How we actually test a game before scoring it

People sometimes ask how we can score a game fairly when there are so many of them. The honest answer is that we play slowly and we play on purpose. No score goes up until someone has sat with the game for at least a few evenings.

We start on our newest phone, then repeat the key sessions on older hardware. A game can feel wonderful on a flagship and fall apart on a three-year-old device, and most of you aren't buying a new phone just to play one racer.

We take notes on the stuff that's easy to overlook: how the controls feel after your hands get tired, whether the game respects short sessions, how loud the ads are. Small annoyances add up fast on mobile.

Only after all that do we settle on a number, and we argue about it more than you'd think. A score is a shorthand; the text is where the real opinion lives, so please read it.