68 public written reviews
The views here are this user’s only and are not representative of Giant Bomb's thoughts and opinions on the discussed video game. GB's official reviews reside at giantbomb.com/reviews.
TissueShoe's review of Super Mario Galaxy 2 for the Wii. Super Mario Galaxy was an astounding achievement in video game design back in 2007, and to this day it remains an excellent and thoroughly enjoyable 3-D platformer. In fact, Galaxy was so good that when I heard that a direct sequel would be coming a mere 2 ½ years later, I had my doubts as to how the game would be a worthy successor without simply rehashing…
Pokemon Red and Blue made a huge splash in the video game industry back in the late 1990's, and to this day it's still a massively popular franchise with a strong universal appeal. For kids, perhaps it's the idea of collecting and battling cool creatures, teaching them killer attacks, and watching opponents' HP bars drop to zero. For teens and adults, it could be the deep but approachable battle system or nowadays…
A few years ago, if I had heard of a game that would somehow combine a puzzle and a shooter, I would have had plenty of doubts as to how that would work. The two just don't seem like they would get along together very well. Enter Portal, a game that isn't a true shooter, but integrates basic first-person shooting elements into a puzzler that is brilliant, superbly executed, challenging, and also extremely witty.…
A lone hero approaches an ancient shrine and places his dead lover inside. A light speaks to him, telling him that he can gain the power to save her life if he can slay the 16 colossi scattered throughout the cursed land that surrounds the shrine. Upon their destruction, there must certainly be a happy ending for all involved: Wander will save his love and the land will be rid of the cursed giants. Shadow of the…
The Wii is the object of insult more often than it ought to be in this generation, because people see the console's games that sell well and simply laugh. Mediocre minigame collections and unpolished 'family-friendly games' make it to the top sales charts so frequently, while quality titles such as Zack & Wiki and Okami don't get the attention they deserve. Wii Sports Resort ought to gather that same sort of…
Club Nintendo doesn't exactly have the strongest selection of prizes for their fans that buy their games, but to be honest who can blame them? It's free stuff they're giving out after all… well, it's free if you forget that to earn these rewards you have to have bought a bunch of their games. Game & Watch Collection sure looked more appealing than Animal Crossing trading cards or a Wii remote holder, seeing as it's…
The quality of The Legend of Zelda series as a whole is practically unquestionable. Almost everything Nintendo sets out to do with the series is a success and comes out with flying colors. Phantom Hourglass successfully brought the series to the DS in a game that was great despite its flaws, and now Spirit Tracks is out as a sequel. It retains a lot of what made Phantom Hourglass great and improves upon the original…
If you haven't heard of The Beatles, you might not have heard of any other band in the history of mankind. They were that popular and that influential, and so it's only fit that a music game ought to be made based on their music and career. Fortunately for everyone who likes The Beatles, Harmonix was able to secure the rights to make the game with the same style as Rock Band; put the two together and we get The…
It is practically common knowledge in the video game community that Spyro the Dragon, a beloved character from the PlayStation days, is pretty much history. Once the PS2/GC/Xbox era arrived, Spyro games suddenly became terrible; the reason for this madness is that Insomniac, Spyro's creators, abandoned the purple dragon in favor of a character named Ratchet and his robot buddy Clank. Much like the Spyro games before…
There are many things to say about Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. It seems as though every one of the game's elements is incredibly well done, enjoyable, hilarious, and creative. In fact, I will pose no questions concerning the game's quality in this review because that would just feel wrong. Seriously, Bowser's Inside Story is pretty much the best DS game available to date, and is worth owning for just about…
The genre of music games has been a sweeping sensation on the gaming market in the past few years. At the forefront of all this are two battling franchises that center around four-player band play: Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Harmonix, after making a couple Guitar Hero games, gave up on the franchise to start Rock Band, which released in 2007 to huge acclaim and success. Rock Band 2 (RB2) endeavors to be a solid…
To say thank you to the platinum members of Club Nintendo for being such great fans and playing plenty of their games, Nintendo has offered a nifty little prize. The options were a sweet looking Mario hat or a special WiiWare game called Doc Louis's Punch-Out. I chose the latter, and so I get to write up this nifty little review rather than wear a Mario hat around for Halloween (which would have been pretty cool, I…
