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
	The Castlevania Adventure review (GB) Reviewed on December 11, 2008 Virtually all of this level is you in a race against time while spikes descend upon you, chase you as you ascend a tower and follow after you while you sprint to the left. You'll be jumping across plummeting platforms and narrow blocks like crazy, whipping worms who stand in your path and doing whatever you can to stay ahead of the pursuing spikes. With a character that neither jumps nor moves well. After getting through all that, I was so mentally drained I wasn't even bothered by how pitifully weak the humanoid bat creature boss wound up being.
	A Vampyre Story review (PC) Reviewed on December 10, 2008 A Vampyre Story has the overflowing charm of the Lucas Arts classics, it's voiced properly and it's completely stable. It's fabulously drawn and suitably silly, with puzzles that follow at least the classic adventure school of logic. It has some of the best cinematic sequences I've seen in a long time. It has characters I actually wanted to speak to, instead of just stabbing them repeatedly in the face with a spork. But sometimes, just sometimes... it's a bit boring.
	Pet Pals: New Leash on Life review (PC) Reviewed on December 08, 2008 Pet Pals: New Leash on Life isn't all snuggles and kisses. Through 38 patient examinations, it illustrates realistic courses of medical treatment for animals in need. Given its subtitle, though, this game should've gone further in expounding the challenges in adoption.
	Multiwinia: Survival of the Flattest review (PC) Reviewed on December 08, 2008 Rather than carefully constructing a balanced army, Multiwinia demands victory through superior manouvers, feinting and flanking, and knowing when to retreat and when to press the attack. Should you amass your Multis for a later assault, or have them charge out of the spawn points to bolster that choke point? All this planning might sound complicated, but Multiwinia's intuitive interface frees up enough brainpower to make tactical planning almost instinctual, as easy as 3.141592653589...
	The King of Fighters Collection: The Orochi Saga review (PSP) Reviewed on December 08, 2008 Individually, these are all solid fighting games, particularly the first (’94) and the last (’98). Together, their flaws are much more apparent. If you like one or more of The King of Fighters games, chances are you’ll enjoy this collection – especially if you’ve been longing to have the series in high-quality handheld form.
	Robocalypse review (DS) Reviewed on December 08, 2008 Robocalypse is much easier to grasp than it sounds and includes a very thorough tutorial (interwoven with the first few missions) to ensure that gamers know what they’re doing. The instruction booklet is quite helpful in this regard, as it details almost everything you’ll need to know to get started. And though you can accuse Robocalypse of playing it safe with standard RTS features, the execution is above average for a handheld game.
	Ninjatown review (DS) Reviewed on December 08, 2008 Everyone knows about Ninjas. Their infamous reputation precedes them everywhere. If you close your eyes, you can probably picture one in your mind. Clad entirely in black, they're a short, round people with no discernible hands or feet. Their society resides in small, colored huts based on their station and they all survive by eating delicious shuriken-cookies, which also double as a form of currency. ...Wait, what?
	Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 review (PS2) Reviewed on December 06, 2008 The character imbalance may irk some fans but doesn't actually make the game less fun, and for the most part Persona 4 has its own identity, plot, and tone wholly independent of Persona 3's. Given what a massively influential title Persona 3 was, and how easy it would've been to make the entirety of Persona 4 about reminding you how much you liked Persona 3, the fact that Persona 4 is an actual interesting game in its own right is really a bit extraordinary.
	Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance review (GBA) Reviewed on December 04, 2008 Adding to the intrigue, a couple of meetings with Dracula's top subordinate, Death, seem to show that the grim reaper seems more than a bit confused as to what's going on and why his master's castle even returned. Fortunately for Juste, the instant Death figures everything out, he tells the Belmont everything in a fit of excessive gloating, which eventually leads to the endgame and (if you meet certain stipulations) happy ending. And Dracula keeps this guy on staff for what reason?
	Disney's Kim Possible: Kimmunicator review (DS) Reviewed on December 04, 2008 Kim can punch and kick, stringing together ‘combos’ of each attack simply through button mashing. But there are major issues with responsiveness and hit-detection. Sometimes Kim simply will not attack though you think you might be pressing the right button, and other times Kim's punch or kick will execute but miss completely when it appears that it shouldn’t. But you needn’t worry too much; enemy encounters are few and far between. It seems as if there are maybe four enemies in each stage. I’m exaggerating, but not much.
