Review Archives (All Reviews)

You are currently looking through all reviews for games that are available on every platform the site currently covers. Below, you will find reviews written by phediuk 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.

Available Reviews
	Super Mario Land review (GB) Reviewed on November 02, 2006 Take Super Mario Bros. Cut the game's 32 levels down to 12. Make two of those levels auto-scrolling shoot-'em-ups. Add in unique (but unremarkable) boss battles at the end of each world. Finally, make the whole game black-and-pea-soup-green. There's Super Mario Land.	2.5/5
	Guerilla War review (NES) Reviewed on September 26, 2006 I won't pretend Guerrilla War is a very innovative game, because it's pretty much as derivative as it gets. There are no fancy gameplay mechanics on display here; this is the epitome of grab-a-weapon-shoot-some-baddies game design. But it's well-executed, it gets your adrenaline pumping, and that's enough to recommend the game. As far as run 'n' guns go, and especially as overhead ones go, Guerrilla War has no real competition on the NES. This is the best the system has to offer for pure twitch ...	3.5/5
	Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney review (DS) Reviewed on August 17, 2006 The concept of Phoenix Wright is simple: you are a lawyer. Or, to be more specific, a defense attorney. Your job is to save your client from conviction--they're always innocent of the crime--and invariably find the real perpetrator, who is always caught during their own testimonies declaring the defendant's guilt. The game becomes predictable in a hurry. But it's entertaining, it has some inspired moments, and there's no other game quite like it. Until Phoenix Wright 2 is released, that is.	3.5/5
	Ghosts 'N Goblins review (NES) Reviewed on August 04, 2006 Ghosts 'n Goblins exemplifies the worst kind of challenge in a game: a game that is ridiculously hard solely to piss off whoever plays it. Ghosts 'n Goblins has no real agenda other than to make you mad. And it will succeed in that mission long before you ever complete the game. This is the kind of game where the developers purposely jacked up the difficulty to disguise the fact that their game plays like a fart. It looks bad, it sounds bad, it plays horribly, and you'd be hard-pressed to find a...	1/5
	Kid Icarus review (NES) Reviewed on July 21, 2006 Kid Icarus was released on the same day as another Nintendo game: Metroid. The big selling point for both games was that they were "Password Paks"--that is to say, a password could be input at the start of the game so you didn't have to go through everything all over again after turning the system off. The two games have many other similarities: they use the same engine, the same team developed both games, their level designs are highly similar, they utilize the same concept of upgrading your ch...	1.5/5
	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Arcade Game review (NES) Reviewed on July 13, 2006 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game is a sequel to an NES platformer called...Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (shocker.) While some people may have warm fuzzy feelings of nostalgia when thinking of the original TMNT, I'll be honest with you: I hate it. Too many cheap challenges, awkward controls, too many cheap challenges, too many cheap challenges...let's just say that the game is a bit frustrating.	2.5/5
	Gradius II: Gofer no Yabou review (NES) Reviewed on July 01, 2006 There are certain games for which one must wonder the usefulness of a review. Gradius II is one such game. Being an average-at-best Japan-only release from 1989, it is highly unlikely that any casual gamer will read this review and decide "Hey, I really want to play that game!" Conversely, if you're a big fan of the other Gradius games (or shooters in general), chances are very good that you've already played Gradius II. If you're not, then the odds are high that you won't be reading this. Gradi...	2.5/5
	Castlevania review (NES) Reviewed on June 30, 2006 Without a doubt, Castlevania is an esteemed series. While its sales aren't the greatest, the games still receive high acclaim from critics and hardcore gaming junkies alike (well, the 2D ones, anyway.) However, one thing that should be noted about the praise slavished upon Konami's long-running franchise is that almost all of it is directed to 1997's Symphony of the Night and its followups. That game combined a Metroid-esque sense of exploration with smooth controls and a gorgeous art direction,...	1.5/5
	Lords of Thunder review (SCD) Reviewed on May 06, 2006 There are two reasons gamers play scrolling shooters. The first is intensity. Yes, intensity, that nebulous, ubiquitous descriptor which encompasses hurtling projectiles, swarms of enemies, huge bosses, and fancy-looking weapon effects. If a shooter has all of these things, it's basically a can't-miss proposition.	4/5
