You’ll likely find that the motions are easily confused and unresponsive, with some situational moves, such as weaving, next to impossible to pull off with the degree of consistency that would make their inclusion worthwhile. [Apr 2009, p.122]

BitTrip Beat certainly makes for an atmospheric, pulse pounding experience, but it's not one that comes easily. [June 2009, p.128]

The majority of criticisms will be leveled at the new co-op element, but as we’ve already mentioned, neither control nor AI can ultimately mar such an intense and relentless action experience. [Apr 2009, p.98]

It's the instant gratification of fireworks and classical music that comes with victories so addictive that you see entire evenings wasted on a game in which you seemingly do nothing at all. [May 2009, p.124]

Between its wonderful style, superb boss fights and chaotic carnage, Madworld is evidently a magnificent and unique title. [Apr 2009, p.117]

Taking on the overcrowded puzzle genre is never easy, but Docomodake succeeds by being both original and charming. [Dec 2008, p.127]

Consider this a neat twist on the formula, which will force you to play this old favourite in some unexpected ways. [Oct 2009, p.132]

It’s fan service, definitely, but not ill-conceived or exploitative in any way. [Mar 2009, p.96]

A refinement of what has gone before, and what has gone before still stands as one of the finest exercises in strategic entertainment available. [Apr 2009, p.108]

The studio has instead crafted an accessible, if not necessarily deep, flight simulator that entertains but never exhilarates. [Apr 2009, p.104]

There are no nasty surprises, no ill-considered gameplay changes and no sense that Sonic Team is ever confused about what the game is supposed to be. It’s a game that is totally comfortable with itself. And it has every right to be. [Apr 2009, p.106]

We'll be waiting for Phantasy Star Zero to see if that instead can re-awaken the RPG magic the series once held above all others. [June 2009, p.116]

Killzone 2 is a gamer’s game. And although it fails to go beyond the confines of the genre, we wouldn’t criticise it for being anything other than a wonderful example of what can be achieved within them. [Mar 2009, p.108]

The problem isn't that Eat Lead is bad, it's just very, very average and at no point justifies its smarter-than-thou stance. [May 2009, p.117]

As you do your first turn and notice your character eerily rotating through space in a box, no apparent bodily movement guiding the trick, the realisation dawns that there's almost no fun to be gleaned from satisfactorily pulling off a stunt in Stoked. [Nov 2009, p.112]

Broken up with vehicle and on-rails sections that aren’t nearly as horrible as tradition dictates they should be, Blood On The Sand is an entertaining action title with absolutely no imagination. [Apr 2009, p.102]

There is simply no getting around the sheer awfulness of the main characters. From their unoriginal looks to their irritating dialogue, they serve to spoil the game from start to finish. [July 2009, p.122]

Still addictive, but lacking the original’s impact. [Apr 2009, p.121]

Sandbox silliness at its best. [Apr 2009, p.123]

All the imagination seems to have been used up in story and setting, leaving little left over for intricate or satisfying problem solutions. [June 2009, p.119]

There's no question that Death Tank has the potential to be a lot of fun. It's just a pity Worms has already done it better and for a third of the cost. [May 2009, p.131]

It’s a straight and stagnant affair: win races, progress to the next stage, repeat. There’s none of SimBin’s trademark drive and determination in this area of the game. [Mar 2009, p.102]

There’s an obvious luxury to riffing on a masterpiece that other games simply can’t enjoy, but that doesn’t make the choice to blow the city wide-open any less brave. [Apr 2009, p.110]

If you're a fan of Nippon Ichi humour and love your games in Metal Slug and Ghouls 'N' Ghosts flavours, then feel free to add a point on to the score because, dood, this game's made for you. [June 2009, p.124]

The pinnacle of the series’ handheld bloodline but also nothing that we haven’t really seen before. [Feb 2009, p.112]

The only rewards here are visual, and challenge is virtually non-existent. Yet thanks to elegance and lyricism, Flower made us feel slightly richer after putting down the pad. [Apr 2009, p.123]

What we’re left with is a wonderfully polished sequel that you will enjoy every minute of and then wonder why all you can think about is how it felt to play its predecessor. [Mar 2009, p.112]

There’s no getting around the fact that it’s often more tempting to run past the majority of enemies and complete the game in a couple of hours, than it is to actually brawl your way through. [Apr 2009, p.113]

A handheld game that pitches the balance between pick-up-and-play fun and engaging gameplay exactly. The clever level design and artistic merit are an added bonus. [Jan 2009, p.129]

The challenge concept gives Retro Game Challenge a sense of longevity and compulsion that's been missing from real-life compilations like Namco Museum, but is not without its own problems. [May 2009, p.116]

The one thing really missing from Overkill is a sense of impact to your shots – certain boss fights feel more like mouse-clicking something to death than riddling it with hot lead. [Mar 2009, p.100]

While it may only just escape mediocrity, Deadly Creatures is entertaining enough to keep you playing until the end. [Mar 2009, p.122]

It takes several hours of frustrating play to get to the more enjoyable sections of the game. [Mar 2009, p.116]

