What our ratings actually mean

People ask why a fun little game gets a 4.2 while a rougher one gets a 4.7, and the honest answer is that we score against expectations, not against each other. A tower defence with genre-defining depth is judged differently than a casual collection meant for idle moments.

We weigh how well a game does what it sets out to do. A relaxing casual title doesn't lose points for lacking a skill ceiling, because that was never the goal. A hardcore strategy game, on the other hand, gets marked down hard if its systems are shallow.

Controls and readability on a phone matter a lot to us, because a brilliant design ruined by fiddly touch input isn't brilliant in practice. We also factor in how a game feels past the first hour, once the novelty fades.

So treat the number as a summary of a longer opinion, not a verdict handed down from on high. Read the paragraphs; that's where the real review lives.