How we decide on a score

People ask how a game ends up with, say, a 4.4 instead of a 4.6. The honest answer is that the number comes last. We play, we talk about it, and only then do we land on a figure that matches how the game actually felt.

We weigh a few things: how the controls feel, whether the game respects your time, how it runs on modest phones, and whether we kept wanting to open it. A game can be technically polished and still bore us — that shows up in the score.

We don't grade on hype or budget. A tiny indie puzzle can outscore a huge production if it's simply more fun to play.

Read the words, not just the number. The paragraphs are where we tell you who a game is actually for.