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]

Accept those technical shortcomings and it's hard not to marvel at the way this feels like a complete, self-contained world. [Issue#377, p.122]

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.

The puzzles themselves can feel gimmicky and detached, as though inclusion was more important than integration. [Dec 2009, p.92]

Control can be an issue at times – the one button combat system relying on the distinction between taps and holds makes it easy to muddle attacks – but challenge seekers will find plenty to get stuck into, impaled on and cut to shreds in this macabre, frenetic onslaught.

The breadth of Eden’s ambitions may have meant that there’s barely a feature that’s implemented more than satisfactorily, but there’s a generosity of vision here that few games can boast. [Aug 2008, p.88]

Despite the occasional stumble and sticking point, Transference will frequently leave you transfixed. [December 2018, p.120]

Wickedly irreverent and cartoonishly outrageous. [Nov 2012, p.96]

By the final reckoning, we're invested in how it all shakes out; perhaps the biggest surprise of all is that the titular weapon is not, in fact, Gunbrella's most powerful asset. [Issue#390, p.132]

What it does have is bundles of charm, a gorgeous art style, and enough bite-sized chunks to last many a journey. [July 2010, p.104]

Pac-Man's rotund physique and the millimetre-perfect tilt controls make him a delight to bounce up and down and around the edges of the screen, while a forgiving drop distance encourages a cavalier attitude.

There's something vital about this first episode's endearingly messy setup: to err is human, after all, and Life is Strange is nothing if not that. [December 2018, p.121]

When the offscreen narrator, voiced with arch-Britishness by Stephen Greif, welcomes you to “the magical theatre of the strange and fantastic”, his adjectives are right on all three counts. And you rarely get magic that feels quite this immaculately handcrafted.

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

A fine effort, then, but a new Chrono Trigger it is not - and directly inviting such a comparison only highlights the areas in which it falls short. [Issue#390, p.133]

Capcom might not have crafted the kind of world in which players will invest, but it understands the powerful draw of party building and gear tweaking, the immediate thrills of slashing and spellcasting, and the spirit of adventure in sallying forth on a dragon hunt. [June 2012, p.106]

The game's frustrations are notable, but never spoil the appeal of controlling that indefatigable little guy. [July 2010, p.100]

They're gimmicks, sure, but good ones, rounding out another strong title for 3DS. [June 2012, p.126]

The Gardens Between is at its best when it marries whimsical design with fresh twists on logic puzzles, each level delicately exploring a new idea before moving onto the next. [December 2018, p.122]

The Chinese Room’s temporary stewardship of the series has resulted in an undoubtedly slicker experience, but one that comes at the cost of some of The Dark Descent’s memorable urgency. But there are as many gains here as there are losses.

Still, we reflect, while launching all our problems into the sea one by one, it makes a nice change from pointing and shooting. [Issue#387, p.120]

There's also the beauty of Uncharted's exotic locales, which act as a great showcase for Vita's astonishing display. And even if Golden Abyss starred a power-armoured space marine fighting his way across the cardboard-box planet, it would still be a robust thirdperson shooter, the likes of which we've simply never seen on a handheld. The core Uncharted experience is still here, in other words. It's stripped a little bare, but it's just about enough.

Heaven knows we've played thousands of forgettable videogame stories over the years, so perhaps the best tribute we can pay to the departed developer is this: EDGE will remember it. [Issue#332, p.116]

This is easily the better sequel, a firm improvement on "Warrior Within." So why the long face? For the simple and saddest reason of all: ennui. [Christmas 2005, p.100]

By no means a classic on those terms, Outland is nonetheless a well-executed game that - hopefully - lays the groundwork for future iteration upon its central ideas.

It's in traditional multiplayer (and to some degree singleplayer) where the game shines and attains that perfect shallowness of being both addictive and immediately forgettable - until the next go. [Apr 2004, p.109]

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]

Though the necessities of catering to two different audiences mean that it perhaps never quite reaches the heights of either of the pair’s best individual outings, as the credits roll, you’ll likely experience a hollow feeling, the emptiness that only the best stories leave behind.

It feels like just that: a lower-budget sideshow to the glitzy main event. [May 2015, p.108]

Lit is consistently rewarding for its duration, the lack of handholding and clue-giving heightening the thrill of finding a solution, regardless of whether it was thought through or merely stumbled upon in the dark. [Christmas 2009, p.100]

Varek and Enki's combined abilities - axe, pistol, magic - aren't entirely novel, but with this extra lift they're more than enough to carry us through an adventure that can be wrapped in 15 hours rather than 50. [Issue#401, p.100]

It's easy to assume that Gyromancer is a clone of Puzzle Quest...The truth, perhaps, is that it's simply an improvement on the formula. [Jan 2010, p.98]

Even if it doesn't keep its elements in lockstep, then, the colour, soundscape and imagination of Kunitsu-Gami is nothing if not exquisite theatre. [Issue#401, p.104]

For experienced players, though, this is as fluid as Tekken has been for years, the tagging doing much to revitalise a combo system that, with its over-reliance on juggles and wall combos, was in danger of growing stale. But it's taken a 12-year-old mechanic to do that, and other games in this increasingly crowded genre boast a deeper level of mechanical complexity as well as a more generous welcome to newcomers.

