There's something infectious about Tropico 5's breezy attitude to tyranny and dictatorship. [Issue#156, p.118]

With a control scheme that can hamper the enjoyment, it creates an unfortunate barrier between the world and the player that's hard to overcome. [Issue#144, p.113]

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

The five maps are great now, but they’ll grate if you’re playing them over and over again for weeks on end while waiting for new content. What’s here is undoubtedly clever and thoroughly entertaining, but it’s also limited and given Nintendo’s history with new IPs, be prepared for the possibility that its online community may have dwindled by the time the promised DLC makes up the fuller package envisioned.

You cannot earn standard boost with the button held down, so you are constantly having to battle with yourself to lift the finger off the trigger, constantly glancing down at the boost bar, and as a result, constantly snapping yourself out of that glorious Burnout zone. [May 2007, p.110]

There is something oddly reassuring about a game that keeps its horizons narrow to get the job done well... A fun, smart and refreshingly uncomplicated experience. [June 2006, p.112]

The main game strikes enough of a balance between accessibility and challenge that it'll likely keep you shooting away the hours without you noticing them pass. [Issue#113, p.114]

Imitating a swing with the analogue stick is still as satisfying as ever, and the balance between control and room for error is nigh-on perfect. However, it would have been nice to see a few more changes to keep the experience fresh. [Oct 2003, p.122]

Highly entertaining and, above all, fun. Despite being filled with all manner of videogame cliches, Metal Arms somehow feels refreshingly new and not at all like the cobbled together title that it so undoubtedly is. [Christmas 2003, p.103]

The combat is well-structured. [Issue#164, p.86]

For those who thought splitting monsters across two carts was a bit rude originally, this is surely the ultimate swindle. For anyone else, there's a healthy slice of monster hunting to be had. [Nov 2004, p.118]

Killzone: Shadow Fall is so full of influences, struggling to balance so many different ideas across the eight or so hours of single-player that it fails to settle cohesively. Even worse, nothing here feels particularly new. Killzone: Shadow Fall is an immensely enjoyable shooter but one busy distracting itself from being anything more.

We can’t remember the last time a standard RPG boss needed such an unforgivingly focused strategy. [Dec 2008, p.109]

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]

If you go into Abzû knowing what to expect, you won’t be disappointed. Few games have such capacity to draw the player in with beautiful artistic direction and subtle environmental storytelling alone.

It's indicative of Ubisoft's approach, so wary of the player discovering their own enjoyment, or missing key information, that it so fervently handholds through what should be its most spectacular moments. At times this reduces entire chapters to tediously long treks between cut-scenes, a lot of which feel like less than worthwhile narrative additions. It's an odd occurrence of a game giving and taking away in equal measure.

Destroy All Humans! 2's scope should win a few converts, while providing enough originality to sate the fans. [Dec 2006, p.131]

A Shadow's Tale can feel a little discouraging at first, but those who persevere will find that it eventually hits its stride, piling on one idea after another until it evolves into one of the cleverest puzzlers on Wii. [Christmas 2010, p.124]

Approachable gameplay, obstructionist systems. [Issue#192, p.81]

In relation to the more arcade-based titles available at the moment this game is the leader of the pack, as it manages to deliver everything that makes street racing enjoyable at a high standard, in one neat package. [June 2005, p.106]

The narrative conceit of Devil Survivor Overlocked is an interesting one. [Issue#142, p.122]

Improvements and additions over time – including the Raid-style events for catching legendary Pokémon, as teased in the original trailer – as well as ongoing tweaks to fundamental systems stand to improve Pokémon Go as a game, but the quality (and novelty) of the experience of playing, particularly as part of a group, is already there. Go could still one day be the legendary game its immense potential hints at.

Aside from making MotoGP 07 more accessible, Climax hasn’t really made too many other major alterations. [Sept 2007, p.110]

For a free title, there's plenty of fun to be had here. [Issue#156, p.126]

With the right people involved, this can turn a dull bus ride or airport lounge into an extremely good fun, and crucially, a very personal gaming session. [Aug 2008, p.112]

It’s cute, and a bit silly, and extremely easy to play and enjoy. It’s a relatively new sort of videogame, and one whose premise doesn’t have much to do with hours of play or complexity. [Nov 2005, p.122]

Gears Of War: Judgment comes across as an enjoyable stopgap in a series that seems unsure where it’s supposed to go next. This is more of the same with a few new features thrown in for good measure. But when the same equates to arguably the best cover-based shooter on the market, it’s hard to be too judgemental.

It does a superb job of replicating the sensation of playing your memory of a decade-old shooter, even if it does so by basically being a decade-old shooter. [Christmas 2010, p.126]