34 public reviews
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It's hard to remember a game that made me smile with a delight that wasn't being brought on by some extreme explosion or sick move. Sure, time spent with Comic Jumper made me laugh out loud, but I never wanted to sit down and give Captain Smiley a big ole hug. Enter a pink marshmallow named Kirby who unwittingly, while just trying to eat a delicious tomato (vegetables!), gets sucked into a sock and transformed into…
Tell me if you've heard this one before: Dude's on a ship locked away in some sort of pod-thing and a catastrophic event happens which frees him. He escapes, while the ship crashes and then has to fight bad guys. This nameless fellow also sees a pretty young girl while escaping the doomed vessel, but she clearly wants nothing to do with him and decides to take the last escape pod alone while nameless dude hangs on…
When I first read details and saw screens from Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock (GH6) I was actually fairly intrigued. Here we had a game that appeared to know exactly who it was. Neversoft was channelling heavy metal album artwork, characters appeared to be crisp and redesigned, and they were focusing on something that most music games don't-- a narrative . OK, that last part was certainly something weird, but hey,…
When I first picked up the controller with Kane and Lynch 2, I really had zero expectations. Not only had I never played the original due to mediocre reviews and the far reaching "Gerstmann-gate", but I also wasn't particularly familiar with the titular characters. Lemme tell you something, the first tutorial level didn't really make me feel too great in getting involved. I fumbled with the somewhat unintuitive…
The scrolling shooter. Back in the mid 80's and early 90's they were pretty hot, but now it's all about FPS, RTS, and GPS. Like most of the gaming industry, I've long since moved away from games like Life Force, Einhänder, and Gradius to boom headshots but every now and again, I'll revisit. That time is now with the release of the first legitimate Cave title on North American consoles, Deathsmiles. Deathsmiles was…
The tagline is “Uncertain of his Sister's Fate, a Boy enters LIMBO”, and that’s pretty much the only thing I can tell you about the story. There’s a very light touch narrative told through gameplay, but nothing that’s overt. Limbo is more about the experience instead of trying to tell a story. Presented as a black and white 2D platformer with many shades of grey, you control the boy in fairly typical platforming…
Despite being big on the silver screen, there really haven't been a ton of western video games and even fewer good ones. Sure you've got your Call of Juarez , Gun , and Freddy Pharkas Frontier Pharmacist but in general, we're all about space marines, military shooters, and sexy ladies playing beach volleyball. Now, Rockstar has given the past as much attention as the present or future with Red Dead Redemption, a…
While most fans of Green Day were indoctrinated by the release of Dookie's Longview, I was introduced to them at some point in 1992 by my punk rocker friend with the release of 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours. They were a catchy band and pretty much instantly likable to my teenage self. However, with the 1994 release of Dookie, their masturbatory anthem rang true to every bored kid in the nation and stardom was…
The very first moment I stuck 3D Dot Game Heroes into my PlayStation 3, I got a huge smile on my face. Here I was looking at a title screen that was so obviously cribbed from the 8-bit era, complete with period specific chip-tune style music, and couldn't have been happier. The flood of memories coming from my childhood was certainly impressive as Silicon had nailed that aspect of their quirky throwback title. Tell…
I think there may be a bit of a misconception as to exactly what kind of game Alan Wake is. The developers originally stated that it was an open-world title and even at the time of this writing, Amazon.com maintains that description. Let's get this out of the way first: Alan Wake is a story driven, linear action game. You'll spend most of the time launching an assault against a dark presence while uncovering the…
Certain game designers like Hideo Kojima, seem a bit out of place in their medium. Sure the guy makes some seriously awesome games, but towards the end of the Solid Snake saga, you got the feeling he'd rather just be making movies instead. Quantic Dream's David Cage certainly fits into that category as well although with a lot less of the game element. His latest title almost isn't even a game. Instead with Heavy…
