Reviews by Rob Hamilton, page 18

Secret of Mana review

The farther you advance into the adventure, the more worthless the hero becomes when compared to his two companions. He is the best melee fighter, which is great for mowing through the common enemies that reside on the paths your party…

Rob Hamilton · January 25, 2013

Staff NES HG exclusive

Gradius II: Gofer no Yabou review

In Gradius II, you are immediately greeted by the choice between four different weapon sets (as opposed to only one in the original) and then you advance to a very attractive opening stage loaded with fiery asteroids. Making this level…

Rob Hamilton · January 12, 2013

Staff SNES HG exclusive

EarthBound review

At seemingly random moments, a man will descend from the sky to take a photograph of your party before vanishing the way he came. One NPC's desire to create a memorable dungeon leads to him changing his body into one. This is one of those…

Rob Hamilton · December 30, 2012

Staff SNES HG exclusive

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest review

First, a company comes out with a game that has potential and is terrific in some aspects, but it lacks a bit overall. In the case of Rare's Donkey Kong Country, the Super Nintendo played host to an absolutely gorgeous platformer that just…

Rob Hamilton · December 8, 2012

Staff NES HG exclusive

The Battle of Olympus review

Pay a visit to the island maze-fortress of Crete and the minute you step in the door, you'll be cut to shreds by various Amazon warriors who are both durable and capable of moving their shields around to block attacks much like The…

Rob Hamilton · November 22, 2012

Staff Xbox 360 HG exclusive

Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition review

When my questing first took me here, I admit that it didn't take long for me to get lost, as I wasn't really paying that much attention to the in-game map. D.C. is essentially a world unto itself. A confusing, labyrinthine world with many…

Rob Hamilton · November 17, 2012

Staff NES HG exclusive

Zoda's Revenge: Star Tropics 2 review

The original StarTropics was mostly confined to a random series of tropical islands, and everything blended together after a while. In Zoda's Revenge, you control Mike Jones as he travels from a prehistoric land, to ancient Egypt, to other…

Rob Hamilton · October 29, 2012

Staff SNES HG exclusive

ActRaiser review

While it doesn't take much reading between the lines for a person to at least grasp the fundamentals of this, Nintendo's censorship did take away some of the impact this sort of plot might have, leaving us with the sort of standard fantasy…

Rob Hamilton · October 26, 2012

Staff Xbox 360 HG exclusive

Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness - Episode 3 review

To keep battles from being stale, a decent number of them have special stipulations which can work in your favor, the monsters' favor or in an unexpected way — such as when you fight the alien leader in an outer space dimension and find…

Rob Hamilton · October 18, 2012

Staff SNES HG exclusive

Illusion of Gaia review

In fact, the beginning of the game is pretty much one big cliche. Shortly after the game begins, Will unintentionally gets on the wrong side of the local king and queen and is forced to flee the area with the rulers' spoiled and naive…

Rob Hamilton · October 5, 2012

Staff NES HG exclusive

River City Ransom review

The main challenge for me when playing River City Ransom was simply surviving the trek between the second and third malls, as you have to travel through many screens and the easier gangs are weeded out in favor of ones that cause a lot…

Rob Hamilton · September 21, 2012

Staff NES HG exclusive

Crystalis review

It's almost like you're playing an arcade game rather than an action-RPG when you're going against a guy like Mado, who regularly transforms into a giant sphere that erratically pinballs around the tight confines of his room. That’s…

Rob Hamilton · September 11, 2012

Staff NES HG exclusive

S.C.A.T.: Special Cybernetic Attack Team review

I also feel I must note that it takes a certain lack of imagination to put together a game this short and still waste one of the available boss encounters on a generic shooter snake. What makes it even worse is that this generic shooter…

Rob Hamilton · August 24, 2012

Staff NES HG exclusive

Ghosts 'N Goblins review

I also probably shouldn't forget how you need one particular weapon to simply damage the final boss. Or that if you do manage to kill it, you find out that you were the victim of a cruel hoax and have to do the six main levels over again…

Rob Hamilton · August 8, 2012

Staff NES HG exclusive

Final Fantasy II review

If one of them makes a habit of using swords in battle, that character will eventually be far more useful with that kind of weapon than any other. If another one specializes in casting spells, he'll wind up with tons of magic points. And…

Rob Hamilton · July 19, 2012

Staff Atari 2600 HG exclusive

Pac-Man review

However, just because I had fun times with family while playing this game doesn't mean I can excuse its large list of faults. That period of time can best be described as good times with a bad game simply because we didn't know any better.

Rob Hamilton · June 21, 2012

Staff Xbox 360 HG exclusive

O.C.D. review

With O.C.D., you grind so you can grind more; you gain skills so you can grind more quickly; you harvest goods to make items and equipment so you can grind even more quickly. The grinding isn't a means to an end, it's the beginning, middle…

Rob Hamilton · June 15, 2012

Staff Xbox 360 HG exclusive

Game of Thrones review

While there is magic in the world of Game of Thrones, the majority of it is in Mors' and Alester's respective dog and fire powers. Unlike Dragon Age Origins, there are no darkspawn, no dragons, no werewolves and no sentient trees. Hell…

Rob Hamilton · June 5, 2012

Staff PC HG exclusive

The Mist review

You'll be screwing around, attempting to input any damn command the computer might actually recognize, outside the hardware store when suddenly you'll get a "The bug just appeared" message. Now, one of two things will happen. First, if…

Rob Hamilton · May 25, 2012

Staff Xbox 360 HG exclusive

Trials Evolution review

Well, I'm going to have to find a way to perfectly run tracks that utterly brutalized my biker during my first stab at them. Hell, I'll be happy if I just FINISH the Gigatrack course. Just thinking about running it perfectly seems so…

Rob Hamilton · May 2, 2012