Here we are in the early fall of 2009; a season geared up with a ton of eagerly anticipated releases. But of course, can the fall go by without another main entry in the Guitar Hero franchise? By the mere fact that Guitar Hero 5 (GH5) is out the answer is clearly an "Absolutely not!" from Activision, and apparently they don't care much about how the game turns out as long as they gain oodles of money from it. Now…
When Harmonix left Guitar Hero to start Rock Band, Activision and Neversoft had some catching up to do. They didn't really have experience in making music games, and suddenly they had a franchise to work with that could potentially make them oodles of money. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (GHIII) is the first main series Guitar Hero game from the new companies, and it turned out to be a great game that is still…
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga was a resounding success on the GBA. It was a practically flawless game that achieved excellence in every area, and it more than earned the right to have a sequel made. Partners in Time is the second installment in the series, where rather than using just Mario & Luigi, you now use their younger selves as well. Partners in Time is a really great game that has most of the elements that…
Mario has had an ongoing streak of awesome RPGs, starting at the end of the SNES' lifespan and continuing through today. Mario & Luigi is the main handheld franchise of the Mario RPGs, starting with 2003's Superstar Saga on the GameBoy Advance. It was most likely the best game on the platform and one of the greatest RPGs of all time with its hilarious dialogue, fantastic gameplay, and outstanding visuals. Even with…
Imagine you've just woken up in the middle of the street of a busy city. You can't remember anything at all, and nobody can see or feel you. It's as if you don't exist. Then, out of nowhere, a girl forcefully asks you to 'form a pact' with her so you won't get 'erased' by the 'noise.' Not knowing what the heck is going on, you just kind of go along with it, because you learn that you are dead… but you have been…
Looney Tunes is perhaps the most beloved and famous cartoon in history. The pure comedy of it makes it so lovable, and it's natural to expect that, like most other cartoons and movies, it would be made into video games. Duck Amuck is one such game, and it's based on one of the funniest episodes of Looney Tunes where Daffy is being tortured and humiliated by an unseen animator. In Duck Amuck, you take the role of…
WiiWare is a platform that hasn't had a whole lot of great games yet. Sure, there have been some decent titles available for download, but in all honesty most of the games available were thoroughly mediocre, and even the good ones weren't necessarily groundbreaking. At the time, WiiWare almost appeared to be something just tacked on the Wii Shop Channel for the sake of having original games available through the…
Sonic is among the older franchises in games, and also the more beloved, famous, and unpredictable. He has seen many good games and many bad games; his first racing game of this century falls somewhere in between. While Sonic Riders has enough cool moments to be somewhat interesting, it falls short in too many areas to be worthwhile. The story in Sonic Riders is absolutely terrible. Sonic is made fun of mercilessly…
Mario has proven himself to be a diverse character in the world of video games. Not only does he save Princess Peach repeatedly, he also races karts, embarks on grand RPG adventures, and even participates in many sports. Mario Superstar Baseball (MSB) is one such sport game in which everyone's favorite plumber goes head to head against other characters from his world. The first baseball outing for Mr. Red is quite…
Pikmin was among the earlier GameCube titles, among others such as Super Smash Bros. Melee and Metroid Prime. Pikmin was very fresh and innovative, though, because the concept was different than your usual game, causing it to stand out a bit. Commanding an army of little creatures called Pikmin to help a very small man when he crash lands on a strange planet just hadn't really been done in games before. Pikmin sure…
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (TFU) was a long time in the making. We waited quite a while for this thing to finally land on store shelves, and now we have seen just how powerful the Force can be. The title speaks for itself; you truly haven't seen anything quite like this in Star Wars before. TFU has some flaws, but those can't stop players from enjoying the fantastic story and ultra fun gameplay that lies…
Fire Emblem started 18 years ago in Japan; when we got our first game of the franchise it was already well over a decade old. By the time we got to experience one of the greatest strategy games ever made, Intelligent Systems had had plenty of time to develop their ability to write a superb story, build up memorable characters, and work with the accessible but deep gameplay. Shadow Dragon is a remake of the…
