Warp tends to the lightweight - almost a confection - but as with anything that offers this sort of energetic sugary high, sometimes it's good to be left wanting more.

It’s accomplished and inventive, but there’s not enough to quicken the pulse, and you feel relief, rather than satisfaction, when the trickier challenges are conquered. The constant metallic clanks are the sound of a game whose nuts and bolts are fully functional, but this tin man of a game is missing its heart.

For all its appealing idiosyncrasies, No More Heroes has lost some of its urgency and, with that, its potency. [Issue#363, p.116]

There’s certainly something to be said for such a calming, stress-free adventure – a game that goes out of its way to provide a holiday as much as it does entertainment. [Mar 2006, p.95]

By trying to do too much too soon elsewhere, however, Rivals reduces many of its heroes to sidekicks. [Issue#406, p.110]

The whole is far greater than the subtraction of its failures would suggest, and will attract many put off by the wonderfully absurd complexities of Nippon Ichi’s brazen coup. [July 2005, p.90]

In confronting Peter's regrets, it leaves us with one of our own - that we didn't stop 15 minutes sooner. [Issue#376, p.121]

Combo timings can feel a little strict - and, like so many games in this genre, could be better explained to novice players - but that's easy to forgive in a game that strips away so many common fighting-game frustrations with such an easy elegance. [Issue#323, p.118]

Kubrick would surely approve. [Issue#334, p.106]

At its core, though, is Hydro Thunder Hurricane's handling model. Swerving between subtlety and throttle every few seconds, it graces tracks that provide both competitive dashes and full-on fairground rides. All this is wrapped up in a perpetually rewarding structure that keeps these precious elements fresh, making up a comeback that holds its first principles close.

It may not be the most refined of strategy games, but it's an entertaining, accessible and outstandingly polished example of its type. [July 2015, p.108]

The virtual interface does little to help players and, if anything, slows the game down as you wait for it to catch up with things that are already evident to players – such as victory, failure and boredom. [Dec 2007, p.89]

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]

Did a purse-holder at Activision one day grapple fruitlessly with the last game's control system and scrawl in their subsequent notes “Make the next one so that I can play it”? Speculation aside, someone sure messed-up Spider-Man. [Dec 2005, p.108]

The most shameless vehicle for the series' gun fetish yet. [Apr 2015, p.114]

The Gardens Between is at its best when it marries whimsical design with fresh twists on logic puzzles, each level delicately exploring a new idea before moving onto the next. [December 2018, p.122]

As much as Carrion's moment-to-moment feel might benefit from the uniquely wobbly shape it gives you, the game as a whole wears its own amorphousness a little less elegantly. [Issue#349, p.98]

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]

As the clear standout elements in a shooter that otherwise feels like it's been drafted out of pre-existing parts, we'd like more change to actually play with our cards after tearing the packet open. [Issue#410, p.118]

Too often in Forestrike, you lose because you do what the game invites you to do. [Issue#418, p.122]

It demands persistence on the part of the player to uncover its inner workings, but when you do start to move in tandem, it's an undeniably exhilaratnig dance. [Oct 2006, p.86]

While the game delivers its smooth-edged package efficiently enough, it never manages to raise the pulse like its predecessor, and like an ancient tomb, close inspection reveals some worrying cracks. [Feb 2015, p.114]

Ara is at once too shallow and too deep, a 4X game where one of its crosses bears far more eight than the others. [Issue#404, p.118]

A clever game, then, but not a particularly fulfilling one. [Sept 2009, p.99]

There’s a good game here, but that game was built and finished two years ago. Origins adds little to its mechanics and nothing to the mythology. The story of a raw and inelegant Batman in his early years is better told on the big screen and the printed page, rather than in a raw, inelegant game in a generation’s twilight years.

Despite the absence of punishing deadlines, though, maybe this escape is a little too much like work after all. [Issue#403, p.122]

The compact nature of the game's arc means its narrative rhythm feels a little off and things clatter to an end well before you expect - or want - them to. [Christmas 2016, p.120]

There aren’t enough maps, there aren’t enough distinctions between the vehicles, and there’s just not enough meat on what feel like solid bones. [Sept 2007, p.96]