Coming from the studio behind Wave Trip and Bad Hotel, Gentlemen’s sharp, stylish menus and app icon were always a given, but a conceptual curveball like this was hardly guaranteed to hit its target. That it does so emphatically is convincing proof that this Edinburgh studio is no one-trick pony.

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]

For all its minor shortcomings, if one of the main design goals of The Skywalker Saga was to make you fall in love with Star Wars again, on that particular front it is an unequivocal triumph. [Issue#371, p.110]

A frustrating step backwards for a studio that can do better. [July 2016, p.122]

Those accustomed to the adult world of online PC gaming may have reason to sniff at the more streamlined play, but Pandemic has given consoles a whole new genre, pretty much perfectly formed... No game has ever felt quite so much like playing with Star Wars figures. [Nov 2004, p.102]

This is as good as you'll find on DSiWare at the moment, and it'll likely stay that way until Q-Games comes up with another mini-marvel. [Feb 2010, p.95]

Double Fine’s adventure is confident and charming, the studio feeling its way to a comfortable mid-point between the desires of adventure-game fans and its own motivation to move the genre forward – even if only by a small increment.

For your money, however, this is the best new MMOG since Guild Wars 2 and arguably the most feature complete an MMOG has ever been on launch.

Modest and ingenious and smartly priced, Islanders is as engaging to tinker with as a palate cleanser between bigger games as to take seriously in pursuit of a high score - wonky mansions and all. [Issue#333, p.120]

The most significant addition is Quen marine Seyka, with whom Aloy forms a bond that goes beyond friendship. Yet the two fight more often than they flirt, and the need to either level or stock up between story missions means they don't spend enough time together for the would-be emotional climax to fully land. [Issue#385, p.120]

Resistance Retribution might be shallow, but its good looks and refined controls lend a certain mesmerising pleasure to it nonetheless. [Apr 2009, p.124]

This game's focus is its singleplayer campaign, and it's an involving, dynamic, astonishing-looking 12-15 hour bloodbath. A good, old-fashioned bloodbath. [Dec 2005, p.94]

Umurangi Generation is a game of jagged edged, in many more ways than one. We just with that didn't apply to how it so often feels in the hands. [Issue#361, p.119]

Chaos Theory is the game that the original Splinter Cell was meant to deliver: a tight play experience within a trusty framework, one more of enjoyment than irritation, and a game that's no longer exclusively for fans of repeated reloading. [Apr 2005, p.97]

A scary, vicious, visually progressive if rather hollow next-gen showcase that doesn’t outstay its welcome. If you want to spend a night or two in the company of the future of horror videogaming, you could do a lot worse. [Christmas 2005, p.94]

A revitalisation of the very spirit that made the franchise a success. Finally, it’s time to stop asking where next for the series, and to start savouring where Project 8 has taken it. [Christmas 2006, p.78]

The feeling of achievement and closure as the credits roll on this wonderful, soulful game is every bit as keen as the time we looked out from the summit of Celeste Mountain. [Issue#364, p.120]

Nidhogg is not about lengthy stage lists, improvable online systems, fussy control mapping or AI. Nidhogg is about the purity of two friends on a couch duking it out as Daedelus’s moody dynamic electronica frames acrobatic displays of wits and reflexes. In that sense, it has no equal.

Let all the vision-obscuring dust settle and it transpires that Battlefield 4 is a more conservative sequel than we were led to expect.

The sidequests are among its strongest features, challenging your expectations about how RPGs are structured. [April 2017, p.116]

There's less motivation to persevere in erecting a monument to your skill when there's no one around to see it. [March 2015, 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.

