Even when you disregard the charmless character, ignore the relentless music and eventually manage to tame the handling, something comes along to spoil the party - an odiously placed bump on the road that causes an unnecessary spin, the sudden inability to respawn even when off the track, resulting in a lost race... the list goes on. [Jan 2010, p.90]

Over the Top has tempered its obvious ambition with skill and understanding, and the result is a game that’s refreshingly quick to take flight.

If there's a benefit to the game's focus on local co-op multiplayer, it's that players can stand suicide watch over each other for when the awfulness of it all finally overwhelms them. [Oct 2009, p.97]

Design flaws include a bizarre decision to cordon off most of the ship after completion, locking away any unique items you previously overlooked. Much of the game commendably favours stealth players but the rest can feel shambolic.

While you won't necessarily win without some loyal subjects from your friends list, there's a deceptive amount of fun you can have while trying. [Oct 2009, p.94]

That teetering battle between pride and strategy than ensues every time you decide whether to comprehensively flatten a villain with an unnecessary monosyllabic flourish or gamble on saving it for your next target, hoping the board doesn’t get scrambled before you get a chance to show off.

Puzzle Bobble's hardly become a bad game, it just doesn't seem interested in getting any better. [Oct 2009, p.99]

Sports Resort is controlling, and even solemn, about just how much fun you should be having with it. And that’s a development that should chill every Wii owner to the bone.

‘Splosion Man lives up to his name, providing a burst of exciting, arresting fresh IP that significantly changes the landscape around.

Every moment feels like it's been lavished with attention; Little King's Story is as rich as it is long, and it's a very lengthy game indeed. [May 2009, p.90]

What felt greedy before is on yet more dubious ground here - the feeling of tactical scope missing from the singleplayer campaign is largely due to Square Enix cutting out the goods to sell at a later date. [Oct 2009, p.99]

A simple, finely tuned and comprehensive shooter that only rarely wobbles. [Sept 2009, p.100]

A perfectly sized, expertly-crafted romp, Pacific gives other download games their marching orders. [Aug 2009, p.97]

ArmA 2 isn’t just dogmatic and unforgiving – it’s also very awkward in its construction and the weight of its ambition frequently proves too much for the sometimes-brilliant main campaign to pull off. Nonetheless, its vast, detailed world and unapologetic dynamism turn the game from sandbox to snowglobe – something you can’t resist shaking up just to see how it looks.

There's enough skill on display to suggest that these tales might actually be worth telling. [Sept 2009, p.99]

A rare bit of vindication for Nintendo's oft-misused service. [Sept 2009, p.101]

It's the first game we can recall, for instance, to feature a them tune comprising a single note. [Sept 2009, p.96]

A charming jaunt. [Sept 2009, p.94]

Far more polished than its ragged forebear. [Aug 2009, p.100]

A debut of rare success in the genre: one at once fresh yet familiar, both visually arresting and mechanically enticing. [Apr 2010, p.99]

Heroes consistently relies on its cartoon charm to plaster over its messier elements. [Sept 2009, p.92]

A clever game, then, but not a particularly fulfilling one. [Sept 2009, p.99]

Genre-defining as it is, the drama of Fight Night remains squarely within the ropes. [Aug 2009, p.103]

Nintendo is claiming that The Conduit might attract Halo fans to its console, but this game isn’t fit to wait Master Chief’s table.

Atlus succeeds in creating another idiosyncratic concoction of narrative and play, one that twists convention as often as it builds upon it. [Sept 2009, p.98]

The components here function and rarely frustrate, but the machine they comprise only manufactures mediocrity. [Sept 2009, p.95]

Even if some of the fundamental stuff has been sacrificed to the creation of this huge world, Fuel still makes it across the finish line on a far-from-empty tank. [July 2009, p.97]

A charming adventure, and a lengthy one, but the overwhelming amount of rough edges rather spoil any indulgent feelings toward its foibles. [Aug 2009, p.99]