What our ratings actually mean

People ask what our scores mean, so here it is plainly. A rating on Pocket Sprint is one editor's summary of a week or more of play, nothing more scientific than that.

Roughly, anything above 4.5 is something we'd recommend without caveats. The low fours are good games with a clear flaw — stingy checkpoints, too many ads, thin content. Below four means we still finished reviewing it, but we'd think twice.

We don't grade on a curve or compare across genres. A 4.3 arcade and a 4.3 runner aren't competing; they just each earned the same warmth from us.

And the number can shift. If a game gets a bad update or fixes something we complained about, we'll revisit it. Scores aren't carved in stone.

Read the words, not just the digit. The paragraphs are where the actual opinion lives.