Another Code R commits all the same crimes a bad novel would: the dialogue is uninteresting, the characters unlikeable, the pace slow and the premise so uninspiring that you soon lose the motivation to see what happens next. [Sept 2009, p.122]

Afro Samurai radiates style both visually and aurally, but the underlying mechanics do little to raise it above an average experience. [Apr 2009, p.112]

With nine mostly identical levels standing between each boss and each change in style, the game can become rather monotonous when it could so easily have soared, had it changed styles a little more frequently. [Apr 2009, p.118]

The creative skating and dexterity demanded keep Skate 2 from ever feeling dull. [Feb 2009, p.116]

Those who have been waiting for this port can relax. However, Konami has done little to improve on what is still a winning formula. [Christmas 2008, p.103]

As soon as you pass the initial novelty of feeling like Legolas, or whatever character the Scout corresponds to - though we’d argue its inspiration is the Spy class from Battlefront - half of the gameplay disappears into the ether. [Feb 2009, p.118]

Quite surprisingly, Moon captures the feel of the Metroid franchise more faithfully than Nintendo's own DS effort….But the main quest runs out of steam around halfway through. [Aug 2009, p.122]

An imaginative and engrossing game. If the least of its worries is that it allows too much player choice, then that’s really no worry at all. [Mar 2009, p.123]

There’s something strangely likeable about it all – the ambition and passion of the development team is actually oddly appealing. It’s just all so misguided. [Mar 2009, p.124]

From the looks of things the formula is still going strong and is in no real danger of becoming stale any time in the near future. [Feb 2009, p.113]

It may have its good points, but when it comes down to it PowerUp Forever isn’t as good as many of the other similar titles available over Xbox Live. [Feb 2009, p.113]

We hope Atlus takes its time to deliver a more compelling and intelligent game with the next Persona, as the series has some remarkable potential. [Jan 2009, p.126]

Our dissatisfaction comes in the finding that the Princes adventurous new gameplay elements simply don’t play to his strengths, resulting in an experience that often wavers between intense highs and irritating lows. [Jan 2009, p.94]

If Birth By Sleep's twee story fails to impress, fans will be delighted to learn that it features the best combat in the series to date. Fast, fluid and featuring a variety of interesting mechanics, it's a huge improvement over past instalments. [Issue#101, p.122]

We’re also happy to inform fans that HD Remix is one of the tightest, lag-free online fighters we’ve ever had the pleasure of playing. [Jan 2009, p.104]

Every change of camera is greeted by painful seconds as the textures load in. Every opened door is greeted with the loading screen. Every battle features a cataclysmic drop in frame rate. The result callously skims the cream from the top, depriving you of your ultimate satisfaction. [Jan 2009, p.106]

If you have high levels of patience then there are some excellent moments that are worth staying around for, but we’d wager that most will hang up their controllers by the second or third forced Werehog mission. [Jan 2009, p.102]

The game feels more like a boss-rush version of a big action game that it does a traditional fighter, and somehow comes off as the best 3D Castlevania game Konami has produced so far. [Jan 2009, p.110]

It’s no longer a culturally significant event, and even Lara’s charms are beginning to lose their edge. But make no mistake, it warms our hearts to see Lara back doing what she does best. [Christmas 2008, p.98]

The game's lack of a two-player mode will be a profound disappointment for those gamers whose greatest Metal Slug flashbacks are fuelled by the showmanship and camaraderie of co-op play. [Oct 2008, p.123]

What’s the eventual goal here – watching an entire 90 minutes from the dugout? Clearly, a compromise must be struck, somewhere along the line. [Jan 2009, p.124]

Valve has put together a wonderfully unconventional game – a taut FPS multiplayer that retains the same unease felt in the likes of Resident Evil. [Jan 2009, p.114]

The cut-scenes, in all their sincerity, still manage to be completely laughable. Yet it’s hard not to enjoy them despite the fact they’re not really doing the job intended. [Christmas 2008, p.97]

It’s good facile fun, but we feel, with a little more depth and tweaking of movesets, something greater could have been achieved. [Christmas 2008, p.122]

Wii has plenty of other titles that offer a few hours of undemanding fun. The abandoned potential of Road Trip is proof of what a wasteful approach that can be. [Christmas 2008, p.103]

Rumours of am MMO Animal Crossing and even a dedicated Wii Channel had got us very excited about the sequel, but the reality comes as a crushing disappointment. [Jan 2009, p.100]

Wrath Of The Lich King has ensured that World Of Warcraft remains the pinnacle of the genre in its current form. [Feb 2009, p.124]

Fixes addressed, Sacred 2 should scratch that nagging ARPG itch between now and Diablo III. [Jan 2009, p.121]

Like "The Club" earlier in the year, Mirror’s Edge needs to be played again and again if you’re to discover its true worth, and there are many who won’t play ball. [Christmas 2008, p.88]

Red Alert 3 is full of elements that you’ll be surprised haven’t been used before and plays like the genre always should have yet never has. [Christmas 2008, p.100]

