How we actually test the games we review

People sometimes assume review sites just skim a trailer and write a summary. We don't, and I wanted to lay out how it actually works here so you know what our scores mean.

Every game gets played on real phones, including a couple of older ones we keep around specifically to catch performance problems. We note load times, stutters, and battery drain, because those matter as much as any feature list on a small device.

We play far enough to hit the parts a game hopes you won't reach: the mid-game grind, the difficulty spikes, the moment the novelty wears off. A game can be charming for an hour and exhausting by hour ten, and our score reflects the whole picture.

Then someone else on the team reads the draft and pokes holes in it. If two of us disagree on a score, we talk it out. The number you see is a considered opinion, not a first impression.