How we decide a rating, and why it can change

People ask how a game earns a 4.6 instead of a 4.3, and the honest answer is that our ratings are a discussion, not a formula. We weigh how the game feels on a phone, how fair its difficulty is, and whether we kept playing after the review was done.

We don't have a spreadsheet with exact points. What we do have is a habit of arguing until we agree. If one editor loved a game and another bounced off it, that tension usually lands the score somewhere in the middle, and we explain why in the text.

Ratings can change. If a game gets an update that fixes a control problem, or a reader points out something we missed, we'll revisit it. A number frozen forever would be dishonest, since games get patched and our own tastes shift.

The one thing that never moves a score is money. Nobody pays us to nudge a rating up. If that ever changed, this whole site would be pointless, so it won't.