Review Archives (Staff Reviews)

You are currently looking through staff reviews for games that are available on every platform the site currently covers. Below, you will find reviews written by all eligible authors and sorted according to date of submission, with the newest content displaying first. As many as 20 results will display per page. If you would like to try a search with different parameters, specify them below and submit a new search.

	Rad Mobile review (ARC) Reviewed by Zigfried on November 21, 2010 - # I remember drooling over magazine screenshots for Rad Mobile, known back in 1991 as "that 32-bit arcade game WHOA MOMMA". I remember actually playing Rad Mobile and being impressed by that first intersection where I had to pass through cross-traffic, as well as the police car barricade . . . in which cruisers actually passed me and spun horizontally to bring my runaway radmobile to a halt.
	Monopoly Streets review (PS3) Reviewed by Jason Venter on November 18, 2010 - # You can play by the standard rule set (with a few minor tweaks from the game that I remember), or you can select a few preset game modes. Those modes have names, such as "Bull Market" (where the players begin with more money and every piece of property is auctioned off before anyone even starts moving around the board) and "Jack Pot" (where it's possible to upgrade spaces that you own with houses and hotels even if you don't have a proper monopoly). If you'd prefer changes that are less drastic, you can create and name various custom configurations for convenient use down the road.
	101-in-1 Sports Megamix review (DS) Reviewed by Gary Hartley on November 16, 2010 - # Tennis’ failure doesn’t detract from every game, and you could argue that when given such a large number of sports to partake in, there’s always going to be some duds, and you’re always going to be able to skip over some events and still have enough points locked away to attempt everything. The problem is that there are too many mini-games that play out like the failures than there are the successes.
	Eliminate Down review (GEN) Reviewed by Marc Golding on November 16, 2010 - # For a shooter physique to be adequately robust, there are certain requirements. Its body composition must be as follows: rocking tunes, interesting places and foes, a hard ass level of difficulty, and that muscle which elicits memorable maneuvers from the player. ED's got 'em all in shameful abundance.
	Call of Duty: Black Ops review (X360) Reviewed by Jason Venter on November 15, 2010 - # So there are a lot of explosions and people cuss a lot, sometimes a few times per line of dialogue, and then when the tone is properly established there's not really much profanity at all and the explosions don't really impress as much because when you've seen one Jeep go up in flames, you've seen 'em all. It's at that moment, when you've become desensitized to the napalm and the knife thrusts and the pistol blasts, that you realize something: Black Ops isn't a particularly competent single-player shooter.
	Uncharted 2: Among Thieves review (PS3) Reviewed by Rob Hamilton on November 13, 2010 - # Drake is a kick-ass sort of super-cool guy who seems completely in control whether he's gunning down hostiles, impersonating Spider-Man while exploring vast caverns for treasure or delivering devastating zingers with impeccable timing. Working as his support cast are TWO potential love interests, an equally sarcastic friend-turned foe, a gruff and shady mentor and, of course, a megalomaniac looking to take over the world. The script writes itself.
	OutRun review (ARC) Reviewed by Sho on November 12, 2010 - # Accompanied by those all-important accessories of the '80s – a cool pair of shades and a hot beach bunny – you too can climb behind the wheel of a cherry-hued Ferrari Testarossa and experience the simple pleasures of tearing through picturesque countryside at nearly 200 miles per hour.
	Medal of Honor review (X360) Reviewed by Gary Hartley on November 10, 2010 - # I won’t pretend that I’ll not sink hours and hours of my time into online play, but it doesn’t stop the title from being only half of what it should be. I’m not about to ignore that.
	Rock Band 3 review (X360) Reviewed by Ben Lee on November 08, 2010 - # One of the biggest complaints about simulated rock has been that jamming with plastic instruments just isn’t the same as playing a real instrument. For me, that’s missing the point; these sorts of games have always been more about having pure and utter fun. But Harmonix has spent the last two years addressing this, and while the basic premise of Rock Band 3 has a familiar feel to it--play a bunch of songs until you become a superstar--it's also the most innovative and complete rhythm game yet.
	Mafia II review (X360) Reviewed by Gary Hartley on November 08, 2010 - # Mafia II is to sandbox games what staple guns are to cosmetic surgery: there’s a link there if you search hard enough, but it’s tenuous at best. Empire City, the ten square mile playground for 2K’s new gangster game, is completely open for exploration very early on. The big problem with this is there’s nowhere really to go.
	Super Sprint review (ARC) Reviewed by Zigfried on November 07, 2010 - # The top of an outdated genre isn't a bad place to be. Super Sprint will always have a place in any respectable classic arcade. Give it a shot to see what the cranky old-timers used to play; I bet you'll have trouble walking away.
