Retro Dodo reviews tell you whether or not we liked something and why. Our reviews aim to equip you with enough information, analysis and context to decide whether you will find a game interesting.

We select games for review on the basis of what we feel will interest you – whether that’s in terms of the game’s quality, content or profile.

We select reviewers based on their experience with a series, game, genre or platform, but always aim to balance specialist knowledge against a wider understanding games and game design.

The review is discussed with an editor or editors before publication, but remains the professional judgement of the reviewer. Recommendations (see below) are set by the reviewer; editors may propose changes to them but these are only ever made with the reviewer’s agreement.

We expect our writers to spend enough time with a game or product to understand it intimately, but this is not an exact science and the requirements of different games/products vary greatly. We trust and expect our reviewers to make informed judgements about what is appropriate. This situation is also influenced by the availability of review materials; we may delay a review if we are not satisfied with the time available.

What We Review & When

We only review games or products from retail copies or versions that are identical to a retail copy of the game/product. If we have pre-release games or products we will inform the reader/viewer of this at the start of any review.

We will make every effort to ensure that our experience of a game matches that of the majority of players – for example, by applying ‘day one’ updates where relevant.

We only review public, commercial release versions of games. We do not publish full reviews of games in alpha or beta testing (though we may write articles that subject these games to appropriate levels of scrutiny).

We may review ‘Early Access’ versions of games that are commercially available if we think it is appropriate. When games are released as episodic series, we will only publish a full review of the complete series – though we may publish impressions of individual episodes, especially the first.

We always seek to publish authoritative reviews which we don’t need to update soon after. If a game’s or product’s circumstances change in a specific but important detail, we may update a review or change our recommendation, but these cases will be exceptional. If a game’s or product’s circumstances change in more general and highly significant ways, we may publish a full re-review.

For the purposes of maintaining a high-profile presence within Google search results, we pass through a star rating which may be displayed when searching for our reviews.

As a courtesy to game creators and publishers, we will notify them of any recommendation badges their games or products have received – but only after the review process is complete and up to 24 hours before publication. We do not disclose the text of a review before publication.