How We Decide On A Rating

People sometimes ask why we gave a game a 4.2 instead of a 4.5, as if there's a formula. There isn't, and we think that's a good thing. Our ratings are honest gut reactions backed by real play time.

Before any score gets written, we play the game for at least a few days. That's long enough to get past the shiny first impression and see whether the fun holds up or fades.

We weigh a few things: how the game feels to control, whether it respects your time, how it looks and sounds, and whether we actually wanted to keep playing. That last one is the biggest tell.

A high score doesn't mean perfect. It means we genuinely enjoyed it and would recommend it to a friend. A lower score isn't an insult, just a signal that something got in the way of the fun.

We update or revisit reviews when a game changes a lot. Mobile games get patched constantly, and an old score can stop being fair.