For the most part the puzzles are well-pitched, with clues subtly seeded into the dialogue. [Issue#347, p.106]

Really, this is a game of strong, simple virtues: knockout action, beautiful character design, lovingly articulated models, crisp sound and overall polish. Every now and then it'll overstretch, at which point it falls. [Jan 2007, p.76]

A stern, if unspectacular, challenge. [Jan 2010, p.94]

A few interface niggles and the eventual feeling of repetition don’t hold back a creative reimagining of a game type that, thanks to the execution, is as important as it is enjoyable. [Nov 2007, p.96]

Compared to its Wii counterpart - as generic a movie-licensed collect 'em up as you'll see - the DS version is swollen with ideas. [Apr 2010, p.98]

Our concern is that the game doesn't quite have the depth to sustain interest over a period of months, and an apparent uninterest in providing anything other than straight combat will compound the problem. And yet, at US$9.99, Plain Sight boasts a price that's as minimalist as its visual style. As such, a game this novel can only be a tempting prospect.

There are some gently taxing puzzles here, and just enough variety to keep the game ticking along, but the real surprise is just how winsome Docomodake’s fungi are, each section ending with a guilelessly warm celebration of family values. [Mar 2009, p.95]

Like Spelunky before it, survival often depends on what you're carrying, and when you happen across life-prolonging shops and lucky weapon drops. But FTL is a less masterful game than Derek Yu's cave diver, throwing more chance into the mix.

With a smart, wry script, a warmly uplifting narrative and a likeable cast, this is a game with its heart in the right place, even if some of its other parts feel a little out of whack. [Jan 2017, p.123]

A potent tactical cocktail, but one that's best enjoyed with earplugs. [Issue#388, p.116]

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's worth pushing through a few early stumbles for the wry smile and inner warmth it leaves. [Issue#378, p.117]

The perspective might be different, but practically everything else from those games has its analogue here. [Issue#378, p.118]

Horses is a fascinating work, capable of moments that lodge in the memory, such as the late-game sequence when the projector's whirring finally stops and the tired clomp of footsteps registers to our ears like the sound of freedom. [Issue#419, p.122]

It delivers on 5th Cell's unlikely conceit far more capably than expected, and fulfills a blueprint so bizarrely ambitious almost nobody believed it was possible. [Nov 2009, p.92]

The sense of immersion is about as unparalleled as you can get without an Oculus Rift strapped to your head. But the campaign feels overlong and stretch marks begin to appear towards the end of the roughly 20-hour adventure. This game could have benefited from some strategic dismemberment of its own, performed by a shrewd editor who knows how to sever redundant limbs.

It may not be the most refined of strategy games, but it's an entertaining, accessible and outstandingly polished example of its type. [July 2015, p.108]

Apart from minor graphical tweaks and two fresh characters, VF4E remains much the same game. [May 2003, p.102]

Seeing the game from beginning to end reveals its true artistic merit: it never gets stale; every episode has been drawn with minute care and attention. It would have been an incredible achievement if the gameplay had matched the outstanding art direction. [Dec 2003, p.94]

If the nostalgic, arcade sensibilities of Cosmic Heroes may not hold us as long as Absolum's Roguelike depth, then, mastering our favoured dynamic duo - to borrow a phrase from a rival universe - just might. [Issue#419, p.122]

Like its predecessor, The New Colossus is a stunning technical achievement and an unusually stylish act of videogame cinematography. Yet where the first game gleefully took a scalpel to what had come before, there's no old order for The New Colossus to overthrow: just a New Order that it struggles to live up to. [Christmas 2017, p.104]

Although the decision to lengthen the already generous cut-scenes may deliver the odd treat for MGS veterans, many will find their duration exasperating. Crucially, though, some of the reworked sequences end up interfering with the game's pacing while failing to bring anything of substance to the experience. [Apr 2004, p.102]

The triumphs, however, will have you punching the air: accept that they are sometimes extremely hard-won and you might well consider this a keeper. [Issue#378, p.120]

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]

These fascinating windows into the lives of people unwittingly close to the end are your reward for being thorough. [Issue#388, p.123]

