How We Review

Scanlines reviews modern retro games — brand-new releases for retro platforms. This page explains how we do it, and how to read our scores.

How we judge a game

Every game is judged in its own context — against what's possible on its platform, within its genre, and for the players it's made for. A new Game Boy game is held to what a great Game Boy game can be, not to a modern blockbuster. We never mark a game down simply for looking or sounding like the system it runs on.

What we weigh

A review considers, in roughly this order of importance:

Gameplay — controls, mechanics, feel, and fun.
Design & progression — levels, pacing, difficulty, bosses, replayability.
Presentation & audio — art, animation, music, and clarity, relative to the hardware.
Performance & compatibility — how it runs on real hardware and under emulation.
Value — what you get for the price, and whether it respects your time.
Story & writing — where it matters (RPGs, adventures, narrative games).

The final score is an editorial judgement, not a calculator output — the review itself should always make the number make sense.

Our scores

We score out of 10:

10 — Masterpiece. Among the best of its platform, genre, or style.
9 — Excellent. Outstanding; only minor shortcomings.
8 — Great. Very enjoyable, with small flaws.
7 — Good. Solid and worth playing.
6 — Above average. Enjoyable, but held back by clear issues.
5 — Average. Functional, but unremarkable.
4 — Below average. More frustrating than enjoyable.
3 — Poor. Major design or technical problems.
2 — Bad. Very hard to recommend.
1 — Terrible. Broken, or fails at what it set out to do.

Independence & disclosure

Our reviews are editorially independent, and we keep them that way with firm rules:

Reviewers are paid a flat fee for their work — never for a positive score.
Scores are never tied to sales, ad revenue, or a publisher's approval.
Developers and publishers don't see or sign off on reviews before they run.
When a review copy is provided, we say so in the review.

Scanlines is published with the support of Afterplay, a retro-gaming platform; you can read more on our About page.

Corrections

We get things wrong sometimes. If you spot a factual error, let us know and we'll fix it promptly.