Any time you're ready to lose yourself to some head-down, three-chord fun, whether you're playing on Vita or PS3, When Vikings Attack is waiting to show you a real cool time.

This thirdperson actioner spikes the familiar with flavour, and a tired but reliable vocabulary of wall-hugs, circle-strafe, grenade lobs and headshots with an invigorating Nu-Earth twang. [June 2006, p.94]

No other game catches the exhilaration of mental exercises, while doing just enough to smooth over their occasional frustrations, in quite the same way as Layton. [Nov 2009, p.104]

The open levels are fantastic and are complemented by a great storyline with dialogue that's immediately engaging, yet Tribes can feel slightly primitive and the indoor missions are a letdown.

Mage Gauntlet's an action RPG that's perfectly tailored for the pick-up-and-play crowd, in other words. It's a likeable confection that's as witty as it is insubstantial.

Fujio's empathetic tale could almost be a playable short from filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda; like Kore-eda's best work, this compassionate snapshot of Japanese working-class life finds pleasure and wonder in the routine. [Issue#350, p.107]

If you're the right age to appreciate the irony of an over-powered Care Bear attack, Saturday Morning RPG is going to take you right back to your distant past.

Ultimately, Invisible War is a very fine game spread too thin. It's a game that's made the effort to name the cat in the secretary's desk photo but not to make jumping work properly, that bothers to script loving exchanges between insignificant NPCs but pits you against clumsy and stuttering AI. [Feb 2004, p.94]

Under GungHo's auspice it has made its deepest game in years, and one of its most fascinating, too. [Feb 2017, p.118]

The game's intended target audience is likely to respond to the beautifully animated pets with squeaks of delight, though exposure to the Edge test family did result in two children vying for the attention of a camera that would one accept one of the little terrors at a time. [Christmas 2010]

An earnest attempt has been made to create a new identity for a series here, but the question of how to best frame Mass Effect's narrative strengths is, once again, left open. [June 2017, p.90]

The killing is enjoyable, but we'd have happily done much more of it. [Issue#333, p.122]

It’s a great idea but a flawed execution, and will need a sequel to achieve its potential. [Aug 2007, p.92]

Another slight VR release that serves as an excellent proof of concept but disappoints by not following through. [Feb 2017, p.120]

A surprisingly conservative game from Rockstar. Its absorption of cover mechanics makes Payne feel more familiar than he should, but even then his signature tricks are over a decade old. This is a game about a world-weary killer doing the only thing he knows how to, and for all its spectacular action beats there's something apt about Max's fatigue.

We need more games like this - ones that are confident and individual - but we need them to be less roughly hewn. The core of the game is solid, but the way it's applied throughout the levels just isn't interesting enough. [Mar 2004, p.98]

Deformable landscapes, multiple level routes, context sensitive controls, impeccable camera control, inventive boss level. Flipnic would be one hell of an adventure game. [Dec 2003, p.99]

Singleplayer is weak - despite well-worked tutorial and mission modes it always feels like target practice for combat with friends - and the lack of online support disappoints. But despite a potentially hazardous dimensional switch, it remains as appealing a way of antagonising your friends as ever. [Dec 2003, p.108]

Let all the vision-obscuring dust settle and it transpires that Battlefield 4 is a more conservative sequel than we were led to expect.

Sadly, the technical turbulence that has blighted previous episodes remains – the QTE-powered action beats, though well staged, are hobbled by pauses and awkward transitions, even on PC.

The synthesis of all The Sims Medieval's many personalities and inspirations creates something genuinely unique and compulsively entertaining. It's a funny and sweet time sink, and something that any Sims fan can wholeheartedly enjoy.

It's a testament to the strength of Pedro's core premise that you'll likely persevere through design fumbles, odd pacing and wonky writing in search of more bonkers ultraviolent combos and leaderboard glory [Issue#335, p.108]

Stellaris simply communicates its tangle of resources, currencies and modifiers with improbable elegance. [July 2016, p.112]

Crisp of cut-scene, blessed with a refreshingly light touch and low-key compared to the po-faced chest-beating of its peers, Second Sight could well be a high water mark in storytelling through games (as opposed to storytelling around them). [Oct 2004, p.104]

Combo timings can feel a little strict - and, like so many games in this genre, could be better explained to novice players - but that's easy to forgive in a game that strips away so many common fighting-game frustrations with such an easy elegance. [Issue#323, p.118]

The three marathon levels might have been better broken into a series of shorter sprints, and the four-person co-op is a stressful frustration, but as a single-player score-rush, Bit.Trip Beat is mercilessly targeted to the most masochistic part of your psyche. The result is by turns infectious, delightful, and entertainingly cruel.

It's not quite vintage Mario, but this long-awaited mobile debut demonstrates an ingenuity and a keen appreciation of format that is quintessentially Nintendo. [Feb 2017, p.123]

So well integrated is the card collection/reward mechanic that the traditional RPG exploration elements slip easily between the staccato rhythm of the battles. For this reason, the game takes on an invigorating freshness that overrides most of its generic frustrations. [Jan 2005, p.93]