If all this wasn't enough, there's also an affecting story going on. [Oct 2016, p.114]

Ultimately what was intended as a thoughtful depiction of a terrible mental illness has ended up casting it as something of an asset: a helpful superpower that can give you the strength to soldier on through the darkness, so long as you can put up with the odd breakdown here and there. That, we suspect, was not what Ninja Theory intended. It's certainly not what we had hoped for. [Issue#310, p.112]

If you're looking for a sparklingly attractive shooter with a side order of slinky physics, this delivers the goods. But it's about as average as FPS gaming gets. [June 2004, p.105]

It may be formulaic, but that formula is still one of invention, surprise and excellence. [Jan 2005, p.87; JPN Import]

GW2 offers an alternative, lighthearted take on a genre that can often feel po-faced. [May 2016, p.118]

If the progress loop is largely untouched, though, Strange Antiquities gradually reveals greater depth and detail, easing you in before piling up possible angles of research. From the start, when you examine an object you can now do so according to different senses - what does it look like, feel like, smell and sound like, and does it inexplicably send shivers down your spine? And if early customer requests only ask you to consider an object's form or constituent materials, later you'll need to pay attention to inscribed symbols, gems and more. Cross-referencing a burgeoning stack of books, notes and maps, you begin to absorb ancient words and ideas. It's fascinating. At times, Bad Viking gives itself an impossible needle to thread with so many nuanced elements in play. A few descriptions feel like misdirection, sending us to the hint system. More often, though, the game maintains its spell. The instinct to organise and label every last item is as compelling as the elegant interface and the story drawing towards a fateful conclusion. It would be strange to refuse the invitation. [Issue#416, p.122]

While there may be plenty of JRPGs with greater mechanical depth, few are capable of such affectionate and playful subversion. [Issue#375, p.114]

Renegade Ops sees Avalanche successfully putting a thoroughly modern spin - and more than a few spin-outs - on well-worn mechanics. If you're reading, EA, we know just the team for that Strike reboot.

Where Is My Heart? revels in simplicity, beauty and restraint, yet the experience tempers such qualities by proving challenging, infuriating and exhausting.

While Rockstar made its millions capturing the grotesque allure of fantasy crime, every character in this me-too endeavor is simply grotesque. It has a taste for hot coffee, but only knows how to serve it straight. [Oct 2006, p.88]

In Assassin's Creed, the bloodthirsty are typically punished. For all its breadth and splendour, there is still not quite enough room to condemn its two most murderous inhabitants. [Issue#410, p.98]

Memories of Mizuguchi's original may hold more value than anything offered here, making for an unusual proposition. Highly enjoyable as it is, Lumines II is tough to recommend. [Christmas 2006, p.89]

It bears all the hallmarks of its maker. The future, it seems, is in safe hands. [Aug 2015, p.110]

It's a peculiar idea to grasp, but it's impossible to argue with how successfully Game Freak has taken one simple design decision and made it integral to movement, combat and puzzle solving. [Mar 2006, p.95]

For all of its little stumbles on the journey from Vita to PS4, and its odd mix of new ideas and an old world, Unfolded retains one of its progenitor's most vital ingredients: buckets and buckets of charm. [Nov 2015, p.116]

This lightness of touch, combined with instant restarts and a Trials-style checkpoint system, makes for an extremely moreish racer. [June 2016, p.123]

Gunplay is conveyed through some truly dazzling visual feedback and blare. But, once the smoke clears, it feels all too repetitive in terms of its deathmatch-style objectives. [Christmas 2005, p.109]

Nippon Ichi’s disregard for the cult of stagnated updates is at once exhilarating and unnerving. It’s exhilarating because it leaves the player wondering exactly where these craftsmen of the strategy minutiae will go next, and it’s unnerving because Phantom Brave’s reworking is a bridge too far for all but the most dedicated of videogame strategists. [Nov 2004, p.100]

Everything is unabashedly cheerful... It's a shame that later levels begin to run out of steam, repeating tasks over and over as a contrivance for lengthening narrative. [Oct 2006, p.90]

Brutal and rather short, VVVVVV's also devious and darkly funny. It's a pedantic classic, and a game for watch-makers as much as speed-runners.

Unite doesn’t offer the kind of transformation at its higher levels that you might expect – the essential purpose is the same throughout: kill monsters, craft new shin pads out of dino-bladders, and swap your pig’s wings for a magician’s hat. Nonetheless, these simple motivations give way to a huge depth of execution which empowers and requires four players.

