Even in its current form, there’s a wealth of ideas and a set of powers that few games twice this length manage to pack in.

It's a game that feels like bits of lots of other games you've played before, but not in this order, rarely with such a sure-footed framework and never presented with such a crisp gloss of cartoon-quality presentation; and it's all bunched up together more tightly and enjoyably than in Sly 2. [Dec 2005, p.105]

It's an 'experience' as much as a game, meaning that it will leave as many people cold as it grabs by the right half of the brain. Beyond good, then, but not quite excellent. [Christmas 2003, p.104]

There’s little doubt that Sony has pulled out a plum – and given the PSP its first real mascot in the process. [Aug 2006, p.82]

For a freebie, this isn't just a generous welcome to PS5 (particularly with most launch titles costing 70 a pop) but a promising glimpse of things to come and a fine, if occasionally gimmicky, platformer in its own right. [Issue#353, p.110]

Bigger rarely means better, but Guacamelee 2 entertainingly proves the exception to the rule. [Nov 2018, p.108]

To have been worth the wait for PC gamers it would have needed to considerably improve on the Xbox original. Put simply, it doesn't. [Dec 2003, p.109]

There's a sizable adventure here but the repetition of basic tasks makes it seem padded rather than epic – too many dungeons send you on fetch quests for plot devices wherein the rule of three is doggedly applied.

As a whole, it's remarkably cohesive, a compound puzzler that should be added to your collection with express speed. [Issue#395, p.123]

It can be a little basic in places, and it isn’t a ‘paradigm shift’ in any sense, but it is proof that games can love their roots and use the quality of being a ‘game’ to give form to their stories – and excel at it. [Feb 2008, p.90]

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]

Relic has spent four years honing a distracting interface, revitalising a less-than-perfect control system and, above all, recreating anew the sense of majesty and scale that originally distinguished this deep-space strategy title. [Nov 2003, p.103]

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]

Stealth games are only as good as the flexibility of their encounters, and in that regard Black Flag is the most generous Assassin’s Creed game to date.

ODST doesn’t quite take Halo into unfamiliar territory, but it does show how robust and adaptable the core of the game is – and, more importantly, stands on its own two feet as a spin-off that’s better than the vast majority of original games.

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]

The pleasure of launching into a panoramic, dolly-zoomed abyss and triggering an implausible series of aerial gymnastics is as primal a thrill as it ever was. [Nov 2008, p.102]

Having moved up an entire notch from inaugural title "Racers," the PixelJunk brand is becoming one of PSN's most promising and confident niches. [Mar 2008, p.101]

THUG2’s biggest step forward – it’s stripped-down Classic mode – is one it takes back. It’s as refreshing as it is nostalgic, taking on old-school Tony Hawk’s levels and goals with THUG’s improved trick set, and proves to be a necessary antidote to the mouthy fluster of the career mode, offering up pure, disciplined high-score play against the clock. [Dec 2005, p.117]

As a game of corners, conditions and the times in which you master them, DIRT is an outstanding engine of online competition, powered by an outstanding engine of sight, sound and physics. [July 2007, p.88]

The pacing ensure playing Kingdom Hearts III is a bit like being dragged through a theme park while hungover. [Issue#330, p.112]

Once fluent in Hulk’s explosive vocabulary of lamppost-javelins, boulder-bowling balls and tank football, it becomes apparent how much there is to praise in this game. It’s hard to think of a superhero title that has come so close in delivering the spirit of the hero’s super-ness. [Sept 2005, p.95]

It’s not even surprising,? ?despite all? ?this,? ?that Resident Evil? ?5? ?is a good game.? The surprising,? ?and sad,? ?thing about? ?Resident Evil? ?5? ?is that it feels old.

Rovio's latest is an evolution that feels considerably more ambitious than previous updates.

This is no true sequel, nor is there the intent or transformative change to suggest that it could've been. The result, however, is no less appreciated – lavish, generous and a step to the left of the standard follow-up. [March 2005, p.88]

SFXT successfully combines the best of the most popular 2D and 3D fighting games in the world, proves Capcom's most newcomer-friendly fighter, and boasts a combat system of bewildering depth. If any company was going to move the genre forward, it seems fitting that it's the one that invented it.

For the most part it feels like we're chasing the giddy sugar high the original gave us, without ever quite getting there. [Issue#377, p.102]

This confident refinement of Human Revolution's potent, though flawed, proof of concept, has resulted in one of the most elaborate videogame sandboxes in which we've ever had the pleasure of getting lost. [Oct 2016, p.104]

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.

The series' daily challenges return, and the team's flair for simple, yet interesting, map design remains undiminished. Refinement's never quite as exciting as reinvention, of course, but with so little to fix, Rodeo's clearly spent its development time rather wisely.

