It's a bit rough here and there but it can also deliver a lot of good times. If you have co-op on your mind, leveling up with mates has its moments but it quickly devolves into a frustrating group training mode. Single-player gamers? Jog on elsewhere. [July 2011 p.82]

If you're looking for an ethereal, Limboesque puzzler that will challenge your intellect, this isn't it. What's required of you is always obvious, thanks to a predictable mish-mash of platforming and box puzzles. [October 2012, p76]

Fun. It's three little letters that seem to have been lost - Mercs 2 has it in spades! [Nov 2008, p.98]

In almost all other respects Castle of Illusion pales in comparison to the Rayman Legends of the world. We’d also recommend Duck Tales Remastered over this in a heartbeat, too. But if you prefer your platformers easy and protagonists in pants, Castle of Illusion is still worth the price. [November 2013, p85]

Gorgeous eye-candy (mostly) and tunes that stay with you for decades. But years of rhythm games make the once revolutionary Patapon feel simplistic. [October 2017, p76]

A slow burn that (eventually) picks up into a decent DLC. Standing between you and the good stuff: a load of deja vu. Make with the Destiny 2 already. [December 2016, p76]

The bot is pretty special as their outer flies off, and you need to be tactical at times to get the best of them. Not bad, but not great either. [March 2012, p78]

So dumb it's dangerously good. [Apr 2009, p.72]

Until Dawn doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel, but the sense of immersion is real, as are the heart palpitations. [Christmas 2016, p75]

It’s a pity the backtracking mars an otherwise clever title. [March 2013, p78]

For the skim readers out there; there are two ninja launch titles for Vita. This one cuts the other one a new butt crack. [April 2012, p80]

If you can ignore the eyesore low-res video feedback of the PlayStation Eye, the book itself and the creative crap it spawns looks sharp, well animated, and it grows in complexity. Likewise the interactive stories and narration are top-notch stuff. [Christmas 2012, p.76]

It contains everything you'd expect of a middle-of-the-road puzzle game, and it's executed competently. But the creators of this game suffered from a paucity of ambition. There is a tsunami of innovation crashing through the worlds of online and interactive learning, Rocksmith being but one example. [January 2013, p74]

An Android platformer ported over to Vita with little aplomb. A fun diversion, but only for a while. [November 2014, p77]

Well presented, technically solid and fun. Runs out of challenge and interesting concepts roughly halfway through, however. [September 2014, p73]

Doesn't quite live up to the jumbo expectations that come from being a Sega-backed platformer. But there's enough bad ass in here to take its competitors to tusk. [October 2015, p72]

So while you'll be unconvinced by the visuals and voices behind the boy and his beast, when the Majin goes harumphing into battle to save you from the latest onslaught of sinister humanoid ooze, stopping only to breathe his healing gingivitis all over your battered body, you'll find yourself wondering; why this has done for you what the massive production of Enslaved could not. The answer? Heart, baby. Kid's got heart. [January 2011 p72]

The defining moment came when, having spied a particularly rare class of collectible, we sent the Overlord in to smash the crate that held it. Before he could reach it, a little pointy-hat-wearing gnome, not even a foot high, darted in and nicked it, gibbering all the way back to its grubby little warren. Our clichéd expectations of fantasy gaming had been shattered. [Aug 2009, p.72]

Big Sky: Infinity manages to give the player a fun shooter that surprises each time they jump in, but have coupled these good times with utterly broken scoring systems. Why should our latest effort in Arcade mode be judged against the session that opened immediately with a score multiplier zone that severely boosted the points we got from those first enemies? Isn't it unfair that this boss fight occurred so early on? [February 2013, p81]

Novelty and genius are not the same thing, and after a weekend with Wolfenstein you will most likely have seen enough. It’s fun, corny action, but it’s not a keeper. [Nov 2009, p.76]

The gameplay stutters slightly in minor ways, and the visuals in major ways; but we still found this to be irresistible to put down. If you're the type of level-headed gamer who values fun over graphics,or you nd some mates are looking for a great co-op game, then we'd say the bludgeontastic Dead Island is a bash well worth your cash. [November 2011 p70]

[T]here are people playing Anarchy Reigns – but there's not a lot of them, and they're all a million times better than you. The terrible shame of it – and the dilemma for us – is that it's pretty obvious Anarchy Reigns would be incredible if only it could only attract more players. Battling it out with the bots, we often saw glimpses of what could've been, and were always left wanting more. [January 2013, p66]

