The game is more about building theme parks than overseeing them, moment to moment. [Issue#405, p.120]

Kids are often underestimated, but that doesn't mean their games should be. Lego Star Wars has an appeal that goes beyond age, even if it's one that rarely goes beyond 20 minutes at a time. [May 2005, p.84]

SpeedThru is a game best experienced in short bursts, not least because the startling image depth may prove a strain for tired eyes. Still, this is further evidence of the eShop's relevance in the face of strong competition from Nintendo's peers.

A hypnagogic summertime escape to a place that lingers in the mind - prepare for some weird dreams. [Issue#338, p.116]

Insomniac has stripped away every inch of slack, delivering a consistently entertaining title where platforming nestles tightly against puzzle solving and hugs shooting sections. [Oct 2008, p.102]

It can feel like all work and no play, but it's work that's professionally rendered, adding some solid detail and feedback to the traditional GTA-style framework. [Dec 2006, p.84]

The ingredients might sound tasty in isolation, but the recipe isn't quite right, leaving us with a dish best described as an attractive hotchpotch. [Issue#356, p.100]

As revolutions go, RKGK is perhaps a little too well-mannered for its own good. [Issue#399, p.112]

With no meaningful equivalent to the communal goals and tactical layovers that gave Planes a stay of execution, once the paywall stalls your progress like leaves on the line, there’s little reason to continue. Even for those who’ve ‘supported’ NimbleBit with regular IAP donations, you suspect the Bux stop here.

The game occasionally gets lost in the cleverness of its own layouts. [Issue#363, p.120]

This means it's possible for a smaller team to craft a game of joyously intersecting rules. [Issue#371, p.100]

While it’s not the definitive culmination of the genre so far, Dominator remains a compelling reminder that, while slight in comparison to its older brothers, Burnout still knows how to be a mean racing game. [Apr 2007, p.83]

Why roam freely (when the game lets you, which is by no means always) when all that’s out there to find is an empty trek between jarring episodes of production-line gaming? [Christmas 2005, p.105]

While the overall blandness means Galactrix is unlikely to truly thrill many people, it also means that it won’t exclude anyone either, and the ever-reliable pattern-spotting blends with the steady trickle of meaningless rewards to exert a pull on its audience that is truly Pavlovian. [Apr 2009, p.125]

A bold, thoughtful experiment in accessibility, the fighting game's biggest, most enduring problem. [May 2016, p.120]

Gearbox has made a game that is stable and complete, if hugely unrefined in places, with an under-exploited but sound core of tactical squad combat. [Nov 2008, p.93]

With a clutch of intricate puzzle stages and some tough daily challenges for players chasing mastery, Ookibloks challenges mind and thumbs in equal measure.

Yes, deaths you suffer might linger in the memory longer than the runs themselves, but pixel for pixel, this is as exciting in the moment as anything we've played all year. Light the fuse, stand back and prepare to gasp in wonder. [Issue#352, p.106]

A series that, for all its wanderlust, is never truly going anywhere. [Christmas 2015, p.112]

Regardless of the developers' goals, Veilguard feels like a game designed and assembled in parts. However good any idea, scene or concept is - and there are some excellent ones - it isn't bolstered by those beside it. Instead, each feels like a dazzling distraction from where it falls short in depth, consistency and trust in players to engage with a complex world. [Issue#405, p.102]

You'll find a number of technical issues plaguing the game, from scenery clipping to inconsistent collision and some hideously low resolution textures. But the game's relentless dedication to giving you violent bangs for your bucks goes some way to compensating for them. Because Twisted Metal at its best delivers exactly what it sets out to: a messy, manic and tasteless treat.

Thanks to a thoughtful, witty localisation, Yo-Kai Watch proves to be a kids' game that's capable of winning over adult players, too. [July 2016, p.123]

With a generous array of modes and some unexpected creative flourishes, this is certainly the best Mario Party since the GameCube era; perhaps even beyond. [Christmas 2018, p.120]

This attempt to fuse two very different Mario worlds is more than the sum of its mismatched parts. [Jan 2016, p.122]

It hangs together because its distinct strands feed into one another just enough, even if that relationship is as crude as a dialogue tree leading to you gaining a stat-altering card that you can play during the campaign phase.

A reminder of both what you adore and abhor in a series that's had its simple joys diluted by flash-in-the-plan iterations and ideas.

After the interesting and confident debut of The Suffering last year, Ties That Bind remains a straightforward action game, and one with a coherent story that feels well paced, if too full of schlocky cliché for some. But that is, ultimately, all it does: remains. [Dec 2005, p.106]

It's far too easy for veterans in singleplayer, but with four sets of the ludicrous peripheral - an unlikely scenario, admittedly - and each player tapping out their own, interlinking rhythm the game becomes a uniquely entertaining experience. [Feb 2004, p.111]