Irrespective of talent, taste, spare time or even online connectivity, it has something for anyone with even a tingle in their trigger finger. [Jan 2008, p.78]

The game's unflinching depiction of wartime suffering is particularly unsettling in a medium that commonly focuses on pyrotechnics and headshots. [Jan 2014, p.118]

Movement is smooth and fast, recalling the fluidity of seminal arena shooters such as Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament 2004. [May 2016, p.122]

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]

It's another shining example of a European developer handling Japanese IP with care, remixing and refreshing the genres Japan's native developers often struggle to enhance and honour.

Sensibly expanded and gently refined, this is textbook sequel-making. [Issue#333, p.123]

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]

The fifth in the Colin McRae series is still a fine game if - and here's the major caveat - you didn't play last year's update. Those who did will get more fun out of playing spot the difference. [Nov 2004, p.107]

For a game with a premise as simple as kill the aliens before they kill you, Ziggurat's stylishly retro visuals, gleeful arcade precision and deeply interlocking mechanics trigger a chain reaction that kicks off like some interstellar combustion. Not the sound of a world ending. But the sort of bang that would make Richard Dawkins lean back, fold his arms and grin like a chimp.

Delta is compelling because of the quality of its source material, but it does feel disposable - a curio more in the vein of a talented bootleg modification than the kind of reenvisioning that would truly justify its existence. [Issue#415, p.92]

While certainly being Treasure's most fragmented game, there’s a sense that the lack of narrative, character and even proper framework makes this its most raw, pure and delightful. [June 2008, p.95]

There’s a lot of charm to Fetch, and this is as charmingly produced as anything on iOS, but there’s little adventure or arcade substance beneath its surface.

If you can push through the lukewarm welcome and remain patient, though, you'll find something vivid and exciting here. [Issue#420, p.94]

FFXIII takes brave risks with the series’ foundations, but they ultimately create trembling fractures throughout the entire edifice, that robust battle system unable to support the weight of an entire world. Final Fantasy games are always an investment. This time, the returns are questionable.

Sadly, the early learning curve is far too shallow, while creative freedom is often illusory, with a single solution to many stages. Rovio does eventually loosen the reins, but the combination of rickety vehicles and unforgiving level design only heightens the frustration.

As forgettable as the story mode is, this is a game that should be judged by the pleasure it can bring to a room full of gamers eager for furious arena combat and a splendid variety of team games. And judged by those criteria, it has few peers. [Apr 2005, p.94]

This is a game that lives well within your comfort zone no matter how many bullets are flying, and how many enemies are kiting along behind you. It's a game about games, in other words – and a very good one, at that.

The game is full of charm, from the easily-distinguishable block types and hero in dressing gown, to the sequences that detail the game’s story and a delicate hint mode. [July 2007, p.93]

Two Point remains a gifted student of the old school, and we're eager to see where its career takes it next. [Issue#376, p.110]

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]

A simple idea, near perfectly realised. [Issue#365, p.121]

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]

This is a remarkably assured game for such a young studio, the work of a small team that knows exactly what it wants to do and executes it almost without error.

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.

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]

If the thrill of the new is gone, old pleasures remain: the exhilaration of the final-minute countdown as the music increases in tempo, or the ice-cream jingle of the Tower as it advances into enemy territory. Crucially, that infectiously exuberant spirit is undimmed. More of the same? For once, that'll do nicely. [Issue#310, p.104]

A personal and affecting play experience. [Mar 2008, p.103]

For all its high points - and they're well worth celebrating - Stray feels small but imperfectly formed. [Issue#375, p.102]

Compared to so many free-roaming games to date, it so rarely stumbles. It’s the very skeleton of the genre, those bones strengthened to the point where they alone can stand as a game, rather than serving as hangers for threadbare ideas to be dangled from. [Mar 2007, p.76]

Yakuza 6's narrative builds to one of the finest climaxes in the series - perhaps, in fact, the best of the lot...When the dust settles, the series fan is given something that no previous Yakuza game, bound as it has been to an inevitable sequel, has ever offered: closure. [Apr 2018, p.108]

Undisputed can be complex one moment and crude the next, the dominant ‘full mount’ position (the holy grail of ground-and-pound fighters) far too achievable against even experienced opposition.

Messy but oddly mesmeric, Bad Hotel is perhaps more successful as a curious plaything than a game, but it's no less essential for that.

Little Nightmares 2 is a slight dispersal of the original's concepts, adding some fabulous locations and grotesqes without cleaning up the platforming or developing a soul of its own, but it's in some ways a more complex horror story. [Issue#356, p.96]

Final Fantasy XIV’s shine wears off as your level increases.

This is a game that takes its fantasy as seriously as it needs to be, which is to say both lightly and with rigour in homage to the communal games that make up videogames’ heritage. But it’s also a real original.

