92 public reviews
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PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale is Sony 's first foray into the brawler-style fighting genre. With its focus on the company's various characters and mascots, the comparisons to Nintendo 's Super Smash Bros. series are inevitable. While All-Stars shares a number of obvious similarities with Nintendo's popular franchise, it differentiates itself with the depth of its combo system and a unique scoring method. Do…
I like golf. I know...crazy, right? I cannot remember a time where I did not have a set of golf clubs. I've been playing golf video games for almost as long too. It started with Golf on the NES and followed with others such as Links , Mario Golf , Skins Game , Hot Shots Golf , and of course Tiger Woods PGA Tour . The 06 entry version on Xbox 360 was a mess. It only had six courses, had less features than its PS2…
In America, Winning Eleven goes mostly unseen thanks to the massive FIFA train engineered by EA. But the fact is that Winning Eleven is the preferred soccer game in every country where soccer is the #1 sport. This year's offering is no different as Konami has delivered the most complete, most rewarding soccer gaming experience ever. You don't have to be a fan of soccer to enjoy this game. Any sports fan will find…
Read the full review World Soccer Winning Eleven 8 International
Xbox owning wrestling fans have had it rough. Between RAW and Legends of Wrestling, the Xbox has not seen a single good wrestling game. Not even a mediocre one. Sadly, it appears things are going to stay that way. WrestleMania 21 comes from Studio Gigante , creators of Tao Feng . For those that don't know, Gigante is John Tobias ' company he created after severing his tag team with Ed Boon and leaving Midway about…
Remember Pro Race Driver from last year? Neither does anyone else. But check some sites and you'll see it got some fairly decent reviews. Now Codemasters has released the followup to Pro Race Driver with ToCA Race Driver 2. The ULTIMATE racing simulator? Well, no...but ToCA Race Driver 2 is a great racing title and when you factor in that it supports Xbox Live and retails for only $30 it's definitely worth the…
Star Wars Battlefront is basically what you've heard it was going to be. It's Battlefield 1942 with Star Wars licenses slapped all over it...for the most part. It does have some subtle differences but make no mistake about it; this is an online game. What I mean by that is that if you don't have Xbox Live, you shouldn't even bother looking at the back of the box. It will only disappoint you. But if you do have Live,…
Sudeki is one of the many RPG's that Microsoft has promised to Xbox gamers over the years, only to be delayed eternally. Well, it's finally here. Was it worth the wait? Meh...it's not bad, but it's not a spectacular RPG that Xbox gamers have been clamouring for. Through the opening cinematic you learn that through a war of the gods, the world has been split into two parts. Your journey begins in the realm of…
Some are referring to it as "Grand Theft Spider-Man." I'm just going to refer to it as "Fun." It's amazing (no pun intended) that movie-based games are actually becoming not only decent, but actually good (i.e. Escape from Butcher Bay ). The first Spider-Man game was decent, but was ultimately lacking in content. This one on the other hand, is loaded with things to do. It follows the storyline of the movie, but…
Psi-Ops is Midway's new third-person shooter game, but before you write it off as just another run-of-the-mill TPS like the other 47 games you've seen, give it a chance. The game puts you in the shoes of Nick Scryer, a secret psi-agent who has telekinetic abilities. Nick has been trained by the government's Mindgate contingent whose current mission is to destroy the terrorist organization known as The Movement.…
Last year, Ubisoft's Montreal studio unleashed a grand surprise on the gaming world with Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time . It was an incredible reinvention of a classic series and was nominated for a slew of Game of the Year awards, winning several of them. Although the game was critically acclaimed for its design, the game didn't sell so well. Ubisoft even bundled it with Splinter Cell to try and get it off the…
After numerous delays, Ninja Gaiden has finally made its way to stores. Was it worth the wait? Simply put...hell fuckin' yeah it was. All RealUltimatePower.com jokes aside, this ninja kicks serious ass. If you're new to Team Ninja's games, Ninja Gaiden comes from the same mind of the creator of Dead or Alive , Tomonobu Itagaki . Ninja Gaiden takes place several years before the first Dead or Alive tournament, so…
I've made it no secret that I despise Madden and all it stands for. But I'm not going to waste time explaining that now, because discussing the greatness of ESPN NFL 2K5 is far more important than screaming "MADDEN SUCKS" in an AOL 2.5 chat room. For the last several years, Sega's football franchise has been the highest rated football game across the board, yet it is not the most popular. To combat this, Sega has…