With a wealth of weapons, unlockable characters, hidden relics and buff-providing cards, Galante has adopted the kitchen-sink approach to fleshing out his game. [Issue#378, p.121]

Could allowing complete freedom to draw support sharply designed puzzles? Mid-way through the completed game’s 80-plus levels, you’ll still be wondering. [Mar 2009, p.94]

What we've got here is one of the most thoughtfully constructed fighters we've ever played, but Fantasy Strike initially presents as off-puttingly amateurish, and we fear few are likely to give it the second chance it deserves. [Issue#336, p.122]

Even as you reflect on the rarity of a blockbuster that's willing to take real risks, you'll be left with the uncomfortable realisation that ten years wasn't quite long enough, after all. Those jagged edges are, in the end, just a little too sharp. [Feb 2017, p.110]

Sacrificing a degree of nuance at the altar of spectacle is a trade-off most Halo fans will be happy to make. Yet, at times it feels like you're just smashing toys together and watching the carnage unfold. But what wonderful toys they are. [May 2017, p.114]

Unadventurous Everybody's Golf may be, but it's wonderfully executed, and its presence at Vita's launch is welcome. With their endlessly smiling characters, cheery J-tunes and bright skies, Everybody's Golf titles are the best Nintendo-esque games a Sony console has ever seen, and this latest iteration is no exception.

It’s a game that rewards the long-haul with deep, inventive missions which eschew the usual fetch and kill structure, ensuring that the many hours spent in Fallout 3’s wasteland aren’t wasted. [Christmas 2008, p.88]

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.

Beneath the drab visuals, then, Taito's unlikely classic remains a game of skill and wit, as well as proof that no-frills fun can still be found in the strangest of places.

A breathtaking way to polish off the definitive videogame nostalgia project, certainly - padding aside, the first 30 hours of Remake suggest that this is change for the better. By the conclusion, though, you may feel like things are going off the rails in more ways than one. [Issue#346, p.80]

The game’s inimitable character bursts at the seams of what was clearly a limited budget. There is none of SquareSoft’s dull-eyed cinematic waste here, which will no doubt alienate swarms of both genre fans and critics. But the charm of the title coupled with its breathtaking breadth and depth will win over more discerning gamers. [Aug 2005, p.91]

Underneath the mundane masculinity and grimy gun-toting clichés lies a heavily structured and well-considered score-attack game – one that’s worth excavating for all the short-lived interest it holds. [Feb 2008, p.88]

Homeworld 3 isn't quite the homecoming we had hoped for. At worst competent, at best exceptional, it has been crafted with evident care, though the originals still cast a shadow as dense as a black hole's event horizon. [Issue#399, p.108]

The enthusiastic shouts that greet immaculate performances may be too generous a reception for Symphonica, but this disarmingly good-natured game is certainly worthy of appreciative applause.

Europa Universalis IV is the game you graduate to when you’re tired of Civilization. That’s ultimately also why all those numbers are there, beneath the surface: because you never graduate away from Europa Universalis IV. It drops you in the deep end before you’re ready, but if you can swim back towards the shallows during those first five hours, you’ll unlock a game so rich, it’ll be helping you tell stories for years.

As clumsy as some elements feel, it's still difficult to vilify KOTOR II. Its strength is in its ability to make you care about your character's fate, and as an RPG package it's as comprehensive as they come. [Feb 2005, p.70]

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]

This isn’t Far Cry 3 at its best mechanically, but it’s definitely the game at its most charismatic. Because as a bunch of well-worn VHS tapes at Ubisoft Montreal undoubtedly prove, the ’80s knew how to do personality.

Fans of the series are in the position of seeing a game that is an enhancement, rather than an exploitation, of its source material – and fans of the FPS have another good example of the genre to add to their busy schedules. [Aug 2007, p.86]

It's a journey that bears repeating. [July 2015, p.117]

As revolutions go, RKGK is perhaps a little too well-mannered for its own good. [Issue#399, p.112]

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]

It’s an enormously likeable package, and one which sets perhaps a much more valuable next-gen agenda: one of games which place a higher emphasis on player enjoyment than they do their own ambitions. [Jan 2005, p.84]

The game isn’t clear how its surgeries work – which bits need be cut where, and with what tools – not a problem when you’re merrily and messily experimenting, but annoying if you’re keen to progress. Still, few games take that odd, occasional gulf between what you intend to happen and what actually occurs on screen and fill it with such comedy.

