For a game that promises a degree of freedom in how you approach a job, you'll often find there's a clearly preferred way of doing things. [Aug 2017, p.112]

Despite the air of brutality Space Marine tries to cultivate, it's ultimately defined by convenience; by linear levels where you follow the green lights of unlocked doors from one corridor to the next, while the gentle trickle of upgrades and new weapons does just enough to keep you playing. The result is sometimes casually enjoyable, but never vivid, or memorable, or truly involving.

An easy recommendation for newcomers. [Dec 2012, p.108]

With only the graphical layer receiving much attention it lacks the necessary breadth and depth to elevate itself far beyond the status of nostalgic curio. [Jan 2009, p.97]

Trace Memory is a sound and striking dissection and rebuilding of the adventure game, one that wraps itself well around the specs and strengths of the DS, but one that isn’t the sum of its parts. But it is a worthy and touching whole, nonetheless. [Aug 2005, p.96]

Yes, there’s a good sense of speed, but the dreariness of racing against brainless AI opponents who combine little awareness of their surroundings with a remarkably lethargic and lifeless approach to a supposedly exciting activity soon has that counterbalanced. [May 2005, p.85]

This is a game that’s as riotously entertaining as it is viciously random... It’s gleeful automobile slapstick, but not for anyone who values skill and achievement more than taking a wrecking ball to their opponents’ racing lines. [Dec 2005, p.114]

Let's Tap isn't merely innovative, it's an original concept applied over five distinct types of game that works extremely well. [Mar 2009, p.90]

Go Mecha Ball can be as frustrating as it is exhilarating. [Issue#394, p.104]

Hell Yeah! may wear its warm immaturity on its sleeve, but its jokes are strong, its protagonist and antagonists likeable and its rhythms satisfying.

With better class implementation, carrying through into PvP, it might have been able to assert its own identity. [Issue#333, p.116]

Combat is impressively muscular for a game that presents like a top-down dungeon crawler. [Issue#356, p.102]

If Desert Storm 2 has one flaw, it's that there are only ten maps and these usually channel the player down avenues rather than provide ample playgrounds for strategic experimentation. [Nov 2003, p.100]

It's a game that celebrates the idea of two disparate beings finding a shared language and using it to overcome their problems; in these troubled times, such moments are powerful indeed. [Apr 2018, p.114]

Pseudo may have avoided the formlessness that afflicts so much vehicular combat, but it has failed to play to its game’s strengths. The greasy, weightless, unmodulated handling and largely unimaginative course design aren’t remotely as satisfying as the raw, explosive scraps between racers. [Mar 2006, p.84]

Smilebit, led by Masayoshi Kikuchi – who has since moved on to work on the Yakuza series, another franchise that pivots around vivid city-building – swam upstream with JSR, defying the rush to photorealism, celebrating rebellion and individuality in one of the most memorable genre mash-ups you're ever likely to come across. Its HD revival is every inch that game, serving as a reminder that originality and passion retain their lustre when all else fades, and that such treasures are worth buffing up to display again.

Gesture recognition is loose and forgiving, and it makes no attempt to suggest Kinect's genuinely interpreting every movement. Instead, each manoeuvre feels like the empty-handed equivalent of pushing a button – albeit a button that tends to idle a little before it triggers anything.

Jett Rocket's mistakes remind us of the N64 days, when developers were feeling their way through Nintendo's brave new 3D world. [Aug 2010, p.99]

In the end, it falls beneath our expectations as often as it stretches beyond them. [Issue#349, p.96]

Single- and multiplayer minigames – and, more interestingly, a fully self-contained production-quality construction kit supporting a viral and burgeoning custom-level trading community – round off an already complete package, making Gripshift one of the PSP's finest and full-featured games to date. [Dec 2005, p.110]

Ultimately, World Rally is not a bad game, just entirely unnecessary.

Like so many similar games, Zombie Road Trip makes you question why you’ve sunk two hours into it rather than BioShock Infinite, but you grudgingly admit to enjoying the ride nonetheless.

In its shrewd monetisation aspects and as a watered-down but sturdy entry in the series, Revolution unarguably achieves its goal. The King Of Iron Fist Tournament is now closer than it’s been for a long time to its arcade roots, but the sense of friendly competition has been replaced with an initially hostile, rich versus poor and, at times, pay-to-win atmosphere.

It’s easy to admire the developer’s evident love for the NES game – it’s clearly been handled with the kind of care only a genuine fan would provide – but after a few repetitive hours bouncing around DuckTales’ pretty but unremarkable worlds you’ll begin to realise that some treasures aren’t worth the effort of unearthing.

This is the kind of ornamental contraption that elicits oohs and aahs when examined from afar, but was never REALLY designed to be played with. [Issue#366, p.123]

The Vault is best left to its long and drifting exile. [Issue#388, p.114]

Judged solely on its Balance Board controls, Skate It comes up little short of unplayable thanks to a bewildering complexity. [Jan 2009, p.96]

As a piece of world-building as assured as this feels like it deserves something more dynamic - something like a BioShock or a Deathloop, with you cast as an agent of chaos in an alien ecosystem. [Issue#378, p.110]