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.

Available Reviews
	Lunar: The Silver Star review (SCD) Reviewed on January 04, 2010 Lunar is not an epic. There are no warring factions, political agendas, or corrupt religions. The game's not even long — it can be completed in a day. Lunar is a short story for children and children-at-heart, full of knights, dragons, damsels in distress, and brave damsels in dress.
	Ys III: Wanderers From Ys review (SNES) Reviewed on January 03, 2010 Adding to Adol's problems is the sad truth that everyone in Redmont (including Dogi) is completely worthless, so he'll have to bail everyone out with little help beyond getting pointed in a given direction and sent off with a hearty, "You can do it, dude!" And then there's Chester. The brother of potential romance option Ellena falls into the category of erstwhile hero/tragic villain/unbelievably idiotic dumbass, as he combines arrogant blustering with possibly the least intelligent plan for revenge imaginable.
	Cooking Mama 3: Shop & Chop review (DS) Reviewed on January 03, 2010 Many of the steps that you encounter while preparing new recipes have also been switched up a bit in an effort to make that aspect of the game more robust. Some of these work out for the better and recall earlier diversions, such as when you must chop a carrot or potato into small bits. Others aren't familiar to me but work well anyway, such as when the game asks the player to circle eyes on old potatoes to remove them. Then come the zany additions, like when you find yourself catching falling marshmallows on a skewer while avoiding dog bones. I like a bit of zaniness in my games or I wouldn't be playing Cooking Mama in the first place, but some of the stuff included here still had me scratching my head.
	Diner Dash: Flo on the Go review (DS) Reviewed on January 03, 2010 I can blast Martians, win illegal street races and save the realm from powerful sorcerers like nobody's business, but I'll come up short nearly every time when I'm asked to help a soccer mom find a quiet place to eat a meal as a couple with a screaming baby makes its presence known at an adjacent table. There are several distinct environments to conquer, but I struggled just to reach the second venue, a mere ten stages into what proved to be a much larger game.
	Space Invaders Extreme 2 review (DS) Reviewed on January 02, 2010 After all of the changes that Taito made when it first introduced Space Invaders Extreme, two new modes doesn't seem like enough. Time Attack mode is really nothing more than the opportunity to play the same few stages with a timer running. Bingo is just a scoring mechanism that rewards you for shooting enemies of various colors to fill a board on the top screen. Neither feature is a bad idea. Both of them would have gone well with the content of the previous release and there's no question in my mind that Space Invaders Extreme 2 is the finest in the series.
	Rabbids Go Home review (DS) Reviewed on January 02, 2010 Everything in Rabbids Go Home comes down to physics and proper use of your finite supply of items. Is there a pit that you can't cross? Put a spring-loaded boxing glove in its place so that when you drop from the edge, you'll go flying off toward the right to another ledge. Is an iron safe dangling in the way and blocking your path? Place some scissors higher along the rope that holds it so that a wandering rabbid can push a bowling ball from an even higher ledge that then will drop down and clamp the scissors shut so that they cut the rope and cause the safe to drop out of the way.
	New Super Mario Bros. Wii review (WII) Reviewed on December 30, 2009 Some features go a long way toward making New Super Mario Bros. Wii the best installment that the franchise has ever seen, plus the sheer number of unique stages makes it one of the most robust. However, there are some issues that definitely hold things back and rob the game of the prestigious title that nearly belonged to it. Namely, the physics are wonky, the level design is frustrating and the highly anticipated multi-player mode is a disappointment under any but the perfect conditions.
	James Cameron's Avatar: The Game review (X360) Reviewed on December 30, 2009 While I've seen terms like "revolutionary" and "breathtaking" tossed at the movie with regularity, the game is more worthy of commentary such as "another movie license game". It's pretty and I had a decent time with it, but I can't say that it's anything more than a decent action title riding the coattails of a major cinematic release.
	Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days review (PSP) Reviewed on December 29, 2009 If you're a fan of complex strategy games and missed out on the PlayStation 2 version, be sure that you don't make the same mistake the second time around!
	LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues review (PS3) Reviewed on December 28, 2009 Including bits from the original three movies was a wise decision on the part of the developers, but they also had to worry about not repeating the first game. The result is that some of the best scenes from those movies—most of them—aren't represented here. That certainly doesn't help the narrative and it may leave players wondering why there's a level devoted to Indiana and his father tied to chairs while flames burn around them. That was a neat scene in the third movie but here there's no urgency and the whole thing comes across as just another excuse for some exploration and puzzle solving.
	Yamaha Supercross review (DS) Reviewed on December 27, 2009 It’s easy to make mistakes on the windier tracks that task you with straightening quickly from a sharp corner to fly into a sadistically placed camel hump, but it’s all the game really has. Mistakes are not punished harshly, nor outstanding lines rewarded thanks to the rubber band racing physics that ensure the pack of rival riders are neither too far ahead or too far behind you.
	Lunar: Dragon Song review (DS) Reviewed on December 27, 2009 Without any real depth to the characters aside from the obligatory teenage spunkiness and sugary-sweet sense of justice in their battle for racial tolerance, and their efforts to prove themselves worthy, just about everything that the Lunar franchise had been previously built upon has been thrown to the side to make room for ideas that I can only assume Game Arts discovered while rooting around in other developer’s trash for discarded gimmicks they knew would never work.
	God of War Collection review (PS3) Reviewed on December 25, 2009 God of War Collection was a good experience, because it proved one thing to me: almost five years later, the original God of War is still a phenomenal game. Its evocative settings, clever twists on classical Greek mythology, morbid puzzles, and responsive combat still deliver a stellar experience. Episode two, also contained on this disc, continues to mix straight-up fighting with button-pressing and stick-twisting minigames. It's not a style that everyone will appreciate, but those who do won't find the same experience anywhere else.
	Berserk: The Millennium Falcon review (PS2) Reviewed on December 21, 2009 With its emphasis on fast-paced, cinematic action and strong storytelling, Berserk: The Millennium Falcon successfully brings these memorable encounters from the manga to life while providing some fun, if imperfect, action across several varied backdrops. Just make sure you watch the TV show first.
	Bakugan Battle Brawlers review (WII) Reviewed on December 20, 2009 Entrenched fans should approach Bakugan: Battle Brawlers with all these changes firmly in mind. This isn't a rote recreation of the live game they've come to love, and it's missing that game's more evolved mechanisms. But they should also approach it with an open mind. The basic changes create a more dynamic experience.
	Asuka 120% Maxima Burning Fest review (TGCD) Reviewed on December 14, 2009 The idea of schoolgirls beating each other up in sanctioned one-on-one combat is absurd, but the energy, competitive arrogance, and youthful vitality ring true. The concept may not translate as well into American culture, but this club-vs-club extravaganza struck a chord with Japanese gamers. Although outdone by its descendants, Asuka 120% Maxima Burning Fest delivers a fun, hyperkinetic look back at what once made the PC Engine "the" system to own.
	15 Puzzle review (X360) Reviewed on December 13, 2009 Snowcap Games' 15 Puzzle is exactly what it claims to be: an electronic version of the classic sliding tiles game. Even if you didn't know what it was called, you probably know the one: it's a flat four-by-four grid, containing fifteen tiles and one empty slot. The goal is to slide tiles around until they're in the correct order.
	Return to Mysterious Island 2: Mina's Fate review (PC) Reviewed on December 12, 2009 Despite a couple of hiccups, Return to Mysterious Island 2 does enough of the important things right to deliver a unique and slightly nostalgic experience, and is sufficiently different from its older sibling to justify its place on the fence between Sequel and Expansion.
	Qix++ review (X360) Reviewed on December 12, 2009 These changes at first seem to provide some welcome depth to the experience, but they come at a cost: instead of allowing you to play through an endless mode—which would have been a nice challenge and would have felt true to its arcade roots—the game now replenishes your stock of ships with each new stage and switches to a credits sequence once you finish the eighth zone. Then you can complete a second batch of eight stages. Once you've done that, you're done with the single-player mode unless you feel like going back to obtain a better score.
	Chronicles of Mystery: Curse of the Ancient Temple review (DS) Reviewed on December 07, 2009 An undeveloped plot is this title's catastrophic failing. A casual game like this, without providing much challenge or variety in its gameplay, has to tell a compelling story. Curse of the Ancient Temple builds layers of intrigue and conspiracy, but then whimpers to an ambiguous ending.

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