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]

It’s impossible to ignore the fact that, with titles like this, Nintendo has perfected a genre. [July 2007, p.95]

Spider-Man 2 presents players with a city ripe for action and exploration, but once you swing down out of the clouds and take a closer look at the grubby streets and roads strewn with vehicles, you'll find little to pique your interest. [Sept 2004, p.100]

The antithesis of the arcade fix and, despite the fact that this stance is unfashionable at the moment, comes highly recommended, not least because it offers a different view of gaming's future. [May 2003, p.97]

Yes, we've been here before, but Puzzle Fighter is one of the handful of Tetris clones that at least lies in the same league as Pajitnov's masterwork. [May 2003, p.102]

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

It's wonderfully refined, boasting a glut of ideas without ever feeling overstuffed. [Issue#342, p.114]

It lacks the connective tissue to join its bite-size skirmishes into a seamless epic, but as a lightweight pick-up-and-play romp, Resistance 3 is hard to resist.

In spite of its balance wobbles, Orcs Must Die 2 is a frenetic blast of co-op joy - the ideal 30-minute post-pint pick-me-up, be it a step-change sequel or not. [Oct 2012, p.106]

Despite the sheer, breathless volume of new ideas, there's a sense of wonder missing from the sequel. The well-meaning tale feels a little rote in comparison to the first game's supernatural arc of redemption. [Sept 2017, p.118]

For better and worse, Octopath Traveler manages to evoke the games its creators grew up with, without ever quite matching the profusion of new ideas that made them so beloved in the first place. There's still much to enjoy here, but if Acquire had shared the courage of its protagonists' convictions, this could have been a journey worth making eight times over. [Issue#323, p.104]

The characters, however, are what make it sing. [Issue#370, p.106]

A thrilling ride, but with so little strategic variety, and without the benefit of multiplayer, a certain sameness takes hold and unfortunately cuts short what could have been a fantastic portable shooter resurgence. [Christmas 2005, p.111]

The game is sumptuously constructed - its spindly and grotesque sense of caricature is a delight and the lively score is maddeningly hummable. [Apr 2010, p.97]

Just when the whole thing seems in danger of becoming a cold study in design brilliance, however, the on-screen clock comes into its own, raising the game’s temperature by turning each challenge into a speed-runner’s dream.

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]

The final riddle's convolutions are forgiven by its payoff... [Issue#422, p.119]

THUG2's biggest step forward – it's stripped-down Classic mode – is one it takes back. It's as refreshing as it is nostalgic, taking on old-school Tony Hawk's levels and goals with THUG's improved trick set, and proves to be a necessary antidote to the mouthy fluster of the career mode, offering up pure, disciplined high-score play against the clock. [Dec 2005, p.117]

It's a vehicle that may win over more action fans than true-bloods, but its plagiaristic tendencies represent a shrewd way of ensuring that the series gets a firm footing outside of the 2D realm. [Nov 2010, p.84]

Tying everything together is an engagement with creativity in all its forms, and a delight in messing with the various shapes videogames can come in. [Issue#406, p.123]

Crisis Core gets arguably the most important thing right: its story is often expertly engineered and delivered, and despite the odd misstep (Genesis becomes especially tiresome as the game wears on) is some achievement in itself. [June 2008, p.86]

Few games are as initially opaque as Starseed Pilgrim, and few offer as rich a dawning sense of discovery in return.

In spite of these shortcomings, Starfield exerts a curious gravitational pull: there is a pleasant mindlessness to it that means it can easily become a black hole for your free time. But if it's not a BAD game, it's an achingly unambitious one, failing in what should be one of the foundational aspects of any space exploration game (see Post Script). True, we've come a long way in six decades. But zoom in on the recent history of games - and that of its maker - and you're forced to concede that we've not covered much distance after all. For Bethesda, this isn't so much a giant leap as barely a small step. [Issue#390, p.112]

Pitch detection is accurate and, for the songs you know, Konami couldn't have provided a better arena for belting out the warbles you've perfected in the shower. But for the songs you don't know - and there are likely to be many - those warbles will be your undoing, capsizing an otherwise satisfying quest for high score. [Aug 2004, p.106]

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]

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]

That scale is emphasised in two expertly staged boss fights that provide a much stronger climax, and a conclusion to Quill's story that seems definitive. [Issue#372, p.117]

It’s a testimony to the rapid evolution of this once moribund genre that Rogue Galaxy has been left so far behind. But it’s also a testament to Level 5’s inherent instinct for charm and compulsion that this game manages – even in 2007 – to hold its head above the crowd. [Apr 2007, p.78]

The game's second half descends into a fiasco...One thing's for certain: if there's a great action game in Infamous 2, no one's actually built it yet.

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]

A gaming of charming positive spirit that, three years late and a generation off the pace, sill stands out in a crowded, wantonly destructive field. [Christmas 2015, p.114]

Complex but accessible, inventive yet familiar, a game that has gripped browser windows is every bit as troublingly addictive in the palm of your hand.

It all adds up to a remarkable mixture of emotions, seldom encountered in a commercial videogame: kinetic thrill and the satisfaction of optimising your time, but also mounting claustrophobia, empathy for co-workers, and a sense that somewhere out among the stars there's a kinder society waiting to be riveted together. [Issue#373, p.104]