Ingenious, experimental and entirely polarising, games like ColorZ show that WiiWare continues to take the road less travelled. In doing so, the platform’s most poignant offerings reveal something a little bit magical - a fleeting glimpse of the soul lurking within the machine.

Here, though, each death is just another opportunity for a punchline. [Issue#385, p.121]

The levels can sometimes feel artificial and depopulated, the game neither recreating sprawling, unrelenting conflict, nor managing to suggest a greater world through the controlled cinema of more linear shooters. [Mar 2008, p.94]

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]

Perhaps, in this fastest of genres, it’s simply six months too late...in a race with "Forza Motorsport 2," "PGR4," "Dirt" and even the likes of "MotoGP '07," there’s the unmistakeable feel that Sega Rally’s been superseded before it leaves the grid. [Nov 2007, p.89]

Leaving this sun-kissed escape behind really does feel like returning from a holiday. [Issue#383, p.104]

Charming, irrepressible and inventive, the fact that it never manages to blend its ingredients smoothly together doesn’t stop it being a toothsome pick ‘n’ mix of playful puzzles, familiar faces and unrestrained whimsy. [June 2007, p.84]

It’s still a classic, then, but one you’d be wise to play in brief installments. And with no real plot to lose yourself in, no breadcrumbs to follow, and very little else to bother yourself with besides headshots, perhaps this is Serious Sam as he’s always meant to be encountered – as a palate-cleansing blast of pure four-colour chaos to enjoy between other courses.

The picaresque form allows the levels to function as discreet puzzles rather than as parts of a story arc: the objective remains pure and always the same. The obstacles and methods open to you are what change, and it's in these areas that Contracts has both expanded and improved. [June 2004, p.103]

Many will be satisfied by the simple existence of a COD game on the day next-gen hardware launches, but this is a missed opportunity nonetheless. The studio that defined the console FPS in the current generation has declined to do the same here. By the time it gets another chance, it may be too late.

Whatever its bias or excisions, MOH rejects the sort of gung-ho globetrotting baloney seen in Modern Warfare, and makes an honest attempt not to trivialise the lives of US soldiers, creating an air of sober authenticity which is unusual among shooters.

The result is one of the sprightliest blockbusters since Insomniac's own Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and a lesson in pacing from which Sony's forthcoming PS5 big guns would do well to learn. Sure, you might find it starting to slip from memory even as the credits are rolling, but in the moment? For the most part, it's rather riveting. [Issue#360, p.104]

It would also be an overstatement to call it profound: in any other medium such themes would hardly be revelatory, and although The Line is a thoughtful and well-intentioned game, the level of its writing is carefully engineered to be accessible to those expecting a brainless bullet exchange. Even so, it is brazen in its critique, and a rarity besides. It may not be subtle, but it engages with problems that the bellicose ilk of Modern Warfare and Medal Of Honor have yet to acknowledge.

Perfect? No. Indispensable? Yes. Wii Sports more than earns its bundled place as an essential component of the hardware. [Christmas 2006, p.76]

While the thrill remains and the audiovisual show lives up to the billing, then, you wonder if the designers of genre classics might have pushed the envelope even more. [Issue#402, p.122]

Though perhaps it's the constraints that give this striking noir - the most invested we've been in the Tron universe for 40 years - such a strong identity of its own. [Issue#385, p.122]

Ultimately, setting out to critique and parody so studiously such a hidebound genre has brought The Bard's Tale too close to what it was trying to distance itself from. This is a conventional, likeable dungeon crawl whose flashes of brilliance distract you from its accomplishments by hinting at how much more it could have been. [Christmas 2004, p.93]

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 may not satisfy armchair warmongers used to Supreme Commander’s intimidating depths, but RA3 never threatens to take itself that seriously, and nor would you want it to. [Christmas 2008, p.98]

NeverDead's heart is in the right place: committed to entertaining you, no matter the cost - even if it means losing your head a few too many times along the way. [March 2012, p.120]

A tiny game with some big ideas. [Sept 2012, p.106]

Diablo still contains enough impulsive monster-slaying to entertain, but the trek from its home on PC has left it diminished.

