For console owners used to having to fiddle with power sliders in order to orchestrate their shots, it brings a nigh-on edible element of tangibility to the experience... An accomplished bundle. [May 2004, p.109]

This is certainly the MOST tennis Camelot has served up, if not the smartest or slickest. [Issue#422, p.108]

The title is just painfully apt: never has a free-roaming structure brought so little to improve the quality of a game's world. The mooted open-ended environments of Tony Hawk's American Wasteland feel like a fallacy, a bleak repackaging for hocking the game to a jaded audience. [Dec 2005, p.107]

It is wonderfully written, its world lived-in and vivid. It meets our expectations of a Fullbright game, but sadly leaves it at that. [Issue#310, p.114]

A party game collection for which you have to work far too hard to get much of a chance to party. [Jan 2007, p.82]

Guwange appears the most accessible of Cave's late-90s output, even if the latter stages of the game, particularly in the two extra modes featured in this update, will require a combination of dedicated practice and natural skill to overcome. [Oct 2010, p.98]

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

To give in to its spell, you just need to let go. [Christmas 2014, p.123]

Where FlatOut felt like racing in a field, FlatOut 2 feels like racing on a film set. It has been reshaped into the archetype, competent arcade racer. [Aug 2006, p.89]

A sensitive update for a series many thought would stay stuck in the past.

Not for everyone, Dancing All Night will suit players who love rhythm action enough to overlook a lack of content, or who love Persona 4 enough to forgive the length and leaden pace of its script. [Jan 2016, p.123]

For a story centered on revolutionaries, Mirage is oddly conservative, mired in the middle ground between honouring tradition and embracing innovation. Ubisoft has seldom felt closer to delivering on the power fantasy promised by Patrice Desilets in 2007; equally, it has never felt farther away from its contemporaries. [Issue#391, p.108]

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.

A fizzing treat that refuses to ever dissolve away entirely, Alien Zombie Death is pacy, mean-spirited, and delightful.

For the most part the game has been intelligently repositioned for the PC platform, but a lack of polish means that many minor flaws coalesce to make the experience a rather uneven one, often obscuring the creators’ worthwhile efforts. [Sept 2007, p.96]

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]

Toki Tori 2 deserves praise for asking its players to take a leap of faith; it’s just a pity it’s not always prepared to follow them over.

The friction between precision and imprecision is what makes the game unique. [December 2018, p.112]

If at times Sable has a certain adolescent clumsiness about it, elsewhere it feels mature beyond its years. [Issue#364, p.106]

Vega$ pushes the stagnant tycoon genre as far as it can go, and is currently the best looking management sim available. But how far can you flog a dead Elvis? [Dec 2003, p.103]

For console owners used to having to fiddle with power sliders in order to orchestrate their shots, it brings a nigh-on edible element of tangibility to the experience... An accomplished bundle. [May 2004, p.109]

Smartly thought out, handsomely presented and perfectly showcasing the combination of quick thinking and quick reactions we so often claim videogames encourage. [June 2007, p.89]

It doesn't always hang together perfectly, but its earnest affection for its subject proves an effective adhesive, and perhaps the best compliment we can pay Kaiju Wars is that it persuasively captures the thrilling, manic energy of the best monster movies. [Issue#372, p.121]

If you can stomach the precarious ethical nature of a game that takes American intervention in the very serious political quagmire that is Somalia as its subject matter, then this game makes for a varied and engrossing piece of gun-action. [May 2003, p.101]

Accentuat[es] Suda's often over-indulgent scriptwriting and accelerat[es] Mikami's brand of horror into a hyper-gothic, shock-free world of bright lights. With a little more restraint and focus on the core experience, Shadows Of The Damned could have been the action thrill ride Garcia Hotspur thinks it is. Instead the game – like Hotspur himself – is all talk.

While it can be trying, Tales of Kenzera remains a piece of classy engineering, supported by evocative landscapes, meaty audio effects and a score that combines traditional Bantu sounds with modern electronica. [Issue#398, p.114]

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.

Look at it one way, and it's a choking journey with unprecedented attention to unease and psychological horror, a game framed with unparalleled sophistication. From another angle, it's just a clunky PSone throwback, with all the design wit of a dodo. [Aug 2004, p.92]

It’s big and beautiful, but it’s also too swollen, too slow, and too buggy to sustain its lofty ambition.

Solatorobo's short attention span is occasionally 
its undoing – good ideas and mechanics are dropped 
as readily as bad – and the button-mashing combat 
can occasionally fatigue, but this is an adventure both 
epic and bite-sized, with the kind of charm that 
makes its weaknesses easy to forget, and hard 
not to forgive.