Positive: + excellent presentation + fun, addicting gameplay + lots of variety within the few offered modes + awesome soundtrack and sound effects + offers a lot to keep you coming back for more Negative: - not enough variety of game modes I used to not like puzzle games much. I was kind of indifferent towards them, because I hadn't played many before and didn't really care to give one a try. But when my friend…
Positive: + some fun minigames + cool, if a little unfitting, sound effects + controls work just fine, and the gun controller is pretty cool + multiplayer is pretty fun Negative: - short and easy - dreadful story and amazingly cheesy voice acting - some design flaws in a few minigames When Nerf is made into a video game, you might think there's something horribly, horribly wrong. How can Nerf guns be made into a…
Positive: + gameplay is very deep with new elements added all the time + worlds are very diverse and have a lot of content + music tracks are great and change in style when you're in different spots + sharp controls that work well for the most part Negative: - you have to start your note count every time you re-enter a world - camera doesn't always give you the best view you need Super Mario 64 revolutionized the…
Positive: + 2-D cartoon graphics look very sharp + solid gameplay with some great elements new to the series + smooth controls that also don't over use motion capabilities + tons of treasures and missions add a lot of replay value + full of that funny, weird Wario personality and style Negative: - main adventure is pretty easy Wario Land was my favorite game from the original GameBoy, and I don't think I've ever…
Positive: + fun and challenging strategic gameplay + good visuals for the iPod + quality music + tons of replay value for each level + it only costs $5! Negative: - huge frame rate slowdowns when lots of enemies are on screen - only 8 maps - controls aren't sensitive enough The iPod had yet to see its first truly great original game. Phase was too laggy to be much fun and Song Summoner moved to slowly and was too…
Harmonix has changed the music genre of video games twice: the first time was with the original Guitar Hero in 2005, and then they revolutionized the music game again in 2007 with Rock Band. Guitar Hero was left to Activision and Neversoft when Harmonix started Rock Band, and now the two franchises are competing against each other. Guitar Hero: World Tour (GHWT) is Activision's answer to Rock Band as Guitar Hero now…
Positive: + new controllers are very nice + new guitar gameplay elements work well for the most part + great setlist with diverse songs both in style and difficulty + career is less linear than before + sharp, lively graphics + awesome online play modes + band play is a blast Negative: - drum sound hardly comes through the TV Rock Band and Guitar Hero will probably continue to be the two main rhythm franchises in…
Positive: + a more user-friendly experience than Colosseum + Shadow Pokemon concept is much improved in every area + familiar faces and places are cool to revisit + great music that's catchy and isn't very repetitive Negative: - catching wild Pokemon could have been better - main character feels like a lifeless animation Pokemon Colosseum didn't exactly get awesome reviews, but I sure enjoyed it. To have a sequel…
Positive: + great story + the first true Pokemon adventure in 3-D + Colosseum mode is pretty extensive Negative: - things just take a little too long sometimes - only 48 shadow Pokemon Pokemon Stadium had been Pokemon's only foray into the wonderful world of 3-D before 2004, when this game came out. They only had battles and minigames, no real adventure. But with Colosseum, a full 3-D adventure and story was added…
Positive: + gameplay is fun despite repetition + great graphics and sound effects + epic duel locations + wide range of difficulty settings + multiplayer is fun Negative: - bad story - voice acting is a bit cheesy - super short campaign and not much to do otherwise - gameplay is pretty shallow As a Star Wars fan, it's hard to look at a Wii remote and not see it as a lightsaber. It seems the controller was simply…
Read the full review Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Lightsaber Duels
Positive: + Guitar Hero = FUN + Aerosmith guitar style fits the gameplay well + perfect for fans of the band Negative: - it's exactly the same as GHIII - really short and not too challenging Guitar Hero is a franchise that has established itself in the gaming world with some of the most fun and addicting gameplay out there. With the first band-centered game in the series, GH: Aerosmith does a great job of delivering…
Positive: + really, really epic + co-op is awesome + upgrades are really cool + lots of characters to play as Negative: - playing as the hobbits is pathetic - single player mode is way too hard - the camera still shifts randomly Lord of the Rings: RotK is one of the movie games that really stands out as actually being good. It improves upon Two Towers in many ways, adding a whole co-op mode, more characters to play…