In the end, its linearity, lack of gameplay diversity, and the low latency feel of your in-game actions all conspire to trip this tiny dancer up. Wait for it to become a PlayStation Plus freebie. [November 2016, p78]

Having a plethora of events is all for nothing if it’s just a blizzard of deja vu. If you can’t keep the grind compelling, you’ll freeze players out in no time. [February 2016, p80]

An easyish “yes” to fans of the first. A total “no” to newbs. [October 2014, p80]

All-in-all the features add up to a game that is one of the best replications of the real thing thus far, especially with some top notch presentation. Just watch out for those damn ghosts. [November 2013, p85]

Well worthy of the 2.0 in its moniker. Bigger, bolder and bursting with unlockables and emergent DIY fun. [November 2014, p75]

Arkham City is arguably the best superhero game ever made, so it makes sense that Beenox would look to it for inspiration. And while The Amazing Spider-Man seldom succeeds entirely in emulating the accomplishments of its illustrious antecedent, it makes a pretty decent fist of it, for the most part. [August 2012, p72]

Expected features like continuing from the middle of the stage are absent, probably to expand the slender content as much as it can, but it clearly has a heart of gold and lashings of style. You'll like it more with a co-op partner, but Scott Pilgrim is much better. [November 2012, p79]

Sadly, not a lot of love has gone into cleaning up these remakes. The time capsule is rusty, but there’s enough old school challenge and timeless dark humour to justify a buy. [March 2013, p79]

Not as woah-ful as the screenshots make it look. [March 2015, p79]

Think: a cheaper, slightly nastier version of 2008's Pure, and you're not too far off the track. [July 2012, p83]

There are some great moments, but they're few and far between. [July 2009, p.80]

Armageddon is by no means a bad game, it's just a completely different one to what series fans will expect, or possibly want. Unfortunately, in returning to its underground roots, Volition has forgotten to capitalise on what their series does best: geo-modding the crap out of everything in sight - minimum restrictions. [August 2011 p80]

There’s depth here – you can tool about with settings, text chat to your engineers and view race telemetry – but it will frustrate some. The racing itself, though, is good. SBK fans will likely have a lot of time for this title. Solid, but not for everyone. [Aug 2009, p.68]

[W]e put the controller down (during a 'gameplay' sequence) and watched in stunned frustration as the game continued on happily playing itself for six minutes. It's inconceivable that there are gameplay levels that cannot be failed or be changed by your actions. Even Dragon's Lair, the game that birthed the concept 29 years ago, had consequences. [April 2012, p66]

A head-on collision of Dynasty Warriors’ combat and Monster Hunter taxidermy. Shines in co-op. [April 2014, p73]

The problem is the level design in the game is absurdly old hat. While there are a handful of mission types, like Direct Action, Covert, and High Value Target, the levels they take place in and the related objectives are painfully bland. "Move to this point and activate this switch. Now go down the stairs and activate this other switch." Blah, blah, blah… [April 2012, p73]

Greatness was so close, and yet so far. [August 2017, p75]

Get Even needed to get even better to be more than a chocolatey handful of our favourite things.[August 2017, p76]

Solid and respectable enough of the source material to be a fan-pleaser. Feels like button-bashy busywork to anybody else. [September 2014, p81]

A visual feast that won't sate you if you if you're a sim-leaning soloist. Offers social, arcade fun in spades, however. [December 2014, p68]

The graphics are solid, the level design more than adequate and the game itself surprisingly fun. Plus it’s AU$15.95 – so unless you loathe tournament shooters you might want to grab this one. [Sept 2009, p.79]

Konami will want to get Team Silent back for Silent Hill 7, we think. [Apr 2009, p.74]

Escape Plan feels way too barebones an experience. There aren't many gamers out there who'll want to revisit and three star puzzles they barely fumbled through the first time due to iffy controls. [April 2012, p74]

Portal Knights takes the blueprint and gives it more of what we always wished Minecraft had: deeper combat and a series of quests that give us a greater sense of purpose. [September 2017, p77]

CCP hasn’t adjusted the game’s free-to-play Oculus Rift structure, however, despite the game costing $79 on PS VR, and the resulting grind to acquire everything is spirit-sapping. [January 2016, p80]

On a technical level, sadly, Zombi disappoints. That said, Zombi is saved by an evocative world and a few innovative features that make it feel newer. [December 2015, p71]

NBA Jam always succeeded by being better with friends, and that hasn't changed. There's an updated remix mode with a few new modes that are more gimmick and curious distractions than serious contenders for your time. You'll get the most amount of playtime out of the standard mode, especially when you're really dominating a game against your mates. [February 2011 p78]