Anyone willing to overlook the boring cut-scenes, dated graphics, and god-awful main character will find dozens of hours of fairly generic JRPG value in Tales Of Symphonia: Dawn Of The New World. [Jan 2009, p.112]

The N64 predecessors are, whether we like it or not, relics of a time when everyone seemed happy just to riff on Super Mario 64, but Nuts & Bolts is a long-overdue move away from that style and a great one at that. [Christmas 2008, p.84]

The Clone Wars is spared irrelevance by its style and personality, but only just. [Jan 2009, p.108]

We wanted to apologise, to run, to leave the horror of it all far behind, and there can be no more appropriate response to war than that. [Christmas 2008, p.90]

This is a linear adventure through stunning environments and incredible violence – and this is what Gears Of War does best. [Christmas 2008, p.108]

No map allows you to pinpoint a building and tell your men to take cover, so you have to swap from one view to another, suffer losses in the time wasted, and wonder why an army so obsessed with the technology of uplinks is so dire at basic orienteering. [Christmas 2008, p.104]

Every hour, you are presented with the ideas that the developer had but simply couldn’t afford, and that only serves to make Legendary’s unrelenting run-and-gun approach harder to swallow. [Christmas 2008, p.96]

The new perspective works well, injecting some much-needed action into the genre without sacrificing tactical choice. In fact, the switch actually creates more choices if anything. [Dec 2008, p.102]

This is the first James Bond game of the century in which we met the final credits regretting the unexplored potential. Bravo. [Christmas 2008, p.120]

Ultimately, it’s the set pieces that linger in the memory. It never seems more than five minutes before Resistance 2 throws another leviathan at you. (…) There are moments to savour in every one of the game’s ten action-packed hours. [Christmas 2008, p.92]

Eufloria is significantly more expensive than many games of this type, but it will eat into your life more efficiently than most of them. [Christmas 2009, p.114]

By not creating one big stage where all the tables are connected, plus bonus screens and integrated challenges, these high-score tables become quite tiresome. [Jan 2009, p.109]

We can’t imagine that general Rock Band players could justify buying a whole disc just for 18 songs from one band. [Feb 2009, p.123]

The main problem is that the dungeon creation is constantly interrupted by tedious tasks. [Nov 2008, p.122]

If you’re not exploring the wasteland then you’re cheating yourself out of one of the best games in years. [Christmas 2008, p.94]

We finally have the game we hoped we were getting a year ago. Just. [Dec 2008, p.105]

The ten-minute skirmishes balance depth with accessibility in a manner perfectly adapted to the handheld, and it’s all wrapped up in a completely charming persona. [Jan 2009, p.105]

Lavished with new modes and features but retaining its air of accessibility, this update does not disappoint. [Jan 2009, p.105]

We may have seen level creation before, but LittleBigPlanet is a stirring glimpse of the future. It manages to be both curring edge and classic simultaneously, with neither quality stifling the other. [Issue#76, p.110]

If only the developer hadn’t completely messed things up with its restrictive camera angles and unfair challenges then it could have had a uniquely fun DS game on its hands. [Mar 2009, p.120]

With its sense of fun, complex tools, and balance of enjoyment and depth, World Tour contains the ability to both teach and entertain. [Dec 2008, p.94]

Immerse yourself in its choices and the peerless beauty of the world that supports them, and it reveals a quality that cannot be detected through objective distance. This is a game you can love, and that’s at least as rare as perfection. [Dec 2008, p.122]

Order Of Ecclesia represents a solid but never ridiculous challenge that breathes new life into a franchise that was beginning to flag. [Jan 2009, p.128]

Ambition at the expense of excellence. [Dec 2008, p.116]

It is difficult to see MC:LA as anything other than a chance to reacquaint yourself with Grand Theft Auto IV’s miraculous engine. [Christmas 2008, p.115]

Like Wii Sports before it, this game knows its audience and how to keep them entertained. [Christmas 2008, p.117]

Even at the bargain-bin price that Rock Revolution is undoubtedly going to hit mere weeks after it is released, the game is an irredeemable waste of time. [Feb 2009, p.114]

It’s a perfectly playable game, but a frankly boring one that quickly becomes a chore to play. [Christmas 2008, p.102]

This sequel has built upon Saints Row’s foundations no end and created an experience that stands alone despite the competition. [Christmas 2008, p.118]

Like Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, its influences are too obvious for it to transcend the medium, but they are so tastefully and skilfully referenced that it feels like rediscovering an overlooked gem. [Dec 2008, p.98]

This dripfeeding of improvements is starting to frustrate. [Dec 2008, p.106]

A beautifully presented, elegantly constructed puzzle game that draws you in with its charm and personality, then keeps you playing with its addictive, inventive level design. [Christmas 2008, p.121]

Art Style is one of the best uses of 3D we’ve seen in a puzzler and is a great start for Nintendo’s new brand. [Christmas 2008, p.121]

All too often you'll find yourself thinking about what might have been and how another game - more than likely to be the sequel - is bound to do all of this better in the years immediately ahead. [Issue#75, p.104]

A simple setup that gives way to complexity the more you experiment with the game’s higher levels of play. [Apr 2009, p.120]