Originally, “interactive movies” described games like Dragon’s Lair: literal movies where you pressed a button at the right time to keep watching the movie. In the late 90s, the concept of an “interactive movie” morphed into a hybrid consisting of segregated “movie” and “game” parts. You play for a minute, watch a really long cutscene, continue playing, long cutscene, etc. The story unfolds in the “movie” parts and all of the coolest scenes require no input from the player. The status quo has re...

Playing the original Sonic the Hedgehog is a lot like revisiting your old elementary school: you know your way around, and you’ve got some good memories, but the place just isn’t as big as you remember it. Sonic 1 feels like a footnote in platformer history—it’s so slight that it’s hard to comprehend why it was such a big hit. It’s decent, but the gameplay feels unrefined, the level design is a mixed bag, and the game’s look is neither as fast nor as colorful as its sequels. Sonic 1 plays like e...

Metal Gear Solid 2 is the point of the series where it it’s not just a game anymore. It was here that Hideo Kojima was convinced he was making History’s Next Great Epic. This was to be the Homer’s Odyssey of the video game era. The half hour codec conversations were to leave the viewer in a state of trance, convulsing with the uncontrollable aura of Truth. When Kojima tells us “Life isn't just about passing on your genes. We can leave behind much more than just DNA”, we are not listening ...

I have to wonder why the makers of Metal Gear Solid didn’t just make a movie. Here’s a game where the gameplay is never the focus, where interactivity is just a vehicle to get to the next cutscene, where the controller spends more time in your lap than it does in your hands. The best games use interactivity to tell their stories—it is, after all, what separates games from movies. Metal Gear Solid goes in exactly the opposite direction, keeping story and gameplay on opposite sides of a brick wall...

Chains of Olympus is a handheld version of the PS2 God of War games. But don’t be fooled: it wants desperately to not be a handheld game. In the transition from DVD9 to a 1.8GB UMD, nothing has been lost as far as gameplay is concerned. Content? Replay value? That’s another story. But as a technical achievement, you’d be hard-pressed to find any handheld game with production values this high. All of the over-the-top action of the PS2 games is here, as is their superb visuals and orchestral sound...

You need to be a Nintendo fan to enjoy Smash Bros. The entire appeal is playing as all those characters from your childhood you’re nostalgic for. I’ve tried playing Brawl with people who’d never played Zelda or Metroid or Kirby, and all I got was a bunch of bored shrugs. But if you have three friends who are interested, the offline multiplayer is some of the most fun you’ll ever have with a fighting game. Notice how I stress “offline multiplayer”, as the single-player game is dull, and the much-...

Apollo Justice is exactly like the Phoenix Wright games. The formula has been beaten to death at this point; what was fresh and original in the first game is feeling awfully worn-out now. Despite being the first game in the series developed with the DS in mind, and getting a new main character, almost nothing has changed for better or worse. None of the nagging flaws from the previous Ace Attorneys have been addressed, which is very annoying, considering the developers have had three sequels wit...

As I was playing through Mario Galaxy, I found I was having fun. But not the conventional type of fun. Let’s call it “half-fun”. It’s the kind of fun where you enjoy what you’re playing but at the same time you’re bored out of your mind. It’s like after you drink a big Slurpee; you feel very quenched but simultaneously very thirsty. It became increasingly clear over the course of Galaxy that the game would be a lot better if it wasn’t a Mario game. Forget being played out to death; Mario’s been ...

Boring. Stale. Rehashed. What do all these words have in common? They describe the Zelda series perfectly. There was a time when I was a Zelda fan; that was when Ocarina of Time was still called Ocarina of Time. I wasn’t a fan when OoT was repackaged and called Wind Waker. I wasn’t a fan when OoT was repackaged again and called Twilight Princess. I wasn’t a fan of Majora’s Mask, either, but I respect that game for trying something new. So what’s Twilight Princess’ excuse? This is as dull, vapid,...

Radiant Dawn is a direct sequel to Path of Radiance. The gameplay engine is almost identical and all the characters return (to the point of overkill), so if you liked PoR, you’ll like Radiant Dawn. On the other hand, if you’re not a Fire Emblem fan, Radiant Dawn won’t do much to change your mind. It’s not the best game in the series by a longshot, but RD is still a really addicting game.