How We Actually Review a Game

People sometimes assume reviewers just skim a game for ten minutes. We wanted to lay out what we actually do, because our process is the whole reason this site exists. First we play without taking notes, just to get a feel for it. Only after a few sessions do we start writing down what works and what grates. For longer games we rotate the title between two editors so it's not just one person's mood. We test on at least two phones, usually an older one and a newer one, because performance matters more than any feature list. A game that stutters on a mid-range phone gets mentioned, full stop. Finally we sit on the review for a day before publishing. First impressions can be misleading, and a night's sleep often changes how we feel about a game. The number at the top is just a summary of all that.