The story is inventively fantastical but ridiculously so, like a child’s weightless daydreaming, and its shallowness is made all the clearer by Agetec’s lifeless and laborious translation. [Feb 2006, p.92]

It’s a slick slice of B-movie alien blasting, in short, but we’re glad it’s standing alongside a more authentic take on XCOM rather than wearing its visage but not quite acting the same.

Stray from the beaten track and Crystal Bearers is a different game...That it is so oddly buried is inexplicable, but you can't deny the fun of excavation. [Feb 2010, p.94]

It's a laugh, albeit at the expense of itself. [Issue#314, p.118]

While the beauty and evocative nature of Kairo’s world has survived the transition from its original PC form to iOS unscathed, the controls have not. Movement is flighty and unwieldy, and in desperate need of a sidestep.

Even if some of the fundamental stuff has been sacrificed to the creation of this huge world, Fuel still makes it across the finish line on a far-from-empty tank. [July 2009, p.97]

Sadly, that fresh new take on combat is hamstrung by a camera that can’t keep up with the elaborate effects, animations and blistering speed.

Beyond the odd jolt of panic as your wrench breaks mid-fight, or when the piercing shriek of a spindly screamer attracts a ravening pack, there's little here to quicken the pulse. For a zombie game, that might be the most damning criticism of all. [Aug 2018, p.100]

The Novelist, then, is a game of endless compromise, and in that sense it is a quite remarkable simulation of family life.

A frustrating port of an above-average game. Rather than attempting to significantly tweak Mafia's structure and narrative … the developer has attempted to replicate the PC experience to the letter. It has been only partially successful. [Mar 2004, p.109]

Whatever its merits as a brawler, it's safe to say that in years to come no one will be ringing up game shops to preorder this one. [Issue#350, p.104]

It's hard to find too much fault in a game that's so in love with its inspirations, but Rise & Shine is at its best when it's being itself. [March 2017, p.104]

A fine introduction to the pleasures of multiplayer VR, but ultimately there's not quite enough substance here to keep you coming back after your first few tours of duty. [Christmas 2016, p.119]

The early hours spent getting to know your airship suggest Forever Skies might soar. Sadly, from there, it struggles to get off the ground. [Issue#411, p.104]

To The Sky also emphasises that this is a game to be enjoyed in groups, with co-op for up to four people, and it's true that it is more enjoyable alongside others. [Issue#417, p.123]

Lucid is carrying on the spirit of its PGR days with this sim-arcade hybrid, but where Bizarre Creations’ driving games pushed their platforms’ boundaries, 2K Drive is incapable of breaking through the limitations of iOS.

There's scant variety as Nutmeg runs through the same handful of sequences repeatedly, and little tactical leeway within your deck. The beautiful game is thus made less so as the rose tint softens its essential texture. [Issue#423, p.121]

Overall the greatest disappointments is the lack of any sense of exploration or accoplishment. And although the mansion is packed with wonders, there's no feeling of discovery since the game manoeuvres you neatly from one room to the next. It adds up to a world in which you never feel truly connected. [Christmas 2003, p.111]

The games it apes work because they're easy to engage with and paced to banish boredom. Here, everything takes ages and is sprinkled with tiny irritations. Appropriately, given its title, the game can offer only a muted reverberation of its inspirations, with the exception of recreating their flaws quite capably. [Issue#415, p.102]

As a short, sharp blaze of fun, it's every bit as brash and ballsy as "Mercs" ever was. [July 2008, p.99]

Despite its name's implications, this is a better game when you're following Lucky's nose, rather than his tail. [Tested with Oculus Rift; June 2016, p.119]

Need for Speed is a disappointing follow-up to the flawed but big-hearted Rivals, and while it's billed as a fresh start for the series, it feels more like a false one. [Christmas 2015, p.118]

There's nothing revolutionary in Lethal VR, but it's an accessible, frequently enjoyable showcase of what its host hardware is best at, let down only by the decision to bring a knife to a gunfight. [Tested with HTC Vive: Jan 2017, p.118]

Despite the simplicity of the puzzles, it's an unnecessarily bewildering game for the first hour or so. There's an RPG's worth of menus, full of abilities and stats you just don't need to know about yet. [Mar 2004, p.109]

Acclaim's latest manages to tick all the required futuristic race sim boxes, except the one titled 'memorable'. There's one really good thing about XGRA - it's all over very quickly. [Nov 2003, p.109]

There's an abundance of character here, sure, but what Bleeding Edge needs most is a personality - preferably its own. [Issue#346, p.104]

Too often feels like a predetermined narrative that's indifferent to your involvement. [Issue#373, p.114]

While Neversoft's course design holds up, its objectives sadly don't; setting high scores is as thrilling and rewarding as ever, but we're less forgiving of being asked to collect five objects dotted around a level without a right-stick camera than we were at the turn of the millennium.