29 public 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.
Let’s get one thing straight right now: I’m not the kind of guy who is extremely knowledgeable about fighting games. I’ve played my fair share – all of the Virtua Fighters , every Street Fighter , and so on – but I wouldn’t say I’m terribly good at them. I know just enough to be a danger to myself. I understand what chip damage is, and if you hum a few bars, I can probably do a cross up – or at least know when one’s…
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed for the Xbox 360 is a great game. One of the best kart racers of our generation. Before writing my original review , I basically ended up clearing most of the game over the course of a week: I unlocked every possible racer, finished most of World Tour mode’s missions, and had completed the entire Grand Prix (even mirror tracks). But All-Stars Racing Transformed (ASRT) on the…
I’m sure we’ve all bought at least one retro arcade game collection – for me, my most recent purchase was Midway Arcade Treasures Volume 3 , which contains a collection of racing games from the early-to-mid 90′s. When I initially got it, I was a little bit disappointed; all of the games included were almost insultingly easy and incredibly simple. Removed from the environment of the arcade, some of them barely even…
If you don’t know who Dean Dodrill is, maybe I can’t blame you. He’s been in and out of the videogame industry for more than a decade, having worked as an animator on Jazz Jackrabbit 2 and having been one of the driving forces behind the never-released Jazz Jackrabbit 3D . As the story goes, Dean Dodrill simply sat down one day and decided he wanted to make a videogame all by himself. Four years later, we have Dust:…
I really want to like the Kingdom Hearts games. Having two juggernauts like Square-Enix and Disney merge their complete stable of franchises together to create one of the most impressive crossovers in the entertainment industry is a very appealing concept. Unfortunately, after actually playing the original Kingdom Hearts all the way up to the end, I found myself considerably underwhelmed. The problem with Kingdom…
Ten years can do a lot to change our perception of something. In 1999, we saw the release of Sonic Adventure , one of Sega and Sonic Team’s most ambitious games of that era. When you consider the scope of platformer games at the time, such as Crash Bandicoot or Banjo-Kazooie , the scale of Sonic Adventure was impressive. Six different characters, each with their own unique gameplay style, at least one hour of…
I hesitated as to whether or not this would work as a review. I’ve been meaning to write something about Journey for literally a week now. It was last Sunday – me and my cousin and good friend Matt had decided we would spend his day off from work just “hanging out”. And hang out we did – we ended up playing a little bit of the board game Pandemic , did a little bit of co-op in Splinter Cell: Conviction , but one of…
It was like everybody had the same epiphany: Mario Kart wasn’t what it used to be. Over the years, Mario Kart had begun to more heavily emphasize its party game elements – running the race was becoming less important than knocking your friends around with blue shells. And so, a number of kart racers were born that vowed to “fix” Mario Kart – you had Split/Second , Blur , and ModNation Racers all vying to fill the…
NiGHTS: Into Dreams… was kind of a weird game for its time. Released in the same month as Super Mario 64 , many people (perhaps mistakenly) saw NiGHTS as Sega’s response to Nintendo’s launch title behemoth. Whereas Super Mario 64 would go on to revolutionize 3D control in literally every action game to follow, NiGHTS was a far more understated experience. It focused on what Sega was best at: arcade-style gameplay,…
If you ask me, Sonic Adventure 2 was the beginning of the end for 3D Sonic games. Whenever I hear somebody tell me that they think Sonic Adventure 2 is the best 3D Sonic game, I cannot help but muster a funny look. Don’t get me wrong: SA2 is, in certain areas, a vast improvement over the original Sonic Adventure – with generally tighter controls, a significant boost in graphical detail, and less fiddly collision…
When you think about it, there are a lot of similarities shared between Jet Set Radio and the original Sonic the Hedgehog on the Sega Genesis. Both had unique graphical styles, incredible soundtracks, were heavily focused on gameplay through momentum, and were in tune with a lot of things that were "cool" in their era. But for however important and iconic the original Sonic the Hedgehog was to Sega, I think it is…
Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 was a lot of things. It was Sega’s episodic New Super Mario Bros. – an attempt to retrofit new concepts in to an old framework, as a means to tap in to a nostalgic vein for those old enough to remember. Instead, Episode 1 confirmed what many die-hard Sonic fans had perhaps assumed all along: that nobody in a position of importance within Sega remembered what originally defined the…
I have a controversial statement to make: I never really “got” Sonic CD . Oh, sure, I knew how to play the game, and I certainly didn’t hate it, but it never really seemed to click with me in the same way it did with everyone else. Yeah, Sonic CD probably has the strongest art direction in the Sonic franchise, and regardless of whether you prefer the original Japanese soundtrack or the alternate North American one,…
Few franchises in the entertainment industry have seen as many ups and downs as Sonic the Hedgehog. And yet, some how, for some reason, the little blue guy has endured 20 years of astronomical highs and diabolical lows. Sonic Generations attempts to put a bow on the last two decades of Sonic games, and though it may not be absolutely and entirely perfect in every little detail, Sonic Team has finally managed to…
