There's something to be said for a game that lets you elope with the final boss, but otherwise Moon Hunters' light wanes a little more quickly than we'd expected. [May 2016, p.123]

Due to a heavier emphasis on all-out action, however, the gratifying bullet-cam pay-off becomes tiresome even sooner than it did in V2.

What we're left with is an update that is out of date, a reimagining without enough imagination. To be this simplistic, the game needed a masterful melee system and a range of inspiring enemies; it tries, but it doesn't fully deliver on either count. [Jan 2011, p.98]

Given that its bland combat is little enhanced by the ability to create cover, you suspect that the promises made for the technology have simply dug its own grave. [Dec 2008, p.90]

A cynical, if predictable approach to monetisation also sours the experience.

In this game of strong beginnings and - at last - a comprehensive ending, the journey between the two needs more spring in its step. [Issue#360, p.118]

It’s a game about picking dialogue options that are metaphorically represented as potential moves on the board, but it’s that which goes unsaid that makes its semi-improvised conversations so intriguing.

While we’ll accept that Deadpool the character is an acquired taste, this is an indisputably poor game, one whose knowing winks and quips come off not as metacommentary but as tacit apologia for its litany of specific failings.

Slitterhead remains a curio worth examining - original and, yes, full-blooded in its approach. Lacking the subtleties of more psychological horror, Bokeh Game Studio justifies its flood of plasma and mountains body count both mechancially and thematically. In the end, though, it's the same anarchic roughness and lack of restraint that drags it down. [Issue#405, p.114]

With the exception of fleeting moments, the game's milquetoast mechanics don't cut it - watching a superspy and being one are very different things. [Christmas 2010, p.88]

Those who can overlook the rudimentary visuals, convoluted interface and overly forced dialogue may lose themselves in the vast mathematical playpen. [Aug 2010, p.95]

The variety of the controls is overdone, making the game complex and confusing, and there's no customisable multiplayer. Nonetheless, this is a welcoming, capable and entertaining take on what gaming used to mean. [Aug 2004, p.106]

A mediocre game a genre stocked with the highest quality. [Sept 2010, p.99]

Global Storm feels like the true heir to the Conflict: Desert Storm games in more than just surname, and remains a worthy war effort, despite there being other games that may do it grander or deeper. [Nov 2005, p.102]

Too many of its dishes are mere remixes of the same simple techniques. Too many of its taut time trials founder because of some quirk of the Remote. [June 2007, p.93]

Barring a couple of all-too-short sections near the beginning, Will: Follow The Light is a bewildering and arduous journey. [Issue#424, p.116]

We could have coped with technical issues, curious UI choices and unsophisticated mission design had Saints Row given us even half as many memorable moments as previous entries "The Third" and "IV". We could even forgive a Portal joke that would have felt old hat a decade ago. But this whole enterprise feels misbegotten, even before the story goes wildly off the rails, belatedly introducing a new threat, before wrapping up with an ending that almost feels algorithmically generated. [Issue#376, p.100]

Ninety-Nine Nights deserves a better score... That's a strange ways to put it, but it comes from the fact that its most grating flaws occur at such a fundamental level that it's a mystery they were ever tolerated at all. [JPN Import; June 2006, p.89]

As an example of unabashed, often exuberant Britsoft that pulls out the SRPG's staples and rebinds it in approachable ease, Future Tactics is remarkable, deserving of cult status. [Aug 2004, p.99]

Shadow Ops feels like a game put together by a team bored by the clichés of the genre and the special forces material it was given to work with. This quickly communicates itself to the player. [Aug 2004, p.102]

This month alone, we have far better alternatives. [Issue#359, p.123]

There’s a nugget of brilliance at the heart of Micro Machines that’s too simple and solid to crush, it’s true, but the laughable track editor, fussy interface and baffling load times certainly don’t justify this release. [Aug 2006, p.93]

It never hits Neversoft's golden-age standard, but it comes much closer than such a daft premise would lead you to suspect. [Dec 2010, p.95]

It's simple, enjoyable, and in wisely steering clear of trying anything grand or complex, is an enjoyable if self-contained success. [May 2010, p.97]

A stunt-filled shooter in the vein (but not the league) of Stranglehold, it's a game that takes control away, reverts to how things used to be done, and judders between debilitating combat and haywire presentation. [May 2009, p.92]

While moments of genuine beauty exist, they occur in the context of a game that otherwise simply cannot compete with its contemporaries when it comes to visual presentation - a symptom, perhaps, of the seven-year development cycle. [Feb 2015, p.104]

Occasionally, the glow of sheer ambition nudges polish-related problems away from the light, allowing a few glorious moments to gaze upon what EYE could've been. But un-met ambition isn't enough.

So much of Aqua, though, feels merely like the crude payoff to a tank rush, your fire moving from one stubborn target to the next until victory is declared. [Aug 2010, p.99]