How we actually test a game before reviewing it

People sometimes ask how long we play before writing. The honest answer is: until we have something real to say. For a short arcade game that might be a few hours; for an RPG it can be a couple of weeks.

We play on normal phones, not flagships, because that's what most readers use. Performance and battery drain matter, and a game that chews through your battery deserves a mention.

We also go back. Mobile games change constantly through updates, and a review frozen on launch day stops being useful. If a patch fixes or breaks something major, we edit the piece and note the date.

None of this is glamorous. It's a lot of replaying the same level to confirm a difficulty spike is real and not just us being tired. But that's the point — the verdict should mean something.