Mediatonic's experimental blend of tower defence, scrolling shooter and invincibility doesn't always gel, but approached as a survival score-attack in the vein of Canabalt, Who's That Flying?! becomes an uncommonly moreish Mini.

Robotic and methodical, and firmly in second place. [Dec 2009, p.97]

Look for the new stuff, then, and there's no doubt this is a refined and expanded sequel, even if certain issues remain. [Issue#401, p.108]

Each gruesome death brings a sharp pang of regret and leaves you wondering if it might have been avoided. [Oct 2015, p.114]

Unquestionably, Ghost Recon 2 is a more well-rounded and intense experience than before, but despite some beautiful locations and powerful sound effects it still errs on the side of cold simulation rather than an emotional and dramatic war experience. But that's exactly what some people want. [Christmas 2004, p.83]

It's almost as if Capcom has distilled its Onimusha series, extracting the two core components of the franchise ' epic, fierce confrontations, and puzzle-pocked exploration of lavish settings ' and given each more room to breathe, with their own character, style, atmosphere and pace... Fresher, but not better. [Jan 2005, p.82]

The complaints that can be levelled at Superstars are real, but so is the magic it contains. When it works, Monkey Ball truly feels like you’re tilting the land, not moving the ball. When it works, Nights makes you think you can fly. [Dec 2005, p.112]

Banished is a rare technical achievement, pure in design and of purpose. Its many deaths almost always feel fair, and the battle up to self-sufficiency is gripping. But the absence of a long game beyond this early toil makes it hard to find reasons to settle down here, except for the views, especially if you’ve established yourself on these frosty plains before.

Beyond its undoubted visual appeal, Ori doesn't quite have enough ideas of its own to set itself apart from the genre classics of which its developer is so clearly enamoured. [May 2015, p.118]

Guitar Hero 5 does stand as the most accessible version of the game concept to date, presenting a significantly tidier, more intuitive menu to get you playing sooner. [Nov 2009, p.103]

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]

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]

Alien Hominid is just about an essential title for anyone who's caught themselves yearning for a forgotten past, or to any young blood wondering what people mean when they say they don't make them like they used to. [Jan 2005, p.97]

Over-levelling all too easily threatens to undermine Fire Emblem's unique place in the genre. It's a problem easily side-stepped by both choosing an appropriate difficulty level and tempering your levelling, but nevertheless the option is unwelcome. [Aug 2005, p.90]

Conversely, the game's reliable constant, its combat mechanics, begins to petrify through repetition. [Issue#421, p.104]

Scarlet Nexus' overstuffed story might be fixated on the human brain - and when you skittle a line of Others with a train, you'll be glad of that - but in these moments it recalls where its heart is, too. [Issue#361, p.114]

Yet there is heart in Banishers, and it beats strongest in the doomed romance at its centre. There's emotional heft in its ending, too. [Issue#395, p.110]

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]

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.

Despite its leisurely atmosphere, Dordogne is a more serious story than you might anticipate. [Issue#387, p.122]

This is revitalisation, a fresh surge of life for the long-serving warhorse. By any typical measure of gaming it's not grand advance, but for those whose fingers have long been drilled by the brawls of Koei's sprawling riots, it's as worthwhile and frenzied as it's ever been. [Mar 2008, p.96]

The execution can be uneven, but in all of Road 96's wild ambition there is a touch of genius. This doesn't feel like the endpoint of all these ideas, but the marking out of a route forward. It's one we'd love to see explored further. [Issue#362, p.102]

Despite the vertiginous learning curve, however, Puzzlegeddon’s mechanics intersect neatly and offer some depth – even if most early games will descend into manic clicking. [Feb 2009, p.97]

Unusual, startlingly innovative and engaging. Its nuanced storytelling offers something few games have been able to meaningfully achieve – true conundrum, with little indication from the game telling you what you're supposed to do to be 'good'. Frustrating, beautiful and bizarre, Catherine stays with you.

It's accomplished in its execution, but threatens to segregate the platform just as Harmonix seemed to be opening it up to all-comers. [Nov 2009, p.103]

It manages to be that rarest of things: a Wii game that you've just got to try online. [May 2010, p.98]

For all its simplified inputs and friendly onboarding, 2XKO may fail to convert those who already harbour skepticism toward fighting games, or indeed toward League of Legends itself. [Issue#421, p.108]

In short, it’s a game with its spirit, its satisfaction and its structure intact. [Jan 2005, p.88]

Stages are smaller and battles are often less intense but Size Matters makes up for the shortfall in calibre with a visual imagination that, for the first time, makes a Ratchet & Clank games feel like an actual adventure instead of a sequence of shootout-corridors threaded along a necklace of planets. [Apr 2007, p.88]

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]

While by the time the credits roll we've pretty much had our fill, it must be doing something right for 20 hours' worth of moreish, lizard-brain fun to have flown by. [Issue#368, p.116]

Then it interrupts the action for a bit of brazen padding, inviting you to trudge back through earlier floors to track the spectral pawprints of an elusive cat, and you wonder if you were right first time. [Issue#339, p.96]

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.