This once-forgotten game deserves its redemption arc. [Issue#359, p.121]

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]

For its fights alone Knights In The Knightmare is a worthy effort, another semi-successful attempt to find the sweet spot for stylus-driven roleplay. [July 2009, p.101]

Much like its hero, then, Bloodroots is perhaps a touch bloated in the middle - but the gore-soaked trail it'll trace in your mind will leave a lasting mark. [Issue#343, p.110]

It leaves nothing to blame when disaster occurs but your own failure to understand logic's laws. [Issue#402, p.114]

Gearbox has made a game that is stable and complete, if hugely unrefined in places, with an under-exploited but sound core of tactical squad combat. [Nov 2008, p.93]

It’s rarely elegant – a horde of zombie cosmonauts exited our ship as quickly as they entered after arriving next to a hull breach – but in battling back from the brink of obliteration there are moments you’ll feel like a surrogate Kirk. Crashes, glitches and repetition break the spell, but when it’s time for some thrilling heroics Star Command proves itself a worthwhile enterprise.

It’s a perfectly serviceable adventure that you’ll play through with few frustrations, but will likely have forgotten by the following morning. Ratchet and Clank’s story ends, then, not with a bang, but with a half-hearted shrug.

Crisp of cut-scene, blessed with a refreshingly light touch and low-key compared to the po-faced chest-beating of its peers, Second Sight could well be a high water mark in storytelling through games (as opposed to storytelling around them). [Oct 2004, p.104]

It's feature-creep, in short, bloat orbiting an excellent core. In that regard, at least, For Honor is a Ubisoft game. [May 2017, p.112]

The game is more about building theme parks than overseeing them, moment to moment. [Issue#405, p.120]

Kids are often underestimated, but that doesn't mean their games should be. Lego Star Wars has an appeal that goes beyond age, even if it's one that rarely goes beyond 20 minutes at a time. [May 2005, p.84]

SpeedThru is a game best experienced in short bursts, not least because the startling image depth may prove a strain for tired eyes. Still, this is further evidence of the eShop's relevance in the face of strong competition from Nintendo's peers.

A hypnagogic summertime escape to a place that lingers in the mind - prepare for some weird dreams. [Issue#338, p.116]

Insomniac has stripped away every inch of slack, delivering a consistently entertaining title where platforming nestles tightly against puzzle solving and hugs shooting sections. [Oct 2008, p.102]

It can feel like all work and no play, but it's work that's professionally rendered, adding some solid detail and feedback to the traditional GTA-style framework. [Dec 2006, p.84]

The ingredients might sound tasty in isolation, but the recipe isn't quite right, leaving us with a dish best described as an attractive hotchpotch. [Issue#356, p.100]

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

With no meaningful equivalent to the communal goals and tactical layovers that gave Planes a stay of execution, once the paywall stalls your progress like leaves on the line, there’s little reason to continue. Even for those who’ve ‘supported’ NimbleBit with regular IAP donations, you suspect the Bux stop here.

The game occasionally gets lost in the cleverness of its own layouts. [Issue#363, p.120]

This means it's possible for a smaller team to craft a game of joyously intersecting rules. [Issue#371, p.100]

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]

Why roam freely (when the game lets you, which is by no means always) when all that’s out there to find is an empty trek between jarring episodes of production-line gaming? [Christmas 2005, p.105]

While the overall blandness means Galactrix is unlikely to truly thrill many people, it also means that it won’t exclude anyone either, and the ever-reliable pattern-spotting blends with the steady trickle of meaningless rewards to exert a pull on its audience that is truly Pavlovian. [Apr 2009, p.125]

A bold, thoughtful experiment in accessibility, the fighting game's biggest, most enduring problem. [May 2016, p.120]

Gearbox has made a game that is stable and complete, if hugely unrefined in places, with an under-exploited but sound core of tactical squad combat. [Nov 2008, p.93]

With a clutch of intricate puzzle stages and some tough daily challenges for players chasing mastery, Ookibloks challenges mind and thumbs in equal measure.

Yes, deaths you suffer might linger in the memory longer than the runs themselves, but pixel for pixel, this is as exciting in the moment as anything we've played all year. Light the fuse, stand back and prepare to gasp in wonder. [Issue#352, p.106]

A series that, for all its wanderlust, is never truly going anywhere. [Christmas 2015, p.112]

Regardless of the developers' goals, Veilguard feels like a game designed and assembled in parts. However good any idea, scene or concept is - and there are some excellent ones - it isn't bolstered by those beside it. Instead, each feels like a dazzling distraction from where it falls short in depth, consistency and trust in players to engage with a complex world. [Issue#405, p.102]

You'll find a number of technical issues plaguing the game, from scenery clipping to inconsistent collision and some hideously low resolution textures. But the game's relentless dedication to giving you violent bangs for your bucks goes some way to compensating for them. Because Twisted Metal at its best delivers exactly what it sets out to: a messy, manic and tasteless treat.

Thanks to a thoughtful, witty localisation, Yo-Kai Watch proves to be a kids' game that's capable of winning over adult players, too. [July 2016, p.123]

With a generous array of modes and some unexpected creative flourishes, this is certainly the best Mario Party since the GameCube era; perhaps even beyond. [Christmas 2018, p.120]

This attempt to fuse two very different Mario worlds is more than the sum of its mismatched parts. [Jan 2016, p.122]

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.