	SpongeBob SquarePants featuring Nicktoons: Globs of Doom review (PS2) Reviewed on December 03, 2008 It‘s not perfect, but Globs of Doom provides a well-crafted, fun experience for younger players. Older gamers may find small portions of the game enjoyable, but will likely find that the main game’s lean gameplay wears thin quickly.
	Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution 2 review (WII) Reviewed on December 01, 2008 The game heavily touts its original storyline, which was written exclusively for this North American release. It's supposed to feature two newly created members of the Anbu, the traditionally anonymous black ops squad serving Naruto's Hidden Leaf Village. But like a good substitution jutsu, that's an effective bit of misdirection.
	NCAA Football 06 review (PS2) Reviewed on December 01, 2008 And then the hedonistic binge called recruiting begins. You'll be confronted by a map of the United States. Clicking on any state will give you the list of all the potential recruits residing there. Or, to simply things, you can go to a menu to give you more focused lists such as those kids ranked in the nation's elite players, those from your school's state or those who initially have some degree of interest in you.
	Pony Luv review (DS) Reviewed on December 01, 2008 Here, all you need to is run through a virtual checklist of tasks that keeps your horsie happy, then put the bugger to work to earn more cash which gets swallowed up by further investing in the original checklist. And that’s it.
	Legendary review (PS3) Reviewed on November 30, 2008 The story of Legendary is undeniably shoddy, a fact that becomes all the more apparent when Spark Unlimited insists on shoving it in your face with boring cut-scenes before each mission, done in the still frame style of Resistance: Fall of Man, as if insisting that they are clever and modern. To further rip off that game, the cut-scenes are narrated by a woman with a gimmicky British accent. It doesn't help that Spark Unlimited managed to do the impossible and have graphical glitches in its still-shots. Each of these slideshows is riddled with lag and choppiness. I'm not sure how they accomplished that.
	The Last Remnant review (X360) Reviewed on November 30, 2008 Strategic RPGs have only come so far in advancing the traditional turn-based gameplay we have seen implemented in past video games. With The Last Remnant, Square-Enix tries to do something different, offering larger scale battles that focus on group support rather than individual fighters. But will this attempt at innovation help the company establish a new franchise, or have their efforts come to naught?
	Star Ocean: First Departure review (PSP) Reviewed on November 30, 2008 It's all quite basic and it works smoothly without any noteworthy hitches except the obvious one: it gets repetitive. By the time you reach the end of the game, you'll probably have faced more than 800 different enemy groups, with most battles won simply by spamming your basic sword strokes and perhaps the same projectile spell. You can experiment with numerous variations if you like, but there's no incentive to do so... especially since almost any rival can be overcome simply by level grinding (though frankly, that's seldom even necessary).
	Pathologic review (PC) Reviewed on November 29, 2008 Pathologic is gloriously ambitious and intentionally abhorrent, but in pushing the boundaries of game design, it manages to cross them to often disastrous effect. It realises the best and worst of the medium's potential and, while I'm mightily impressed by its flair, I'd find it difficult to actually recommend to anyone. If you're prepared to overlook its problems - and there are a lot of them - you could well find yourself completely swept away.
	Super Text Twist review (PC) Reviewed on November 28, 2008 Feel free to eat all the cod you want, but koi is not on the menu. Pay for your fish craving with yen, but smaller denominations such as ren are not accepted here. You can bring your sis but not your bro. You can be an ace or a con, but not a pro. Bod, bio, ern, ave, mot and eek will be refused. Sic, tun, roc, pus, dun and bur will all eke by. Maybe you think this is a gyp. The game won't hear that either.
	Hatris review (TG16) Reviewed on November 26, 2008 You are Alexey Pajitnov. Perhaps the name rings a bell. You've just created Tetris, the mega-hit puzzle game that has sparked legal battles across the globe over licensing rights and taken both eastern and western audiences by storm. Atari wants you. Nintendo wants you. But luckily for you, you haven't had to worry yourself with any of that trouble; your government has it all under control. Phew! I bet the check is in the mail already. Regardless, your career has skyrocketed overnight. One minute you're an unheard of computer engineer toiling away in the Soviet Union. The next you're being mentioned in the same breath as Miyamoto and Bushnell as a who's who in the video game world... as you toil away in the Soviet Union.

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