinning far too much to care.

Granted, this is hardly the most drastic of sequels, but it didn’t need to be: instead, it stands as an indicator that, even as the DSi heads ever deeper into the online space, on some level at least, it’s still business as usual.

MotoHeroz is a cuddly toy you hug to your face, only to realise a second too late it's in fact a surly porcupine.

Sokobond introduces complexity via level furniture that breaks bonds or lets you adjust the position of bonded atoms, but even the basic chambers provide ingenious challenges. Forget chemistry: it takes alchemy to produce a puzzle game as refined and smart as this.

Tiny Tower's ongoing tick-tock of cash and happy bitizens is a fantastic toy.

In action the game is undeniably pretty, as long as you can stomach the monstrous camera. But beyond ther anime-inspired visuals, the action turgidly limps along without ever really engaging or entertaining. [May 2003, p.94]

A sequel with a suitably Darwinian focus on simple refinement. [Nov 2008, p.100]

For the first time, Bungie has successfully remedied two of the most frequent criticisms of Destiny: that there isn't enough to do, and that its endgame is overly focused on raiding. [December 2018, p.102]

Who's quibbling about the originality of any given bone when there are so many of them just waiting to be broken, and in so many stylish ways? [Issue#404, p.121]

This dazzling, determinedly populist experience was not made according to the standards other games are made by, and when judged – or even just described – by those standards, it might seem slender to the point of frailty. [Christmas 2005, p.101]