The fact that it’s just mental arithmetic simply doesn’t matter: all it makes you realise is that most games are mental arithmetic one way or another. [May 2006, p.95]

At its best, New Super Luigi U is an exhilarating test of skill, but on occasion it dangerously approximates a fan-made ROM hack, mistakenly believing that an increased enemy count equates to satisfying design. Some will undoubtedly find its challenge inviting, but others will rightly expect more ingenuity from Nintendo than this.

For the time being, Exordium represents a kind of success, even if it’s tempered by the evident struggle to achieve an objective that may, in the end, prove to be a fool’s errand.

Ronimo has made an ingenious Trojan horse by delivering the structure and systems of a cult PC genre on consoles, wrapped in the glamour of classic console gaming. Rather than alienate the wrong audience, Awesomenauts could – and should – make plenty of converts to its cause.

In quests played with up to three friends the experience improves, but the game does nothing clever, original or compelling enough to recommend local questing over MMOs. [May 2008, p.95]

A curiosity. An inferior imitation of a two-decade-old series, it's nevertheless delivered with obvious affection for its inspiration and considerable charm of its own. [June 2010, p.105]

For console owners used to having to fiddle with power sliders in order to orchestrate their shots, it brings a nigh-on edible element of tangibility to the experience... An accomplished bundle. [May 2004, p.109]

Squids is clever, but it's a cleverness that can slowly give way to devious manipulation: the game has fallen for the easy money of microtransactions, and it's fallen hard.

It has all the hooks you'd associate with a streaming service binge-watch...But American Arcadia has something to say, too. [Issue#393, p.116]

A beautiful disappointment – a great look in search of a great game to go with it. The genre template may be rock solid, but the end result is an adventure that's been strung across a fault line.

When was the last time a game managed to pierce your heart with its third or fourth dialogue choice? [Issue#381, p.96]

Yes, it really does get good after 20 hours, but even then it never lives up to its name - not-so-bravely defaulting to genre convention at almost every turn. [Issue#357, p.108]

Crysis 3 has neither direction nor freedom, though it does have human weapons, alien weapons, a cloaking device, an Armour mode, and a bow. And with this many options at your disposal, Crysis 3 insists, surely you must be having fun.

It froths with colour and confidence, revelling in its influences as you grind your way to the top. And make no mistake, it is a grind – one best taken in short doses and requiring the basest of mental activity but one that has enough content, unlocks and options to compensate.

It would be a pity if this erratic, wonderfully offbeat adventure ended here. [Dec 2014, p.123]

What is most amazing of all is that despite its litany of weird little problems, Destiny is fantastic, its combat up there with the very best, the thrilling rhythm of its battles still not fading the 30th time through, and it has no single systemic problem that is not fixable. [Dec 2014, p.106]

It's undeniably a one-trick pony, then, but it's a good trick, performed with flair and polish. Those inclined to correct grammatical howlers in friends' Facebook missives will find this a far less confrontational way of sating their inner pedant.

This is a whisper of what the IP has to offer videogames rather than a realisation, and there's no disguise in the universe that can hide that. [Aug 2010, p.94]

No matter what comes next, Lawbreakers is a success. It's proof, among other things, that veteran design talent really does mean something - and that the shooters of the late '90s still have something to teach the modern game industry. This is more than nostalgia: it's a paean to the genre's potential, performed by people who know it well. [Issue#311, p.104]

The island and its minigames, side conversations and beautiful backdrops hold their charm, and part of us earns to remain in Demonschool's world. Unlike Faye, though, we begin to resent that demons keep tearing us out of it. [Issue#419, p.114]

For console owners used to having to fiddle with power sliders in order to orchestrate their shots, it brings a nigh-on edible element of tangibility to the experience... An accomplished bundle. [May 2004, p.109]

This is certainly the MOST tennis Camelot has served up, if not the smartest or slickest. [Issue#422, p.108]

The title is just painfully apt: never has a free-roaming structure brought so little to improve the quality of a game's world. The mooted open-ended environments of Tony Hawk's American Wasteland feel like a fallacy, a bleak repackaging for hocking the game to a jaded audience. [Dec 2005, p.107]

It is wonderfully written, its world lived-in and vivid. It meets our expectations of a Fullbright game, but sadly leaves it at that. [Issue#310, p.114]

A party game collection for which you have to work far too hard to get much of a chance to party. [Jan 2007, p.82]

Guwange appears the most accessible of Cave's late-90s output, even if the latter stages of the game, particularly in the two extra modes featured in this update, will require a combination of dedicated practice and natural skill to overcome. [Oct 2010, p.98]

Leaving this sun-kissed escape behind really does feel like returning from a holiday. [Issue#383, p.104]

To give in to its spell, you just need to let go. [Christmas 2014, p.123]