The inclusion of a food journal, detailing the ingredients you've used and those that haven't yet been found, will be manna for completists in another sparky, generous and amusing offering from Adult Swim.

It's a victory for style over substance, in which style smashes substance's head into a million pieces. [May 2016, p.116]

Not bad for the unlikely sequel to a game hardly anyone played. [Sept 2010, p.96]

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

Fundamentally, it's hard to bear a grudge against a game with such generosity of spirit and pleasant delivery. But having tangled with mythical sea beasts and alternate Londons, isn't it time for Layton to solve the greatest mystery of all: where does he go next.

It’s ostensibly an action game, but much more slowly paced than that term would suggest. It’s not quite an RPG either, although there’s levelling and grinding involved. And while its world isn’t open – each area is segmented into numbered zones – it’s a sandbox game in every other respect. Guild quests offer a skeletal structure, but there’s no pressure to stick to it.

The final third of the game abandons grubby criminality for altogether more lurid, excessive and enjoyably silly climes, testifying to the fact that Saints Row is at its best when it rejects the expectations of the series and the strictures of the GTA format.

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

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.

Granted, this is hardly the most drastic of sequels, but it didn’t need to be: instead, it stands as an indicator that, even as the DSi heads ever deeper into the online space, on some level at least, it’s still business as usual.

MotoHeroz is a cuddly toy you hug to your face, only to realise a second too late it's in fact a surly porcupine.

Sokobond introduces complexity via level furniture that breaks bonds or lets you adjust the position of bonded atoms, but even the basic chambers provide ingenious challenges. Forget chemistry: it takes alchemy to produce a puzzle game as refined and smart as this.

Tiny Tower's ongoing tick-tock of cash and happy bitizens is a fantastic toy.

In action the game is undeniably pretty, as long as you can stomach the monstrous camera. But beyond ther anime-inspired visuals, the action turgidly limps along without ever really engaging or entertaining. [May 2003, p.94]

A sequel with a suitably Darwinian focus on simple refinement. [Nov 2008, p.100]

For the first time, Bungie has successfully remedied two of the most frequent criticisms of Destiny: that there isn't enough to do, and that its endgame is overly focused on raiding. [December 2018, p.102]

Who's quibbling about the originality of any given bone when there are so many of them just waiting to be broken, and in so many stylish ways? [Issue#404, p.121]

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]

Some may argue over what the series should have become, but what’s important is that it has made that tough decision for itself, and established a rock solid foundation for inevitable, now justified successors. [May 2006, p.86]

The game's underlying sense of humour and its obvious affection for giant robots save it from feeling ordinary. [Sept 2011, p.110]

The true measure of this journey isn't where you end up, it's how fast your pulse is racing when each luminous tube finally spits you out into the darkness again. [Oct 2012, p.92]

Antichamber is many things – a remarkable technical achievement, a smart subversion of its genre, a game that plays you as much as you play it – but you're more likely to respect it than enjoy it.

As a package, it's generous and deep, but Sumo has fallen victim to its own success. While enjoyable in their own right, boats and planes simply can't match the moreish handling of the karts.

There’s scope to build everything from a two-hour co-op dungeon crawl to a 100-hour purple-prosed epic. It’s that breadth that makes NN2 as much of an essential purchase as genre fans could ask for. [Christmas 2006, p.88]

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]

The action creeps up slowly, starting out like a gorgeous-looking but fairly standard shoot 'em up. However, by the middle of level two, it's pummelling you with a relentless parade of conceptual set pieces so audacious and inventive you'll laugh with delight as you gape in horror. [Sept 2004, p.94]

Here is the rare deckbuilder that doesn't feel like it's merely aping the giants of the genre. [Issue#424, p.106]

In Sky, knowledge can be a powerful thing, an asset that makes you more useful to those who seem lost, as you lead them toward the light. [Issue#336, p.116]