How we actually review a mobile game

People ask how we land on a score, so here's the whole process laid out. It's not scientific, but it's consistent.

First, we play. Not for twenty minutes — we play until we hit whatever the game's mid-point feels like, because that's where most mobile games either open up or fall apart. A game that's fun for an hour and hollow for the next ten deserves a lower score.

Then we test on more than one device. A game that runs beautifully on a new phone can stutter badly on a three-year-old one, and plenty of our readers aren't on flagships. Battery drain and heat matter too, so we note them.

Finally, we sit on it for a day before writing the final take. First impressions are unreliable. Sometimes a game I loved on day one felt shallow by day three, and sometimes it was the opposite.

The score at the end is just one person's honest summary, checked by an editor. It's a starting point, not a verdict — read the actual words.