he other night, my wife was watching Ghost Whisperer reruns. The story was a bit of a morality tale which concluded in the message that carrying around anger all the time is not a good way to lead your life. I kind of wish Kratos had watched this episode and took it to heart because he's one angry, angry man. The consequences of his actions don't matter, instead he's just hellbent on killing every single thing in…
treet Fighter IV is really freakin' awesome. Not only did it make it to my top three games of last year, but it's one that I have consistently jumped back to time and time again. Whenever folks mention it, I get this craving and just have to go play even if it's just for a few matches. So here we are a year later and Capcom has tacked on a "Super" to their Street Fighter IV. The game at its core is essentially the…
When you talk about Left 4 Dead, some people start saying stuff about ' BRAINSSS ' or the walking dead, and at the core these people just don't know what they're talking about. While yes, the 'zombie apocalypse' has occurred, the enemies in Left 4 Dead are not after your brain and certainly aren't undead; they're normal people infected with a virus similar to the one from 28 Days Later. Left 4 Dead 2 takes place…
I think we can all agree that while the music genre is fun in its own right, there has been very little in terms of innovation for a few years now. The last big shift was when Rock Band came onto the scene and threw drums and vocals at us. DJ Hero represents a fundamental shift in how you play music games, as well as what kind of music is available for the masses. Throwing out all those "normal" instruments and…
Let's get this out of the way right up front. Brutal Legend is an open world game with heavy real time strategy elements... I know, some of you may not get that feeling thanks to the very linear demo presented but this is much more Giants: Citizen Kabuto than a straightforward hack n' slasher. You're placed into the skin of roadie Eddie Riggs, who works for a faux-metal band and feels that he should have been born…
I really want to know why developers continuously rely on the ole "amnesia" trait for characters in their games. Not only is it old hat at this point, but it just feels like a lazy way to do an RPG. Luckily, that particular complaint really doesn't mean all that much because the story of Muramasa: The Demon Blade really doesn't mean all that much. In fact, it's really a footnote in a very action based RPG. Muramasa…
I want to start this off by saying I'm no gear head. I don't go around looking at cars, asking about gearing ratios or turbos, "what kind of shoes does your car have on" or even "what kind of engine you got in there?" Instead, I enjoy racing games because the let me pretend to drive cars I would never get a chance to own, really fast and occasionally say "vroom vroom" to myself. So, going into Need for Speed: SHIFT,…
With the first Dead Space, Visceral Games (formerly EA Redwood Shores) had finally found something they were good at. These developers of The Simpsons Game and The Godfather: The Game had luke warm reception of their first games, but nailed it with a horror themed, isolationist third person title set inside the massive USG Ishimura. While Dead Space: Extraction remains in the horror genre, it takes a decidedly…
Jason Flemming: he is no one, and he his everyone. He is also your main character in Shadow Complex, the last title in the Summer of Arcade line of games for 2009. Created by Chair Entertainment (part of Epic Games and of Undertow fame), Shadow Complex actually takes place within the Empire universe made famous by Orson Scott Card... although there's little here that makes that apparent. After a brief "Look at all…
True adventure games, for a time, were all the rage and dominated the gaming landscape. The evolution went something like all text based (Infocom), to text and graphics (Sierra On-Line), to point and click (LucasArts), then they practically fell off the face of the earth when First Person Shooters blazed onto the scene. With the emergence of consoles, there have been plenty of adventure games created which use…
Magic the Gathering has been around for over 15 years now and has seen it's fair share of expansions, tournaments, rule changes and shoddy video games. Sure, you can take to the PC and play Magic Online, but really... who wants to spend real cash to get virtual booster packs? Not this guy. Enter the latest video take on the super popular collectible card game. Titled Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers,…
Read the full review Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers
Now now, before you immediately say "Oh great, ANOTHER dual stick shooter on Xbox Live Arcade", hear me out. Rocket Riot puts robots, pirates, zombies and ninjas in the same game, lets them all fly around with jet packs, and gives them all rocket launchers to blow stuff up with. Review over. Still not convinced? Ok, let me explain a bit. The premise behind Rocket Riot is about as silly as its pseudo retro art style.…