Read the full review The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Positive: + emotions are well-implemented into the gameplay + cool upgrades can be bought with coins + you can save any time + very nice looking graphics + lots of stuff to collect + really fun Negative: - (for guys) a little too 'cute' - WAY too easy Mario has had his fair share of 2-D platformers in his day, most (if not all) of which have been highly praised and well liked. Now Nintendo has dared to do something…
Positive: + swinging around the city is thrilling + voice acting for major characters is great + big story with many cool side paths along the way + lots of stuff to do + it's fun to watch Spidey beat up thugs Negative: - people ALWAYS screaming for help gets a little bothersome - the same 5 or so tasks are reused way too much - battles are pretty repetitive too Spider-man had three extremely successful movies, one…
Positive: + gameplay is still solid + controls are still excellent + tons of eggs to collect + speedway levels are great fun + extra characters are a smart addition Negative: - wait… haven't I seen some of those positives before? - some graphical issues are less forgivable the second time around - the levels get a little boring after the first area Spyro the Dragon was one of the defining characters of his genre…
Read the full review More of the same, thankfully the same isn't so bad
Positive: + great graphics + decent story and dialogue to back it up + great battle system + extra party members add a lot to the game + music is memorable + pretty lengthy + Negative: - some things are hard to see outside of battle – Wii owners have been waiting a long time for Nintendo to release Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars on the Virtual Console. It seems like an ideal game to make available:…
Read the full review Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
Positive: + excellent graphics + some of the POW moves are really cool + the Sonic universe is portrayed well + Negative: - dreadful camera – battle system could use some help – poor sound effects – annoying enemies – Big the Cat! - Sonic is in desperate need of a great game. Sure the Sonic Rush series has been doing well, but he still needs some kind of huge success to get him back on his feet. In an attempt to…
Positive: - excellent gameplay – smooth controls – tons of bonus missions and stuff to collect – fun boss battles – great level design - Negative: - a couple levels really aren't too great – looking around doesn't work as well as it should - Spyro the Dragon was a big success on Sony's PlayStation for many reasons: its excellent platforming gameplay, smooth controls, and tons of stuff to collect. Naturally, a sequel…
Good: - fun! – advanced techniques add depth to the gameplay – great controls – excellent adventure mode – time trial mode is cool – awesome tracks – excellent music and sound effects – lasts a long time overall - Bad: - bosses have unlimited items – no crash detection when bumping other karts - Crash Bandicoot was one of the leading franchises on the PlayStation, and for good reason. A few top-notch games rightly…
Ocarina of Time was revolutionary, without a doubt. It showed people what games can do and provided an enjoyable experience for those who played it back in the day. I have never appreciated OoT as much as most people do, but I still love it. OoT puts you in control of a young boy who lives in a forest village and is chosen by the Deku Tree to, well, save the world. Eventually he visits Hyrule and acquires the…
Rayman 2: The Great Escape is considered by so many people to be one of the big parts of the platforming revolution back in the N64/PS days. Personally, I don't know what people see in it. Sure it's a decent game, but nowhere near as good as people claim, in my opinion. The story in Great Escape is simple: Admiral Razorbeard is ruining the land and capturing its inhabitants, and of course Rayman… is captured? Well,…
Super Mario 64 was a revolutionary platformer, and in 2004 Nintendo hoped to successfully recreate it on their brand new handheld, the DS. And so SM64DS was born. This review is made to simply say how the DS game is different from the N64 game, and to say which I think is better, so here goes… One of the main differences in the DS game is the controls. There is a touch screen movement option, but it really doesn't…
Super Mario 64 is considered to be one of the most revolutionary, influential platformers of all time, and I have to agree. Whenever I go back and play it, I can just feel how it's such a classic, and a memorable one at that. It's a game that stands throughout the test of time and is still pretty fun to play now. SM64 is about Mario going to visit Peach's castle, but he arrives to find that Peach has been kidnapped,…
Positive: - great visuals and sound - simple yet entertaining gameplay - 50 levels - decent two-to-four player co-op - only costs $7 - Negative: - some control issues - In a world where the Wii Shop Channel gets continually bad games (and even some supposed 'games' that aren't even games at all (*coughs* *My Pokemon Ranch*)), Gyrostarr is a happy exception. It's a great game all-around, and the only real problem…
