The Games Machine's Scores

  • Games
For 2,656 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 71% higher than the average critic
  • 7% same as the average critic
  • 22% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 4.3 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Game review score: 79
Highest review score: 99 Baldur's Gate 3
Lowest review score: 30 Dino Dini's Kick Off Revival
Score distribution:
2658 game reviews
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac is a fun and light-hearted action platformer full of little surprises and mini-challenges that will delight fans of Namco's popular mascot. The excessive ease and speed with which the main adventure concludes are its most notable flaws, which could deter players looking for a real challenge.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Sonic Colours: Ultimate improves on the fine game released many years ago on Wii, but after all this time it was fair to expect something more, especially for the hedgehog's 30th birthday.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Samurai Warriors 5 represents the state of the art of the Musou genre: a game with divisive mechanics, yet refined and ready to give hours of fun to those who can appreciate this long-lived series. The others are unlikely to change their minds, although a demo is available on all platforms that I recommend you try.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    The atmosphere of Metro Awakening is extraordinary, skilfully realised thanks to an absolutely fine setting and great care for tension. The linearity of the path and a certain repetitiveness of generally already seen mechanics risk trivialising the whole thing, also in the light of the not exactly low price. If you are able to turn a blind eye, however, you will be rewarded by a plot worth experiencing, especially if you love the dystopia created by Dmitry Glukhovsky.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Cities: Skyline II expands, refines, simplifies and complicates where necessary the legacy of the first chapter, but right now it is above all a vision. It is the vision of what could be after the dev patches for technical problems and the community mods to increase the content, the two premises on which the foundations of a fortune rest that, hopefully, will accompany the days and nights for a long time of a large group of city builder fans.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Despite the poor interactive component, Virginia is a wonderful story that draws liberally from David Lynch to tell a story as crazy as it is full of symbolism.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 72 Critic Score
    The Beast Inside is a walking simulator that tries to make the most of the horror setting to create a good but not perfect videogame.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    There is no middle ground for BPM: either you love it, or you hate it. Personally, I feel this game crosses the line between challenge and frustration, offering a learning curve that is almost impossible to climb if you are not a true FPS lover. The soundtrack is excellent and the bundle with it is worth your money, but if you're not a very, very patient person with lightning-fast reflexes and an excellent sense of rhythm, you better look somewhere else.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    Peril on Gorgon further expands the background of The Outer Worlds and the colony of Alcyon, but focuses too much on the action parts of the game rather than on its narrative and role-playing sides.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    Narita Boy is an extremely competent 2D platformer. The guys from Studio Koba have succeeded in the uneasy task of giving a unique personality to a video game whose basic mechanics could sometimes appear derivative.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    A crazy mix between Monopoly and Magic The Gathering, Culdcept Revolt is an amazing and addictive game, though you must be prepared to very, very long and slow gaming sessions which badly fit an handheld device.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Pleasant, dense and detailed, Deathsprint 66 is a video game that knows how to run because it puts microtransactions before the real and tangible adventure towards the players. The first race happens through yourself, from start to finish, and makes it all the more enjoyable. The product allows you to be able to improve enormously as much as possible, then shaping everything else in each mode. However, you need a lot of skill, to know how to delight in a precise way.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Romancing Saga: Minstrel Song Remastered International is a thoughtful tribute to a peculiar and unrepeatable way of understanding Japanese role-playing games. The Italian localization finally makes accessible an extraordinarily free and unpredictable system, which rewards curiosity and punishes a linear approach with the same unwavering naturalness with which it allows quests to disappear without warning. The quality-of-life options, additional characters, and interface refinements mitigate the harshness of its historical rough edges, but do not distort its profound logic: Romancing Saga remains a living, ever-changing, sometimes unsettling ecosystem, always ready to surprise those who accept to be guided by the unexpected. Not a remaster for everyone, but an open door to a universe that resists compromise and continues to exist for those who seek, in JRPGs, something radically different from the usual.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 71 Critic Score
    You can see sparks of an excellent game here and there, but the full potential got lost along the way. Still, not so many tactical action games around – beggars can’t be choosers!
