Those who can overlook the rudimentary visuals, convoluted interface and overly forced dialogue may lose themselves in the vast mathematical playpen. [Aug 2010, p.95]

It's a tremendous shame, because the bosses themselves are a finely conceived, smartly designed and varied bunch. [Issue#296, p.121]

Mere hours after playing it, Hue is already vanishing into the background of our minds, leaving only a vague sensation of something more tangible. [Nov 2016, p.123]

Once fluent in Hulk's explosive vocabulary of lamppost-javelins, boulder-bowling balls and tank football, it becomes apparent how much there is to praise in this game. It's hard to think of a superhero title that has come so close in delivering the spirit of the hero's super-ness. [Sept 2005, p.95]

At times it taps into our lizard brain so successfully that hours pass by, our eyes glazing over as we mindlessly follow instructions. [Issue#376, p.116]

Smarter, faster pacing could have made all the difference. When it isn't intentionally hobbled, the combat is spectacular and unique. [Feb 2010, p.88]

Silt remains grimly unsettling, and there's a sprinkling of ingenuity in many of its puzzles, but it's not as powerful as it promises to be. [Issue#373, p.118]

The end-of-stage bosses remain something of a saving grace. [Issue#410, p.112]

Not for everyone, Dancing All Night will suit players who love rhythm action enough to overlook a lack of content, or who love Persona 4 enough to forgive the length and leaden pace of its script. [Jan 2016, p.123]

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]

The claustrophobic setting is the game's most glaring weakness: you can't have an epic adventure in a single city any more than a child will be content to endlessly explore his own back garden. [Apr 2011, p.82]

The cold heart beneath the cuddly surface fits the dark tone of the game, which beneath all the whimsy tells a melancholy story. Even so, players drawn in by Pid's dreamy visuals might end up feeling betrayed.

Admittedly, there's little here to quicken the pulse, and some of later objectives are troublingly fiddly, with sensitive motion controls and increasingly intricate level design proving uncomfortable bedfellows. But otherwise this is an unusually clever, polished and robust eShop release that offers several hours' worth of dizzy delights.

Crucially, we never lose our will to continue. [Issue#410, p.114]

With its best ideas exhausted long before the developer tires of them, some moments of real ingenuity are swamped by busywork. At times, you’ll admire the craftsmanship, but Sky Tourist is often too busy trying to be clever to remember to be fun.

As an example of unabashed, often exuberant Britsoft that pulls out the SRPG's staples and rebinds it in approachable ease, Future Tactics is remarkable, deserving of cult status. [Aug 2004, p.99]

Arlo may have the grimace and mane of Geralt, but his game needs to be more than a series of narrow squeaks. [Issue#408, p.118]

It’s a game that’s full of faults, but also one in which they can be immaterial to the experience of playing. [Sept 2007, p.95]

It remains compelling, but much of that compulsion is in expecting the game to truly deliver - a moment you'll likely still be awaiting at the anticlimactic conclusion. [Jan 2005, p.89]

Like the movies that doubtless inspired it, Shank ultimately has more style than substance. It looks fantastic but it's hardly a lengthy game, and it does little to trouble your brain. As throwaway entertainment goes, though, it's solid popcorn stuff.

For a game that trades a competitive level of complexity for more instant action-based appeal, it needs to be slicker in its presentation and explanations. [Jan 2007, p.80]

A little too much is left to chance. [Issue #389, p.123]

In spite of these shortcomings, Starfield exerts a curious gravitational pull: there is a pleasant mindlessness to it that means it can easily become a black hole for your free time. But if it's not a BAD game, it's an achingly unambitious one, failing in what should be one of the foundational aspects of any space exploration game (see Post Script). True, we've come a long way in six decades. But zoom in on the recent history of games - and that of its maker - and you're forced to concede that we've not covered much distance after all. For Bethesda, this isn't so much a giant leap as barely a small step. [Issue#390, p.112]

It's a shame that, for all those nifty custom USB sockets, there's no real connection to be found here. [Christmas 2018, p.112]

Like the movies that doubtless inspired it, Shank ultimately has more style than substance. It looks fantastic but it's hardly a lengthy game, and it does little to trouble your brain. As throwaway entertainment goes, though, it's solid popcorn stuff.

It isn’t perfectly realised, but the subtleties of tactical planning and the bloodiness of frontline slashing combine to suggest a new way forward for realtime strategy. [Aug 2006, p.90]

Tourist Trophy is never anything more than you, a motorcycle, and the quest for the racing line. It’s more than accomplished enough to fulfil fanatics of bikes and simulations, but too dry for anyone else. [Apr 2006, p.86]

Mechs are the only interesting offline opponents, but in a way that causes the action to feel stuttered: these encounters are engaging due to the sensation of one-on-one combat, but those of Lone Wolf are so ponderous that most fights become wars of attrition... As a result, the game can't throw enough of them at you to make the skirmishes feel genuinely intense of chaotic. [Feb 2005, p.76]