Uprising may not break any new ground in a genre that is arguably an endangered species, but it does a good job of breathing life into the dying breed. It's a reminder that an artist's eye, when met by a designer's understanding of modern tastes, can revitalise a struggling brand and make the old feel new again.

Uprising may not break any new ground in a genre that is arguably an endangered species, but it does a good job of breathing life into the dying breed. It's a reminder that an artist's eye, when met by a designer's understanding of modern tastes, can revitalise a struggling brand and make the old feel new again.

This is a game you'll complete, chuckle at and show off. [Sept 2010, p.98]

The game requires very little of what its title suggests. (…) If you make a leap of deduction, the game won't proceed until your character, through exhaustive dialogue choices and object examinations, has caught up. [Feb 2011, p.98]

Stacking's best qualities are its eccentricity and ingenuity. The puzzles lack the tortured bite of Double Fine's early work, but in broadening the narrative-led puzzle game's scope and carefully choosing which elements of tradition to keep and which to discard, Stacking is a bold and charming reinvention.

Stacking's best qualities are its eccentricity and ingenuity. The puzzles lack the tortured bite of Double Fine's early work, but in broadening the narrative-led puzzle game's scope and carefully choosing which elements of tradition to keep and which to discard, Stacking is a bold and charming reinvention.

Previous instalments in this technically strong but creatively lacking series have been one-note, papering over a lack of originality with a hefty dose of shock and awe. Killzone 3, by contrast, attempts to wage a more varied war. It succeeds, just, by offering a tour of locations both more visually interesting and diverse than its forebears, but it all still depends heavily on the brutal impact of the shooting at its core.

A rewarding stopgap for anyone after something old on something new. [July 2010, p.102]

As we wait for the first of the promised updates, then, there's plenty of reason to hope that this is the beginning, after all –the beginning of something rather special.

The best platformer on iPhone just got better, and there's still no sign of any meaningful competition. [Sept 2009, p.93]

But what GDS ends up proving about game development is this: making simple, fun and, yes, casual games that can keep rewarding players after that first flush of fun is so much harder than it looks.

Techland has played fast and loose with a genre that need refining in to truly let pulses soar. The result is a game that's daft, sloppy fun begging for an injection of refinement. [Feb 2011, p.97]

The core idea of Eat Them is sound, and when it works it's undeniable fun; there's a definite pleasure in starting with a pristine, ordered city and methodically reducing it to rubble. [Feb 2011, p.102]

It's engaging and, if the controls can be forgiven, a satisfying sampler of RTS thrills for the uninitiated. [Feb 2011, p.100]

Its stripped-back beat-matching will leave you tapping your foot - but out of impatience as much as approval of its grimy dubstep. [Feb 2011, p.103]

How apt that interactivity and fiction should finally merge in a fiction about interactions. The dead are restored, and the genre with them. [Feb 2011, p.103]

There's a solid adventure title here, but it's spread thin over a densely written airport thriller. [Feb 2011, p.102]

The game's excellent controls and stream of grisly scares make it the current standard for survival horror, and it now boasts eruptions of blockbusting action that rival this generation's biggest games. [Feb 2011, p.94]

It's clever without being intimidating, delicate without being volatile, and immediate without a sense of panic. [Feb 2011, p.99]

MicroBot is a technically accomplished but sterile experience. As the game settles into a rut, its stylistic strengths lose more and more ground to the sluggish combat, uninspiring upgrades and repetitive stages.

MicroBot is a technically accomplished but sterile experience. As the game settles into a rut, its stylistic strengths lose more and more ground to the sluggish combat, uninspiring upgrades and repetitive stages.

It provides a revolution, but only inside its own idiosyncratic attitude and aesthetic. Sackboy remains Sackboy, and he won't convert those who didn't like the way he behaved in LBP. And for all the fascinating flexibility of its toolset, clearly this is still a framework: you can stamp a creation with your own style, but the overall vibe will ultimately be Media Molecule's. For those who are happy to embrace it, though, LBP2 represents a dazzling new opportunity for creating deep, diverse and ingenious play.

Raskulls is many things – racer, puzzler, platformer – but it struggles to be all these things at once, or to do them equally well. Beneath the charming, brightly coloured exterior, there's a fascinating twist on the block-based puzzler at Halfbrick's game's heart – but you might just miss it when blasting through at high speed.

Southend's spatial puzzler is clever enough to survive such a heavy-handed dose of focus-grouped fancy: you won't need to love it in order to appreciate some of its better tricks. [Jan 2011, p.103]

It's hard to come away from this without a sense of persecution. It isn't just that it's a poor game, it's that it thinks it's good enough to survive on the coat-tails of its license - and that you won't have the wherewithal to discriminate. [Jan 2011, p.99]

Housemarque has certainly put in the effort, but the twin-stick shooter might simply be more rewarding when you're skidding over the smooth-scrolling surface of one of Super Stardust's wraparound arenas than stumbling through darkened alleyways with a tangle of undead shambling after you. [Jan 2011, p.100]

What we're left with is an update that is out of date, a reimagining without enough imagination. To be this simplistic, the game needed a masterful melee system and a range of inspiring enemies; it tries, but it doesn't fully deliver on either count. [Jan 2011, p.98]

What we're left with is an update that is out of date, a reimagining without enough imagination. To be this simplistic, the game needed a masterful melee system and a range of inspiring enemies; it tries, but it doesn't fully deliver on either count. [Jan 2011, p.98]