Prose With Bros is irresistible: the interface is clean and simple, voting is snappy, and the algorithm producing each game's jumble of words delivers perfectly innocent but eminently corruptible English every time.

The purity and quality of Absolver's vision has provided and innovative, constructive take on an often impenetrable genre. [Dec 2017, p.106]

The franchise is now only a fraction away from realising its full potential. [June 2004, p.107]

No matter how well you think you know a language, there's always something new to learn. [Issue#407, p.107]

The expanded range of strategic choice and admirably polished presentation push Grimoire Of The Rift right into the top tier. [Sept 2008, p.93]

How apt that interactivity and fiction should finally merge in a fiction about interactions. The dead are restored, and the genre with them. [Feb 2011, p.103]

Bright and breezy, it offers almost bottomless value, creates a believable and consistent world, offers a real strategic challenge as well as the kind of brainless completism that’s best suited to delayed trains and rainy afternoons, and hides a staggeringly intricate set of mechanics inside an accessible and non-threatening world. [July 2007, p.84]

From the near-pornographic money-shot that occurs during the slo-mo moments of certain vicious attack combos, to the ludicrous events that send the player travelling down a monster's throat, God of War is made from the stuff of legend, to become the stuff of legend.

The best Metroid game in years. [Dec 2017, p.112]

Not every layer of Talos finds its mark, but the discourse created by navigating them is a brain-taxing process to match the genre's greats. [Feb 2015, p.120]

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]

It's a well plotted and paced, if straight-laced, action adventure that takes most of the strengths of the main franchise while removing a few of the weaknesses. [Christmas 2010, p.100]

It's scrappy, sure, but no racer offers such a breadth of choice, or seems so willing to let the player set the rules of the road. When Project Cars 2 gets into gear, there's little else like it. [Dec 2017, p.114]

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.

This may be the age of the single-screen brawler, but TowerFall is among the most feature-rich of its kind.

Frostpunk's atmosphere, tight structure and sense of purpose make it stand out in a genre often given over to abstraction. [July 2018, p.106]

The levels here are every bit as inventive as they were in Origins and, by the time your moveset has expanded to include a hover, wall-run and punch, every bit as punishing.

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

It certainly lacks the variety and sense of progress that great platform games can offer. But then it was never supposed to be a great platform game. It was supposed to be, and is, a great DS game. [Apr 2005, p.102]

But with Tetsuya Mizuguchi's often bland musical experimentation replaced with some of electronica's finest moments, Electronic Symphony breathes new life into a series that had previously appeared stagnant.

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.

It’s surprisingly tactical.

It is, however, successful as an adaptation that gets to the core appeal of the original tabletop game, and uses it to the betterment of the strategic campaign system that it has adopted from elsewhere. [July 2018, p.116]

And the visuals? Well, if you want more screenshots, just pop your head out of the window and look up. [Dec 2007, p.96]

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.

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]

It's never easy. But somehow, when we fall, it only makes us all the more keen to dust ourselves off and get up again. Once we've taken that calming breath, at least. [Issue#369, p.108]

Plagued by imbalance, the Round 3 career can serve up over 50 bouts before one goes the distance. The new stun punch – a thunderclap of a haymaker – helps to ensure first to third round knockouts for the vast majority of fights. [Apr 2006, p.82]

It’s almost shocking how seamless, engrossing and accessible Fahrenheit is. It’s sad, then, that it shows weakness in the one area where it needed to be stronger than any other game: the script. [Oct 2005, p.84]

It's a system that very naturally sets up some excellent multiplayer modes, and this is one of an elite few that can truly even the odds between players at different difficulty levels.

Race Pro engages like few driving titles manage, even if the driving model doesn’t quite meet the standards of the most advanced PC sim-racers such as Live For Speed. [Mar 2009, p.88]

It's brash and beautiful, and in looking outside its own boundaries has found fresh ways to keep you coming back to the danger zone.

This is without doubt the most comprehensive entry in Nippon Ichi's once-trailblazing series, packaging its accumulated ideas alongside a clutch of innovations of its own. And yet repetition has dulled the appeal, with the complexities acting as a tall barrier to newcomers while the innovations are simultaneously too meagre to sate any but the most eager devotee.

Come to terms with its idiosyncrasies and you’ll find a unique and wonderfully characterful action game; it’s well worth suffering those early scratches for the moments where it really begins to purr.

It’s a masterclass of design purity: every one of these elements exists for a reason, and its potential is exploited to the fullest. But Samurai Gunn’s genius lies in its dizzying speed. It condenses organic, balletic setpieces worthy of an action flick finale into mere seconds, the ground filling up with the bloodied pixel remains of the fallen.

Watching a plan come together, guns and voodoo and bear traps working in perfect harmony, is incredibly satisfying. [Issue#348, p.90]

While it attempts to blend FMX, quad bikes and more familiar Trials action, the new elements sit uneasily with the old. Trials has always been about precision and skill, traits that are blunted or obfuscated by four-wheel drive and fussy inputs.

