How we test a mobile game before writing about it

People sometimes ask how long we actually play a game before reviewing it, and the honest answer is: until we have something real to say. For a short casual game that might be a few hours; for an RPG it can be many evenings.

We test on more than one device on purpose. A game that flies on a new flagship can stutter on a three-year-old phone, and plenty of our readers aren't carrying the latest hardware. So we keep a couple of older devices around specifically for this.

Beyond gameplay, we take notes on the unglamorous stuff: how fast the battery drops over a measured session, whether the device gets warm, how the controls feel after your hand gets tired. These are the things that don't show up in a trailer.

Only after all that do we settle on a score. The rating is a summary, not the whole story, which is why we'd always rather you read the actual review.