Meltdown deserves its own unique place amongst rolling puzzlers and, eventually, to have its timelessness and solidity recognised as a benchmark. [Nov 2006, p.88]

Part auto-runner, part RTS, and part puzzle game, there are enough strange ideas here to make up for a grindy campaign and awkward aiming controls. Shellrazer's an odd kind of game, perhaps, but it ultimately benefits from its own eccentricities.

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.

It's the music that's important here, and Elite Beat Agents delivers. [Jan 2007, p.86]

When it comes to multiplayer options, Bleach kills 99 per cent of known beat ‘em up stars – even the excellent Jump Superstars – dead. [JPN Import; Apr 2006, p.94]

Atmospheric, tense, and sometimes unfairly hard, Test3′s roguelike is another welcome entry in a resurgent genre.

As a game, Flock can be a little too fuzzy for our liking. As a mood-altering experience, though, it works like a charm. [Issue#401, p.118]

Though the explosions scale with progress, and the act of detonation continues to be a giddy pleasure, Mars could do with a thicker atmosphere.

While it is a little hampered by it’s scale and scope, Kirby remains imaginative, detailed and demanding... It’s exactly the kind of game that Nintendo promised the DS would deliver. [June 2005, p.90]

The steadily dwindling friend tallies on our post-run leaderboards are convincing proof that Runner’s sharpest edges remain intact.

Shadowkeep delivers on our expectations, giving us more of the things about Destiny we like, while reminding us that nostalgia ain't what it used to be. [Issue#139, p.106]

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

It may not be able to compete with the best of prestige TV but, if you're willing to meet it on its own terms, Last Stop is a pleasant groove to slip into for a week or so. [Issue#362, p.116]

While this economy is enjoyably self-perpetuating, the cash economy beside it feels aimless. [Issue#401, p.123]

New skills are simply triggered randomly during battles, resulting in the confusing hit and miss levelling up that so infuriates attention deficient westerners... Indeed, the manner of the execution makes for tough gaming but, paradoxically, it's the exclusivity of the gameplay that will attract a few. [Nov 2003, p.108]

It's when the game is at its most GTA-like that it comes alive, conjuring up scenarios that take in whole city boroughs and throwing at you groups of adversaries and challenges you have to juggle on the fly… and then you get to a tediously engineered boss encounter and it all begins to get tiresome again. [Christmas 2005, p.109]

Under the Skin is refreshing but it's let down by its erratic camera and the whole experience eventually wears thin.

Taken in isolation, there’s no denying Cold Fear’s panache - RenderWare has rarely been used to such strong visual effect - and there is a fair helping of survival horror entertainment to be had here, it’s just that you have to dig through several layers of frustration to get at it. [Apr 2005, p.96]

The simple Remote application – flicks to activate instant takedowns – is one of many wise steps taken away from the convoluted mechanics weighing down other current-gen entries. [Mar 2009, p.93]

Given his rich history, Wario deserves better than this. [July 2013, p.116]

At its best, New Super Luigi U is an exhilarating test of skill, but on occasion it dangerously approximates a fan-made ROM hack, mistakenly believing that an increased enemy count equates to satisfying design. Some will undoubtedly find its challenge inviting, but others will rightly expect more ingenuity from Nintendo than this.

With global events offering in-game rewards for communities who team up to service a single destination, it has a shifting short-term goal to keep you checking in, but you may struggle to justify your continued involvement in the long game.

As a whole, it just doesn't hang together as seamlessly as we'd hoped. [Issue#139, p.112]

When the game eventually gets going, it's almost as much fun as it's predecessor. It's just that it takes several hours to kick off. Dark Cloud 2 still has merit, but it's simply not as enjoyable as the first game. [May 2003, p.95]

Corpse Party is often too rigid in its ways, requiring players to examine objects several times, occasionally in a very specific order – a problem exacerbated by a structure that locks out later chapters until the correct ending to the previous episode has been found. Some wrong (in every sense) endings are worth seeing once, but repeat plays of scenarios dilute the tension the studio takes such pains to build.

Having sacrificed racing integrity in "Double Dash" to side with social silliness, Nintendo has turned 180 degrees into an awkward halfway house. [May 2008, p.86]

It’s hard to fault Lips for trying something different, even if it’s just a little. [Jan 2009, p.91]

Adrift is at its best when you're simply taking in the view and absorbing the gravity of your situation. [Tested with Oculus Rift; June 2016, p.104]

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 a simple rhythm-action title at its core, with a set of bolted-on RPG mechanics of little worth. But then players aren't here for those mechanics, they're here for the memories. Bearing that in mind, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy achieves exactly what it sets out to do.

So yes, there's definitely something strange about this place - and it's those peculiarities that, for all its flaws, make this Call worth heeding. [Issue#354, p.102]