'The Boy Who Lived' has started his sixth year at Hogwarts Academy for Witchcraft and Wizardry, and such Electronic Arts has brought this latest endeavor to the small screen on every current platform. Ringing in the new school year with classes, perils, and hormones, Harry, Ron and Hermione set out to stop Voldemort once again. Unless you know who Albus Dumbledore and Hermione Granger are, as well as key plot points…
Tim has lost his Princess and you've got to help him find her. There's not much to say about Braid without giving away some spoilers, but here we go with a concise attempt. Braid at its core is a puzzle game based within a platformer ala Super Mario Brothers. Its general controls are very familiar... you can run, jump on an enemy's head to knock them away, and reach an end point to the level with relative ease. The…
Chances are that you've played Mahjong at some point, so the concept should be familiar to most. However, if you're one of those that just doesn't play puzzle games here's a quick overview. Mahjong is a tile based puzzle game where you are given a set of tiles on a single board and tasked with clearing them off by matching two pieces together. Most tiles will only match with their twin, however there are two types…
Have you ever wanted to play a game where the protagonist a rectangular shaped block? How about one where you can only move by walking a block around a level on each of its faces? If this sounds appealing to you, then Cuboid is the game for you. Wait, it doesn't sound that great? So why the heck am I so addicted to this game? Cuboid is a pure puzzle game where you do exactly what I just mentioned. The objective is…
Its hard not to get a bit nostalgic when playing Magic Ball. The basic gameplay hearkens back to Breakout for the Atari, then Arkanoid in the arcades (and on Nintendo). It is effectively the next iteration in that formula. You take control of a paddle at the bottom of the screen and bounce a ball at wall full of stuff to destroy. If you miss the ball on its way down with your paddle, you lose a life. Lose them all…
Despite being around for quite some time (1990's Rampart was probably the first example), there really aren't too many retail titles in the Tower Defense (TD) strategy niche of gaming. Instead, independent developers have released free mods for existing titles and Flash games to fill the void. Recently though PixelJunk Monsters and Ninjatown have stormed the scene and acquired many a rabid fan, making the viability…
Neopets Puzzle Adventure is what you get when you take the board game Reversi (Othello), combine it with a popular Nickelodeon license, and sprinkle in some lightweight RPG elements. While it is clear this game is marketed to a younger crowd, there are things that should make any fan of puzzle games give it a look. When the game first boots up, you are asked to create your character by choosing from a list of twelve…
Its pretty clear by now that in the future, we'll have used up all of Earth's resources at some point and if science fiction has taught us anything, it's that space has a plethora of awesome reserves that we can exploit for fun and profit. Of course, along with the limitless caches found in the outer reaches comes the biggest threat to humanity: ALIENS! In Savage Moon, those aliens take the form of arachnid styled…
The PlayStation Network is quickly becoming one of my favorite things about owning a PS3. No, it's not because you can play multiplayer titles for free across it, but instead there's this little outlet called the PlayStation Store that is becoming chock full of games that are creative, entertaining, and buck the status quo by taking chances outside the typical spectrum. For some reason developers feel like they are…
Let me first start out by saying that I have not been the most loyal Street Fighter fan. The only versions of the game that I played with any sort of religiosity were the Super Nintendo versions of Street Fighter II. This includes Street Fighter II, Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting and Super Street Fighter II. Those were released about 15 years ago, and while I can remember playing them every day after school…
Ghat has a problem. He is in the very unique situation of having committed both matricide, and patricide, by killing one person. This forces him to take flight in a prehistorically fever-dream of a landscape, along with a scantily clad antlered woman, Deadra, from several of his brothers and sisters who seek his head. The story in Zeno Clash is told by jumping between present day and a series of flashbacks, leading…
