The pleasure of launching into a panoramic, dolly-zoomed abyss and triggering an implausible series of aerial gymnastics is as primal a thrill as it ever was. [Nov 2008, p.102]

It’s through the internet, however, that Buzz! refreshes its familiar format; strengths and weaknesses alike. [Aug 2008, p.99]

Too brainless for adults, and increasingly too frustrating and needlessly obtuse for children, Lego Batman makes the simplest mistake any franchise title can: it serves the licence, and nobody else. [Dec 2008, p.89]

While Time Hollow fills a Phoenix Wright-shaped hole in our lives, we do prefer our chaos theory a little less tidy. [Apr 2009, p.123]

Katauri's strategy RPG is a compulsive thing. (…) The game hooks the player to a drip-feed of demands that proves difficult to unplug. [Feb 2009, p.94]

Players are in danger of slipping in to a meditative trance from sustained focus on the undulating, serpentine ribbon of dirt that their vehicle consumes. Hypnotic, perhaps, but not especially compelling. [Dec 2008, p.93]

In a world of family-friendly games whose desire to appeal to all makes them feel wishy-washy, it's a welcome splash of colour. [Nov 2008, p.98]

Nintendo is famed for sprinkling around mechanics other developers would build entire games on, but here the effect is quite irritating. [Oct 2008, p.97]

The strongest MMO launch for a long while, and the genre’s deftest ever take on PVP – but its appeal may yet prove too narrow. [Christmas 2008, p.93]

If you take a player to the extremes of in-game power, giving them the equivalent of a god mode against standard enemies, how can that be turned into something more engaging than a temporary plaything? [Nov 2008, p.90]

In the big dumb act of blowing its extraordinary world to kingdom come, Crysis finds itself smarter than ever. [Nov 2008, p.97]

One of the most robust online community setups to grace Nintendo’s handheld, enabling users to link the DS game to a web profile, where they can browse and queue tracks for later download. [Dec 2008, p.99]

While the mechanics are well worn by subsequent Quest dabbling, the narrative structure remains an interesting premise to this day. [Oct 2008, p.100]

For players who have dismissed the mech genre in general and Armored Core in particular as requiring too much effort for too little reward, For Answer could offer a compelling reason to dabble. [Jan 2009, p.94]

The slower, more deliberate pace and the hefty fine levied by missed throws and counters may initially confuse those expecting Guilty Fear in a new set of clothes, but ultimately provides a smoother learning curve and a more welcoming experience for new players. [Sept 2008, p.94]

As easy to misunderstand as it is to break, it again turns the best and worse of PC gaming into something extraordinary. [Oct 2008, p.94]

By polishing away blemishes, Rock Band 2 carefully improves on its predecessor. Those expecting the likes of music-making functionality perhaps aren’t quite on Rock Band’s wavelength, which is about performance, not creativity. [Dec 2008, p.85]

Its flaws are downplayed in the context of its range, its humour, its oddities, and its alternately psychopathic and pandering NPCs. It's as unusual as it is conventional. [Nov 2008, p.99]

If Pocket Paradise makes you want to throw it against something, though, it’s only because it succeeds in making gardening compulsive. [Oct 2008, p.96]

Something as transcendent and overwhelming as the game we hoped for – the infinite, mind-boggling space odyssey suggested so early on – doesn’t sell expansion packs. It doesn’t fit on to iPhone. It doesn’t fill the vacuum left by The Sims. [Nov 2008, p.88]

Facebreaker is vacuous, its interface without flair and its novelties without purpose beyond littering the boards at Gamefaqs. [Oct 2008, p.95]

The game’s ambition reaches further than perhaps its budget could reach, thus failing to either deliver or explore its ideas as they were no doubt envisioned. [Nov 2008, p.95]

A sequel with a suitably Darwinian focus on simple refinement. [Nov 2008, p.100]

The good news for fans of 2005’s Playground Of Destruction is that Mercenaries remains an absolute blast. [Nov 2008, p.92]

If you were that kid who was pulled away from the TMNT cabinets by an angry mum, who couldn’t wait for Golden Axe to appear on a home console, and who played Streets Of Rage 2 over and over, Castle Crashers is for you. [Nov 2008, p.103]

Its characters may initially seem to be lazy stereotypes, but they soon blossom into something deeper, thanks to intelligent writing and uncommonly naturalistic acting. [Dec 2008, p.97]

That Disgaea 3 is perhaps the finest of its self-referential and casually wicked yarns, is almost an irrelevance. We’ve got numbers to think about. [Dec 2008, p.97]

In spite of its commitment to a single brand, Ferrari Challenge is rich in content for those prepared to navigate its obtuse structure. [Aug 2008, p.97]