While Once Upon A Katamari is too similar to its predecessors, then, a lot of the new ideas simultaneously also work against the classic sensations of fun and flow. [Issue#418, p.123]

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

We can only guess that Possessor(s) needed more time than Heart Machine had left to give. Hopefully it hasn't run out altogether. [Issue#418, p.120]

This stylishly rendered open world displays little sense of fun or character. It's a series of beautifully drawn cardboard boxes populated by unthinking automata, one that commits its genre's gravest crime: inviting no curiosity to explore it. [Issue#418, p.118]

And as it brings the melancholic undercurrent that has defined its parent series to the surface, Age of Imprisonment succeeds on two fronts: as a classy Warriors spinoff and a surprisingly vital piece of Zelda history. [Issue#418, p.116]

This is the fundamental flaw in Bloodlines 2. Troika's original game was not only about being a vampire but living as one, it's balmy LA nights riddled with chances to fulfill that fantasy. Bloodlines 2, in comparison, has no inner life. [Issue#418, p.114]

There's little variety in the 400-square-kilometre American midwestern locale where everything takes place, and roads rarely feel optimised to test your handling skills. [Issue#418, p.112]

Arise has embedded itself deep in our skull. [Issue#418, p.110]

We can't help wondering if a narrowing of scope, instead of crowbarred-in construction mechanics or a baffling option to interact with NPCs that function like in-world AI chatbots, may have given this fiction real room to breathe. For now, there are too many winds blowing in different directions. [Issue#418, p.108]

Had a few more risks been taken, this too might eventually have been considered a classic. [Issue#418, p.104]

More than once we extract on our knees, the dregs of life draining out as we hit the button. [Issue#418, p.100]

To The Sky also emphasises that this is a game to be enjoyed in groups, with co-op for up to four people, and it's true that it is more enjoyable alongside others. [Issue#417, p.123]

Upgrades are disappointingly basic... [Issue#417, p.121]

Whether you're a mere mortal or a puzzle demon, then, you're all but guaranteed to enjoy the ride. [Issue#417, p.119]

Playing Ball X Pit is a long ramp of rapturous discovery, a mad scientist's laboratory where the goal is to make the screen as blissfully incoherent as can be. [Issue#417, p.118]

There is a design challenge here. [Issue#417, p.116]

But far too often in Keeper, rather than anything that has any greater meaning, what you're in conflict with is just muddled, unemotive puzzle design. [Issue#417, p.114]

On the strength of Stray Children's eccentric charm and hopeful outlook for younger generations, whether or not we see another RPG from the studio after this, it feels certain that Onion Games will reveal still more strange and succulent layers yet. [Issue#417, p.112]

In remaining more traditional, it fails to provide the kind of innovation that might have made it essential - something that, invariably, Nintendoes. [Issue#417, p.110]

Little Nightmares III is partially redeemed by its final third, as it picks up considerably both in terms of imagination and construction. [Issue#417, p.108]

In a word, unbeatable. [Issue#417, p.106]

Above all, this is what few pretenders manage to imitate, and ensures that even when your stated mission is to 'kill time', you feel like you're doing much more. [Issue#417, p.104]

An exercise in turning the volume up to maximum and keeping it there. The sound it emits is powerful, but with its constant presence can become mere noise. PlatinumGames has mastered the way of the ninja as a furious mass-death machine, yet somehow Ninja Gaiden 4 isn't a true killer. [Issue#417, p.100]

The campaign prevents Battlefield 6 from hitting all of its marks. [Issue#417, p.96]

More broadly, Consume Me succeeds because it makes fun of Jenny without judging her; the narrative and its interactive delivery mechanisms are direct and unpatronising, criticising diet culture while demonstrating why someone could be ensnared by it. We aren't made to feel that we're being lectured or tricked into a cheap emotional response. Rather, Consume Me transcends the expected commentary on dieting and becomes a critique of self-improvement culture in general, without losing the sense of humour that makes its message digestible. [Issue#416, p.123]

If the progress loop is largely untouched, though, Strange Antiquities gradually reveals greater depth and detail, easing you in before piling up possible angles of research. From the start, when you examine an object you can now do so according to different senses - what does it look like, feel like, smell and sound like, and does it inexplicably send shivers down your spine? And if early customer requests only ask you to consider an object's form or constituent materials, later you'll need to pay attention to inscribed symbols, gems and more. Cross-referencing a burgeoning stack of books, notes and maps, you begin to absorb ancient words and ideas. It's fascinating. At times, Bad Viking gives itself an impossible needle to thread with so many nuanced elements in play. A few descriptions feel like misdirection, sending us to the hint system. More often, though, the game maintains its spell. The instinct to organise and label every last item is as compelling as the elegant interface and the story drawing towards a fateful conclusion. It would be strange to refuse the invitation. [Issue#416, p.122]

Attempts to bring the fun back into Henry's life make for a more engaging third act, even as they inadvertently underline that they (and we) are largely going through the motions. By the treacly finale, we're more saddened by the unfulfilled promise of the start. Lululu's insistence on Saying Something over exploring the potential of its central mechanic proves, well, unbecoming; Henry Halfhead is at its best when possession is nine-tenths of the lore. [Issue#416, p.121]

When it comes to paper, Tearaway has the aesthetic edge and Paper Trail boasts smarter puzzles, while for inventive transformations, Mario remains the origami king. Next to those three, Hirogami feels flimsy and flyaway. [Issue#416, p.120]