And though a clutch of score-based challenges are both too few and too brisk, they contribute to an iOS game of rare generosity and substance.

Its ragged edges mean it feels more like a competent cover version that occasionally strays off key, rather than the genuine article. [Dec 2017, p.120]

Level-5 and Studio Ghibli's contributions are harmonious. As a game, Ni No Kuni builds upon classic JRPG foundations, eschewing the evolutions of Xenoblade Chronicles and Final Fantasy XII. But the assured flair with which Level-5 has implemented each of the game's classic components combines with Ghibli's masterful storytelling to deliver a JRPG that's quite unlike any other.

Is 2010 about the show or the sport? It is, like the UFC itself, ready to be both. This confidence is what makes it such a complete and compelling package – a great MMA sim, a near flawless UFC sim. In a year, it’s made the kind of studious jump that took FIFA almost ten.

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]

That central combination of philosophical debate and logical reasoning remains as robust as it did nine years ago. [Issue#392, p.112]

Ready At Dawn has successfully maintained its focus, making its debut game a standout title on a platform lacking in must-haves. [May 2006, p.91]

The most ambitious game BioWare has ever made. [Jan 2014, p.104]

On its own terms, Tales from the Borderlands is one of Telltale's best works yet. [Christmas 2015, p.116]

An ambitious and largely successful attempt to meld the accuracy of traditional firstperson battling with the extra spatial agility and awareness afforded by thirdperson movement. It does feel slightly overdone, but not to the point of obscuring its offering of intensity and flighty action. [May 2005, p.90]

No, it doesn't make any damn sense. But consider us compelled. [Issue#354, p.112]

Where once upon a time this series might have built an entire dungeon around a single gadget, here it's possible to pick up new inventions every few minutes, for hours on end. [Issue#403, p.96]

It might not always say what you want it to hear, but the words stay with you. [Issue#139, p.110]

The 3DS' first fighting game happens to be a version of one of the genre's best, and it's lost little in the conversion to a portable system. Token additions, such as the cute-but-unworkable Dynamic (3D) View, bulk out the package, but it's what's stayed the same that's the real triumph here. SSFIV is just as vibrant, fluid and confident as ever – and it's just been unshackled from your TV.

One of the few games of its type you can actually play for an hour, take on one of its missions, and have a meaningful unit of experience. Staight in. Straight out. Gamer satisfied. [Sept 2004, p.105]

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]

As the more intimate title suggests, this may be as much about Croft's brand awareness in the face of unprecedented (and Uncharted) competition. [Oct 2010, p.96]

The extreme volatility of every moment carries a reward that overshadows the annoyances. [June 2005, p.85]

Though the Clancy series entirely consists of such well-rounded packages, it’s Splinter Cell that shines – a game of equally accomplished halves. [Dec 2006, p.82]

This is a game that skilfully blends the safe with the courageous in an alchemical fusion of old and new, somehow brave and default all at once.

Survivor manages to leave us wondering what could possibly be left for a sequel - and surprisingly eager to find out. [Issue#385, p.106]

Doom's shimmering, bombastic combat is as absorbing as it is revelatory. [Aug 2016, p.100]

Even if its technical handicaps are clear, what it achieves with the palette at its disposal is astounding. Instincts' lower resolution textures, sporadic pop-up, cruder characters and jagged shadows are all clearly defined beneath its baking sun, but the composition of the overall canvas offers a masterful distraction. [Nov 2005, p.100]

Relic seems afraid to let any of its ideas meaningfully vary your experience, in case the result isn’t as satisfying as the scenario it has clearly tested so well. [Apr 2009, p.119]

It's easy to forget just how precious few of the genre's many exponents ever attain this level of competence, of course, but that said it's not unreasonable to have hoped for a little more innovation from Capcom. [July 2004, p.103]

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

The problem is that, in the areas where Esoteric Ebb differs most from its clearest inspiration, it's imitating something else. [Issue#422, p.112]

It doesn't so much break the fourth wall as move effortlessly through it as a spectre might, leading to conundrums that rival the dearly departed Cing's finest work: one more act of resurrection in an ingeniously constructed ghost story. [Issue#384, p.118]