NCAA Football 2005 makrs the beginning of several things. It's the first game for the 2005 sports season (baseball games named 2005 not included). It's the first EA game on Xbox that supports Xbox Live. And it also unofficially kicks off the massive influx of games that will only increase as we get closer to the holidays. So, aside from all of that, how's the game itself? Well it's pretty good. Nothing spectacular.…
You may not recognize the name of Rainbow Studios , but they're the guys behind the ATV Offroad Fury franchise, which has been quite successful. THQ has gone out and gotten Rainbow to attempt the impossible...make a dirt stuntbike game that doesn't suck. Let's face it; there are a ton of motocross games out there and pretty much all of them are terrible. Well, Rainbow Studios succeeded to an extent. MX Unleashed is…
Mortal Kombat Deception is the sixth original fighting game in the MK franchise. Although Mortal Kombat has been one of the most beloved (and hated for separate reasons) franchises in all of gaming, it has certainly had it's ups and downs from each game to the next. Many gamers believe that MKII was the pinnacle. It was leaps and bounds better than the original, and instead of improving on II, 3 just seemed goofy…
The original MechAssault defined what Xbox Live was all about and now Microsoft Games Studios and Day 1 have brought us a sequel in Lone Wolf. Not a whole lot has changed since the first one, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but after two years of Xbox Live, MechAssault isn't as fresh and exciting as it originally was. At it's core it's an online-only game, and if you don't have Xbox Live, there's not much…
Madden NFL Football has reached its 15th year of existence. That's a major accomplishment in of itself, but the fact that they've never had a particularly "bad" year in their history (I will ignore the N64 non-licensed version) is even more remarkable. It is easily the most popular football game on the market. It is undoubtedly the most purchased sports game in history. And it is arguably the biggest release of…
Legends of Wrestling is one of those games that I really, truly, desperately want to enjoy...but I just can't. The entire concept of throwing 60+ of the greatest wrestlers in the past 35 years into a game is wonderful. It just sucks that Acclaim was the company that came up with the idea, because after 2 WWF games, 2 ECW games, and 2 LoW games, they still haven't been able to figure out how to make an enjoyable…
Jade Empire is the latest epic from BioWare. If you've been living in a cave for the past decade or so, BioWare has built a solid reputation in the RPG world with the likes of Baldur's Gate , Neverwinter Nights , and most recently Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic . Jade Empire is their first Xbox-only title as well as their first game based on a completely original world. Jade is loosely based on the mythology…
Three years ago, a little game called Halo was released and showed Xbox owners and skeptics alike that Microsoft was serious about staking claim to the console market. Halo gave gamers an epic campaign mode and the most addictive multiplayer experience this side of Hungry Hungry Hippos. The original is widely considered as the best console shooter game of all time, and some would even go as far as to say that it is…
Remember about two years ago when Stuntman came out, and inside was a promo for Driver 3? Well, after multiple delays, the third installment of Reflection 's wheelman franchise has arrived. Was it worth the wait? Hell no it wasn't worth the wait. There is absolutely nothing innovative or new here, nothing. Driver may have been the game that inspired future games such as GTA3 , Vice City , and True Crime , but Driv3r…
Dead or Alive has been around for almost 10 years (do you feel old now?) and has firmly stood near the top of the heap of 3D fighting games through the years. DOA Ultimate is a compilation of sorts. On the first disc, you receive the Saturn version of the original Dead or Alive , which never came to North America. It's a perfect port except for the fact that you can now play it online. On the second disc, the main…
Burnout 3 was one of the best games of 2004; some would even say THE best. Creating a followup to a game that great is always difficult but Criterion has answered that challenge successfully. Burnout Revenge, although not as "holy shit look at this" as its predecessor, is an excellent game. By bringing back almost everything that was great about Takedown and adding such features as "Traffic Checking," vertical…
Let me begin by saying that I never played the original Burnout nor Burnout 2. I came into Burnout 3 with a clean slate, except for all the hype surrounding it, and not truly sure what to expect. After about an hour of playing I decided that it was probably the best arcade racing game I'd ever played. After a few more hours I was sure of it. And then, after another dozen hours I started to wonder if it was the…
