Digital games have become a major part of the modern popular culture, but little attention has been paid to understanding the textuality of games and what the game texts have the cultural meanings. As the games develop, however, the academic and journalistic game critiques and reviews that try to understand and to deconstruct the game texts are on the rise. This study explores how the game criticism characterizes the game texts, creates and shapes the understanding of games. The finding shows that game criticism is rich and varied in terms of themes and approaches covered, more generally, games criticism can also help preserve game history by focusing on the distinctive game textuality, forms and meanings, and by contextualizing the links and cultural meanings that exist between games and between games and the cultural context.
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