Sonic Rush changed everything about the Sonic series. The stylish music, hyperactive presentation, and focus on all-out speed took root and not only birthed a sequel (one Sonic Rush Adventure ) but also heavily influenced the Sonic franchise as a whole, as clearly evident in 2008′s Sonic Unleashed . In a similar vein, Sonic Colors on the Nintendo Wii continues many of the ideas put forth in Unleashed with some key…
It’s easy to get caught up in the zeitgeist surrounding Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 . For close to a decade now, there has been a dedicated segment of the gaming community who has pounded their fists in demand for a game that plays just like the early-90′s Sega Genesis classics. By all means, Sonic the Hedgehog 4 should have been the game everybody has waited so long for. Excitement was replaced by…
Capcom has been taking a lot of risks with downloadable games in ways that most developers aren’t. It all began with 2008′s Bionic Commando Rearmed . Rearmed served as a high-definition refresh to the original NES cult classic, in order to prepare gamers for the big budget, full-3D Bionic Commando to be released later that year. In a number of ways, Rearmed ended up being far more critically and commercially…
The Legend of Zelda games used to be a rare treat. With a few exceptions, most games in the series were typically separated by a period of at least four or five years. Some time after the venerable The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time , things began to change. Barely even a year after the Hero of Time’s debut, Nintendo began to step up production on new Zelda games. It seemed as though every other year brought with…
You know, let's face it - if you don't own the Sega Genesis Sonic games by now, you need to have your gaming license revoked simply due to the sheer volume of times they've been re-released. We've had Sonic Compilation on the Genesis itself, followed by Sonic Jam for the Saturn, Jam Pak for the Dreamcast and PC, Sonic Mega Collection and Sonic Gems Collection for the PC, PS2, Gamecube and Xbox, re-releases on…
I’m going to be frank with you, dear reader. I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I did not finish Sands of Destruction for the Nintendo DS. I could not finish Sands of Destruction for the Nintendo DS. I make it a habit to finish the games I’ve set out to review, but in the end, this is the only way this review is going to get written. Which, simply put, is a shame, both for me, and for the game. Going in to Sands of…
As the years have passed, the Mario Kart franchise has slowly shifted its focus from being a wacky racing game to playing more like a party game, akin to Mario Party and its ilk. This has prompted a response from Sega in the form of All-Stars Racing , a game that attempts to blend the “wacky racing” vibe of earlier Mario Kart s with gameplay that rewards skilled driving. Though it stumbles on a few minor details,…
For a lot of gamers, Sonic Team’s “ Phantasy Star Online ” was a revolution – an online multiplayer dungeon crawler on a game console. Previously, RPGs of this type were relegated to the PC, with games like Diablo 2 requiring dexterous fingers for its many hotkeys, keyboard text chat and feverish mouse clicks. PSO transcended all of that, simplified it down to its essence, and made it workable on a gamepad with a…
Shenmue is a very divisive game for many gamers who have played it. On one hand, you have a group of people who declare that the game’s slow, methodical pace makes it a chore to play. On the other hand, you have a group of people who proudly declare it’s methodical pace as the entire reason the game is so engrossing – that it really helps draw the player in with a daunting level of realism. Regardless of what…
I don't expect many people to remember Astal . As somebody who bought a Sega Saturn first and a Sony Playstation second, I, however, do. Astal is an interesting-but-not-spectacular 2D game that crafts a beautiful world with wonderful music and some interesting ideas, but misses its mark on some of the game mechanics. Its main problem is the controls; to defeat enemies, Astal himself often has to get dangerously…
How you'll feel about Sonic Unleashed largely depends on how you feel about Sonic the Hedgehog's foray in to the third dimension. In comparative terms, Unleashed is the best foot forward this franchise has had since the Dreamcast, and if you enjoyed something like Sonic Adventure 2 , you'll probably enjoy Sonic Unleashed . Of course, there are more and more people these days who are tired of bad 3D Sonic games, and…
Rare. Rare is a company that, some would say, used to be obsessed with trying to emulate Nintendo. All one has to do is take a look at their library of games to see more than a few striking similarities. Donkey Kong Country seems to emulate Super Mario World. Diddy Kong Racing emulates Mario Kart 64. Banjo-Kazooie emulates Super Mario 64 (the game’s star character, Banjo, is even said to be a tribute to Shigeru…
You could basically say I bought my Gamecube for Super Mario Sunshine, I suppose. Like everybody else, I fell in love with Super Mario 64. The idea of more Super Mario 64? Sign me up. Finally, somewhere around Christmas 2004, I managed to pick up a Gamecube; and, as I just mentioned, the first game I bought with my Gamecube was Super Mario Sunshine. The introductory cutscene sets the stage for the game: Mario, the…
Let me lay it on the line: I’m a Sonic fan. I have been since the birth of the franchise. To me, Sonic games are serious business. And yes, I’ve made a few bad purchase decisions because there was a blue hedgehog on the box. Let’s face it: The Sonic franchise is in the dumps. More often than not, each Sonic game to come out of Sega is more bad than it is good. Quite simply put, Sonic’s glory days were on the Sega…
Before we begin about the subject at hand, it would probably be a good idea to give you a little background information about me as a person; it's essential to alleviating my own guilt. I'm a Sonic fan; something in 1991 truly captivated me and it's been hard to shake since then. To me, Sonic games are serious business - and yes, I’ve made a couple of bad purchases because there was a blue hedgehog on the box. When…
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