Retro Studios has done a fine job with the Donkey Kong Country concept, ably translating its appeal for a modern platform, but it doesn't push it much further. [Christmas 2010, p.92]

Few other FPS titles can match the intensity of this nitrous-charged shooting gallery, but plenty of them offer the kind of less that feels like much, much more. [Nov 2005, p.104]

The sights and sounds of the Star Wars universe, delivered with enthusiasm and authenticity throughout, at least make it easy enough to be swept along. [Issue#403, p.104]

You come to Virtual-On to beat up big robots through a mix of opportune tactics and instinctive brawn, and throughout Marz the precise and articulated combat remains as demanding as ever. [Sept 2003]

While its bulk is impressive, it lacks a distinctive personality of its own. [Christmas 2016, p.106]

Solatorobo's short attention span is occasionally 
its undoing – good ideas and mechanics are dropped 
as readily as bad – and the button-mashing combat 
can occasionally fatigue, but this is an adventure both 
epic and bite-sized, with the kind of charm that 
makes its weaknesses easy to forget, and hard 
not to forgive.

An efficient and well thought out expansion. Short, tight and intense, it's a considerably different experience from Medieval proper and well worth experiencing. [June 2003, p.105]

It's a testament to the strength of the core concept, then, that The Plucky Squire remains as entertaining as it does. [Issue#403, p.108]

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

The friction between precision and imprecision is what makes the game unique. [December 2018, p.112]

MotoHeroz is a cuddly toy you hug to your face, only to realise a second too late it's in fact a surly porcupine.

Unaided solo players at the moment will either have to grind through normal to upgrade specials and stances to overcome the higher difficulties, or just take their chances alone. That aside, this is a smart, funny and faithful update to a game that hasn't aged well, and another feather in WayForward's retro cap.

Ultimate Carnage is a generous package that can be highly entertaining. But it’s a pity that it fails to apply a comprehensive design overhaul to FlatOut’s robust engine. [Aug 2007, p.91]

Despite the lack of ingenuity on display, NSMB Wii's thrash of four players does bring uproarious anarchy to the sofa for short periods of time. [Dec 2009, p.86]

But as brutal as its buzz-saw races can be, they pale compared to the marketplace for online multiplayer into which it's throwing itself. [Issue#403, p.110]

The highscore table and note-perfect humour (which, just like the pixel-art graphics and whimsical audio, strikes the perfect balance between faux-naivety and self-awareness) proves more than enough to keep you playing in the traffic.

Ascension’s biggest success is a colour-coding system that effectively lets you know when you have an opening and when to run. Unblockable attacks are signalled by a player glowing red, white denotes invincibility, and blue signals a player in recovery. It’s a simple, smart system further improved by rock-paper-scissors combat (heavy beats parry beats light beats heavy), cooldown-controlled special moves and a logical, consistent approach to hitstun. Consider our expectations defied: this is the star of the show.

The extra depth is arresting – combatants plunge from one part of a stage to the next, crashing through glass and tumbling down stairs. While its 3D arenas arguably make for a more fitting showcase of 3DS's capabilities than launch title Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition, the two share a further thrill as you turn the 3D off and watch the framerate double.

But what of the gamers who have paid WayForward’s bills, the Contra lovers and Shantae fan clubs? They're rewarded with extreme difficulty spikes, enacted by the amorphous lovelies of a Miyazaki film. A Boy and his Blob panders to the Wii’s unique audience all too well, dividing itself, and its impact, in the process.

Generous checkpoints and quick restarts just about cover for awkward platforming sequences. [December 2018, p.114]

There's just no accounting for an excruciating wipeout on the final lap when such possibilities are at the mercy of circumstances as much as they are at the player's skill. But, played with a graceful, Zen-like acceptance – shit happens – Crash 'n' Burn is as enjoyable as it is easy to understand. [Jan 2005, p.97]

Pinballing between boost blocks on the shorter stages is an undoubted thrill, but when a single, late mistake on the lengthier levels proves decisive, the less patient among us will likely find that an old-fashioned punishment too far.

There’s nothing revolutionary in Eternal Sonata, but it’s a well-executed RPG with style in abundance. [Nov 2007, p.98]

It lacks the connective tissue to join its bite-size skirmishes into a seamless epic, but as a lightweight pick-up-and-play romp, Resistance 3 is hard to resist.

Right now, the online exchange that Trackmania needs doesn't exist, but the community is growing by word of mouth. This is clever gaming, and in six months time it could be enormous. [Feb 2004, p.110]

It's not just a sense of humour and a flair for mayhem that Riddick shares with its star; it's a compact, muscular, single-minded piece of work, too. Flawed, yes, but so confident and independent that it's hard not to like. [Sept 2004, p.98]

Monkey Bump lacks the gooey intricacy of the team's best games, perhaps, but it's still an elegant time-waster with fine-tuned controls and an excellent handle on the things that keep score-chasing gamers happy. Slight and chirpy, this may be PomPom at its least idiosyncratic, but the expanding boundary has never looked more at home.

This is a cautionary tale of what happens when our human need for answers overrides common sense - and its disturbing finale drives that home with commendably blunt force. [Issue#377, p.120]