If at times its volume of perfunctory unlockables remind you that this is a Ubisoft game, elsewhere Kingdom Battle boasts a generosity of ideas that feels startlingly Nintendo...It's perhaps not quite good enough to bring you to tears, but if Odyssey is to be Mario's best game this year, it has a pretty high bar to clear. Not THERE's something we never imagined writing. [Issue#311, p.100]

If only it played as well as it looks. [Issue#310, p.121]

This is a soothing lullaby of a game: a leisurely bit of counter-programming that, contrary to forecasts, doesn't disgrace the series' good name. [Issue#310, p.120]

It is, as a whole, smart stuff, and a refreshing new direction for McMillen's brand of twitch platforming. [Issue#310, p.118]

It's less a trip to another world than a slice of this one, warts and all, carefully preserved in the middle of a bewitching, inaccessible wilderness. [Issue#310, p.116]

It is wonderfully written, its world lived-in and vivid. It meets our expectations of a Fullbright game, but sadly leaves it at that. [Issue#310, p.114]

Ultimately what was intended as a thoughtful depiction of a terrible mental illness has ended up casting it as something of an asset: a helpful superpower that can give you the strength to soldier on through the darkness, so long as you can put up with the odd breakdown here and there. That, we suspect, was not what Ninja Theory intended. It's certainly not what we had hoped for. [Issue#310, p.112]

If Pyre never quite feels like a classic sporting struggle, your ragtag band of rebels and their delightful mobile home are a heartwarming upside to life on the Downside. [Issue#310, p.108]

If the thrill of the new is gone, old pleasures remain: the exhilaration of the final-minute countdown as the music increases in tempo, or the ice-cream jingle of the Tower as it advances into enemy territory. Crucially, that infectiously exuberant spirit is undimmed. More of the same? For once, that'll do nicely. [Issue#310, p.104]

The core racing is pleasingly intact for 16bit nostalgists, but that doesn't make Micro Machines a no-brainer for the new-school, season-based multiplayer model. [Sept 2017, p.119]

Despite the sheer, breathless volume of new ideas, there's a sense of wonder missing from the sequel. The well-meaning tale feels a little rote in comparison to the first game's supernatural arc of redemption. [Sept 2017, p.118]

A bleak meditation on the idea that the most one can do in such difficult times is to keep your head down, and keep moving. [Sept 2017, p.116]

There's a real earnestness to Ever Oasis's tale, as Ishii and team meditate on our relationship with nature and the value of coming together to build a better, more hopeful world. It's unfortunate that the actual substance of the game doesn't trouble itself to embody that reaching ambition, content to stay resting comfortably at the wellspring of other, better games' ideas. [Sept 2017, p.114]

For those already playing Final Fantasy XIV, Stormblood is a beautiful, essential expansion...It's not only a great expansion to a much-improved MMO. It's also, in story terms at least, a game that stands tall among the best Final Fantasy has to offer. [Sept 2017, p.112]

The result is a tiresome slog that proves the first casualty of war is not innocence, but brevity. Valkyria Devolution might have been a more honest title. [Sept 2017, p.108]

Though you might not see it at first, Nex Machina steadily becomes a more layered, complex experience the more you play it. [Sept 2017, p.104]

Sluggish menus, clumsy controls, and an intrusive, atmosphere-scuppering soundtrack mar each excursion, while excessive weather effects will have you straining to see as you awkwardly bump up against objects to find out if they can be ransacked. [Aug 2017, p.122]

What's here stands out simply for being the first convincing example of a VR FPS that doesn't make you feel sick. [Aug 2017, p.120]

Bridge Crew transforms an ordinarily isolating technology into something irresistibly social: it's an anecdote generator par excellence, and a VR experience that handily overcomes its limitations as a game. [Aug 2017, p.119]

Polybius is a profoundly consuming and transportive experience of eye-watering intensity that'll leave you dazed and bewildered in the best possible way. [Aug 2017, p.118]

There's much to recommend in Endless Space 2, and its art and writing has the potential to open up a complex genre to a new audience, but there's no escaping the fact it'll be a better game in six months. [Aug 2017, p.116]

Tekken 7 feels cynically put together, a solid but ultimately 20-year-old fighting system freshened up with mechanical twists and bulked out with gimmicks rather than gilded with the series' signature personality. [Aug 2017, p.114]

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]

This is still a Neatherrealm game, with all that implies, and it isn't without its missteps. But for lone wolves, at least, this is the richest fighting game on the market. [Aug 2017, p.110]

Despite a multitude of improvements and a much larger offering than its predecessor, Dirt 4 somehow feels less spirited. Had "Rally" not existed, this latest game would've felt like more of an event, but in its current form it doesn't quite achieve the potency of its more focused forebear. [Aug 2017, p.106]

Yes, it's a little light on content, but what's in there is delightful, accessible, intuitive, playful stuff. From the off it's fun and, before long, it becomes oddly magical, too. Over time, it may become wondrous. At launch it will just have to settle for being merely excellent, and yet another standard bearer for Nintendo's new console. That, we suppose, is really the most important thing about ARMS. [Aug 2017, p.102]

Despite [North's] efforts, a couple of big laughs (the world's slowest lift; Drax's sincere literalism) and at least one genuine surprise, you're left with a gnawing sensation that Telltale's formula is becoming as creaky as its engine. And that's a feeling on which you're unlikely to get hooked. [July 2017, p.120]

With its bright, clean presentation looking resplendent on the small screen, it's a particularly fine fit for Switch's portable mode; for the next few weeks, your daily commute - and occasionally your stop - is likely to fly by. [July 2017, p.119]