    • 74 Metascore
    • 90 Critic Score
    Beyond its very obvious Overwatch comparisons, Marvel Rivals is a competent hero shooter that is fun to play and easy to pick up, full of love for the original characters, and with a free to play model that refreshingly doesn’t require you to unlock gameplay elements. Hopefully some technical mishaps can be fixed with future patches.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Famicom Detective Club is not the new Ace Attorney that many were hoping for, that much is clear. The new graphic design makes a huge (and obvious) step forward compared to the original, but the investigation mechanics really feel the weight of the years and might not meet the favour of less patient players. Two good stories, but condemned to a lethargic narration despite their objective merits. Recommended for visual novel lovers and hardcore Nintendo fans.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 66 Critic Score
    Master of Orion fails as a remake of the classic SimTex title, and as an attempt to renovate the 4X genre: the gameplay is too simple and limited to offer a real challenge to the player, and a variety of the old mechanics are missing. Despite all this, it can be a pretty good starting point for players who want to become familiar with the genre.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Stories is a game you can easily fall in love with, though it doesn't invent anything new. The way it mixes and entwines the paths of destiny and its peculiar storytelling top the linear gameplay. An interesting concept, well implemented.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 84 Critic Score
    Degrees of Separation is a little gem in a panorama that is becoming more crowded and full of expectations.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 50 Critic Score
    Wall World is a Dome Keeper clone, but it’s a fundamentally bad one. Its progression system makes little to no sense, as the success of a run is almost exclusively linked to the acquisition of random upgrades. Ultimately, Wall World is a game that doesn’t respect the players’ time.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 87 Critic Score
    One Piece Odyssey is definitely the best game dedicated to Eiichiro Oda's omnibus work, and a perfect JRPG for newcomers. Those who don't like One Piece or are looking for a more challenging and in-depth experience would do well to look elsewhere, knowing however that such successful adaptations are a very rare commodity indeed.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Volgarr the Viking II is not so much a definite step forward from the first chapter as a refinement of mechanics and level design. The challenge is always very high and the limited number of credits before 'screwing up' the game is a rather unpleasant idea, but if you're looking for the atmosphere that made classics like Rastan great it might be the game for you, provided you have as much patience as your joypad skills.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 85 Critic Score
    A perfect conversion that brings to the 3DS all the power of the Wii U version, keeping in mind the obvious differences between the two platforms.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Mafia: Terra Madre is a compact work, a rarity these days, that makes storytelling its main strength. It's not a revolutionary video game, nor does it claim to be, but it manages to leave its mark despite the flaws of overly formulaic gameplay. The rendering of early twentieth-century Sicily is excellent, thanks to appreciable aesthetic and stylistic research and the presence of full Sicilian dubbing. It's a shame there are a few too many technical issues, which I hope will be resolved as soon as possible.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 79 Critic Score
    Insidia is a bold title, with some neat ideas, a nice art direction and a great, deep gameplay. The only complaint, at the moment, is the shortage of content, but hopefully that will change in the future. A real free-to-play, without tricks, with a huge potential for growth.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Critic Score
    Fanise’s new game feels like an interesting way of remembering the Great War, but it does not take full advantage of the possibilities offered by the video game medium.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 74 Critic Score
    While the series is still far from perfection and the direct competitor is always fierce, NBA Live 19 is another step in the right direction.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Critic Score
    Far Cry New Dawn is a solid FPS, even if it’s nothing but a more of the same.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 75 Critic Score
    There are not that many space combat games out there, so Chorus could be a good pick if you like an action packed and ready-to-go game that doesn’t require you to study astrophysics like Elite o Star Citizen. The drawback is that, mechanics wise, Chorus is fairly repetitive, and not that mechanically deep. It could still be a good choice if you’re aching to shoot space lasers, but in a couple of hours you might realize you’re becoming more of a space tourist than an ace pilot.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 78 Critic Score
    Killsquad is a game that evolved significantly since it first arrived onto Early Access two years ago, and the result is a solid twin-stick shooter with looter elements. When it comes to loot drops, the balance is unfortunately a bit off, but overall the game is a fun mix of genres.

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