Funny and miserable, disgusting and endearing, the end result is a game that's smart enough to have things both ways, offering an often brutal critique of certain religious sacraments, while wallowing comfortably inside the rituals of one of gaming's oldest genres.

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.

There's a dazzling seamlessness to every aspect of Prototype 2. You feel it as you traverse the world, sprinting powerfully up buildings, bounding high into the air just as you reach the lip of the roof and then transitioning with a tap of the right trigger into a glide that will take you to the next rooftop.

Despite the posthuman setting, these puzzling exhibitions are gently life-affirming, offering warmth and ingenuity in equal abundance. [Issue#351, p.104]

This series offered some of the most memorable hours we spent holding a gamepad during 2012. [Feb 2013, p.102]

The biggest addition is the inclusion of collectables from each course, which provides a great incentive to exploring in Freeride mode, and brings a touch of Amped's atmosphere to a game that was all about the rush. [Dec 2003, p.106]

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]

Much of the attraction is largely due to the variety of racing on offer, but it's the overall quality of that racing that is responsible for ensuring Race Driver 2 remains an intensely engaging ride. [May 2004, p.102]

A great marriage of presentation and design, spun with ravishing verve.

Regardless of the amount of familiarity, though, Echoes is as solid and tangible as ever: the uncluttered HUD, the gentle rumble as Samus touches down from her unfaltering jumps, the ingeniously tucked-away power-ups, the smoothness and surety of movement. Its combat and exploration, if taken separately, can feel a little hollow and basic, but taken together they're still a powerful combination for a rewarding adventure. [Christmas 2004, p.76]

For a game that covers everything from drift events to time trials and eliminators, not to mention bumper-to-bumper tuning options, a top-tier physics model and authentic handling, Shift has enough precision and purpose to give anyone pause. [Nov 2009, p.98]

Klei's Saturday morning cartoon style visuals intersect smoothly with your ninja's slinky animation and flowing moves, and the range of visual effects (position-betraying lightning strikes, a blurred fog of war-style filter on activity beyond your sight line) folds neatly back into the game's light-and-shadow based stealth systems. The result is a slick and striking game, one with presentation worthy of the potent and flexible set of powers at its core.

One of the most quietly devastating moments involves a character simply shaking their head softly. [December 2016, p.110]

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]

This is a wonderful, expansive piece of sequel-craft that has already drawn us in for a second go-around at a higher difficulty, with no fear that we've scraped the ceilings of its systems and stories. For something like that, we'll take a bit of instability any time. [Issue#407, p.90]

This stands as software that will give back to the user as much as they are willing to put in. Without goals, with nothing there to ‘win’, Electroplankton is its own reward. [June 2005, p.93]

It's taken two near-miss games to get here, but Insomniac has finally nailed the art of war, lock, stock and around 20 smoking barrels. [Christmas 2004, p.89]

Brimming with self-assuredness both in its characterisations and its functionality, and measures its pace and progression with an ever more aggressively beautiful interface and environment design, capturing even more galactic and universal scale than the original. [Sept 2005, p.88]

This isn't just the most satisfying detective game since Obra Dinn, but one that has a similar transportive quality, the world unfolding like a flower's petals as you steadily cultivate your knowledge of it through the wonderfully weird plants that flourish within. [Issue#369, p.118]

Amplitude is actually the perfect sequel. Not an expansion pack; a game that doesn't set out to mimic its forefather, but seeks to change the rules slightly without wholly perverting the initial concept. [June 2003, p.92]

Its biggest adventure to date isn't flawless, but the Dark Knight is far from one to underestimate. [Aug 2015, p.106]

It remains disarmingly single-minded throughout, yet any repetition is offset by intuitive, precise controls, and satisfying audiovisual feedback.

It's disappointing that basic irritants are still evident in the singleplayer game. But it's the online version - which takes the hunter/hunted metaphor to chilling extremes - which ends up being one of the most nerve-racking gaming experiences of all time. [Apr 2004, p.98]

This is a simple game at heart, a game about learning the rules, becoming really good at manipulating the elements, and then getting a huge high score to brag about. And who could argue with that? [Oct 2007, p.98]

That Disgaea 3 is perhaps the finest of its self-referential and casually wicked yarns, is almost an irrelevance. We’ve got numbers to think about. [Dec 2008, p.97]

Like many of its predecessors, The Origami King marches to an eccentric rhythm at times, but in a challenging year, you'll struggle to find a game that strives to consistently to put a smile on your face. [Issue#349, p.88]

What Dynamic Hunting captures is the back-and-forth rhythm of Monster Hunter fights, the swings between danger and all-out attack, the wounds and the frenzies.

