Packed with detail, both in terms of its environments and mechanics, this is a game that pays back investment in spades. [March 2012, p.122]

There are plenty of smart ideas here, but a fair bit of dreck, too. [Oct 2016, p.120]

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 a generous package, and even more so given that a purchase of the Vita version nets you a PS3 copy as well, your progress persistent between the two versions. Other launch games may better sell Vita's touch, tilt or AR capabilities, but there is no better advertisement for its connectivity.

It's a simple rhythm-action title at its core, with a set of bolted-on RPG mechanics of little worth. But then players aren't here for those mechanics, they're here for the memories. Bearing that in mind, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy achieves exactly what it sets out to do.

Atmospheric, tense, and sometimes unfairly hard, Test3′s roguelike is another welcome entry in a resurgent genre.

This may not be the best choice for a player without an existing co-op team, but if you do have three friends who are willing to learn, and die, together, it's a work of unmissable claustrophobia. GTFO indeed. [Issue#368, p.110]

The results are uncommonly nuanced and tactile, though perhaps that's no surprise given its creator's keen interest in digital sculpture.

While it ties its narrative strands neatly enough to work as a standalone story, Mizrahi and Scout would be well worth a sequel. [Issue#344, p.114]

It helps, too, that the story is surprisingly engaging. [Issue#413, p.116]

Yes it is almost the same, but when it's brilliant fun, and no other publisher is releasing games like this, who cares? [June 2003, p.104]

Not only is Road Trip competent, it’s full of character, with cartoon styling and gentle humour eschewing the too-cool, branding-heavy nature of its peers, while also being one of the console’s better looking titles. [Christmas 2008, p.101]

But if it feels rather like a rough draft (moreso, even, than the original Assassin's Creed), then we'll be fascinated to see if this VR incarnation gets any fraction of the iterative treatment long enjoyed by its predecessors. [Issue#393, p.112]

Yes, Justice’s new shriek adds a new trick to his repertoire, but besides this and a few new touchscreen forensic gizmos, this there is little change from the GBA ports. [Apr 2008, p.95]

With that, a largely flat Metroid is further degraded, from disappointing to a little bit embarrassing. Nintendo games have tested our patience before, but rarely in so many ways at once, and not without a core brilliance that makes such transgressions forgivable. Whatever ideas swirled in your mind back in 2017, you can't have been dreaming of this. [Issue#419, p.100]

What’s left is, while smartly streamlined, a thoroughly orthodox game within a well-established type, a niche within a niche that’s getting smaller all the time.

Yes, it's a little too familiar in places. [Issue#392, p.114]

There are just too many of the simple things wrong, and too many areas where you feel that corners have been cut rather than obsessed over. [Sept 2008, p.88]

Like its enigmatic protagonist, Unravel is never anything less than charming, even during moments when it doesn't quite hold together. [April 2016, p.108]

Admittedly, there's little here to quicken the pulse, and some of later objectives are troublingly fiddly, with sensitive motion controls and increasingly intricate level design proving uncomfortable bedfellows. But otherwise this is an unusually clever, polished and robust eShop release that offers several hours' worth of dizzy delights.

The picaresque form allows the levels to function as discreet puzzles rather than as parts of a story arc: the objective remains pure and always the same. The obstacles and methods open to you are what change, and it's in these areas that Contracts has both expanded and improved. [June 2004, p.103]

What's here is enough to be going on with, but we'll have to wait till next year's updates and in particular, that possibly seismic battle-royale mode, to discover whether this is truly a Battlefield that stands apart. [Jan 2019, p.114]

Such bastard generic cross-pollination will be of keen interest to those who have pigeonholed the console RPG as yesterday's bread, as Dragon Quarter variously suceeds in its misfit marriage. [June 2003, p.98]

Soul Bubbles is so enchanting, its fundamental behaviour so neatly realised, that you can forgive it being a little simple. [July 2008, p.97]

For the most part the puzzles are well-pitched, with clues subtly seeded into the dialogue. [Issue#347, p.106]

Only a sense of familiarity dogs an otherwise engaging diversion: the Minis cover a lot of ground in these 180 levels, but at times it’s well-worn territory they’re walking.

Often dwarfing the key action, these minigames are a manifestation of a series that’s been unrecognisably perverted from its original purpose, flashes of brilliance or speed only serving as a reminder of what has been lost. [Nov 2007, p.99]

Diverting and wonderfully weird as it may be, but Side Order doesn't supplant Octo Expansion as the series' singleplayer peak. [Issue#396, p.119]