Brothers in Arms is yet another game that made its debut at last year's E3 . By name and content alike, it draws many comparisons to HBO's hit miniseries Band of Brothers. This game is based on the true story of a group of paratroopers' eight days during and after D-Day. So do we really need another World War II FPS? Well, no...but in this case we should make an exception, because Brothers in Arms is an excellent…
Well I must admit that I've never really played any of the Baldur's Gate games, and not quite sure why. From what I understand, DA2 starts right where the first DA left off, but that doesn't mean you have to have played the original to enjoy the sequel. The game opens with a sequence showing three adventurers who come through a portal and are immediately surround by beasts plus a man named Mordoc who taunts the…
Advent Rising has been in development for quite a while at rookie studio GlyphX. From the beginning, Advent Rising has always been an ambitious project. Taking a sci-fi script written by Orsen Scott Card and implementing it into a cinematic third-person shooter game has proven to be a difficult task. Advent Rising is one of those games that you really want to like, as its brimming with potential, but in the end you…
Over the last decade, Lara Croft has become the most successful video game heroine in history. But at the same time, Tomb Raider has become a huge joke in the industry. The first two installments of Tomb Raider (1996-1997) were great games, but starting with the Tomb Raider III , the series got progressively worse through Last Revelation , Chronicles , and eventually the disgustingly horrid Angel of Darkness . The…
Rare may be one of the most legendary developers in the history of videogames, but they are also notorious for taking their sweet time in getting projects from the development phase to the store shelves. Kameo , the other Rare 360 launch title, was initially an N64 game, so that should give you an idea of how long they take. It's been five and a half years since we saw Joanna Dark on the N64 (and over EIGHT years…
Originally scheduled for the launch of 360, Ghost Recon proves to be worth the wait by presenting truly next-gen gameplay along with astounding graphics. GRAW, as it seems to have deemed itself, takes place in 2017 in Mexico City. The President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Canada are visiting the Mexican President for a summit. You are Scott Mitchell , a captain in the elite squad of Ghosts. When a…
Read the full review Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter
Wario is one strange dude. While he's not trying to piledrive Mario or competing in sporting events, he spends his time in lovely Diamond City with a slew of crazy neighbors. If you haven't played a Wario Ware game before, you are totally missing out on one of the most unique gaming experiences of the past five years. Dubbed as "microgames," Wario Ware throws you into a rapid succession of 5-second scenarios that…
Much like Ridge Racer , Twisted Metal has been a staple for Sony's systems. The original Twisted Metal was an early system seller for Sony, and Twisted Metal Black , released in 2001, brought the game back to it's glory days after 989 had destroyed the franchise with parts III and 4. If you aren't in the know, Twisted Metal (1, 2, and Black) was created by Dave Jaffe , who you should know is the creative mind behind…
For over a decade, Tekken has been a revolutionary force in field of 3D fighters. It was one of the originals and to this day it is still one of the best. The arcade scene in America may be dead, but now you can get your Tekken fix anywhere and anytime with this excellent arcade port of Tekken 5 's expansion. With the PSP version of Dark Resurrection, you actually get more than the arcade version offered and even…
Ridge Racer has been around for close about 13 years now. It was one of the must-have launch titles for the original PlayStation in 1995, and it was the racing game to hold you over til Gran Turismo 3 when the PS2 launched in 2000. To continue with the Sony launch tradition, Namco has released Ridge Racer for the PSP. The title says alot about this game. In recent years, the Ridge Racer franchise has taken a slide,…
Lumines (LOO-meh-ness) is an extremely difficult game to explain, but I shall try my best to convey may enthusiasm for this most innovative puzzle game. At first glance, any gamer will begin to compare Lumines to Tetris. It is indeed a falling block puzzle game, but that's about where the similarities end. Coming from the mind of Tetsuya Mizuguchi, the creator of Space Channel 5 and Rez, Lumines is billed as "Puzzle…
Originally scheduled as a launch title, Hot Shots Golf has finally arrived on the PSP and just in time. The PSP's launch is starting to fade, and people are looking for the next big title. Grand Theft Auto and Midnight Club got pushed back, so look no further than Open Tee. On the surface, Hot Shots has always looked cutesy and charming, but as anyone who has played the series knows, you will be hard pressed to find…