If you take away the window dressing, the epic sounds and the preordained surprises this is a derivative, one-note and sometimes flawed game, but see it as a spectacular amusement ride and you can play and it's a distinguished achievement. [Christmas 2003, p.110]

Few other titles’ enemies have the power to flood you with real horror as they scramble and skitter towards you. [Christmas 2007, p.98]

It’s the combination of this collective roleplay with direct competition that makes the game so compulsive. As such, Blade Symphony is as close as you are likely to get to the fantasy of slowly becoming a master swordsman.

The trappings of high society barely conceal the violence yet to come, and the air crackles with anticipation. [Issue#384, p.108]

140 is a magnetically moreish experience: delicately balanced and well thought-out. If this is what the programmer can achieve during the downtime from his day job, Playdead’s enigmatic second project can’t come soon enough.

With its pulsing, ever-changing playing fields and foppish rhythm-action audio elements, one of the main reasons to play Fractal is simply to enjoy its wonderful aesthetics.

While most shooters handle the genre's design tradition like fragile cargo, careful to ensure that its arrangement of pieces doesn't fall into disarray, Prey cranks it like a Rubik's cube, cocking its world delightfully askew. [Sept 2006, p.76]

Even in this compromised form, Virtua Fighter 5’s depth and beauty are unrivalled, and it can finally take its rightful place as the only game in town. [Apr 2007, p.76]

‘Splosion Man lives up to his name, providing a burst of exciting, arresting fresh IP that significantly changes the landscape around.

When two Sims lovingly clasp each other as they sleep, even the coldest gaming hearts will begin to melt. [Oct 2004, p.102]

While the script spills plenty of ink on questions of fantasy, sci-fi and prose fiction, Split Fiction's most compelling statements are made without a word, in the shape of the game itself. [Issue#409, p.100]

Aside from a very few niggling discrepancies, it’s an almost flawless experience – one which, having demanded a heavy investment of both time and thought, richly pays off. [Christmas 2006, p.83]

A perfect organism? Not quite, but in its finest stretches Dread has a momentum that can mesmerise for hours at a time. It's hard to look away from the screen - even when, in moments that reach towards full horror, you might want to. [Issue#365, p.98]

Let's Tap isn't merely innovative, it's an original concept applied over five distinct types of game that works extremely well. [Mar 2009, p.90]

Backed by Activision's fantastic investment and support, Treyarch has succeeded, and made a sort of ultimate current-gen Call Of Duty. Not a reinvention – that, hopefully, comes next year, on box-fresh hardware and a new engine – but a refinement of the most successful series of its generation. Black Ops II is an excellent Call Of Duty game, then, but it's only a Call Of Duty game, with all that implies.

Criterion's ability to make the technology and design of games seem harmonious is a significant strength in an industry where few can pull it off... Black is a fiery example of what can result. [Mar 2006, p.82]

For the most part the game's worldview is surprisingly progressive. [Issue#409, p.108]

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]

Zuma's simple ingredients have once again brewed up a surprisingly powerful brand of magic. [Nov 2009, p.104]

While this elegant underwater world may be a little too twee for some players, then, there are still plenty of reasons to dip into Bit Blot's inventive genre piece. Aquaria's as personable on the iPad as it was on the PC and Mac, and now you can cross the oceans on your morning commute.

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]

Heroes of the Storm's great success is that it works harder than any other game to date to open up the strengths of this genre. [Aug 2015, p.114]

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

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

The surprise that Meteos brings is the satisfaction of its physics. There’s real weight in the way an underpowered meteor chunk sinks down to earth, and a sense of dynamic propulsion as you flick together a cluster of gravity-defying rockets. [May 2005, p.91]

Long before this smart, sweet story has come to a satisfying close, it has taught us to treasure others for their flaws as well as their strengths. "We all deserve a second chance," one character says. Schafer and company have grasped theirs. [Issue#363, p.102]

Certainly, Ubisoft Montreal has succeeded in welding a game to what once felt like a proof of concept, and without overshadowing its many strengths. Much devolves into mere stuff – one sword is much like another; a painting’s easily bought and just fills a hole in the wall – and once the story is over there’s little reason to replay it. At the end of it all, though, you’re left with that setting, those cities, and Ezio, and they lend the experience a substance that endures.

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

The fact that it’s just mental arithmetic simply doesn’t matter: all it makes you realise is that most games are mental arithmetic one way or another. [May 2006, p.95]

Last Light’s pacing – switching as it does between tight tunnels and wide-open abandoned spaces, explosive gunfights and creeping horror, stealth and socialising – could have felt disconnected in the hands of a less-talented developer. Instead it lends its world uncommon depth. The trade-off for a distinctive personality, of course, is that Last Light is occasionally unyielding, but the desire to see what waits in its next tunnel remains a powerful draw throughout.

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

Offering the quiet contemplation of a puzzle mode, the soothing time-wasting of a marathon session, or the frenetic rivalry of multiplayer: this has it all. [July 2007, p.95]

A large number of possibilities awaits the ambitious tactician. From tunnelling assaults to flying barrage defences, Perimeter relies on the imagination of players to become genuinely interesting. [Aug 2004, p.105]

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]