Its prudence, that veil of simplicity masking a system of astonishing possibility and depth, makes it one of the purest fighting games on the market today.

At six to seven hours, Tearaway isn’t the longest game in Vita’s library, but it packs in more joyfully realised ideas than many games manage in three or four times the runtime. It’s a beautiful, brilliant game, but it’s more than that: it’s the first great Vita game.

Finally, here's an RPG that, in every sense, leaves you wanting more. [Issue#333, p.114]

Like all great puzzle games, you’re beholden to the whims of fortune, forcing you into leaps of faith that often prove frustratingly fatal. But like all great puzzle games, Stickets’ surface simplicity is merely a cover for mechanics of astonishing depth and longevity.

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]

A shrewd and often brilliant game that reaches its destination with most of its goals realised, not discarded and left in the dust like the forced march of its predecessors. [Apr 2011, p.94]

It's a potent return to form for Takahashi, then, a glowing comeback for the Japanese RPG, and an injection of creativity for some tired hardware. Xenoblade Chronicles manages to impress, enrich and, best of all, inspire wonder.

Tecmo's refusal to extend any kind of handhold to less dedicated players is simply a failure of design, not a badge of hardcore honour ... it's impossible to believe they couldn't have found a way to increase the accessibility of the game without undermining the gloriously intractable nature of the challenges it contains. [Apr 2004, p.96]

You'd have to be a bumbling turdbag not to at least give Yamada the chance to win your heart. [April 2017, p.123]

By the final cut to black, we're looking forward to making more connections like the ones we find here, before we take our final turn off Interstate 65 and fall into the Zero's dark, enveloping embrace. [Issue#342, p.102]

A much-needed statement of authority for PC - an online spectacle that eclipses the grand rhetoric volleyed back and forth between the manufacturers of tomorrow's super-powered consoles. A new level of multiplayer combat begins here and now, with shock and awe.

It’s a game that leads by example, never keeping still while making sure you do likewise, and is every bit as essential now as it was 12 months ago.

The triumph of SpaceChem is that overcoming these situations is more a case of inventing a solution than discovering one - creating a technique on your own terms that, once learned, you find yourself reusing in later stages. [Apr 2011, p.101]

Simply for the harrowing elegance of this risk-reward proposition, Impossible Road’s lone developer Kevin Ng deserves to have his pockets paved with gold.

A perfectly sized, expertly-crafted romp, Pacific gives other download games their marching orders. [Aug 2009, p.97]

Ferocious and heartbreaking, this is storytelling with serious clout: against the odds, Stoic has stuck the landing. [Issue#323, p.108]

It still possesses the series’ trademark ability to deliver Tempest-like ‘in the zone’ moments of remarkable intensity unlike any of its contemporaries, but now comes with a confidently revised dynamic, marking this as Criterion Games’ finest hour. [Oct 2004, p.100]

This is a game that takes the foundations of one of the most intoxicating RPGs around and builds them into a fast, fluid, simply enormous action game as good as anything Team Ninja has ever made. [April 2017, p.112]

If you've been writing the series' Vita appearance off as a compromise or a contractual obligation, you're in for something of a treat. That 5 inch OLED screen is a chance to see Media Molecule's staggering achievement afresh, and to witness one of this generation's most intriguing engines of creativity at its most energetic and effective.

Civilization's revolution is daring for a series built on expansion. It strips and pares away, making management easy and command enjoyable. [Nov 2010, p.91]

Outlast’s combination of stealth, platforming and horror is exceptional, the benefits of the diverse experience of its highly talented development team always in plain sight.

So full and comprehensive is this modernised SquareSoft RPG, in fact, that beyond finishing the story, the trilogy finale may struggle to justify itself. But that's the future's problem, of no concern as we feast on the spread in front of us. In a triple-A climate where development costs spiral and content often replaces craft, the generosity and ambition of Rebirth is a convincing argument that, once in a while, too much is exactly what you want. [Issue#396, p.102]

What an achievement Hallownest is: its insect-themed design letting it dance either side of the line between adorable and unsettling, a place that tucks its tales away without guarding them too jealously, that prints its twisting tunnels and lamplit tableaus behind the eyelids and upon the memory. [Issue#323, p.114]

It might be a latecomer, then, but Vanillaware's most accomplished release to date warrants the air of bravado with which it sweeps in - and, for that matter, it's place in the pantheon of classic tactical RPGs. [Issue#396, p.106]

Valve has taken something unscripted and dynamic, and seeded it with the right amount of narrative flavour, pacing and spectacle. [Christmas 2008, p.82]

Horizon: Zero Dawn is an enormous, ambitious curve ball from the studio behind the promising but perennially flawed Killzone series. In Aloy, the game introduces an enchanting protagonist and sets her on a remarkable adventure that steers clear of rote sci-fi...Horizon emerges as a graceful, intoxicating and often surprising adventure. [April 2017, p.108]

This isn't old school for old school's sake, it's a reminder that there's more to reviving classic material than nostalgia. Sometimes, it's about showing the modern industry where it lost its way. [Issue#386, p.108]

It's one of the freshest and most imaginative shooters we've played in a long time. [Issue#423, p.102]