It’s not necessarily badly constructed, but in many ways it is badly intentioned, failing not just because of its conga-line of racial and sexual clichés, but because of the way it makes it a little bit easier to criticise videogaming as a hollow and sadistic pursuit. [Dec 2008, p.91]

With "Denied Ops" dropping the Conflict ball and "Call Of Duty 4"’s snappy splendour drowning any tactical sense, it’s a likeable and distracting continuation, but one that won’t be difficult to usurp. [Apr 2008, p.90]

This isn't a game about saving the world, but rather achieving some peace within it. [Issue#391, p.114]

For all those little frustrations, it's clear Paradise Killer is going to stay with us for a while longer. It's a considerable achievement for this tiny studio. Kaizen Game Works: may you continue to reach for the moon. [Issue#351, p.98]

Dual Destinies is an Ace Attorney game, all right, and that’s perhaps the best result anyone could have hoped for.

Its clumsiness of presentation and lack of explanation might be partly excused as aesthetic choices that enrich even as they frustrate. But perhaps its truest accolade is in returning the horror of survival itself to the survival horror genre.

Advanced Warfare is still Call of Duty, but it's more playful, knowing and refreshing than COD's been in years. [Christmas 2014, p.112]

As uneven and unpolished as it is, Fallen Order is still the best game to emerge from EA's stewardship of the Star Wars license, even if that's to damn it with faint praise. [Issue#340, p.98]

While it feels dynamic for what is, essentially, an RPG of skill harvesting and exploiting, the end result is more about flexibility than exhilaration, more a colourfully-framed and extended session of rock-paper-scissors than any kind of rush. [June 2005, p.87]

The game fumbles its potential with unanticipated incompetence. [Christmas 2007, p.94]

There's little here that truly improves the Overcooked recipe, an din that regard, only those with extra large appetites for this particular brand of couch co-op need apply. [Nov 2018, p.122]

This first segment is potent. [March 2013, p.106]

The game's angled view and coloured stacks mean that some of the best moments – cascading chains that ripple outwards as the landscape collapses in a shower of points – can sometimes be the result of luck instead of judgement.

Provides you with plenty of stealth mechanics but leagues of ground to cover, and that tension is deadly. [Issue#344, p.116]

Like the wings of your Rathalos in the opening, there's a majesty to this sequel, even if it doesn't really soar. [Issue#422, p.110]

Even at maximum velocity it fails to stir the blood like the games to which it's most indebted. [Feb 2016, p.120]

Its nonsensical charm – cartoon aliens, sweeties that make planets, and a robot T-Rex – as well as a winning extra mode (which basically makes planets into timebombs) after completion rounds off an original and deep hybrid.

It's a reminder that 'accessible' - along with 'Project', 'Gotham', 'Grid' and 'arcade' - isn't such a dirty word after all. [May 2011, p.92]

Another decent GunCon arcade experience from Namco, which shoots all of the (now very familiar) lightgun game boxes. Fun for a while, certainly, but there are no surprises. [Dec 2003, p.107]

Like so many recent releases, Borderlands 4 has a magnetic, engrossing experience at its core that's been built on a hundred smart design decisions, but its performance on PC keeps you at arm's length. [Issue#416, p.114]

Mario Golf might just be one of the finest games ever made. It's the only explanation EDGE can think of for how it remains playable despite having so very many things wrong with it. [Oct 2003, p.101]

Put simply, it regularly betrays the cyber-ninja fantasy it's peddling. The speedruns will doubtless be dazzling, and Ghostrunner certainly LOOKS every bit the blockbuster it isn't. How unfortunate, then, that a game about a deadly assassin should suffer from so many critical failures in execution. [Issue#352, p.114]

While Rockfish has created an accomplished open-world experience among the stars, then, it really needn't take up quite so much space. [Issue#384, p.110]

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]

Hard-bitten graduates of "GTR2" and "GT Legends" would be smart to approach RACE with few expectations, or perhaps leave it to the newcomes it has clearly been designed to attract. [Jan 2007, p.81]

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

What a laugh. [Issue#338, p.104]

There is some enormous potential here, and for all its failings Assassin’s Creed deserves to be played, and its achievements savoured. [Christmas 2007, p.82]

Southend's spatial puzzler is clever enough to survive such a heavy-handed dose of focus-grouped fancy: you won't need to love it in order to appreciate some of its better tricks. [Jan 2011, p.103]

Unlike in a game such as Limbo, the main challenge is not finding solutions to puzzles but performing them. [Issue#411, p.118]

There's much to admire and to enjoy, but we've come to expect more from a developer of EAD Tokyo's calibre. [Jan 2014, p.114]

It too often asks for a mere nod in the right direction rather than a considered gambit, filling in the incriminating details itself and leaving the player yearning for more active involvement. [Christmas 2005, p.110]

Part fishing simulator and part Lovecraftian adventure but while the two concepts work together surprisingly well, they both feel disappointingly undercooked.