This is a whirlwind romance, a week-long fling rather than a lasting love, like Lumines or Tetris. But for those first few days, the sparks will fly fast and frequently; you won't be able to keep your hands off it.

It never hits Neversoft's golden-age standard, but it comes much closer than such a daft premise would lead you to suspect. [Dec 2010, p.95]

Ready At Dawn has successfully maintained its focus, making its debut game a standout title on a platform lacking in must-haves. [May 2006, p.91]

Balancing discipline and freedom, and showcasing creativity within constraints, it demonstrates that you can shape your own path through life, while suggesting ways you might build upon everything you learn along the way. [Issue#399, p.118]

Isn't a hard game, but it is occasionally a taxing one. [Sept 2012, p.108]

It becomes, in the very best sense, an anarchic fetch quest played by Takahashi's whimsical rules. [Issue#341, p.114]

It's to Super Crush KO's credit that, after rattling through its brief but bouncy campaign, we immediately dive back in for another crack at perfecting our high scores. It is some of the best gaming junk food around: moreish although not particularly nutritious, best enjoyed in small moments of convenience and often while watching something else. [Issue#342, p.116]

Fortunately, it has a reliable stream of Gilbert gags, puns, and musical numbers to fall back on, ensuring that just as the challenge eases off, the charm comfortably picks up the slack.

There's a pleasingly wide range of enemies to fight. [Sept 2012, p.110]

If Desert Storm 2 has one flaw, it's that there are only ten maps and these usually channel the player down avenues rather than provide ample playgrounds for strategic experimentation. [Nov 2003, p.100]

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]

While it’s not the definitive culmination of the genre so far, Dominator remains a compelling reminder that, while slight in comparison to its older brothers, Burnout still knows how to be a mean racing game. [Apr 2007, p.83]

It has flashes of brilliance, but then you get stuck on some cover and get killed because of it, and that moment is shattered.

An astonishingly polished debut from Lego's new studio, and further proof that there's much, much more still to be made from the humble brick. [Issue#342, 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]

Plenty of games can be as awkward or frustrating as Dead Rising 2, but none are as insanely, violently, engagingly bonkers. [Nov 2010, p.88]

Pacific Rift certainly feels a more complete game than its predecessor, but the state of the art has moved on considerably since the original wowed at launch. [Dec 2008, p.87]

Platforming feels more involved than in "Stray," though clipping issues and an inconsistent camera can lead to frustrating falls. [Issue#399, p.122]

It's hard not to think how much more memorable and rewarding it would have been had the writers made the effort to intertwine these stories from the outset, instead of making its characters spend so much of their journey walking in parallel. [Issue#383, p.108]

While it's diverting, Planet Lana II never feels essential as a sequel, mechanically or narratively. [Issue#422, p.106]

NES Remix 2’s superior selection of games means it should maintain your interest longer than its predecessor; only rarely will you curse the controls that mean the more exacting platforming challenges can be infuriating to master.

It might not have much to say, but Borderlands 3 gives you a lot to talk about. [Issue#338, p.100]

Beautifully detailed with impressive lighting, accurately modelled protagonists and a terrific sense of speed. A refreshing and captivating direction for the series. [Christmas 2003, p.115]

It's exactly how we felt the first time we played Portal, and the first-person puzzlers that followed afterwards, and it's been a good while since we last played one. Tunnel Vision is more than comfortable in that shadow and, honestly, so are well. [Issue#342, p.122]

There simply isn't enough game nor story to justify such a drawn-out campaign, as attritional wear and tear causes those well-oiled cogs to grind. The more we pop, in other words, the keener we are to stop. [Issue#346, p.92]

The attention that’s gone into the update extends much further than a mere 3D overhaul and this update feels like a labour of love, even if its conception was merely for profit. [Sept 2008, p.96]

True, these lively, boisterous scuffles are probably best enjoyed in short bursts. But it's hard to dislike a game that dares to break the sacrosanct rules of its genre - even if it sometimes reminds you why they existed in the first place. [Aug 2018, p.106]