The robust character progression is your first clue that Disney isn't dumbing down the formula, the second arrives with the puzzle sections. Some of them are fairly taxing, as they require a lot of doo-dad flicking and switching between the three 'solver' bears at your disposal. Kids may get annoyed. [September 2012, p72]

Beyond the addictive action, where RCR really shines is with its irreverent comedy and fan-service references. Expect to snort milk out of your nose when The Player randomly codecs a Solid Snake wannabe who responds in broken English. Even if you weren't gaming back then you'll get a grin when you're given a DeLorean and asked to run over 88 people to fill your Flax Combobulator. [December 2012, p75]

Shorter than your average LEGO adventure, doesn't build upon the formula in meaningful ways. [May 2014, p81]

Bursting with personality and cuteness. Challenge anorexic. [February 2014, p83]

While Rhombus is a fun, self-referential, VR puzzle-playroom, it’s also a stopgap. [May 2017, p77]

While it’s underwhelming in places, there’s a lot to like as you venture into the weirder parts of Andromeda. Frequent technical issues hamper the experience a bit, as does an uninspiring main story. [June 2017, p66]

If you’re looking for a chill experience, are ok to wait for content patches, and have a high tolerance against repetitive tasks, we say boldly go. But probably only after a price drop. [November 2016, p62]

All-star Battle is strictly for fans, unless you want Japanese culture to slap you in the face. [July 2014, p80]

A Force bonanza that plays a good game of Sith but fails to use its idea to max effect. [Nov 2008, p.90]

The story is such fun, and its world rendered with such affection for the source material (and for Victoriana, in general), that you can’t help but be swept up in the mystery. [September 2016, p74]

This game is surreal. So much so we’re not entirely sure if it was rushed (doubtful, given the 360 original came out in 2010), or if the game designers are deliberately trolling us. [June 2013, p80]

Ultimately, we found Sheltered to be engaging, purely due to its brutal difficulty. It’s quite a shame then that its brand of survival is far too often mundane. [May 2016, p74]

Less of everything that marred Atelier Meruru. One of the best JRPGs of the year so far. [April 2013, p75]

This is easily the sexiest looking, smoothest running and features packed open-world game on a portable. Yes, Liberation may not boast as many side-diversions as ACIII, but more than enough DNA from that GOTY contender has made the leap. PS Vita technical limitations are offset by the fact that we think Aveline's tale is slightly superior to the PS3 adventure. [December 2012, p72]

Improves the JRPG rigmarole with one or two great ideas. Is a letdown in the writing department. [June 2014, p79]

It’s very simple to get in to, and although there are challenges you don’t ever lose, making it more of a toy than a competition. It’s still largely irrelevant for adults, though. [Christmas 2009, p.76]

It's hard to genuinely dislike a game like All 4 One. While it's obviously and quite severely flawed in a lot of ways, it's also possessed of a certain irreverent charm that – while derivative – is often enough to keep you playing irrespective of the fact that you're not really having a great deal of fun. [Dec 2011, p69]

Combine this lacklustre multiplayer with a solo campaign that only lasts six or so hours, and Space Marine is an experience that's much too small for its impressive looking Powerboots. Only the super diehard need apply here. [November 2011 p74]

New Little King's Story could have been a surprise hit. But, as it stands, all its charm and whimsy is marred by poor menu design and technical issues that aren't game-breaking, just a royal pain in the butt. [December 2012, p78]

As a single-player thing, Sorcery is just okay. You run, you stick your shimmering shield up if things get hairy, you wave spells at shambling horrors, and a lot of the time our boy Finn does something completely mental because the control scheme is a very delicate thing indeedily. It's simple but frenetic, with some surprisingly nutty moments and even nuttier boss battles. [July 2012, p81]

Not the smoothest brick-fest ever built, but our complaints aren't game-breaking ones. After careful consideration, TT, we've decided to endorse your park. [September 2015, p76]

A highly addictive platformer whose shine is marred by a few control issues. [April 2014, p83]

It’s just like being back in the arcades (with lots of Japanese kids kicking your arse). [August 2013, p79]

It’s not Symphony of the Night, but if you’re a long-time fan, you must whip it. [Christmas 2013, p82]

Artistic, and absorbing for a time. But the whimsy gives way to shallowness. [October 2014, p83]

Not nearly as good as you remember it. Shooters have come a long, long way since the days of The Duke. [March 2015, p78]

Infinifactory sounds like paying Earth money to play as the most under-paid drone in the shittiest vocation ever, but you’d be surprised by how much job satisfaction there is to be had here. [February 2015, p77]