Following the excellent Inside Story was always going to be a big ask, so it’s hardly a surprise AlphaDream never quite manages to conjure up anything better than being Bowser. Still, while the comparison to its predecessor does it few favours, rest assured that Dream Team Bros’ additions and curiously entertaining battles do enough to reawaken the desire to see this adventure through to the end.

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]

Even as playing boardgames in person becomes a reality once more, we suspect that Trials Of Fire's baggy charms will ensure it keeps us from the table on a fair few evenings to come. [Issue#358, p.110]

With 2022's sequel confirmed for global release early next year, then, we feel ready to go the distance and stick with this trail. [Issue#401, p.114]

For every moment of epiphany, wide-eyed with an awareness of a resolution, there's an equal number of blunderingly hapless wins, falling or jumping accidentally to new and advantageous positions. [June 2008, p.89]

Sadly, the technical turbulence that has blighted previous episodes remains – the QTE-powered action beats, though well staged, are hobbled by pauses and awkward transitions, even on PC.

It's an interesting tale, it's mystery and fuzzy chronology giving it a constant, momentum. [March 2018, p.120]

Developer Dang smartly refuses to complicate things, instead relying on its diverse menagerie and devious level designs to keep you on your toes. [Issue#362, p.121]

Best approached as you would any caffeinated energy drink. In small gulps, it offers an exhilarating sugar rush, but too much will leave you with a headache. As such, it's best consumed in moderation. [Christmas 2014, p.104]

In its best moments (of which there are plenty), this is about as good as Life is Strange has ever been. [Issue#364, p.112]

Children of the Sun wears that rawness like a badge of honour, its rough edges not sanded down but rather made so jagged as to draw blood. [Issue#397, p.106]

Just Cause 2 can hardly be called an average game. It's a good one undermined by a selection of mediocre elements, and it's all the more frustrating this time around because Avalanche shows us glimpses of just how much fun two weeks on holiday with Rico should be. [Apr 2010, p.96]

Rage is a stunningly rendered FPS, but one that seems caught between a desire to innovate and the desire to be true to the template its creators defined.

Napoleon ultimately feels like the more successful younger brother to Empire. It fundamentally shares its DNA, for better and worse, but has learned from its mistakes, and has stayed trim and buff.

In no way the cheap plug for the market gap that some have suggested, it may point the way forward for a new model of next-gen development. [July 2006, p.83]

Take it slow, keep an eye on those health bars, and you'll find a fighting game that offers a thrill that few others can - with nary a 20-hit combo in sight. [Issue#335, p.118]

The story's the star, of course. [March 2016, p.114]

The third person action is surprisingly sturdy, while the clash of metal against bone and the confusion, blood and carnage of close combat has been captured spectacularly. [Nov 2004, p.109]

It's the kind of game that'll have you advancing into the next room with slow, tentative steps, jamming hard on the right stick to shift the camera as far ahead as it'll let you see, and instinctively shushing whenever something - or someone - makes a noise. And yes, you may well end up fretting over screen smears and specks of dirt. For a game purpose-built to have you jumping at shadows, there aren't many stronger endorsements than that. [June 2017, p.94]

A superior bit of stuff and nonsense, it makes a bigger splash than you'd think. [Issue#360, p.121]

To attempt to build a shooter as grand as Gradius V takes some courage; Team Ladybug has the talent as well as the guts. [Issue#374, p.119]

As with Ocarina, at first there is a rush of nostalgia. As it fades, it's replaced by the realisation that, in many ways, the original was the playable prototype and this is the true final product, a fantastic fit both for the hardware's portability and feature set.