A reminder of both what you adore and abhor in a series that's had its simple joys diluted by flash-in-the-plan iterations and ideas.

After the interesting and confident debut of The Suffering last year, Ties That Bind remains a straightforward action game, and one with a coherent story that feels well paced, if too full of schlocky cliché for some. But that is, ultimately, all it does: remains. [Dec 2005, p.106]

It's far too easy for veterans in singleplayer, but with four sets of the ludicrous peripheral - an unlikely scenario, admittedly - and each player tapping out their own, interlinking rhythm the game becomes a uniquely entertaining experience. [Feb 2004, p.111]

For all Raven's efforts with temporal gimmicks, this is a game which is stuck in the FPS past – but, perversely, in its gun-metal and gore, in its most archaic respects, Raven proves it can just about stand the test of time.

You wonder if players will have wanted to spend this amount of time loafing around the Homestar Runner universe, or whether their interaction with it is best limited to ten-minute bursts via their web browser. [Oct 2008, p.101]

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]

You’d need to have a cold heart indeed not to enjoy a game where you get to see a giant cat using Drunken Master kung fu to break Al Capone out of Alcatraz. [June 2007, p.91]

SideScroller's final stages are arguably among the best things Q-Games has ever done, but be warned: if you're used to the puzzley pace of Shooter, you won't find its playful nature here.

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]

Wins you over with its charm rather than its virtue. [JPN Import; Jan 2007, p.84]

With its robust clan support MAG still offers a cooperative experience on a rare scale for bands of dedicated players willing to weather the unnecessary confusions and ungenerous structure of the early game. For the rest, MAG rarely deals out the empowerment and clarity of purpose that other team shooters, like the forthcoming Battlefield: Bad Company 2, offer from the get go. It’s not quite ‘welcome to the suck’, but gamers may wonder if MAG’s a battle worth fighting.

There's a real earnestness to Ever Oasis's tale, as Ishii and team meditate on our relationship with nature and the value of coming together to build a better, more hopeful world. It's unfortunate that the actual substance of the game doesn't trouble itself to embody that reaching ambition, content to stay resting comfortably at the wellspring of other, better games' ideas. [Sept 2017, p.114]

There’s a polish here that belies the game’s browser origins, even if the Vita-specific additions – a tilt-controlled camera, rear touch for aiming grenades – are little more than token gimmicks.

This is a package filled with value and historic charm, but viewed devoid of nostalgic mist, the earliest installments of the series feel little more than average. [March 2003, p.106]

Despite its shortcomings, then, Revenge Of The Savage Planet turns out to be a game that was worth saving. [Issue#412, p.110]

It isn't more than the sum of its parts, but those parts are at least expertly arranged to foreground the very best in firstperson athletics. [Issue#369, p.104]

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]

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.

A puzzle game that's more puzzle than game, Huebrix is a quiet pleasure – a soothing rainy Sunday afternoon to Super Hexagon's hedonistic Saturday night.

Commander Video needs to be the bigger rectangle and step aside for the two final planned installments. [July 2010, p.103]

It lacks the infectiousness of 80 Days, but as a story and a reckoning with history, it leaves most videogame fantasies in the shade. [Issue#332, p.120]

This is more than just a cynical cash-in conversion, but in pitching itself as a kind of '1.5' iteration it's never clear if the game is a necessity or a distraction for devotees of the Kingdom Hearts universe. For all but the most ardent follower, its off-target execution will imply the latter. [Feb 2005, p.80]

Burn, Zombie, Burn’s serving of arcade chaos is instantly gratifying, if a tad trivial, and its nods to deadsploitation flicks should tickle those not yet tiring of Crypt Keeper chic. [Feb 2009, p.97]

Thoughtfulness pulls Toy Story 3 form the Pixar game mire. [Sept 2010, p.101]

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]

Outerlight will patch out the inconsistencies and interface issues, and the community around it will settle. The final delight: this game will get better. The last frustration: we're being made to wait. [Sept 2006, p.83]

That’s what Shadowrun Return provides, of course: it’s not just a single tale of murder and techno-conspiracy. It’s a ruleset and a tileset, and a promise of more to come.

There are only a few truly transcendent puzzles on offer. [Issue#375, p.120]

Ultimately, the tiny, intricate design just doesn't give Command enough elbow room to develop true depth or challenge, but it's thoroughly satisfying all the same, and a worthy side-show to the Star Fox circus. [Oct 2006, p.87]

The seeds of a decent survival game are here. [April 2016, p.102]

The game bears testament to the strength of Smith’s original vision, a puzzle game that avoids prescribed solutions through the tenacity of its enemies.

For all its flaws, The Evil Within felt like the work of a singular voice. This feels like several shouting at once, eventually settling their differences by compromise. The black bars are gone; instead, it's convention that keeps The Evil Within 2 constrained. [Christmas 2017, p.108]

As a follow-up to Section 8, it delivers much the same experience as its predecessor, albeit repackaged in a more wallet-friendly, downloadable form. [June 2011, p.94]