Top co-op, but solo is forgettable. Unpolished, too. Drug addicts with severe delusional parasitosis will see fewer bugs than a Wildlands player. [May 2017, p73]

Never before has a game so gruesomely represented the impact that 9.3 grams of lead travelling at almost one kilometre per second has on the human body. Thanks to this game's disturbing X-Ray Killcam, players are treated (subjected?) to a clinical view of each bullet passing through their target's vital organs whenever they pull off an especially good shot – and by 'good' we mean 'life-ending'. It's brutal, it's disturbing, and we're not quite sure how it got past Australia's over-eager censors. [June 2012, p76]

A 2-hour repeat-fest isn't an odyssey. Still, an interesting hybrid of genres that succeeds more than it fails. [October 2014, p77]

Just follow the quest arrows, and spank everyone in your path. Rinse and repeat. Mental patients weave baskets because it’s calming - this is the same deal. [Sept 2009, p.70]

True evil never dies. It gets a decent facelift. [May 2012, p76]

As another foray into the world of interactive storytelling, it's an interesting experiment. But as a game, it doesn't come together nearly as well as it should. [December 2013, p74]

Feels positively ancient, gets by on retro charm. [May 2009, p.65]

Challenging, with a massive variety of gun customisation, held back by unfortunate bugs. [June 2014, p81]

Perhaps 'ambitious' is the absolute best thing we can say about Hydrophobia Prophecy. List its features and goals as bullet points and it sounds incredible, but in the end it H2-blows. [January 2012, p.75]

When everything is laid out in the debriefing, it's clear that H.A.W.X. 2 has made worthy improvements on an already solid concept. True, the adversarial multiplayer still won't ignite many people's afterburners, but almost everything else about the game has been tweaked as per player feedback. If you enjoyed the first title, you should definitely engage. If you were on the fence, we think there's enough new stuff here to make you bank over. [Oct 2010 p.72]

It really seems as though Monumental Games focused more on flashy presentation and cheap thrills rather than handling and physics with any true depth. That said, it is a much more fun and accessible racing game that will attract new fans without hitting them over the head with a super-hard technicality. MotoGP 09/10 stands as the antithesis of racing sims like SBK-08 Superbike whose superior track-side feel was marred by bare bones presentation. There’s eye candy and pizazz here now, but it comes at the expense of handling purity. [May 2010 p.78]

The top seed of tennis games made even better. [July 2009, p.83]

There is no story. There is no characterisation; just bland characters and blander NPCs with stupid names like "Ed Orable" who speech-bubble the same banal crap over and over again. What this game ultimately boils down to is playing a ton of repetitive and often laborious turn based battles in a bid to do nothing much at all. It's an RPG without the "RP," and the "G" that's left doesn't really have much to say for itself. [September 2012, p73]

It may need help to stand tall, but when it's pumped with blood, it rocks. [Christmas 2014, p76]

You’ll praise this for its picture perfect Parisian playground, killer co-op and infectious customisation. But you’ll also want to baguette out for its aging mechanics and slippy framerate. [January 2015, p56]

The atmosphere is top notch, and the game bristles with a raw energy that is a joy to behold. The art direction is excellent, particularly in Rage Mode, and the soundtrack is one of the best we’ve heard. It’s unfortunate the gameplay can be a little repetitive and dying is just plain annoying. [Nov 2009, p.78]

Shallow combat, annoying upgrade system, and a forgettable plot. Rainbow Moon is no pot of gold. [January 2014, p83]

Sword in the Darkness shouldn't be viewed as a bad episode, but it does lack the expected drama. [June 2015, p75]

Great multiplayer. Quality, yet anorexic single-player. Knock [20] points off this score if you're an offline-only gamer. [April 2011, p.68]

Sure, there are neat ideas here, no question. But problems with Dead Star’s mechanics mean this is one space race that’s only occasionally worth running. [August 2016, p76]

Each time it wows you with a neat touch it dashes your enthusiasm with something else. For instance, we get working convertibles but we don't get working windscreen wipers (odd in a game with cabin view and wet weather effects). Just when you're getting into the driving an unskippable cutscene full of people who share more in common with trust-fund babies and hotel heiresses than actual racing drivers yanks you away from the open road. And why is everyone on Ibiza American, including the police? It's jarring and cringe worthy. [April 2011, p.74]

Take time to learn its ways, grasshopper, and this will become the most technical and rewarding MMA game you've ever faced. [August 2014, p75]