The monetisation tricks I look for before recommending anything

Every game we cover gets a quiet monetisation audit before I write a word. Not because paying developers is bad, it isn't, but because how a game asks for money tells you how it respects you.

The first red flag is energy systems. If I can't play the game I want to play because a meter emptied, that's the game holding itself hostage until I pay. I almost never recommend those.

The second is when upgrades affect difficulty. Glass Marathon gets this right: you can buy skins forever and it changes nothing about the run. The moment money buys an easier game, the design is broken.

I also watch the timing of ads. An ad after a natural stopping point is fine. An ad ripped into the middle of a tense moment tells me the developer values the ad slot over my experience.

None of this means free games are bad. Plenty are generous. But a two-minute check saves you from the ones built to drain rather than delight.