It's clever without being intimidating, delicate without being volatile, and immediate without a sense of panic. [Feb 2011, p.99]

MicroBot is a technically accomplished but sterile experience. As the game settles into a rut, its stylistic strengths lose more and more ground to the sluggish combat, uninspiring upgrades and repetitive stages.

MicroBot is a technically accomplished but sterile experience. As the game settles into a rut, its stylistic strengths lose more and more ground to the sluggish combat, uninspiring upgrades and repetitive stages.

It provides a revolution, but only inside its own idiosyncratic attitude and aesthetic. Sackboy remains Sackboy, and he won't convert those who didn't like the way he behaved in LBP. And for all the fascinating flexibility of its toolset, clearly this is still a framework: you can stamp a creation with your own style, but the overall vibe will ultimately be Media Molecule's. For those who are happy to embrace it, though, LBP2 represents a dazzling new opportunity for creating deep, diverse and ingenious play.

Raskulls is many things – racer, puzzler, platformer – but it struggles to be all these things at once, or to do them equally well. Beneath the charming, brightly coloured exterior, there's a fascinating twist on the block-based puzzler at Halfbrick's game's heart – but you might just miss it when blasting through at high speed.

Southend's spatial puzzler is clever enough to survive such a heavy-handed dose of focus-grouped fancy: you won't need to love it in order to appreciate some of its better tricks. [Jan 2011, p.103]

It's hard to come away from this without a sense of persecution. It isn't just that it's a poor game, it's that it thinks it's good enough to survive on the coat-tails of its license - and that you won't have the wherewithal to discriminate. [Jan 2011, p.99]

Housemarque has certainly put in the effort, but the twin-stick shooter might simply be more rewarding when you're skidding over the smooth-scrolling surface of one of Super Stardust's wraparound arenas than stumbling through darkened alleyways with a tangle of undead shambling after you. [Jan 2011, p.100]

What we're left with is an update that is out of date, a reimagining without enough imagination. To be this simplistic, the game needed a masterful melee system and a range of inspiring enemies; it tries, but it doesn't fully deliver on either count. [Jan 2011, p.98]

What we're left with is an update that is out of date, a reimagining without enough imagination. To be this simplistic, the game needed a masterful melee system and a range of inspiring enemies; it tries, but it doesn't fully deliver on either count. [Jan 2011, p.98]

Platforming only ever threatens to be acceptable, lacking both the freedom and finesse that further development time might have granted, while the lightcycle sections - well, there might not be any way of saving them. [Jan 2011, p.96]

It feels more like a yearly update than a sequel, a new campaign with old multiplayer. The game isn't distinct from its predecessors in any important way, and fatigue sets in quicker than before. [Jan 2011, p.94]

It feels more like a yearly update than a sequel, a new campaign with old multiplayer. The game isn't distinct from its predecessors in any important way, and fatigue sets in quicker than before. [Jan 2011, p.94]

It feels more like a yearly update than a sequel, a new campaign with old multiplayer. The game isn't distinct from its predecessors in any important way, and fatigue sets in quicker than before. [Jan 2011, p.94]

Although the basic joy of rolling realistic water around might be short-lived, it's bolstered by the far greater satisfaction of solving the game's intuitive, well-paced puzzles. [Jan 2011, p.102]

Epic Mickey may not always be entirely satisfying to play, but it's still enormously interesting to wander around with an eye open for the detailing. [Jan 2011, p.92]

In taking away direct control Miniland Mayhem has intensified the appeal to players' protective instinct which exists at the heart of the series. [Jan 2011, p.103]

Bar a handful of bosses, Dark Dawn is a pushover, never requiring you to brave the combat's depths. Yes, it grants breathing room for testing unlikely combinations, but we'd have liked to put our mastery to the test. [Jan 2011, p.101]

Rather than gradually introduce the many plates you have to spin, it puts them all into action at once, starting with 20 near-identical walkover levels and then spiking brutally when it assumes you've worked everything out. [Dec 2010, p.101]

The subtlety of these exchanges suggests that a strategy game of some greatness exists beneath the cumbersome framework, and we trust Stardock, a developer of proven diligence and passion, to continue refining it. [Nov 2010, p.93]

The beauty of Deadly Premonition is that it's a straightforward whodunnit viewed through the cracked prism of an unreliable narrator, conjuring an atmosphere of suspicion and confusion throughout. [Dec 2010, p.92]

Plenty of games can be as awkward or frustrating as Dead Rising 2, but none are as insanely, violently, engagingly bonkers. [Nov 2010, p.88]

It's a vehicle that may win over more action fans than true-bloods, but its plagiaristic tendencies represent a shrewd way of ensuring that the series gets a firm footing outside of the 2D realm. [Nov 2010, p.84]

All good clean fun, then, but it's not really anything we haven't seen before. [Nov 2010, p.95]

It remains an early PS Move highlight, but one that can't boast the charm or accessibility of its Wii rivals, despite the improved tech. [Nov 2010, p.92]

That twist, however, is the root of the game's disappointments, hinting at something beyond a typical platform game, yet leaving players to go through the genre's familiar motions - just in the shade. [Dec 2010, p.91]

It all adds up to what is easily the best and most progressive rhythm-action game ever made, if that label even applies anymore. [Christmas 2010, p.76]

Puzzle hunting is the only hassle in an otherwise laidback world. This niggle aside, Professor Layton remains a fine antidote to dull Sunday afternoons. [Dec 2010, p.99]