	Knights in the Nightmare review (PSP) Reviewed by Greg Knoll on November 06, 2010 - # Once Knights starts, it’s a non-stop struggle that requires constant action in order to win. You don’t simply move your units into range before you can attack. For the most part, your soldiers remain stationary unless their attack leads them forward, while the enemies stalk the battlefield in a regimented pattern. The only freedom in movement you’re allowed is via the wisp, controlled by the analog stick. He can move anywhere on the field, to any corner of the screen, to execute your strategy.
	Eschalon Book II review (PC) Reviewed by Leslie Paul on November 04, 2010 - # Eschalon Book II picks up right where the first left off, explaining enough as you go along so that you don’t need to have any prior experience with the series to get your full enjoyment out of it. Furthermore, all the qualities that led to the first game’s fantastic reception are back. Open exploration and non-linear storytelling enable you to complete quests at your leisure. Customizable character creation enables you to assign attribute and skill points however you wish. And an innumerable list of strategies and methods of play lay at your fingertips.
	The 7th Saga review (SNES) Reviewed by Sho on November 03, 2010 - # Even on a system renowned for its expansive library of RPGs, successfully completing The 7th Saga is an unforgettable experience. Unfortunately this is solely due to its patently unfair difficulty, because the generic dungeons, incomprehensible abbreviations, and skeletal excuse for a plot would likely put everyone to sleep if all the random encounters weren't straight out of their darkest nightmares.
	Castlevania: Symphony of the Night review (PSX) Reviewed by Sho on October 31, 2010 - # Whether as a loving tribute to the series' glorious past or a striking declaration of its subsequent revival, Symphony of the Night will make any 2D enthusiast shed bloody tears of joy. Thematically a sequel to the equally legendary Rondo of Blood, this nocturne in the moonlight takes its predecessor's newfound emphasis on nonlinearity to an entirely new level – a seemingly preordained marriage to Super Metroid, now laden with haunting gothic atmosphere and a ridiculous amount of character growth for protagonist Alucard, the outwardly delicate but incredibly potent dhampir prince first introduced in Akumajou Densetsu.
	Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines review (PC) Reviewed by Sho on October 30, 2010 - # It's seemingly impossible to so much as turn over a rock in Bloodlines without encountering more pasty-faced neck biters that you can shake a sharpened stake at, but there's otherwise very little about this game that sucks. These aren't the sorts of vampires who constantly whine about their lost humanity or take annoying teenage princesses to the prom, either; we're talking about hard-drinking and even harder-dying undead anarchists packing UZIs who'd just as soon rip your head off and use it to shoot hoops in the dirty, haunted streets of downtown Los Angeles, except that kind of thing always gets the elders' velvety cloaks in a bunch. Keeping up appearances in front of the cattle and all that; they have nuclear missiles instead of holy water and boomerangs these days.
	Shin Megami Tensei review (SNES) Reviewed by Sho on October 29, 2010 - # For Kazuya, a perfectly ordinary Japanese youth, it had been a perfectly ordinary beginning to a perfectly ordinary day: having roused himself from slightly sticky dreams of men that are hung (from crucifixes) and sapphire-haired devil ladies proclaiming their eternal love, our hero spends his morning downloading the hottest apps off the local BBS (look it up) before heading out on an adventuresome quest for fresh milk. Then his mom gets eviscerated by a demon from the rather similarly torn bowels of the underworld, he accidentally transmogrifies the faithful family hound into Cerberus, and the world ends. It's at around that point that the day really starts to go downhill.
	Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers review (PC) Reviewed by Sho on October 28, 2010 - # Whether in the role of silver-tongued conman or paranormal investigator, Gabriel Knight is definitely someone you'll want to know; his career might have begun just as the entire adventure genre was taking those first, faltering steps on its slow descent into irrelevance, but Sins of the Fathers masterfully demonstrates why Sierra On-Line once drove the computer industry.
	Haunted Casino review (SAT) Reviewed by Sho on October 27, 2010 - # A typical match with one of the seven available dealers is divided into three separate rounds wherein she starts out in corsets and colorful gowns before being reduced to filmy, silken underthings that leave nothing to the imagination until they too are cast aside to reveal naught but cold, creamy flesh for the final battle. These garments are handed over to the very approving imp in exchange for heaving stacks of chips nearly as abundant as those newly revealed pleasure globes until at last your bankrupt beauty goes down with a hilariously inept video of the poor lass being sucked into a black hole, presumably in search of some pants.
	Splatterhouse 2 review (GEN) Reviewed by Sho on October 26, 2010 - # The controls are stiffer than one of its endless supply of corpses, and the average level is a short, uninspired advance from left to right punching identical hordes of muck-encrusted undead while occasionally hopping over a hole in the floor. But since our hero can only withstand a few hits before collapsing in a lumpy heap, it's all but required that you perfectly memorize all the enemy patterns through painstaking repetition until reaching the boss with full health. There's only one reason this cartridge wasn't totally lost to the shadows of mediocrity – it has enough gore to fill a swimming pool.

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