	Gradius III review (SNES) Reviewed on April 29, 2006 First and foremost: Gradius III has some of the worst slowdown ever seen in a scrolling shooter. Yes, yes, this is a common issue in early third-party SNES games, and Gradius III was actually the first third-party game ever released on the system (just two weeks after launch.) Even so, the fact that slowdown is the first thing to come to mind when I think about Gradius III is not a good sign. If more than a few sprites or one larger-than-normal sprite is present (which is almost always, and incl...	2.5/5
	Donkey Kong Country review (SNES) Reviewed on April 22, 2006 In 1994, Nintendo was in a bit of a pickle. The SNES was starting to be outmatched. 3DO, Jaguar, and now this newfangled "Sega 32X", with the Saturn and PlayStation due next year! And the N64 was still a ways off! How could Nintendo possibly compete with these flurry of formidable 32-bit consoles? (Actually, four of those five "competitors" barely managed to let a fart out before their hasty death, but hey, hindsight is 20/20.) Well, Nintendo struck a deal with Silicon Graphics (the premier CGI ...	3/5
	Space Harrier II review (GEN) Reviewed on April 14, 2006 Space Harrier is not a game. Space Harrier is an idea. I can envision a programmer at Sega fiddling around with some code during his spare time and creating a functional 3D checkerboard field. Cue the proverbial light bulb.	2.5/5
	Lightening Force: Quest for the Darkstar review (GEN) Reviewed on April 08, 2006 The Genesis has a lot of shooters. Not just any type of shooter, mind you, but the variety that encompasses Gradius, R-Type, Darius, etc... You know, the subgenre of shooters that no one can quite settle on a name for. The term "space shooter" doesn't include games with non-space settings, like 1942 or Legendary Wings; "scrolling shooter" doesn't include 3D shooters like Star Fox or stationary shooters like Galaga; "shoot-'em-up" also brings to mind run 'n' guns like Contra and Gunstar Heroes; a...	4/5
	Raiden Trad review (GEN) Reviewed on April 04, 2006 Raiden was never a great game. Hell, Raiden was never even a good game, period. The game doesn't even try to be original; its most remarkable feature is just how unremarkable it is. Hey, it's yet another vertically-scrolling shooter, but this time you can...err...	2.5/5
	Darius Twin review (SNES) Reviewed on March 29, 2006 Taito, like every other company in the early 90s, wanted to jump on the scrolling shooter bandwagon. It was the newest fad in the game industry! Part of the reason for this was because scrolling shooters are very easy games to program: no physics! Extremely linear gameplay (which makes bug testing a cinch)! Simple game mechanics! Only about eight levels are required to satisfy players! And what's more, those players loved them! What's not to love about scrolling shooters?	3/5
	Super R-Type review (SNES) Reviewed on March 27, 2006 No mid-level checkpoints.	2/5
	The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker review (GCN) Reviewed on March 22, 2006 When Nintendo unveiled the first screens for Wind Waker back in 2001 (it was still being called simply "The Legend of Zelda" at the time), the game's cel-shading graphical style was a great source of controversy among the gaming community. What happened to the badass Link vs. Ganon tech demo that we saw back during Spaceworld 2000? Why does Nintendo feel the need to jump on the cel-shading bandwagon along with every other company? Why does Link have beetle eyes?	1.5/5
	The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap review (GBA) Reviewed on March 22, 2006 I'll get straight to the point: the Zelda series needs a makeover. Badly. While the latest installment in the 18-years-running series remains an delightfully enjoyable experience for newcomers, longtime fans are likely to notice that everything's feeling tired, a bit rehashed, and above all, stale. If you've played any of the other Zelda games, you've played the Minish Cap. Whether this is good or bad lies within your judgment.	3.5/5
	The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time review (N64) Reviewed on March 22, 2006 The Nintendo 64 console has gained some infamy over the years for having quite possibly the worst lineup ever seen in a successful console. This is due partially to the fact that Nintendo severely limited the number of third-party developers that were able to make games for the system, and largely because Nintendo opted to stick with a cartridge-based format in an age where everybody and their dogs had made the transition to compact discs, which hold about 10 times as much memory as the largest ...	5/5
	Gunstar Super Heroes review (GBA) Reviewed on March 22, 2006 Over the years, Treasure has become one of the most renowned developers among hardcore gamers, thanks to its penchant for creating intense side-scrollers and shooters that always have projectiles flying everywhere and plentiful, huge multi-jointed bosses at every turn. It's ironic, then, that a company known for such fast-paced games started out as a group of disgruntled Konami employees responsible for the sluggish and stiff Super Castlevania IV. But that's for another review.	3.5/5

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