Death Jr was the very first game ever shown on the PSP, but much in the same way that Malice was once used to show the power of the Xbox, Death Jr has arrived late and disappoints (although not as drastically as Malice). The premise is good, the characters are likable, but the presentation suffers. This translates to an overall flat experience when it's painfully obvious that this game could've been so much more.…
SmackDown! vs RAW is the 6th installment in Yuke's immensely successful PSone/PS2 wrestling franchise. Through the years, the game has simply become better and better, and this year the big new features are online play and SuperStar voice-overs. With everything from Here Comes the Pain plus Online play and voices, how could they go wrong? Well, as a die-hard wrestling fan, I must say I'm a little disappointed even…
THUG2 is the 6th Tony Hawk game in as many years from Neversoft. Every year people expect the series to stall, but every year the guys at Neversoft churn out another masterpiece of skating. Last year they took the series in a new direction by implementing a story mode that focused on you becoming a pro. This year they continue with this idea but take yet another step farther away from the original games. In THUG2,…
Tony Hawk's American Wasteland is the seventh installment of the Tony Hawk series in seven years. Wow...seven years? Anyway, THAW is also the third re-invention of the series after 4 incredible Pro Skater games and 2 debatable Underground games. Thankfully, American Wasteland returns the series to its skater roots after going off on a Jackass style tangent the last two years. The core of the game is still the same…
10 years. Tekken has been around for 10 years. Feel old yet? Well, don't feel bad, because Tekken 5 will remind you of the fun you had in the past. The fifth (sixth if you count Tag) installment in Namco's blockbuster fighting franchise is excellent in virtually every aspect. Gone are the adjustments and "features" that made fans turn away from Tekken 4. It's almost as if Tekken 4 never existed, except for storyline…
After another two-year hiatus, SSX returns with the fourth installment. SSX On Tour is an excellent addition to an already stellar franchise that dates back to Day 1 of the PlayStation 2. In Fall 2000, SSX was the best PS2 launch title and while the game has changed over the last five years, it has kept true to its racing core. On Tour big addition to the SSX formula is the ability to ride the snow on skis as well…
Shadow of the Colossus is a game unlike any other. You play a young man trying to save his one true love by defeating a number of enemies that hold the secret to bringing her back to life. Okay...so maybe the premise isn't exactly original, but that's where the unoriginality ends. The game comes to us from the same development team that brought us one of the best PS2 games ever made, ICO. Adored by critics yet…
Sly Cooper was originally released in 2002 and was a fun mix of action platformer and a dash of stealth. It was a good game, but was ridiculously short. Sucker Punch returns now with Sly 2, and it's a more complete package to say the least. As before, you play as Sly Cooper , the thieving raccoon, but unlike last time, you can now play parts of missions as the rest of Sly's crew. Bentley the turtle is the brains of…
Serious Sam has somewhat of a cult following on the PC, and Xbox owners got a taste of the madness a little over year ago. Now PS2 and Gamecube owners get The Next Encounter which takes Sam through Ancient Rome, Atlantis, and Ancient China. This is by no means some epic FPS like Halo or Far Cry . Next Encounter is basically a throwback to the reckless style of the early FPS games where you enter a room, the doors…
Up Your Arsenal is the third installment of the Ratchet & Clank saga. After disowning their baby Spyro, Insomniac has set out to make the best overall action-platformer in the industry. And while they have a friendly rivalry with Naughty Dog (Jak & Daxter), with an entry like Up Your Arsenal, it would be hard to say that Insomniac hasn't succeeded in that very goal. It's impossible not to compare it to Jak & Daxter…
Phantom Brave is the third tactical RPG to come out Nippon Ichi Studios in the span of a year. They're still a bit under the radar but have definitely garnered a cult following of RPG and anime fans alike. Phantom Brave is quite similar to its predecessors ( Disgaea & La Pucelle ) in many ways, but also very different when looked at closely. The game still features graphics that will turn off the majority of the…
The third and final installment of Capcom's Onimusha series has arrived. Is it the best yet? Yes, yes it is. The first game was a good action title for the young PS2, but the second game replaced the main character and the graphics and gameplay didn't change enough from the first one to stand up to the current crop of games at the time. The third installment takes the game out of the 2D backgrounds and puts you in a…
