Yet there is heart in Banishers, and it beats strongest in the doomed romance at its centre. There's emotional heft in its ending, too. [Issue#395, p.110]

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]

Following the excellent Inside Story was always going to be a big ask, so it’s hardly a surprise AlphaDream never quite manages to conjure up anything better than being Bowser. Still, while the comparison to its predecessor does it few favours, rest assured that Dream Team Bros’ additions and curiously entertaining battles do enough to reawaken the desire to see this adventure through to the end.

Despite its leisurely atmosphere, Dordogne is a more serious story than you might anticipate. [Issue#387, p.122]

This is revitalisation, a fresh surge of life for the long-serving warhorse. By any typical measure of gaming it's not grand advance, but for those whose fingers have long been drilled by the brawls of Koei's sprawling riots, it's as worthwhile and frenzied as it's ever been. [Mar 2008, p.96]

The execution can be uneven, but in all of Road 96's wild ambition there is a touch of genius. This doesn't feel like the endpoint of all these ideas, but the marking out of a route forward. It's one we'd love to see explored further. [Issue#362, p.102]

Despite the vertiginous learning curve, however, Puzzlegeddon’s mechanics intersect neatly and offer some depth – even if most early games will descend into manic clicking. [Feb 2009, p.97]

Unusual, startlingly innovative and engaging. Its nuanced storytelling offers something few games have been able to meaningfully achieve – true conundrum, with little indication from the game telling you what you're supposed to do to be 'good'. Frustrating, beautiful and bizarre, Catherine stays with you.

It's accomplished in its execution, but threatens to segregate the platform just as Harmonix seemed to be opening it up to all-comers. [Nov 2009, p.103]

It manages to be that rarest of things: a Wii game that you've just got to try online. [May 2010, p.98]

For all its simplified inputs and friendly onboarding, 2XKO may fail to convert those who already harbour skepticism toward fighting games, or indeed toward League of Legends itself. [Issue#421, p.108]

In short, it’s a game with its spirit, its satisfaction and its structure intact. [Jan 2005, p.88]

Stages are smaller and battles are often less intense but Size Matters makes up for the shortfall in calibre with a visual imagination that, for the first time, makes a Ratchet & Clank games feel like an actual adventure instead of a sequence of shootout-corridors threaded along a necklace of planets. [Apr 2007, p.88]

With 2022's sequel confirmed for global release early next year, then, we feel ready to go the distance and stick with this trail. [Issue#401, p.114]

While by the time the credits roll we've pretty much had our fill, it must be doing something right for 20 hours' worth of moreish, lizard-brain fun to have flown by. [Issue#368, p.116]

Then it interrupts the action for a bit of brazen padding, inviting you to trudge back through earlier floors to track the spectral pawprints of an elusive cat, and you wonder if you were right first time. [Issue#339, p.96]

It refreshes with its purity of purpose and ambition, even if, as a mechanising of the grieving process, it’s a game few will wish to return to once completed.

Meltdown deserves its own unique place amongst rolling puzzlers and, eventually, to have its timelessness and solidity recognised as a benchmark. [Nov 2006, p.88]

Part auto-runner, part RTS, and part puzzle game, there are enough strange ideas here to make up for a grindy campaign and awkward aiming controls. Shellrazer's an odd kind of game, perhaps, but it ultimately benefits from its own eccentricities.

Toki Tori 2 deserves praise for asking its players to take a leap of faith; it’s just a pity it’s not always prepared to follow them over.

It's the music that's important here, and Elite Beat Agents delivers. [Jan 2007, p.86]

When it comes to multiplayer options, Bleach kills 99 per cent of known beat ‘em up stars – even the excellent Jump Superstars – dead. [JPN Import; Apr 2006, p.94]

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

As a game, Flock can be a little too fuzzy for our liking. As a mood-altering experience, though, it works like a charm. [Issue#401, p.118]

Though the explosions scale with progress, and the act of detonation continues to be a giddy pleasure, Mars could do with a thicker atmosphere.

While it is a little hampered by it’s scale and scope, Kirby remains imaginative, detailed and demanding... It’s exactly the kind of game that Nintendo promised the DS would deliver. [June 2005, p.90]

The steadily dwindling friend tallies on our post-run leaderboards are convincing proof that Runner’s sharpest edges remain intact.

Shadowkeep delivers on our expectations, giving us more of the things about Destiny we like, while reminding us that nostalgia ain't what it used to be. [Issue#139, p.106]